WELCOME!

This site is specifically designed for anyone, 18 yrs. or older,
who prefers heterosexual or general posts about
"The Man from U.N.C.L.E.",
David McCallum, Robert Vaughn,
and their alter egos.

Suggested posts include discussion forums,
fics (site links and self-promotion okay),
resources for writers,
pics and news about the guys.
Adult content is okay,
but please remember this is a "slash-free" zone!


Saturday, January 30, 2010

Solo-Vaughn Sunday - "Unwed Mother"

Carabele mentioned "Unwed Mother" as a movie for discussion.  I haven't seen it and didn't track down any info about it this week.  Since I haven't seen it, can someone give a synopsis of the movie?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

It's a 50s chestnut of course, so very dated, but Vaughn's performance is worth noting.

SYNOPSIS:
Young girl just out of high school and her widowed mother move from their country home to the big city. Girl gets a job in a department store. There she meets Vaughn's character, who also works at the store is definitely the flirting type. She likes him right off and he seems to like her. However, he is the boy-toy of the older woman who is the girl's boss, and that boss lady doesn't appreciate her fella's roving eye.

Vaughn's character apparently gets a lot of perqs from his managerial lady friend, including a fancy car, but he still lives in a cheap boarding house. His landlady is a great character. She knows he is a manipulator but she likes that in him. (He constantly addresses her by names of various Greek goddesses in jest.)

Anyhow of course Vaughn's character goes after the young girl probably just as much because it irks his lady friend as for any other reason. You get the impression he didn't like being "owned" but that he was clueless what to use other than his sexual charm to get ahead. In some ways, he was much more vulnerable than the young girl herself.

When lady friend realizes the extent of his attachment to the girl, she fires him and cuts him off without his usual perqs. That leaves him desperate. He manages to get the young girl to sign over her paychecks to him, since her mother never asked her about her money.

The mother gets an offer to move back to their old home town with a position of head beautician in a salon there. She thinks she has her daughter's money to use for the move as they are not exactly well-off, but lo and behold she finds out that the girl has given all her checks to Vaughn's character. She confronts him of course, but the girl sides with him.

Meanwhile the former lady-friend of Vaughn's character realizes that he is still seeing the girl. She had hoped losing his job would make him realize he had it better with her and that he would come crawling back to her. That he hasn't makes her truly angry and she finds a reason to fire the girl. That leaves them both with no income, making Vaughn's character desperate enough to attempt to rob a movie theatre ticket window with the girl serving as the driver of his getaway car. Needless to say, being far from pros, they are caught and arrested.

Vaughn character, with a series of petty offenses already on his criminal record, goes to jail. The girl is given probation and her mother allows her to move back in with her in their old town as long as she keeps her promise to never see Vaughn's character again. However, it is soon discovered she is pregnant.

In an odd arrangement, the judge agrees to commute the sentence of Vaughn's character also to just probation if he marries the girl. He agrees. But when the girl comes to see him, she realizes he feels cornered by the arrangement and that she doesn't want him under those circumstances. Vaughn's performance in that scene is not quite the expected, he doesn't try to talk her into anything. He is just so miserable that he decided initially to choose her over his lady friend, that he doesn't try to hide it. He can't understand what possessed him to give up security for this insecurity.

That's Vaughn's last scene in the movie. The last 20-25 minutes or so involves the girl going to a home for unwed mothers when her mother refuses to have her at home and blah, blah, blah. It was, as I noted in a different post, one of those 50s "cautionary tales".

Yet Vaughn's performance is not the expected in this one. Despite his smarminess in some respects, you can't just dislike him. He is just so unsure of how to make a life for himself, you really do feel sorry for him too. In some scenes with the girl he is so little-boy eager to make a good life for them, it is poignantly sad that he only knows shortcuts on how to live.

Cat - No. 1, Section I, Southeastern U.S. HQ said...

Great synopsis! The girl's going to a home for unwed mothers instead of settling down (or just settling) with him is an interesting decision.

I guess it was a good thing there was no shotgun wedding; he had no "little blond guy" sidekick to provide a getaway!

Post a Comment