John Brown's Body story
Harold Skinner and Vera Brown, who are having an affair, oust Vera's husband, John, from his company by getting him declared mentally unfit and sent to a home. When the company tanks, Vera and Harold need help, but are unable to get John discharged. Directed by: Robert Stevens. Story by: Thomas Burke, Robert C. Dennis.
12 total · 7 major · 5 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| extramarital affair | major | Harold and Vera were running around together behind the back of her husband John. |
| husband and wife | major | The story centered around Vera plotting to have her husband, John, committed so that she and her lover could take over his furniture business. |
| institutionalizing a loved one | major | Vera had John sent to a home so that she could take over the business and carry on with her lover. |
| love triangle | major | Harold and Vera were running around together behind the back of her husband, John, who also happened to be Harold's boss. |
| risk taking vs. playing it safe | major | John pooh-poohed his junior partner's proposal to go all in on selling a new line of modern looking furniture. While the junior partner insisted that doing so would triple their profits, John preferred to turn a modest, but predictable profit from selling the same old type of furniture that they'd been selling for years. In the end, the junior partner got his way, and tanked the company within a year as a result. |
| romantic love | major | Vera and Harold couldn't keep their hands off of one another. |
| the business world | major | We saw how management operated in a furniture firm. |
| coping with senility | minor | Harold and Vera schemed to make John believe he was becoming extremely forgetful and thus unable to continue the business. |
| doctor and patient | minor | John and Vera met the family doctor. |
| medical occupation | minor | A psychiatrist declared John to be mentally unfit to run his own company. There was additionally a variety of medical personnel. |