I think it was rather odd that the police simply let Ann walk away with Bunny at the end.
Don't you think they would have held her for questioning? Was she also supposed to be mentally disturbed like her brother? Instead of running away with Bunny when she gets a chance, she plays with him and allows him to blindfold her!
When he is pushing her on the swing at the end, didn't she seem to go a little WACKY?
No she was not crazy! Did you not pay attention to the movie??? He was mentally ill and in order to stay alive and keep her daughter alive, she had to play along with him.
I disagree. I think she was absolutely crazy and I loved it. I felt so awkward when the police took him away. She looks disappointed that he left. I kept thinking "nooooooo, don't leave Bunny with her!" It's sort of an interesting critique on childhood because she doesn't do anything right the entire film. She doesn't even have a picture of her kid with her... and she left her daughter with the cook to meet the movers? Terrible.
What a great movie!!!
That was just Preminger's whole premises you jumped right into: The bias towards single mothers.
shareNo I often watch movies without paying attention to them. That's why I took time to ask an intelligent question about a film that I was trying to understand.
Do you like to ask rhetorical questions so that you come off sounding like an a-hole?
I guess it's called artistic liberty but I think it's quite a bit wacko to think the police would just come in at the end and know what's what. OK, perhaps they had figured out that, by having booked a boat other than the Queen Mary, Steven was trying to hide the fact that there were indeed three of them who had come across the Atlantic. But when the cops show up at the house, and see Steven and Ann acting like a couple of kids on the swing, are they supposed to have instantly figured out that Steve kidnapped Bunny, is in the midst of trying to murder her, and that what they're observing with Ann on the swing is her trying to distract Steven from his intended deed? That's pushing the credibility envelope past the breaking point.
shareI agree. That just seemed improbable to me at best.
share
films that I have seen, but this seriously had to be one of the worst endings I have ever seen. The brother is sane for the whole film, and then just lapses into a child like state? Yes, also what you said about the police surmising that the brother was the culprit, just because the info he gave did not match the reality.
Ridiculous ending to an otherwise fine film.
The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new. Samuel Beckett
Ann indeed was disturbed (to say the least) for the sexual games she would play with her brother, but in terms of the child's disappearance – which was the main point of the film – she was innocent.
shareOf course Ann's not crazy!!! She was simply playing along with her mentally unstable brother to stop him from murdering her daughter!
shareI think it's hard for someone who's an only child to understand a bond between a brother and a sister. Add into that both their parents died and it gets even more interesting. Their relationship is an exaggeration of what can be, but so is the whole movie. In the end she's half playing along and half into it for real.
shareI can't tell for sure if she is crazy or not, but there is one odd thing about the ending (aside from Ann's rather pathetic attempts at escaping)...though the child did not speak very much, when she did she seems to have a distinctly British accent. Since they had both just come from America, and had only been in England for a few days, this seems strange. Perhaps a sloppy or rushed casting error, but perhaps a slight indication that the child and the mother's supposed relationship is not quite as it appears?
I think that a viewer can read into the ending sequence that Ann is way off, too. However, I think that is quite a stretch and not at all the intent of the director.
I think that it is plain and clear that Ann realizes what has happened with Steve. Further, she plays on their prior relationship to distract him and attempt to create an opportunity for her to escape or in the hope that help will arrive.
It is odd that she seems to be immediately aware that she can play into his reversion to childhood so quickly. That implies that he has given her ample indication that he might go there. And if that's the case, why did she allow him to be in such a controlling position over both her and her daughter. This does indicate poor judgment on her part, and maybe she was playing along with his in his aberration. That would certainly be beyond poor judgment.
Is Ann "crazy"? I would say no, however, with a big BUT.
Clearly, she has her own issues. Her strange relationship with her brother has lasted for most of her life. And, poor Bunny has obviously witnessed much of it (that's partly what makes Bunny's almost mute reaction to ALL that bizarre behavior during the last sequence so unrealistic, drugging and all considered).
To me, this was far from a "happy ending". Ann and Bunny would need careful counseling and, hopefully, a stable household to lead a more 'normal' life after these events.
if it happened nowadays she and her daughter would be hospitalized for at least a 24 hr observation
shareI was thinking something like that, as well. I like to think Newhouse kept tabs on how they were doing.
Mag, Darling, you're being a bore.
They were in England, would that still apply there? I've heard of people waiting ages to see a doctor and then ages more to get a bed in a hospital. Mental cases would tend to add to that delay. I hear much of the same thing here (US) but only in regards to mental health and Veterans cases.
Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate]
I thought that Bunny was almost as passive as a doll.... So it might not have been just the brother who was taken off by the porkies, for a check-up from the neck-up.
Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.
SPOILERS
She was, at times, hysterical about her missing daughter, but she was not crazy in any way. The audience is led to believe she might be, when the police inspector expresses doubt that the child even exists, but as soon as we find out that she does exist, all doubt is removed and we know Ann is perfectly normal.