For Cryin' Out Loud story
Rock promoter Marty Slash plans to run off with all of the donation money that has been raised and accumulated from a series of "Save the Amazon rainforest" charity benefit concerts, but things unexpectedly become complicated when it turns out that his hearing problems were nothing more than his conscience trying to get through to him. To make matters worse, his greedy banker soon blackmails him, being annoyed all the while by his conscience, for half of the money. Directed by: Jeffrey Price. Story by: Peter S. Seaman.
15 total · 9 major · 6 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| compromising one's ethical principles for personal advantage | major | Marty wrestled with his conscience (almost literally) over whether to scuttle off with a million dollars of charity money. |
| criminal fraud | major | Marty attempted to embezzle $1,000,000 of charity money intended for some poor tribe in the Amazons. |
| deafness | major | Marty was cautioned by the doctor that he was going deaf because of his exposure to loud rock music. In the end he was proclaimed such. Having shoved sharp sticks deep into his ears in order to kill his conscience, probably had not helped. |
| descent into madness | major | Hounded by the voice of his chattering conscience, Marty engaged in evermore self-harming behavior. In the end he ran cheerfully to strap himself into the electric chair, eager to end his torment. |
| greed for riches | major | Marty attempted to embezzle $1,000,000 of charity money intended for some poor tribe in the Amazons. |
| murder | major | Marty beat his foxy banker to death with an electric guitar and was hounded by his conscience for it. |
| personification of a concept | major | The central idea in the story is that Marty's conscience took on a real persona and began chattering to him, driving him mad. It was suggested that others might be able to hear it as well, but in the end we conclude that it was all a figment of Marty's imagination. |
| remorse | major | Marty was literally berated by his conscience after he bashed his blackmailing banker in the head with an electric guitar. |
| wrestling with one's conscience | major | Marty being driven mad by his own conscience, which had taken on a persona of its own, is a main novelty of the story. |
| blackmail | minor | Ms. Kilbasser tried to blackmail Marty out of half of $1,000,000 of charity money he was in the middle of embezzling, and got beaten to death with an electric guitar for her trouble. |