Today the Shattered Lens is happy to wish the great Steven Spielberg a happy birthday!
It’s perhaps impossible to pick just one scene or just four shots to represent the career and the talent of Steven Spielberg. So, in honor of his birthday, I am going to share the moments when Steven Spielberg won his first two competitive Oscars, for directing and producing 1993’s Schindler’s List. His words are even more important today.
Since today is Martin Scorsese’s birthday, it only makes sense that today’s scene that I love comes from one of his best films.
In this scene from 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) hosts a meeting with two federal agents on his yacht. Jordan knows that the agents want to put him in prison but that they don’t have enough evidence as of yet. The main agent (played by Kyle Chandler) knows that Jordan’s arrogance is his greatest weakness.
This scene, with its faux friendly banter and it’s iconic shot of Jordan throwing money to the wind, is one of Scorsese’s best “confrontation” scenes. DiCaprio and Chandler perfectly play the two adversaries. Jordan knows that the agent is determined to catch him but Jordan also knows the agent will never be rich and there’s no way Jordan’s not going to remind him of that every chance that he gets. The passive aggressiveness of it all is truly a wonder to watch and, in its way, just as intimidating as the conversations between the gangsters who populate many of Scorsese’s other films.
From The Wolf of Wall Street:
For our final Horror Scene that I Love for our 2023’s horrorthon, we honor the great actor Tony Todd with this scene from 1992’s Candyman.
The British-born actress, Barbara Steele, became a star in Italy in the 60s, working with directors from Riccardo Freda to Mario Bava to Federico Fellini. One of Steele’s defining roles was in Bava’s 1960 film, Black Sunday.
In this scene, Steele’s witch is sentenced to be executed and, since this is a Bava film, it won’t be a quick execution. What makes this scene stand-out is Steele’s defiance. It’s hard not to admire her refusal to give those judging her what they want. You watch this scene and you have no doubt that if you get cursed by Barbara Steele, it’s going to be a curse for life.
Sissy Spacek hasn’t appeared in many horror movies but the one in which she did appear is such a classic and Spacek’s performance was so strong that she qualifies as a horror icon regardless. In 1976, Sissy Space played poor and victimized Carrie White, the shy high school student who ended up burning down the prom. Her performance became one of the few horror performances to be Oscar-nominated and Carrie launched a series of Stephen King adaptations.
In one of the best scene from the film, Carrie is forced to deal with both an insensitive principal and a brat on a bicycle.
I miss Giovanni Lombardo Radice.
The Italian writer/actor passed away earlier this year, on April 23rd. He is missed, both for his wit and charm and for his talent. He was great storyteller and always had the best anecdotes to share about the films in which he appeared, even though he himself often expressed amazement that people were still watching his movies. Giovanni Lombardo Radice was an artist and a gentleman.
I’ve shared this scene before but I’m going to share it again because it’s Giovanni at his best. Giovanni, incidentally, is dancing with his frequent co-star and friend, Lorraine de Selle.
From 1981’s The House On The Edge of the Park:
Everyone likes Linnea Quigley!
The 80s scream queen who brought an uninhibited attitude and an often underrated wit to countless horror films, Linnea Quigley is a true icon of horror. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to find any scenes of Linnea Quigley that are safe to share on this site. Most of them have been slapped with age restrictions on YouTube, for obvious reasons.
Still, I did find this scene from 1984’s Return of the Living Dead, in which Quigley’s Trash talks about her love of cemeteries. It’s a short scene, have no doubt. But it shows everything that has made Linnea Quigley such a popular figure amongst horror fans. Plus, I used to be the same way about cemeteries!
Donald Pleasence was born in the UK in 1919, the son of a railway station manager. Pleasence briefly tried to follow in his father’s footsteps before, at the age of 20, realizing that he would much rather be a professional actor. With his intense demeanor, Pleasence soon became an in-demand character actor and remained one for the rest of his life, only taking a break from acting when he served in World War II. (A devout Methodist, Pleasence originally registered as a conscientious objector but changed his stance once the Blitz began.) When he was taken prisoners by the Germans and sent to a POW camp, he organized plays among his fellow prisoners as a way to keep everyone’s spirits up as they waited for the war to end.
Pleasence’s experience as a POW led to him being cast in The Great Escape. His ability to play villains led to him being cast as the original Blofeld in You Only Live Twice. He appeared in classic horror films like Death Line and Wake In Fright. In 1978, he was offered the role of Dr. Loomis in Halloween, after it had been turned down by both Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Pleasence played Loomis with a righteous intensity that seemed to grow a bit more unhinged with each subsequent sequel. Though he was, by his own admission, not a huge fan of the genre, Pleasence became a horror icon to a whole new generation of film goers.
1998’s Halloween 4 does not have a great reputation but it does have one of my favorite Loomis scenes. In this scene, a hitchhiking Dr. Loomis is picked up by an old man (Carmen Filipi) who is on a mission of his own. It’s hard not to regret that these two didn’t get their own spin-off.
Today’s horror star is the great Vincent Price.
Born in Missouri and blessed with both an aristocratic profile and a resonant voice, Vincent Price started his career as a romantic leading man before eventually before finding more success a character actor. Starting in the late 40s and continuing until his death in 1993, Price was a beloved horror icon, bringing his witty presence to several different horror films.
Price always cites Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptations as being amongst his favorite of the horror films in which he appeared. In this scene from 1964’s The Masque of the Red Death, Vincent Price delivers a monologue on the meaning of terror as only he could.
Poor Anthony Perkins!
Anthony Perkins did not start his career as a horror icon. A talented young actor, Perkins started his career on Broadway and eventually, he started to appear in films. From the start, he was usually cast as nervous young men, the type who awkwardly smiled and struggled to talk to people. Perkins was promoted as a romantic lead, with the Studios and his agents making sure that Perkins was regularly photographed dating Hollywood starlets like Natalie Wood. As witty off-screen as he was nervous on-screen, Perkins was a popular figure in Hollywood. He received his only Oscar nomination for his performance as a young Quaker in 1956’s Friendly Persuasion.
Perkins’s entire career changed when Alfred Hitchcock cast him as the seemingly timid motel owner in 1960’s Psycho. Perkins was reportedly Hitchcock’s first choice for the role, with Hitchcock saying that he felt only Perkins or Dean Stockwell was capable of bringing Norman to life. Perkins was not nominated for Best Actor but the role pretty much defined him in the eyes of many. Perkins spent the rest of his career trying to first escape the shadow of Psycho and then eventually embracing his status as an icon of horror.
Perkins’s performance has been imitated so many times that there’s a tendency to forget just how good he is in the role. In this episode, Perkins-as-Norman discusses his mother with Janet Leigh.
Through the Shattered Lens 