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SPOILER: do alternate ending scenes exist?

posted 16 years ago by Limeginger
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SPOILERS

Last night I saw Suspicion for the first time. I thought it was charming, wonderfully directed, canny, chilling, etc. And THEN that dreadful ending loomed up disingenuously with Grant and Fontaine acting melodramatically and histrionically. I said to my friend "What was THAT about? that was BS!"

We watched the Bonus Feature, which was a little documentary about the film featuring Peter Bogdonovich and many others. As many reading this post already know (I didn't) the studio forced Hitchcock to change the ending from Joan Fontaine's allowing herself to be murdered, being complicit in her own murder because she would rather not be alive in a world where her husband was in fact a sham liar murderer -- to the ending as we know it. I was so relieved to learn this, since the dramatic arc was clearly going in that direction, and the ending seemed bolted on and at odds with the rest of the film.

[Incidentally, in case you didn't know, the original version of the film had her hastily writing a letter to her mother saying that if anything happened to her her husband had murdered her, he brings her the milk, she drinks it, and asks her husband to post the letter to her mother, and the final scene is of him whistling the waltz as he slips the letter into the post box.]

So the commentators on the mini-documentary said the studio wouldn't tolerate Cary Grant's being cast ultimately as a murderer. It wouldn't be good for the studio or for Grant's career. So Hitchcock tustled with them, but ultimately lost the fight.

What I'd like to know is this:

1. The documentary showed some of the original film, her writing the letter, her drinking the milk, but I wonder---does the original ending exist somewhere in toto? would anyone ever think to replace the cheap happy ending with the original, reconstruct the film to Hitchcock's vision? restore it to its original integrity?

2. does anyone know Cary Grant's (and/or Fontaine's) reaction to the replaced ending at the time? I think there are generally 2 types of actors: artists and careerists. An artist would tend to be pretty upset by a film they'd been working on having its ending (an extremely interesting, complex, intelligent ending at that) roughly torn off and replaced with easy pap that doesn't match the rest of the piece, or even make sense in terms of character development. A careerist would likely be pragmatic and perhaps even prefer whatever would be best for his/her career.

I thought the cinematography was astonishing, and would rate the film more highly overall if it had been allowed to remain intact. It would have been quite shocking but brilliant.

Thanks!

[–] mrob26 16 years ago

I recently read an article about the production of Suspicion, and discovered some interesting facts concerning the final scene and its subsequent revision. It dispels some of the conventional belief about why the final scene was altered, and also includes some other omissions that would have made the whole scenario more plausible, but were left out due to production code:

The ending that was originally scripted and filmed by Hitchcock was omitted from the final cut due to its rejection by preview audiences. In the final scene Lina willingly drinks the milk, believing that it is poisoned and reveals that she knows she is dying. Johnnie, realizing how much he has hurt her by his recklessness and deception, denies that the milk is poisoned and confesses everything: he embezzled money from his cousin, intended to cheat Beaky in the real estate scheme, and lost money betting on a horse race that he borrowed from his friend, hoping to cover his debts. He explains his interest in the poison saying that, in desperation, stole ideas from Isobel (the author) with the intentions of writing a thriller. Admitting that he is a liar and a thief, he begs Lina’s forgiveness and the scene ends with the couple embracing.
The first cut of the film was shown to two preview audiences, but the ending was thoroughly rejected, many finding it hilarious. Comments also revealed a resistance to Cary Grant in a malevolent role, many saying that he should stick to comedy. The opposition of Grant as a villain clearly suggested that audiences would be unable to accept or believe him in such a role, contrary to the conventional belief that it would damage his star image. In addition, the omission of several facts from the film, most importantly Lina’s pregnancy, provided little motivation for her decision to succumb to a passive death.
Following the preview screenings the bedroom confession was dropped and a new ending was devised. Much of the dialogue remained intact, but the final scene now plays out by the roadside. Audiences found this version more acceptable, however they continued to judge it as abrupt and inconsistent.

The original ending that you describe I believe is how the story ends in the book and how Hitchcock would have preferred the movie to end, but as we now know, could never have been used when the film was made.

[–] Limeginger 16 years ago

mrob25 - thanks, very interesting! do you recall where you saw this article?

[–] mrob26 16 years ago

Limeginger-it was an article by Rick Worland in the Cinema Journal, a publication of the University of Texas, entitled Before and After the Fact: Writing and Reading Hitchcock's Suspicion.