Word: courtesans
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...chief accomplice and paramour of the suave con man, Edward Pierce (Sean Connery), who masterminded England's first celebrated train heist in 1855. Miriam served as an all-purpose decoy: to help steal ?12,000 worth of gold ingots, she had to pose successively as a French courtesan, a cockney seamstress and an old beggar. Down turns each impersonation into a polished comic nugget; she swings effortlessly in and out of her various roles. Her scenes as Miriam are just as funny: in the film's best bit, Down turns the act of shaving Connery's neck...
...film was made as a vehicle for Edna Purviance, the female lead in 35 early Chaplin comedies and, it seems, the first great love of his life. It beautifully suits her talent, for she makes the transformation from the naive country girl to the worldly courtesan (and back again) with ease. Better still, the woman she becomes has a way of flashing glimpses of the girl she once was that is very touching, mostly because it is so effortless and unselfconscious...
...post alludes to a human figure; a torso, teetering on its absurd harem cushion. The sides of the box are plastered with pinups and reproductions of classical nudes. Finally, the stuffed chicken on top of the box reminds us that one of the many French terms for an expensive courtesan is a poule de luxe...
...rest of the cast is just about as proficient. Mark Szpak as Hero, Pseudolus's master who falls in love with a woman from the House of Lycus who is to be sold as a courtesan, plays the part well as a Roman Holden Caulfield, rolling and tumbling all over himself in first love. Yet there's another side to him too, cajoling Pseudolus into risking his relatively safe position--for freedom to be sure--but also for Hero. The song "Free" is a real high-point, spotlighting the two best male singers n the cast. Pseudolus has convinced himself...
Anne Dufresne as Philia, the courtesan who is to be sold to the great captain Miles, is properly, well, courtesanly. She's perfect as the broken-voiced dumb blonde who always gets three and five mixed up. She brings perhaps the most depth to her part--she may be a virgin but after all she's been instructed in the arts of life (which Hero hasn't been) and when she sings "I'm lovely," she really is. But that voice ain't the voice of any virgin I ever heard; that's a Weimar cabaret voice, smokey Blue Angel...