Personally I found Ginger Rogers did an excellent job of acting like she was only 12. Sure, she wasn't short, but that's what i found humorous! I found it funny that she was able to pass off to so many people as being 12 when she was that tall! and she did it with all those smart ass excuses. e.g. "Swedish stock." if the actress had been short and looked like she really could've been 12 then i don't think it would've been as funny. And you have to say that she had all the mannerisms down. sure her vocab was more like a 7 year olds, but she had the young curious wide open eyes with the blank stare going for her, and the walk and the constant fiddling around with things in her hands. i mean, i think that if this a real person in this situation she probably wouldn't have done any better at acting 12.
now when it comes to the desperation factor you were talking about, i think i could sort of agree with you on that. i think that when i saw it when i was younger i didn't really question the story line because it was just given to me and i somehow naively accepted it. But when you mention it now and i just saw it again for the 80th time, i see how it doesn't fit. i think the problem is, that you somehow are just supposed to assume that this is a desperate situation.
like, she is a young woman in New York alone, she just lost her job, she is far away from home, she probably will now not be able to pay rent because she lost a job that probably wasn't unionized and i believe this could've been before social security even started (meaning she wouldn't receive her last weeks pay and or be able to collect unemployment) and so she basically has no place to go except back to her apartment that she will soon have to give up (because she wasn't about to go looking for a 50th job to pay for it especially now that she lost references from her bad behavior). and if i was her i could understand the desperation because i'd be like "the longer i stay here in an expensive town without employment, the more money i'll be wasting on things that are really important like getting back home." keep in mind this wasn't that long after the great depression. and why she had to go that moment? that day? because what was in the envelope was probably all that she had left! if she stayed any longer she would need to use money on things and that would take away the money she had for fare. I also think she was desperate because of the really bad mood she was in. i'm sure others have had moments where it's like a REALLY bad day and you aren't thinking clearly and you're like "i've been through hell and i just wanna get outta here i don't care how you get me out but do it. " kinda like when you're stranded at an airport and you've already been stuck at another airport for 15 hours and you don't care if they end up putting you on a helicopter, you just want to get home.
I think this could've been probably expressed better, maybe by adding onto her dialogue when she lists all the bad things that have happened to her (when lecturing mr. Osborne) she could've said "and i've been cramped into a tiny closet they like to call an apartment, an apartment where i can't show my face ever again unless i can magically come up with the 2 months rent i now owe. " and then mr. osborne could make another play on her with that saying "i'd be happy to pay your rent so you could stay around a bit longer if ya know what i mean. wink wink." they needed to write in a bit more to express what we are already assuming, but need to have re-alliterated.
but other than that, all in all, i think it's a GREAT film that i will always find amusing. a real treasure.
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