Comparative Study


Joe and Jerry succeed in escaping death in Charlie’s garage, but their luck runs out when Spats Colombo and his men attend a meeting of mobsters in the Florida hotel in which Sweet Sue’s band is staying. Although Spats’s henchmen do their best to catch the two witnesses to the massacre in Chicago, the chase is highly amusing and we cannot take the threat seriously. Jerry’s main concern is that he will be murdered while dressed as a woman: ‘they’re going to take us to the ladies’ morgue, and when they undress us I tell you, Joe, I’m just going to die of shame’.


Spats and his thugs are killed by a gunman concealed in a huge birthday cake and once again, there is little graphic depiction of the violence. The focus is on the gunman, and as soon the shooting is over we see the henchmen slumped dead in their chairs. Spats, injured but alive, holds his chest and says bitterly, ‘Big joke’, before he is shot once more and, with a grimace, dies. Federal Agent Mulligan enters the room and asks what happened. Bonaparte, the host of this criminal gathering, indicates the bodies and says, ‘There was something in that cake that didn’t agree with them’. The other mobsters laugh appreciatively and Mulligan responds with a wisecrack of his own: ‘My compliments to the chef’. While the world of the text is one in which violence is commonplace, the humorous way it is presented to the audience ensures it is not taken seriously.


Love and marriage


The first half of the film presents us with a rather negative view of love. Everybody seems to be out for what they can get and neither sex has any qualms about lying and cheating in order to achieve their aims. Early in the film we learn that Joe is a womaniser who uses his charm and good looks to get what he wants. Nellie, his agent’s secretary, is angry that Joe stood her up, but seems helpless in the face of his charm when he flirts with her again. Joe’s smooth talk and kisses are simply a way of manipulating Nellie into giving him her car to drive to a gig and, despite her outrage on realising this, she agrees. Joe takes further advantage of Nellie’s crush on him when he tells the mechanic to put a full tank of petrol on Nellie’s bill.


Most of the women in the film appear to be just as calculating as the men when it comes to love and marriage. The female musicians in Sweet Sue’s band want to marry wealthy men who will look after them and ensure they never have to work again. There is no mention of love entering the equation. Sugar tells Josephine that she is glad the band is going to Florida because all the millionaires go there for the winter and she hopes to find a husband among them. Her mercenary attitude makes it a little easier to forgive Joe for posing as a millionaire in order to fool Sugar into making love to him, particularly when she lies as readily as he does, claiming to be from a wealthy family in order to make a good impression. Even Jerry becomes swept up in this desire to find a rich husband and when Osgood proposes – believing him to be Daphne – he accepts. Joe is shocked, asking ‘Why would a guy want to marry a guy?’ Jerry answers simply, ‘Security’. He insists that he will go ahead with the wedding, saying ‘This may be my last chance to marry a millionaire’.


However, love triumphs over materialistic concerns in the end. Sugar rushes to join Joe as he prepares to sail away with Jerry and Osgood. Joe, for once, tells the truth. He admits that he is a fraud and advises Sugar to go back and find herself a millionaire: ‘You don’t want me, Sugar – I’m a liar and a phony – a saxophone player – one of those no-goodnicks you’ve been running away from’. However, Sugar refuses to be put off, and she throws her arms around Joe, kissing him passionately. Although Joe has a terrible reputation and has treated Sugar poorly, his honesty at this stage gives us hope that the relationship may work out. The other relationship, that of Osgood and Daphne/Jerry, shows a similarly positive view of love. Osgood is determined to marry Daphne and is not put off by any of his fiancée’s admissions. He doesn’t care that Daphne is a smoker and not a natural blonde. Even when Jerry, in despair, rips off his wig, drops his voice to its normal register and admits he is a man, Osgood is unperturbed, smiling happily and saying, ‘Well, nobody’s perfect’. Love truly conquers all in this romantic comedy!


350 King Lear and Comparatives


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