Two questions about the Italian boy (MAJOR SPOILER)
One of the most shocking things about this movie is the sudden, violent death of little Tony Moroni. It's particularly shocking because depicting the death of
a child is generally a big no-no in older films, especially Hollywood films.
Two other rare examples occur in British films--Hitchcock's Sabotage, in which a boy is killed by a bomb (Hitchcock blamed that plot
twist for the film's mediocre showing at the box office); and A
Night to Remember, in which one of the Titanic's officers on a lifeboat is handed a dead child and
places its body back into the sea (the scene was excised from TV broadcasts for
many years and was only recently restored to TV showings). Two questions:
Was this plot twist the reason why this film seems to be somewhat forgotten
and is rarely shown and only recently turned up in DVD format?
What other films of the classic era dared to show the sudden deaths of young
children, at the risk of repulsing audiences and damaging box office returns?
I'm not crying, you fool, I'm laughing!
Hewwo.