Scenes That I Love: Catherine O’Hara and Fred Willard in Waiting for Guffman


When I heard that the actress Catherine O’Hara had passed away, I immediately thought of Waiting For Guffman.

I know that a lot of people immediately thought of Schitt’s Creek.  And I imagine that a lot of people thought of her as the desperate mother in Home Alone.  And definitely, there are a lot of people on twitter who are posting clips of her work on SCTV right now.  But I’m a theater nerd and, when you’re a theater nerd, Waiting for Guffman pretty much feels likes watching your life on film.

The entire cast of Waiting for Guffman is brilliant.  It’s definitely the most emotionally satisfying of all of Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries.  But I’ll have a special place in my heart for Catherine O’Hara and Fred Willard as the community theater superstars.  Today’s scene that I love features O’Hara and Willard giving the audition of a lifetime in Waiting For Guffman.

A Scene That I Love: John Belushi On The Weather


Today would have been the 77th birthday of the great John Belushi.

I was planning on watching and reviewing The Blues Brothers today but that was before the winter storm hit.  Instead, here’s Belushi on Saturday Night Live in 1976, talking about the weather.  John was 25 here and it’s hard to believe that, in just 6 years, he would be gone.

 

Happy 64th Birthday to legendary South Korean Actor Choi Min-sik!


I’m a big fan of the South Korean actor, Choi Min-sik, especially due to his performance in the film OLDBOY (2003). I remember buying the foreign DVD when the movie came out. I had a region-free DVD player so I was able to watch it back in the early 2000’s before everyone else knew about it. Back in those days, it felt like I knew something that nobody else knew, and it was pretty awesome. Choi would soon go on to star in movies like LADY VENGEANCE (2005) and I SAW THE DEVIL (2010), cementing himself as an icon. On his 64th birthday, I invite you to celebrate this fight scene from his legendary performance in OLDBOY!

Happy Birthday, Choi Min-sik!

Scenes That I Love: The Pendulum Starts To Swing From The Pit and The Pendulum


Today’s scene that I love is from the 1961 Roger Corman-directed Edgar Allan Poe adaptation, The Pit and The Pendulum!

Not only is that pendulum nightmarish as Hell but check out that set design!  One can see that Corman definitely took some inspiration from the work being done in the UK by Hammer.  Watching this scene, it is easy to see why Corman devoted so much of the early 60s to directing Vincent Price in various Edgar Allan Poe adaptations.

Enjoy!

Scene that I Love: Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman Are Notorious


The great Cary Grant was born 122 years ago today.

In honor of Cary Grant’s legendary career and screen charm, today’s scene that I love comes from one of my favorite Cary Grant/Ingrid Bergman/Claude Rains/Alfred Hitchcock movies!  From 1946’s Notorious, here is a scene that I love.

Scenes That I Love: James Earl Jones in Field of Dreams


Today would have been James Earl Jones’s 95th birthday.

Today’s scene that I love features him reacting to an impromptu visit from Kevin Costner in 1989’s Field of Dreams.  With his famous voice, his good humor, and his own inspiring story of overcoming a childhood stutter to become one of our greatest actors, it’s often easy to forget that some of Jones’s best moments came when he played characters who were just fed up with the stupidity of the world.

Scenes That I Love: John Nada Sees The Truth in They Live


The brilliance of this scene is that it pretty much speaks for itself.  It doesn’t need to be overanalyzed.  It doesn’t need to be carefully explained.  It works because it captures what almost everyone has always suspected, even if they didn’t necessarily have the courage to say so aloud.

From John Carpenter’s 1988 film They Live: