--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Mark Sullivan <DJ-Anonyme@...> wrote:
>
> Well, you can thank the Production Code for that. Good Catholic that he was, Jo Breen (and his minions) mandated a lot of changes, particularly in endings, to make sure morality was rewarded and immorality paid for.
>
> Which raises the question of whether anyone really bought those happy endings. I always laugh at the happy ending of Pickup on South Street. Richard Widmark is going to go straight? Sure he is. What will he do? His only skill is as a pickpocket.
>
I'm with you. I don't think the audience bought the happy endings. How about Hitchcock's _Suspicion_. Cary Grant took care of it, no matter what the code dictated.
And we were discussing this vey question of "happy" endings in relation to Charlie Huston's _Caught Stealing_, which I had mentioned as an example where the protagonist doesn't go down the tubes. And your rejoinder was very apposite: But look what happens next!
The protagonist of Kent Harrington's _Dark Ride_ is another guy about whose fate one can say, after reading the novel: yeah, right, keep at it boy...
Best,
mrt
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