The other night I watched The Conversation. I got hold of the film by asking the lovely, shy man in Video Heaven if he knew what I meant when I described a film where blood floats out of the toilet.
In the film I notice that Gene Hackman spells his name out and it is Harry Caul. I wonder out loud if it’s Coppola being ironic as Harry is monosyllabic and those born with a caul on their heads are meant to be great orators.
I look up the connection and Professor Fred Westman of Illinnois has already made the connection and lectured his students on it.
The jelly mac Harry Caul wears are embryonic, the description he makes about slipping down into the bath and regaining consciousness greased all over in holy water-are indications of his ability to resist drowning. Cauls were solf for high prices to sailors who would be immune from drowning if they wore it on them at all times. It was a perk of a Medieval midwife, to smuggle a caul.
One in a thousand are now born with a caul and most parents don’t realise as the doctor/midwife ussually punctures and bins the evidence.
Liberace, King Zog, Freud and Freud’s ‘Wolfman’ were all born with cauls.
