MovieChat Forums > Gwendoline (1985) Discussion > In the Torture Room . . .

In the Torture Room . . .

posted 17 years ago by twof
8 replies | jump to latest

. . . what is being done to the girl hanging by her wrists, the first victim on the left as Gwendoline enters? After listening to the director's commentary in the new DVD release, I realize there might not be any "real" peril involved, that is, he may have just arranged her that way because it looked good.

Still, two of the tortures are endurance tests (the woman hanging by her arms over the spikes and Beth with the arrow trigger in her mouth.) The other two, while not facing immenent death, would certainly seem to be at risk of going mad (the girl on the spinning wheel and the one being dunked in the water -- which I never saw until I got the "Director's Cut" DVD.)

Is victim # 1 being forced to hold her legs apart for some reason? What significance, if any, is there to the spinning blades?

Obviously, I've put way too much thought into this!

[–] Addonna 17 years ago

I agree, you have thought about it too much

[–] alicethroughthewall 15 years ago

Well I think we are indeed putting a little to much thought into this, but thats cool because I too love trying to figure out what is going on in movie scenes as if they are taking place in reality! I too had no idea what was happening to the first girl who you only see her legs hanging out from the machinery. There is a belt spinning on some wheels but I couldn't figure out what they were doing. My theory was that you are supposed to think that something is happening to the upper part of her body inside the device. I think that was the set designer's intent.

I also noticed (as you pointed out) that some of the girls being tortured seem to be in more peril than others. Perhaps the queen has different degrees of punishment depending on what exactly the girls did. I dunno...

[–] criztu 14 years ago

those women gave in to the temptation of letting a man slip through the temple entrance, they deserved to be in peril.

[–] mehaul 14 years ago

No, those women went outside the city to seek pleasure with men and that is why they are being tortured according to the queen, which she tells Gwen when she enters the room shortly after that crossbow rescue. One would surmise that the tortures are intended to dissuade from further carnal desires. The first woman will learn never to spread her legs again, she will be happy to keep them closed and if she does in the machine, her legs will be amputated. There is another woman above her that has the upper torso hidden. You can determine this when Gwen turns and looks up to see the other torture going on.

[–] twof 14 years ago

mehaul, I think you are on the right track! Not only does your hypothesis make sense, but you are definitely correct about there being two different women being subjected to this ordeal.

Still, with the other tortures being so obvious (as to what is going on) and mechanical (Beth drops the wire out of her mouth, the harpoon is triggered and she gets impaled), I find it interesting/strange that this first one (again, on Gwendoline's immediate left when she enters the torture room) is so obscure. The blades seem to be spinning in the wrong place and at the wrong angle to cause any harm. The lower girl seems to just be hanging there by her arms with her legs spread apart.

The upper girl certainly is encased in more elaborate machinery. I do not, though, see any trigger mechanism that would result in amputation of her legs. The other ordeals are sorta "steampunk," very mechanical and believable with mid-20th Century technology. I don't believe this fate was intended to be set off by an electric eye or the like.

[–] mehaul 14 years ago

If you look behind the upper girl, there is a small wheel turning behind her. She seems to be in some sort of saddle or harness strapped to the axle of that wheel. If the axle is threaded and I detect a slight forward motion in her few frames of stardom, she is technically sitting on a screw as punishment. When she travels the length of the axle she may trigger a change in the situation below.
You can also see in the bottom torture, the strap connecting the flywheels of the two spinning slice and dicers. it goes around one wheel in the bottom scenario and in the top one it goes around and actuates two wheels (and through gears or something, that small wheel behind the upper girl).

[–] mouse1970 13 years ago

Well given Beth was being tortured for not talking; forcing her to keep her mouth shut is obviously part of the joke.

But honestly I'm not sure they put that much thought into the rest.

[–] grendelkhan 13 years ago

Part of the purpose is to capture the look of the cartoons of Eric Stanton, another fetish artist. He did a spoof of Gwendoline, called Sweeter Gwen, that amps up the comedy more than the original John Willie strips. He also did several other cartoons that involved sorority initiations and other hijinks, with elaborate Rube Goldberg torture devices, like a bicycle that powers a wheel with paddles attached, which spanks the rider as they peddle. Fairly weird, but mostly lighthearted. Stanton produced many cartoons that were distributed bu Irving Klaw, whose main claim to fame was the photographs of Bettie (Betty) Page. He also distributed some of Willie's early Gwendoline strips.

You can also see some of Willie's photography work in LA Confidential, in the briefing scene, after Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) is sent down to Vice.

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."-Groucho