MovieChat Forums > Come Fly with Me (1963) Discussion > Karl Malden character

Karl Malden character

posted 12 years ago by Echo_in_big_sky
9 replies | jump to latest

I was watching this morning on TCM, and got distracted for a few seconds and missed something in the plot between Karl Malden's character and the stewardess he was pursuing.

They were at a fair or something like that, and he mentioned his wife had passed away. Next thing I know the stewardess was behaving like a cold fish toward him and when she returned to her friends she told them he was still married to a wife he forgot to divorce. Huh? What did I miss.

Always the officiant, never the bride. http://www.withthiskissitheewed.com

[–] ksf-2 12 years ago

*** SPOILERS ***

my take was that he wasn't over the deceased wife yet... he actually calls her "Julie" at one point, and she yells "My name is BERGIE!" and storms out of the room with her friends.

[–] leader-7 12 years ago

He (Malden) was a widower. His wife had died a few months earlier and he (as you probably heard) was on a "whirlwind trip" to forget his sorrows.

When Lois Nettleton (Bergie?) returned to her hotel, as she was undressing getting out her "mad," she was recounting to them how as an 18 year old, she'd fallen madly in love, gottem married, done the 2 week honeymoon, when her husband's first wife showed up. It was HER husband who didn't divorce, not Malden. The story was being conveyed to explain why she was holding back her feelings for him. (I suppose.)

[–] Echo_in_big_sky 12 years ago

Aww, many thanks for the explanation. So Malden's character didn't do anything to offend her?

It seemed everything was going great between them until she refused to kiss him in the elevator and then she told her gf's about some estranged but legal wife and I was like, huh?

Always the officiant, never the bride. http://www.withthiskissitheewed.com

[–] leader-7 12 years ago

No -- he never did anything to offend her. She was just being very careful about a new seemingly random relationship, having been so badly burned, and was treading lightly with him because of his (to her) unwarranted generosity (like, why was he spending all this $$ on her when he barely knew her?) and the fact that he was so, I suppose, "gallant" on the flight (the scene in the galley, remember?)

So, she was a little suspicious... and shy, and that's why she didn't kiss him at the elevator.

[–] Echo_in_big_sky 12 years ago

ahh, yes. That makes sense.

Thank you. :)

Always the officiant, never the bride. http://www.withthiskissitheewed.com

[–] dioro 7 years ago

I also think she felt that he was just looking for a replacement for his wife, and that maybe she didn't feel special. Couple that with the fact that she had naively married an already married man when she was younger, and she suddenly felt cold about Tex (Malden).

[–] Echo_in_big_sky 7 years ago

Thanks!

[–] Crystal (534) 5 years ago

He was a rebounding widow who liked her for whom she reminded him of and not for her, really. It seemed shaky.

[–] residentevil6901 8 years ago

I just watched this show for my first time and Karl Malden's character was great. Really liked this show.