I'm just writing this review to explain how I would have changed the ending if I had gone back in time, been given the chance to re-write the script, and then had my version filmed.
But, of course, that didn't happen.
As far as we know.
Anyway, this movie has such an all-star cast, crew, composer, director-- where did it go wrong? The answer is the mediocre ending. Even if you LIKED the rest of it (as I did) the ending is a flop. It feels as if it were pasted-on in order to make it a "crime doesn't pay" moral lesson, tacked onto a film that in NO WAY should have such a sappy ending.
So what should it have been? Glad you asked!
The bad guy should get away with it. Every sane person in the audience knows that "The Fox" will ALWAYS triumph-- and includes stealing the gold back from the fat guy who steals it from HIM.
That's all. We don't even need to know how he did it. Just "cut to" a smoky cabaret and The Fox in disguise, and his gang appears to cry in their vino about the lost loot, and (surprise) the gold is right under their noses-- the cutlery and all the plates are not just "golden" they ARE gold. (Hence the need for the gorilla searching people on the way out).
Ah yes. If only.
But, of course, that didn't happen.
As far as we know.
Anyway, this movie has such an all-star cast, crew, composer, director-- where did it go wrong? The answer is the mediocre ending. Even if you LIKED the rest of it (as I did) the ending is a flop. It feels as if it were pasted-on in order to make it a "crime doesn't pay" moral lesson, tacked onto a film that in NO WAY should have such a sappy ending.
So what should it have been? Glad you asked!
The bad guy should get away with it. Every sane person in the audience knows that "The Fox" will ALWAYS triumph-- and includes stealing the gold back from the fat guy who steals it from HIM.
That's all. We don't even need to know how he did it. Just "cut to" a smoky cabaret and The Fox in disguise, and his gang appears to cry in their vino about the lost loot, and (surprise) the gold is right under their noses-- the cutlery and all the plates are not just "golden" they ARE gold. (Hence the need for the gorilla searching people on the way out).
Ah yes. If only.