Can you believe that some people think that they didn’t know how to have fun in the early 60s?
Of course, you did have to look out for the monsters. I guess that was the only drawback…
(I should admit that I’m not really sure if this movie was supposed to be occurring during spring break but who cares? It’s got the zombie stomp! Add to that, I’d be worried about anyone who voluntarily spent their spring break on such a depressing-looking beach. Not when you can just go down to Galveston.)
Have you ever wondered what it takes to win an Oscar? The 1966 film, The Oscar, revealed to audiences just how sleazy a world Hollywood can be. Frankie Fane (Stephen Boyd) does everything he can to win an Oscar and he doesn’t care who he hurts!
But fear not — Hollywood may not be perfect but it has no room for someone like Frankie Fane! At the end of the movie, a man named Frank does win the Oscar but his last name is Sinatra and Frankie Fane is left humiliated. That’ll teach him to try to take advantage of Hollywood!
Yes, The Oscar is an incredibly silly film but it’s also a lot of fun. In this scene that I love, Frankie’s best friend — played by Tony Bennett of all people — confronts Frankie about the type of star that he’s become.
According to my sister, who does a pretty good of keeping track of these things, today is International Polar Bear Day!
So, I figured that I would honor the polar bears by sharing one of my favorite scenes from Santa Claus Conquers The Martians! Even better, this video comes with a bonus scene, involving a robot named Tor.
Today, a lot of people have traveled to New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras. Here’s hoping that they have a better time in the city than Billy (Dennis Hopper) and Wyatt (Peter Fonda) had in the 1969 film, Easy Rider.
The scenes below, featuring Hopper, Fonda, Karen Black, and the legendary Toni Basil were actually filmed at Mardi Gras in 1968. These were among the first scenes that Hopper (making his directorial debut) shot for the film and reportedly, filming was so chaotic that they were also nearly the last scenes to be filmed. As those who have seen Easy Rider know, Billy and Wyatt spend the entire movie trying to get to New Orleans so that they can visit a famous brothel. Once they get there, they discover that absolutely nothing lives up to the legend. The brothel is a sleazy mess. Mardi Gras is full of bad vibes. Wyatt has an amazingly bad LSD trip. (Hopper convinced Fonda to really drop acid before filming the scene, which led some harrowing footage.) After they leave New Orleans, Fonda and Hopper cross the border into Texas and promptly end up getting blown away by two rednecks in a pickup truck.
Welcome to the sixties!
In the scene below, we get actual footage of 1968’s Mardi Gras. Just watch all the celebrants who stop to stare at the camera.
And here is the infamous cemetery scene. Fonda resisted doing it and the end result is not easy to watch but it’s also one of the most powerful moments in the entire film:
If you’re in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, please be sure to keep an eye out for the iguanas.
Ever since Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans was first released, people have debated the symbolism of the iguanas on the coffee table. Are they just a sign that Nicolas Cage’s bad lieutenant is totally high or do they have a deeper meaning? Myself, I’m not even going to try to guess. All I know is that the lieutenant eventually came to appreciate their presence.
If any of our readers are in New Orleans for Madi Gras weekend, a word of caution.
If you see a funeral procession, don’t ask who the funeral is for.
Seriously.
This scene is from 1973’s Live and Let Die. It’s a scene of many emotions. It may start out with the sond of a sad tune but everyone’s pretty happy by the end of it.
I’m pretty sure that I’ve shared this scene before but, since it’s Mardi Gras weekend, it feels like a good time to share it again!
In this scene from the 1991 New Orleans-set melodrama, Zandalee, Judge Reinhold and Nicolas Cage share a dance on a bayou dock. Reinhold knows that Cage has been sleeping with his wife. Cage knows that Reinhold knows. So, they decided to have an impromptu dance-off.
It sounds like a good to idea to me and, with everyone flooding into Louisiana this weekend, it seems like a good pick for today’s scene that I love!
Today seems like a good day to share a scene from the twentieth best film ever made about a sudden, inexplicable bird attack, 2010’s Birdemic!
In this classic scene, four humans battle a flock of rampaging birds. Unfortunately, it would appear that none of the humans have been properly trained in how to use a coat hanger to battle low-budget CGI.
Through the Shattered Lens 