what's up with that ending???
Fires burn his crops and the movie ends as they unite to face life together...I guess.
shareIt seems it could of stood another reel as Brent and Stanwyck seek out a little prairie justice. I guess since the crops were not completely destroyed and the two were finally united as a couple that we had all we needed to know.
share...I've thought that height-/depths-of-the-Depression movies DID fall into a tendency - Maybe in part just to make the movie a little shorter for the double features that were becoming a craze then , and , in part , just to SAVE MONEY! on the movie's production , to rather rush past the ending developments of the story in order to get it over and done , so to spak , make it a reel or so shorter than it , really , should be .
Just saving money , and , perhaps the figure that a sprint past wrapping up all the plot points at a proper speed wouldn't be noticed - much - by the audience , once the story had been wrapped up in a satisfying conclusion .
For the only other example I can cite right now , in NIGHT NURSE , the disposal of Clark Gable's gangster happens off-screen , and is simply referred to in a line of dialogue !!!!!!!
***"NIGHT NURSE" SPOILER***
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Ah yes, but don't you think Gable's death was well done in this manner? I think it was more effective the way it happened off-screen and the ambulance driver refers to it. It also adds to the comic aspect of the male lead, who isn't even slightly bothered by what his goons have done!
I don't really agree that the seemingly abrupt ending was an effort to keep the film short. If they were looking for sequences to cut, you would think they might start with the lovely, but discursive, sequence where Stanwyck helps with the newborn baby and mother. No, I think the filmmakers just thought that the couple finally uniting while putting out their burning wheat crop made for a great climax (and a great counterpoint to their earlier wedding, which was more like a grotesque financial transaction). I like when older movies end with an image that sticks with you rather than giving you a final scene or two that wrap up loose ends.
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