MovieChat Forums > The Young Philadelphians (1959) Discussion > 'I'm a chili girl'

'I'm a chili girl'

posted 15 years ago by jackboot
6 replies | jump to latest

Okay, at the very end of the picture, when FINALLY it looks like Tony and Joan are going to get together for good and live happily ever after, he asks her if she'd like to get a hamburger and she starts to say, as she did when they first met, "I'm a chili girl", but she stops herself and instead says "I'd like a hamburger please".

Okay, obviously there is not deep meaning here and it's plain to see that they're finally reconciled and will be re-united, but why does she stop herself from saying "I'm a chili girl"?? Is that looking back to their past too much? to when they first fell in love and almost got to marry when they were young, but were foiled by supposed well-meaning interference from their respective parents??

This little detail bugs me every time I watch this, and I've watched it so many times!!

[–] Mr_McLaurel 15 years ago

I interpreted it as her initial knee-jerk reaction being "I'm a chili girl myself," but then she realizes the significance of this and stops herself. Of course, this is completely ridiculous, so I doubt that was the intention of the filmamkers.

What's the Spanish for drunken bum?

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] hrhqueene 15 years ago

Joan is demonstrating that she, like everyone else in the story, has undergone profound personal changes in the decade since she first met Tony. She's not quite so insistent of her own way as when she was younger and wanted what she wanted exactly when she wanted it, as her father said. I just see it as her having matured and wanting her new life with Tony to be altogether different from the old life she envisioned before her plans were thwarted.

[–] jackboot 14 years ago

hrhqueene ~ Joan is demonstrating that she, like everyone else in the story, has undergone profound personal changes..."

I'd say you hit the nail squarely on the head!

Well said!

[–] Rheli 8 years ago

Although it's almost 1960 and the world would change, this film is still firmly set in 1959 and despite several detours, in the end it reaffirms the conformist values of the 50s.

[–] jcarpenter-1 8 years ago

Interesting discussion. When I first saw her react to that line I interpreted it as her realizing the double entendre. "I'm a chili/chilly girl myself." Am I really cold and distant? Not any longer.