European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 09, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Magazine. In the Golden age of Hollywood the woman who could t hold on to her Man was sick. Scarlett o Hara of gone with the wind became til Dom s most notorious failed housewife. Marriage in the movies Hollywood s come a Long Way by Stephen Hunter the Baltimore Sun suddenly mar Naxos Are crashing and burning on screens everywhere two new movies bring or the Rotten fruit of spoiled unions in the Wrol the rose.1, director Danny Devito does a dissection of Man and wife Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner who despise each other exactly As much As Uhny Lovo Tho House that becomes their Battleground and m sic Devil of Roseanne Barr is a House wife who Dehls Lor vengeance on he Beautiful sophisticate of o it Steep who stole her husband de Begley or when you think about the pent up aggression billowing into White hot violence that runs through Tho accounts of those two rancid connections you realize in How Short a time Hollywood has almost completely revised its image of the vows that men and women make to each other we be come a Long Way baby from the original notion of marriage on the screen. You remember it7 it was so wonderful it existed nowhere but on the screen in the Golden age of Hollywood and even in you did t quite believe it. It Sank totally into your brain so that you la Alwa a consider yourself a failure because you did l gel it ii was the perfect marriage. Nick and Nora Charles of the thin Man 1934spring instantly to mind but they re on Iho most accessible symbols of Hollywood s nearly live decade Long infatuation with the creation of marital Bliss Nick and Nora derived from a Dashiell Harmett novel were portrayed by William Powell and Myrna Loy m a fabulously successful six movie run of detective cum sophisticated comedy stones throughout the 1930s and 1940s Powell and Loy were perfect foils for each other conversing in an Arch ironic banter am quod by the pratfalls of me common Man Aboul them they  Huttt Ray unflappable with a quip for every situation yet what they sold was something More wonderful Man Tho often mechanical mysteries in which they found themselves embroiled it was that total or Tess a immersion of one into Tho other  and Blondie were the opposite ends of the spectrum but it was the same spectrum lowbrow and Laboured poor  went about his me As american domes scaled male from 1938 to 1950 in 28 movies with the Clumsy earnestness of the Good hearted Schmo he really was. Perpetually in trouble perpetually destroying the universe he occupied with extravagant explosions of slapstick he relied on one person to get him through his wife Blondie. And the sublimely competent bettor half always came running to his Rescue again the message was the same marriage was t bet Veen the Rock and the hard place marriage was the Rock marriages that broke apart were viewed As pathological Tho mecomber affair As derived from the Shoal Happy Lile of Francis Macomber. A Short Story by Ernest Hemingway was a typical bad wife film of Tho 1940s. In it wealthy Wea Selly wimp Francis Macomber As played by Robert Preston miraculously found his manhood by shooting a Buffalo while on safari thus moving Manly White Hunter Gregory Peck almost to Leafs alas it severely ticked off wife Joan Bennett who applied for a divorce with a a Anlicher 6 5mm As her attorney Tho separation of the couple was instantaneous Well actually about the Lime it lakes a Bullet that size to Fly from muzzle to argot 100 Yards away and Iho settlement More than generous with All property going to Iho widow Hemingway s misogyny however was t atypical even though it was cruel ii pretty much represented the Norm the woman who could i i hold on to her Man was sick witness Scarlett o Hara. The Golden Era s most notorious failed housewife. When at the end of gone with the wind the Man who once loved her so completely no longer gave a Damn his gesture was viewed As the final comeuppance for an uppity woman Only the great Orson Welles was Able to see through the veneer of social propriety thai shielded marriage in citizen Kane he had the temerity to suggest that the flaws in marriages frequently continued on Page 14 tuesday january 9, 1990 the stars and stripes Page 13