Category Archives: Scenes I Love

Scenes That I Love: Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s scene that I love comes from Bob Fosse’s 1979 masterpiece, All That Jazz.  This scene features the legendary Ann Reinking at her best.  Roy Scheider said that he cried after shooting this scene.

Happy Father’s Day weekend to all who observe.

A Scene That I Love: Daria Nicolodi and David Hemmings in Deep Red

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Deep Red (1975, dir by Dario Argento)

Today would have been Daria Nicolodi’s birthday so what better time than now to share a scene that I love from Dario Argento’s 1975 masterpiece, Deep Red?

Now, this might seem like a strange scene to love but you have to understand it in context of the overall film.  (And yes, the scene is in Italian but surely you can figure out that it’s a scene of two people flirting.)  Deep Red is often thought as being merely a superior giallo film but it’s also, in its way, a rather sweet love story.  David Hemmings and Daria Nicolodi may investigate a murder but they also fall in love and the two of them have a very sweet chemistry, which is fully displayed in this scene and which elevates the entire film.  Deep Red is a giallo where you care about the characters as much as you care about the murders.

While making this film, Daria Nicolodi and Dario Argento also fell in love and they went on to have a rather tumultuous relationship.  Personally, I think that Argento’s most recent films are underrated but it’s still hard to deny that the ones that he made with Nicolodi have a heart to them that is missing from some of his later work.

So, in honor of Daria Nicolodi and her important role in the history of Italian horror, here she is with David Hemmings in Deep Red!

Scenes that I Love: Checking Out The Boat in Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The scene below comes from the 1979 Lucio Fulci masterpiece, Zombi 2.

In this scene, a mysterious boat is floating towards New York City.  Two cops are sent to check the boat out and, as they eventually discover, the boat isn’t quite as deserted as they thought it was.

Now, there’s a few reasons why this scene is important.  Number one, Zombi 2 is an Italian film that was designed to pass for an American film.  (Technically, it was sold as being a prequel to Dawn of the Dead, which was released under the title Zombi in much of Europe.)  In order to maintain the illusion, Italian filmmakers would often spend a day or two shooting on location in a recognizable American city.  More often than not, that city would turn out to be New York.

Number two, since Zombi 2 was promoted as being a bit of a prequel to Dawn of the Dead, one could argue that this scene shows how the whole zombie apocalypse began in the United States.  It wasn’t radiation from space or Hell running out of room.  No, instead, it was juts a boat floating from an island in the Caribbean all the way to New York.

This scene is also memorable because of the “boat zombie,” who is one of the best-known of the movie zombies.  Even people who have never heard of Lucio Fulci will probably recognize the boat zombie.  He’s an icon of the undead!

Finally, this scene sets up one of the greatest closing shots in the history of zombie cinema.  New York beware!

Scenes I Love: Scum of the Earth

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Here is a scene that should be familiar to anyone who has ever watched anything from Something Weird, the infamous “you’re damaged goods and this is a fire sale!” monologue from Herschell Gordon Lewis’s 1963 expose of the Hollywood smut trade, Scum of the Earth.

Scenes That I Love: The Opening of Patton

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s scene that I love comes from 1970’s Patton.

This scene, which occurs at the start of the film, won George C. Scott an Oscar …. which he refused to accept.  Scott announced, even before he was nominated, that he wouldn’t accept the Oscar.  One gets the feeling that probably made it all the more likely that he would win.  To Scott’s credit, he did not send someone else to refuse the Oscar (and take the boos) in his place.

Would George Patton have refused the Oscar?  Probably not.

Scene of the Day: Malcolm McDowell in O Lucky Man!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In this scene from 1973’s O Lucky Man, Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell) comes to the end of his very long journey and finds himself auditioning for a role in a Lindsay Anderson film.

Anderson, of course, was also the director of O Lucky Man! and it’s obvious that the film that Mick is auditioning for is meant to be Anderson’s previous film, If.

McDowell, of course, actually did star in If.  In fact, he played a character named Mick Travis.

After all of his surreal adventures, can Mick still smile enough to get the part?