Now that Flora’s free view porn again, not to mention left out of hubby’s will «for some reason,» Margaret doesn’t have a chance with Admah. Most of Atlanta society agreed with you, but Admah and Flora’s moment of triumph is about to turn to ashes like many Cinderella stories. Like father, like daughter; Flora lives to spend and is determined to rule Atlanta society, even if Admah can’t really afford it. When she loses her bid to be hostess of the Peachtree Ball, she browbeats Admah into hosting a rival ball, playing on his class insecurity by blaming his working-class background for her defeat. Admah has been warned by his banker, whose wife won the right to host the ball, that he’ll get no more credit if he continues his extravagance, but he blows practically all of his latest $40,000 loan on staging an insane candy-themed ball. After all, neither Admah nor Margaret commits suicide.
Flora becomes Flora Holtz virtually by fait accompli and Margaret practically vanishes from the picture for an hour. Worse, https://Freeviewporn.Com/ he’d gone to Flora’s wedding and hovered at the margins like a neglected puppy, except that Flora didn’t neglect him. Anyway, Flora’s old Golden Bed is still in its old place — I should explain that Admah had bought the house for her, and presumably refurnished it, as a wedding present — but its crowning swan’s head is broken and tied to the bed, upside-down, with wire. Everything works out just in time; Flora lands a European aristocrat and Papa hosts the wedding the same day that the bank repossesses his furniture. As Papa patiently explains to a jealous Margaret, when Flora lands the right husband there’ll be candy for everybody. Now that Margaret has civilized the place and Admah isn’t pulling taffy in the shop window anymore, the Candy Holtz business picks up.
In a self-parody of Samson and Delilah a quarter-century in advance, an enraged, self-pitying Admah brings a full-sized candy gazebo crashing down behind him by pushing the pillars apart. Candy Holtz has achieved his dream, but he’s also cut his own throat. She has a poignant reunion with her old pet monkey, now working for an organ grinder — I could write a whole post on the monkey as her totem animal going back to a childhood doll, the way its mischief at the Candy Holtz store embodies Flora’s destructive rivalry with Margaret, and whether the monkey’s name, Louella, is a dig at Parsons the gossip columnist — before the new mistress of the house reluctantly lets her tour the place. She goes to work for Admah, who has inherited the store and the name of «Candy» Holtz. The Golden Bed actually closes on a note of bittersweet perseverance as the two survivors watch a construction crew reporting for work across the street and realize that the only thing to do is start over. But the film does us the kindness of closing on a things-could-yet-be-worse note. With Flora walking out on him and the police closing in, Admah may think the world has turned against him but this is really a moment of self-destruction, perfectly illustrated by De Mille in what should be this film’s signature shot.
Admah appreciates her entrepreneurial sense but is almost cruelly oblivious to the way Margaret plainly pines for him. With Margaret as his conscience Admah rejects schemes to adulterate his produce by using sugar substitutes. In a Dreiserian moment of decision (read Sister Carrie, or read about it if you’re in a hurry), Admah takes the day’s sales receipts out of a safe to pay the dressmaker, and that, children, is what we call embezzlement. Flora has been bred to land a rich husband; early proof of her talent is the way young Admah Holtz, a candymaker’s son (who grows up into Rod La Rocque) will give Flora free peppermints while making Margaret pay. You see, after all that party planning Admah is running on fumes and Flora’s dressmaker won’t let her have her party gown until she pays her back bills. But He does love us, and He wants us back.