MOVIES - Oct. 30, 1987

Japanese moviegoers may be the only audiences in the world who see the hit suspense thriller “Fatal Attraction” with a different ending. Paramount Pictures executives didn’t give U.S. moviegoers a choice on which “Fatal Attraction” ending they wanted to see (the ending now on the film or the original ending--a suicide). But the Wall St. Journal reports that the suicide ending was enthusiastically received by Japanese film distributors at a spring screening, unlike American test audiences, whose poor reaction prompted the substitute ending. Now the Japanese want the original tacked back on when the film arrives there in February. Paramount Chairman Frank Mancuso has asked that distributors show the two versions to Japanese test audiences before making a decision. The Journal headline queried: “Is It Too Late for Audiences to Ask for a Happier End to ‘Casablanca’ ?”