*Spolier* Why did they change the ending? - Sweet Charity (1969) Discussion

[–] DryToast 19 years ago

What I have read is that Fosse was so desperate for the success of this film that he anticipated what he supposed the studio's reaction to an "unhappy" ending would be and filmed this dreadful, unconvincing, silly happy ending. The studio in this case agreed with us and asked for the "unhappy" ending instead. (The film bombed anyway.)

Have you seen the film on TV with the happy ending shown in place of the real ending? Or just as an "extra scene" afterwards?

I have made enough faces.

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[–] gaelicguy 19 years ago

I never knew two endings were filmed. Just as well. The 'happy' ending sounds awful.

I'd be curious to know where Sandy lives. Seems like the UK or Australia, maybe?

Don't you snap your finger at ME, lady.

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[–] SandySmith 19 years ago

That's right, UK. They showed this film a couple of weeks ago on TV, with just the alternate "happy" ending. If you haven't seen it, your not missing anything!

I can see the point about the studio worrying how a "sad" ending would sell, but it's not as if she kills herself! The original ending is happy enough, and fits with what we know of the characters. Oscar could not reconcile himself with Charity's background, and his honesty may seem harsh (and his timing lousy!), but it was for the best.

I think a mature adult audience can accept that - we don't need everything sugar-coated. As we grow older we acquire a taste for the bitter things in life, bitter but honest. It's a shame the studio and/or producer were so worried about the reaction.

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[–] jcurrie58 19 years ago

I didn't know the film had a happy ending until I saw the film on British TV on Sunday. I thought something was amiss when Oscar's line to Charity when they were registering their marriage that he couldn't go through with it because of her "past" was missing. It's the first time that I've seen the film screened with this happy ending. I'm not sure that it works. Oscar was supposed to be a bit of a prude (maybe virginal?) and the fact that he would accept Charity as she was just didn't ring true. Plus, I loved the scene at the end in Central Park with the flower children. Wonder why they screened this version?

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[–] Tilyou1 16 years ago

As I made clear in another post, I despised this film.

Let me add the point that a movie with two endings is a movie that's almost always bad: it's a serious sign the film's makers were mixed up.

In this case for good reasons. There is a problem in this movie, and it's not the ending.

T

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[–] Isaac5855 18 years ago

Personally, I would have hated that alternate ending...it would just be so unbelievable. Oscar waits until they are applying for their wedding license and then right in front of a bunch of people tells her he can't marry her now because of her past. He knew during the party scene where they sing "I Love to Cry at Weddings" that he wasn't going to marry her then. He knew the minute he saw that tatoo on her arm that he wasn't going to marry her. He waited until the zero hour and let the girl get on her knees and beg him to marry her and then just left her there at the license bureau. Then we are supposed to believe that he would come back, say he was a fool, and that her past doesn't matter? No, I wouldn't have been able to swallow that.

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[–] stalzz64 18 years ago

I saw it on the TCM channel (I think).

They ran the film as normal, then at the end the on screen host came on and said, now here's the way the film ended in the original 'studio version' before it was released. Bob Fosse absolutely refused to let it end on a happy note because hey, life isn't always happy--Not your typical 'Hollywood ending'.

I agree the way Fosse envisioned it is the only way it should have ended!! It is kind of interesting to see the unreleased 'happy' ending, though. It is included as an extra bonus feature as well on the DVD here in the US.

This is still one of the greatest movie musicals ever!!!!

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[–] movibuf1962 18 years ago

(more spoiler stuff...but at this point, you must know!!)

I only knew of the alternate ending as a 'special feature' in the DVD release. I've never seen it actually broadcast that way. Plus, the true ending is much more emotionally shattering, in the best possible way. After Charity contemplates the bridge, the simple one-word message of 'love' from the flower children in the dawn brings her smile back. Then she takes a deep breath, tilts her head back, and saunters forward-- and I begin bawling my eyes out.

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[–] FrankElliottMoore 18 years ago

yeah, i really like when bud cort and the flower people say good morning and then she is then alive again

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[–] michellemorgan75 18 years ago

I'd only ever seen the realistic 'unhappy' ending and had even played it that way when we did a performance of it at school so I was gobsmacked when my brother called me a couple of months ago to say that he'd seen it on tv with a different ending. I coupldn't envisage how bad it really was until they showed it in the UK about a fortnight ago. Like somebody else said earlier, we're adults, did the studio execs think we couldn't cope with reality? Most of us have had relationship break-ups and it's the way in which Charity picks herself up and dusts herself off that is most inspiring. The happy ending is nauseating. (Not bitter and twisted, honest!!)

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[–] laurence01 18 years ago

I don't know how or why the station showed that ending. It is not supooised to be on ane prints. It is given as an extra on the dvd.

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[–] prosebank 17 years ago

I first saw the movie on A&E, about 15 years ago, with the happy ending.

It was only a few years later, when I bought the video, that I saw the unhappy ending, and wondered if I'd only imagined seeing the happy ending on A&E. The video also had several scenes made up of stills, which I thought were examples of rather pretentiously arty cinematography. They were actually re-creations of scenes that had been cut, to shorten the film. The reconstructed Judy Garland version of "A Star Is Born" uses the same technique to restore scenes that had been cut, purely to shorten it so exhibitors could squeeze in more screenings each day.

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[–] laurence01 17 years ago

I think in the case of "sweet charity" you are right about the "arty cinematography", because the stills are used to show the passage of time. Not to reconstruct scenes. In england the long version is the only one ever shown and has always had the stills.

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[–] scotbpens 15 years ago

The use of sequences made up of stills was popular at the time the film was made. The device got old pretty quickly, and now it's one of those things like swish pans, "solarized" film, and slit-scan effects that just scream "late 1960s."

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[–] Isaac5855 16 years ago

I can't tell you how many times I've since SWEET CHARITY since its release in 1969, but I have never seen that alternate "happy" ending...and have no desire to see it either.

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[–] Isaac5855 15 years ago

Thank God, Fosse had to the sense to forbit the "happy ending", because after the rest of the film, it just wouldn't have made sense.

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[–] VelvetVoice 17 years ago

Actually, when I was a kid, I saw the 'happy' ending and I always remembered it that way. We did the play in high school, and Oscar accidentally pushes her into the water, like the guy did in the beginning of the movie. Of course, since I went through half my life, I always thought that all love affairs ended happily. I still think that way.

Velvet Voice

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[–] laurence01 17 years ago

"Actually, when I was a kid, I saw the 'happy' ending and I always remembered it that way. We did the play in high school, and Oscar accidentally pushes her into the water, like the guy did in the beginning".

The show always ends like this. Then followd by the "cbs fairy" scene. In which charety thinks the fairy is talking to her but it is really a publicity stunt for a tv program. The show uses the sad ending but in such a way as to make it funny. It ends with charity cebtre stage in the same pose as she is in at the begining. Seen in the film during the opening titles.

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[–] justoldbill 17 years ago

The film has a very wierd history. I'm convinced it was never released the same way twice. A friend saw the Chicago premiere and it was the uncut film with the original ending. When the "roadshow" engagement premiered in Indianapolis a couple of months later, it had been trimmed by about twenty minutes and shown with the "happy" ending, but retained the full overture, intermission, entr'acte and exit music! I didn't see the original ending until two years later. I think I've seen four or five different theatrical cuts of this film since 1969.

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[–] mp989 17 years ago

I'm a huge musiucal and Fosse fan and I don't wanna get bombed for sayign this but I actually think the happy ending isn't all that bad. I'm sure glad it wasn't used but as far as a "happy" version for the show is it actually pretty much works and has some good lines.

It certainly isn't like--for example--the big movie version in the 60s of Tenn Williams Sweet Bird of Youth which used the Broadway stars Geraldine Paige and Pauyl Newman but changed the ending from the tragedy of the original (let's just say it involves a castration) to the hero and his love interest escaping in a motor boat!

E

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[–] DundoreMusik 17 years ago

It's the original show's ending that I like the best. The flower children are just too dated and out-of-place. The fairy ending is hilarious!

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[–] murph24 17 years ago

I couldn't agree more - the best ending for SWEET CHARITY was the original Broadway version with the Good Fairy (as played by Ruth Buzzi before she hit it big on LAUGH-IN). I saw the film in 1969, and the 'flower children' ending ALREADY looked dated; people in the theater actually chuckled at their vacant, self-consciously 'groovy' manner. You'd think they just wandered off the set of BEWITCHED - or SKIDOO!

The alternate 'happy' ending isn't perfect, but I'll take it over these Central Casting hippies any day.

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[–] sr_wolfrider 17 years ago

Having written the film, Fellini was quite upset about the ending change as well. In one book he speaks of almost wanting to disown being a part of it.

Last film seen: Robert Bresson's Pickpocket - Brilliant!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053168/

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[–] laurence01 17 years ago

Fellini had absolutly nothing to do with this film. It is simply based on a film of his. The was written by "neil simon". Fellini can not disown it because he did not own it in the first place

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[–] Isaac5855 16 years ago

I'm so glad I have never seen this "alternate ending." I think you lose much of impact of the story if Charity and Oscar live happily ever after. The whole point of the story is that Charity is a girl who has been kicked in the teeth by life and men forever and though she comes close with Oscar, you can tell from the moment at the party where Oscar notices the "Charlie" tattoo on Charity's arm, that Oscar is never going to be comfortable with the person Charity is and that, once again, things are going to end badly for Charity.

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[–] msfnyc 16 years ago

This was based on the movie Nights of Cabiria by Fellini. If you have seen the film you will see how much Sweet Charity follows Nights in form and story. Actually, it is more the mood and feel. It is a must for anyone who likes Sweet Charity. Also, the ending of Nights is much like Sweet Charity. Any other ending and I would have been very disappointed. I saw "Nights" first, a few years back and saw Sweet Charity recently.

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[–] infoed 16 years ago

I agree that the "unhappy" ending works best especially because Oscar coems across as such a coward. Who would want him back after the way he humiliates her?

I think the hippies look a bit stereotypical, but I like how they are similar to the young revelers Cabiria meets on the road at the end of "Nights of Cabiria."

Also, the ending of "Cabiria" makes me bawl but "Chairty" doesn't.

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[–] patchofblue65 16 years ago

I have the DVD and watch it at least once per year and I am watching it now. I like the "unhappy" ending because it fits the characters better. The Oscar guy is an uptight dude and he doesn't deserve her. She will soldier on in life and she may or may not find her man - she doesn't need some uptight Wallstreet dude in her life. Anyways life doesn't always have a "Disney" ending, some relationships (most?) never work out and people just move on in their lives.

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[–] Harold_Robbins 16 years ago

The original ending was of course more true to the source film, Fellini's Le Notti de Cabiria.

"Stone-cold sober I find myself absolutely fascinating!"---Katharine Hepburn

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[–] Isaac5855 16 years ago

Fosse did film an alternate ending at the studio's request that was more upbeat, but they finally opted for the original ending. I think a "happy" ending would have destroyed the whole point of Charity's story.

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