Wednesday, February 24, 2016

My Favorite Scene



If I had liked nothing else about HAIL CAESAR, this scene would have put the film into the positive column for me. The dancing was sublime and turning the typical sailors looking for girls to sailors looking for sailors made it zing.

There is a great piece in the Saturday NEW YORK TIMES about filming this scene. 

What is one of your favorite scenes from a movie?

39 comments:

Al Tucher said...

The dance connection makes me think of the nightclub merengue in MY BLUE HEAVEN. I saw the movie on video, and I remember replaying that scene over and over.

pattinase (abbott) said...

We could have done one just on favorite dance scenes.

George said...

The dance sequence with Gene Kelly in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN.

Deb said...

The first scene that popped into my head was the scene where Richard Dreyfus sees the alien ship in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS. He's alone at night on a rural road at a railway crossing trying to read a map when suddenly a line of mailboxes at the side of the road begins to clatter. We all know what happens next. Great stuff!

pattinase (abbott) said...

I will never forget that scene. It just was perfect.

Jeff Meyerson said...

It's funny, because I also cited the great meringue scene from MY BLUE HEAVEN last week.

Jeff Meyerson said...

Kevin Kline listening to the tape and trying - unsuccessfully - not to dance in IN & OUT. Or (not a dance scene) the great scene in the same film with Joan Cusack in the bar in the wedding gown.

"Is EVERYBODY gay?"

Jeff Meyerson said...

Or the "I'll have what she's having" scene. Or Belushi's "Over? Nothing's over until we say it is."

Jeff Meyerson said...

The "Tequila" scene in PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE.

RTD said...

Apes and the megalith in _2001: A Space Odyssey_ is my all-time favorite! Yeah, I haven't seen too many movies lately.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I wonder if they knew the I'm having scene would resonate so much. I don 't think I have ever seen 2001 all the way through, Tim, so you have me there.

Rick Robinson said...

Mostly all CG stuff:
The Ten Commandments - the red sea parting
Sinbad - the skeleton sword fight
Jurassic Park - the lawyer gets eaten, first sight of the dinos, at the end when the T-Rex fights the velociraptors.
Alien - chest burst
Star Wars - the cantina scene, snow walker on Hoth scene, dropping bomb into Deathstar and it's explosion
West Side Story - rumble scene
My Fair Lady - language scene ("By Jove, I think she's got it!")
Guys And Dolls - Luck Be A Lady Tonight scene
Casablanca - scene at Ricks when Ilsa comes in, final scene

Jeff Meyerson said...

"Now that's a knife!"

The chariot race in Ben-Hur.

Charles Gramlich said...

a musical, I guess. I've never made it all the way through a musical. One of my favorite scenes is the opening of Once Upon a time in the West, when Harmonica arrives at the railway station and there are four men waiting to kill him,

Anders E said...

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang - the ending, especially the last line
Duck Soup - first appearance of Chico and Harpo, where they report to ambassador Trentino (Louis Calhern)
The Testament of Dr Mabuse - the scene where we learn what the titular testament really is
Annie Hall - Marshall McLuhan
Kiss Me Deadly - the opening

pattinase (abbott) said...

you people have wonderful choices.

SteveHL said...

The singing of the Marseillaise in Casablanca

The freeze frame that ends The Four Hundred Blows

"I'll have what she's having"

Dane Andrews in the airplane being scrapped in "The Best Years of Our Lives"

About 500 more

pattinase (abbott) said...

Just watched CASBLANCA on TCM and that brought tears to my eyes. Great scene.

Chris said...

I'm almost getting verklempt with all of these great scenes that have touched me over the years running through my head, so I'm just going to settle on this, with a just a touch of facetiousness. . . .

"Warriors, come out to play-ee-yay!"

Cap'n Bob said...

Many of the above, plus John Wayne reading the riot act to Jon Agar and Harry Carey, Jr., in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Just on TCm today,

Anonymous said...

I want to see this film so much, Patti. We're planning to go in the next few days, I think.

Al Tucher said...

From a comedy, the "tomato" scene from TOOTSIE.

Rick Robinson said...

..
The sandwich scene from Five Easy Pieces
The scene where the cop car's rear end is jerked out in American Graffiti
"Why did it have to be snakes? I hate snakes." from Raiders of the Lost Ark

Ghost of Christmas future (Death points to gravestone) in A Christmas Carol
"Chicken" scene from Rebel Without A Cause

SteveHL said...

And another:

W. C. Fields trying to sleep on the back porch in It's a Gift.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Or the blind man with the lightbulbs in the store! Love that movie.

Anonymous said...

10. Talos coming to life in Jason & the Argonauts.
9. "Go ahead-make my day." (Sudden Impact)
8. Elwood P. Dowd and Harvey walking down the road at the end of Harvey.
7. The motorcycle chase in The Great Escape.
6. Michael Moore blows himself up in a suicide attack on Mount Rushmore in Team America.
5. The car chase in The Bank Dick. ("The resale value of this car is gonna be nil...")
4. "The flagon with the dragon has the pellet with the poison..." (The Court Jester)
3. "You tell 'em I'm coming, and Hell's coming with me!" (Tombstone)
2. "Boy oh boy. Shooting generals could become a habit with me." (The Dirty Dozen)
1. "I am Spartacus!"

pattinase (abbott) said...

Wow I have seen almost none of these. I need to get out more.

Aubrey Milquetoast said...

I like that scene in "Top Secret" (1984) when the train pulls out of the station but then you realise its the station that pulled away and the train stayed still, its hilarious.

Jennifer Croissant said...

The freeze frame at the end of "Divine Madness" (1980) with Bette Midler in mid-air, pure magic.

Al Tucher said...

The 'plot machinations' scene inside the castle from "Where Eagles Dare" (1969), where Richard Burton kids and cons those high ranking German officers into believing that hes actually a German double agent called Major Johann Schmitt, i dont really know why but that scene always makes me fall about laughing even though its not meant to be funny.

Deb said...

The bit where they`re walking towards the tank at the end of "Kelly's Hero's" (1970), i always liked the way they accompanied the scene with superb Spagetti Western type music in tribute to the Spagetti Westerns that Clint had appeared in a few years before, a great touch.

Anonymous said...

Besides that scene in Kelly's Heroes, there was another Eastwood comedy, Every Which Way But Loose (1978). Clint ends up in a western ghost town, heading for a confrontation with a biker gang. As he walks down the dusty street, Spaghetti Western-type music plays faintly in the background.

Casablanca has so many great scenes, but my favorite is, "I'm shocked to find out there's illegal gambling going on here."

Seamus O`Reilly said...

The scene in John Carpenters ludicrously under-rated 1988 cult-masterwork "They Live" where Roddy Piper puts on the special sunglasses and sees the world as it really is, its the stuff of legend and like something you would expect from Orson Welles at his brilliant best.

Jock McTaggert said...

The scene in "Crimewave" (1985) when Bruce Campbell blows the smoke from his cigarette in the air and it turns into a cartoon burlesque stripper accompanied by the appropriate music, i fell off my chair laughing when i first saw it, its the best visual gag i`ve ever seen.

Taffy Welshman said...

What about the astonishing sequence in "Return of the Jedi" when the Millenium Falcon flys into the reactor chamber of the death star and blows it up and then seems to be catapulted out by the massive explosion in the background, the visual and grandiose cinematic magnificence and incredible imaginativeness and spectacle of that sequence always makes me think of Cecil B. DeMille, its the sort of sequence he would`ve included in one of his movies had he made science fiction movies instead of biblical epics.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I am not familiar with these commenters nor these scenes but will take them as great movie scenes. Thanks.

porceline iolanthe ethel-red-the-unready hypocrisy said...

The sequence about half way through "El Topo" (1969) where they`re on that dilapidated suspension bridge in what looks like some kind of gigantic deserted mining area that looks like its already been blasted to kingdom come, then the two gorgeous birds shoot El Topo and leave him for dead, and then that surprisingly tasty little midget bird and all her deformed friends take him back to their underground/cave dwelling place where he experiences some kind of re-birth and becomes the groups new leader. Those two sequences back to back have an incredible indescribable magic and atmoshere to them that is very difficult to put into words or explain.

the unknown commenter said...

Thank-you Patti.