I've been thinking (if just one person says, "I thought I smelled something burning, I swear, I'll swear just for Old Knusdon)...if you were to change just the last ten minutes of any movie, whether it was based on a novel or not, you could completely change the entire film. So, if you had been watching The Prize Movie with Ione in 1972, and she blabbed on and on so there wasn't enough time to show the last bit of film at the end of the two-hour time slot, you could rewrite the meaning of the entire movie using your own imagination.
When Hitchcock first filmed "Suspicion," Cary Grant did actually kill Joan Fontaine, making her suspicions about his character justified, but the preview audience was so appalled at the idea that Cary Grant would commit murder that the ending was rewritten and re-shot. Grant doesn't shove Fontaine out of the car on the cliff but tries to save her from her own paranoia--suddenly the rest of the film makes no sense. That's another reason why giving in to the market isn't always a good idea, but that's a post for another day.
What if we were to rewrite, say Casablanca? Bogart doesn't act selflessly but takes Bergman on that plane to America, leaving what's his name to fend for himself with the Germans. Bogart and Bergman send for Sam , and the three of them spend the next twenty years running a Moroccan-themed gin joint in New York.
Gone With the Wind: Rhett doesn't pack his bags and leave Scarlett but stays with her. They live in that lonely pathetic, not to mention tacky, mansion in Atlanta all alone. They keep the lumber company and build what will become Home Depot. Tomorrow is another day.
Moby Dick: Ahab doesn't fight to the death with the whale but instead, he gives up--decides it's not worth it--steers the ship for home, and spends the rest of his life stuffing sharks, mounting them on plywood, and selling them at a souvenir kiosk at the dock.
It's A Wonderful Life: George's friends don't come through in the end. They write him off as a small-town man with dreams too big for rabble, and they think a little prison time might knock him down a notch or two. No bells and no angel wings.
Psycho: Norman Bates doesn't become his mother, sitting in the cinder block room wrapped in a blanket contemplating a fly. He becomes Norman Rockwell instead and paints Americana from the perspective of a lunatic who stuffs dead crows.
I could go on, but then I'd rob you of the fun of remaking your favorite movie based on rewriting the last ten minutes.
When Hitchcock first filmed "Suspicion," Cary Grant did actually kill Joan Fontaine, making her suspicions about his character justified, but the preview audience was so appalled at the idea that Cary Grant would commit murder that the ending was rewritten and re-shot. Grant doesn't shove Fontaine out of the car on the cliff but tries to save her from her own paranoia--suddenly the rest of the film makes no sense. That's another reason why giving in to the market isn't always a good idea, but that's a post for another day.What if we were to rewrite, say Casablanca? Bogart doesn't act selflessly but takes Bergman on that plane to America, leaving what's his name to fend for himself with the Germans. Bogart and Bergman send for Sam , and the three of them spend the next twenty years running a Moroccan-themed gin joint in New York.
Gone With the Wind: Rhett doesn't pack his bags and leave Scarlett but stays with her. They live in that lonely pathetic, not to mention tacky, mansion in Atlanta all alone. They keep the lumber company and build what will become Home Depot. Tomorrow is another day.
Moby Dick: Ahab doesn't fight to the death with the whale but instead, he gives up--decides it's not worth it--steers the ship for home, and spends the rest of his life stuffing sharks, mounting them on plywood, and selling them at a souvenir kiosk at the dock.
It's A Wonderful Life: George's friends don't come through in the end. They write him off as a small-town man with dreams too big for rabble, and they think a little prison time might knock him down a notch or two. No bells and no angel wings.
Psycho: Norman Bates doesn't become his mother, sitting in the cinder block room wrapped in a blanket contemplating a fly. He becomes Norman Rockwell instead and paints Americana from the perspective of a lunatic who stuffs dead crows.
I could go on, but then I'd rob you of the fun of remaking your favorite movie based on rewriting the last ten minutes.
Comments
No more work today, as the entire office is having an improv frenzy, re-writing movie endings.
Currently playing in the centre of the room is a rewrite of ET, where the alien parents return to find their child cross-dressing with Drew Barrymore and go postal, wiping out the planet.
Boy, this is fun! You have awoken a monster of Gojira proportions.
Dudley (Cary Grant) sweeps Julia (Loretta Young) off her feet and they run away with Debby on Christmas Eve driven by Sylvester the cabbie (James Gleason). The Bishop (David Niven) gives his Christmas meditation as a jilted man and then is overwhelmed by the affections of the women in his parrish, including Mrs. Hamilton (Gladys Cooper) and Matilda the maid (Elsa Lanchester).
Adair, The Bishop's wife is a great one, although it would never work to hook up with an angel. The poor woman could never live up to his standards.
Ms Mac. I'm shocked. Shocked! I thought everyone has seen It's A Wonderful Life at least a dozen times.
Dive: It makes me so proud to know that I have caused a disruption in an office in the UK. I have served a purpose today.
Who was that guy that was always chugging wine in the movie - or was it scotch? he was kind of a philosophic fellow
My favorite scene in that movie is when the boys' choir sings.