What scenes come to mind when you hear the term "damsel in distress"?

Cafe Society
1

I thought I’d ask what movie or TV scene most folks see in their mind when they hear the term “damsel in distress.”

I would imagine that the number one all-time top of the list scene by far would be Slavegirl Leia from “Return of the Jedi.” Followed closely by Faye Wray’s scene in King Kong where she’s tied to the platform and Kong is approaching.

On TV, it might be Eliza Cuthbert’s DiD scenes in 24, since they made so much fuss about all her scenes.

There are probably quite a few others that don’t come to mind immediately, I was wondering what springs to other’s minds when they hear the term “damsel in distress.”

2

Dudley Do-Right’s girlfriend Nell.

3

Rapunzel in her tower.

4

What springs to mind immediately for me is a pretty generic image of a woman tied down to railroad tracks, with a train approaching…and maybe some tremolando diminished piano chords as the soundtrack.

5

By the way, the funky chase scene piano music most frequently dubbed in for slent movies is Rondo al Turque by Mozart=)

6

Rapunzel (give or take a dragon or two), and generic love interest being tied to railroad tracks by Snidley Whiplash. (With Schubert’s Erlking playing in the background.)

7

The classic medieval damsel, right.

Which reminds me, no one thinks of Andromeda chained to the rocks, awaiting her fate as an Unhappy Meal for a sea serpent?

8

Same for me - “Perils of Pauline” :wink:

9

I think victim stooge of the patriarchy.

10

Mine too.

11

Yeah the Rapunzel thing.

Also - the image of a maiden bound to a wizened, blasted tree in a small ravine, at the end of the ravine is a cave from which a dragon is emerging.

12

Miss Piggy as Rapunzel in her tower.

13

Wow that’s scary. That’s exactly the thought I had.

14

The scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indy finds Marion tied up in a tent and begins to untie her… then ties her back up when he realizes that if she turns up missing, they’ll scour the camp for them.

15

I saw that film! Valerie Bertinelli was in it, right? Had the scene with Andrea Dworkin dangling from a cliff over a river while a band of savage patriarchs searched the cliff above her? Tasty!

16

While I think of Nell and/or a woman tied to train tracks with the 11:05 fast approaching, I also think of Lois Lane … whether she’s falling from a building or tied to a wooden log racing towards a buzzsaw. Has any other fictional character been rescued more times by the same hero?

17

I think of this thread.

18

Fay Wray in the 1933 version of King Kong.

Also see sig…

19

Oops!

20

Penelope Pittstop

or

any one of the lead “Bond girls” from any 007 flick. No matter how independent, assertive and no-nonsense they are in the first reel, they spend the last 15 minutes of the flick cowering in the corner of a make-out suite watching as James tackles - for one last time - the man bad guy’s henchman. Once said-henchman is iced, the Bond girl of course collapses gratefully into Bond’s arms in order to ahem “thank” him. Either that, or they end up with a bullet between the eyes.