Since today would have been Robert Altman’s 100th birthday, it only seems right that today’s song of the day should come from his best film. In this scene from 1975’s Nashville, Keith Carradine sings I’m Easy as Altman’s camera finds each of his lovers in the audience, all convinced that Carradine is singing expressly to them.
This song won Nashville it’s only Oscar. It also made Keith, who wrote the song, the only Oscar winner amongst the fabled Carradine family.
Point Blank (1967, directed by John Boorman)
Today is the anniversary of the birth of one of the greatest of the screen tough guys, Mr. Lee Marvin! Today’s scene that I love comes from the 1967 film, Point Blank. In this short but emotionally exhausting scene, Angie Dickinson hits Lee Marvin’s career criminal, over and over again. Marvin, for his part, barely reacts. This scene is the epitome of Lee Marvin’s mystique. He played men who only showed emotion when it was necessary. Dickinson hits Marvin to try to make him feel something but Marvin’s career criminal in beyond such concerns.
From Point Blank, here is today’s scene that I love:
Today’s scene that I love comes from 1986’s Pretty In Pink, starring Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy, Jon Cryer, and James Spader and written by John Hughes.
In the final scene, we discover Andie at prom with Duckie. Fortunately, Blaine shows up. Listen, I know that there are a lot of people who think that Andie should have ended up with Duckie. That’s how the script was originally written and the film’s ending was reshot after test audiences literally booed the idea of Andie going to prom with her best friend. In this case, though, the test audience was correct. Duckie was sweet but he wasn’t a prom date. Andie and Blaine belonged together.
Today is both President’s Day and Don Coscarelli’s birthday! As such, it only seems appropriate that today’s scene of the day should come from Coscarelli’s 2002 film, Bubba Ho-Tep.
In this film, Elvis (Bruce Campbell) and John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis) team up to battle the killer Mummy that is haunting their nursing home. Personally, I choose to believe that both Elvis and JFK were exactly who they said they were in this film.
I love Richard Donner’s Ladyhawke . In the following scene, our hero Navarre (Rutger Hauer) has stormed a church, looking to reach the wicked Bishop (played by Wargames‘ John Wood). It’s in an effort to force the Bishop to break the curse that turns Navarre into a wolf by night and his love, Isabeau (Michelle Pfeiffer) into a Hawk by day. He’s reached the Bishop, but believes that Isabeau is surely gone, having asked a old friend to take her life should Navarre fail. I chose this part partially because I love the look on Navarre’s face on hearing Isabeau’s voice. He looks at her almost as if he’s seen her for the first time. He’s just so entranced, but then he quickly remembers what he needs to do, and his voice booms through the church. I wish this video wasn’t cut as short as it is.
Enjoy!
In honor of Alan Parker’s birthday, today’s scene of the day comes from his 1980 film, Fame. This is one of the best finales ever captured on film.
In this scene, the film’s characters performer for one last time before graduating and heading out into a world that, for all their talent, promises nothing. The film follows these students over the course of their four years at the High School for the Performing Arts and, as the finale plays out, we know that, no matter what happens, there years at the school will remain some of the most important of their lives.
Today is Kim Novak’s 92nd birthday!
Today’s scene of the day is the wonderfully sensual dance scene that she shares with William Holden in 1955’s Picnic. Picnic is a film that has its flaws, the main one being that William Holden, as charming and ruggedly handsome as he is, is a bit too old for the lead role. But none of that matter once he and Kim Novak start dancing.
(At around the 18 second mark, the picture appears to freeze but don’t panic. That’s a glitch in the upload and it only lasts for a second or two.)
Deliverance (1972, directed by John Boorman, DP: Vilmos Zsigmond)
“Machines are going to fail!” Lewis Medlock says in Deliverance, delivering a line that feels even more relevant today than it might have in 1972. Lewis is the athlete and self-styled alpha male who drags his friends on a canoeing trip that involves some dangerous rapids. When Lewis suffers a compound fraction, it’s a shocking moment because, up until that point, Lewis seemed invulnerable to harm. Even when they return to civilization and Lewis learns he might lose his leg, he remains defiant.
Lewis was played by the late Burt Reynolds, who born 89 years ago today. In this scene that I love, Lewis explains his philosophy to his best friend and eventual savior, Ed Gentry (Jon Voight).
On this date, 115 years ago, Lon Chaney, Jr. was born in Oklahoma City. At the time, Oklahoma wasn’t even a state. His father was the actor Lon Chaney Sr.
Originally named Creighton Chaney, Lon Jr. followed in his father’s footsteps. Like many sons of famous men, he often struggled to escape his father’s shadow. While he would never be mistaken for a man of a thousand faces, Lon Chaney, Jr. did make a name for himself, first as Lenny in the Oscar-nominated 1939 film version of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and then as Larry Talbot, the unfortunate man who found himself cursed to turn into the Wolf Man whenever the moon was full. Chaney spent the majority of his career appearing in horror films and, later, westerns. Not only did he play The Wolf Man but he was also one of the many actors to take a shot at playing both Frankenstein’s Monster and Dracula. Later, he would appear in a series of low budget horror films that were often a far cry from his best-known films. In his later years, he was a favorite of producer/director Stanley Kramer, who cast him in both High Noon and The Defiant Ones and who once said that Chaney was one of the finest character actors in Hollywood. His deep voice and craggily face made an undeniable impression in those later films. Looking at him, you could see had lived a tough life but he had the heart of a survivor.
In today’s scene that I love, Larry Talbot learns the facts about being a werewolf. From 1941’s The Wolf Man, here is Lon Chaney, Jr in his signature role.
In honor of Joe Pesci’s birthday, today’s scene that I love comes from 1990’s Goodfellas. This iconic scene was largely improvised by Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta. Reportedly, Pesci based the scene on an actual incident that he observed.
It’s also interesting to note that Tommy’s comment of “you might fold under pressure” turns out to be true.
Through the Shattered Lens 