Or, if you will, inorganic, tacked-on bullshit endings…written and shot at the last minute in hopes of making the audience feel better or less dispirited. Endings that might convey a friendlier, more even-toned feeling, but which lack integrity.
Last night I somehow slid into a viewing of Love Me Tender, and yep, the re-shot ending lacks integrity. With Elvis Presley‘s “Clint” dead and buried, the five remaining members of the Reno family — played by Richard Egan, Debra Paget, Mildred Dunnock, William CampbellJames Drury — leave the graveyard and return to their home. Grim and flat. So 20th Century Fox went with a Gunga Din finale — they blended a short clip of the dead Presley singing the title tune, and double-exposed it over the end credits.
It’s not as effective as the actual Gunga Din ending (Sam Jaffe‘s heroic titular character wearing the uniform of a British solder, smiling and saluting) but it’s better than just “Clint is dead and its back to work but at least Egan gets to marry Paget.”
A friend recently re-watched Sydney Pollack‘s Absence of Malice. The final scene between Paul Newman and Sally Field on his boat a tacked-on bullshit quality, he feels. It reeks of studio meddling. Wikipedia agrees: “It is unclear whether [Field’s] Carter keeps her job, or whether Carter’s relationship with Gallagher [Newman] will continue, but the final scene shows them having a cordial conversation on the wharf where Gallagher’s boat is docked before he sails away and leaves the city.”
Friendo: “Maybe you should do a column about tacked-on happy endings like this one. It feels so different from the rest of the film. Of course, the big one is Fatal Attraction but there are others.”