Foil

Character Role Analysis

Terry and Edie, Terry and Charley

Terry and Edie have a lot of negative banter. Terry says she's used to look like a mess and even calls her a "fruitcake" at one point.

And those were fighting words back in the gee-whiz, golly-gosh 1950's:

EDIE: Shouldn't everybody care about everybody else?

TERRY: Boy, what a fruitcake you are!

EDIE: I mean, isn't everybody a part of everybody else?

But this is all part of their strange courtship ritual. They're actually close together in spirit, even though they're squabbling: Edie's pushing him onto the same page as her.

Also, Terry and Charley have a little back and forth at one point, in which Charley says that Terry's manager ruined his (Terry's) boxing career. Terry tells him the truth: Charley ruined his career by making him take a dive in a fight, and Terry "coulda been a contender."

It's a piece of back and forth with Charley as the foil, but it ends decisively in Terry's favor. Charley knows what's up…before he gets killed by his former friends in the gang.