93 years ago, on this date in 1917, Rudy Ray Moore was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas. From humble beginnings, Moore would grow up to become a comedian who inspires a cult-like following to this day. Imagine Redd Foxx with even bluer material but less personal animus against the world and you might have some idea of the type of material that made Rudy Ray Moore famous.
Moore was not just a comedian. He was also a self-proclaimed film star. Dolemite, which he produced and starred in, remains his best-known movie. Dolemite is a blaxploitation film but it’s a blaxploitation film unlike any other. Moore plays Dolemite, a pimp who has been released from prison after serving 20 years. Dolemite seeks revenge on the man who set him up, Willie Green (played by the film’s director, D’Urville Martin.) Along the way, he proves himself to be the greatest kung fu-fighting pimp around.
Or, at least, that’s the idea. As a movie, Dolemite is often considered to be an example of outsider art. It’s a movie unlike any other and it is almost impossible to describe what it’s like to watch it for the first time. In honor of Rudy Ray Moore’s birthday, here is one of the classic fight scenes from Dolemite:
Today would have been Hal Needham’s 89th birthday and that means that it’s time to celebrate with Smokey and the Bandit.
Before he made a name for himself as a director, Hal Needham was a legendary stuntman. In 1977, the same year that Smokey and the Bandit came out, Gabriel Toys even sold as a “Hal Needham Western Movie Stunt Set,” which came with a spring-launched Hal Needham action figure. When Needham went into directing, he made unpretentious movies for people who wanted to have a good time at the theater. The majority of his films featured fast cars, tough good old boys, and spectacular action. They also often featured Burt Reynolds doing what he did best. Needham made the type of movies that never won Academy Awards but which audiences loved. In fact, audiences still love them. When I watch Smokey and the Bandit, I always want to quit my job and just smuggle Coors east of the Mississippi for a living. I know that Coors is legal now so there’s no need to smuggle it but that’s the power of a good Hal Needham film.
In the scene below, the Bandit (Burt Reynolds) and Snowman (Jerry Reed) manage to avoid getting caught by the Mississippi Highway Patrol. Not only do we get to hear Eastbound and Down but this scene also features the moment that Hal Needham knew the film was going to be a hit. He later said that, as soon as Burt Reynolds broke the fourth wall and stared straight at the camera with “that shit-eating grin on his face,” he knew that audiences were going to love the Bandit.
And he was right.
Hal Needham died in 2013 and Burt Reynolds followed him five years later. However, their legacy lives on. The characters of Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time in Hollywood were based on Burt and Hal. If anyone could have taken on and beat the Manson family single-handed, it would have been the great Hal Needham.
Today would have been Jean Harlow’s 109th birthday so today’s scene that I love comes from one of her best films. In the 1932 film, Red-Headed Woman, Jean Harlow plays Lil. Lil is determined to get ahead in society. In fact, she’ll do just about anything to make it happen. Fortunately, this is a pre-code film, which means that Lil not only gets to stand up for herself and nearly kill a man but she also doesn’t get punished for it. Just a few years later, after the production code went into effect, there was no way that Hollywood would have allowed Lil a happy ending. The culture had changed and people were a lot more judgmental. Thanks a lot, FDR.
In this scene, Lil gets drunk and confronts her married lover (Chester Morris), who also happens to be her boss. Playing Lil’s best friend and usually unsuccessful voice of reason is Una Merkel.
Jean Harlow was only 26 years old when she died but she lives forever as one of the great screen icons. And did you know that she wrote a book? It’s true! Of course, it wasn’t published until nearly three decades after her death but still!
Here’s the scene from Red-Headed Woman, which has both a great title and a great star!
To say that Zack Snyder is a controversial filmmaker would be an understatement. People seem to either love his ultrastylish films or they hate them. Myself, I was not a fan of Man of Steel and I’m still laughing about the “Why did you say Martha!?” scene from Batman v Superman. At the same time, I also think that Zack Snyder is responsible for one of the greatest (and most underrated) films of the past ten years, 2011’s Sucker Punch. Though the film may be under appreciated today, Sucker Punch is one of those films that’s destined to eventually be rediscovered and appreciated by a new generation of film students.
And, after you’ve read the review, check out this scene that I love. From Sucker Punch, it’s Babydoll’s battle with the giant samurai. Like almost all great action movie scenes, it’s both ludicrous and brilliant at the same time.
Today is the 117th birthday of the great director, Vincente Minnelli!
While Minnelli actually made films in several different genres, he’s best remembered for his many musicals. It’s been said that Minnelli was one of the directors for whom technicolor was invented and his musicals certainly prove the truth of that statement. Minnelli made films that not only celebrated music and dancing but which left audiences wanting to sing and dance themselves.
Several of Minnelli’s films were honored by the Academy. Two of his films won the Oscar for Best Picture and today’s scene that we love comes from the first one to do so, 1951’s An American In Paris. In this scene …. well, the why is not important. What’s important is the way the Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron move and the way that Minnelli captures and celebrates every movement.
Today is the 116th anniversary of the birth of the British director, Terence Fisher.
Though Fisher had a long career as both an editor and a director and he worked in almost every genre, he achieved immortality with the horror films that he directed for Hammer Films. Fisher’s horror films took the monsters that had previously been made famous by Universal Studios and resurrected them with a pop art spin. Regardless of whether the subject matter was Frankenstein, the Mummy, Dracula, or some other fearsome creature, Fisher brought a vibrant splash of color to their stories. (Often that color was blood red.) At a time when American horror films were still hobbled by the production code and tended to hide their themes under several heavy layers of subtext, Terence Fisher brought Hammer’s stories to life with explicit violence and unapologetic sexuality. When Christopher Lee’s Dracula stared at a victim with lustful eyes, there was little doubt about what was actually happening. Once Fisher started working for Hammer, he never left the horror genre. Personally, I would have liked to have seen what he could have done with a Bond film.
Today’s scene that I love comes from one of the first of the Fisher-directed Hammer horror films, 1958’s Horror of Dracula. (In the UK, it was simply know as Dracula.) Christopher Lee may not appear in this scene but it’s still one of the creepiest moments in the film. In this scene, Lucy (Carol Marsh) returns from the dead and, sporting a new set of fangs, attempts to get her former maid’s daughter, Tania, to come for a walk with her. Thanks to both Fisher’s direction and Marsh’s unforgettable performance, this is a scene that sticks with you even after the film ends. Whenever I see Lucy peeking out from behind that tree and calling out to little Tania, my mind flashes back to when I was in the 1st grade and a police officer stopped by the classroom to ask if we all knew what to do if an adult who we didn’t know tried to get us to go off with them. This scene definitely gives off stranger danger vibes and it’s all the more creepy as a result.
Kyle MacLachlan is 61 years old today. While MacLachlan has appeared in a lot of different movies and tv shows and he’s also played a lot of different characters, he will probably always be best known for playing FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper on Twin Peaks. MacLachlan, with his combination of earnestness and darkness, was the prefect choice to play Cooper and it’s impossible to imagine Twin Peaks without him.
Of course, MacLachlan didn’t just play Dale Cooper during the third season of Twin Peaks. He also played Cooper’s evil Doppelganger and, for the majority of Twin Peaks: The Return, he played Dougie. Dougie could barely speak and usually had no idea what was happening around him but he still thrived in Las Vegas. MacLachlan’s performance as Dougie was both funny and poignant. At the same time, I do think that every fan of Twin Peaks breathed a sigh of relief when Cooper finally woke up from that coma, stopped acting like Dougie, and started acting like himself.
Today’s scene that I love comes from Part 16 of Twin Peaks: The Return. In this David Lynch-directed scene, Cooper — who has only recently reclaimed his identity — says goodbye to Dougie’s wife and son. Like so much of Twin Peaks; The Return, this is a scene that could be unbelievably mawkish in the hands of another actor. However, Kyle MacLachlan plays the scene with such sincerity that it’s actually very touching.
In honor of Kyle MacLachlan’s birthday, enjoy today’s scene that I love:
In honor of this day, here’s a scene that I love, the opening credits of Saturday Night Fever. Watch as John Travolta, playing the role of Tony Manero, walks down the streets of Brooklyn, not letting the fact that he’s carrying two cans of paint do anything to lessen his strut. Watch as Tony puts a down payment on a pair of shoes! Thrill as Tony buys two slices of pizza! Cringe as Tony bothers a woman who wants absolutely nothing to do with him!
This is one of the greatest introductions in film history. Not only does it set Tony up as an exemplar of cool but it also subverts our expectations by revealing just how little being an exemplar of cool really means. I always relate to the woman who gets annoyed with Tony and tells him to go away. I know exactly how she feels, as does any woman who has ever been stopped in the middle of the street by some guy who thinks she has an obligation to talk him. It doesn’t matter how handsome he is or how much time he obviously spent working on his hair. He’s still just some guy carrying two buckets of paint and acting like she should be flattered that he spent half a minute staring at her ass before chasing after her. For all of his carefully constructed attitude, Tony comes across as being a rather ludicrous figure in this introduction. He carries those cans of paint like he’s going to war and you secretly get the feeling that he knows how silly he looks carrying them but he’s not going to allow anything to get in the way of his strut.
The rest of the film, of course, is about presenting who Tony actually is underneath the disco facade and it’s not always a pretty picture. I actually discussed this with some friends this weekend while we were listening to combination of disco and punk music. Saturday Night Fever has a reputation for being a fun dance movie but actually, it’s an extremely dark and rather depressing movie. The opening song isn’t lying when it says that “I’m going nowhere.” Tony is lost and, despite what happens in the sequel, he’s probably never going to escape his circumstances. Even though he clearly wants to be a better person, you’re never quite convinced that he has what it takes to truly do that. At least he can strut a little while waiting for the world to end. It takes guts to give an honest performance when you’re playing as imperfect a character as Tony Manero but Travolta pulls it off. (We won’t talk about some of the films that he made in the years immediately after this one. Eventually, he did make a comeback with Pulp Fiction and spent several years again appearing in good films. And then somehow, last year, he ended up starring in The Fanatic. Oh well. 66 is not that old and I’m sure Travolta has more than one comeback within him.)
Anyway, happy birthday to John Travolta! And here is today’s scene that I love:
Today, we take it for granted that the Oscars will always be on television in February or March of every year. We know that they will be broadcast on ABC on Sunday night. We also know that there’s a good chance that, every year, some clueless TV exec will try to do something to ruin our annual tradition. Whether it’s the idea of introducing an award for Best Popular Film or maybe suggesting that some awards should be given off camera, we know better than to trust ABC.
However, for the first 25 years of the Academy’s existence, the Oscars were not televised. In fact, for a while, they weren’t even broadcast on the radio because it was assumed that no one outside of Hollywood cared about them. It really wasn’t until the mid-30s that the Oscars became an annual ritual for so many Americans. At first, people listened to the ceremony on the radio and then eventually, the ceremony came to television.
The first Oscar telecast was on March 19th, 1953. The ceremony was split between two locations, Hollywood and New York. Bob Hope hosted in Hollywood while Conrad Nagel and Fredric March hosted in New York. The ceremony didn’t start until 10:30 pm and it ran for two hours and 20 minutes. Why the late start? Several of the nominees were also appearing in Broadway shows and they had to finish their nightly performances before they could attend the ceremony.
As for why this ceremony was telecast — well, as always, it all comes down to money. The Academy needed the money that came from selling the broadcast rights to NBC. (NBC, to their credit, did not demand an award for Best Popular Film.) The show was such a ratings success that it led to the annual tradition that we all know and love today.
What won at the first televised ceremony? The Greatest Show On Earth won Best Picture while John Ford took home Best Director (for The Quiet Man) and Gary Cooper was named Best Actor for High Noon. Shirley Booth was named Best Actress for Come Back, Little Sheba. The supporting awards went to Anthony Quinn for Viva Zapata! and Gloria Grahame for The Bad and the Beautiful.
Here is the opening of the very first televised Oscar ceremony. As you can tell, it was quite a bit different from what we’re used to today!
So, today is Sherilyn Fenn’s birthday and I figured that this would be the perfect time to share a scene that I love from Twin Peaks: The Return. It’s also one of the most controversial scenes from the entire 18-hour film (and make no mistake, Twin Peaks: The Return is a film). That’s saying something, considering that just about every single minute of David Lynch’s masterpiece was, at the very least, a little bit controversial.
From Twin Peaks: The Return Part 16, it’s Audrey’s Dance!
So, what’s happening here? That Audrey has undergone a great personal trauma is obvious to anyone who compares the Audrey in Twin Peaks: The Return to the Audrey in the original series. The original series ended with Audrey in a coma. In between the end of the first series and the start of the second, she was raped by the Doppelganger (apparently while she was still comatose) and she subsequently gave birth to the thoroughly evil Richard Horne. There’s a lot of horrifying things in Twin Peaks but there’s nothing as horrific as what happened to Audrey.
Where things get murky is what happened to Audrey after the birth of Richard. According to the books that Mark Frost wrote before and after Twin Peaks: The Return aired, Audrey later became a beautician and married her business manager. For that reason, I think we can discount the theory that Audrey is still in the coma and having a dream in this scene. Another popular theory is that Audrey is hallucinating in a mental hospital but again, I think we can discount that because, if she’s institutionalized, how could she become a beautician and marry her business manager?
I think a far more probable theory is that the Audrey who is living in Twin Peaks is another doppelganger and the real Audrey, like the original Cooper, is trapped in one of the lodges. I also think that it can be argued that the Road House, where Audrey dances, is itself a portal. It’s not an actual Lodge but it does seem to have a connection to the Black Lodge. Perhaps the master of ceremonies is like emcee from Mulholland Drive, revealing that everything is an illusion.
Who knows, right?
As for Audrey’s dance in this scene, it’s a callback to a time when Audrey had her entire future ahead of her. What Audrey once did playfully, she now does wistfully and with regret. And yet, there’s a lot of hope to be found in her dance, or at least there is until reality intrudes in the form of two idiots getting into a fight. That’s when Audrey (or Audrey’s doppelganger) is reminded that the world has changed and there’s no more room for happiness.
Hopefully, things have gotten better for Audrey since we last saw her.
Through the Shattered Lens 