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Popular Culture Review
kind of foreign policy we actually get, or that it actually threatens the safety of
her home and children” (Marshall/Eliot, 36).
True, those lazy, buck-passing women enjoyed their movies and supposed
newfound affluence. That they did not always love, or even acknowledge the
entities behind those niceties irritated the power elite. As R.K. Simon surmised:
“Lili has to leam to connect the entertainment she loves (puppets) with the
people who provide it (puppeteers). It won’t do that she loves the puppets but
hates the puppeteers.” American women, and indeed the non-Communist public
world, needed to love the ugly, greedy battle-scarTed America behind the glitter
and promise of its entertainment industry and foreign aid programs. More than
that, they needed to actively support those programs. Lili was not a spectator at
Paul’s puppet shows. She was an active participant in them. Lili’s interaction
with the puppets was the novelty that ensured the show’s success. Likewise, the
complicity of postwar Europe and American film audiences was critical if
postwar capitalism under the leadership of the United States was to thrive.
To accomplish these things, the world, in the person of Lili, needed the
maturity to acknowledge American power and to recognize the factors behind it.
Crowds of self-absorbed “little half-wits” could not further American interests.
On the other hand, grown-up, self-sufficient Lilies were of little value if they did
not also fear and depend upon the most daunting economic power in all of
history. Pax Americana, like the carnival, depended upon the combined
trepidation and enthusiastic support of its subjects.
In the end, Paul learned an important lesson. He could not treat Lili like an
object, a whore, or a piece of property. He needed to win her heart. He initially
accomplished this through the puppets. However, when Lili tore down the
puppet show curtain, and saw the face behind the puppets, she ran away, leaving
the carnival for an unknown destination. Paul’s devastation at her departure
made clear his dependence on her presence in his life, and of course, in his
show. Paul needed Lili for financial security. At first, he seemed sure that Lili
did not need to love him, as long as she stayed and performed with him. His
admonition, “Theatre’s business!” says it all. “You don’t have to like me.” He
was wrong, of course. Lili could not talk to puppets she did not believe in. She
needed to love the force that made them real.
In the end, Lili realiz ed that the puppets she loved were all Paul. In the eerie
closing scene of the film, Lili embraces Paul, as the puppets applaud, apparently
of their own volition. Lili’s recognition of Paul as the power behind the puppets
gives the puppets life. Now, she can love them knowing their origin and
continue to perform in Paul’s profitable show. Clearly, Lili stood to gain from
the arrangement. She would have sustenance and security but at the expense of
mature self-determination. She would be forever dependent but able, as always,
to console herself with the puppets.
The message for movie audiences was clear. Of course, viewers were
expected to melt with the consummation of the romance between Lili and Paul.