# From relative prosperity to total humiliation in films **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [March 26, 2022, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-relative-prosperity-to-total-humiliation-in-films/961726 "2022-03-26T00:02:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-relative-prosperity-to-total-humiliation-in-films/961726/21 "2022-03-26T15:21:56Z")
Jerry Lundegaard had a good job at his father in law’s dealership, and a nice new house in the 'burbs. Then he made some ill-advised decisions. ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-relative-prosperity-to-total-humiliation-in-films/961726/22 "2022-03-26T15:31:39Z")
Comedies? _It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World._ All of the main male characters go from respected citizens to being terribly injured and facing trial, with Spencer Tracy being the worst off of all. Buster Keaton in _One Week_. Buster decides to build his own home from a kit, and things go from bad to worse. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-relative-prosperity-to-total-humiliation-in-films/961726/23 "2022-03-26T16:57:31Z")
Tyrone Power in [Nightmare Alley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightmare_Alley_(1947_film)). ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-relative-prosperity-to-total-humiliation-in-films/961726/24 "2022-03-26T17:10:59Z")
Matthew Broderick in **Election** ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-relative-prosperity-to-total-humiliation-in-films/961726/25 "2022-03-26T17:58:31Z")
Eric Packer in **Cosmopolis**. > **[Cosmopolis (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmopolis_(film))** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > Cosmopolis is a 2012 Canadian drama-thriller film written, produced, and directed by David Cronenberg and starring Robert Pattinson in the lead with Paul Giamatti, Samantha Morton, Sarah Gadon, Mathieu Amalric, Juliette Binoche, Jay Baruchel and Kevin Durand. It is based on the novel of the same name by Don DeLillo. On 25 May 2012, the film premiered in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, drawing mixed early critical... ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-relative-prosperity-to-total-humiliation-in-films/961726/26 "2022-03-26T18:17:11Z")
Just the one I was coming in to mention. Matthew Broderick’s character throws away his successful career and happy marriage, without being more than a speed-bump in Tracy Flick’s path in life (the novel is somewhat different) ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-relative-prosperity-to-total-humiliation-in-films/961726/27 "2022-03-26T19:05:15Z")
I can’t remember the title but it’s one of the first movies ever made but it’s about a haughty matre’d of a hotel whose total snob and ends up getting demoted down to restroom attendant … I think he ends his own life over it … ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-relative-prosperity-to-total-humiliation-in-films/961726/28 "2022-03-26T19:10:49Z")
I ruled out _The Last Laugh_ in post 7: his downfall wasn’t his fault and he made a comeback in the end. The actor who played him, Emil Jannings, does fit: his German accent killed his move to Hollywood at the advent of talkies, so he went back home and made movies for Goebbels. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-relative-prosperity-to-total-humiliation-in-films/961726/29 "2022-03-26T19:20:23Z")
As much as I hate to say it, **Make Way for Tomorrow** qualifies for the thread. They expected to the very end that they could keep their home, or move in together with their grown children, so they turned down the offer to be the caretaker couple on the farm. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-relative-prosperity-to-total-humiliation-in-films/961726/30 "2022-03-26T19:34:55Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > The actor who played him, Emil Jannings, does fit: his German accent killed his move to Hollywood at the advent of talkies, so he went back home and made movies for Goebbels. Trivia: he was the first Academy Award winner for best male actor in 1929. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-relative-prosperity-to-total-humiliation-in-films/961726/31 "2022-03-26T19:44:07Z")
Not the full movie but a chapter from Woody Allen’s _Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask_. Gene Wilder plays a successful and well respected physician who’s lust for a sheep named Daisy lands him in the gutter drowning his sorrows with a bottle of Woolite. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-relative-prosperity-to-total-humiliation-in-films/961726/32 "2022-03-26T19:50:38Z")
Just thought of one, Peter Berg’s character in _The Last Seduction_. Actually, I think this was the character arc of the male lead in almost every 90’s Linda Fiorentino movie. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-relative-prosperity-to-total-humiliation-in-films/961726/33 "2022-03-26T20:19:50Z")
William Hurt’s character in _Body Heat_. The lead character in _I Served the King of England_. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-relative-prosperity-to-total-humiliation-in-films/961726/34 "2022-03-26T21:06:28Z")
Stan is a drifter or a Carnival Barker. That is very very low on the scale of Prosperity. And in the original there is a ray of hope at the very end. The remake really telegraphs the ending. Guillermo del Toro wasn’t subtle there. The original was better (and less smoking too) 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-relative-prosperity-to-total-humiliation-in-films/961726/35 "2022-03-26T21:24:26Z")
Googling, though, the dark ending of the new version of Nightmare Alley is consistent with the original novel, unlike the slightly upbeat ending of the 1947 film version. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-relative-prosperity-to-total-humiliation-in-films/961726/36 "2022-03-26T22:10:59Z")
I can believe that. And it was just a ray of hope, not quite a happy ending. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-relative-prosperity-to-total-humiliation-in-films/961726/37 "2022-03-26T22:52:25Z")
Ethan Frome Ethan is in a fraught relationship with his hypochondriac wife Zeena. He falls in love with Mattie, a young woman who has come to stay with the Fromes. Ethan & Mattie wish to do a runner together but have no money, so they decide on a suicide pact which goes wrong and results in a somewhat depressing ending. Ethan is left with a permanent limp but Mattie is paralysed and: “In an agonizing irony, Ethan and Mattie have gotten their wish to stay together, but in mutual unhappiness and discontent, with Mattie helpless and paralyzed, and with Zeena as a constant presence between the two of them.” ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-relative-prosperity-to-total-humiliation-in-films/961726/38 "2022-03-26T22:58:39Z")
I think it’s safe to say that women often feature prominently when a man goes down the tubes. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2022, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-relative-prosperity-to-total-humiliation-in-films/961726/39 "2022-03-27T00:08:30Z")
If I think I have this right - it’s poor, then rich, then poor again, and then rich one more time, in _The Jerk_. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2022, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-relative-prosperity-to-total-humiliation-in-films/961726/40 "2022-03-27T01:57:28Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > If I think I have this right - it’s poor, then rich, then poor again, and then rich one more time, in _The Jerk_. He was born a poor black child. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-relative-prosperity-to-total-humiliation-in-films/961726.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-relative-prosperity-to-total-humiliation-in-films/961726.md?page=3)