Sugar Substitute

Watched Woody Allen's "Sweet and Lowdown" again on tv. There's something so unbelievably charming and painful to watch about the lead female, "Hattie". Somewhere between Chaplin, Stan Laurel, and Harpo Marx, the character is a mute with a general disposition towards happiness. It seems so misogynistic to like the character. (a happy dependable woman who doesn't speak) And the character's charm is enhanced by the complement- Emmet's crudeness, appetite, ego, ambition, and his sheepish adoration for Hattie. Both Emmet's desire for the high life and the character of Hattie seem fantasies of the male psyche, both ultimately abandoned or unattainable by the male character in the film.