A brief overview of the film:
Two bumbling hustlers in the 1920s attempt to gain the fortune of an heiress. Nothing will stop them. Not even murder.
Nicky Wilson (Beatty) and Oscar Sullivan (Nicholson) are inept 1920s scam artists who see pay dirt in the guise of Fredericka Quintessa Bigard (Stockard Channing), the millionaire heiress to a sanitary napkin fortune. She loves the already married Nicky, but because the Mann Act prohibits him from taking her across state lines and engaging in immoral relations, he proposes that she marry Oscar and then carry on an affair with the man she wants. Oscar, who is wanted for embezzlement and anxious to get out of town, is happy to comply with the plan, although he intends to claim his spousal privileges after they are wed.
Once they reach Los Angeles, the men try everything they can to separate Freddie from her inheritance without success, but with sufficient determination to arouse her suspicions. When she announces her plan to donate her money to charity, Nicky and Oscar conclude that murder might be their only recourse if they're going to get rich quick.
After watching the film I decided to list the main themes I saw:
- Money (The want of Freddie's money and the extreme lengths at which people would go to receive it)
- Betrayal (Believing she was in love with Nicky, Freddie goes along with the plan, not knowing that it is her fortune that he and his friend are after.)
- Farse (Throughout the whole film we are drawn to the stupidity of each character in their choices and in their actions.)
- Murder (The plan to murder Freddie to inherit her fortune.)
- Stupidy and Immaturity (Communicated mainly through the character of Freddie, whom so easily is swooned and moves quickly first with Nicky, then with Oscar, and later in the film is prepared to run away with another man shortly after meeting him)
From my own perspective the most prominent element communicated throughout the film was farse, which is probably why I didn't connect much with the film, as it seemed to blur the storyline. (At times the idea of farse was much more noticeable than the storyline itself.)
I went back to the film and gathered screen shots of what I thought were the most important motifs/moments of the story.
The police tell Freddie of the events which she was completely unaware of. She seems visibly upset, however tells the police she does not believe a single thing of this happened, implying that they have made the whole thing up. And so at the end of the film we see her walking back into the house she lived in with Oscar and Beatty.
From my own perspective the most prominent element communicated throughout the film was farse, which is probably why I didn't connect much with the film, as it seemed to blur the storyline. (At times the idea of farse was much more noticeable than the storyline itself.)
I went back to the film and gathered screen shots of what I thought were the most important motifs/moments of the story.
The wedding of Oscar and Freddie which enables her already Married lover Beatty to take her across the border to Los Angeles.
On the night of the wedding Freddie drinks so much that she cannot remember who she has been married, and so this is the first 'real' time she is introduced to Oscar (opposite.)
One of the many farcical moments in the movie, however definately one of the most prominent, where oscar climbs outside onto the wing of the plane to scare/impress Freddie on their journey to Los Angeles.
Arriving in Los Angeles, with a whole crowd of people donning traditional 1920's clothing.
The outcome of Oscars appearance after his outrageous plane stint.
The first moment of intimacy we see between Freddie and Oscar since they became man and wife.
The first argument where we hear of Freddies large inheritence, at this point Beatty is still in love with Freddie and so warns off Oscars suggestions about her money.
This turns into a brawl.
The first mention of murdering Freddie and discussing the inheritance of her money between the two of them.
Oscar and Beatty purchase a venomous snake which they plan to use to kill Freddie.
After the snake dies. Freddie passes out drunk and Oscar and Beatty take her out to the small pond/water feature and place her face down to try and make it appear that she has drowned.
As this fails the two men place her body inside a trunk and try to take her to a beach. They want to drop her at a beach and make it look is if she commit suicide and drowned.
The men go to Beattys work and steal a small bus to move the trunk.
In the heat of the moment Oscar accidentally pushes the whole trunk into the sea, instead of taking her out and pushing her in. The accident now longer looks like suicide.
The next morning we see that the trunk with Freddie inside has washed up further along the coast at long beach.
She meets a man who takes her back to safety.
When driving along the coast the next day Oscar and Beatty see the trunk on the shore and realise that Freddie is no longer inside. They assume that she has fallen out of the trunk and drowned.
The police turn up at Oscar and Beatty's door, they assume that the police have arrived after finding Freddie's body in the sea. And so they make up an extreme story about Freddie's disappearance. However the police have only turned up to question them about the missing bus. Oscar and Beatty have dropped themselves in it.
Meanwhile Freddie plans to run away with the new man that she has found.
Oscar and Beatty talk through the story of Freddie's disappearance and show the police the pond in which they put her etc.
As Oscar and Beatty are relaying the story to the police they suddenly see Freddie run past with some of her possessions. They all chase after her.
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