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The secret allure of the spoiler

Ideas

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

January 29, 2012|By Ty Burr

(Page 4 of 4)

It’s useful, sometimes, to look to children, especially when they’re still too young to know how they should feel about socially coded issues like this. A number of years ago, when I was writing a book about watching classic films with kids, I sat my younger daughter down with “The Nutty Professor” — the original 1963 version with Jerry Lewis. The movie’s a neurotic blat of Technicolor slapstick that’s both idiotic and very funny, and the centerpiece is the transformation scene, where the nerd chemist turns into the suave Buddy Love. The scary music, odd angles, and weird teeth freaked my daughter out so completely she made me fast-forward through to the next bit, and at the end of the movie, she shrugged and said the movie was just OK.

The next day she asked to see “The Nutty Professor” again, and then she watched it four more times before the week was out, and then she began to cough up bits of dialogue at odd times. Seven years later, she still cites it as one of her favorite movies, because it’s a known quantity. More than that, it was an initially unsettling experience over which she gained mastery.

Should I have spoiled that first viewing for her? She might have had an easier time if I had. But she might not treasure the movie as much, either. The jury’s still out over which experience is the richer one, but it’s clear that a spoiled story and an unspoiled story are two entirely different works, and we choose which one feels most comfortable whenever we head into the dark.