Despite the fact that alternative endings have been shot for some of our best pictures, I maintain that such a practice is an artistic idiocy and an economic folly. There may be discussion during the story-building stages of what ending logic would dictate. Opinions would differ, but before shooting begins such differences should be composed and the picture given the ending that the majority mind decided was the logical one. To shoot two or more endings is a childish practice, a sad confession by the production staff that it does not understand the story it is putting on the screen. The practice is an off-shoot of executive indifference to waste.
Dollars are the cheapest things to be found on any of the big lots.
On the payrolls are men who could recognize the proper ending for a given story, but in the executive offices are men who are afraid of themselves and who squander scores of thousands of dollars each year while trying to make up their minds, with which they are furnished quite scantily. When exhibitors fail to be impressed by the cost of a picture a move may be made to reduce the cost. Metro will sell The Crowd to exhibitors on the strength of the large sum it took to make it, which puts a premium on extravagance. Exhibitors reason that if it took that much money it must be good, and buy it on that theory.