Can You Believe It Has Been 20 Years, Darlings???????????

                               I simply could not let today go by, without recounting that two decades ago today, "Single White Female " opened in movie theaters, and apartment shares were never the same since.

                                This was the movie where career gal Bridget Fond is  in need of a roommate to share her expensive apartment.  So she ends up with sweet, mousy Hedra (Hedy) Carlson, who turns out to be anything but.  The tip-off should have been in the fact that Hedy was played--to a tee--by Jennifer Jason Leigh.

                                 "Fatal Attraction" was the nightmare film for married folk.  This was the one for young singles, especially those living in large cities--especially New York--who could not get by without sharing expenses with sometimes hitherto total strangers.  I recall at the time of its release, I was single, living alone, and feeling pretty depressed about it.  I knew what I wanted all along, and that it hadn't happened yet troubled me.  But when I walked out of this film, I actually found myself saying, "Thank God I live alone!"  Just goes to show there are worse things!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                    The visuals and acting were striking; so much so I saw the film a couple of times.  I even owned it for awhile on VHS.  But it has been awhile since I viewed it.  The film also featured such then up and comers as Peter Friedman, Steven Weber and Stephen Tobolowsky.  And there was a cameo by Kenneth ("It Came From Beneath The Sea") Tobey as the hotel clerk, seen when Hedy goes to visit Sam.

                                     The movie was almost perfect--until the end.  When Fonda and Leigh, now completely deranged, fight it out in the elevator, and the elevator gets off in the basement, that is when the movie tanked.  For the last fifteen minutes are your standard slasher/stalker routine, with Fonda killing Hedy.

                                     I always thought the movie would have been better, had it ended in this Hitchcockian way.

                                     Keep the film as is up to the fight in the elevator.  When the door opens onto the lobby, Hedy escapes, and runs off, presumably out of Allie's life for good.

                                      But not really.

                                      Six months go by, Allie has moved on, and she is walking down a busy street, doing her career girl thing.  She passes a rather glamorous and attractive woman, in sunglasses, and does a double take.  Not just because the woman is attractive, but that there is something familiar about her.  The two eye each other speculatively, when the woman removes her sunglasses, and smiles.  It is Hedy.  There is a look of horror on Allie's face; because she realizes this is a new, glammed up Hedy, who is now doing the same thing to some unfortunate woman, as was done to her.  She turns frantically, as though wanting to cry out for help, but then the camera pulls back for a long shot from above, as the crowd swallows Hedy and she is lost......as Allie continues reaching out.

                                      Had the movie ended that way, it would have been Perfect!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                      Meanwhile, it is 20 years, and I now have the roommate I have always wanted.
Whom I am about to join, because we have to watch "Rizzoli And Isles!"

                                        Ta Ta, girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!