The Lady Eve

Blog 2: The Lady Eve

The Lady Eve, like The Philadelphia Story, was a comedy about the idea of remarriage. I thought that this movie was very humorous and entertaining. There were some very funny one-liners and a lot of interesting symbolism that kept me interested and attentive throughout the movie. The writer’s use of symbolism and the themes created through the character’s actions and relationships really caught my attention while watching this movie. For example, the use of “horns,” the relationship between fathers and siblings, and how society viewed people of wealth. However, the theme that stuck out most to me was the one surrounding deceit. I felt that the act of being deceitful was depicted by so many of the characters and involved so many relationships that it was one of the most prevalent points made in the movie.
First, I thought it was interesting that each character went by two different names – two different identities. The use of different names and sometimes different personalities for a character plays into the theme of deceitfulness. Each character had a different name and each name was significant to one person or the situation they were in. Meaning, when they were called one name – they tended to act differently than when called by their other name. For example, when Jean was around Charlie she would always call him Hopsie. When Charlie was around Jean’s father she would always call her father Colonel or Colonel Harrington, but when she was just by herself she would refer to him as Harry. Also when Jean came back to Connecticut to see Charlie she introduced herself as an English women named Eve. She also said she was the niece of her actual friend. I thought it was funny to that they both lied about how she had gotten to America on a battleship/submarine. I also thought that it was interesting that Charlie’s friend Muggsy was referred to at some points as Ambrose. The main idea here was that people had different names and identities which could be very misleading at times to the other characters in the story. This idea of different names, different identities symbolize how complex people are and how deceitful people can be.
The writers also used deceit to manipulate relationships of friendship and love. Jean misled, deceived, Charlie about who she was and what their relationship meant to her. It seemed to me that she was interested in him, but acted like she didn’t like him. She played hard to get and at times seemed disinterested. An example would be when she took him back to her room and massaged his head and got all close to him and then told him he should leave. First, Jean acted like she was interested in Charlie and then changed her actions to say that she was not interested in Charlie and sent him away. Another example was when Jean came back and remarried Charlie as an English lady named Lady Eve Sidwich, however she only remarried him to get back and have revenge on him and so that she could crush his heart. She made him fall in love with her as “Eve,” but she didn’t want his love so she played him. This was another example of how deceit and lies were used throughout the story to manipulate love and friendship.
Finally, I saw the theme of deceit being very prominent in the scenes involving gambling and playing cards. Jean and Harry had always meant to steal money from people. They were con artists at their best, losing money one night only to take away much more money the next night. They were obviously known for doing this because they had previously been caught for cheating someone out of their money. It was this creating friendships, then losing their own money, but then cheating someone out of more money that made them so deceitful.
Overall, I thought this was an amusing and enjoyable movie. There were many funny lines and scenes that kept me engaged through this movie. There was a funny plot, but throughout this plot there were many lies told and tricks used to deceive people. People were very deceitful throughout this movie whether it was their identity, the friendships they made, in their love relationships, or just being cheated out of their own money. This made me believe that people are not always who they say they are!