Since today is Raoul Walsh’s birthday, it only makes sense that our scene that I love should come from one of Walsh’s best films.
In 1948’s White Heat, James Cagney plays Cody Jarrett, a gangster who loves his mother and goes out like a raging inferno. Here, for those who don’t mind a spoiler or two, is the end of Raoul Walsh’s White Heat.
4 Shots From 4 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!
128 years ago today, film director Raoul Walsh was born in New York City. He started out as an actor and a second unit director, learning how to make films under the tutelage of D.W. Griffith. He made his directorial debut in 1915 with Regeneration, which is considered to be the first gangster film. Refusing to sidelined after losing an eye in an auto accident, Walsh continued to direct and his career stretched from the silent era all the way to the mid-60s. Walsh directed westerns, war films, and gangster films. He was a master of tough but sometimes quirky action films. Martin Scorsese continues to cite Walsh as being an influence on his own work.
Today. we pay tribute to Raoul Walsh with….
4 Shots From 4 Raoul Walsh Films
The Big Trail (1930, dir by Raoul Walsh, DP: Lucian Andriot and Arthur Edeson)
The Roaring Twenties (1939, dir by Raoul Walsh, DP: Ernest Haller)
Gentleman Jim (1942, dir by Raoul Walsh, DP: Sidney Hickox)
Esther and the King (1960, dir by Raoul Walsh and Mario Bava, DP: Mario Bava)
I’m a huge fan of actor Chuck Norris. His films SILENT RAGE, LONE WOLF MCQUADE, MISSING IN ACTION, and especially CODE OF SILENCE are some of my all time favorites. Fox 16 out of Little Rock seemed to play LONE WOLF MCQUADE on repeat when I was growing up in the 80’s. I always thought this opening scene was so badass. In honor of Norris’ birthday, I share this with all of you! Thanks Chuck, for all the great memories! Enjoy, my friends!
Every Monday night at 9:00 Central Time, my wife Sierra and I host a “Live Movie Tweet” event on X using the hashtag #MondayMuggers. We rotate movie picks each week, and our tastes are quite different. Tonight, Monday March 10th, we’re watching BLOOD FATHER starring Mel Gibson, Erin Moriarty, Diego Luna, Michael Parks, William H. Macy, and Miguel Sandoval.
BLOOD FATHER is the story of an ex-con (Mel Gibson) who reunites with his estranged 17-year old daughter (Erin Moriarty) to protect her from drug dealers hell bent on killing her.
I remember being very excited about BLOOD FATHER when it was released back in 2016. I’ve always been a big fan of Mel Gibson’s work, and this movie looked like it would be right down my alley. I was visiting the Tampa area on a business trip and decided to take in the film at a theater in Pinellas Park during some downtime. I remember enjoying the film very much and thinking Gibson was especially badass in the title role. I’m looking forward to watching it again with the #MondayMuggers crew.
Here are a few interesting tidbits about BLOOD FATHER:
So, join us tonight for #MondayMuggers and watch BLOOD FATHER! It’s on Amazon Prime.
4 Shots From 4 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, let us take a look back at a classic cinematic year. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 1992 Films
Reservoir Dogs (1992, dir by Quentin Tarantino, DP: Andrzej Sekuła)
Benny’s Video (1992, dir by Michael Haneke, DP: Christian Berger)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992, dir by David Lynch, DP: Ron Garcia)
Army of Darkness (1992, dir by Sam Raimi, DP: Bill Pope)
Today is Chuck Norris’s birthday and to celebrate, today’s scene that I love comes from one of his best films. In this sequence from 1985’s The Delta Force, Chuck shows that even his motorcycle is a force to be reckoned with.
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in hosting a few weekly live tweets on twitter and occasionally Mastodon. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of Mastodon’s #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We snark our way through it.
Tonight, for #MondayActionMovie, the film will be 1976’s Dixie Dynamite, starring Warren Oates and Christopher George! I picked it so you know it’ll be good.
It should make for a night of fun viewing and I invite all of you to join in. If you want to join the live tweets, just hop onto Mastodon, find the movie on YouTube, hit play at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag! The live tweet community is a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
See you soon for some moonshine excitement!
Alain Delon was left out of last week’s Oscar memorial montage but that doesn’t mean we can’t honor him here. In today’s scene that I love, Alain Delon walks with style. This is from the end of 1960’s Purple Noon, a French adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Since Sunday is a day of rest for a lot of people, I present #SundayShorts, a mini review of a movie I’ve recently watched.
The 1987 movie ESCAPE FROM SOBIBOR is the historical re-creation of the escape from the Nazi Death Camp Sobibor, where approximately two hundred fifty thousand Jews were executed. Of the approximately six hundred prisoners who attempted to escape, around three hundred succeeded with somewhere between 50 and 60 surviving to see the end of the war.
The plot of ESCAPE FROM SOBIBOR revolves around Leon Feldhendler (Alan Arkin), the leader of the Jewish prisoners at Sobibor, who eventually comes to realize that they are being held in nothing more than a death camp. He figures out that the only people being allowed to live are the goldsmiths, seamstresses, shoemakers, and tailors; these are the people who are able to repair the shoes, recycle the clothing, and melt down any silver or gold for the Nazis. He also knows that once the trains stop coming in, all the remaining Jews will be murdered. As such, he and a group of men devise a plan for every prisoner to escape by luring the Nazi officers into the prisoners’ barracks and killing them as quietly as possible. With the help of a group of highly skilled Jewish, Russian soldiers, led by Sacha Pechersky (Rutger Hauer), their plan was put into action on October 14th, 1943, leading to the largest escape from a prison camp of any kind in Europe during World War II.
ESCAPE FROM SOBIBOR is an excellent film, and it’s currently streaming on Amazon Prime and TUBI as I type this. If you enjoy THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963), I promise you will enjoy this film. It’s very hard to watch at times, as most Nazi concentration camp movies are, but you can’t help but be completely invested when the prisoners attempt their escape at the end. It’s always important to remind ourselves of the levels of evil and heroism that our fellow humans are capable of. ESCAPE FROM SOBIBOR does an excellent job of that.
Here are five interesting facts about the film:
I highly recommend ESCAPE FROM SOBIBOR. It’s an important film and one of the greatest films that Rutger Hauer ever worked on. Enjoy the trailer below!
4 Shots From 4 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, let us take a look back at a classic cinematic year. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 1976 Films
Taxi Driver (1976, dir by Martin Scorsese, DP: Michael Chapman)
Logan’s Run (1976, dir by Michael Anderson, DP: Ernest Laszlo)
Carrie (1976, dir by Brian De Palma, DP: Mario Tosi)
The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976, dir by Nicholas Roeg, DP: Anthony Richmond)
Through the Shattered Lens