Scenes That I Love: Ruth and Sonny in The Last Picture Show (Cloris Leachman, RIP)

Posted on January 28, 2021 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yesterday, it was announced that the actress Cloris Leachman had passed away at the age of 94.

Leachman had a long career. I know that most people know her from her comedic work. Indeed, when it was announced that she had passed, Twitter was full of people posting clips from Young Frankenstein, Raising Hope, and a host of other comedies. However, Leachman was also just as a capable as a dramatic actress. She began her career in 1947 and, though she worked regularly (and appeared in the noir classic, Kiss Me Deadly), her career really didn’t pick up until she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1972.

She won that Oscar for playing Ruth Popper in The Last Picture Show. Ruth is the lonely wife of a closeted high school coach in a small Texas town. She has an affair with teenager Sonny Crawford (Timothy Bottoms), just for him to abandon her for the beautiful but self-absorbed Jacy Farrow (Cybil Shepherd). At the end of the film, after realizing that Jacy actually has no interest in him, Sonny attempts to return to Ruth. It’s a powerful scene, largely due to Leachman’s performance.

In memory of Cloris Leachman, here’s a scene that I love:

Scenes That We Love: Ralphie Plays With His Gifts From A Christmas Story

Posted on December 25, 2020 by Dazzling Erin

The only thing better than getting Christmas gifts is getting to play with them later!

From A Christmas Story, which I’ve been watching all day today:

Scene That I Love: Linus’s Speech in A Charlie Brown Christmas

Posted on December 24, 2020 by Dazzling Erin

Merry Christmas!

I know that a lot of people missed A Charlie Brown Christmas this year. When all of the Peanuts holiday specials were bought by Apple TV+, it looked they would never air on free television again. Luckily, people got mad enough that Apple made a deal with PBS to resume airing the specials. But how many of you knew that before you just read it? Hopefully, everyone involved will do a better job of getting the word out next year.

For those of you who missed it this year, here’s the most famous scene from A Charlie Brown Christmas. When A Charlie Brown Christmas was first aired in 1965, Charles Schulz had to fight to keep CBS from removing the scene in which Linus explains the true meaning of Christmas. It has gone on to become one of the most popular moments in the special.

For those who missed it, here it is:

Scenes That I Love: Daria Nicolodi in Shock

Posted on November 26, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As soon as I heard the great Daria Nicolodi had passed away at the age of 70, I knew that I had to find a scene from one of her films to share here on the Shattered Lens.

Unfortunately, YouTube was not very helpful. I was tempted to re-share the scene of her arm-wrestling David Hemmings in Deep Red but I chose not to because, according to our stats, a lot of you already visited that post after the news of her passing was announced.

I also nearly shared the finale of Shock. This was Daria’s best performance and one that she always cited as being a favorite. However, I hesitated to do so because that scene features Daria’s character dying in a rather gruesome manner and I worried it was perhaps a bit too morbid to share under these circumstances. But this scene also shows what a good actress Daria Nicolodi was and, again, Shock was a film that she always cited as being one of her personal favorites. That said, I just can’t bring myself to pay tribute to someone on the day of their passing with a scene in which they die. So, I’m sharing a different scene from Shock. This one is perhaps a bit less dramatic than the finale but it still shows what a good and expressive actress Daria Nicolodi was. She makes the scene below feel real.

So, in memory of the great Daria Nicolodi, here she is in Mario Bava’s Shock:

A Scene That I Love: Snoopy Prepares Thanksgiving Dinner

Posted on November 26, 2020 by Dazzling Erin

I’m really disappointed that A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving will no longer be airing on CBS. From now on, if you want to watch it or any of the other Charlie Brown specials, you have to subscribe to Apple TV+. It really does feel like the end of an era.

I love A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. One of my favorite scenes is when Snoopy and Woodstock prepare Thanksgiving dinner for Charlie Brown and all of his unexpected guests. I’m in charge of Thanksgiving dinner this year and I’ve been thinking about this scene a lot. I know that Thanksgiving is supposed to be a big meal but aren’t there times when we’d all rather just have toast and popcorn?