Wally Wood-"Sin-Doll Ella." The Dirty Disgustin' Decayin' South

[jlroberson]

From MAD #35, one of Wood's best black-and-white humor pieces. It's always forgotten that as a humor cartoonist he gave Will Elder a run for his money. A mash-up of those things so fun to parody in the 50s: Brando and Tennessee Williams-based Southern Gothic films. Which I first read at 8 years old, in said South. Seemed about right to me. So: Cinderella(obviously), BABY DOLL, THE ROSE TATTOO, STREETCAR, FUGITIVE KIND, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, all at once. And this is very unkind to Anna Magnani.

Comments

[psychopathicus_rex]

Sounds like it, yeah.

[jlroberson]

She's also a much nastier and smarter(though, and the plot hangs on this, not as smart as she thinks he is--just smarter than her husband) in the film than this might leave the impression of. Basically, she gets married very young as part of a land deal with her dad, who's dead before the film. The terms of the deal is that the marriage cannot be consummated till she's of legal age. The film starts on that day. She refuses and also finds any loophole in the agreement to do so, causing, shall we say, great frustration to said husband. Meanwhile there's a Sicilian guy(played by Eli Wallach) who has designs on the land and the cotton gin on it who seduces her(or at least it's a hard flirt) in order to find info out about him and ruin him.

The film's a lot more chaste on the surface than its rep suggests. All the sexual material is heavily hinted at but never shown. In fact, the film could almost be a textbook on ways to trick the Hays Office. One scene on a porch swing in particular.

[psychopathicus_rex]

You realize I'm now going to have to forget everything you just wrote if I ever want to see the movie? I mean, not that that'll be difficult - I have a memory like a sieve - but still.

[jlroberson]

Don't worry, I ruined nothing. There's more to it than that. Most of what I just described are facts you'd find on the box.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Oh, OK. Sorry; it's just that I'm very touchy about that sort of thing. Spoilers are very difficult to avoid these days, and everyone seems so anxious to reveal them to you. They'll watch something or read something, then they'll say 'you'd LOVE that!' and proceed to tell you all about it, complete with what their favorite parts were and their favorite lines of dialogue. Drives me crazy.

[jlroberson]

Nah. I just set it up. No worries.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Well, good. Thanks.