I loved this movie (Bringing up baby is better), but I thought one thing was never explained: What was Jerry doing in California after all? Why did he lie and said he was going to Florida? If I missed something, please let me know.
shareHe was having an affair, cheating on his wife.. Saying he was on holidday but in fact being with his mistress
shareAlso, although this is just my interpretation:
He wasn't in California. He stayed in New York (or thereabouts).
The importance of the California oranges wasn't to indicate he had been to California, but to reveal to his wife that he hadn't been to Florida. That is: he didn't send oranges from Florida, but just called up some grocer and had them send oranges over ... California being the place, other than Florida, where oranges come from. We in the audience know, from the first scene, that he has't been to Florida, or anywhere.
<He wasn't in California. He stayed in New York (or thereabouts).>
That's what I thought too. I didn't get the impression he was cheating on his wife; that would have made him a very unlikeable character. It could have been that he resented his wife spending so much time with Duvalle, so he petulantly "ran away" from home, then was too proud to admit to his wife what he'd been up to.
But he sent letters. Wouldn't they have had Florida postmarks?
I trust I make myself obscure.
We never do know for sure whether Jerry or Lucy were cheating on the other, or did the acusations and self-righteous denials of two stubborn people get out of hand. Cary Grant's character never said he WASN'T in Florida, just that he was under a sunlamp because his wife would expect him to be tanned when he returned. Later we learn there was so much rain in Florida that it made the New York papers---so there was a good reason for Jerry not to be tanned, just as the car Lucy was in COULD have broken down.
I think the point is that at the opening of the film we are being presented two headstrong individuals who are more concerned about being trusted at face-value than to ommunicate as a couple.
It could very well be he went to Florida. (He was supposedly in Florida but there were California oranges in the gift basket he brought home. Nobody suggested he was in California.) Afterall, Irene Dunne did mention all the NY papers reported rain in Florida the whole time he was there. But if he wasn't there - how did his daily letters to her get postmarked?
As someone pointed out - he probably got home and grabbed a gift basket there in NY, rather than deal with lugging it on the train or plane from Florida.
And we in the audience don't necessarily know he wasn't in Florida. There's nothing stated to definitively establish where he had been the prior week, be that NY, Florida or somewhere else. All we know from the first scene is that he didn't have a tan but felt he needed one to stop her friends from speculating he hadn't been in Florida. If said cronies saw him without a tan, they'd assume he hadn't been to Florida and must've been up to no good. Then the rumors start and the tongues start wagging.
If he was going to spend a week with an alleged mistress - why stay in NY, where they would have to stay in so they wouldn't by chance run into his wife or one of their friends, when he could've taken a mistress along to Florida where there's far less chance of anybody knowing them?
I'm not sure where Jerry was! It sure makes him look like a cheating husband, though! Florida is very proud of their oranges. They wouldn't dare sell oranges from California. Like somebody else said, he just got a fruit basket locally.
X
Here are the reasons why I believe in God:
www.X-Evolutionist.com
I've read one explanation that he stayed in town for a guy's weekend, playing cards and such things that would upset their wives. The likelier explanation IS that he was cheating on Lucy, but I find this really hard to believe about a character played by Cary Grant. Sooo, I'm going to go with the former interpretation. :)
shareI love this movie. If he stayed in town for a guy's weekend, why would his friend at the club ask where he had been?
sharejolly good question - what was jerry doing? i had hoped the answer would be revealed at the end but i suppose we must use our imagination, tho i would like to think they were not having affairs with other people.
cheers.
I wonder if the answer wound up on the cutting room floor. As I recall, in the first scene he privately denied to his friend that he was having an affair. Though he also said "What you don't know won't hurt you."
Later, during the argument that leads to their divorce, he was on the verge of telling her "the truth" about where he was. (Which he seemed to be implying was harmless.) Though he might have simply been about to lie to her.
On the other hand, this movie came out in 1937, during the bad old days when female infidelity was not tolerated, but male infidelity was 'nudge nudge wink wink.' Perhaps the audience was expected to understand that he did have an affair, but that actually talking about it in the movie would have been distasteful.
All interpretations were good, but I highly doubt he was actually in Florida, as I also highly doubt he was cheating. Seeing as he though Lucy was cheating on HIM with Duvalle, I think he was supposed to be too decent of a man to be hypocritical. Although he never said he wasn't in Florida, and there was probably evidence proving that he could've been, he never said he WASN'T either, and I think the oranges were supposed to be the big give away.
shareI came away from this wondering where he was and what he was doing if he was not in Florida, but I did not get the impression that he was cheating. I figured he was either doing something for her, or trying to cover something he screwed up that he didn't want her to know about?
I also did not think that Lucy was cheating. I thought that she was enjoying the attentions of the sophisticated Continental bachelor, Duvalle, and perhaps she was spending too much time with him, but I did not get the impression that they were cheating. If there was a reason that was cut, I would love to know it. But, I suspect that it was intentionally left vague so that people would have good reason to want to choose sides with either Jerry or Lucy depending on their point of view and beliefs and effectively prolong the suspense of how it would get worked out.
If he had been in Florida and he knew that it had been raining so much, then he would also have been smart enough to know that he wouldn't have needed the sunlamp treatment, so I think that he was clearly not in Florida.
Ditto (very well written)
shareI can't believe how many people here are so comfortable with the idea that Jerry was off committing adultery. That makes me think they're interpreting the film under today's degraded moral standards, instead of those that were prevalent when the film was released. I assure you that the public would not have found Cary Grant's character sympathetic had he actually had an affair. And to me anyway, it's clear that he is absolutely potty about his wife, and she about him. It was pride and stubbornness, not betrayal, that kept them apart.
Redmama13 is right on the money. He probably went on a guys-only junket (gambling or the track) where no wives were allowed, and he found it easier not to tell Lucy about it. If you've ever seen The Honeymooners, or even The Flinstones YV series, that was a pretty common comedy plot device, though less common these days. Jerry wouldn't have an affair any more than Ralph Kramden would.
God save Donald Duck, vaudeville and variety
What he was doing is not as important as the fact that he lied is. That is why they don't explain what he did. It's not that important. Why don't any of you see that? This movie is about a lack of trust and what it does to a marriage not about an affair. An affair movie from this time always shows the third person involved as this film did with Ralph Bellamy.
shareI think he was cheating, which is why he was so quick to assume his wife was, too. That way he wouldn't feel so guilty. Projection is a great guilt deflector.
shareIsis, I think most people do see his lying as the important thing, but I liked the characters so much I was curious!
God save Donald Duck, vaudeville and variety
Hithcock would call this a "MacGuffin": something that's eminently important to the characters but really isn't "the point" of the film. Still, it can be dreadfully annoying at times.... ;)
shareIt's never revealed and for good reason. Any suggestion of perpetrator/victim is a kibosh to romantic comedy. They were both 'innocent'.
shareAny suggestion of perpetrator/victim is a kibosh to romantic comedy. They were both 'innocent'.
________________________________________________
Exactly. Because if that happens, the story is really not funny anymore. Perfect explanation!
And to the poster before you: I never knew what exactly a MacGuffin was. Thanks for the clarification! :)
"Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?"