MovieChat Forums > The Fallen Idol (1949) Discussion > Ending Not Expected (SPOILERS)

Ending Not Expected (SPOILERS)

posted 17 years ago by maturity
18 replies | jump to latest

PLEASE DON'T READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE...

When Baines went downstairs at the end, I expected him to kill himself with that gun. Did anyone else think they would go for a tragic ending, like that? It's so common in movies, when you see a gun in the first act, someone will use it later on. This movie seemed to be going that direction. IMO, it might have been better with that tragic ending. Baines kills himself right before he's exonerated. What do the rest of you think? Instead, they went for a more upbeat ending.

[–] DryToast 17 years ago

The story seems headed for tragedy, as most Graham Greene stories do. The ending was changed for the movie, as had some of the important details of the story itself.

You can read the entire original story here: http://www.all-story.com/issues.cgi?action=show_story&story_id=82&part=all

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[–] adamwarlock 17 years ago

Would have been tough for a film about a boy seeing his guardian kill himself. A film with an all adult cast maybe, but in 1948 (or even now) I don't think suicide in front of a child would be acceptable.

Having heard of this film for years, I was always under the mistaken impression that Baines was a murderer & the kid had to choose between loyalty & justice. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised.

[–] maturity 17 years ago

I didn't think he'd kill himself in front of the boy, but he went downstairs to get his coat or something. It sounded strange. I remembered that gun was in the basement drawer. He was standing right next to that drawer when Julie came down stairs. The ending seemed like a cop-out. It would have been a great ending, to have him kill himself. I got goose-bumps thinking about that ending. I was just waiting for the sound of a gun. That just seemed more honest.

It would even have a good moral message: that secrets and lies sometimes lead to tragedy. He killed himself to spare his employer the embarrassment of a scandal. Plus, he was probably distraught over his wife's death. I think the movie really was crying out for a tragic ending like that. It was still pretty good, but they could have made it more powerful with a sombre ending, IMO.

Look at One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, for example. Very sad ending. Probably the only movie that ever made me cry. The ending here reverses all that tension, and it makes a joke of the serious issues that came before.

[–] adamwarlock 17 years ago

Well, Baines wasn't in front of the boy but the boy was at the top of the stairs. he would have heard the shot, seen the body, etc. Plus, most 40s films don't have unhappy endings. If you get killed by the end of the film, you deserved it. Here, probably due to the need to make Baines & Julie sympathetic & Mrs. Baines not so, I'm sure Reed felt that the audience doesn't feel baines deserves it & he gets the last second reprieve. If the affair was shown not as Baines trying to escape an unhappy marriage but as Baines being a cade, he'd be dead meat at the end.

[–] maturity 17 years ago

I'm not saying that Baines deserved it, but it seemed to be a motivated action. The gun was there. He excused himself to go down stairs. Given his uprightness, loyalty, embarrassment, guilt, and fear, I could see him doing that. He had not done anything wrong, but things were not looking good. All the elements were in place for a powerful tragic ending. I felt they took the easy way out there. It didn't ring true. It seemed like a missed opportunity.

[–] mac_alain 16 years ago

The ending seemed like a cop-out.

I have to disagree there. It was a good and surprising ending.

[–] sasha99 17 years ago

I was afraid Baines would shoot himself, and normally in a movie of that era, if any of the characters were involved in adultery, there could NOT be a happy ending. One of them would have to be punished or die or something. After watching the feature on the DVD about the life of Carol Reed, I think possibly Bains was allowed to escape punishment because Carol was the illegitimate son of famous British actor, Sir Herbert Beerbhom Tree... perhaps Carol did not think intimacy outside legal marriage needed to be punished (especially when the wife of the unfaithful man was so horrible that she would put a boy's pet snake alive into a furnace! I wanted to push her down the stairs myself!!)

[–] elm0catt 17 years ago

Carol Reed's personal feelings and opinions regarding adultery have nothing to do with the British production code.

Whether he felt Baines should be punished or not has nothing to do with it being allowed in the film.

[–] tcsung 17 years ago

The fact that the gun was there made us realize even more how we rooted for Baines, who was a good man and understood and loved the child. And, precisely because he understood and loved the child, he would consider using the gun, and then put it away. Perfect characterization.

[–] Enrique-8 17 years ago

I think the movie was perfect...it was a welcome relief NOT to have Baines kill himself. The scene where the Phile TRIES to tell the police the "truth" repeatedly was the most tension I felt in the movie.

TO have Baines die would have been ridiculous - Baines was a good man - if it had been a tragic ending it would have been a worthless ending. It was that REVERSE of his suicide which was what you expected and he did NOT do which redeems the humanity of the film.

Enrique Sanchez

[–] maturity 17 years ago

"I think the movie was perfect...it was a welcome relief NOT to have Baines kill himself. The scene where the Phile TRIES to tell the police the "truth" repeatedly was the most tension I felt in the movie."

So, you expected that he would do it or at least that he was considering it? Is that what created some of the tension in that scene? There's also the fear that Baines will be arrested and imprisoned for murdering his wife. I think the film plants the idea that he will kill himself and then backs out.

"TO have Baines die would have been ridiculous - Baines was a good man - if it had been a tragic ending it would have been a worthless ending. It was that REVERSE of his suicide which was what you expected and he did NOT do which redeems the humanity of the film."

Are Shakespeare's plays worthless or ridiculous? It would have been devastating for Baines to kill himself, because of his lies. The ending trivialized things, IMO. If he had killed himself out of shame and guilt, right as the police found out that he was innocent, it would have been heart-wrenching.

The ending was too cute and neat. It seemed like they were trying for something else, but were possibly forced to change it by the censors.

[–] Enrique-8 17 years ago

I do see your views and earnestly think they have value...in the dramatic and cinematic sense, too. I must have been watching on a sentimental day when I didn't think the hero or anti-hero should get his comeuppance...but be set free to renew himself...sappy but no matter...my taste gravitates towards that advancing wind often...

Thanks for writing.

Enrique Sanchez

[–] film_ophile 12 years ago

Thank you sooo much for posting this ending revealer. I have wanted to see this film for years but i was under the impression that it was a tragedy and that baines died, and i knew i just couldn't take that (yes, some of us are rather thin skinned.) So now i can finally watch it. Thank you.

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[–] vonziggy 11 years ago

I actually thought the ending had cinematic value. It was obtuse after all that that he didn't get to kill himself as Julie got to him in time. In the end we discover that Phile is actually inadvertently responsible Mrs. Baines' slipping. No one paid attention to him and his mother just breezed in as if nothing. That was ultimately was the tragedy. He was lied to and ignored or glossed over.

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[–] franzkabuki 10 years ago

It certainly would have been more powerful if the adult's manipulations of the kid and his subsequent well meaning lies had a more devastating effect on the outcome. Like, sending Richardson to the gallows.

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[–] MoviemanCin 8 years ago

That's what I thought too, and obviously that's what the director wanted us to think. It added to the suspense. Glad he didn't though.

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[–] AtoZ2014 8 years ago

I thought that Baines went downstairs thinking about killing himself, and might even have done so if the police hadn't decided he was innocent--correctly, although not with exactly the correct reasoning. I'm happy with this as Baines didn't do it! and so it was the right outcome.

The child's performance was classic, wanting to give what the child thought was important information. It was important information in the sense that the police didn't quite understand everything that happened regarding what had happened regarding the flower pot. But, the police at least came to the correct conclusion regarding Baines' innocence in terms of not actually pushing her down the stairs.

[–] masuka-fan 8 years ago

We are certainly meant to think it is a possibility, but I'm glad it didn't happen.