Conflict 1945 Movie: How To Overtake Your Wife To Kill Her?

(*Warning for possible spoilers for Conflict, a 1945 black-and-white suspense film noir made by Warner Brothers)

Conflict (1945) (#ad) is the story of a man who kills his own wife, however, what the audience wants to know isn’t who committed the crime, but what happens to the culprit after the evil deed is committed and if the criminal was able to commit the perfect crime.

An unexpected meeting between the Masons

One of the scenes in the Conflict movie involves Kathryn Mason (played by Rose Hobart), the wife of the main character, driving alone and by herself through mountain roads until she reaches a spot that is blocked by another car.

The driver is standing nearby, but the stranger refuses to move the car. As Kathryn prepares to turn around to look for another way to her destination, the stranger approaches her and is soon revealed to be Richard Mason (played by Humphrey Bogart), her husband.

How Conflict shocks its audience?

This is surprising and shocking, not just to Kathryn who wasn’t expecting her husband to be there, but also for the audience since viewers know that Richard should have been back at the Mason house, far away from where his wife currently was. Another thing to take note of in this particular scene was how Richard was able to arrive at that spot in the mountain roads before Kathryn could get there.

Is there a plot hole in Conflict?

When Kathryn left the Mason house, Richard was still there since he wasn’t supposed to be going anywhere anyway. Furthermore, even if Richard left their house as soon as his wife did, it didn’t seem as if he could drive all that well, considering that he still had a slight limp when he walked and he still had to use a cane to help him.

As such, this part of the Conflict movie might seem like a plothole to some, but there’s actually a reasonable explanation for what happened.

Kathryn stopped by to see Doctor Mark Hamilton (played by Sydney Greenstreet), a good friend of the Masons, and she even chatted with him for a few minutes.

Aside from the possibility that the doctor’s house could have been out of the way of her destination, she was also shown to be driving at a pretty slow and leisurely way as she traversed the mountain roads that led to her destination. That was understandable since she was advised to drive carefully.

As for Richard, he actually took a much shorter route than his wife, which allowed him to arrive at the place where the 2 met up before Kathryn did.


*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki based on the image by Rusembell (CC:BY) from deviantArt
- Car in the image is meant to symbolize the car that Kathryn drove when she met up with Richard
- YouTube video features the Conflict trailer

Why The Scarlet Flower 1952 Soviet Animated Movie Can't Be A Love Story?

(Warning: possible spoilers for the 1952 Soviet animated film The Scarlet Flower (Аленький цветочек, Alenkiy Tsvetochek in Russian))

The Scarlet Flower (#ad) is a variation of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale with a number of notable differences. In the aforementioned fairytale, Beauty has to stay with the Beast and they eventually end up getting together. The same can be said regarding the main characters of this film. The question now is if what happened in said movie can properly be classified as a love story.

Why this movie and fairy tale can’t be a love story?

It doesn’t seem right to do so just as the story it was based on doesn’t seem like a love story either. The only reason Nastenka, the ‘Beauty’ in the movie, goes to live on the island where the Beast resides is because she felt that she had to for her father’s sake.

Once there, she doesn’t see how the Beast really looks like until much later. As the film progressed, it didn’t seem like the 2 characters really got to know each other all that well. Sure, they talked, but it wasn’t face-to-face.

The Beast was kind to Nastenka and didn’t mistreat her, which can explain why she didn’t mind returning and staying with him and why she’d started to call him as her friend. But it’s also true that the Beast guilt-trips her into staying with him and not leaving by saying that he will surely die of grief should she go away.

Why does the Beast love Nastenka?

It’s easy to see why and how the Beast can fall in love with Nastenka. She’s beautiful, but she also has a kind heart and a great personality.

What does Nastenka love about the Beast?

It’s harder to see what she might like about the Beast though. Sure, he treats her kindly and doesn’t hurt her and they talk sometimes, but is that enough for her to fall in love with him so easily and so soon after they just met?

Maybe if the passage of time was more clearly shown and maybe if we had seen more interaction between the 2 as they got to know each other more, the fact that they actually ended up falling in love with each other could be more believable and plausible.

Do those 2 know each other enough to be able to start a believable romantic relationship?

As it is, you can’t help but wonder if they really know each other all that well to start having romantic feelings for one another.

But, then again, this is a fairy tale story so it seems to be the norm to have characters meet and fall in love practically at first sight.

Still, sometimes, it can be hard to suspend your disbelief regarding matters like this. And that’s why I’m glad that The Scarlet Flower didn’t end with Nastenka and the Beast (who has now returned to his true form) sharing a kiss. It didn’t seem right for them to kiss. It seemed far more believable to think of them as friends (at least for now) especially since that’s what Nastenka’s been saying anyway before she supposedly fell in love with him.


*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki based on the image by Rusembell (CC:BY) from deviantArt
- Couple in the image is meant to represent Nastenka and the Beast while the red flower they’re holding is meant to symbolize the scarlet flower
- YouTube video features a scene from said movie

Conflict 1945 Movie: Reason Why You’d Kill Your Own Wife?

(*Warning for possible spoilers for Conflict, a black-and-white suspense film noir made by Warner Brothers)

Conflict (1945) (#ad) is about Richard Mason (played by Humphrey Bogart), an engineer, who kills his own wife, Kathryn Mason (played by Rose Hobart). Aside from wondering if the engineer was able to commit the perfect crime, the audience might also find themselves wondering exactly what Richard hoped to achieve by killing his wife.

The reason why you’d kill your own wife?

The question isn’t why Richard would kill Kathryn because there’s a readily available answer to that.

The engineer is actually in love with Evelyn Turner (played by Alexis Smith), Kathryn’s younger sister. To get Kathryn out of the way, he chose to murder her.

What should happen after you killed your wife?

But one has to wonder exactly what Richard thought was going to happen after he killed his wife.

This isn’t in terms of whether or not he would get caught because he believed that he was able to commit the perfect crime. Rather, this is in terms of what will happen between Evelyn and him.

Does he think that he’ll be able to get Evelyn Turner once Kathryn is out of the way? But why? Just because his wife died, why would that automatically mean that Turner would fall for him? Was Richard so sure that he could get Evelyn to fall for him? Did he really believe that she was already in love with him?

Can Richard and Evelyn get together after Kathryn’s death in Conflict?

In the first place, Kathryn and Evelyn are sisters. It’s only natural for Evelyn to be worried about her sister and to care about her. Even if she didn’t know that it was Richard who killed her older sister, would she really willingly get into a relationship with her sister’s husband just because Kathryn is now dead? Wouldn’t she perceive that as somehow betraying her sister?

Who is Evelyn in love with?

Furthermore, it seemed that she actually likes and is in love with Professor Norman Holdsworth (played by Charles Drake), the colleague of Doctor Mark Hamilton (played by Sydney Greenstreet. He’s a psychologist and family friend of the Masons), even though she might not be ready to settle down or get married yet.

This can be one possible reason why she turned down his marriage proposal; that and Richard confused her with him going on about how he loves her and how she is apparently in love with him too.

Pointless murder in Conflict?

Looking at it in this way, it does seem pretty pointless and useless to kill Kathryn, but maybe Richard did it anyway because he was so consumed with the thought of loving Evelyn and wanting to be with her that he believed that the only way to achieve that was to get rid of his wife. What do you think?


*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki based on the image by Rusembell (CC:BY) from deviantArt
- Image is meant to symbolize how Richard killed Kathryn
- YouTube video features the trailer for the Conflict film

The Scarlet Flower 1952 Soviet Animated Movie: Why You Should Ask For Permission Before Taking Things That Don't Belong To You?

The Scarlet Flower (#ad) (Аленький цветочек, Alenkiy Tsvetochek in Russian) is a 1952 Soviet animated film that is loosely based on the fairy tale story of Beauty and the Beast.

If you know said fairytale or even the Disney version, there might be no need to consider the scenes discussed here as possible spoilers for the movie. This is about an incident that happens in the film and that seems like it could be classified as a plothole of sorts.

Is there a plot hole in The Scarlet Flower movie?

Stefan, the father of the female main character, arrives on an island where he soon finds the scarlet flower that his youngest daughter wants.

Naturally, he goes and gets the flower, and, of course, immediately gets into trouble for it as the island and flower belong to the Beast. It was wrong of Stefan to try and take the flower even if he has a good reason for doing so. But I wonder if he can really be blamed for what he did.

Was Stefan being invited to steal the scarlet flower?

Prior to him finding the item in question, Stefan was exploring and walking around the house. Doors readily opened as he walked by, allowing him to pass through until he got to where The Scarlet Flower was.

Doesn’t that seem like an invitation to you? It’s like he was being invited to come and see the flower and even try and obtain it. After all, if the Beast didn’t want anyone touching or even being near his flower, then why would he let Stefan find it?

Why didn’t Stefan ask for permission before taking something that doesn’t belong to him?

Of course, Stefan was at fault too. He could and should have asked for permission before picking the flower.

After all, he knew there was an unseen host somewhere and that the entire place was magical what with the food suddenly showing up in front of him and the floating music and the like.

But, then again, this is a fairytale story so perhaps these kinds of things are to be expected since, obviously, Stefan needed to take the flower so that he could get in trouble and so that his daughter, Nastenka, the ‘Beauty’ in the film, could eventually meet up with the Beast.


*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) based on the image by MizuSasori (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- Red flowers in the image are meant to symbolize the scarlet flower while the figure in said pic is meant to represent Nastenka
- YouTube video features a scene from said film

Conflict 1945 Movie: Reason Why You Don’t Want To Marry For Love?

(*Warning for possible spoilers for Conflict, a 1945 black-and-white suspense film noir made by Warner Brothers)

Conflict (1945) (#ad) introduces us to an engineer, named Richard Mason (played by Humphrey Bogart), who decides to kill his own wife, Kathryn Mason (played by Rose Hobart). Was he able to commit the perfect crime or will he eventually get caught? If so, how?

Why did Richard and Kathryn get married?

It’s easy enough to see the reason why Richard killed his own wife. It’s because he’s in love with her younger sister, Evelyn Turner (played by Alexis Smith). But it’s harder to see exactly why Richard and Kathryn got married in the first place.

I’m not sure if this is because I missed this part of the Conflict movie since I didn’t get to start it from the beginning (though it doesn’t feel like I missed all that much at all) or if there really is no real reason why the two got married.

Maybe their marriage only happened for plot convenience because the plot demanded that they get married in order to move the story along.

Would you marry someone you don’t even love?

From what I saw, the marriage between the 2 was loveless. They didn’t seem to love each other at all. One of the first few scenes that I saw was Kathryn and Richard conversing with one another as they got ready to attend a party to celebrate their 5th wedding anniversary.

Did the Masons get married because the Conflict plot said that they should?

In this scene, we see Kathryn nagging Richard and then confronting him about how he’s apparently in love with her own little sister. She sounds like she doesn’t want to let him go, but it’s not because she loves him.

And Richard wasn’t denying his wife’s accusations at all. He wasn’t trying to or even making an effort to defend himself or win back Kathryn’s love and affection by saying things like ‘no, I’m not in love with your sister. It’s you that I love’.

This shows that he doesn’t care what his wife thinks and that he doesn’t love her at all. All this seems to reinforce the possibility that the Masons got married to each for no real reason or that they only got married because the plot said so. What do you think?


*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) based on the image by hayashinomura (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- Wedding image is meant to represent Kathryn and Richard who got married to each other
- YouTube video features the Conflict movie trailer