“It’s A Wonderful Life”, the perennial Christmas movie and giant piece of fluff. There is one scene that stands out to me, however. George has already met Clarence, the angel, but still doesn’t believe anything he says. Then comes the scene where George goes to his mother’s house and she doesn’t recognize him, but shuts the door in his face. He walks toward the camera, looking to his right, then stops and does a slow pan to center, facing the camera with a look of horror on his face as he realizes that he really doesn’t exist any longer. Best scene in the movie.
Not to hijack the thread, butif it’s plane porn you want. . .
Way too many to choose from, so I will limit myself to five random ones:
*Deluge* (1933) – Yes, the efx are cheesy, with visibly jumpy composites, obvious miniatures and rear projection, but it's mind-boggling that anyone would try to stage such a sequence on this scale. Rest of movie is not so memorable. https://youtu.be/pIFUw-rpjZE?t=59The Letter (1940) – one of the greatest openings of any classic Hollywood film, imo.
The Lady from Shanghai (1947) – Fun House and Hall of Mirrors sequences.
The Sword of Doom (1966) – Pretty much the opening sequence establishing Tatsuya Nakadai as a total badass. The end is especially memorable as well.
The Seven-Ups (1973) – Some of the best editing (sound and image) ever in the greatest car chase in film history, imo. It’s pretty much the only good thing in the movie. That’s Bill Hickman driving the Pontiac Grand Ville; he also drove the Charger in Bullitt (and did much of the stunt driving in* The French Connection*). Richard Lynch is his scene-stealing passenger. Roy Scheider gives chase in a Pontiac Ventura Sprint.
Three worth mentioning, two from top-ten popular films and one from a movie that did fairly well but wasn’t a big hit.
My own personal favorite is from the ‘fair’ movie, the Inquiry scene in Absence of Malice. From the sound and sight of people walking down a hall way to Wilford Brimley telling Bob Balaban “You’ve got 30 days”, it is perfectly written, acted, blocked, and filmed in one scene set in a room. The characters are perfectly in character and you can really believe it could happen that way. Still would watch that scene any day of the week.
Another is the “first dinosaur” scene in Jurassic Park (the original). Up until then we had had only hints that these creatures would be better than the stop-motion creatures we’d seen before, but then the jeeps stop and Grant looks over and…well, it’s on U-tube>>> Jurassic Park (1993) - Welcome to Jurassic Park Scene (1/10) | Movieclips - YouTube That’s when the movie became one of my all-time favorites.
The last is the shortest, Star Wars (and not the stupid IV, THE Star Wars) when, after the opening prologue, you see the planet and then, suddenly from the top of the screen, a spaceship moving and apparently running from something…and then we see the Star Destroyer and it comes on screen…and keeps going on and on and on… You KNEW you were in for something special then.
“Boy the last time we had a leak like this, Noah built hisself a BOAT!” Newman’s smirk is perfect.
My nominee (from a great movie):
“You have meddled with the primal forces of Nature, Mr. Beale! And I won’t have it! Is that clear?” Perfect.
The very NSFW opening scene of Way of the Gun.
Many people have fond memories of The Last Starfighter, but it wasn’t a great movie by any stretch. Still, there’s one scene that I’ve always loved:
I’ve always wanted to fight a desperate battle against incredible odds!
Thanks for the links - gives me a new list of stuff to watch!
The signal fire relay in LOTR:ROTK (the music helps a lot)
BrianIn The Guns of Navarone, David Niven tells Gregory Peck to take responsibility:
“Now just a minute! If we’re going to get this job done she has got to be killed! And we all know how keen you are about getting the job done! Now I can’t speak for the others but I’ve never killed a woman, traitor or not, and I’m finicky! So why don’t you do it? Let us off for once! Go on, be a pal, be a father to your men! Climb down off that cross of yours, close your eyes, think of England, and pull the trigger! What do you say, Sir?”
I’ve heard that as well, but he must have had some help, or time to practice with the props. He reaches for each gun knowing exactly how it works, how to take it apart, and which parts go together again.
Wallach was in an early episode of Law & Order, and he’s suspected of a murder. The detectives bring him to their interrogation room and lay a few pistols on the table in front of him. I’ve always wondered if that was a deliberate callback to the earlier scene, or if anyone commented on it at the time.
In Justice League, the scene where grumpy Superman is fighting with Batman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman. The Flash starts to enter the fray. The scene is shown from Flash’s point of view, with all of the other characters seemingly frozen in place. The Flash smugly approaches the scene.
And then Superman turns and looks at him.
And the Flash suddenly realizes that he’s not invulnerable.
The Invisible Agent is a pretty bad movie, but Peter Lorre is an great villain. And his final scene is utterly awesome: [spoiler]Early in the movie, the Japanese spymaster (Lorre) and the German spymaster are plotting their Diabolical Scheme. The German says, “If this plan fails, Hitler will have me shot, and you’ll have to commit suicide to apologize to your emperor.”
When the plan fails, the German double-crosses the Japanese, and attempts to frame him for the failure. A three-way fight breaks out, between the German agents, the Japanese agents, and the Allied agents. In the midst of the chaos, the Japanese sneaks up on the German, and pulls out a dagger. He says, “I will make an honorable man of you yet, my friend”, and he stabs the German in the stomach.[/spoiler]
Many thanks. 
I like the movie overall too. It’s the first “serious comedy” I think I’ve seen when i first saw it.