**Spoiler Reflections** On Family Themes

What do The Magnificent Seven and The Man Who Knew Too Much have in common? What do Dragonwyck and Marple: The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side have in common? The first two are pro-family stories. The latter two are not.

The Magnificent Seven makes it quite clear that it is better (and harder) to be a good family man than it is to be a hired gun. Out of seven gunmen, none are truly happy with the lonely, dangerous life they have chosen. Only Chico is excited about being a gun-for-hire - and he's so young and inexperienced he doesn't know any better. In the end he chooses to settle down and become a farmer instead of riding off into the sunset with Chris Adams and Vin. Elsewhere in the movie, Bernardo O'Reilly practically adopts three Mexican boys when they follow him around, convinced he's braver than their own fathers. But O'Reilly eventually makes it quite clear to them that it takes much more bravery to be a husband, father, and farmer than someone who makes his living shooting people.

The Man Who Knew Too Much is about the McKennas, a married couple who mount a desperate search for their kidnapped son. Ben determinedly searches for their son, while he also serves as an anchor for his understandably upset wife. Jo shines before little Hank is captured - she was once a singer on stage, but has given up her career to live in Indianapolis with her physician husband. She wants to move to New York so she can partly revive her career, but it isn't paramount to her. That becomes obvious when she asks Ben when they're going to have another baby.

Dragonwyck, however, is not as family-centered. Nicholas Van Ryn wants a male heir so badly he murders his wife so he can marry a younger woman. Granted, he claims he has feelings for Miranda, but he treats her so roughly that he either doesn't know what true love is or his only reason for marrying her was so she could produce a son. (Incidentally, I can't figure out why he wants a son so much.) He already has a daughter by his first wife, but he completely neglects her. Eventually he becomes addicted to drugs. Miranda, terrified, goes to a local doctor for help - and falls in love with him! The "love" that existed between Nicholas and Miranda before his wife was murdered is portrayed as wrong and has deadly consequences. But the feelings between Dr. Turner and Miranda have no consequences. True, she pretty much refuses to have anything to do with him (except when she lets him kiss her...), but there is no clear condemnation of their attachment.

Marple: The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side also contains a character with little regard for marriage and an unhealthy desire for a child. Marina Gregg, on her third husband, wanted a child so badly she adopted two of them - and essentially abandoned them when she discovered she was pregnant. But her child, Robert, was born with a severe mental disability. Marina's selfish desire for a child couldn't withstand such a severe "disappointment." She suffered a nervous breakdown and left Hollywood for over a decade, eventually bringing her husband total up to five. Now, all these things are looked upon by Miss Marple as being evidence of Marina's fragility. The actress is not portrayed as being right - merely unhinged enough to vengefully commit murder. In defense of the move, however, I must say I was pleased when the filmmakers included a scene with Robert. He was reduced to a vague idea - a motive for murder - in the book, but seeing him included in a scene in the movie rather "humanized" him. He became a person instead of a "wretched little creature."

Few books or movies have truly pro-family themes nowadays. Very few characters have intact families, and those that do are often ashamed of them - and, the authors or filmmakers want us to believe, with good reason. Idiot fathers, annoying siblings, and distracted mothers seem to be the norm. Unfortunately, Dragonwyck and Marple: The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side rather follow this trend (though neither is technically a recent story; Marple is based on a book that was written at least fifty years ago), as they both contain characters with unhealthy views on marriage and children. At the same time, The Magnificent Seven and The Man Who Knew Too Much are filled with themes that show family life and a strong marriage to be very good things.