IMDb plot summary: Liliom, a merry-go-round barker at a Budapest amusement park, becomes enamored of Julie, a servant girl, and though under the influence of Madame Muskat, a sideshow entrepreneur, he marries the girl.
Directed by Frank Borzage. Starring Charles Farrell, Rose Hobart, and Estelle Taylor.
Liliom is a 1930 movie that I recognized partway through as being based on the same story as the musical Carousel. A young naive woman marries a carnival barker who is abusive and irresponsible, and when he dies committing a crime he asks to come back to earth to see the daughter he never met. Carousel at least has some pretty tunes, but this plot is just straight up garbage, happily defending physical violence as some sort of misappropriated form of affection, and it's horrifying. You can't garner any sympathy for these characters at all. The most interesting part of this was the strange afterlife section in the final twenty minutes, which has some suddenly creative cinematic choices, from the visualization of the train to the afterlife to the introduction of the various characters and how they passed away. I'd much rather have seen a whole movie of that than the domestic abuse apologetics taking up most of the film.
How it entered my Flickchart:
Liliom < Jesus Christ Superstar (2000)
Liliom < The Man with One Red Shoe
Liliom < Table 19
Liliom > Agent Cody Banks
Liliom < Maurice
Liliom > Made of Honor
Liliom < Insomnia (2002)
Liliom > Get Carter
Liliom < Titane
Liliom < Flywheel
Liliom < The Ant Bully
Liliom < Stand Up and Cheer!
Final spot: #3410 out of 3715, or 8%.
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