Unexpected and shocking moments of violence in classic films

Cafe Society
1

I was just thinking about classic movies that have one awful violent second that sticks in your head as the defining moment, and is pretty much the only thing you remember about the film.

Jimmy Cagney crushing the grapefruit into Mae Clarke’s face at the breakfast table, The Public Enemy, 1931.

Richard Widmark pushing the old lady in the wheelchair down a flight of stairs, Kiss of Death, 1947.

Lee Marvin throwing a pot of boiling coffee into Gloria Grahame’s face in The Big Heat, 1953.

The little mob guy doing what ever he did to the girlfriend in Altman’s The Long Goodbye, 1973. That was so awful I’ve blanked it out.

These are all acts by male gangsters against women, so maybe it’s a phobia of mine. Examples of women treating men violently might cheer me up.

2

I couldn’t believe the original “King Kong” passed the censors due to its violence, but then again, it didn’t involve nudity so maybe that was why.

3

It was pre-Code, so they could get away with stuff. For re-releases, Kong chomping black natives was cut. Also the near-naked scenes with Fay Wray.

4

I still get shivers when I recall the rape scene in the movie Salvador.

Just horrible. It’s almost all I remember about the movie.

5

The version I saw had them in it.

6

The murder of Luca Brassi in The Godfather

Just about any set piece of violence in A Clockwork Orange

The nose cutting scene in Chinatown

7

Blue Velvet and the scissors.

8

Well, there’s the shower scene in Psycho. Nothing explicit was shown, but it didn’t have to be.

9

I remember about 20 years ago, after having taking an extensive walk around the town’s pubs with some friends, getting with the bunch to one of our homes and expecting a nice after hour party. But then someone switched on the TV, and Scorcese’s Casino was on. A little much into it, there was one particular scene where some mobsters beat, kick and trample someone to death, and I was shocked and instantly sobered. Not the details, but the intensity of the violence were ingrained so hard in my brain that I’ve never wanted to watch the film again.

ETA: uh, oh, and the bottle scene from Pan’s Labyrinth.

10

The rape scene in “Deliverance”. I still can’t watch that movie.

11

The “bite the curb” head-stomp in American History X (is that a “classic” movie yet?)

12

The drowning of the peasant girl in, “Frankenstein.”

(To be honest, not seeing that excised scene for almost 40 years of watching that movie made it a lot scarier than it turned out to be.)

13

It is not the only thing I remember about the film, but the chest burster scene in Alien was absolutely shocking at the time.

There are going to be spoilers in discussions like these. I’ll just mention, The Departed.

14

During the last half-hour or so of The Sign of the Cross (1932), there are a number of “unexpected and shocking” bits of violence, including gladiator action and pygmy impalement.

The clipping of Bambi’s mother, although just an offscreen sound effect, is still what everyone remembers.

George Murphy, already shot, is run over by a tractor in Border Incident (1949).

Cloris Leachman tortured with pliers, Percy Helton’s fingers crushed in a desk drawer and Gaby Rodgers’ fiery demise upon opening “The Great What’s-it” in Kiss Me Deadly (1955).

Cornel Wilde tortured via hearing aid-amplified drum solo in The Big Combo (1955).

Toshiro Mifune impaled by arrows in Throne of Blood (1957).

Dude impaled by giant syringe in War of the Colossal Beast (1958).

Bald prostitute Constance Towers beating up her pimp in the jazzy opening of The Naked Kiss (1964).

The end of Bonnie and Clyde (1967).

15

I consider Drive (2011) to be a classic. Most of the violence in it is unexpected and shocking, or at least unexpectedly shocking. Short, but devastating bursts.

16

Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. Also, Easy Rider.

17

The scene in Catch-22 where Hungry Joe gets cut in half by an airplane propeller.

18

The transformation of Cleopatra into the chicken lady at the end of Freaks (1932). Still gives me the creeps to this day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrlVTZFPnzA

19

Couple more.

Carol (Catherine Deneuve) slashing away at the landlord in Repulsion (1965). The way she stops to stare at what she’s done, then keeps going!

The old village lady in Seven Samurai (1954) being let through the crowd of villagers to attack one of the bandits with her hoe.

20

Burt Reynolds getting his fingers cut off in Sharkey’s Machine.

Not what Burt Reynolds movies were known for at the time.

And yeah, that’s all I remember from the movie.