Cinema Betty

Heidelberg Wedding didn't present any obvious movie parallels, but I did think that the way Gerard (he of the vaguely French name) circles his prey and plots meticulously and ingratiates himself with the right people had a certain amount of intrigue about it. One of my favorite flicks about intrigue is:

The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)

Am I alone in thinking that while the book devolves into a nihilistic revenge fantasy, the movie has Jim Caviezel and, more importantly, Jim Caviezel's abs? In the book, a miserable excuse for a man runs off with his Cyprian and festers in his hate--and though I loved the writing I wanted to chuck it across the room when it came to the moral of the story. The movie shows all his plotting and all his intrigue and, like Heidelberg Wedding, once he has won the girl from her laggard lover has a abrupt (very abrupt) courtship/elopement.

Thinking over the selection for The Secret Pool, I had a light bulb moment. Disabled children? Falling down stairs? Soulless and dead ex-wife tries to end a pregnancy for her own self-absorbed ends? Oh, I so have a movie that fits that bill and it's one of my faves:

Leave Her to Heaven (1945)

Gene Tierney's delicious overbite (see above, looming over hapless prey) chews the scenery in her stint at Ellen, depraved man-eater. She captivates a man with a disabled little brother. She then offs little bro in a secret pool (because handicapped kids are icky and hard work!), becomes pregnant in a bid to keep her marriage together (but that's such a bother too!), trips down a stairs to end that and then, when husband finally wakes from his fog, frames him for her own suicide. He is free at the end to find the mousy (Jeanne Crain, mousy?!) little sis of Ellen who he always loved in the first place. This movie is so many layers of awesome that it's a wonder the celluloid didn't scorch.