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HE END...OR WAS IT?

Anyone with a casual interest in film knows that sometimes a movie has more than one ending shot. Sometimes as an afterthought but most of the time after initial test screenings were greeted with negative reactions. Fatal Attraction is a classic example. In the original version Michael Douglas's adultery commiting-ass is hauled off to prison after the suicide commiting crazy lady Glenn Close frames him for her murder. Wham! Right? But no - supposedly audiences couldn't take such a downer ending in which the supposed male protagonist "hero" is done in by his evil deed. No let's give it a more conventional slasher ending with Close assaulting Douglas and wife Anne Archer and with a cliched she's-dead-no-she's-not-dead mentality driving it and audiences will love it! Well actually they did. Fatal Attraction was a huge hit for Paramount even making the cover of Time Magazine so maybe they played their cards right. Actually adultery as a social issue in the news was the real factor behind it's success I believe so the ending would've resonated more in it's original incarnation I believe as well. The special edition Fatal Attraction DVD (Paramount) contains the alternate ending so all is not lost.

Shortly before that the remake of The Little Shop Of Horrors was retinkered with to give it a happier ending in which Seymour (Rick Moranis) and Audrey (Ellen Greene) win the battle against gigantic killer plant Audrey 2 and run off happily to the suburbs and wedded bliss. The 1986 movie was based on the stage play that comically reworked the campy 1960 Roger Corman flick into a twisted '50's'sci-fi musical. The play on stage retained the original movie's ending in which Audrey 2 ate Seymour, his girlfriend Aubrey and everybody else then growing big enough to demolish New York and proceed to make a feast of the entire planet. There was even a song that accompanied this - "Don't Feed the Plants". Apparently test audiences disliked this ending and the happy ending was made and it was the only one ever after. To this day the original ending is a rare disc extra. A 1998 special edition of the film had it included but it was recalled (!) by David Geffen who hadn't given permission to use the footage to Warner Brothers. So don't look for it on DVD now but maybe it'll surface someday.

Also notable for being absent on what would be an excellent special edition DVD release is the alternate pie fight ending to Dr. Strangelove. That's right - a pie fight in the war

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