The End

[Bodo Sch=%ISO-8859-1?Q?=f6nfelder?=]

Dear Melanie,

After a considerable time I read your mail and the responses. The 
different ending of Caligari is a complete myth. The ending as we know 
it, was already in the first script and never changed. In the silent era 
they shot a lot of different endings especially before WW1, to accomodate 
to different national tastes, sometimes for political reason. In Russia 
sad and melancholic endings, so western producers shot happy endings for 
the west and sad for Russia, and vice versa. There is a Gerhard Hauptmann 
story Atlantis, which takes place near the polar region, where in one 
ending the couple reunites, wheras in the Russian ending the woman dies. 
I have seen some others, but can#t remember the titles. now. In the USSR 
imported western films were edited with new endings along the line of 
proletarian class struggle. In the USA., the silent version of Anna 
Karenina with Greta Garbo and John Gilbert (I can't remember the title 
now) had two endings, one along the storyline of the book, the other a 
more optimistic. Both are saved.
Abschied by Robert Siodmak got a new ending by the UFA for the rerun, 
because they thought the original too depressing. There are strong hints 
that they shot a new ending for The strange case of uncle Harry by the 
same director was shot to change the horrfic story into a bad dream.
G.W. Pabst: The sound release of Die weisse Hoelle von Piz Palue during 
the Third Reich got a more nationalistic tone and ending. His Mamoiselle 
Docteur about a German spy during WW1 got a new ending after WW2 due to 
the general atmosphere and the fact, that the original negative seemed 
lost. In the original ending she survives a car wreck ending as a honored 
patient in a mental hospital (she had to betray her lover), in the second 
she dies in the car wreck. There were two endings in Die geheimnisvolle 
Tiefe, shot in Austria after WW1 with Ilse Werner and Paul Hubschmid, a 
variation on Piz Palue with a tragic ending where the couple dies in a 
cave, a more postive with a rescue in the last moment. The last version 
has survived in France.
There is strong evidence, that Veit Harlan shot different endings for Jud 
Suess and Kolberg, where alterations were ordered by Goebbels. But 
different material doesn't seem to have survived.
Rossellin: Paisa has the last episode cut in Germany not to offend former 
soldiers by the killing of partisans. Stromboli has a positive voice over 
in the American version. Different endings also in Fear. See Peter 
Brunette's book on Rossellini, the forthcoming publication by Tag 
Gallagher and many more texts.
Some of the "Godzilla"-films had different endings in Europe due to the 
fact of the knowledge of and sympathies to the monsters by the European 
audience.
A similar case are the first imported martial arts films from Hong Kong 
and Taiwan.
As single films I can remember The invasion of the body snatchers by Don 
Siegel, where the producers feared the gruesome ending and oderede a new 
beginning and ending, which makes the story into a flashback with a 
possible hopeful ending.
Shortly before WW2 Erich von Stroheim acted in a film in France (I can't 
remember the title, but I've seen it). He plays an Middle European 
refugee, who commits suicide out of fear of the Nazis. After the war a 
new ending was shot with some hope for the survivors.
A careful research would reveal a lot more cases than to be expected. The 
difficulties are the many myths in film history. But there are some 
objective difficulties, besides not knowing every possible film. 
Sometimes it is difficult to decide, whether a different ending was only 
on paper or dicussed during shooting or just tried out for the editing 
table or the previews. Or the case of distributors in different 
countries. That there is no film material left doesn't mean, that there 
never was something. The condition of saving film are too precarious. And 
even the careful research of files, production sheets and other archival 
material doesn't lead to a secure judgement in many cases.

Bodo Schoenfelder