The Friday Five

I love watching movies. There are lots of movies I can sit and watch over and over again without ever getting tired of seeing the movie. But there are a handful of these movies which I love, that I wish had a different, happier ending or something different happened in the movie. The movies I have in mind are kind of old, like me, but I'll be giving away a spoiler. If you haven't seen Carrie, von Ryan's Express, The Day the Earth Stood Still ( the real one with Michael Rennie), How Green Was My Valley, or The Great Escape, you might want to skip this post.

1. Carrie I wish Carrie would go to the prom and have a really nice time. Tommy would take her home. She'd have her first good night kiss. Then there would be graduation. Carrie would leave her whack job of a mother to go far away to college, discover a cure for cancer, win a Nobel prize and go back to reunion and thumb her nose at the jerks who made fun of her.

2. The Day the Earth Stood Still This isn't a spoiler as I love this movie, but I wish one small scene could be changed. Klaatu has to provide a small demonstration to get the Earth people's attention without causing harm. He neutralizes the electricity all around the world for a half an hour. Scenes are flashed of traffic stopped, people wondering what the heck is going on. One poor woman is trying to figure out why her washing machine stopped mid-cycle. I feel so bad for this housewife. Klaatu manages to exclude planes in flight and hospitals from the neutralization. I've always wished he'd just let this poor woman's laundry finish so she wouldn't have to redo that load of wash.

3. How Green Was My Valley When Roddy McDowell as Huw is going through the mine after the disaster searching for his father and calling "Daaaaa-dah!" I've always wished the father played by Donald Crisp would yell back "Here, boy! I'm here, Huw" Oh and that the preacher (Walter Pidgeon) would let Angharad (Maureen O'Hara) know how he feels about her so they could get married and live a happy life.

4. The Great Escape. I wish Handley, the Scrounger was able to fly the plane over the border to Switzerland where he and Colin, the Forger would be able to celebrate their escape with a proper cup of tea. "Tea without milk is so barbaric." I'd also like Ashley-Pitt (David McCallum) to just calmly walk away and catch a later train. Bet you thought I was hoping Steve McQueen wouldn't crash the motorcycle.

5. von Ryan's Express I've always wanted Ryan (Frank Sinatra) to make the train.

Are there any movies you wished had a different ending?