Liliom - hear it yet?

[Obssessed_with_Orson]

i've heard it and it's wonderful.

but i had a wonder at the end. it sounded as if liliom had been the poor beggar that comes to the wife and daughter at the end. well, it was.

i know it sounds silly, but i got the book and read the last chapter.

after liliom passed away, officers came to get him, talked to him, other men who had committed suicide were there, and liliom was acting just as stubborn as ever. well, the man who had liliom's case asked if he would like to go back to see his child. he got excited, but he didn't want to do anything. so the man said that he would burn til his daughter reached the age of 16. after that, if he'd do a good deed to help out his wife and child, then he would not have to burn any longer. well, you heard what happened if you heard the story.

if you read this, and you haven't heard it yet, i apologize

bye now!

[mteal]

That's quite a bit different from the musical Carousel (or the movie anyway), where Lilliom, known as Billy Bigelow in the film, is seen at the beginning of the story, working as a lowly star polisher in some kind of afterlife. Apparently it's not Hell, since his caseworker tells him that his partner in the botched murder attempt DID wind up in Hell. Anyway, Bigelow is told that everyone is allowed to go back and visit the living for one day, so he goes back and visits his wife and daughter. He is only visible to the daughter, who is something of a social outcast because of her father's actions on earth. He manages to instill some pride in her before having to go back, while a soaring Rogers and Hammerstein score jerks tears from the audience. Overrall, it's an enjoyable flick, tho - Shirly Jones plays Julie and Gordon Macrae is Billy - the two also co-starred in Oklahoma.

In the radio broadcast, Welles is pretty good as the tough guy Lilliom, but the ending seemed kind of awkward and abrupt. I wonder if it was botched a bit. Welles sounds like he's scrambling to fill the hour by reading from Tarkington's Ambersons, which was the next week's show. I wonder: what was that thing that Lilliom was trying to give his daughter at the end of the story? In Carousel, if I remember correctly, I think it was a star.