Have you ever watched a movie and when it got to the end, you were knocked off your feet because you did not see it coming. This can be the case with reading books too. There are many movies and books that people watch or read and the endings just completely blow them out of the water. In some of these cases people often wonder, "Where did they come up with that?" Most of the time this happens because it is just too hard understand why the movie or book did not end in the way they had wanted it to. Possibly, the work did not end as they had been lead to believe that it would.
One of the prime examples of this certain situation is the 1961 film The Innocents, directed by director Jack Clayton. This film was based on the 1898 novella, The Turn of the Screw, written by Henry James. It seemed that the ending in the novella was left open for the reader to imagine what happens. Unfortunately this is not the case in the film The Innocents. There is one particular part at the end of this film that gives the ending a whole different meaning from that in the book. Not only does this scene make the ending different, but also it was very unexpected. This very unexpected part in the ending scene happens when the governess, Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr), actually kisses the young boy, Miles (Martin Stephens) on the lips. Not only was it a kiss, but also it was a kiss that seemed to have passion behind it. This was shocking because the governess was a guardian and caretaker of the young boy, and she was perceived to be much older than the boy. This ending to the film could really lead a person to gather that the governess was really insane and not in touch with reality. In the novella's ending it was never so obvious that the governess might be insane.
People should not get too angry when a book or movie does not end the way they want it to. Sometimes it is not in the cards to have candied coated and/or ambiguous endings. Just remember the ending may not always be what it one expects it to be in a movie, especially from having read the ending in the book, as is the case with The Innocents and The Turn of the Screw.