MovieChat Forums > Spellbound (1945) Discussion > alternate ending?

alternate ending?

posted 19 years ago by ms_misanthrope
4 replies | jump to latest

at last - got round to watching this yesterday, and did really enjoy it. however, kept thinking that there was going to be some final, ultimate sting-in the tale-type ending... like ballantyne WAS really a sinister psychopathic killer or something...thus rendering both the whole ''faith in love'' theme, and the theme of the (potential) fallibility of science/psychoanalysis, ironic (i.e. ingrid bergman's character, while convinced of greg peck's goodness, ends up dead/soon to be dead...). i don't know why, but that's just how i keep reworking the film to myself.
the way it IS, is nice; sort of heartwarming, and a good, if melodramatic story; just it seems to me somehow incomplete, in a slightly indefinable way.
you know, what if g peck had deliberately pushed his brother to his death, as a child?? and so his ''guilt complex'' turns out to be completely valid i.e. NOT a complex, simply that he feels guilt cos he's a murderer? i wish hitchcock had done that!

[–] huntley_haverstock 19 years ago

your idea is interesting, but it's much more of a modern device for movie making, especially when the producers hope to exploit the films popularity with a sequel. in the 40's sequel's weren't really thought of too much, not like today. also hollywood had to adhere to all sorts of rules in their movies, movies generally had to have happy endings, as well, no one was allowed to get away without being punished for their crimes. thats why in rebecca (another great hitch classic) maxim's involvement in rebecca's death was always ambigious. so the movie would never had made it past the strict censors of the day if jb had infact been guilty. plus this movie was much more about the unraveling of the guilt complex, and the suspense inherent in that process, if jb wasn't innocent, then he wouldn't have a guilt complex, he would just be guilty.

[–] richard-III 18 years ago

In Hitchcock's SUSPICION (1941), Hitch wanted suspected husband Cary Grant to be a killer, only to be brought to justice by a letter Joan Fontaine mailed before he killed her. But the studio didn't buy it, Cary Grant could not be a murderer at all because the audience wouldn't buy it. So Hitch had to rewrite the ending and film it like the way it is: Grant's really innocent, and he and Fontaine make up.
That's the way things went then, in Hollywood.

"When there is no more room in the Oven,
the Bread will walk the Earth."

[–] profh-1 13 years ago

It's funny, but early in the film, I thought it would have been hilarious if, after Leo G. Carrol made such a big deal about being "diplomatic" in his "abdication", if when he walked out of the room you suddenly heard a gunshot because he killed himself. The, at the end of the movie... well, whatta ya know?

Sometimes the best mysteries involve solutions that are right there in front of you, staring you in the face, but you don't see them. Until you do.

[–] jdw50 12 years ago

You could try Hitchcock's The Paradine Case, also with Peck. SPOILER: he also falls instantly in love in this one (with Alida Valli) - he's a famous barrister and he's defending her on a murder charge... but she did it! And he's a fool for believing in her, despite all his forensic skills. "Faith in love" proves to be "blind obsession".