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I saw it with a different ending SPOILER

posted 12 years ago by Tresix
3 replies | jump to latest

Maybe instead of "different", I should say "re-edited". Admittedly, I saw this at a second-run house. The original ending had the wounded Tommy stagger to his old neighborhood with the ledger, looking up and saying "Joe!" when the boys come up and start beating him to death. Stealing his shoes and watch and we see the title card telling us that it's now 1973. Then the credits start rolling. What I saw at the s-rh: Tommy staggers to the old 'hood, says Joe's name, then the screen goes black and the credits start to roll. I'm guessing that, after seeing the box-office take, the studio re-released it with Tommy's death edited out so that they could get a sequel made.

Yippee: "For king!"
Yappee: "For country!"
Yahooie: "And, most of all, for 10¢ an hour!"

[–] balducci2 11 years ago

It is explained in the Larry Cohen's Director's Commentary for the sequel Hell Up in Harlem. It is a little confusing. Larry Cohen says:

They did originally film his death.

The death sequence was removed from the American / domestic release.

The death sequence accidentally remained in the original negative and accidentally got into the foreign release as a result. The death sequence also got into the home video because it was also made from the original negative.

Cohen goes on to say that even in the death sequence, it was not entirely clear that Black Caesar was absolutely dead. After all, he was a tough guy.

[–] Tresix 11 years ago

Weird! But the ending of "Black Caesar" doesn't exactly match up to the beginning of "Hell Up in Harlem". "Hell…" recaps footage from "Black Caesar", but has the scene of Tommy calling his gang to come and get him added to it. From the way it looked in "Hell…", the call comes after he makes it back to the old neighborhood.

"I'm in such bad shape, I'm wearing prescription underwear." Phyllis Diller 1917-2012

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

I saw it with a different ending *SPOILER*

I saw it with a different ending SPOILER