MovieChat Forums > The Heiress (1949) Discussion > No Buttons!!

No Buttons!!

posted 10 years ago by larkpraise
5 replies | jump to latest

I wouldn't have given the lying scoundrel those buttons. When he said, "they're the most beautiful things I've ever had", I was thinking: You should be telling her, "You're the most beautiful thing I've ever had". I understand why she gave them to him: as long as she had them they would always be a painful reminder of the way he treated her. She gave them to him as a subtle way of cutting him out of her life, the way she cuts the yarn off the embroidery after she tells Maria to bolt the door and she hears the door bolt and she goes SNIP...with the scissors. Brilliant! But, heck, I wouldn't have given him those buttons.

Barack Obama IS DESTROYING AMERICA!!

[–] sylvia0270 8 years ago

I think she gave him the buttons to fool him in believing she is serious about the marriage. And to mess with his mind to pay him back, like he did her.

[–] cadeaux 8 years ago

I think she gave him the buttons for a couple reasons. Firstly, she realized he didn't even give a damn enough about her to remember these were a gift she bought him in Paris, which she told him about after she got back home. Someone who loves you would have remembered the dress you wore, the perfume you smelled of, the gifts you bought...and he totally had forgotten as all along he didn't care.

But...she also has the satisfaction of giving him a present he will never be able to afford in his lifetime -- the change in his appearance at the end showed a man whose looks were beginning to leave him (they did change him and he lost a lot of weight which made him look even more old) -- and knowing he will have to sell them because no one would marry him as all he had to offer were his looks and dapper appearance.

The fact she could give such a gift makes him all the more realize his stupidity for not taking her up on the guaranteed $10,000 a year...because no one is going to ever give him such a lavish gift ever again.

Anyway...I think it was a nice way to put the knife in the wound and turn it about.

C'mon...read my blog already: http://www.mariannsimms.blogspot.com

[–] AvaSinatra59 (195) a year ago

Agreed.

[–] AvaSinatra59 (195) a year ago

I'm thinking he grew the moustache to compensate for losing his looks. Would distract from lost weight, etc.

[–] AvaSinatra59 (195) a year ago

Agreed.