Prof. Groeteschele's Sexuality
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mikekrit62 — 12 years ago(August 12, 2013 06:29 PM)
Kissinger was Sec of State. He didn't drop bombs on anyone.
I find it a much stranger world in which an animal like Yassar Arafat wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Down right bizarre when a President wins one for doing absolutely nothing. -
jgroub — 15 years ago(October 05, 2010 09:03 AM)
I just saw it again the other day for the hundredth time, and this was the first time I noticed the hostess saying that he must bring his wife next time. Explains more about the scene with Ms. Wolfe.
I asked the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well. -
andy_thrust2000 — 20 years ago(November 23, 2005 12:18 AM)
bhooverSo when he slapped her and said"I'm not your kind" it was because she made him uncomfortable?:)Bureaucratic he was,but I wouldn't say he was some sort of blind automaton,he was very certain of his beliefs."I'm not a poet,I'm a political scientist"
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colin-69 — 20 years ago(January 25, 2006 04:18 PM)
Watch what she is doing.
The more he talks, the more excited she gets.
Look at her face and eyes.
She blots the lipstick from her lips.
Then she touches him for a moment, and lies back on the carseat.
As she lowers her eyes, her hand is moving
She's not reaching for the chewing gum!!!!!!!
She got slapped for where she reached.
He was a married man and didn't want any part of her games or twisted fantasy.
notice how his part of the conversation was quite matter-of factly and flippant?
He knew her type and how to push her buttons. but he didn't want any part of it. -
rogueforte — 20 years ago(February 18, 2006 04:30 PM)
I have another take on Groeteschele's rejection of Ilsa Wolfe's sexual advances. While he ostensively indicates that he despises her for her apparent arousal over his theories on mass nuclear annihilation, Groeteschele may suspect (if not outright know) that Wolfe is not Jewish (as well as a possible Communist, to boot).
Although it is not explicitly stated, it's certainly implied that Groeteschele is Jewish in the later confrontation with General Black when an obviously excited Groeteschele exclaims that if every Jew had been armed and resisted the Nazis, there wouldn't have been a Holocaust, and that they had learned from them to which Black replies that Groeteschele has learned all too well, implying that Groetschele has become exactly the same as what he hates.
IOW, as the Nazi theory of Aryan superiority believed themselves to be the Master Race and could not dilute it by interbreeding with inferior races, Groeteschele, likewise, cannot have sex with an 'inferior', which is, quite obviously, how he regards Ilsa Wolfe.
I think this is the whole point of the scene, to reinforce that Groeteschele, in his quest to perpetuate his chosen political system and eliminate all others, is every bit as bad as his perceived enemies. -
harold_forsko — 20 years ago(March 28, 2006 12:53 AM)
Prof. Groeteschele is the first representation of what we now call a neocon. Before he has his confrontation with General Black, he urges a first strike on the Soviet Union: "Every minute we wait works against us. Now, Mr. Secretary, now is the time to send in a first strike and if we actmow, right now, our casaulties will be minimal."
Then General Black turns around and challenges him, "Do you know what you're saying?" -
mike-848 — 12 years ago(May 16, 2013 10:15 PM)
Interesting take on Groeteschele rejecting her advances but I don't remember anything in the film indicating her being a Gentile or Red so I think your premise is a stretch. She just seemed to be a cheating wife whose fetish was thinking about millions of deaths caused by her pushing a button and getting sexually aroused by it.
Also, it's only much later in the film as you pointed out do we realize he may be Jewish.
If the writers wanted to, they could have pursued your angle just to give the film an added twist which I think would have been very interesting but showing Jewish racial/ religious supremacists (and I have run into them) would have been a no - no then as it is now. -
jgroub — 10 years ago(January 21, 2016 09:14 PM)
Although it is not explicitly stated, it's certainly implied that Groeteschele is Jewish in the later confrontation with General Black when an obviously excited Groeteschele exclaims that if every Jew had been armed and resisted the Nazis, there wouldn't have been a Holocaust, and that they had learned from them to which Black replies that Groeteschele has learned all too well, implying that Groetschele has become exactly the same as what he hates.
Yes, this is heavily implied by this exchange, and the novel makes it clear. Groeteschele was actually born in Germany, got out in the 30s (his father, who was a respected surgeon, couldn't get his license to transfer to the US, and had to become a butcher instead). Groeteschele joins the Army, and with his perfect German, becomes an interrogator of captured Nazi War Criminals.
I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well. -
fidanza — 19 years ago(April 28, 2006 10:38 PM)
It was also in the 1962 book "Fail-Safe" by Eugene Burdick" and "Harvey Wheeler" (both lecturers of political science). The character's rejection of Ms Wolfe was due to his the fear of his loss of potency. From the book: "He realised that he had always feared women because in each of them there was the buried but inextinguishable desire to love a man to death. Evelyn Wolfe was simply more obvious and direct about it than the others. She would, without mercy and as if it were her due, draw the energy and juices and fluids and substance from his body through the inexhaustible demands of pure sex."
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geoff-185 — 19 years ago(May 04, 2006 04:21 PM)
All this talk about fluids and juices and substance makes him sound remarkably like Gen. Ripper in "Strangelove"- except that our Professor resisted while poor Jack didn't. Hell hath no fury like a madman scorned; at least he got to take out his nastiness on the flouridation Commies.
geoff@greenmarble.ca -
Cleon — 19 years ago(December 21, 2006 02:17 AM)
If that's really the explanation from the book, this is one of the few examples of where a movie improves upon its literary origins. I think I can speak for most men when I say that if I met a woman who got off on the idea of incinerating millions of people, my rejection of her would not require a self assessment of my potency.
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nvasapper — 15 years ago(August 24, 2010 02:40 PM)
Incorrect- if you recall, General Ripper DID resist sharing himself completely with women. He says to Peter Sellers playing Group Captain Mandrake, "I do not avoid women, Mandrake. But I do deny them my essence." So he will socialize with women where necessary but he won't do the nasty with them!
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Artdoag2 — 12 years ago(June 23, 2013 09:48 PM)
i believe Walter MAtthau-Grotech the professor..ahem, was straight as an arrow. He is pompous, accomplished, and arrogant, but he is also an esteemed member of the intelligence/bureuacrat community. Ms Wolfe seemed to be a party crasher, a social climber, who invited herself to the party, or at least ran in similar circles. She was awestruck by the older man was so impressed by his influence and stature that she wanted to initaite an affair. Just think of Paula Broadwell and Gen. Patreus from 2012
At any rate, the "I'm not your kind" declaration by Grotechele was his way of pointing out just how cheap and petty he figured her to be.