I wonder if this was a nod to the scene in North by Northwest where the Grant character pretends to take a shower (whistling “Singin’ in the Rain” - a nod to another film) after his encounter with the crop-duster.
Dracula I understand that the studio or the Hayes code wouldn’t allow an explicit staking scene. But, a quick silhouette? There should have been a dramatic shot of the hammer being raised, and a close-up following the hammer down. Just before impact with the stake, the camera cuts to a close up of Lugosi’s face. He expresses sudden pain, goes limp, and turns to dust. All of this backed by properly dramatic chords. Instead the film ends with ‘We’ve won. I’ll just go kill Dracula off screen without any drama whatsoever.’
The Wolf Man Oh, I have some problems with the script. Oh, I have some problems with clubbing scenes. But, the big problem is Lon Chaney. Most of his films simply called for somebody to be big, lumbering, and somewhat pathetic. Larry Talbot is a role that calls for real acting, and he can’t pull it off.
The casting of Mary Astor as Brigid O’Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon. She was supposed to have been a fresh-faced faux innocent. Astor looks raddled.
Everyone else is absolutely perfect. But she’s just wrong.
I should put my other nitpick in a spoiler -
[spoiler]In Presumed Innocent, much is made that nonoxynol-9 is found in the victim’s vagina, but she had had her Fallopian tubes tied. Therefore, there was no reason to use the spermicidal jelly, and the evidence was planted.
Nonoxynoly-9 also kills the HIV virus. Carolyn Polhemus could have used it to prevent HIV, even if she were sterile. If I had been the pathologist, I would have known that, and thus his testimony would not have been so completely devastated on cross-examination. [/spoiler]
Regards,
Shodan
That always bugged me as well.
Couldn’t she just have been using it as a lubricant?
Thank you. The book it was based on—Francis Iles’ Before the Fact—is a brilliant psychological suspense novel. The movie (as much as I love Hitchcock and Grant) is a flaccid mess. And Joan Fontaine was totally miscast as a mousy masochist.
Oh, and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961):
• Warren Beatty’s “Italian” accent, which vies with Dick Van Dyke’s Cockney for sheer awfulness.
• Gorgeous, porcelain-doll, 48-year-old beauty Vivien Leigh, who is supposed to be a wrinkled, aging, losing-her-looks actress. Makes me want to put my head in the oven.
Agree totally. I usually end up fast-fowarding through those scenes. THe one thing I miss when I see the movies in a regular theater.
N9 is not an effective against HIV and may actually made infection more likely.
(bolding mine)
Perhaps Ms. Polhemus didn’t know that when she was killed.
But thanks for fighting my ignorance.
Regards,
Shodan
I didn’t like it when Debra Winger died in “Terms of Endearment.” That would have been AWESOME if one of her kids had found a cure for cancer in school, and maybe they could have had Debra Winger hooked up to a machine with red numbers counting down till the cancer killed her. And the kid could have stole a car or something and been racing to the hospital as the numbers counted down.
Instead, they made it all depressing and stuff.
Oh, you just reminded me. When I was six, I was at my friend’s for a sleepover. Her parents were watching Gone With the Wind. We trotted down to the TV room, where we had no idea what the story was, what the scene was about, nothing.
Now – and I may be misremembering this – there is one scene where Scarlett is arguing with Rhett about something. He says (which we little ones thought was a really lame insult/threat): “Why don’t you just fall down the stairs!”
Whereupon… she does!
She does a melodramatic swoo-oo-oon. And then flip-flop-flip-flop, big poofy skirt thrashing around, down the steps like a bag of wet grass.
We have never ever squealed with laughter the way we did then! My friend almost peed her pants – literally! she was crossing her legs and squeezing them together to try to keep from wetting herself – and I was doubled over and unable to catch my breath, tears streaming down my face. We were howling.
Yes, years later I understand the context of the scene. But that is NOW.
But THEN, at the age of six, it was SO hysterically funny!
I can’t watch that movie (well, for several reasons) because I know that my first impression of “bwa-ha-ha funny” will never be overcome and I’ll squeal with laughter when that scene comes to the screen.
I had the same problem. Alas, I also figured out the ending and blurted it out very early in the film, accidentally ruining the movie for my friends (hey, I didn’t think I’d actually be right!)
But the other problem I had with the detail;[spoiler]Was that nonoxynol-9 is also often to be found on lubricated condoms. They add it the lubrication for you to give you that extra little bit of protection. She may have had her tubes tied, but if she wanted to avoid STDs she’d probably still have used condoms.
Oh, and when Harrison Ford stumbles across the murder weapon… after the DAs office had executed a search warrant and turned the house upside down searching thoroughly for just such an object.[/spoiler]
Sorry, in light of Homebrew’s post. My nitpick was at that time.
At the time Presumed Innocent came out, and well into my university years, nonoxynol-9 was used as an added spermicide with lubricated condoms. So at the time the movie was taking place, it would still be easy to explain presence of tied tubes and nonoxynol-9.
If I recall correctly, Grant was mimicking Hepburn’s open-mouthed gape of amazement as she walked in to the office only to discover Grant behind the desk.
Two other “OK, my willing suspension of disbelief just crashed” moments:
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, where the car jumped off the one track, and landed perfectly on the second track. Just so damned impossible to totally spoil the moment.
Smokey and the Bandit, where Jerry Reed gets beaten up by the bikers, staggers out to his truck, and drives over the bikes. Just before he does so he grins, revealing a Hollywood-perfect set of capped and straightened teeth. In a dirt-poor long-haul trucker. Again, just spoils the moment.
Silly, why not? A lot of people choose perfect straight white teeth when they get their dentures. Dentures are not that unusual for someone the age and class he is supposed to be.
The “erotic dance”, was it, of Metropolis(SP?). It was kind of silly. Actually the whole movie seems kind of silly, particually if I watch it with any of my family, because the viewing experience quickly becomes a barrage of gay jokes.
Even though *Rear Window * is one of my favorite movies, I just cringe every time I have to watch the climactic scene where Jimmy Stewart repeatedly uses the flashbulb to blind Raymond Burr because Burr’s character is *too freakin stupid * to close his freakin eyes. I mean, I can see it working once, but the idiot falls for it over and over.
It bugs me every time.
There’s a sequence in Willy Wonka involving a boat ride through a tunnel during which all sorts of bizarre images appear on the wall. Among them is a chicken being decapitated, which is really quite disturbing for a kid’s film.
The Wolf Man: OK, Talbot gets attacked by a wolf that turns out to be a werewolf (good, they tried to depict someone fully transformed into a wolf there) but then Talbot turns into a hairy biped…then to top it off, his preferred method of killing is…to strangle people? WTF?