On the matter of boiling water cliche in movies - I saw one in an old Arthur Askey movie from England. He was disguised as a nurse and was brought in on a situation.
First of all lets get some boiling water he shouted in the confusion
When that was done and they asked him what were they supposed to do with it
he replied “Let’s have a nice cup of tea…”
Jim Welcome to the board. I assume that the column that you are referring to is When a woman gives birth in westerns, why do they always boil water? We usually like it when you post a link, as that allows everyone to have a point of reference.
Nice anecdote.
Welcome, Jim!
That’s actually truer that we think. Yes, they needed the hot water. They also didn’t need hubby fainting and/or barfing at what he saw, so to allow him to help, they would send him to boil water. Very low level psychology and very effective.