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Alternate Ending


I found as discussed in another thread the "happy" ending by the mis-carriage to kind of bother me. I think a better ending would have been:

Olhrig has the heart attack and Lee goes into premature labor. The other Dr delivers the baby and it lives. We then learn Olhrig has died. The closing scene we see the Dr. and Lee mow married, Dr. holding the kid in his arms being told by a lawyer by the pool she and the kid inherit Olhrig's fortune and companies. That's when we see her look up to the sky and smile. Basically saying &^%#$ you Orhrig.

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Better ending by far!

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The ending disturbed me. People don't react to such sad event that way. But the film is very good. Robert Ryan was an excellent actor, a little undervalued. Pretty good at playing psychologically disturbed characters (not good at playing conventional heroes, like in "Berlin Express" --a mess of a plot!). His performance in The Wild Bunch is exceptional. Max Ophuls is a great director. Barbara Bel Geddes was an excellent actress (not star material). I believe her character in "Vertigo" harmed her future in movies. Like the sad character played by Nina Foch in "An American in Paris".

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I think they didn't go with that ending because it would've made Olhrig's death technically "her fault", and characters getting away with stuff like that was a big "no no" of the production code. With Ohrig's surviving,Lee is spared of any blame.

I don't think the ending itself was bad, but I agree it was way too upbeat. Had it been bittersweet, maybe ending with a melancholy smile from Lee, the ending would've been much better.

Really good movie, though.

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"They" didn't go with that ending because it was completely made up by the OP. Read the post again. There was no original alternate ending.

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it's was either the husband or the baby it seems.

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