1. Liza Minnelli on the phone semi begging her boyfriend to not leave
her and to visit her in the Sterile Cuckoo. Pride agonizingly shredded.

2. Streisand on the phone in The Way We Were also beseeching
Redford. “No one will ever love you like I do.”

3. Paul Newman in The Verdict in the phone booth hoping to
gather back the few dollars he lost his client while we watch his
dignity disintegrate.

Other memorable snippets: Haley J. Osment lying in the hospital bed
telling Bruce, “I see ghosts.” Doug Hutchison in The Green Mile (the
bad, bad guard) screaming, raging, crying, and urinating in humiliation
all at the same time. Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke singing on his
bed, “I don’t care if it rains or freezes, long as I have my plastic Jesus,”
after learning that his mother died.

And who can forget the final game of Russian Roulette in The Deer Hunter!

Harry J. Lennix in the same movie, so very proud of his own overweening evil, as the Moorish general Aaron.

Toshiro Mifune at the end of Kurosawa's RECORD OF A LIVING BEING, two sequences actually: realizing the moment he's ruined EVERYTHING, and his subsequent madness, visualizing a world filled with fire.

Tsutuomu Yamazaki staring through a wire wall: "People like me just like to hurt people like you" -- the hair-raising finale of Kurosawa's HEAVEN & HELL, another overlong picture with an ending worth waiting for (this one is shown here as HIGH & LOW).

Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne tangle in the limousine, towards the end of WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT.

Chow Yun-Fat can WALK! John Woo's ONCE A THIEF.

Robert De Niro proposes to Sharon Stone, a rare interesting moment in Scorsese's overblown CASINO. And the look on her face some two hours later, when she realizes Joe Pesci really isn't her ally, after all. (Who on earth would want Joe Pesci for an ally? not only does he smoke, he golfs.)

Mie Hama's crisis of conscience in Ishiro Honda's KING KONG ESCAPES (playing in most scenes against the spectacular, skeletal Eisei Amamoto as Dr. Who -- not the British one, obviously. Amamoto's voice in the English-dubbed version is the terrific actor Paul Frees.)

George C. Scott and the back of his head before he turns it to face his ex-wife in Franklin J. Schaffner's ISLANDS IN THE STREAM: "He's dead, isn't he?"

Edmond O'Brien in THE WILD BUNCH: "THEY! Who the hell is THEY!"

Pretty much anything Richard E. Grant did in WITHNAIL & I and HOW TO GET AHEAD IN ADVERTISING.

Haruo Nakajima as Godzilla in GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER, really putting his foot down during his first tangle with the Smog Monster. (I am not kidding.)

There are so, so many others.

I’ll keep looking for some of these great movies, but today I’ve maxed
out on not finding the following: (abb..) The Red Pony, 9th Configuration,
Durango, Ice Station Z., Cassandra C., Mysterians, The War Lord, Bring
Me The Head..A.G, etc. I just want to revisit those soundtracks. Phooey!

Hal Holbrook in Capricorn One, talking to his three Astronaut friends, explaining how the Mars Mission failed, and why they must participate in his truly evil plan.

Charlton Heston in Planet Of The Apes, trekking through the sand as the camera centers on him, and he begins: "I'm a dreamer, too..." What a memorable monologue Rod Serling crafted for him: "There has to be something better than man...HAS to be!"

Stephen Boyd as Messala in BEN-HUR as he lies dying from the fatal wounds he suffered during the chariot race. That scene haunts me to this day, and I saw this film in 1960, at the age of 8!

do yourself and myself a favor and DO NOT GET AN AMERICAN VIDEO COPY OF "THE MYSTERIANS." YOU WILL MAKE YOURSELF MISERABLE, AND CONSEQUENTLY MYSELF AS WELL, TRYING TO EXPLAIN WHY THAT VERSION IS UNWATCHABLE. If it comes down to it, I'll make you a copy of the illegal subtitled version myself, JUST TO SPARE YOU FROM ANY GIVEN AMERICAN COPY. I am GLAD you have not yet found it.

I actually don't think it's one of Ishiro Honda's better pictures, but as a product reel for Eiji Tsuburaya and his special effects crew, it's kind of interesting. The story, however, is kind of sterile and unrealized. I actually suspect it was made expressly for the American market, as was VARAN the following year. It WAS, however, the first Japanese fantasy film in both Cinemascope and Eastmancolor -- spectacular, but weirdly empty. Wonderful music, though.

Oh yes, it was a commercial flop in Japan, which really must have terrified the studio (remember, the genre was still young and unproven.)

NP: KING KONG VS. GODZILLA (Akira Ifukube, stereo mix) (now this one was an ENORMOUS hit)

(oh yes, something to keep this on-topic: Great acting moments: Ichiro Arishima, the skinny bespectacled ad exec in KING KONG VS. GODZILLA, picking a fight with a bystander who thinks Godzilla's tougher than Kong ... this moment isn't in the American version ... Joan, I have GOT to get you connected to the Right Sources ... )

Keep me in mind for "the Right Sources," too. I've loved the American version of THE MYSTERIANS since I was a little boy. It is, to me, essentially a little boy's movie anyway. It's pretty much a motion comic book.

I've filled in the spaces that the movie left vacant from my own fertile imagination, making it a better story than it is.

My favorite moments are the attack of the giant walking bird-robot and the attack of the Earth Defense Forces (love those radar dishes parachuting in and self-deploying for battle).

And, as you've said, the music is great. Have you noticed any similarity between the Earth Defense Forces theme and BEETLEJUICE?

Ed Norton looking at himself in the mirror at the end of American History X, also when he finds his brother after the shooting.

The rape scene from General's Daughter. No, I'm not a pervert. I think that scene was good because it made me physically ill. If you're going to film something like that, you need to make as horrific and hard to watch as possible or it's an insult to anyone who has lived through it. Simon West did a great job of showing you the agony and suffering Liz's character went through.

There are so many moments in Kenneth Branaugh's Hamlet: Gertrude telling Laertes about his sister's death. Hamlet's speech right before intermission. Charlton Heston's scene. I could go on and on.

Terry's death by bus scene in Final Destination. Admit it, you were surprised.

Two are from THE WILD BUNCH. The first is the look on Angels face when he realizes the general has no intention of letting him return to the gang. The second is the look on the faces of the Wild Buch as they stare down a whole army.

The last is from THE ALAMO (I know I'll take a lot of guff about this one, but, hey, I'm a Texan) on the eve of the final assault, Davy Crocket is sitting on a wall. A man asks, "Whatcha thinkin', Davey." The Duke answers, "Not thinkin', rememberin'."

To say more in this forum would be to say too much. As they say in STARSHIP TROOPERS, "Do you want to know more?"

now to a few more Great Acting Moments (we must TRY to stay on topic, however hard it may be):

Yoshio Tsuchiya ducking his head into his beloved's cell in THE HUMAN VAPOR, as if to say "Honey, I'm home!"

Yoshio Tsuchiya firing the rifle at the departing, twisted "newlyweds" in MATANGO. And then embracing one of them when the mutated female "returns" to him. (She, Kumi Mizuno, has a great moment in the same scene: "So now you know what it feels like to have to beg someone for something ... ")

Yoshio Tsuchiya mourning his wife, SEVEN SAMURAI.

Yoshio Tsuchiya mourning his wife, YOJIMBO.

Yoshio Tsuchiya in tears at the end of SON OF GODZILLA ("You did it! Doctor, you did it!")

Yoshio Tsuchiya explaining how the intransigent doctor is his IDOL -- RED BEARD.

Yoshio Tsuchiya killing himself, DESTROY ALL MONSTERS.

Yoshio Tsuchiya realizing the jig is up, TOKUZO SAIZENSEN (Japanese TV cop show)

I'd send you an email, but yours isn't listed.

Yoshio Tsuchiya at the end of GODZILLA VS. KING GHIDRAH, looking deep into the eyes of the creature that saved him forty-five years before ... making contact with it, even, it's obvious ... and then it incinerates him. One of the most breathtaking moments in the entire series.

And while I'm on a roll:

Lance Henriksen turning with a ferocious expression on the kids who accidentally killed his boy, early in PUMPKINHEAD -- he doesn't say a thing, and he doesn't have to.

Lance Henriksen's crazy little laugh as he gropes his way towards his gun, at the end of STONE COLD. William Forsythe, then in his fat-redneck mode, is also spectacular as his lunatic sergeant-at-arms ("Don't worry 'bout me, I'm just a WORry-wart."

Jessica Lange looking right into the camera to announce us her attentions, TITUS.

Relaxed little scene with Pam Grier and Robert Forster in JACKIE BROWN, as she muses about her expanding posterior. Bridget Fonda in the same movie, brattishly pushing Robert De Niro just a little too far.

Talia Shire in GODFATHER III, clad in black for decades and knowing she's doomed to be so for the rest of her life -- the only one left with the chops to dare to menace her kid brother Michael, and yet not able to ask the one question about Fredo -- because she doesn't want the answer. (She was Oscar-nominated for far lesser work in the original ROCKY -- I really felt her cheated that year.)

Sean Connery confesses his love to Michelle Pfeiffer in THE RUSSIA HOUSE.

Laurence Luckinbill in STAR TREK V, about to realize his dream to reach Sha Ka Ree: that marvelous excited grin -- not at all mad, just thrilled -- when he's told the plan is madness, and he stage-whispers "We'll see!" The Sybok character is one of the main reasons I still do love that movie, no matter how unpopular it is.

Julian Beck's first appearance in POLTERGEIST II, craning his whole top half down to greet Carol Anne: "Hiiiiiiiiiiii ... " I know that movie is kind of a cut-and-paste job, although not as bad as the next in the series, but Julian Beck and, later in the picture, Craig T. Nelson (doing an interesting "version" of Beck, while possessed by the Worm), were spectacular and well worth watching. (POLTERGEIST II seemed more Nelson's movie, as the original POLTERGEIST seemed to belong more to Jobeth Williams.)

The guy playing the drunken wacko general towards the end of THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY ... I've never been sure what the actor's name is (Aldo Giuffre?), but he does some wonderful double takes in his brief show-stealing bit.

Harry Dean Stanton as the agitated trailer park manager in TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME: "It just means more STUFF I gotta do!"

Julianne Moore's porn actress in BOOGIE NIGHTS, trying desperately to "emote" a character's lines, re: her mean landlord ("He's a real jerk!" -- to me, the biggest laugh in the movie, and Moore should have won the Oscar that year.)

Christopher Walken pointing a fire into existence in THE PROPHECY ... my father saw that in the previews and remarked, "I always knew he could do that."

Kevin Spacey tied to a chair in THE REF: "Well, I don't have THE TIME!"

Eddie Murphy in COMING TO AMERICA, marveling at how few years it'll take him to get to be assistant manager at the fast-food joint.

The breathtakingly evil Isuzu Yamada in Kurosawa's LOWER DEPTHS (all she ever played for Mr. K was one or another kind of harridan, but she was so skilled that she created an entirely different one each time.)

Michael Pataki's lunatic impersonations of everyone from Richard Burton to Sylvester the Cat, throughout DELINQUENT SCHOOLGIRLS.

Almost anything McQueen and Hoffman did in PAPILLON, but my favorite moment will always be McQueen smoking the leprous cigar. ("How did you know I had dry leprosy ... that it isn't contagious?" "I didn't." It doesn't get ANY ballsier than our Steve.)

Christopher: Luckinbill strikes me as just one of hundreds, if not thousands, of underregarded actors that we happen still to have with us. He is arguably fortunate to have been as visible as he has been -- many other great ones almost never are. Does anyone remember the short-lived TV show BAKERSFIELD P.D. -- many of those guys have gone on to bigger things, but we seem to have heard nothing more from Jack Hallett, who was an absolute marvel as the dithering precinct captain, and looking at his IMDb entry, I see he's done hardly anything else, ever. Luckinbill, at least, seems to have a healthy career in theater. If he'd wanted to be a TV star, I bet he could have been, he has the right presence. (For whatever reason, television audiences seem more willing to accept "ordinary" looking people than are movie audiences, perhaps because TV is the more intimate medium -- TV characters are people you hang out with, movie characters are people you want to amaze you. Dennis Franz could never have been a movie star, I'm sure, but there he is on NYPD BLUE.)