I think the Hays Code started getting enforced 1932 or 1933 (at the script level). If he was an actual murderer, the crime doesn’t pay angle has to come in to play. If he’s not, it doesn’t. The ending would seemingly be a subversion so he doesn’t have to pay based on the story told. It may have been specifically thumbing its nose at the code. Would that make it better for you?
Not really. Still totally destroys the story I just watched. The question of who’s exactly to blame is interesting and seems open for debate, but it’s a step past an assessment of whether the ending was atrocious or not (it absolutely was).
Some magazine said it was the best film noir of all time, so now I may need to check it out. The ending doesn’t seem as bad when reading the plot on wikipedia, because his series of events never should have been believable to begin with. That makes the rug pull better to me.
Here’s the answer to the whodunit of your purported claim of the film being murdered:
Fritz Lang claimed that the ending, which all turns out to be a dream, was his idea, because he felt the idea of Wanley committing suicide was anti-climactic
Yeah, I mean before the ending I would have mostly had high marks but would have noted that the initial premise (of the woman being attracted to him to begin with) made it difficult to buy in at first, but it sounds like the book did that better too. She was apparently a prostitute in that, which takes care of the “why would she even be giving him the time of day?” thing.
I did see that when I was reading up after the movie. Wasn’t sure whether to take it on face value or not. This whole thing actually mirrors the movie-within-a-movie subplot in The Player (1992) quite closely. Not sure if you’ve seen that one.
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I didn’t see anything that suggested there were code changes to the movie. My guess is that the Hieldt character would have caused a big commotion there, so the easiest way to take care of that issue is the ending. It would have been taken care of at the script stage because the end Hieldt scene likely wouldn’t have made it in the script without that ending. Nunnally Johnson was one of the greats in Hollywood and I’m guessing he was on board with any change, especially if it allowed the Hieldt character to remain intact.
I have not seen The Player. I’ve never been able to get into Altman because of the irritating way he handles dialog. I worked on McCabe and Mrs. Miller back in the day, but that may have been in the era where I didn’t even have time to watch the movie by itself when doing a commentary. I can barely remember anything about it even though it’s considered one of his best. Maybe I’d appreciate it more at 53 than I did being 31 or 32. I thought the overlapping dialog of Jaws was one of its best attributes after seeing it in 2020, so I may be able to be converted.
Code would have killed she was a prostitute unless she’s murdered. They liked murdered prostitutes.
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Splittsville (2025)
Written by someone who has never observed a real human relationship. They must have grown up on total isolation in some locked basement. Not a single line of dialogue, not a single action, not a single moment on this film is believable as something any human has ever done. The acting is horrible. The direction is amateurish. The score makes no sense.
Absolutely one of the worst movies of the year.
Grade: F
No redeeming qualities.
Are you sure it’s not worth a C?
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No
You’re not sure then? Good good
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It’s got decent reviews which shocks me. I really really hated it. 
My uncle had a ladder slip out from under him and shatter both his ankles. He was in surgery 8 hours and has never been the same.
He was a general contractor and had pre-Obamacare private insurance. So of course his plan went into a death spiral and jacked up his rates 4x within a year or two.
Yeah these ladder accidents can really fuck people up. I worked with a guy years and years ago who was one of the senior people at my company. He was mid career exec and everything was going great for him and one October he went up on a ladder to clean the eavestroughs at his cottage and you can guess what happened. He fell and hit his head on impact, fractured his face all around the eye socket and had serious concussion and other isseus. He was on disability for ages, he did come back eventually and his head was a different shape forever. Just crazy.
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Ladders confirmed evil. When I was with a big company we had a 4 foot rule otherwise a tie-off was needed (or use a lift).
can’t tell you how many contractors got disinvited from the plant site even though they all individually had to sign off on the policy and it was posted all over. Employees would get 1 warning.
While my uncle was recovering in a wheel chair, I went over to his house to clean his gutters. It was around Thanksgiving, and I was 20 or so, stupid and immortal.
I started running around on the roof since it was shallow enough to walk on. But I didn’t calculate that the water I was spraying to clean the gutters would freeze on the roof. I slipped off, snagged the ladder on the way down, and somehow landed on the ladder after falling 15 feet, with nothing but a sore ass. (Yes I’ve told this story before. I can’t find it, nor the MS Paint someone had me make.)
There is no slower time than falling off a roof time.
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Just watched Friendship. Holy hell what a trip. The cringe was off the charts. Loved it.
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The Ugly Stepsister (2025)
This is a truly fucked up Cinderella retelling. It’s body horror, so be prepared. I had to look away for several sequences
A Lonely Place to Die (2011)
While hiking and climbing in the Scottish Highlands, a group of five mountaineers discover a young Serbian girl buried alive. In the attempt to get the girl to safety, they become caught up in a terrifying game of cat and mouse with the kidnappers.
A surprising and refreshing spin on the slasher in the woods genre. The movie goes in a few surprising directions. Great for fans of Backcountry and What Keeps You Alive. 3.5/5
This is on Tubi.
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You mfkers better not be wrong about Friendship.