Question About The Servant Girl - The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) Discussion

[–] puirt-a-beul 14 years ago

Good question, kazamaru. We do see Victor kind of having his way with the maid, but I didn't really believe they'd actually gone as far as full-blown (hah!) sex. So I was surprised when she said she was pregnant, and I too wondered if it was just what she was saying to try to entrap him.

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

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[–] kazamaru 14 years ago

Yeah exactly' although she did ask how long will they have to hide in the dark and "make love" but her idea of making love was probably just what they were doing cuddling and kissing "lol", something else I didn't think about his reaction when she told him that. he looked just as shocked as we were, I'm gonna say that was a ploy to force him into marrying her. a lot of women even now think they can lay the baby bump on guys to make them do what they want,

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[–] lorenzb-2 13 years ago

Of course he was banging her! Otherwise when she said she was pregnant, it would have been meaningless to him. He then suggested it might be someone elses child, implying she was a slut, and he wasn't her only consort. We'll never know for sure if she really was knocked up, but Victor seemed to think so. So he murdered not only her, but his own unborn child too. That's in addition to killing the old professor, and being responsible for the deaths of the blind man and his grandson. He also habitually lied to and cheated on Elizabeth. If that dosen't make him an evil S.O.B. what would? But yet it seems like Victor has a lot of fans here. I wonder what that means? Hummmm.

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[–] kazamaru 13 years ago

You are absolutely right it was really disturbing how wicked twisted and down right vile he was, he cared about no one are nothing else but that ugly creature. what I can't understand is why everyone disliked Paul he was the only one in the movie with sense and wanted to put a end to Victor's rampage, as far as him having a lot of fans I myself have a hard time hating Peter Cushing in anything basically. but he made it really difficult this time around,

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[–] jschillig 12 years ago

Am watching this on TCM right now, and you're right...being more familiar with the Mary Shelley novel, it's a bit of a shock to see how actively nasty Victor is in this version. In other versions, he was irresponsible and callous, cold and detached (especially in the recent National Theatre version) but not actively evil.

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] jwstewartii 10 years ago

IronClad is right. Remember, or perhaps you younger viewers are not aware, sex was a touchy subject in 1957. Films didn't show lovers "going all the way," like they do now. The fact that Victor appeared to believe her shows they did indeed have penetration. Whether the child was his is another story. We don't know whether she was fooling around with the neighborhood locals as well. I tend to think she wasn't.

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[–] HombreOfAnotherEra 12 years ago

Good question, kazamaru. We do see Victor kind of having his way with the maid, but I didn't really believe they'd actually gone as far as full-blown (hah!) sex. So I was surprised when she said she was pregnant, and I too wondered if it was just what she was saying to try to entrap him.

Very possible to entrap him to be honest

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[–] loriacerny 13 years ago

I don't see any reason why the servant girl would need to lie. She was in love with Victor Frankenstein, she believed he loved her, and she was naive enough not to understand the callous remarks he made to her. To me, she had no prior knowledge of people lying for their own betterment.

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[–] lorenzb-2 13 years ago

He had pleanty of motivation to have her knocked off. 1st: He didn't want Elizabeth to know he'd been banging her and got her pregnant. 2nd: She was making noises about reporting his suspicious activities to the athorities. 3rd: She was trying to coerce him into marrying her. It was very stupid on her part not to see it coming.

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[–] 13 years ago

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[–] beckeis 13 years ago

No, she wasn't the brightest bulb but I don't think she ever believed he would have her murdered. After all, she felt she had power over him, just by being his little sex toy. She pushed the other just to gain further advantsge. Little did she know ...

BTW, I liked Paul. Think it would have been interesting to have he AND Elizabeth return for a future movie. It's a shame.

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[–] MrBook_ 13 years ago

I like how even when the man in question is a cold, ruthless, despicable, unrepentant, murderous bastard, people still assume the woman is lying and just trying to entrap him into marrying her.

Get on up.

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[–] diamonddix1999 12 years ago

In ths case it was true -- but it did not make Victor any nicer. He was an evil little ... scientist!

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[–] kryptonripper 10 years ago

I think it is Victor's child, yes. I don't believe that she would lie about that, given that he was the rich local baron and, if he'd stuck by his promise of marriage, she would have been set up for a life of ease and luxury.

Also, why else would Victor propose marriage to a maid servant if not to persuade her to sleep with him? This is setting him up as cruel and showing his manipulative streak (shown earlier in the picture when he sent the letter to Paul without divulging that he was the baron) has developed beyond lies of omission to full blown lies.

Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wooden shoe?

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[–] Trippetta10 10 years ago

Justine seems too childlike to have been planning all along to manipulate Baron Frankenstein into a shotgun marriage. I believe she only resorts to blackmail when he makes it clear that he has no intention of marrying her, and even then she is not particularly effective or ruthless. In the scene when she is supposed to be searching the lab for evidence of illegal activity, she actually lets herself get distracted by the cute lab mice and guinea pigs. The Baron's description of her as a "romantic little thing" is probably accurate enough, even if it is intended to distract Elizabeth from her disappearance.

*****************************
In heaven everything is fine.

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[–] kryptonripper 10 years ago

Oh, I agree. I don't for a minute think she allowed herself to get pregnant (I can imagine her trying out all the old wives tales she could in order to prevent a pregnancy, actually), but although she may be naive she isn't silly enough to realise that life as the baron's wife and mother of his heir would be better than life as his skivvy, or on the street with a baby to look after too.

Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wooden shoe?

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[–] jjk50 9 years ago

They must have had sex. Otherwise she wouldn't think the baron would believe she was pregnant whether or not it was his child or another man's. Thats if she was actually pregnant or not.

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[–] kryptonripper 8 years ago

I don't mean that at all. Of course they had sex. But I don't think her intention was to entrap the Baron by falling pregnant with his child. She seems to me to be a love sick young woman who found herself in trouble and reacted to her situation, rather than a manipulative money grabber who set out to snare herself a better station in life by getting up the duff with a nobleman's child (or, as you posit, claiming to be with child).

Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wooden shoe?

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