|
One Way Passage (1932)
In director Tay Garnett's and Warner Bros' pre-Code
romantic, tragic, and tearjerking melodramatic love story, with a
unique, ritualistic symbol of a couple's emotional commitment and
connectivity (crossed, broken cocktail glass stems) - remade as 'Til
We Meet Again (1940) starring Merle Oberon and George Brent:
- the opening sequence in a Hong Kong bar, where male
and female strangers met --- glamorous socialite heiress Joan Ames
(Kay Francis) and debonair gentleman fugitive-crook Dan Hardesty
(William Powell); he was ordering a "Paradise" cocktail
from the bartender when she collided into him - jostling him enough
so that he spilled the contents of his freshly-made glass; she
prophetically apologized: "I'm so sorry...Such a beautiful
drink, too"; he replied: "Yes, 'Paradise' cocktail. Seem
to be a few drops left", after which she noted breathlessly: "Always
the most precious, the last few drops. That's luck"
At a Bar: The Opportune Meeting of Joan and Dan
|
|
|
|
|
Symbol of Two Crossed Broken Cocktail Glasses
|
- during their parting after experiencing 'love at
first sight,' he deliberately smashed his cocktail glass on the
bar counter, and she followed suit, then crossed the glass stems
-- to honor their brief meeting and to signify luck - and her hope
that they would meet again; they shook hands, said farewell, and
Joan added: "Let's trust luck will come again"
- their second meeting on a month-long trans-Pacific
cruise ship, the SS Maloa, bound for San Francisco and the
shipboard burgeoning of their fateful love affair during the voyage,
amidst more drinking of cocktails and shattered glasses; however,
mutual secrets were unrevealed to each other: she suffered
from a terminal, incurable heart ailment (she was ordered by her
doctor: "No more parties, no more cigarettes, no more dancing
and NO MORE COCKTAILS!"), and he was a convicted murder who
had been apprehended since their previous meeting, and was being
taken back to San Quentin Prison (for execution by hanging) by SF
police Sgt. Steve Burke (Warren Hymer)
- the sequence of the brief stop-over in Honolulu, where
the two shared an idyllic day together and a cigarette break - their
two discarded butts were symbolically crossed in the sand; and Dan
made a sacrifice to help Joan when she fainted and collapsed, and
he brought her back onboard for medical assistance, rather than taking
advantage of his last chance to escape and get away from authorities
on a cargo freighter
- as the ship approached the coast of California and
passed by Alcatraz Island, Dan envisioned his own fate in a dissolve
- his execution: hanging on a gallows
- the sequence of the star-crossed, doomed lovers' final
toast aboard the ship when they made a mutual vow to meet again in
a month at a Mexican nightclub bar (in the state of Aguacaliente)
on New Year's Eve; she told him: "It's fun to plan ahead. Let's
see. I'd like to be in Caliente for New Year's"; he pondered: "It's
just a month, isn't it? Well, then, here's to Agua Caliente, New
Year's Eve"; she told him: "Nothing can keep me away" -
and he agreed: "Nor me"; they drank, smashed their drinking
glasses against the side of the bar, and laid the two broken stems
across each other
- by the time the ship docked in San Francisco, both
had learned privately of each other's secrets - that he was a condemned
man (wearing handcuffs), and she was soon to die; when the two were
about to disembark from the ship, she gave him one final tearful
smile; he prompted her to say "Auf wiedersehen - until New Year's
Eve" - and they kissed
- moments later after waving goodbye, she fatally collapsed;
as she succumbed, the scene dissolved into a New Years' Eve balloon
at midnight, labeled ("Agua Caliente Happy New Year")
- the great ending -- the mystical or metaphysical,
spiritual re-enactment of the broken and crossed cocktail glass stems
at the Mexican Caliente bar, when neither Dan nor Joan were there;
one of two bartenders was shocked when he heard breaking glass (their
invisible toast?) and told his partner: "Hey - look out for
them glasses with your elbows"; the second bartender claimed: "I
never touched any glasses" - the film's final line of dialogue
- and then the broken glass dissolved away and vanished before their
very eyes
|
Trans-Pacific Cruise From Hong Kong to San Francisco
Burgeoning Love Affair
Their Two Crossed Cigarette Butts in Hawaiian Sand
Dan's Envisioning of Execution: Hanging
Last Toast with Broken Glasses
Final Parting Kiss at Dock in San Francisco
New Years' Eve - One Month Later
Mystical Ending: At a Mexican Bar in Caliente
|