MovieChat Forums > Saboteur (1942) Discussion > Two questions, please

Two questions, please


1. In the circus convoy scene, the two small people are obviously real-life small people, and the Human Skeleton, while not exactly a skeleton, is certainly long and lanky enough. But are the supposed Siamese Twins really Siamese Twins? And is the Bearded Lady really one (and if not, was this a man wearing drag or a woman made up with a fake beard)?

2. Many people have commented on a homosexual subtext in several of Hitchcock's films (Martin Landau's character in North by Northwest, the killer Bruno in "Strangers on a Train", etc). What about the two men in the front seat when Bob Cummings and the saboteur with glasses are being driven to New York? The two men are singing in unison "Tonight We Love" (a popular song of the times which actually uses the opening these of Chaikovsky's Piano Concerto N° 1), and the scene frankly adds nothing at all to the development of the plot other than showing that Cummings is going to New York (which the actor playing the member of the sabotage group has already announced is going to take place, and which is reinforced by the view of the skyline when they arrive), so is this scene just another playful Hitchcock nod (maybe even a not-so-politically-correct one, i.e., "just look at the kind of deviates who make up a group of saboteurs, not like red-blooded heterosexual Americans")?

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1) Siamese Twins - check out the other films they were in as twins - Easter Parade and I can't remember - there's just a few of them and they're listed on IMDB (look further down the cast). I doubt that they are actually siamese twins because it is perfectly plausible that they could have been made to look joined when in actual fact they weren't.
Bearded Lady - she is a lady or at least IMDB lists her so - you'll have to check the other film she's been in to know if she's really a bearded lady (again check the cast list).

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The twins are not really conjoined. The Bearded Lady (Esmeralda) is Anita Bolster wearing a beard. She was a long time supporting/bit-playing actress from Ireland. You can see her in "The Thin Man Goes Home" with William Powell and Myrna Loy, playing a maid.

The scene with the car ride also has Mr Freeman (Alan Baxter) talking about letting his son have long hair, like a girl, like he himself had as a child. Truly a creepy addition probably added, just like you think, as a "playful Hitchcock nod."

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what exactly are you implying? why shouldn't a man have long hair? are you afraid of homosexuality?

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O fer Pete's Sake - You get the Olympic Gold Medal for Conclusion Jumping.

This was a film made in the early 40s. I grew up in that era and will tell you the moral codes of that time were pretty strict. (My family knew a bank clerk who was fired because the manager saw the guy's wife wearing slacks and therefore made the bank look "bad".)

Homosexuals at that time stayed in the closet as best they could because of public disdain - hence the Communists' success in blackmailing many government employees (U.S. and UK) into being traitors. If a transvestite was arrested three times for cross-dressing, he went to jail for life (Ed Wood's "Glenn or Glenda" touched on that.) The allusion that some saboteurs were of this stripe was Hitchcock's not-so-subtle swipe at the bad guys.

Quite often today, people with agendas label simple disgust as "homophobia".

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My question: did Frye's visit to the Statue of Liberty have a nefarious purpose or was it solely an excuse for a grandstand finish?

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I think so. There is a scene where police mentions about why he may be there. Its right before Priscilla Lane (Patricia Martin) enters Statue of Liberty.

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Well, a few years earlier, a gorilla climbed the empire state building, co copycat Hitchcock did it with the statue of liberty.

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