Tag: Oh Really?

The Contessa and the House Wench with the Talking Mice

LORELAI: And over here you have a tiny but annoying bell in case there’s something here that you need but you don’t have and you want to summon the common but lovely house wench who will promptly leave her talking mice and come to fetch the Contessa whatever she may require.

Lorelai compares Rory to The Barefoot Contessa, a 1954 drama film written and directed by Joseph F. Mankiewicz about the life and loves of a Spanish sex symbol named Maria Vargas, who is known as “the Barefoot Contessa”. Ava Gardner plays the title role as the glamorous Contessa. The film received mixed reviews, but made a big impact on popular culture.

Presumably Lorelai means that Rory, being in bed, has bare feet, yet will be waited on hand and foot like a great lady. Interestingly, the film has a major plot around infidelity and a love triangle, like that between Rory, Dean, and Jess. Like so many of these references, it ends in violence.

Lorelai compares herself to Cinderella, previously discussed. In the 1950 film, Cinderella is friends with a number of talking mice. Lorelai is saying that she is Rory’s humble servant and will get her anything she needs, just as Cinderella slaved away in the kitchen.

Lorelai behaves absolutely absurdly towards Rory. She has the most minor of injuries, and yet Lorelai acts as if she has two broken legs, at the very least. She not only gives Rory a bell to call her with, as if Rory is crippled, but actually sleeps in Rory’s room.

Why? Is she worried Rory will die in the night without her there, or does she think Rory needs help to go to the toilet with a cast on her wrist? It’s a callback to the years mother and daughter spent sharing a bed, their boundaries completely merged.

It’s almost as if Lorelai thinks she can justify her over-the-top demonisation of Jess by acting as if he has done terrible injury to Rory. She is also trying to make up for her failure to “protect” Rory from Jess by overcompensating now, when it is too late.

Lorelai’s instinct is always to smother Rory when she feels their relationship is threatened; whether this is good for Rory or not is never questioned. Her fussing over a barely injured Rory seems like confirmation that Jess was right – Rory is not cut out for the tough life of a foreign correspondent.

(Note that Rory has a Powerpuff Girls glass next to the bed, a callback to when Lorelai said they were going to buy some. Although they didn’t buy them that day, it’s confirmed they did eventually make the purchase).

Lorelai Yells at Luke

LUKE: What about Jess – is he hurt?

LORELAI: No, Luke – Jess did the hurting. That little punk nephew of yours almost killed my kid tonight.

Lorelai confronts Luke about the accident Jess had in Rory’s car. It’s normal for Lorelai to be unreasonable and a bit childish when she’s angry (those Gilmore tantrums), but this time she really goes over the top. She’s had months of seething resentment towards Jess, and by extension, towards Luke, that has been bubbling away, and now it finally boils over in one explosive scene.

From beginning to end, Lorelai’s anger towards Luke is unfair and completely one-sided. She never even considers that Luke might be worried when he hears Jess has been in a car accident – immediately exaggerating by saying that Jess “almost killed” Rory, when all she had was a minor hairline fracture. Lorelai is obviously thinking of how things could been so much worse, but painting Jess as some sort of deranged killer is over the top.

Lorelai makes sure to tell Luke that Rory is “having X-rays and tests”, even though she’s only having them because Lorelai demanded them, and they’re completely unnecessary. She puts all the blame on Luke for taking Jess in, saying that his obligation wasn’t to his family, but to her and Rory and all of Stars Hollow.

Lorelai thinks Gilmores are the centre of the universe, but this is outrageous even for her, that Luke should have abandoned his own nephew in order to put Lorelai and Rory first. (It’s definitely a sign that Lorelai wants to be #1 in Luke’s heart, but she’s too angry to even see the implications of what she said).

This is the worst fight Lorelai and Luke have had so far, and it’s the culmination of their argument in “Nick and Nora, Sid and Nancy”. Their disagreements about Jess, and Lorelai’s mistrust of him, could only ever be papered over. When the crunch came, all of Lorelai’s true feelings came out, and they are extremely hurtful to Luke.

At the end, when Lorelai is left alone and finally lets her tears out as she watches Rory’s wrecked car get towed, her first instinct is to reach for her phone and call Christopher. Much of Lorelai’s exaggerated fear about Rory is based on the fact that Lorelai was in the car when Christopher crashed his Porsche as a teenager. Now she sees it from a parents’ point of view, and realises how terrifying it is to hear your child call you from hospital.

To a certain extent, Jess is paying for Christopher’s sins, and even more unfairly, Lorelai goes running to Christopher when Rory ends up in the same situation Lorelai did as a teenager.

Minor Hairline Fracture

DOCTOR: She sustained a minor hairline fracture to her wrist.

LORELAI: So she broke her wrist? ….

DOCTOR: It’s a tiny fracture, absolutely nothing serious. I’m gonna put a cast on it. She’ll wear it for a couple weeks, that’s it.

There is essentially no difference between a fracture and a break – a hairline crack and having a bone shattered into pieces are both referred to as a fracture. The terms are interchangeable. Fractures usually take 6 to 8 weeks to heal, a hairline fracture may be on the shorter side of that, but only two weeks in a cast doesn’t seem plausible. However, it’s not long until the end of the season, which probably has a lot to do with the doctor’s treatment plan!

Lorelai insists that the doctor do some more X-rays, which he agrees to, but hairlines fractures don’t typically show up on X-rays, so it’s a waste of everybody’s time. It’s just to give Lorelai a chance to keep Rory busy while she goes off to do some yelling. Most parents wouldn’t leave their injured kid at a hospital in the middle of the night like that, but this is TV, not reality! Unfortunately for the plot, it makes Lorelai look incredibly selfish. I mean, more so than usual.

Shrimp Balls

LORELAI: Tell me, was it the China Ball, the China Doll, or the China Wall that had the really good shrimp balls?

Shrimp balls, a Chinese dish where shrimp (prawns) are pounded into a paste, mixed with binding agents, and deep fried. They are served as appetisers, with dipping sauce.

Amazingly, Stars Hollow has three Chinese restaurants! It seems to be getting more and more options for ordering food as the show goes on. Lorelai and Rory must be keeping them all in business.

Driver’s Ed

RORY: I can’t hold the wheel, you’re driving. The person who’s driving has to hold the wheel. That’s the first thing they teach you in Driver’s Ed.

Driver’s Education, a class or program, often organised by high schools, that helps give young people instruction in driving to help prepare them for their driver’s license test. The first Driver’s Education program in the US started in 1934, at a Pennsylvania high school.

Rory’s comment suggests that she took Driver’s Ed, possibly at Stars Hollow High, since she (impossibly) already has her license before she starts at Chilton.

“I’m dripping”

JESS: I’m dripping here, hold the wheel.

Could they have made this any more sexual? Even the choice to buy ice cream cones seems like a deliberately erotic choice.

Out the back window, you can see a set of traffic lights, and multiple cars behind them. I think they are still supposed to be driving around Stars Hollow, which only has one traffic light, on the main square, and almost no traffic. It really doesn’t look like Stars Hollow!

I can accept this scene as believable if Jess drove to a nearby larger town to buy ice cream cones and then back to cone-less Stars Hollow, but I’m not sure this is what the show actually wants us to think. My understanding is that Jess was just circling the main square.

“That’s your car?”

JESS: That’s your car?

RORY: Yes, it is.

Why is Rory’s car outside the diner? They always walk to Luke’s, even at night. Perhaps Rory drove to the diner since she’s going to be tutoring Jess until late, and Lorelai doesn’t want her walking home alone at night – or with Jess as her escort. If so, it seems overly cautious, in light of how close they live to Luke’s, and how safe Stars Hollow seems to be. In retrospect, walking home with Jess would probably have been safer and less dramatic than what actually occurs.

It’s interesting that Jess recognises Rory’s car. Although we never see this onscreen, Rory is presumably in the habit of driving around Stars Hollow, often enough that Jess can identify the car as hers.

Lying to Dean

RORY: Listen, just in case, and I don’t think he will, but if Dean calls, will you tell him I’m with Lane? ….

LORELAI: How come I have to lie to Dean?

Lorelai balks at lying to Dean, and suggests to Rory that if she feels as if she needs to lie to Dean about tutoring Jess, then maybe she shouldn’t be tutoring him. Yet when Rory lost her bracelet, Lorelai encouraged her to lie to Dean. Has she realised the error of her ways, or is she simply being sulky and stubborn, and trying to stop Rory spending the evening alone with Jess?

Lorelai says that if Rory needs to lie about Jess, maybe she shouldn’t tutor him. She never considers saying that if Rory is too frightened to be honest with Dean, then maybe she shouldn’t be with him.

The Movies from Taylor’s Catalogue

All the films that Lorelai mentions in Taylor’s catalogue are made by Monogram Pictures, a film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, after which they were known as Allied Artists Picture Corporation. Lacking the resources to deliver high production values and big stars, they instead offered plenty of action and adventure. They launched the careers of many actors who went on to become stars, and provided a haven for good actors whose careers had stalled.

Monogram/Allied Artists continued until 1979; their library is now owned by Warner Bros, MGM, and Paramount, while a few are in the public domain – although none of the films listed here.

Arctic Flight [pictured]
A 1952 drama film directed by Lew Landers, about a bush pilot, played by Mike Wein, flying in the Arctic. There is a Soviet spy adventure involving a polar bear hunter, and romance with a schoolteacher, played by Lola Albright. It’s a B movie, considered unpretentious and well-made.

Killer Shark
A 1950 B movie directed by Budd Boetticher, and starring actor Roddy McDowell, who had been a successful child actor in England before moving to America with his family. He went on to star in some major films during the 1960s and 1970s, and had a lengthy career.

Where Are Your Children?
A 1943 teenage crime film directed by William Nigh and starring former child star Jackie Cooper. It was more successful than the studio had expected, and they made a sequel the following year called Are These Our Parents?

Sudden Danger
A 1955 film noir crime drama directed by Hubert Cornfield and starring Bill Elliot as the police detective investigating a possible murder, and Tom Drake as the man who hopes to clear himself by looking for clues on his own. The movie was part of a five-film series, and is considered a solid effort with a good cast.

Suspense
A 1946 film noir ice skating film directed by Frank Tuttle, and starring Barry Sullivan and British former Olympic skater Belita. It was the most expensive film Monogram ever made, costing $1.1 million. It was panned by critics, but a box office success.

Lorelai and Rory love watching “bad” movies, but suddenly they get awfully snobbish about putting a B movie on in the town square. Apparently it’s fun to watch a B movie, but embarrassing to publicly screen one.

None of these films were terrible failures, or considered unwatchable. I’m not sure why they don’t seem like a viable alternative to watching The Yearling for the third year running.