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The Monday Morning Question: Great Movie Moments
Monday, December 15, 2008
Good morning, my little turlingdromes. Er, I mean turtledoves. Sorry.
What are some of your favorite moments in movies? And I do mean moments: a few words, a furtive glance, a small detail within a bigger scene.
You know me, I have dozens of these favorite moments, but I'll just list a few (and I'll try to avoid spoilers):
"The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" (2004): Ned remembers to call Zissou "Stevesy" even after the helicopter crash. Heartbreaking.
"The Innocents" (1961): When Miss Giddens kneels on the ground and shouts "Miles!" to the heavens. Chills my very soul, every time.
"Metoroporisu" (a.k.a. "Metropolis" ) (2001): Tima holding on to the bridge, crying out "Kenichi!" over and over again, to the strains of a Ray Charles classic blaring so loudly it almost drowns out the chaos around them all.
"Just Imagine" (1930): Single O's bashful yet curious expression when Loko makes it known that he finds Single O cute. Adorable!
So tell me some of your favorites!
Pictured is Joyzelle Joyner and Ivan Linow (Loko) from "Just Imagine."
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A scene early on in "M" when the mother is calling to her lost child over a series of shots featuring empty spaces devoid of people. Hearing anyone call out "Elsie!" in real life would bring me to instant tears.
Well, being an old softie (and watching it this weekend), I certainly love the scene in "It's A Wonderful Life" when Donna Reed sees Jimmy Stewart at the dance and looks up from her drink. She says everything in her eyes.
Of course, if we are talking about El, I love the "lay of the land" comment from ""The Cock Eyed World" and the scene on the beach in Sunnyside Up" where he is BLATANTLY looking at the girls legs. I also love the "give me the good old days" sequence from "Just Imagine".
"Raging Bull" has that scene at the end where De Niro is talking into the mirror (ripped off beautifully in the closing scene in "Boogie Nights")
And I could probably go though about 200 more in "Slap Shot", "The Blues Brothers", "Animal House", and "Caddy Shack" that just have me rolling on the floor, but it's Monday and I won't put your readers through that.
Bogie's Marlowe flipping his snap brim up in front and using the nerdy glasses as a prop to ask trick questions in Gieger's pornography bookstore in "The Big Sleep" - "You DO sell books here, hmmm?" and Agnes's wonderful reply, "What do those look like, grapefruit?", then when he leaves, he gets her to correct his deliberate mistake, and cracks, "Oh, you did sell a book once, didn't you?" - for a slight role, Agnes got a lot of good lines in a film crackling with wit: after Bogie pushes her too far and asks if he hurt her, "You and every other man I've ever met." She was a hard dame.
Laughton's brilliant role as a barrister in "Witness for the Prosecution" correcting his nurse when Dietrich's scorned woman revenges herself on Tyrone Power's treachery by stabbing him after his unwarranted acquittal: "No, Miss Plimsoll, she didn't murder him, she executed him!"
Louise Brooks laughing on the stairway in "The Show Off"; also coming down the stairs into the breakfast table death scene at the start of "Beggars of Life"; and then there's her scene walking up the stairs in all innocence with Jack the Ripper in "Pandora's Box", and lastly her hopeless, longing gaze through the bars of a bird-cage in "Prix de Beaute" - it burns right past the screen into the back of your brain.
After Cagney's gundown on the church stairs, Gladys George's somewhat of an elegy:
Panama Smith: "He's dead."
Cop: "Well, who is this guy?"
Panama Smith: "This is Eddie Bartlett."
Cop: "Well, how're you hooked up with him?"
Panama Smith: "I could never figure it out."
Cop: "What was his business?"
Panama Smith: "He used to be a big shot."
Eastwood's Will Munny laconically admitting: "That's right. I've killed women and children. I've killed just about everything that walks or crawled at one time or another."
"I Steal!" - Paul Muni's apotheosis in the finale of "I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang"
And then there's Henry Fonda's soft, smiling drawl when Tom Joad sees his mother for the first time since getting out the pen: "Ma!"
A lot more for me, but these are just offa the top of my head.
I just thought of two from THE APARTMENT. When Shirley MacLaine looks in her broken compact mirror and says "It makes me look the way I feel." That's the same moment that Jack Lemmon figures out the whole big scenario. And later when Lemmon orders "Another of these little mothers" from the bartender. And oh yeah, when the lady at the bar blows the paper from her straw onto his derby. Oh yeah, and in GODFATHER PART II when Fredo (they're in Cuba) wants to order a drink and asks Michael, "How do you say banana daiquiri?" Michael: "Banana daiquiri."
Here are a few of my favorites:
From Gunga Din: Cary Grant and Sam Jaffe are wounded, but hear the army's music as it approaches a deathtrap. Grant hits a note of perfect despair when he groans, "They're coming in!" to which Jaffe responds, "The colonel's got to know."
In Spartacus, Olivier has a moment when he asks Ustinov to identify Spartacus, and Ustinov explains, "but you saw him" and recounts the fight with Draba. Olivier suddenly just rolls his eyes and exhales, somewhere between "whaa" and "whoa" and achieves an authenticity that seems alien to the epic genre.
In The Searchers, there are two moments involving Natalie Wood. One is when Scar has one of his women show off his scalps, with Max Steiner's music building as we're denied her face until we see Ethan and Martin look up. BAM! We just see her breathing as Scar blusters on offscreen. Then we have Ethan and Martin contemplating their prospects outside, busting one another's chops, Martin scoffing, "Big Shoulders!" as she materializes at the top of a ridge, a moment before they notice her.
Those will have to do for now.
The one that always comes to mind when people ask me this is Steel Magnolia's when they are cutting the armadillo cake: "Thanks Ouiser, Nothing like a good piece of ass."
I pee myself laughing every time.
I forgot the bit where Del Gue can't understand why Jeremiah Johnson won't get some scalps after surviving a fight to the death, and takes 'em himself: "Well, Mother Gue never raised such a foolish child!"
And in "Red River" where John Ireland's Cherry Valance tells Melville the cattle buyer after being told Matt Garth won't shoot it out with Dunson: "You're right, Mr. Melville, but I don't have any such notion."
It's Jack Lemmon who looks in the mirror, I mean. We see him figure out what's going on. And then there's MacLaine's line, which is the icing on the cake, if there is such a thing as sad icing.
I'm an unapologetic fan of the film Fandango. At the end when Judd Nelson and Chuck Bush come together and shake hands for probably the last time.
Judd Nelson: Goodbye Friend
Chuck Bush: Have a nice life.
I'm Niagara Falls every single frickin' time.
I've got lots of these, but this one immediately comes to mind.
Ahh shit, all the curmudgeon in me lightens when Gene Kelly starts walking down the rainy street. I just remember feeling like that -- minus the great dancing, of course
Chris McG.
I love--and it brings me to tears every time--the ending of "The Best Years of Our Lives"--the look in Teresa Wright's eyes as Dana Andrews tells her how rough their life together will be. They both smile, he kisses her, her hat slips off...wonderful!
Just saw this movie again: "Nothing Sacred," Fred March, Carole Lombard. This one scene stuck out...it was truly a "moment," almost a total non sequitur.
Fred March, New York reporter, has arrived in a Vermont town to find the dying girl (who's not really dying) and the Vermont townsfolk are giving him the brush off. Frustrated, he presses on. He crosses the street and walks away from camera, along a picket fence. He's pretty far down the street, pretty far away from camera when, suddenly, out of the gate of the picket fence comes a blond child in knickers, and this kid is running like a bat out of hell. Without making a sound, the kid races up behind Frederick March, wraps himself around March's leg like an attack dog, and the kid bites the hell out of March's leg. March starts screaming and the kid lets go and goes speeding back along the picket fence and back into the gate and he's gone. March is left standing there, down the street, tossing his hat to the ground in exaperation and rubbing his kid-bitten leg.
A very bizarre moment, and very funny. I watched it several times. Makes me laugh. While the little blonde kid reads as a kid, upon closer inspection I think the role was played by a little person...and he did a great job.
Tom Ruegger
Goodness, these are all such good comments. I wish I hadn't been in a snit back in December, I would have joined in. My snits get the better of me sometimes, and it's never a positive thing.
Tom, I just saw that movie for the first time a few months ago when TCM showed it, and I loved that moment! The later scene where Carole starts to feel guilty during that expensive dinner and show was quite memorable too.
Now I wish I had recorded the movie, because I didn't catch that it was a little person who bit him. Random biting is always hysterical.
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