"In the original ending and the final shooting script, Dix actually did kill Laurel in the heat of their argument. Martha comes and discovers the body as Dix silently types his script. Later his detective friend comes to arrest him, Dix says that he's almost done with his script. There is a close-up of the last page of the script, echoing the words Dix said in the car to Laurel: "I was born when she kissed me, I died when she left me, I live a few weeks while she loved me." It is said that this scene was filmed, but before it could be shown to a test audience, director Nicholas Ray shot a new ending because he hated the scripted ending--he didn't want to think that violence was the only way out of this situation. So he cleared everyone off the set, even Lauren Bacall, who was visiting her husband Humphrey Bogart, except for Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Art Smith--who ended up not being used in the final scene--and the camera and sound men, and they improvised the ending that is seen in the final cut."