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Saturday, September 7th, 2024

The Elephant Man

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elephant_Man_(film)

Wikipedia

In Victorian London, Frederick Treves, a surgeon, discovers John Merrick in a freak show. He pays Bytes, Merrick's “owner” to have him at his hospital to study his deformities. On his return to Bytes, Merrick is badly beaten and asks for help from Treves who gives him shelter at the hospital. Nurses are frightened because of his appearance and Treves believes at first he is intellectually disabled, but soon discovers that he can speak and read. Merrick has tea with Treves and his wife and from then starts to get London's high society interested in him and visit him in his room where he builds a model of the cathedral he can see from his window. He even receives actress Madge Kendal who gives him a copy of Romeo and Juliet; the they play some lines from it and Kendal kisses Merrick. At the same time, a night porter named Jim starts selling tickets to locals who come at night to gawk at the Elephant Man. Some members of the hospital council consider that the hospital should not pay for Merrick's lodging, but he is guaranteed a permanent residence by Queen Victory, the hospital's royal patron. One night, during Jim's showing where they invade Merrick's room, Bytes kidnap him and forces him to play the Elephant Man in the circus, this time in Belgium. Merrick is ill and weak and unable to perform, so Bytes leaves him to die in a cage. He is however rescued by the other freaks who all flee in the night. Merrick travels back to London where he is first harassed at the train station before being returned to the hospital by policemen. Merrick recovers some of his health and even attends a performance of Kendal's at the theatre; Kendal addresses the audience who then applauds him. Back in his room at the hospital he finishes his cathedral models then lies down and dies (his was aware that, due to his deformities, lying down would cause asphyxiation).

[ Posted on September 7th, 2024 at 23:03 | no comment | ]