On this date, 117 years ago, Katharine Hepburn was born in Hartford, Connecticut. She would go one to become a cultural icon, a performer who survived being labeled box office to poison to eventually become one of our most acclaimed actresses. Hepburn was a total of four acting Oscars over the course of her career, a record that has yet to be topped.
Today’s scene that I love comes from 1940’s The Philadelphia Story and it features Katharine Hepburn acting opposite another one of my favorite performers, the great James Stewart.
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to one of my favorite character actors, Nicky Katt!
In 1993’s Dazed and Confused, Katt had a small but pivotal role as Clint. Clint is the guy who loves his car, drinking beer, smoking weed, and beating up people. Mike (played by Adam Goldberg) runs afoul of Nick at the end of the year party and later decides that he has no choice but to fight back. Needless to say, Clint is the better fighter of the two but at least Mike got one good punch in!
(For a while, there was talk of a Dazed and Confused sequel, in which Clint would have turned his life around and become both a born again Christian, and a respected member of the community while Mike would still be obsessing about their brief fight in 1976,)
Today would have been the 88th birthday of the great British actor, Albert Finney!
And today’s scene that I love features Albert Finney in the role of history’s most famous miser. In 1970’s Scrooge, Finney played the title role and, early on, his worldview was perfectly captured by a song called I Hate People. Finny was only 34 when he played Ebenezer Scrooge but he does a wonderful job of bringing the character to life and he’s just as convincing when he’s being good as he is when he’s being bad. Finney is the main reason why Scrooge is my personal favorite of all of the versions of A Christmas Carol.
Filmed in 1945, Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City was one of the first films to be made about life under the Nazis. Uniquely, it was a film made by and starring the people who had actually experienced, firsthand, the occupation of Rome by the Germans and much of the film was based on their real-life experiences. The majority of the cast was made up of nonprofessionals and, largely because the city’s once-impressive studios and sound stages had been destroyed during the war, the film was shot on location, on the streets where many of the events depicted had actually occurred.
Rome, Open City follows a diverse group of characters who are all involved with the Resistance. When the film begins, it appears that the pregnant Pina (Anna Magnani) is meant to be the main character. However, in a scene that was considered quite shocking for the time, Pina is shot in the streets by the Nazis while chasing after a truck that is carrying away her fiancé. The scene captures both the casual brutality of the Nazis and the reality of living under an occupation. It’s a scene that reminds the viewer that evil is not sentimental, evil does not care that you are pregnant or that you’re planning on getting married, and that the forces of evil will do anything — including shooting an unarmed woman in the street — to maintain power.
The priest who tries to help Pina was based on Giuseppe Morosini, who was a member of the Italian Resistance and who was executed in 1944, shortly before the Nazis fled Rome and left the city to the Allies. Originally, Rossellini planned to make a documentary about Morosini’s life. When that project struggled to get off the ground, he instead incorporated Morosini’s story into Open City.
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to director Amy Heckerling!
Today’s scene that I love comes from Amy Heckerling’s feature debut, 1982’s Fast Times At Ridgemont High. In just two minutes, Heckerling introduces us to almost all of the major characters, establishes the mall as the center of Ridgemont High culture, and leaves us with little doubt that we’ve entered a time machine and found ourselves in the 80s. Judge Reinhold looks like he’s on top of the world. Jennifer Jason Leigh bravely faces the pizza oven. Sean Penn makes us wish he had never lost his laid back stoner vibe. And the underrated Robert Romanus struts through the mall like a king overlooking his kingdom. With this scene, Heckerling announces that she has made the ultimate 80s high school film.
(And just a decade later, she would make the ultimate 90s high school film with Clueless.)
Orson Welles was fond of telling the story of how Franklin D. Roosevelt, shortly before his death, encouraged Welles to enter politics and run for Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate seat in 1946. Welles gave it some consideration but ultimately, he decided not to run. He was, after all, a movie star and, in the mid-40s, he had yet to be exiled from Hollywood.
Welles later said that a part of him regretted not running because, if he had, his opponent would have been Joseph McCarthy. Welles assumed that he would have easily beaten McCarthy and therefore, the McCarthy era never would have happened. Of course, the truth of the matter is that there’s no guarantee that Welles, as someone who had spent most of his life in New York and California, would have even won the Democratic primary, that Welles would have defeated McCarthy in the general, or that some other Senator wouldn’t have launched an anti-communist crusade in McCarthy’s place. But Orson Welles was never one for false modesty. That’s one thing that made him such an important and exciting filmmaker.
Welles also said that, despite his regrets, he was ultimately happy that he didn’t run because he would have felt the need to then run for President. President Welles! Imagine that. (Actually, it probably would have been a disaster but still …. President Orson Welles! If nothing else, a Welles presidential campaign would have spared America from having to look at Adlai Stevenson for two straight elections.)
Today’s scene that I love provides a glimpse of what an Orson Welles political campaign might have been like. In this scene, from 1941’s Citizen Kane, Charles Foster Kane runs for governor and gives the political speech of his life. Sadly, as we all know, Kane would never be governor and he would never again be as beloved by the masses as he was in this scene. Instead, he would die isolated, alone, and wishing for his childhood.
The great character actor Lance Henriksen is 84 years old today!
Ever since he made his film debut in 1970, the legendary Henriksen has played a collection of villains, bikers, police officers, soldiers, and even the occasional android. One of his earliest appearance was in 1975’s Dog Day Afternoon. His role is small but he definitely makes an impression. His faux friendly suggestions that Sal point his gun upwards is the line that sets off the film’s haunting ending. For viewers today, of course, we know that Sal and Sonny are screwed as soon as Lance Henriksen shows up outside of the bank.
In today’s scene that I love, Lance Henriksen does what only a great character actor can do. In less than a minute, he created a truly unforgettable character.
Today would have been the 95rd birthday of one of my favorite actresses, the wonderful Audrey Hepburn!
We’re all Audrey Hepburn fans here at the Shattered Lens. How could we not be? Long before she made her film debut, Audrey Hepburn literally risked her life as a part of the Dutch Resistance during World War II. After she retired from regularly appearing in the movies, she devoted herself to humanitarian causes and brought attention to the plight of refugees the world over. She was one of the greats and, for that reason, today’s scene that I love comes from one of her best films, 1967’s Two For The Road.
In this scene, Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn play a married couple who discuss their troubled but loving marriage while on the road. This film features one Audrey’s best performances.
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to Amy Steel, the actress who played Ginny, the strongest and most resourceful of all of the final girls to appear in the Friday the 13th franchise. Whenever I watch any of the Friday the 13th films, I always like to think that I would be Part 2’s Ginny, though I know, deep down, I would actually probably more likely be Part One’s Marci, getting stuck outside the rain in my underwear and somehow not hearing someone stepping up behind me with an axe.
Today’s scene that I love comes from Friday the 13th Part II. In this scene, Ginny proves herself to be the only camp counselor in history to be smart enough to confuse a backwoods vagrant who wears a flour bag over his head. This scene is one of the reasons why Ginny is one of the franchise’s most popular characters.
Through the Shattered Lens 