In honor of what would have been Fred Zinnemann’s 116th birthday, today’s scene that I love comes from 1953’s From Here To Eternity, one of the two Zinnemann-directed films to win the Oscar for Best Picture.
In this scene, Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) proves that he’s still a skilled boxer. That’s not something that Prewitt wants the world to know because he’s still guilt-stricken over accidentally blinding one of his sparring partners. Captain Holmes wants Prewitt to fight on the regimental team. Prewitt would rather just play the bugle but, as he shows in this scene, he can still throw a punch if he’s forced to. It leads to a lot of drama, the majority of which is forgotten in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy 73rd birthday to Australian filmmaker, Phillip Noyce. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Phillip Noyce Films
Heatwave (1982, dir by Phillip Noyce, DP: Vincent Monton)
Dead Calm (1989, dir by Phillip Noyce, DP: Dean Semler)
Blind Fury (1989, dir by Phillip Noyce, DP: Don Burgess)
Sliver (1993, dir by Phillip Noyce, DP: Vilmos Zsigmond)
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing Half Nelson, which ran on NBC from March to May of 1985. Almost all nine of the show’s episodes can be found on YouTube!
Last week, I took a look at the sixth episode of Half Nelson, which was called Nose Job and which featured Rocky (Joe Pesci) dealing with an obsessed plastic surgeon who was stalking a former girlfriend. That episode featured not only two villains (it turned out that the plastic surgeon wasn’t the only homicidal stalker in Hollywood) but is also ended with Victoria Jackson’s Annie O’Hara starting a romantic relationship with Gary Grubbs’s Detective Hamill.
Nose Job was followed by an episode called Chariots For Hire. It apparently aired on April 26th, 1985 and that’s really all I can tell you about the episode. Chariots For Hire is the only episode of Half Nelson that has not been uploaded to YouTube. I can’t even find a plot summary for it on the imdb. Chariots For Hire is apparently the lost episode of Half Nelson.
Fortunately, the eighth episode of Half Nelson is on YouTube. So, let’s pick up the adventures of Rocky Nelson in Malibu Colony!
Episode 1.8 “Malibu Colony”
(Dir by James Sheldon, originally aired on May 3rd, 1985)
Rocky, Annie, Beau (Dick Butkus), and Kurt (Bubba Smith) have been assigned to guard what Rocky claims is “one of the most valuable art collections in the world.” Fortunately, this job means that they get to spend a few days hanging out in a fabulous beach house in Malibu! Standing out on the deck of the beach house, Annie looks out at the ocean and says that she can hardly believe that China is on the other side of it.
“I wonder how the egg rolls stay fresh crossing over from that far,” Kurt says.
Before anyone can ponder that question for too long, a half-naked woman runs screaming down the beach while being pursued by two thugs in suits. Rocky saves the woman from the thugs and sends her into the beach house so that she can borrow some clothes from Annie. Once dressed, the woman explains that she’s Nancy Norton (Shari Shattuck) and that she was fleeing from a nearby yacht club. She claims that the owner of the club has some naked pictures of her and she needs to get them back. Rocky, deciding that the art can protect itself, helps Nancy sneak back into the club so that she can retrieve her photographs. However, when she sees the club’s president, Crane (John Beck), she suddenly holds up a gun and shoots at him. Rocky is able to push Crane out of the way of the bullets and then he chases after Nancy.
Fortunately, both Rocky and Nancy make it out of the club without anyone realizing that they’re together. Despite the fact that she nearly made him an accessory to murder, Rocky still wants to help Nancy. Nancy explains that there are no pictures and she wasn’t trying to kill Crane. (“I just wanted to scare him.”) Nancy’s father lost a lot of money while playing poker with Crane and now Crane is threatening to kill him if he doesn’t pay. But Nancy is convinced that the poker game was rigged. The reason she was in club earlier was to take a look at Crane’s cards.
(For some reason, she thought it would be smart to do that while wearing a bikini, the top of which was somehow lost while she was fleeing Crane’s guards. That explains that partial nudity, which I am sure was definitely viewed as being important to the plot and not just as an attempt to boost the show’s ratings.)
Having saved Crane’s life, Rocky is able to get Annie, Kurt, and Beau jobs at the club. Annie models clothes. Kurt and Beau work as waiters. Rocky’s boss, Chester (Fred Williamson), shows up at the club with Dean Martin and is shocked to see all of his employees working there. Dean demands that Chester give them all raises so that they can quit their second jobs.
Eventually, Rocky finds his proof that Crane is a criminal and, with Chester’s help, he takes Crane down. After being stuck in the office for the past few episodes, Chester actually gets to do something in this episode. It’s always nice to see Fred Williamson in action and making it even better is that he smokes a big cigar while he’s taking down the bad guys. Finally, after eight episodes, Half Nelson reminded everyone of why Fred Williamson was so cool to begin with.
This episode definitely earns some points for allowing the entire supporting cast — from Fred Williamson to Victoria Jackson to Dean Martin — to play a role in solving the case of the week. One of Half Nelson‘s biggest flaws was that the appealingly quirky supporting characters often felt underused and Malibu Colony finally gives them a chance to show what they could have done as an ensemble. The mix of Pesci’s wise guy nerve, Jackson’s spaciness, Williamson’s effortless coolness, and Butkus and Smith’s comedic relief is actually pretty entertaining. Unfortunately, as good as the heroes are, Crane is pretty boring villain and the case of the week isn’t particularly interesting. In particular, Nancy’s actions never really make that much sense.
Oh well. This was a flawed episode but it still offered up a hint of what Half Nelson could have been. Next week, I will be reviewing this show’s final episode. Until then, L.A. — you belong to me!
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We tweet our way through it.
Tonight, at 10 pm et, #FridayNightFlix has got 2002’s Bend It Like Beckham!
This film is a favorite of both me and my sister’s and I can’t wait to watch it with everyone!
If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag! It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
Bend It Like Beckham is available on Prime! See you there!
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
Today is the 82nd birthday of Greek filmmaker, Nico Mastorakis. And that means that it’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Nico Mastorakis Films
Island of Death (1975, dir by Nico Mastorakis, DP: Nikos Gardelis)
Death Has Blue Eyes (1976, dir by Nico Mastorakis, DP: Nikos Gardelis)
Blind Date (1984, dir by Nico Mastorakis, DP: Andreas Bellis)
In the Cold of the Night (1990, dir by Nico Mastorakis, DP: Andreas Bellis)
According to who you ask, the building in this video is either supposed to be an abandoned mental hospital or it actually was an abandoned mental hospital. Either the way, the band certainly made it into a home.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Thursdays, I will be reviewing City Guys, which ran on NBC from 1997 to 2001. The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!
This week, the kids have another subway adventure and it’s time for midterms!
Episode 4.18 “Who Da Man”
(Dir by Frank Bonner, originally aired on November 18th, 2000)
This is a weird episode.
I guess because the producers didn’t want to waste their subway set, Al, Dawn, and Cassidy had yet another adventure on a train. This time, the three of them were approached by two muggers who demanded Al’s jacket. Despite all of his brave talk, Al meekly surrendered his jacket. Fortunately, Dawn remembered her self-defense training and somehow managed to flip the main mugger to the ground. Dawn saved Al’s life but, in his eyes, she also robbed him of his dignity. Of course, those of us who have been watching this show from the beginning know that Al never had any dignity to begin with.
After Cassidy tells the editor of the school newspaper about what happened, everyone at the school knows that Al needed Dawn to save his jacket. Al demands that Dawn start acting more “like a girl.” Dawn reacts by acting so girly that Al has a mental breakdown and says he wishes that thing could go back to the way they were, with Dawn dressing like a Portland antique store owner and Al presumably getting mugged every time he rode the subway.
Meanwhile, Ms. Noble asks L-Train, Jamal, and Chris to hold a ladder steady while she attempts to hang a picture of her husband in her classroom. Unfortunately, because she stupidly asked the three most easily distracted people in the school for help, she falls off the ladder. The next time we see Ms. Noble, she’s in a wheelchair and L-Train is pushing her around New York. (How this became L-Train’s job is never really explained.) L-Train, however, suspects that Ms. Noble can really walk and, as such, he keeps trying to put her into situations designed to get her out of the chair. He even rolls her up to the roof of the school so that she can watch a limbo contest. To L-Train’s shock, she doesn’t take part in the contest. L-Train leaves the roof to try to figure out how his life has come to center around pushing around Ms. Noble. When he returns to the roof, he is shocked to discover that Ms. Noble can walk and is doing the limbo, albeit by herself. Ms. Noble taunts L-Train with the fact that she can walk but, when Chris and Jamal step out on the roof, she sits back down.
Seriously, what the heck? I mean, let’s ignore the fact that Dawn is suddenly a kick ass martial artist. What’s going on with Ms. Noble!? This episode actually proves my theory that Ms. Noble is essentially a cult leader who enjoys manipulating her followers. After three years of her offering encouragement to L-Train, this episode finds her not only manipulating him but also going out of her way to make him look like a liar. What a terrible principal! That said, Ms. Noble’s action were just weird enough to make this episode entertaining.
Let’s move on!
Episode 4.19 “Get to Preppin'”
(Dir by Frank Bonner, originally aired on November 25th, 2000)
It’s mid-term time again!
When Chris gets a less than impressive grade on his first test, his father sends him back to prep school. When Chris realizes that he doesn’t have to work hard in his classes because of his father’s influence, he gets upset because it makes him feel like a spoiled brat and apparently, that’s a bad thing. Chris demands to go back to Manny High, where he’s actually held responsible for actions.
Ha! Like that would happen.
Seriously, if I was told that I didn’t have to work at anything when I was 17, crying about it is the last thing I would ever do.
Anyway, Chris’s father returns him to Manny High because, if he didn’t, the name of the show would be changed to City Guy and Jamal would have to host the radio show alone. As always, the important thing is maintaining the status quo.
Through the Shattered Lens 