Right of Way

The only film to co-star Bette Davis and James Stewart.

HBO reportedly filmed three alternate endings for this made-for-television movie about an elderly couple that wants to end their lives together, and their adult daughter who wants to stop them. In the original scripted ending, the daughter finds the garage sealed and hears the car running inside, but decides not to interfere. She walks into the house, answers a phone, and looks the at the dolls her mother has left behind. In another ending that was filmed, a news crew visits the home and hears the car inside. They break in and the daughter finds here parents in the house being treated by paramedics. The daughter is told they are technically under arrest and the bewildered father is led away by a policeman while his wife is being treated on a couch. In a third version it reportedly is a passerby who notices the fumes coming from the garage rather than a news crew. When originally broadcast on HBO the original ending was used in which the couple died, but the other endings have appeared in other formats and in other markets.

Referenced in The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson: James Stewart/Garry Shandling (1982)