After all that, after being pimped out by his girlfriend to a dying girl, after risking his relationship with the woman he loves, after leading a dying girl to believe he's in love with her, he doesn't take the money? Not only that, he won't marry the love of his life if she wants the money? And NOT ONLY THAT, after all of that he fell in love with the memory of a woman he never loved while she was alive? Merton, you idiot!
shareYou're not getting it. Merton is destroyed by what he did. And he's the moral guy in the beginning who wrote newspaper articles about the terrible things other people have done. He comes to hate Kate for dragging him down to her rotten level so of course he doesn't want to marry her. And the spin-off from all this is that money becomes tainted too. Merton dumps all of it and goes to Venice to start his life over. Makes perfect sense to me.
shareI agree with Merton's hating himself, but I think it has far more with his disgust at being led into a scam, than the idea that Kate is "rotten"! You must remember Kate's position, and what it meant at this time in history. She tried to free herself from her aunt's domination, and get help from her father, but to no avail.
She was young, foolish and greedy, yes, but not "rotten"! If anyone should be taken to task, it's the odious Millie, for using her illness to engender sympathy and her relentless pursuit of Merton, despite knowing that Kate and he are in love. She wants one last fling before dying and, like most rich people, has NO trouble burying anyone who stands in her way, even as she's on death's door!
Kate is to be pitied, not Millie or Merton.
She deserves her revenge, and we deserve to die.
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I saw it completely different. It's not as if she infringed upon Kate and Merton's relationship...they threw him at her. If anything, I saw her being too weak to be so selfless as to toss his affection (sincere or not) away because she knew she didn't have long and would have clung to even the illusion of reciprocated love in her final days.
If she only wanted a fling, as you state, she could have easily bought herself male companionship. Goodness knows Lord Mark was willing to pimp himself out. She wanted love. Kate knew it and decided to use that to benefit herself. I'm not saying Kate was evil; I see the desperate circumstance she was in, and Millie certainly couldn't take the money with her when she died. In a way, I think that if Kate had truly stuck with the plan, everyone would have gotten what they wanted. What I can't forgive Kate for was telling Lord Mark. For being so insecure in her relationship with Merton that she brought ugliness into what could have been a beautiful partnership between the three. An unspoken love that benefited all. I think that's a large part of why Merton was so disgusted with what happened. I think that if Millie had lived in the illusion of his love and died without any doubts or disillusionment, he wouldn't have thought his actions were so reprehensible.
After reading some of your comments on here about Millie, all I have to say is, Boy, did you not get this film. She doesn't want one last fling, she wants to live (and love) before dying. She has an idea of what's happening to her but Kate lies to her, leaves to make it appear more believable and then sends Mark to tell her what's going on after she starts to see her scam turning on her. Elliott was superb in the way she played Millie and Millie was far from being an 'odious' character. I can't even believe I'm responding to someone so clueless that they would come to the conclusion you have. Or who in an earlier post refers to Millie as a 'turnip'.
shareI know this thread is old but I have to comment. I don't think Merton was all that moral. He himself told Millie that he faked passion and conviction in his writing. He did seem disgusted with Kate for suggesting that he use Millie and pimp himself out to her but he agreed to do it.
The sad thing is he and Kate destroyed their love when they went through with their scheme. At the beginning when they are kissing in the rain their relationship was beautiful. By the end of the movie it had turned ugly.
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Totalmente de acuerdo con vos. Además, (y ya entrando en detalles muy superficiales, pero en una película no es despreciable) no me gustó para nada el actor elegido para el papel. Cuesta muchísimo creer que dos hembras semejantes sintieran nada por un señor flaco, cara de nada, sin carisma, dinero ni éxito profesional. Down with Merton!
shareAfter all that, after being pimped out by his girlfriend to a dying girl, after risking his relationship with the woman he loves, after leading a dying girl to believe he's in love with her, he doesn't take the money?
You need to have a SPOILER ALERT on this!!!!!
shareI didn't catch the ending of this, I had to leave for work, and only got as far as when he came back from Italy after the American heiress' death, and seemed a bit put out by the other girl's presence. Was he angry about the whole situation? Did he feel used?
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