Chances are I will never get an answer to this question because chances are that no one will access this discussion board, but anyway, it appeared she may have been pregnant before meeting up with Mike, and then of course at the end of the film she informs her mother she is expecting.
shareIt was never clearly defined in the movie. There is only a matter of days before she met Mike, so it could not be known at that time. Since she appears happy to be expecting, it would most likely be Mike's. Stress may very well have kept her from getting pregnant from the rape and made it more likely to be spontaneously aborted. I guess we'll never know. While pregnancies do not normally happen as a product of rape, they do occur. Her swooning was due to devastation, exhaustion, and stresses of her being raped and having to face the world.
I am amazed at how many people feel the same as I do about this movie. I was only 7 when I saw it the first time and it haunted me for years. It is such an eerily strange movie.
Yeah I also first saw this movie in mid or late 60s on TV on a Saturday night, when I was about 11 or 12. You couldn't help but be haunted by it. When she kicks him in the eye, the sound he makes is inhuman, like an animal being tortured.
shareOMG - I remember this movie. I was very little when I saw it the first time but found it intreging. I often wondered why she didn't escape the basement apartment. Didn't she have more than one child though?
share[deleted]
@Apbrecovery
While pregnancies do not normally happen as a product of rape,they do occur
I can't believe I'm reading this here...5 years later. This absolute nonsense about rape 'rarely' resulting in pregnancy, and women's ability to 'shut that whole thing down' because of the stress of rape (today's words). It was spouted recently by a NOW former republican representative, Todd Akin, as well as Newt Gingrich, and it got him laughed right out of his job. At least people are STARTING to wake up a bit...
shareI believe she was pregnant by the rapist, that would explain her decision to leave her past life behind. Her sickness at the store further confirms this. And her being pregnant by the rapist is why she was on the bridge, that and the emotional confusion.
I had wondered who she got impregnated by initially, but because of the time period that had elapsed based on when she returns to him to the time she wrote her mother (I think it's 6 months - the amount of months appear on the screen during the movie to help the viewer along...) it is definitely Mike who gets her pregnant - and, I am glad for that!
What a rare and raw gem of a movie!
THANK YOU TCM !!!
...short...sharp...shock!
"the amount of months appear on the screen during the movie to help the viewer along"
I just saw the whole movie on TCM, ending about 20 minutes ago, and there were no months appearing on the screen.
School was still in session, so maybe April or May when she was attacked. She was keeping her coat on into the summer when she was depressed and attempted suicide. She announced her marriage and that she was expecting on Christmas to her mother. She didn't look pregnant in December so it was early in the pregnancy. It could not have been the rapist's child.
shareWhen Mrs. Gates (Mildred Dunnock) responded to Mary Ann's (Carroll Baker's) letter by showing up at her door (having last seen her shortly after the rape), she said that Mary Ann had been gone for MONTHS, and Mary Ann didn't look the slightest bit pregnant. Clearly, Mike (Ralph Meeker) was the father (if, indeed, she even WAS pregnant).
sharei just watched this film for the first time and i thought she was pregnant by mike, not the rapist because so much time had passed since the rape and when her mother came to visit. she wasn't showing and apart from the first time she ate a meal at his place, she didn't have much of an appetite. i also thought her illness after the rape was a result of the emotional torment she went through and it manifested itself in a physical way, not pregnancy. although the film is not really clear on the subject, so she could have been pregnant from the rape.
shareShe became sick on her way to school which was a few hours after the rape, so she couldnt have had morning sickness that soon.
"just panties, what else do I need?"
Poseidon Adventure
I watched this movie too for the first time and wondered also if she had become impregnated by the rapist but it looks like it was her captor
cannot believe she stayed with him but this was a different time ugh ...
couldn't believe she could just leave her parents home without a word but that seems to be another story
the mother looks very self centred and needy
I had been thinking....Thank God, she did not get pregnant and it never occurred to me that the rapist got her pregnant. Seemed like too much time had passed. I looked again and could not tell much by the weather. She had on a coat at first then it was on and off. After she escaped, she is walking down the street in a coat but kids are playing in water from fireplugs and people are sitting outside in shortsleeves. Then she goes back to him the same day. Next scene, there is snow on the ground and she tells her mother she is pregnant but she is not showing yet. Because of that, I think it is her husband's. As for the passing out....that started happening the day after her rape so it could not have been caused by pregnancy but was induced by emotional distress.
I had the chance to work with Michael Jackson who was as brilliant as they come.
Tommy Mottola
Was she pregnant by the rapist or by Mike?