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.
4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films is just what it says it is, 4 (or more) shots from 4 (or more) of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films lets the visuals do the talking.
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy 93rd birthday to British director John Boorman.
Boorman is one of those great director who sometimes doesn’t seem to get as much credit as he deserves. An undeniably idiosyncratic director, Boorman easily moved from genre to genre and who brought his own individual style to each of his films. Sometimes, critics and audiences responded to that vision and sometimes, they didn’t. And yet even Boorman’s so-called failures have come to be appreciated over the years. Zardoz is a cult classic. Even The Exorcist II: The Heretic is not quite the disaster that some insist. If nothing else, it’s one of the strangest studio productions to ever be released.
At his best, Boorman is one of the most influential directors of all time. How many neo-noirs have ripped off the look and the feel of Point Blank? The ending of Deliverance has been imitated by a countless number of horror films and, indeed, every backwoods thriller owes a debt to Boorman’s film about four businessmen spending a weekend canoeing. Excalibur is one of the most elegiac of all the Arthurian films while Hope and Glory retains its power to make audiences both laugh and cry with its portrayal of life on the British homefront during World War II. Meanwhile, films like The General and The Emerald Forest gave underrated characters actors like Powers Boothe and Brendan Gleeson a chance to shine.
So today, in honor of the career and the legacy of John Boorman, here are….
4 Shots from 4 John Boorman Films
Point Blank (1967, dir by John Boorman, DP: Philip H. Lathrop)
Deliverance (1972, dir by John Boorman, DP: Vilmos Zsigmond)
Excalibur (1981, dir by John Boorman, DP: Alex Thomson)
The General (1998, dir by John Boorman, DP: Seamus Deasy)
by Martin Gulser
The snow does funny things.
Snow? We have no snow. However, we do have freezing temperatures that have left me shivering under the covers. Today’s music video of the day feels appropriate. Luckily, Lindsey Stirling can make any sudden weather change better.
Enjoy!
When arrogant news anchor Brett Huston (John James) is shot and killed, his co-anchor Gillian Pope (Kerrie Keane) is arrested and charged with the crime. It looks like an open-and-shut case because Brett was shot with Gillian’s gun. Luckily, Gillian is friends with Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) and soon Perry is on the case with Della Street (Barbara Hale) and Ken Malansky (William R. Moses).
Now this is how you do a Perry Mason movie! Brett’s murder is linked to a memo that he wrote in which he criticized the other members of the news team and argued that they should all be fired. All of the suspects are enjoyably eccentric. There’s a weatherman (Peter Jurasik) who wants to be a stand-up comedian. There’s the sports reporter (Philip Michael Thomas) who used and sold steroids. There’s the producer (Susan Sullivan), who was also Brett’s ex-wife. Brett even insulted the station manager (Jerry Orbach, who previously appeared as a different suspect in The Musical Murder). Ken, as usual, finds time for romance, this time with reporter Cassie Woodfield (Mary Page Keller) who appears to have someone trying to kill her as well. Along with a great cast of characters, this mystery had a solution that took me by surprise but which also made sense when I looked back on it. The final courtroom reveal was perfect. This is also probably the only Perry Mason film where the hours of a hamburger restaurant proved to be instrumental to the case.
The Case of the Ruthless Reporter was a good one!
Cliff Spab (Stehpen Dorff), his friend Joe Dice (Jack Noseworthy), and teenager Wendy Pfister (Reese Witherspoon) are in the wrong convenience store at the wrong time and end up being taken hostage by a group of masked terrorists who have guns and video cameras. For 36 days straight, their ordeal is broadcast live on television. They become the number one show in the country and Cliff’s nihilistic attitude makes him a star. When the terrorists threaten to kill him, he spits back, “So fucking what!?” Alienated young people take up S.F.W. as a personal chant and credo. When Joe finally fights back, both he and the terrorists are killed in the shoot-out. Wendy and Cliff are now celebrities, even though they don’t want to be. Released into the real world, Cliff has to deal with everyone wanting to make money off of him. His alienation has been turned into a product. He just wants to be reunited with Wendy but his fans want him to tell them how to live their lives. Fandom turns out be a fickle beast.
Earlier this morning, I came across a news item that Jefery Levy, the director of S.F.W., had died at the age of 67. S.F.W. used to show up frequently on cable in the 90s but I hadn’t thought about it in years. When I first saw S.F.W., I didn’t care much for it. Cliff came across as being a poseur and Stephen Dorff came across like he was way too impressed with himself. With John Roarke playing everyone from Phil Donahue to Sam Donaldson and Gary Coleman appearing as himself, the movie seemed like it was trying too hard to be outrageous. Looking back on it now, though, I realize S.F.W. may not have been a good movie but it was still a very prophetic movie. What seemed implausible in the 90s — like the 36-day live stream from inside the convenience store hostage situation and Cliff Spab’s fans switching their allegiance to a self-righteous virgin who yells that everything matters while trying to assassinate him — feels far too plausible today.
In 1994, S.F.W. and Jefery Levy predicted the 2020s. The only thing it got wrong was having Cliff Spab not wanting to be a famous. Today, Cliff Spab would probably be presenting the Best Podcast award at the Golden Globes.
I discovered South Korean cinema when I ran across the blu ray for SHIRI (1999) at Best Buy some time around the turn of the century. Making the impulse buy, I discovered SHIRI to be an incredible action film. With my appetite sufficiently whetted, I hopped on the Internet and just started searching for more. The next movie I came across was JOINT SECURITY AREA (2000), another great film. I took notice of the actor Song Kang-ho in both films, so I started watching his career very closely. Soon he was starring in the psychological thriller SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE (2002) and the serial killer film MEMORIES OF MURDER (2003). Not only was Song giving incredible acting performances, he was working for two of the great South Korean directors at the time, Park Chan-Wook and Bong Joon Ho. These two incredible directors were making the best films in South Korean cinema and Song’s fingerprints were all over their best work. Films like THE HOST (2006), THIRST (2009) and SNOWPIERCER (2013) soon followed, culminating in Song’s lead performance in Bong Joon Ho’s Oscar winning film PARASITE (2018), the first foreign language film to ever take home the Best Picture Oscar!
I have now been a fan of Song Kang-ho for over 25 years. He’s still working hard. I just noticed that he has a series that’s streaming on Hulu called UNCLE SAMSIK. I need to check that out. I also noticed that many of his best films are currently available for streaming on so many different platforms… Netflix, Tubi, the Roku Channel, PlutoTV, etc., etc.!
Check out this trailer for MEMORIES OF MURDER. If this doesn’t light your fire, your wood’s wet! Happy Birthday, Song Kang-ho. Thanks for a quarter century of entertainment!
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
Today, we remembers the great James Earl Jones. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 James Earl Jones Films
Conan The Barbarian (1982, dir by John Milius, DP: Duke Callaghan)
Gardens of Stone (1987, dir by Francis Ford Coppola, DP: Jordan Cronenweth)
Field of Dreams (1989, dir by Phil Alden Robinson, DP: John Lindley)
The Hunt for Red October (1990, directed by John McTiernan, DP: Jan de Bont)
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.
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We tweet our way through it.
Tonight, at 9 pm et, Deanna Dawn will be hosting #ScarySocial! The movie? 1992’s Demonic Toys!
If you want to join us this Saturday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
The film is available on Prime and Tubi!
Through the Shattered Lens 