Letdown of an ending


(SPOILERS)

Maybe it's a function of all the violent plot lines of recent times, but I was expecting a much more morbid ending. I thought she was going to 1) murder him or 2) fling herself out the window.

My logic - the cold, calculated tone. "I will never make another (embroidery)". The slow play of her walking up the stairs. The increasingly climactic music.

My eyes were just widening and widening waiting for the moment her body would come crashing down next to him - he would see his dreams of security shattered, she would escape a hollow life, and she'd die knowing that he would not win a penny from her.

Am I a product of the recent decades of movie making or is this a huge opportunity for an astounding ending squandered? I wonder if the censors had anything to do with it?

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[deleted]

She's far from suicidal by the film's termination; she wants to inflict the same amount of cruelty he inflicted upon her. Given the aforementioned, the scenarios you proposed would be nonsensical and somewhat over-the-top for this type of picture.

The ending's rather somber, I suppose.

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She lacked self esteem, but didn't seem unbalanced. So why should she hurt herself? This ending was sad enough. The voice she found was authoritative, independent, and had no compassion, no heart song (Happy Feet).

If we can save humanity, we become the caretakers of the world

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I thought it was a perfect ending. Actions speak louder than words in this movie. Morris standing her up. Then the door being locked in his face. Right, she found her voice, but at what cost? She found out her father never really loved her, her fiance didn't love her either. And her aunt seemed to only pity her. I hope maybe she did go to visit her relatives rather than stay in the square the rest of her life.

Haunting story, really. Great performances.

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I agree, a perfect ending. She left Morris in the same position she was in that life-changing night in the parlor when she waited for the carriage that never came.

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Please put some dashes above your sig line so I won't think it's part of your dumb post.

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I thought she was going to 1) murder him or 2) fling herself out the window.

It seems like every week I'm watching a classic film where the ending is one or the other, or both. There's actually a film from the 1930s where a character played by an actress who looks like Olivia de Havilland, walks up a stairway and then apparently flings herself out a window. It's getting to be refreshing when a screenwriter comes up with something other than murder or suicide.



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I loved this movie for years. She had been hurt so deeply it changed her to a cold person. She wanted to inflict pain on his heart and indeed she did just that. For its easier to die then to live with the pain of rejection.

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For its easier to die then to live with the pain of rejection.

For some people, yes. Others learn to pick themselves up and carry on. Some people become stronger because of it.



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kellerjami says > I loved this movie for years. She had been hurt so deeply it changed her to a cold person. She wanted to inflict pain on his heart and indeed she did just that. For its easier to die then to live with the pain of rejection.
I have to finally accept I must really be an oddball. I've read a lot of posts and most people are either in support of Catherine's treatment of Morris and/or would have liked for there to have been an ever more tragic ending.

I have never understood how people could behave so horribly towards someone they supposedly once loved. I know people can do hateful things that can cause someone to fall out of love with them but could it really have been true love if it brings out the worst of the person who once loved them?

Even if we believe the worst of Morris, Catherine did experience love because of him. She also experienced pain but that should have helped her grow as a person and find inner strength. She should have been happy that, at least, his departure kept her from making the mistake of marrying him.

That's why I say I must be an oddball because that's how I approach life. In my view, life is comprised of the good and the bad; there are ups and downs; happiness and pain. We have to navigate our way through it all; hopefully learning valuable lessons along the way. Even if we choose never to associate with someone again, we can forgive them for their shortcomings because we aren't perfect either. I believe getting revenge is childish. It's not as if Morris had committed a crime and injured Catherine. He may have hurt her feelings but basically he just changed his mind; which he had every right to do.

Letting what happened with Morris or her father cause he to become bitter, cruel, and spiteful does more harm to Catherine than to anyone else. The problem is she found it easier to blame others than to look at how she contributed to what happened. That's not to say no one else played a role in her unhappiness but she can't change them. She can only change aspects of her own life and personality that allowed those situations to occur. Not doing that will cause her to either isolate herself or keep repeating the same unfortunate scenarios over and over again.

Unfortunately, what the OP suggests is what a lot of people, especially these days, choose to do when dealing with the problems in their lives. Their only thought is to lash out violently against those they hold responsible for their misery instead of figuring out how they can overcome, persevere, and create the life they want. It's always easier to blame others than it is to own up to the ways in which we fail ourselves. In Catherine's case, she never seems to accept that her social awkwardness made her a big target. Had she not repelled other men, she might have learned along the way how to differentiate between true love and false pretense.

Later when Morris returned, perhaps she should have used that opportunity, not to do to him what she felt he had done to her but, to behave as she would have liked him to have treated her; with respect. Only then would I have seen her as triumphant. She should have said, Morris, I have heard you out and I want you to know that I did love you once but you have showed me by your actions that you are not the right man for me. I will not marry you and from this moment on want nothing more to do with you. Please do not come to my house or attempt to make contact with me again in any other way. Have a great life. Good bye!

The truth is she didn't really know if his intentions were true; she could never know that. What she did know was how he behaved towards her that one night. That alone made her distrust him and was reason enough not to want to marry him. It works both ways. I get equally frustrated with women who accept all kinds of bad behavior from men (and vice versa) in the name of love; saying... oh, but I love him. That's just as bad.


Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate]

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It seems like every week I'm watching a classic film where the ending is one or the other, or both. There's actually a film from the 1930s where a character played by an actress who looks like Olivia de Havilland, walks up a stairway and then apparently flings herself out a window.
And where, exactly, are you seeing these movies? I've seen about 3000 classic movies, and that's not my take on them. Warner's 1930s gangster movies had some violence, but that was just one genre. And I can think of only one movie (Three on a Match) in which the character hurls herself out the window (she does it to save someone close to her, not to provide a sensationalistic ending) and one other (Stage Door) in which the desparing character's suicide-by-jump is implied but not shown.

You've really mispreprented classic movies, most of which had little violence -- and those that had some were far less violent than movies from the 1980s on.

"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."

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You've really mispreprented classic movies, most of which had little violence -- and those that had some were far less violent than movies from the 1980s on.


You've misrepresented what I wrote. You are talking about how much violence was in classic films. I very specifically was discussing the use of murder and/or suicide by classic film characters, not the amount of violence that was or was not shown.

It is true, though. Over and over I was watching classic films on TCM (still am) in which people were dealing with their problems by murdering people, killing themselves or attempting to kill themselves...

As I said regarding The Heiress, it was refreshing that a screenwriter came up with something other than what the OP of this thread wished for, causing that viewer to believe it was a "Letdown of an ending" for this film.

I did not save a list of the films I was watching during that time, but fortunately IMDb has a feature showing lists of thousands of films pertaining to suicide and murder, many of which were made during the classic film era 

http://www.imdb.com/search/keyword?keywords=suicide
http://www.imdb.com/keyword/murder?ref_=ttkw_kw_249


Mag, Darling, you're being a bore.

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one other Stage Door in which the desparing character's suicide-by-jump is implied but not shown

He was probably talking about that, Andrea Leeds looks just like Olivia.

https://goo.gl/qOr1eN

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I assume you're taking about Stage Door(1937)? I agree that Andrea Leeds does have a very strong resemblance to Olivia de Havilland.

I wonder if the movie would've been much different had de Havilland been cast in the role. It's not too much a stretch, since I heard she was once involved with Howard Hughes who owned the studio at the time.

Anyway, to be fair, while it is an important part of the movie, it's hardly the ending. The ending is very different from the grimness of the death scene you've just described.

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[deleted]

I watched this movie at least 5 times. I disagree. I loved the ending. She was hurt by his disertion and what better way back than to inflict the same to him. I was not expecting murder or suicide. She gained her strength and finally grew a backbone. The ending was well played. Her ascension up the stairs while Morris knocked frantically and the look on her face was the stuff of great acting and direction. A fantastic ending.

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The ending is perfect. This woman was being used by a man who didn't love her but just wanted her for her money. When he met her at the party, Morris knew what he was doing and all the rest was nothing more than playing a part in some show he created.

The first time I saw this movie and saw the ending, I was left speechless. Monty played his part to perfection. You could feel the desperation.

Morris knocking on the door was like someone who knew they were getting ready to drown. He was fighting for his survival. And that's why I believe it is a powerful ending. Katherine could have opened the door and saved Morris, but she would not have saved herself.... she realized, finally, that Morris didn't love her and it was best to just let him go.

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[deleted]

I also at first thought she was going to commit suicide or possibly disappear as Morris returned (much like Morris did when she waited).

But now I'm thinking that the end of her embroidery is more symbolic; she finally has closure to that portion of her life by getting her revenge on Morris. That life consisted of embroidery or at least embroidery was the only thing she was good at. Now that she has closed that chapter of her life, she can also quit embroidering as now she has begun to master other traits.

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Adding to your point, she decided to quit her embroidery after years of doing it for the fact that it was the only thing she was good at until she finally wised up and realize Morris' true intentions. She had grown strong and found strength in herself, that she is good in other things besides embroidery.

🌈
HRH Darth Madonna of Minas Tirith, servant of Eywah


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But she *hasn't* gained mastery of anything else. All she has done is inherit her father's poisonous view of the world, as evidenced by the cutting -- yes, cutting -- things she says to her aunt and to the maid who compliments her.

*If* this were a 20th- or 21st-century movie and *if* Catherine saw a good therapist and leanred how to gain confidence and develop herself as a person, then we could interpret the cut thread as the end of one chapter and the start of another.

But it isn't, and she hasn't. Even the luckiest 19th-century women had nothing more than a tiny domestic sphere, and Catherine -- with her unhappy inheritance -- has sunk deeper and deeper into an insular, tiny world and into her own bitterness. That's all she's got, and that's what makes the ending tragic.

"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."

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It's a part of what makes this film so sticking and so open to interpretation. If thought about, one can certainly convince themselves that her comment about this being the last needlework is a good thing, and it still may be. That seeing Morris again and recognizing how transparent his ploy was had broken the spell. That she didn't have to live in the shadow of her father or of Morris any longer, sitting at home doing needlework or walking the same stretch of street she and Morris had on the night they could have been wed and being flooded with the memory of it.

But, her prior comment to Maria, presuming the compliment from her maid was meant only to butter her up so that Maria could ask off for a walk, shows how skeptical Catherine now is. Too skeptical. She's overlearned her lesson and succumbed to a worldview just as rigid, transactional and perfunctory as her father had. To say simply that she's finally found her strength and voice is fairly inaccurate.

___
I used to think I knew everything about the world. Now I just know that it's round.

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The needlework gave Catherine pleasure as a young woman. It wasn't a useless "girlie" endeavor. Now Catherine takes no real pleasure in anything. She didn't quit needlepoint because she now thought it was frivolous; she quit it because she now despised the trusting girl she had been.

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I liked the ending. Though she was destined to being a spinster for the rest of her life, it was much better than letting this loser in.

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