MovieChat Forums > The Woman in White (1948) Discussion > I love this Move But... (SPOILER)

I love this Move But... (SPOILER)


If I'd have read the book before seeing the movie I would habe been livid that Walter and Marian ended up together. I love everything about the relationship between Walter and Laura in the book. I don't know why they changed that.

"Dig the grave both wide and deep,
For I am sick, and fain would sleep!"

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I just finished reading the book (I saw the movie many, many years ago when I was a kid,) and Laura is DEAD BORING. I was spoiled for the ending, and I still was rooting for him to go for Marian instead.

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I loved watching the movie but so many questions popped into my head.In those times why didn't the count simply take control of Ann's affairs and take the money.Apparently Glyde had no money why even involve him? If even the doctor was in on the plot why not just forge her signanture.At the end it looked like the painter took both women as his wives.

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I just watched this clunker and had the same thought about the ending. The whole film was dark and mysterious, then a typical Hollywood addendum was tacked onto the finale. In a chirpy voice, the painter narrates the happy ending. All the "good" people are happier than pigs in *beep* and (because he just couldn't make up his mind) HE winds up in a menage a trois with the female leads. Was a big guffaw intentional?








"Ain't life grand?" said Clyde Barrow.

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The whole film was dark and mysterious, then a typical Hollywood addendum was tacked onto the finale. In a chirpy voice, the painter narrates the happy ending.

I agree. A wonderfully dark, atmospheric movie and then it's as if the happiness elves invaded the studio. I'm a bit surprised. I would've expected that from golden age MGM but not from Warner Bros....Or you could tell yourself that Gig Young ends up in a menage-a-trois and congratulate Warners on their bold move!

cinefreak

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I agree with the menage a trois ending. I mean, what was up with that? For one thing it was kind of obvious and for another, I was shocked of it because it was practically still in Hays Code timeframe.


If you come one step closer, I'll murder you with this saucepan!

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[deleted]

For one thing it was kind of obvious and for another, I was shocked of it because it was practically still in Hays Code timeframe.

Is it possible that the puritans enforcing the Hays code were so prim and proper that the idea of a menage a trois wouldn't even have occurred to them?


cinefreak

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I don't think they noticed the ending suggesting that. This movie wasn't even targeted to a wide audience, so they just dismiss this scene as being proper. But it was their call and this is the ending.

If you come one step closer, I'll murder you with this saucepan!

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I don't think they noticed the ending suggesting that. This movie wasn't even targeted to a wide audience, so they just dismiss this scene as being proper. But it was their call and this is the ending.

The menage a trois thing works for me! It helps ameliorate the unpleasant taste of all that 'happy happy' from the preceding five or so minutes.

cinefreak

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I guess a lot of folks here didn't watch the ending closely enough. When the painter is narrating the ending, he clearly says that the girl at the patio table is his daughter and the boy (Walter Glyde) is Laura's son. Then, when he goes into the house, he kisses his wife on the mouth and then kisses Laura's hand. All very proper.

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Maybe it's due to the changes in qualities desired in women, but reading the book I always thought Marian was far more appealing that Laura, I think it's kind of sad that in the book she ends up deciding to spend her whole life alone so she never has to be parted from Walter and Laura.

Marian proves herself intelligent, resourceful, has (according to Hartright) a extremely sexy figure and only 'flaw' seems to be the darkness of her skin, a lack of the vacant gaze considered feminine and the possession of a moustache which a razor could easily fix.

In our era, Laura comes off as boring, weak-willed, childlike and vapid.

Throughout my first reading of the book I was expecting Laura to die and Marian and Walter to end up together.

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