Iconic Films
Movie Nights
This film noir movie is about a fairground fortune teller, and shows a side of us, that we cannot avoid.
The story is about how people are judged by their appearance.
I have both version of the film, the 1947 version with Tyrone Power, and the 2021 remake with Cate Blanchett.
The basic storyline is most fortune tellers have a "mark" in the crowd, a person chosen by the teller for the show.
The film is about not breaking rhe Golden Rule of doing a cold call, making a judgement on someone you met a few minutes ago. How many of us do that?
You see a person approaching, and try to judge them, a soft hand means they don't do manual work, a firm handshake usually means a strong personality. NIce clothes means they are paid well, or have money.
When I was working for Bristol Museum, I met a man who slept on the doorstep of Blaise Castle Musuem, at first glance he didn't look like a typical down-and-out, it turned out a year earlier he had a well-paid job, a wife, and a family. Then things went from bad to worse.
He lost his job, his car, and the wages. After struggling for months, his wife left him, and he lost the house they had lived in. So, he'd gone from running a business to living on handouts in only a year.
I got to know a young lady who had chosen to live on the "fringe" as she found regular life too stressful. She was attractive, polite, friendly, and loving, she had two dogs which were well-fed. One Boxing Day, I went to give her some food, but she'd gone.