James's Top Five Endings

5. Some Like It Hot (1959) Dir. Billy Wilder
I thought that I would start with a classic ‘funny' ending, before I move into somewhat darker territory with most of the rest of my list. Seriously, though, is this not the wittiest last line in movie history? And it ends one of the most dazzlingly witty films of all time, too, in which two loser jazz musicians (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon) unwittingly witness the St Valentine's Day massacre and flee in drag to Miami, where they meet up with ravishing singer Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe) and her all-girl jazz band. A classic treat, and camp millionaire Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown) adamantly refusing to take no for an answer from Lemmon is just the cherry on the cake.

3. Casablanca (1942) Dir. Michael Curtiz
You must remember this... Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), the owner of Rick's Café Américain, is a bitter US expat in Casablanca in early December 1941. To his ‘mixed' clientele, Rick claims to be neutral in all matters, that is, until the reason for Rick's bitterness comes back into his life, namely his Norwegian former lover Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), who walks into his establishment and asks the house pianist Sam (Dooley Wilson) to play As Time Goes By...and the rest, as they say is history. You don't have a heart beating if you don't cry at Rick's final sacrifice for the woman he loves more than life itself. "Here's looking at you, kid."

4. Brighton Rock (1947) Dir. John Boulting
Even though the UK censors insisted on a softening of the gut-wrenching dénouement to Graham Greene's classic tale of Faustian evil, Christian good and redemption, there's still a lot to be said for making you choose your own ending. Pregnant, bereft and at her lowest ebb, unwitting gangster's pawn Rose (Carol Marsh) plays the recording made by her dead husband. Her dead husband was Pinkie (Richard Attenborough), a gang leader, who married her to keep her off the scent of a murder he ordered. She wants to hear him say "I love you" one last time. As she hears these words of solace, the camera pans to a crucifix on the wall, signifying Pinkie's redemption. Or not.

3. Midnight Cowboy (1969) Dir. John Schlesinger
Probably as well known for the title track (Everybody's Talkin') as the story, Midnight Cowboy is a simple tale of what happens when a small-town boy (Joe Buck, played by Jon Voight) thinks he can go to the bright lights of the big city and make his fortune on looks alone. Except it isn't, not really. The story is really about what happens when that small town boy fails repeatedly and is forced to hook up with a streetwise yet sickly survivor, Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), in order to survive. Their friendship is uncomfortable at times - neither tolerant nor loving but they both seem to have what it takes to stop New York from swallowing them whole. They plan one day to escape the city and move to Florida in the hope of a better life, but tragedy is just a bus ride away -- and it's a testament to the strength of the characters that you care so much what happens to them.