Stupid German Psychic - Deathtrap (1982) Discussion

[–] Contore 18 years ago

she was Dutch

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[–] MaximusXXX 18 years ago

LOL Either way I was hoping throughout she'd die.

It's not a lie if you believe it.

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[–] craigbenting 18 years ago

Wow, you're a great example of a mindless bigot! Great job show everyone else how NOT to act! LOLOL!

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[–] crash_into_me420 18 years ago

Bigdan is absolutely correct. One of the all-time worst characters in film

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[–] polarbear_teacake 17 years ago

That's because technically she's a theatrical character. Because the film is based on a play and about a play, it was filmed very much in the style of a play, with minimal locations and actors, and so the acting was very much overdone by all characters so as to give the film a more theatrical feel.

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[–] unstrung-harp 18 years ago

Dyan Cannon was extremely annoying, too.

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[–] skydvr38 14 years ago

Dyna Cannon was annoying, but in a good way, I really liked her character and performance

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[–] Sidewindr 9 years ago

I loved it when she would scream at nothing and the reactions/jumps of the people around her when she does that.

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[–] Chief_Watches-Many 17 years ago

The OP is not a mindless bigot. Lets break it down for the so called "good" people that jump on a bandwagon without thinking for themselves.

The OP hated the character and so wished she'd be killed. Perfectly reasonable.
Her accent is very German like, and I do know what to look for to differentiate between the two.
In the case of this character, I wouldn't have been certain she was Dutch and again perfectly reasonable to assume she was German, and especially in the case of discussing a film in an online message board, who bloody cares and what harm is actually being done to any group of people if someone assumes someone who sounds German actually is.

It annoys me, all this misguided moral pedantry based on some kind of fashionable so-called new age "Aren't I the most tolerant and open minded person in the village", when infact because they are so fixated in seeing wrongs they miss the point on every level.

Rant over, nice film. Gotta love Caine.

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[–] dim_sumus 16 years ago

Except that it's made very clear early on that she's DUTCH and not GERMAN. That said, her accent was terrible. It was closer to Swedish than Dutch.

And, were we to believe she was really psychic? I admit I didn't get that part. I expected the ESP/psychic charade would be revealed in the final scene. But, it seems were to believe she really did have ESP. Dumb

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[–] falcon2484 15 years ago

The fact that Helga Ten Dorp is Dutch puts kind of a new spin on Michael Caine's line in Goldmember:

"There's only two things I hate in this world: People who are intolerant of other people's cultures....and the Dutch!"

Hahaha!

BTW, I know that a lot of people regard Helga as one of the top ten most unnecessary characters in American cinema (along with Mike Yanagita in "Fargo," Jar Jar Binks in "Episode I," or the entire cast in the remake of "Psycho"), but consider: the way the movie is constructed, it could be argued that this is Helga's story, at least if one accepts the premise that all the action leads up to the final scene -- the one in which we see that Helga stole "Deathtrap," and has passed it off as being her work. That's the final twist: the seemingly most unimportant, unnecessary character becomes the film's pivotal character. It turns out everything you thought you knew was wrong. It's an old trick in drama since man first stepped out on a stage. And yes, I know that it seems stupid and doesn't quite work, maybe because it comes too late to be fair.

But what if Helga knew in advance everything that was going to happen? She is psychic, after all! And what if everything, everything she does (including purposely taking a dive during her appearance on the "Merv Griffin Show") is calculated to gain acquisition of "Deathtrap" (it's mentioned somewhere that she's in financial straits herself)?

Food for thought.

The Falcon flies

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[–] zalkins 14 years ago

It's a fair point and it's fun to play with the thought. Although, I don't believe she'd go through all this if she really could see the future. There are more suitable ways to get rich and famous than what she went through.

However, I do fully agree with the OP that she killed it. But I haven't got so much against the character in the movie as to the actor. Total miscast in my opinion.

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[–] scomer-1 14 years ago

"BTW, I know that a lot of people regard Helga as one of the top ten most unnecessary characters in American cinema (along with Mike Yanagita in "Fargo,""

Mike was actually a very key element to the plot of "Fargo."

If it weren't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college.

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[–] avortac4 (3746) 3 years ago

"Mike was actually a very key element to the plot of "Fargo.""

It's either 'key element' or not, there's no 'very'.

And no, he wasn't. A trained Mary Sue cop should've detected Jerry's nervousness and obvious lying without the help of a wimp trying to get laid by lying, WHICH she should've seen through - not as a cop, but as a woman.

If Mike's scene was 'key' or 'essential', then the cop fails both as a cop and as a woman. I don't think Mary Sues fail that way, so consider your statement thoroughly destroyed.

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[–] scomer-1 14 years ago

"BTW, I know that a lot of people regard Helga as one of the top ten most unnecessary characters in American cinema (along with Mike Yanagita in "Fargo,""

Mike was actually a very key element to the plot of "Fargo."

If it weren't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college.

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[–] falcon2484 14 years ago

Oh, yeah, I know that. He's the character who makes Marge think twice about trusting Jerry Lundegaard. She goes back to question Jerry again only after she learns that Mike lied to her at their lunch, in an attempt to get her into bed.

The Falcon flies

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[–] avortac4 (3746) 3 years ago

The problem is, a cop, woman and a Mary Sue character like her, would never NEED a nerd like Mike to convince her to doubt Jerry - and she should've seen through Mike immediately as well and known he was lying, because surely this has happened to her a lot because she is a female (not a very attractive, but maybe we can consider she might've been at least semi-cute in her youth?)..

Even if she wasn't hit on by hungry simps, at least she must've had friends who were and thus still known all about 'simps who lie to try to impress women because it's the only method they know of to try to get laid'.

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[–] Tchoutoye 14 years ago

I'm Dutch and her accent was definitely not Dutch. Her grammar was close to Russian (leaving out articles for instance), but the pronunciation was very German.

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[–] avortac 10 years ago

No one is as bigoted as the people who immediately judge others, to be 'bigots' or 'homophobic' or 'misogynists' or whatnot.

As it was once said; judge not, lest thee be judged.

People on this planet act as if this was never said at all.

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[–] jztzt 13 years ago

I agree, the character and accent are a bit annoying. She is not necessary for the continuation nor the resolution of the plot. Her purpose in the film is not at all clear until the end of the film. The part could have been written out with no loss.

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[–] avortac 10 years ago

"Her purpose in the film is not at all clear until the end of the film. "

So what was her purpose?

But that character is just completely repulsive in all possible levels.

1) She is ugly, old, wrinkly, and disgusting to look at
2) She sounds awful, whiny, horrible, and unclear
3) Her attitude is irritating, egotistical, and disrespectful, assuming and 'know-it-all'-type
4) Her behaviour is appalling - she just bursts in and assumes to be invited (of course it's stupid for the others to always so quickly invite her)
5) Her speaking style in itself, besides, the sound, is so irritating and annoying that I wouldn't listen it for a second, if someone tried to talk to me like that. I'd rather literally kick her out of the house, or put my fingers in my ears and repeat: "Lalalala" until she's gone
6) The unnecessity of the character makes her even more annoying - she just interrupts interesting scenes, things and actions, and brings everything down to a crawl
7) She is nosy and intrusive
8) She is greedy and an idea-thief (copying is fine, but presenting someone else's play as your own is not)
9) She has no redeeming qualities whatsoever

And she's incoherent.

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[–] porco_doce 10 years ago

i agree with avortac.

i wish she had been violently stabbed over and over again
and her corpse kicked around just for the fun of it.

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[–] RaiderDuck 10 years ago

Maybe this is just me, but if I saw a neighbor standing outside my back door uninvited, saying "It's very wet out here," I'd probably reply "Well, you'd better hurry back home then. Good night!" Then I'd close the shade and go watch TV or something.

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[–] KhurramAtta 10 years ago

She was the worst thing about the movie, mate. She should've been hacked to pieces by Caine.

Top 250 Foreign Movies
http://www.imdb.com/list/ls076565151/

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[–] preppy-3 9 years ago

I agree. I wanted her dead. Irene Worth was a wonderful actress but not here! Half the time I couldn't figure out what she was saying.

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[–] 9 years ago

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[–] Sidewindr 9 years ago

This is a great film unfortunately it is let down by the ending .. Helga was not a worthy victor and did not deserve to benefit at the end. The ending drags this film down from a 9 to a 7 IMHO.

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