# Bizarre scenes in otherwise normal movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 29, 2007, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-scenes-in-otherwise-normal-movies/424481 "2007-10-29T18:49:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Omi\_no\_Kami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Omi\_no\_Kami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omi_no_Kami)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-scenes-in-otherwise-normal-movies/424481/41 "2007-10-31T14:01:29Z")
[QUOTE=Cosmic Relief] And I checked into this thread to say that the entire second half of _Chungking Express_ was a bizarre scene in an otherwise normal movie. [/QUOTE] You forgot to mention the first half. 😃 I once saw a video of Quentin Tarantino talking about _Chungking Express_, and apparently the director basically made it to get over editor’s block: he’d spent so long working on \*Ashes of Time \* that he became sick of editing, so he decided to take a break by making a simple, fun movie before he went back to editing. Apparently he originally had three stories he wanted to tell, but since Faye Wong and Brigitte Lin’s stories went so well he called it quits right there, and went on to make the third story in _Fallen Angels_. I think the best advice for watching Chungking Express came from Ebert: [QUOTE=Roger Ebert] If you are attentive to the style, if you think about what Wong is doing, Chungking Express works. If you’re trying to follow the plot, you may feel frustrated… [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-scenes-in-otherwise-normal-movies/424481/42 "2007-10-31T14:02:44Z")
[QUOTE=Rhubarb] I don’t know if this ranks up there with “Find the Fish”, but … In **Singin’ in the Rain** , right at the end there’s a long, drawn out Berkley Busby meets Federico Fellini dream sequence/dance production featuring Gene Kelly doing modern dance. Modern for 1952, anyway. I realize it has an obscurity to fame to obscurity theme similar to the rest of the movie, but to me it looks as tacked on as the Bela Lugosi scenes in **Plan 9 From Outer Space**. [/QUOTE] Modern for 1952, but probably completely bizarre for a black & white 1920’s musical, which is what the scene is supposed to be for. Singing In the Rain is a great movie, but The Dancing Cavalier (the movie they’re making) would have been a confusing pile of crap, with its mixture of avant-garde dancing and costume drama. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-scenes-in-otherwise-normal-movies/424481/43 "2007-10-31T14:31:22Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] The guy in the dog costume in _The Shining_. The book explains the backstory behind him, greatly reducing the disorienting effect of his appearance in the film. [/QUOTE] The novel’s back story does explain it all, but I’m not sure Kubrick left it out because of time constraints ro anything similar. Just as he may not have ditched the topiary for a maze due to the day’s weak special effects. Will try to dig it up online, but there are pretty compelling theories behind both the dog/bear man and the maze being tied to Freud and Greek mythology (including the Minotaur, obviously). ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-scenes-in-otherwise-normal-movies/424481/44 "2007-10-31T14:34:48Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra] I’m not sure how I feel about the dream sequence in The Hudsucker Proxy but I’m not sure that Hudsucker is a ‘normal’ movie. [/QUOTE] How about the “double stitch” flashback? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-scenes-in-otherwise-normal-movies/424481/45 "2007-10-31T15:15:22Z")
[QUOTE=saoirse] How about the “double stitch” flashback? [/QUOTE] That’s just not a funny bit. It’s supposed to be funny, but it just falls flat. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-scenes-in-otherwise-normal-movies/424481/46 "2007-11-01T03:00:32Z")
Hint: KT x P writes: \> In Cocoanuts, Groucho Marx makes probably the earliest aside to the audince, \> leaving the others and talking close in to the camera. Probably an ad lib or \> something meant to be a joke for the film crew and supposed to be cut. That’s a parody of _Strange Interlude_: > **[Strange Interlude](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Interlude)** > > Strange Interlude is an experimental play in nine acts by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. O'Neill began work on it as early as 1923 and developed its scenario in 1925; he wrote the play between May 1926 and the summer of 1927, and completed its text for publication in January 1928, during the final rehearsals for its premiere performance. Strange Interlude opened on Broadway on January 30, 1928, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Lynn Fontanne originated the central role of Nina Strange ... ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-scenes-in-otherwise-normal-movies/424481/47 "2007-11-01T03:51:19Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] Hint: KT x P writes: \> In Cocoanuts, Groucho Marx makes probably the earliest aside to the audince, \> leaving the others and talking close in to the camera. Probably an ad lib or \> something meant to be a joke for the film crew and supposed to be cut. That’s a parody of _Strange Interlude_: > **[Strange Interlude](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Interlude)** > > Strange Interlude is an experimental play in nine acts by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. It won the 1928 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Strange Interlude is one of the few modern plays to make extensive use of a soliloquy technique, in which the characters speak their inner thoughts to the audience. > O'Neill began work on it as early as 1923 and developed its scenario in 1925. He wrote the play between May 1926 and the summer of 1927, and completed its text for publication in January 1928, dur... [/QUOTE] You’re both thinking of _Animal Crackers_, not _The Cocoanuts_. For me, it’s the ballet sequence in _Oklahoma!_ I had never seen the movie before attending a screening at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences theater (in the original Todd-AO, 70mm, 30 fps format!) about seven or eight years ago. It’s a fairly standard 1950s musical, with singing, dancing, and all that. Then all of a sudden, there’s a dream sequence in which the romantic leads are replaced by lookalike ballet dancers, and there’s an impressionist modern dance that’s _completely_ out of character with the rest of the movie. Now, I’ve never been a big fan of musicals, or of ballet, for that matter. But this unexpected sequence completely blew me away, and raised the film way above the ordinary in my estimation. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-scenes-in-otherwise-normal-movies/424481/48 "2007-11-01T04:25:29Z")
I’m not sure if Chaplin’s _The Kid_ counts as a normal movie either, but in any case the dream sequence in it sure is more than a bit off the wall. Up to this point the movie has been amazingly family friendly, and then there’s the fantastic and quite nabokovian sequence where the Tramp, dreaming that he’s an angel in Heaven, gets seduced, literally, by evil, which has crept into Heaven in the shape of an amazingly vampy _twelve year old_ Lita Grey. (Of course, the tender miss Grey must have made quite an impression on old Charlie, as three years later - she’s now fifteen - he runs into her again, promptly casts her as the lead in _The Gold Rush_ as an excuse to get into her pants, and of course proceeds to knocks her up, marry her and fire her from the movie. That whole story goes on to a very sticky end.) By the way, nice to see some fans of _Chungking Express_. One of my all-time favorites, that one. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-scenes-in-otherwise-normal-movies/424481/49 "2007-11-01T04:39:04Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] I took it as symbolic. The blind woman seems to be falling in love with Francis, whom she can’t see (heh) is a monster. At the vet’s, she runs her hands all over and tactilely explores the sedated tiger - including, in the book, its penis. This excites Francis (in a good way) and he and the blind woman have sex, which he likes a lot. Under ordinary circumstances, the tiger would kill her in a heartbeat. Similarly, Francis is driven to kill others, but she is - at least for the moment - safe with him. Even when he fakes his own death, he can’t bring himself to kill her (plus, by letting her live, she helps corroborate the “cover story” of his alleged death). Francis is like the tiger: usually extraordinarily dangerous, but a Beast “tamed” by Beauty. Or maybe I’m overthinking it. [/QUOTE] Wow…that’s a really good explanation. I took it a little differently–the story is largely about Francis’s good/normal self struggling with his bad/red-dragon self. By giving the woman an opportunity to examine the tiger, he showed kindness and love. It gives us hope that his relationship with the woman will help empower his good side to win the struggle. Unfortunately, it’s too late. But the scene reminds us that Francis isn’t just a monster. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-scenes-in-otherwise-normal-movies/424481/50 "2007-11-01T04:51:06Z")
[QUOTE=Green Bean] Wow…that’s a really good explanation. I took it a little differently–the story is largely about Francis’s good/normal self struggling with his bad/red-dragon self. By giving the woman an opportunity to examine the tiger, he showed kindness and love. It gives us hope that his relationship with the woman will help empower his good side to win the struggle. Unfortunately, it’s too late. But the scene reminds us that Francis isn’t just a monster. [/QUOTE] Thanks. Your explanation is a good one, too, and makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![tonedef](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@tonedef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tonedef)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-scenes-in-otherwise-normal-movies/424481/51 "2007-11-01T07:59:18Z")
[QUOTE=Cat Fight] The novel’s back story does explain it all, but I’m not sure Kubrick left it out because of time constraints ro anything similar. Just as he may not have ditched the topiary for a maze due to the day’s weak special effects. Will try to dig it up online, but there are pretty compelling theories behind both the dog/bear man and the maze being tied to Freud and Greek mythology (including the Minotaur, obviously). [/QUOTE] There is a directors cut of the movie. I remember seeing it years ago. It explained alot & explored some areas in depth a bit more. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-scenes-in-otherwise-normal-movies/424481/52 "2007-11-01T12:48:24Z")
commasense writes: \> You’re both thinking of Animal Crackers, not The Cocoanuts. Actually, I wasn’t thinking of either one. I saw them both many years ago, and I couldn’t remember which one the scenes which parodied _Strange Interlude_ were in. When I read Hint: Kt x P’s post, I remembered the parody scenes with Groucho speaking to the audience, but I couldn’t remember which one it was in. I checked the Wikipedia entry for _Strange Interlude_ and saw that it referred to _Animal Crackers_, not _The Cocoanuts_, but I wasn’t sure if such scenes were in just one of the films or both of them. I decided not to mention this in my post since it didn’t seem to matter to my point. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-scenes-in-otherwise-normal-movies/424481.md?page=2)