MovieChat Forums > The Story of Esther Costello (1957) Discussion > Lenny Bruce's line (spoiler)

Lenny Bruce's line (spoiler)

posted 15 years ago by EJF
12 replies | jump to latest

Lenny Bruce had a great line about this film when it first came out:

"The girl is raped, and then she regains her sight and hearing. What exactly is the moral here?"

[–] smokehill retrievers 14 years ago

As usual, Lenny nails it perfectly.

I doubt this is a healing technique approved by the American Medical Association.

[–] gbennett5 14 years ago

Saw this unintentionally hilarious pile of doo tonight on TCM. Crawford
was a parody of herself (making Faye Danaway's portrayal of her look
subtle by comparison). Crawford was merely a poser, not an actress.
Artificial and one-demensional as always, she only played one aspect
of the role - per scene. Lots of cheap melodrama, no layers. The
ending was absurd. Brazi's lowest moment (to think this
splendid actor went from Hepburn in "Summertime" to THIS). At least
there were a few good laughs ("I'm interested in that pink nude!").

[–] petrilloi 14 years ago

If you imagine this is Rossano Brazzi's lowest moment, then you haven't seen Dr. Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks (1974).

[–] jaddeo 14 years ago

I thought this was a wonderful movie.

[–] carolmr527 10 years ago

I loved this movie, too. Joan and Heather were wonderful.

[–] gbennett5 14 years ago

How about the cross-eyed piano player at the benefit? I choked on my
dinner, I laughed so hard.

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] cookiela2001 11 years ago

My favorite line is when the mom's considering sending the blind and deaf mute back to her poverty-striken village:

"What else can I do? How do I know that you'll ever be anything more than a helpless nothing??"

Not very PC!
.

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] margad64 10 years ago

Saw this during the weekend and oddly enough I said pretty much the exact same thing except my line was "you mean all this time all she needed was some d**k and she could see and hear again? What the hell is the message of this trainwreck of a movie?

[–] palomine 10 years ago

The fact that she regained her sight and hearing after being raped wasn't supposed to be the "moral" of the story. It's a well-known fact that traumatic experiences cause the mind to dissociate and that they can have all kinds of strange effects on the senses as well.

Any traumatic experience could have triggered the effect -- being beaten, tortured, in fear for her life, any number of things. It was ironic that being raped resulted in something positive happening to her, but it wasn't because there was any grand "moral" behind what happened. It was just a fact of life.

The movie "Sybil," starring Sally Field, also illustrated the strange effects caused by traumatic experiences in one's childhood. Other excellent films on this topic include "Lizzie," starring Eleanor Parker, and "The Three Faces of Eve," starring Joanne Woodward.

[–] margad64 10 years ago

You are probably correct in that is what the writers were attempting to convey but my simple and base mind went straight for the obvious as did Lenny Bruce's apparently.