He had not informed her before marrying, so how was he expecting from a young and beautiful woman to remain faithful? And then, what was the meaning of marrying her in order to continue the family line, since he was crippled?
Any opinions please?
Yeah but then people do stupid things like this all the time. He knew she was crazy in love with him. I'm assuming that he really loved her too. I'm sort of on the fence with that one.
I mean he was absolutely aware of how futile the marriage would be and yes, I agree that the conversation they had definitely should have occurred well before the wedding. But I think he might have been swept up in her fantasy of the perfect man and the perfect marriage, etc. He may have felt the same way thinking that it would not matter.
I honestly don't think she had the affair due to lack of any sex in her life. I think she completely did not understand where this guy was coming from. The impotence was a major issue with him, not only because he couldn't perform, but also because in those days, it meant he'd never be able to have children. And with a spinster sister, their family line and name would die with him.
I think she, totally unrealistically, felt she was making things better by having sex with a "cousin" and hopefully getting pregnant so that they could pretend it was Vincenzo's -- not realizing how devastated he would be by the whole thing. In the end, he didn't even know that she was pregnant. He killed her and her lover, out of jealousy, a sense of betrayal, or a combination of both.
This was a guy to whom honor meant everything. Both of them would have done better with a healthy dose of reality.
I am not sure about a few things.
1) "I honestly don't think she had the affair due to lack of any sex in her life"
I do think so. Of course, also the heritor was very important.
2) "so that they could pretend it was Vincenzo's"
Impossible! To pretend to whom? We are talking about an Italian though! That is why I say it does not make any sense. He knew, so he should expect it.
3) He killed her and her lover, out of jealousy, a sense of betrayal, or a combination of both You put it better below.
"This was a guy to whom honor meant everything". Yeap, that was the main reason.
He used her . . . incredibly, he set her up . . . he and the sister knew the dynasty was at an end . . . he wanted it to end with a bang . . . and it did . . . odd film, to say the least . . . though that may have been what Maria was fated for . . .
shareYou're right, it doesn't make any sense. There is no way he would marry someone without explaining his limitations first. After all, it's pretty central to a marriage. Failure to consummate a marriage is grounds for not only divorce but annulment.
And Ava Gardner's character wouldn't be so stupid as to go off and get pregnant without discussing it with him first too. Did she think he wouldn't notice? Actually, she says she did it for him. But without any discussion beforehand. Sure. And I suppose adoption (a course often taken by heirless nobility, especially in Italy) wasn't even considered.
Only in a thuddingly unrealistic movie like this one would people make such momentous decisions affecting their romantic partner's lives without so much as one word to them first.
There were a lot of problems in this film for me, but the biggest, was of course that the impotent Count - who seemed like the right match for Maria at first - would wait until their wedding night to say "oh, btw, I can't ever make love to you. See you later!" and leave her in their wedding suite alone to cry! That seems highly unrealistic in some ways, but then again, I have been shocked by what men choose to reveal after they believe they've "won" the object of their affection, in real life...Even after he dropped the bomb and they went on honeymoon for 3 weeks, I can't believe they didn't discuss that matter at all, or explore other options, or bring up what to do about producing heirs.
And speaking of "thuddingly unrealistic" (to borrow from the above poster - I like that description!), how nice that the murderer gets to attend the funeral of his victim! I don't know how it works overseas, or if the fact that he was a Count had any clout, but it seemed strange that he shoots Maria dead and then gets to show up at the funeral, "love" or not!
"Are you going to your grave with unlived lives in your veins?" ~ The Good Girl
Only in a thuddingly unrealistic movie like this one would people make such momentous decisions affecting their romantic partner's lives without so much as one word to them first.Truer words were never written. That's Hollywood for you. share
Saw the film for the first time last night. I, too, was dumbfounded by the Count's presence at the funeral. Didn't notice he was handcuffed until the cops took him away.
May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?
<<<And I suppose adoption (a course often taken by heirless nobility, especially in Italy) wasn't even considered.>>>
And much as I like this movie, that part had me a bit puzzled.
Since Italy was a republic by this time, titles of nobility had no legal standing, so Maria and the Count could have adopted children and kept the title...socially, at least... and estate going. (In the U.K., for example, titles of nobility cannot be inherited by adopted children.)
Maria didn't have to have an affair and get pregnant to have a child. Maria was certainly not happy about the Count's impotence, but Maria's bigger problem, as she explains it to Harry, is not that she and the Count couldn't have normal sex, but that she cannot give him an heir to carry on the family name.
Even if the Count had "understood" Maria's motives, ie., thinking that what he REALLY, REALLY wanted was to have his family line continue, he and she would know, secretly, that the child was not his in the biological sense. And if Maria really thought she could get the Count to just accept that, why wouldn't she think that she would be able to get him to accept an adoption?
After all, they could have adopted in reasonable secrecy by, say, living away from the estate for a year or so, and returned as "parents". That way the Count could still pretend that the child was his publicly, if that was necessary to his "Italian ego" and "the prestige of his noble family".
And surely that pretense would not be any harder for him to live with than pretending that his child was was not fathered by another man. Easier, I would think.
LOL! But that would certainly kill the whole point of the movie, wouldn't it?
I couldn’t help noticing that the chauffeur really really REALLY looked like a ‘natural’ relation of the Count; maybe his father had an affair with someone of the household staff, or in the town; maybe the connection went back further.
But they looked similar enough that this came to me immediately.
So while Maria thinks it’s all going to work out, I don’t think this guy is ever going to go away; maybe his mother wasn’t willing, what a surprise/sarcasm
It’s too bad that they couldn’t have tightened up the editing in other ways and then somehow…the Count shoots Maria, because unfortunately, this is the way the story has to go at the time, but then we get the guy who really was just waiting for a chance to finally grab at what he considered his birthright…foiled in the end.
In a perfect movie, the guy would be shot, Maria would have seconds to successfully save herself and make the Count suddenly sane. The funeral goes on, the sister “adopts” a little boy, and Maria and the Count live happily ever after somewhere else where marital aids have been discovered.
The adopted baby is vaccinated against measles and mumps.
The family motto is changed to: Be prepared!
And then, what was the meaning of marrying her in order to continue the family line, since he was crippled?What I dont get is that if he wants a kid out of her and he cant do the 'honours' then surely he always knew that his family name cd only survive if she took a lover - so him shooting her and the lover is what astonishes me.
He was all prepared to go off into the sunset. But without telling his wife, he was more like a Pharaoh or a Rajah: “You die with me!”
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