A Great Movie Scene

Al Pacino, to modern eyes, is the raggedy old guy who talks too loud and needs a haircut. To those a few years older he’s the “HOO-YAH” guy. But when he came into the movies, he was subtlety personified. 

Pacino’s quiet, controlled, endearing-then-terrifying performance is the backbone of one of the greatest of all movies, THE GODFATHER. For me, as for most people, Coppola’s masterpiece has always been about Marlon Brando, first and foremost. And why not? Brando, arguably the greatest of actors, was perfection. But Vito fades and dies, and Michael Corleone comes to the front. Pacino was ready for his moment.

The movie is full of great scenes. Shoot, it’s nothing but great scenes. But my personal favorite moment in the movie, and one of my favorite moments from any movie, is all Pacino.

Michael is meeting with the bad guys (wait! Aren’t they all bad guys?) Sollozzo and McCluskey at a small, “family” restaurant in the Bronx. As instructed by old hand Clemenza, Michael asks permission to visit the bathroom, retrieves the pistol hidden behind the toilet tank, and returns to the table. 

Clemenza had clearly and repeatedly instructed Michael on what to do. Once returned from the bathroom, he is to immediately shoot both baddies twice in the head, drop the gun, and slowly walk out of the restaurant. Instead, he returns to the table, sits and stalls while Sollozzo goes on talking.

In the earlier scene when Michael had proposed this shooting, he had been calm and easy. “It’s just business, Sonny.” Now, though, at the crucial moment, he pauses. His reasons are all over his face. We can read it in his eyes. Is he really going to assassinate two men? Is this really going to happen? 

I think this silent moment is the greatest acting Pacino ever did. If we were thinking a moment before “why hasn’t he shot them yet?”, now we know why. We feel it with him. What will he do? What would WE do? The tension is overwhelming. Coppola keeps the camera on Pacino’s face, no movement, no chicanery. Pacino--or rather Michael--genuinely lives the moment and takes us with him. When the murders occur, despite the violence and blood, we breathe a sigh of relief, not just that the action is past, but also that Michael’s internal struggles have ended. 

It’s a great, great scene.

BEST MOVIES OF A YEAR

    Back in the early ‘70s, Peter Bogdanovich wrote an article on the best movies of the year. The year in question was 1939. It was Bogdanovich’s feeling that a movie couldn’t truly be judged till 20 or 30 years had passed. It took that long, he thought, for the measured judgments of time to form a worthwhile opinion. In general I agree with the man. Too many movies are under- or over-valued at first blush. But… I also think that the reactions to the film when it’s new is worth consideration. I mean, it may not be a movie for the ages, but if it satisfies the audience for which it was made, at the time it was made, that’s not a small thing.

    Anyway, in the Bogdanovich line, I’ve decided here at the end of 2023, to zip back 25 years and offer up my choices for the Best Movies of The Year. The Best Movies of the Year 1998, that is.

    This will not be a full Oscar-style slate of awards, just a list of the best pictures and maybe a few acting nods. This is based entirely on movies released in the U.S. in 1998. So if I overlook your choice-- that masterpiece on the romance between two Bulgarian sewer workers--well, maybe next year.

THE BEST PICTURES OF 1998 (in no special order)

THE BIG LEBOWSKI

A BUG’S LIFE

THE CELEBRATION

ELIZABETH

GODS AND MONSTERS

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL

LIVE FLESH

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE

SONATINE

THE TRUMAN SHOW

I know, I know, that’s an unwieldy 11. I should make it just the 10 Best. But I don’t want to. And it’s my list, so there…

Honorable Mention

DARK CITY

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN

FIREWORKS

A TASTE OF CHERRY

WAKING NED DEVINE

Performances of note

Jeff Bridges, John Goodman   THE BIG LEBOWSKI

Jim Carrey, Ed Harris    THE TRUMAN SHOW

Ian McKellen, Brendan Fraser     GODS AND MONSTERS

Nick Nolte     AFFLICTION

Bill Nighy      STILL CRAZY

Gwyneth Paltrow, Judi Dench, Geoffrey Rush    SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE

Cate Blanchett       ELIZABETH

Angela Molina     LIVE FLESH

I just finished reading Maggie O’Farrell’s HAMNET. From all I’d read and heard about this book-- including its prize-winning ways-- I figured I’d be reading a good book. Maybe a great one. But with all that baggage, and knowing we were dealing with ‘literary fiction’ I also feared that reading it might be a bit of a chore. I mean, I’ve read ‘classics’ before, lots of ‘em. They tend to be clearly worthy of their reputations…but not easy. Not a page-turner. Not a zippy mystery from Michael Connelly or a tense must-finish from Stephen King. 

So I expected a good book. I feared a high-falutin’ slog. Expectations were more than met, fears soon evaporated.

For the first two-thirds of the book, 200 pages or thereabouts, I thought “good book. Very interesting, well-written, tells its story very well, yeah, good.” And I was satisfied. Not a great book (at that point), but certainly a good, readable, interesting novel. 

Then, with about a third of book to go, magic happened. The last 100 pages of HAMNET are astonishing. O’Farrell is practicing some sort of sorcery here. It becomes a masterpiece, about as fine a piece of writing as I’ve ever had the pleasure to read.

It wouldn’t be called “fun” reading, however. It’s a heartbreaking record of grief, a litany of agony, brilliantly told, which somehow manages an uplifting ending. 

Yeah. One of the best things I’ve ever read.

 

For years I collected movie quotes. I’d hear a line I loved and I’d immediately write it down and add it to my pages and pages of quotes. In truth, I still collect movie quotes though these days it really has to knock my socks off to make the grade.  For a time I even fancied putting a book together of great movie quotes, but, me being me, nothing came of that. Others have published such books and I don’t think any of them really sold, so no great loss.

But I might as well make use of some of these, since I still am hugely fond of them. These are not the really famous ones. No “We’ll always have Paris” or “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse” or “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here, this is the War Room.”  These are lesser known.

None are from truly obscure films, though some are wildly underseen. I won’t tell you the film titles, but I will include a photo from each movie which should make most of them easier, if not always really easy. 

Enjoy.

“Look, Iron Man, if you’re so uptight, take a shower and cool off.”        

“Just think, the next time I shoot someone, I could be arrested.”   

“There’ll be no morning for us.”        

“Think of me as falling out of a window-- forever.  For I am truly fucked.”

“If there were no gods at all I'd still revere them. If there were no Rome, I'd dream of her.”

“I'm a virgin. I'm just not very good at it.” 

“He dreaded the thought of being shot down alone, without a girl to scream out his name.” 

“The only thing standing between you and a watery grave is your wits, and that's not my idea of adequate protection.” 

“I looked for you in my closet.” 

“I will take you places you have never been, I will show you things you have never seen, and I will watch the life run out of you.” 

ANNA KARENINA is, as advertised, a great book. No surprise there. 

One segment in particular grabbed me hard. The chapter in which Kitty is in labor and Levin, the expectant father, is in his own Twilight Zoneish hell of waiting, is simply stunning. And the description of Levin beholding his new son, is a touching, chest-clutching masterpiece. 

“And meanwhile, there at the foot of the bed, in the deft hands of Lizaveta Petrovna, like a small flame over a lamp, wavered the life of a human being who had never existed before and who, with the same right, with the same importance for itself, would live and produce its own kind.”    

Tolstoy has a remarkable ability to locate, isolate, and describe human behavior and human nature in its broadest obviousness and in its most utter invisibility. As Anna disintegrates, Tolstoy takes us inside her deeply troubled head. It’s great stuff. 

But…

...I have to admit, starting with about 200 pages to go, I began to fervently wish for Anna to for God’s sake stop whining, and just head for the nearest train station.

FIFTY YEARS AGO TODAY

Fifty Years Ago Today was October 26, 1973…The United Nations recognized the

independence of Guinea-Bissau…

California's Alcatraz Island and the federal prison building that had been located there, were

both opened by the U.S. Park Service as a tourist attraction.

Born:  Seth MacFarlane, American comedian, TV and film producer, and actor, known for

Family Guy and Ted; in Kent, Connecticut

Top of the Pops back when: MIDNIGHT TRAIN TO GEORGIA by Gladys Knight and

the Pips.

Gladys Knight and The Pips - Midnight Train To Georgia

FRANKENSTEIN’S BLOODY TERROR

Or;   LA MARCA DEL HOMBRE LOBO …

I wanted to take another look at FRANKENSTEIN’S BLOODY TERROR. Why would

I--or anyone on Earth--want to do that? Well, it’s that old Fifty Years Ago thing. I first

saw this Paul Naschy mishmash in October of 1973, at a drive-in, and sensibly hadn’t

seen it since.

But… I was surprised and even a bit shocked to find how tough it is to see that

blighted U.S. version of LA MARCA DEL HOMBRE LOBO. I was NOT prepared to

spend the big bucks for a VHS or evidently rare DVD of the thing. 

YouTube did offer a version of the movie. Though the title on the print is the original

Spanish, the movie is listed on YouTube as being under the German title: DIE VAMPIRE

DES DR. DRACULA. Them Germans, huh? And, despite the highly visible Spanish title,

this print did feature a German-language soundtrack and (only) German subtitles. But

better’n nothing, hey? I know a smidge of Deutsches and, with the subs on, I could

pretty much follow the simple storyline. Plus, I had seen it before after all.

I will say that the print looked sensational. I’m pretty ding dong sure that it didn’t look this

good on the big screen at the Clarksville Drive-in. On the other hand, I had nothing to eat

while watching this which could remotely match the terrific Clarksville hot dogs. Boy, I’d

like to have me a couple o’ them right now…

This was, of course, the first horror film from Paul Naschy and probably remains his

most-seen. I can’t remember definitely, but I believe that when I saw this in 1973, I was

well aware that Naschy, numerically at least, was positioning himself as a genuine

latter-day horror star. I also am pretty sure I knew that, American title notwithstanding, this

was no Frankenstein movie. So I was very interested in seeing Naschy at work, and I was

not surprised by the cheaty ending.

----------------------------------------------

Okay, here I make a wild and kind of embarrassing confession. I wanted to relate how

poorly I judged this movie on first viewing, so I just now dipped into my old records to

check what rating I’d given it on my old 1-10 scale. I find that I rated it at only 2, so,

terrible. But, though that’s probably too low, it’s not the embarrassing thing. 

Those old records tell me that I originally saw FRANKENSTEIN’S BLOODY TERROR

in October, 1973, so that’s on the nose. But they also tell me that I saw the movie on

TV. On Cincinnati’s Channel 19, brought to me by cable TV. No Clarksville Drive-in, no

hot dogs.  I have what seems to be a strong, crystal-clear recollection of seeing that

feeble American “explanation” for the movie’s title and that recollection is of viewing it

real big on a drive-in movie screen. The Clarksville’s screen, to be precise. And that’s

just not so. I was astounded to learn this…but not really.

In recent years, I’ve become all too painfully aware how mistaken even the strongest,

clearest memories can be. These days when research proves that an old memory is

true and right, I’m kind of surprised. I’ve come to expect to find that memory lies. But

this memory was so SO clear. It’s kind of scary to think my mind can fool me so totally

like that.

-------------------------------------------------------

Anyway. The movie is definitely better than my old rating would have it. I’d probably rate

it at 5 out of 10 these days. It’s silly, but the genuine European settings are impressive,

the lighting and photography are impressive. The ladies are lovely. We get a genuine,

snarling, biting werewolf and a couple of vampires. The male vampire even wears

Lugosian evening wear, including a cape with a bright red lining. Cool Monster Kid stuff.

Naschy is not much of an actor but he’s certainly the most physically wild and energetic

werewolf ever. Lon Chaney may be the most iconic, Oliver Reed the most intense,

Henry Hull the most…I don’t know…boring? But Senor Molina is, far and away, the

most physically scary. He jumps all over the place, including all over his victims. It's as

if a strong, furious madman attacked you. And he's also a werewolf.

Ahh, I kind of enjoyed re-watching this one, but that painful dent in my memory…that hurts.

FIFTY YEARS AGO TODAY

Fifty Years Ago Today was October 21, 1973 … The Oakland A's defeated the New York Mets, 5–2 in Game 7 to win the World Series, 4 games to 3… Piloted by Heino Brditschka, the first flight of an all-electric airplane took place as the Militky MB-E1 took off under its own power from Linz in Austria and flew for nine minutes and 5 seconds….Fred Dryer of the Los Angeles Rams became the first player in NFL history to score two safeties in the same game. The 24-7 win for the Rams over the Green Bay Packers came on consecutive safeties in the fourth quarter from sacks in the end zone by Dryer of Green Bay quarterbacks Scott Hunter and Jim Del Gaizo…

Top of the pops this week:  ANGIE by The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones - Angie - OFFICIAL PROMO (Version 1)

My childhood theater was The Le Rose, where I spent a million and one Saturday matinees soaking up monster movies. Because The Le Rose so often drew on the cheap rentals from the back catalog, I got to see lots of ‘50s faves: THE THING, THE BLOB, THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE, ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN, many more. It was great. But when those days passed and I started catching all the others on TV, I so regretted that I wasn’t able to see them all in that crumbling cinema palace. And every now and then, I’d see one which I really, REALLY wished I’d seen there. Top of the list of these regrets are, probably, CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN and this one… 

FIEND WITHOUT A FACE

It’s just such fun, I can only imagine what a brain-searing treat it would have been to a ten-year-old on the big screen. But at least I saw it, even if only on commercial TV. I have such fond feelings toward this one. Let’s see if another showing provokes similar warmth.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Our first victim was killed “at three in the morning,” but it looks more like three p.m. To be honest, the day-for-night scenes throughout the movie are almost all of the Ed Wood variety…

There’s a little stock footage, but not enough for a ‘50s s-f epic. Not enough for me anyway…

For years I confused Marshall Thompson with Arthur Franz (still do occasionally), but when you’re into a movie, mixin’ it up with ‘em, it’s just so much more pleasant to spend 80 minutes with Marshall than with the uber-crabby Art…

Marshall is awfully cavalier about pushing the nuclear reactor into the “Danger” zone. But, hey, his radar keeps “fading out!” Heat that atomic pile up, man! We got radar to run!...

This British film does a pretty good job of faking North American-ness. The actors, almost to a man, either have North American accents or do a good job of faking it…

I actually kept count for a while. I tallied 13 actors nicely passing as Canadian, and five failing the test…

This is notably smarter and better made than the average ‘50s s-f meller. Which makes me wonder-- what would be the average of the breed?  Something like REVENGE OF THE CREATURE, maybe? Or NOT OF THIS EARTH? AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN? Shoot, now I’m all a-wonderin’ about this…

But…smarter though this may be, it’s still dumb enough to have Marshall Thompson make a couple of titanic, indefensible, out-of-nowhere deductive leaps…

The title page of “The Principles of Thought Control” show that Prof. Walgate is as interested in calligraphy as in science…

In the brief fight scene between Marshall and Kim Parker’s hot-headed suitor, there are some epically missed punches still managing to make loud POW noises…

By the way, though the suitor is clearly at fault, Kim gets mad at Marshall and runs him off. Next time she sees him she’s still furious at him. Next time, she immediately smiles a “meet-me-in-the-hayloft” smile at him. Fickleness, thy name is woman…

There’s lots of good stuff in the monster scenes, but the monster sounds are not among them. This “CRUNCH”-ing noise sounds like amplified peanut-chewing mixed with the thump of the marching boots of the 5th Army…

We get a much deeper, more detailed “scientific” explanation of how we came to this pass and it almost--ALMOST--seems to make sense…

“There’s some lumber in my laboratory..” why of course there is…

The ultimate stop-motion invasion of the now-visible brains is one of the small wonders of ‘50s s-f. And it’s also almost certainly the goriest sequence of the entire decade…

How on earth do they stop this madness?! Marshall has an idea--he’ll get some dynamite and go blow up the control room at the nuclear reactor! Great idea! What could possibly go wrong??...

And here’s what I always really wondered about: Why was Kim Parker’s shower scene so much more titillating than all the other bathing, swimming, showering scenes in those movies? No more flesh is exposed. It’s not shot in any more woo-woo fashion. She’s not prettier than those other ladies. So what is it? Now I think I know…

It’s a couple of things. For one, that frosted shower door. Nothing can be seen, but it almost seems as if something should be visible. And, second, when she gets out with the towel wrapped around her, there’s a momentary slip when it seems as if exposure might occur. It doesn’t, of course, but in rescuing the towel and pressing it against her chest, Kim gives us an instant of clear “bobble” of the breast flesh. And, in the ‘50s, that’s all it took… 

Despite all the problems listed above (and a couple I omitted), FIEND WITHOUT A FACE is still a major winner. And I still so so regret not having seen it at The Le Rose.