Dirty Dancing/Headscratchers

• How does Neil Kellerman know that there aren't any books in Johnny's room? It's not like he would have a reason to go there, right?
  • Obviously he sneaks into his room frequently to steal his underwear to smell at night... or the guy was just being condescending and assuming (probably rightly) that Johnny is not much of a reader and that that simply wasn't a believable excuse.
    • I prefer the first option.
      • I always thought it was because the management would do periodic checks of the employees rooms looking for contraband.
      • I think both options (condescending attitude, room checks) make sense.
• Baby's father is a doctor. Why didn't she just refer Penny to him for either the abortion or someone who could do it properly? Admittedly, abortion was still illegal in many states at the time, but I find it highly unlikely that he wouldn't know someone who could take care of it.
  • Look at his reaction when he found out that was what Baby had used his money for--there's no way in hell he would've agreed to get involved if he'd known about the abortion thing from the beginning.
  • In fact when Baby asks him for the money so she can give it to Penny he specifically asks her if the money is for anything illegal. Not to mention that living 30+ years after Roe v. Wade and seeing the attitudes that many people have toward LEGAL abortion I don't think it's reasonable to assume that Baby's father would have understood or been helpful (until Penny's life was in danger and he became bound by doctor/patient privilege).
  • In response to the question, I think everyone (including Baby) thought the guy they hired was a real doctor. It isn't until after he leaves that Johnny and Baby find out from Penny and the other guy that the "doctor" had a dirty knife and a folding table.
• Did the filmmakers even need the abortion storyline in the first place? Couldn't they have just had Penny break a leg, have a ruptured appendix, or just suffer any other type of normal malady for Baby to fill in for her? Did they really have to be that drastic?
  • None of those are grounds for ending a relationship. A pregnancy from an affair is.
    • Well, they could have had Dr. Houseman solely object on the grounds that Johnny is poor.
  • It's a moral choice that the rich and sheltered Baby would normally never have ever had to be confronted with. The whole point of Baby's character arc is her moral choices, and her steadfast belief in doing the right thing no matter what the cost. Penny had no other choice, Baby recognized that, so she risked alienating her relationship with her father to help someone who had no other options. If it had been something as "simple" as a ruptured appendix, Baby's sacrifice of her time and money would not have been so profound. Also, the subplot is an illustration of another theme in the movie, which is class distinctions. Penny is poor, has little to no education, no familial ties, few friends in the world, a crappy job, believed Robbie loved her, etc. The awful thing about unintended pregnancies is that they disproportionately happen to women like Penny - women who have been dealt a bad hand in life. Compare her life to Baby's, and see why the plot required such a difficult situation and moral choice, and why a more simple illness would have lessened the impact of the plot.
  • Don't forget that for a big portion of the movie, part of the drama between Johnny and Baby is because she thinks Penny is pregnant from Johnny and most of the time, Baby's dad thinks the same thing. Getting rid of the abortion detail in the movie would make a lot of the conflict disappear along with the ability for Baby's dad to apologize in the end with his line, "When I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong" or whatever it was. This way, they can spend most of the movie looking down their noses at Johnny and then realize he's a decent person despite his position in society.
    • Unfortunately, in my opinion, it just makes Baby's father seem dumb, stupid, and just in general, devoid of logic.