Colin, thanks for checking back in--it's great that we still have so many sources for analysis and discussion of these films (with kudos to you for your work and the ongoing "salon" at Ride The High Country).

Obviously no one can speak for Mark at this point; I do think that his attitude about out of wedlock childbirth reflects a fairly prevalent 21st-century viewpoint, one that clearly affects the tone and approach he takes. He's touching upon some aspects of film that I lump under the concept of "tonality"--a tricky attribute to define and analyze because film differs from literature in creating a response (the former is clearly more visceral in its effect due to action and dialogue being portrayed for us; the latter is more cerebral, and has centuries of accumulated analytical techniques in place for us to utilize).

I think Mark is responding to the jarring shifts in tone that are found in THE NAKED STREET, which is an element of the film that has consistently off-put many (if not most) of those who've reviewed it professionally. I think the same objections would surface if we were experiencing THE NAKED STREET as a novel, because the film's final "payoff" is inorganic as it stains for its bitter, nihilistic irony.

It seems that the part Mark missed (or dismissed) was that gangsters are likely to be highly concerned about "keeping up appearances" because they are trying not to draw attention to themselves due to the "business" they are in. If Mark were able to see how gangsterism has transmogrified itself into world geopolitics at this point, he might find this film to be even more "quaint" than he thought was the case regarding the question of "illegitimacy"--which seems to be a concept that has been stood on its head in a way that few of us could possibly foreseen...