GRGR(28): Bette Davis and Margaret Dumont

[Paul Mackin]

On Mon, 5 Jun 2000, Jeremy Osner wrote:

> First words of the new book: "Bette Davis and Margaret Dumont are in the
> curly-Cuvillies drawing-room of somebody's palatial home." (What, pray
> tell, does "curly-Cuvillies" mean?) This is Slothrop's dream.
> 
> Bette Davis and Margaret Dumont -- they are nice symbols, I think, for
> Elect and Preterite. I'm not really up on film history or anything but
> from watching old movies I've gotten an impression of BD as "the girl
> who wouldn't give me the time of day in high school" and of MD as
> someone I would be smoking pot with in the alley behind school.

Not exactly I wouldn't think.  Margaret Dumont like Bette displayed
perfect upper class American speech and deportment, which made her the
perfect foil the Brothers.


		P.