146 years ago, on July 11th in Kentucky, director Tod Browning was born. Though Browning was a director who was comfortable working in any genre, he is today best remembered for the horror films that he directed for Universal studios. Today’s scene that I love comes from Tod Browning’s 1931 adaptation of Dracula.
In this scene, Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi) is introduced to Prof. Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan). Van Helsing notes something interesting about Dracula’s reflection, namely that he doesn’t have one. Needless to say, the Count is not amused.
Beginning in 2018, I fell in love with the state of West Virginia. It started because I fell in love with my beautiful wife who’s from West Virginia, but we’ve also driven across the state on multiple occasions, and I can easily say it’s one of the most beautiful states in this country.
As a movie lover, I began looking for films set in West Virginia when I came across MATEWAN (1987), which was written and directed by John Sayles. Of course, I knew about the film beforehand, but with my new interest in the state, I decided I would purchase it sight unseen from the Criterion collection and give it a spin. Based on the violent, true story of coal miners attempting to form a union in Mingo County, WV in 1920, I’ll just state here that I consider the film to be a masterpiece. I’ll probably write a full review for the movie at some point.
Chris Cooper plays the lead in the film, and interestingly, this was his film debut. Prior to MATEWAN, Cooper had only appeared in a couple of soap operas. After MATEWAN, he would steadily rise to be the Oscar-winning actor we know today. July 9th, 2026, is his 75th birthday, and I’m paying honor to him by sharing this excellent scene. Heck, I just may have to watch this movie again tonight!
Today would have been the birthday of Richard Roundtree so, of course, today’s scene that I love could only be the classic opening of 1971’s Shaft.
By doing something as simple as walking down a street in New York, Roundtree showed us exactly who Shaft was and why Shaft did what he did. This is one of those scenes that’s been parodied so many times that it’s actually surprising to rewatch and see how just defiant and sexy Richard Roundtree’s confident strut actually was.
On another note, I enjoy seeing all of the names of the movies that were playing on 42nd Street when this scene was filmed.
Yesterday was Janet Leigh’s birthday and today is Pat Hitchcock’s birthday so it seems appropriate that today’s scene that I love should feature both of them. From 1960’s Psycho, this scene features Leigh and Hitchcock as office co-workers who meet the very wealthy Mr. Lowry (played by Frank Albertson).
“He was flirting with you. He must have seen my wedding ring,” remains one of the greatest lines ever written.
Today, we celebrate Sylvester Stallone’s birthday with one of the most definitive montages of the 1980s. From 1982’s Rocky III (which was directed by Stallone himself), here is the famous Rocky/Apollo training montage.
Today would have been Warren Oates’s 98th birthday. When Oates died in 1982, he was only 53 years old but he left behind a rich and varied filmography and worked with everyone from Sam Peckinpah to Monte Hellman to Terrence Malick to Steven Spielberg.
One of Oates’s final and most popular performance was as Sgt. Hulka in Ivan Reitman’s Stripes. Hulka was the ultimate drill sergeant, determined to get his men into shape and proving that he could even make soldiers out of Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and John Candy. Originally, Sgt. Hulka was supposed to die halfway through the film was Reitman was so impressed with Oates’s performance that the script was changed to allow Hulka to make it all the way through.
In the scene below, Oates shows what a great dramatic actor he was, even when he was appearing in an otherwise light comedy. He brings out the best not only in himself but also from his co-star, Bill Murray.
This is an encore post for me because I shared this last year too. In case you missed it back in 2025, this my favorite mission from the much maligned 2006 Godfather video game. It’s also one of the few video game missions to make good use of the 4th of July holiday.
In this mission, Aldo (who is controlled by the player) takes care of a corrupt cop on the 4th of July. TheGodfather game is hardly perfect but I have always loved that cut-scene of the fireworks going off while Aldo and Rosa look down at the alley.
A Boy Named Charlie Brown was the first Peanuts movie. It was released in 1969 and, in this scene, Snoopy gets the Little League season off to the right start with the national anthem.
Tom Cruise is 64 years old today! He still doesn’t look a day over 36. Insert your own Dorian Gray joke here.
No matter what else you may want to say about Tom Cruise, you can’t deny that he’s one of the last of the genuine movie stars. He’s been a star in since the 80s, doing things onscreen that you could never imagine some of our younger actors even attempting. Juat four years agp, Top Gun: Maverick was unstoppable with audiences and critics. There were many reasons for Maverick‘s popularity but one cannot deny that a lot of it is the fact that Cruise just has that old-fashioned movie star charisma.
Today’s scene that I love comes from the first Top Gun. In this scene, Tom Cruise, Anthony Edwards, Val Kilmer, and Rick Rossovich play beach volleyball. The scene kind of comes out of nowhere and there are times when the whole thing comes close to self-parody. (Actually, if we’re going to be honest, it crosses the line into self-parody more than a few times.) But, Cruise and the much-missed Kilmer manage to save it, like the movie stars they are!
