Your interpretation is fascinating, but I favor the position that he was simply an extraordinary student prodigy:
McDowall was 36 during filming playing a high school senior, which he pulls off because of his youthful looks and the B&W tended to hide his age. His character, Alan "Mollymauk", is intriguing and comes across as a mixture of Svengali, Professor Higgins and Faust after his bargain with Mephistopheles. Some have described Mollymauk as a nerd genius. While he's obviously a brain, he's not a nerd because he's too cool, confident and aloof, almost condescending to those he considers lesser, which just happens to be everyone, teen or adult.
The tagline for the film is: "It's about a man living in our insane world who suddenly goes stark raving sane and commits mass murder." What brought about the downfall of this extraordinary individual? His obsession with the beautiful-but-shallow Barbara Ann, whom he had the power to grant every whim, but couldn't make her love him. Being a virtuoso Brainiac in high school, while a gift, is also a curse socially. Alan was helplessly attracted to Barbara Ann, but he knew she wasn't the type of girl that would go for him. She wielded womanly power over him.
As valedictorian of the class, Alan was honored by the faculty and entrusted with the keys of the school (there's nothing mystical about using keys to unlock doors). He may have used his expertise with hypnotizing to gain this trust, but this 'power' didn't seem to be anything supernatural as witnessed with his attempt to hypnotize Barbara Ann.
That fact that he resorts to enraged emotion and mows down Bob AND several others present at the graduation works against your theory, not to mention landing in prison.
As for no normal student wanting "Mollymauk" as a nickname, Alan was decidedly not normal and took the silly name because he was above caring what others thought. It's akin to Riot (the metal band) choosing a harp seal pup as their mascot.
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MIchiganJFrogg (-35)
6 years ago
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Wuchak (8110)
6 years ago
There's not enough evidence to conclude that Alan had "complete control" over other people. If he did, killing Bob would've been a piece of cake and the muscular jock would've never gotten out of his car to threaten him, not to mention Barbara Ann would've loved him.
I don't remember Alan manipulating Barbara Ann's mother to commit suicide (and I just saw the movie last night). What I saw was a hottie early-40s woman depressed about getting old and having to be a cocktail waitress, of which her daughter just revealed she was ashamed; and she had no one with whom to talk.
Also notice that Alan couldn't magically produce anything, like the 12 sweaters Barbara Ann needed to join the clique; he simply recognized how she could best obtain them, which is a matter of insight or common sense, not anything supernatural.
The way Alan is shown to be tight with Bob's mother and living in her house can be chalked up to those silly plot developments of similar movies of that era, like Elvis flicks (I saw one recently that used this kind of absurd plot twist). I think it reflects lazy writing or, more likely, the creators were trying to be amusing. Still, it could be argued that Alan started developing a relationship with the mother behind-the-scenes as soon as it was clear that Barbara Ann was falling for Bob. And he secured moving in to her abode shortly before the couple arrived that day.
The fact that Alan's family and home life are never shown doesn't mean he didn't have parents and a place to live. We never see several other character's home life either. Neither is anyone shown going to the bathroom, but we assume they did. :)
Alan knew Barbara Ann's name & house because she was beautiful and he was obsessed with her (he loved her, he admits at the end) and she was from an adjoining school district, which consolidated with his.
Your theory is valid, I just favor the literal interpretation for all these reasons.
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MIchiganJFrogg (-35)
6 years ago
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Wuchak (8110)
6 years ago
Sometimes though, a work takes on a life of its own and may have dimensions that the creators did not anticipate.
It's true. But the most authentic interpretation is the more water tight one with clear evidence from the work itself. Everything else is an alternative view and people are free to hold that position if they so choose.
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