"Menudo por el crudo" is a popular saying in Mexico meaning tripe-soup for a hangover. Crudo is the best descriptor I can imagine for our first glimpse of Finney feeding pork head to a stray dog in the market. Finney, in dark glasses reflective of skull sockets and black-tie as incongruous as a wedding dress on a skeleton, meets Lorre's Orlac at the cinema, a new Nazi attache at the Red Cross ball, and the Virgen de la Soledad whose petition he must win. His divorcee appears to him in a cantina, usually not the place for ladies.
So Huston's take on Lowry's iconic depiction of death in Cuernavaca seems to hold out some hope of redemption. Finney as Firmin may not like the Puritans anymore than Blackstone did, whose case of going native he slurs at the Yank neighing against Oedipus in the garden. But consider the hummingbird. There's nothing more real than magic. The horse knows his way home.
So Huston's take on Lowry's iconic depiction of death in Cuernavaca seems to hold out some hope of redemption. Finney as Firmin may not like the Puritans anymore than Blackstone did, whose case of going native he slurs at the Yank neighing against Oedipus in the garden. But consider the hummingbird. There's nothing more real than magic. The horse knows his way home.
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