Tag Archives: Scenes I Love

Scenes That I Love: The Phone Call From Sam Wainwright From It’s A Wonderful Life

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Tonight, NBC will be airing It’s A Wonderful Life.

Watching It’s A Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve is a tradition for many people.  It definitely is for me and my family.  I’ve watched It’s A Wonderful Life so many times that I’ve practically got the entire movie memorized.  It’s not only my favorite Christmas movie but also one of my favorite movies of all time.

Everyone knows, of course, that It’s A Wonderful Life is a film about a man named George (played by Jimmy Stewart) who gets a chance to see what the world would be like without him.  What I think is often overlooked is that it’s also a powerful and poignant love story and that the scenes between George and Mary (Donna Reed) are some of the most intensely romantic ever filmed.

In the scene below, George and Mary get a phone call from Mary’s ex, Sam Wainwright.  Sam has a business opportunity but George has more on his mind than staying in Bedford Falls and making money.  This scene, which begins with Mary upset and George feeling lost, ends with one of the most powerful kisses of the 1940s.

This is a scene that I love from a movie that I love and I look forward to watching it tonight!

Scenes That I Love: Daria Nicolodi in Shock

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As soon as I heard the great Daria Nicolodi had passed away at the age of 70, I knew that I had to find a scene from one of her films to share here on the Shattered Lens.

Unfortunately, YouTube was not very helpful.  I was tempted to re-share the scene of her arm-wrestling David Hemmings in Deep Red but I chose not to because, according to our stats, a lot of you already visited that post after the news of her passing was announced.

I also nearly shared the finale of Shock.  This was Daria’s best performance and one that she always cited as being a favorite.  However, I hesitated to do so because that scene features Daria’s character dying in a rather gruesome manner and I worried it was perhaps a bit too morbid to share under these circumstances.  But this scene also shows what a good actress Daria Nicolodi was and, again, Shock was a film that she always cited as being one of her personal favorites.  That said, I just can’t bring myself to pay tribute to someone on the day of their passing with a scene in which they die.  So, I’m sharing a different scene from Shock.  This one is perhaps a bit less dramatic than the finale but it still shows what a good and expressive actress Daria Nicolodi was.  She makes the scene below feel real.

So, in memory of the great Daria Nicolodi, here she is in Mario Bava’s Shock:

Horror Scenes That I Love: The End of The Original Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

This is from the original 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  This is how director Don Siegel wanted the film to end, with Kevin McCarthy vainly warning drivers that they’re coming for them.  The studio, however, insisted that Siegel add a scene that suggested that the authorities might be able to stop the invasion.

Incidentally, Don Siegel was born 108 years ago, today!  He was one of the great American genre directors.  Unfortunately, he didn’t really do enough horror films for me to devote a 4 Shots from 4 Films post to him but, that being said, it’s impossible to keep track of how many subsequent horror films would be influenced by Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Horror Scenes That I Love: The Hypnosis Scene From Sisters

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In this seriously creepy scene from the 1972 film Sisters, a reporter (Jennifer Salt) is hypnotized and made to believe that she was once a conjoined twin, attached to a psychotic model (played by Margot Kidder).  The scene was directed by Brian De Palma.

Enjoy!