He Married The Wrong Woman

[Fading Fast]

How many times do you watch a movie and, at the end, the male lead chooses the wrong woman?

Not that often, but when it does happen, it drives me crazy. Three movies where it happens are:

- "Gentlemen's Agreement" where Gregory Peck marries the uptight Dorothy McGuire instead of the fun, intelligent, gets-the-joke Celeste Holm

- "The Lost Weekend" where Ray Milland marries the too-good Jane Wyman instead of the genuinely interesting and lovely Doris Dowling (okay, she's a lady of the night, but you know she's got the grit and decency needed to get one through life without losing one's joy of life)

- "I Know Where I'm Going" where Roger Livesey marries the self-absorbed and simply annoying-in-this-role Wendy Hiller instead of the salt-of-the-earth and smart as heck Pamela Brown

What are your favorite or most painful movie example of a man choosing the wrong women or women choosing the wrong man?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I always thought at the end of Gone With The Wind, Scarlett should have yelled after Rhett, "WELL THE HELL WITH YOU THEN!" That's how I would have written it.

 

[Fading Fast]

I always thought at the end of Gone With The Wind, Scarlett should have yelled after Rhett, "WELL THE HELL WITH YOU THEN!" That's how I would have written it.

Don't disagree as I am not a fan of either of them, but she was a bit more insufferable. He was more obnoxious as a man of his time.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Ïvanhoe,"(1952). I'm not knocking Joan Fontaine, but how Ivanhoe could pick her over 20-year-old Liz Taylor escapes me. Sure, Lady Rowena was an heiress and Rebecca was a Jewish moneylender'daughter and a Jewish wife and in-laws was a bit of a social no-no in 12th century England, but come on, Liz Taylor at 20? Gimme a break.

 

[2jakes]

Casablanca movie is .99

Now it’s 100 % perfect !

 

[Thunderhead19]

What was the name of that movie...where this wealthy English bachelor hosts this man and his mistress, who are going to run away together. He connives to keep then there and then half way through the movie the wife shows up at the same place with her lover (because they're running away together), and the host further connives to keep them all there until the husband eventually leaves with his wife. The mistress was by far the better choice.

 

[Fading Fast]

Casablanca movie is .99

Now it’s 100 % perfect !

The romantic in me agrees, but the "bigger" point they were trying to make is that sacrificing love to defend freedom against the nazis was the nobler thing to do. That was what Rick's entire, "I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill a beans in this crazy world..." speech was about.

Your way, definitely, would have made a more pleasing ending, but they wanted us to feel that everyone was being noble for the cause. Personally, I thought Paul Henreid was pretty wooden in the role - hard to see Bergman's character passionately in love with him. Henreid was, possibly, the only actor who didn't bring his or her A-game to that movie.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Besides, that ending would ruin all the online fan-fiction where Rick and Capt. Renault end up together.

 

[Fading Fast]

^^^ yup that too. I only recently heard that line of reasoning - apparently, I'm late to that theory.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

And then there was the Code. Rick and Ilsa's fling in Paris could be tolerated because she thought her husband was dead, but continuing the affair after she knew he was alive never could have flown in Middle America of the Code years.

 

[Edward]

Having them get together at the end would have been appalling. One of the very worst affectations of modern period Hollywood is the contrived, easy, "happy" ending. Just look at how they ruined Breakfast at Tiffany's by changing the perfect ending in the book.

 

[Fading Fast]

And then there was the Code. Rick and Ilsa's fling in Paris could be tolerated because she thought her husband was dead, but continuing the affair after she knew he was alive never could have flown in Middle America of the Code years.

Agreed. And they abide by the code in the scene in Rick's apartment above the bar when Ilsa comes for the letters of transit (the greatest McGuffin of them all), but it doesn't take much to understand what really happened - and Rick even refers to it later when he tells Lazlo, "She did her best to convince me she was still in love with me...." Sure, they followed the code, but the search light flashing in and every other clue tells you what really happened up there.

 

[scotrace]

Alternative ending:

 

[Denton]

The Palm Beach Story is an interesting example of marrying the wrong one. This movie has a frame story that comes into view only in the opening and closing montages. Both Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea appear to be twins, and no one seems to know for sure if they are marrying the twin they want.

In Strangers On a Train, I prefer the evil ex-wife to the wholesome fiancee.

In I Know Where I'm Going, Roger Livesay's character is cursed, so it seems inevitable that he would have to marry the wrong one.

In the "Bogart's best role" thread below, a number of people seem to agree that Marlowe in The Big Sleep would have been better off with Dorothy Malone!

 

[Fading Fast]

The Palm Beach Story is an interesting example of marrying the wrong one. This movie has a frame story that comes into view only in the opening and closing montages. Both Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea appear to be twins, and no one seems to know for sure if they are marrying the twin they want.

In Strangers On a Train, I prefer the evil ex-wife to the wholesome fiancee.

In I Know Where I'm Going, Roger Livesay's character is cursed, so it seems inevitable that he would have to marry the wrong one.

In the "Bogart's best role" thread below, a number of people seem to agree that Marlowe in The Big Sleep would have been better off with Dorothy Malone!

I can never make it through "The Palm Beach Story" as I can't stand Rudy Vallee's character in it and the movie's screwballness is just too much for me.

I'm going to have to watch "Strangers On a Train" again as neither character is jumping out at me.

Nice catch on the curse on Livesay's character - you imply but don't say, do you think he married the wrong woman?

After watching the scene Bogie's character has with Malone in the bookstore in "The Big Sleep," I'm not sure everyman on earth wouldn't have been better off with her.

 

[Rudie]

Ïvanhoe,"(1952). I'm not knocking Joan Fontaine, but how Ivanhoe could pick her over 20-year-old Liz Taylor escapes me. Sure, Lady Rowena was an heiress and Rebecca was a Jewish moneylender'daughter and a Jewish wife and in-laws was a bit of a social no-no in 12th century England, but come on, Liz Taylor at 20? Gimme a break.

Wasn't Liz Taylor the one with six or eight husbands? Good judgement by Ivanhoe, I say.

 

[2jakes]

Marlowe must’ve been asleep in “The Big Sleep”.

This babe hands him her calling card . Marlowe asks if she’s available .
She replies,
"I’m available day & night, but I work days."

I’d go with this doll
anywhere, anytime.

 

[Denton]

Nice catch on the curse on Livesay's character - you imply but don't say, do you think he married the wrong woman?

Wendy Hiller is a great performer with a ton of energy, and the movie I Know Where I'm Going succeeds in large part through her work. But maybe that isn't the same thing as recommending her character as a life partner.

I love the scene where she dreams that she is marrying a chemical factory. Maybe the factory would have been a better match for her?

 

[Fading Fast]

Wendy Hiller is a great performer with a ton of energy, and the movie I Know Where I'm Going succeeds in large part through her work. But maybe that isn't the same thing as recommending her character as a life partner.

I love the scene where she dreams that she is marrying a chemical factory. Maybe the factory would have been a better match for her?

I enjoy her very much as an actress and never more so than in "Separate Tables" where she underplays her emotions beautifully so that they are only more impactful with the little bits of emotion and pain she does let through. I just thought in "I Know Where I'm Going" she was - and they went to great lengths to show you this - trying to marry for money from a very young age and her sometimes arrogance toward the locals really turned me off to her. All of this made her transition at the end not believable for me.

But, ironically, in "Separate Tables," Burt Lancaster's character marries / goes off with the wrong woman when he chooses the vain, selfish Rita Hayworth's character and not the salt-of-the-earth Hiller's character who truly loves Lancaster's character. In a way, her unfair good fortune in "I Know Where I'm Going" was paid back in "Separate Tables."

Can't believe I forgot about Lancaster's bad choice in "Separate Tables" when I started this thread - he made a horrifically bad choice of whom to marry in that one. I wouldn't give his marriage to Hayworth's character more than a year at best before it shattered in a quite ugly manner.

 

[Benzadmiral]

If it doesn't have to be a Golden Era film, then Michael Douglas has played more than one character who has gotten involved with the wrong woman when he had something better already. In Fatal Attraction he gets involved with Glenn Close (really????) when he's married to Anne Archer, whose character if I recall aright is quite pleasant. You can't say he was escaping a bitter, nasty wife.

Then in Basic Instinct he's involved with the brunette police psychologist who loves him, played by the gorgeous Jeanne Tripplehorn . . . and he has to get himself tangled up with the arrogant and dangerous Sharon Stone. Puh-leeze.