Limerflicks - Page 9

Ann Drysdale · #81 10-16-2020, 03:27 PM

The best-ever baddie on screen
Had a really spectacular scene
Where he pushed a wheelchair
Off a really high stair –
Now what movie could that have been?

RCL · #82 10-16-2020, 06:59 PM

Something Russian? Can't recall the title.

Roger Slater · #83 10-16-2020, 07:33 PM

Google leads me to say "Kiss of Death."

Ann Drysdale · #84 10-17-2020, 12:55 AM

RogerBob tracked it down. It was Richard Widmark's first film role as the psychopath Tommy Udo. He later told the tale of the audition, where several actors had to play the scene where the wheelchair-bound old lady is sent to her death down the stairs. He claimed he got the part because he was the only one who laughed when he did it.

Ralph, I see what you mean. I think you are recalling the Odessa Steps sequence in Eisenstein's "The Battleship Potemkin", where a basketwork perambulator with a baby in it, trundles down to its doom in front of the advancing soldiers.

I like to think Henry Hathaway had Eisenstein in mind when he filmed the wheelchair scene.

Ann Drysdale · #85 10-17-2020, 05:33 AM

I just treated myself to an hour and half of pure enjoyment. I watched the film again and if anything it's even better than I remember.

I had forgotten the relentless jigsaw of it, separated by the the uncompromising fast fades to black. I still found I couldn't breathe till Nettie got on the train, terrified she'd miss it. I still salivated over the Art Nouveau architecture of my dream New York.

I enjoyed my time there. You come, too?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgfsdfR4h0I

Ann Drysdale · #86 10-17-2020, 12:12 PM

It's about time I emerged, blinking, into the twenty-first century. I've made this sound a bit boring, but I liked it a lot.

A visitor hits town one day
And a posh man invites him to stay.
Each thinks he would rather
Have lived like the other
But both have to go their own way.