GREAT MOMENTS and SCENES FROM THE GREATEST FILMS An extensive collection of the most famous, distinguished, unforgettable or memorable images, scenes, sequences or performances, many from the greatest films of all time Part 25

M (continued)
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)	The combat scene in Bartertown's Thunderdome between nomadic pilgrim Max (Mel Gibson) and the weirdly-original, two-person Master-Blaster ("Two men enter, one man leaves"), including the black-robed, ghoulish Master of Ceremonies Dr. Dealgood (Edwin Hodgeman) with a scepter and his introduction ("Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, dyin' times here") - the bloodthirsty audience hanging over the giant caged dome and cheering the gladiatorial action between the battling protagonists bouncing on rubbery elastic bungee-type straps, and the denouement when Blaster's helmet is knocked off - and he is revealed to be a retarded child; Max's exile in the desert when he discovers a green paradise filled with abandoned children and teenagers (who call him "Capt. Walker" and expect him to magically fly them "home"); Aunty Entity's (Tina Turner) smiling farewell to Max ("Well, ain't we a pair, Raggedy Man? So long, soldier"), and the final flight over an abandoned, burned-out, nuclear-devastated Sydney, Australia -- and adult Savannah Nix's (Helen Buday) poignant closing monologue: ("...But most of all we 'members the man who finded us, him that came the salvage, and we lights the city. Not just for him, but for all of them that are still out there. 'Cause we knows there'll come a night when they sees the distant light, and they'll be coming home"), in George Miller's third Mad Max film
The Magic Box (1951, UK)	The scene in which the pioneering, British inventor of the movie camera - William Friese-Greene (Robert Donat) excitedly urges a helmeted police bobby (Laurence Olivier) on the street to come up to his room and witness his first triumphant screen projection, in director John Boulting's biopic drama
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)	The impressive photography and innovative cinematic techniques, and the scenes within the great Amberson mansion, a convincing, turn-of-the-century re-creation, the richly filmed Amberson ball, the sleigh-riding sequence, the kitchen scene, the long, leisurely tracking shot of Lucy Morgan (Anne Baxter) and George Minafer (Tim Holt) in a carriage through town, the dining room sequence in which Eugene Morgan (Joseph Cotten) describes the possible consequences of the automobile revolution, Aunt Fanny's (Agnes Moorehead) and George's revealing conversation on different landings of the circular staircase, the rambling speech in which old Major Amberson (Richard Bennett) disjointedly muses on the source of life before his life ends, the marvelous scene in which Isabel read's Eugene's letter of consolation, the image of George watching Eugene leave the mansion for the last time just before Isabel's death, the scene of Isabel's death with spider-web shadows falling over her face, the lyrical scene of the discussion between Eugene and Lucy in the garden, and the four-room traveling shot taking an hysterical Aunt Fanny and George from the boiler to the shrouded living room of the Amberson mansion, in director Orson Welles' period drama
Magnolia (1999)	The film's prologue - a tale of a scuba diver in a tree entwined with the urban legend of a son accidentally murdered while trying to commit suicide; the scene in a San Fernando Valley hotel of sleazy motivational speaker and self-help guru/shyster Frank T.J. Mackey (Oscar-nominated Tom Cruise) leading a "Seduce and Destroy" seminar for misogynistic, sexually-frustrated males, in which he lectures his audience to "Respect the cock... and tame the cunt. Tame it" - and his advice: "I will not apologize for what I want!"; the scene of Frank's interview with TV reporter Gwenovier (April Grace) with probing questions about his past; and the cast's (wherever they are located) sing-along of verses to Aimee Mann's heartbreaking ballad "Wise Up" ("...But it's not going to stop / 'Til you wise up"); also the scene of young wife Linda Partridge's (Julianne Moore) guilt-ridden speech about the love she has for her near-death, cancer-stricken husband/TV producer Earl (Jason Robards) and her confessional that she originally married him for his money: ("...I've fallen in love with him now for real as he's dying. I look at him, and he's about to go..."); and the controversial and audacious ending - a literal rainstorm of frogs, in Paul Thomas Anderson's adult-oriented human drama with an ensemble cast
Make Mine Music (1946)	Two of the classic animated segments (out of ten total original segments) -- the comic retelling of "Casey at the Bat" from the classic Ernest Thayer tale of an arrogant ballplayer, and the classic 15-minute Disney version of "Peter and the Wolf" based on Sergei Prokofiev's famous symphony of the same name with each character represented by a particular musical instrument, and narrated by scratchy-voiced Sterling Holloway -- in Disney's eighth animated feature - an unofficial, less "artsy" follow-up to Fantasia (1940)
Malcolm X (1992)	The titles sequence - in which an American flag burns to an 'X' - also intercut with scenes from the Rodney King beating video; the scenes of various speeches (at Harlem, Harvard University, and his pre- and post-Mecca trip press conferences) of controversial black nationalist liberation leader Malcolm "X" Little's (Denzel Washington): ("When you tell your people to stop being violent against my people, I'll tell my people to put away their guns"); his famous line: "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock - Plymouth Rock landed on us!"; and climactic and chaotic set-piece of his assassination in New York's Audubon Ballroom in February of 1965 presented as a conspiracy of Nation of Islam leaders - with his devastated wife Betty Shabazz (Angela Bassett) holding her dying husband in her arms; and the use of documentary footage of Martin Luther King Jr. commenting on Malcolm's death and Ossie Davis's eulogy for Malcolm X: "He was, at last, our manhood--our black manhood", in writer/director Spike Lee's inspirational 3 1/2 hour tribute-documentary on the life of a former burglar, drug-user and pimp - based on Alex Haley's novel The Autobiography of Malcolm X
The Maltese Falcon (1941)	The film's memorable sinister and moody imagery, great casting and characterizations including hard-boiled private eye Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart), deceitful femme-fatale Brigid O'Shaughnessy (Mary Astor), creepy Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre), "Fat Man" Kasper Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet), and gunsel Wilmer (Elisha Cook Jr.); the surprise killing point-blank of Spade's partner Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan); the scene in which Spade revealed that he knew a deceiving Brigid was trying to charm him ("You won't need much of anybody's help. You're good. It's chiefly your eyes, I think, and that throb you get in your voice when you say things like 'Be generous, Mr. Spade.'"), the menacing scene in the hotel room of a seated Gutman explaining the history of the bird (shot from floor angle, emphasizing his huge girth), the elusive search for the jewel-encrusted 'black bird,' and the final scene of the unwrapping of the package in which the falcon bird is discovered to be fake - not gold but only made of lead; Cairo telling off Gutman calling him an "...imbecile! You bloated idiot! You stupid fathead!", Brigid's final scene with Spade in which he threatens "Yes, angel, I'm gonna send you over" and she takes "the fall," the famous quote in response to Sgt. Polhaus' (Ward Bond) question about the false black bird: "The, uh, stuff that dreams are made of," and the last image of Brigid's exit to her fate - down an elevator with the gate casting a shadow of cell bars on her, in director John Huston's classic noir/detective debut film based on Dashiell Hammett's novel
A Man For All Seasons (1966)	The strength and courage of Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas More (Oscar-winning Paul Scofield) - after King Henry VIII (Robert Shaw) declared himself the head of the church in England - when he refused on principle to sign the Act of Succession that would grant permission to the King to divorce his first barren wife Catherine of Aragon so he could marry mistress Anne Boleyn (Vanessa Redgrave) to produce an heir; his reverential defense of the law toward son-in-law William Roper (Corin Redgrave): "This country is planted thick with laws from coast to coast, man's laws, not God's, and if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?"; the treachery of courtier Richard Rich (John Hurt) to destroy More; the trumped-up, fallacy-filled court trial when More defended his actions and chastised his former friend and King ("Since the Court has determined to condemn me, God knoweth how, I will now discharge my mind concerning the indictment and the King's title..."), and the scene of More's execution and his poignant words to his executioner: "Be not afraid of your office: you send me to God", in Fred Zinnemann's Best Picture-winning film of Richard Bolt's adaptation of his own play
Man Hunt (1941)	The exciting sequence of big-game hunter Capt. Thorndike (Walter Pidgeon) stalking within shooting distance of Hitler's summer palace in the Bavarian Alps, aiming at the dictator's head, and pulling the trigger - but the gun is lacking a cartridge, in director Fritz Lang's WWII political thriller
The Man of the West (1958)	The notorious scene of violent outlaw Coaley (Jack Lord) humiliating saloon singer Billie Ellis (Julie London) by forcing her to strip down to her underwear - and Texas, ex-outlaw hero Link Jones' (Gary Cooper) attempt to prevent her striptease, in Anthony Mann's last western
The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976, UK)	The scene of pale, ethereal humanoid alien visitor Thomas Jerome Newton's (rock star David Bowie in his feature film debut) arrival on Earth by splashing into a Southwestern lake, his first unsettling contact with society - and his bored and addicted habit of watching a dozen televisions at once (and his scream of "Get out of my head!") and drinking gin and tonics; Thomas' memories/visions of his Anthean family suffering and dying on his drought-stricken home planet and the startling revelation of his true Anthean form - androgynous, cat-eyed and hairless - to naive, New Mexico hotel cleaning lady/girlfriend Mary-Lou (Candy Clark) who uncontrollably pees down her leg at the horrific sight of him; and their frequent, unusual, exploratory and explicit sexual encounters; also the scene in which a drunk Newton threatens Mary-Lou with a blank-firing fake pistol, dips its barrel into a glass of wine, and then licks it, before a frenzied and loveless encounter; and the final image of a completely drained, eternally-trapped Thomas (his head bowed, with hat to the camera), in Nicolas Roeg's impressionistic, hallucinatory, disjointed, non-literal sci-fi film and parable
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)	The opening scene in French Morocco in which American tourists Dr. Ben and Jo McKenna (James Stewart and Doris Day) witness the street killing of a Frenchman spy (Daniel Gelin) who whispers something in Ben's ear about a political assassination; and the wordless 12-minute climactic scene in London's Royal Albert Hall in which the parents attempt to stop an assassination plot (with the murder of the European head of state to take place at the climax of the performance during the clash of cymbals) - and the final moment when the gunshot is accentuated by Jo's terrified scream, in Alfred Hitchcock's dramatic and colorful remake of his own political thriller film from 22 years earlier
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)	The opening scene in which elderly and revered US Senator Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) arrives in the small western town of Shinbone, Arizona with his wife Hallie Stoddard (Vera Miles), and tells newspaperman Maxwell Scott (Carleton Young) about how he became a legend and was known as "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (in flashback) -- he explains his relationship with tough and rugged homesteader and gunslinger Tom Doniphon (John Wayne in a quintessential role) - who had protected Ransom (famously referred to as "Pilgrim") from continual taunting when he was a young, idealistic pacifistic lawyer from the East Coast newly arrived in the small frontier town; including the memorable performance of Lee Marvin as drunken, abusive, violent, horse whip-wielding villain Liberty Valance and his conflict with Ransom - especially their memorable confrontation scene when Valance deliberately trips saloon cafe employee Ransom while serving a steak dinner to Doniphon - who then threatens Valance: "That was my steak, Valance!"; the scene in which Doniphon teaches Ransom to shoot - when three paint cans splatter Ransom with paint, and Ransom's growling response and slugging of Doniphon in the jaw that sends him to the ground: "I don't like tricks, myself!"; also the climactic and miraculous shootout in which Ransom lefthandedly shoots Valance dead; and Doniphon's private confrontation with Ransom when he informs him that he never shot Liberty - with an ensuing flashback ("Think back, Pilgrim") revealing how he hid and had shot Liberty to sacrificially protect the love of his life Hallie from heartbreak, and also for the greater good of the territory poised for statehood; also local newspaper editor Scott's famous line of dialogue at film's end when he refuses to publish the story after Ransom has finished his tale: (Ransom: "You're not going to print the story, Mr. Scott?" Scott: "No, sir. This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend"), including the complex (and melancholic) reactions of Ransom and Hallie when the conductor on their train back to Washington DC tells them: "Nothing's too good for the Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", in John Ford's nostalgic and memorable last Western with Wayne
The Man Who Would Be King (1975)	The realistic site locations used for remote Kafiristan (in Afghanistan), the camaraderie of Sean Connery (as Daniel Dravot) and Michael Caine (as Peachy Carnehan) - two British adventurers seeking wealth, the battle scene in which Daniel pulls an arrow from his chest to give the impression that he is immortal, the wedding scene revealing Dravot's humanity and mortality (a bloody bite on the cheek) - causing an angry reaction from the natives, and Daniel's death scene on a rope bridge high above a canyon, in John Huston's revered and rollicking adventure film based upon the short story by Rudyard Kipling (depicted in the film by Christopher Plummer)
The Man With Two Brains (1983)	The classic scene of a drunk-driving test that brain surgeon Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr (Steve Martin) must pass in front of Viennese Austrian police, and Hfuhruhurr's first kiss with Anne's beloved, disembodied brain (with the voice of Sissy Spacek), in director Carl Reiner's comedy
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)	The famous brainwashing/dream sequence in which Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) and Lt. Marco (Frank Sinatra) and their platoon are present at a ladies' garden club auxiliary meeting in a small hotel - the camera begins a slow, 360 degree, all-encompassing tracking shot around the meeting to reveal that they are part of a brain-washing demonstration within Manchuria; the phrase used by all of the Korean war veterans (by brainwashing) for describing their commander: "Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life"; the scene of the televised press conference during which Raymond's mother (Angela Lansbury) watches her husband's diminutive image on a TV monitor as he provokes his rival; a brainwashed Shaw's shooting of young soldier-comrade Bobby Lembeck (Tom Lowell) and blood from his brains splattering over a poster of Stalin - all within Corporal Melvin's nightmare; the intriguing scene in the space between railcars when Marco meets and speaks to the mysterious and attractive Rosie Chaney (Janet Leigh); the image of a large American flag suddenly having caviar scooped from its star pattern during a patriotic costume ball, the transition from the use of a bottle of ketchup at dinner to testimony that there are 57 card-carrying Communists in the State Department, Marco's reaction when he sees Chunjim (Henry Silva) at his buddy's apartment door; the brilliantly-photographed assassination sequence of Raymond's killing of his father-in-law Senator Jordan (John McGiver) (he bleeds milk instead of blood) and his own new wife Jocie (Leslie Parrish); the scene in which Marco attempts to de-program Shaw by fanning an entire deck of 52 Queens of Diamonds in front of his face; the monstrous Mrs. Shaw's seductive, incestuous warm kiss on her son's lips; and the final climactic sequence during the political convention in Madison Square Garden of Marco desperately sprinting to the top of the arena to prevent an assassination in the making, and the dissolve from the gunshot to thunder at film's end, in John Frankenheimer's classic political thriller
Manhattan (1979)	Gordon Willis' exquisite soft-focus B/W cinematography, shot in 35 mm Panavision, with one of the greatest cinematic opening montages ever, featuring Gershwin's music ("Rhapsody in Blue"), and the beautiful black-and-white photography of New York City by day and then night (including fireworks) starting with the skyline, then buildings and streets; television author/joke writer Isaac Davis' (Woody Allen) voice-over monologue/narration of various versions of "Chapter One" of his planned novel he aspires to write ("New York was his town, and it always would be..."); neurotic Mary Wilke's (Diane Keaton) famous line: "I'm beautiful, I'm bright and I deserve better!", the scene of Isaac and Mary taking an after-hours stroll and sitting on a park bench (silhouetted) against the sight of the Brooklyn Bridge to the sounds of the Gershwin tune: "Someone to Watch Over Me"; Isaac's famous line of dialogue: "I think there's something wrong with me because I've never had a relationship with a woman that's lasted longer than the one Hitler had with Eva Braun"; the heartbreaking malt shop breakup scene between Isaac and his radiant seventeen year-old girlfriend Tracy (Oscar-nominated Mariel Hemingway); Isaac's "why is life worth living" dictation into his tape recorder (he mentions jazz, sports, and entertainment heroes such as Groucho Marx, Willie Mays, Louis Armstrong, and concludes with the smile on Tracy's face), and his breathless run through NY streets to stop his (now) eighteen year-old drama student/girlfriend Tracy's departure for London to study at the Academy and their romantically poignant and touching final scene when the young lover consoles Isaac with the bittersweet line: ("Six months isn't so long. Everybody gets corrupted. You have to have a little faith in people"), concluding with a final shot of Isaac's face with a wry, resigned smiling expression (a farewell version of The Tramp's (Charlie Chaplin) expression in City Lights (1931)) followed by a reprise of the opening montage featuring the skyline from dawn to dusk to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue", in co-writer/director Woody Allen's classic comedy
Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)	The reuniting of Woody Allen and Diane Keaton as middle-aged Larry and Carol Lipton is Allen's ode to The Thin Man (1934) and Rear Window (1954) - a married New York couple whose lives are energized by the 'mystery' death of their neighbor Mr. House's (Jerry Adler) wife Lillian - and Carol's obsessive 'Nancy Drew'-like suspicions of murder by the non-mourning husband (to Larry's exasperation); the many funny, acerbic one-liners by Larry: ("I've reevaluated our lives! I got a 10, you got a 6!", "There's nothing wrong with you that a little Prozac and a polo mallet can't cure!", "Jesus, save a little craziness for menopause!"); the funny moment when an elevator stalls and the Liptons find a corpse ("Claustrophobia AND a dead body - this is a neurotic's jackpot!"); the character of sultry writer Marcia Fox (Anjelica Huston) who helps Larry, Carol and single playwright friend Ted (Alan Alda) devise a trap to ensnare Mr. House; the clever recreation of the climax of The Lady From Shanghai (1948) in the back of an old revival theatre (the characters reenact the mirror scene as it plays behind them on the screen), and the final exchange: (Larry: "...I mean, take away his fake tan, his capped teeth and his Cuban heels and what have you got?" Carol: "You!"), in Woody Allen's comedy
Manhunter (1986)	The skin-crawlingly creepy prologue in which a hand-held videocamera "stalks" a family and then cuts to titles shortly after one of the victims awakens in her bedroom; retired FBI forensic expert Will Graham's (William L. Petersen - later starring in CSI onTV) vivid description of a macabre crime scene and his tense interview with the first incarnation of Dr. Hannibal "Lecktor" (Brian Cox) in a stark, antiseptic, harshly-lit white cell (reminding him: "You want the scent? Smell yourself!"); tall, near-albino serial killer Francis "Tooth Fairy" Dollarhyde (Tom Noonan) capturing pushy tabloid reporter Freddy Lounds (Stephen Lang) and setting him ablaze down a parking lot ramp in a spectacular murder scene; the sexually charged scene in which Dollarhyde takes a blind, fiercely independent lab technician co-worker Reba McClane (Joan Allen) to feel an anesthetized tiger; Graham's scene with his son Kevin (David Seaman) while grocery shopping when he has to answer questions about his job and what he does (including how he had been inducted into a mental institution due to his association with Lektor); and the climactic scene in which Graham explosively bursts through a glass doorway as Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida throbs rhythmically to save Reba from the Tooth Fairy, in Michael Mann's original version of Red Dragon - the prequel to The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Marathon Man (1976)	The scene of aging, ex-Nazi Szell's (Laurence Olivier) recognition by an old woman in a Jewish section of town, death camp dentist Szell's sessions of sadistic, grim torture of a tied-up doctoral student Babe (Dustin Hoffman) in a window-less room using probing dental instruments as he repeatedly and calmly asks the baffling question: "Is it safe?", Babe's marathon escape across Manhattan; and Szell's flight through NYC's garment district, in John Schlesinger's paranoid thriller
March of the Penguins (2005) aka Le Marche de l'Empereur (2005, Fr.)	The fight for survival by Emperor penguins, as they traveled to the center of the harshest place on Earth - Antarctica - featured awe-inspiring visuals of the icy continent itself, the miles-long penguin march and their awkward, waddling walking when not flopping on their bellies to slide forward on the hardened snow, the clumsy, perilous ballet of handing off eggs (later chicks) between parents, the graceful underwater swimming by the penguins, and the final, crowd-pleasing moment when the adolescent penguin chicks dove into the water -- as US narrator Morgan Freeman put it: "Going home for the first time" -- in the highest grossing nature documentary ever made (up to its time), by Luc Jacquet's Oscar-winner for Best Documentary Feature
The Mark of Zorro (1940)	The beautiful Linda Darnell as mayor's niece Lolita Quintero - Zorro's love interest, and the thrilling, magnificent dueling scene between Zorro/Diego de Vega (Tyrone Power) and cruel villain Capt. Esteban Pasquale (Basil Rathbone), one of the best in cinematic history, in director Rouben Mamoulian's adventure-swashbuckler (a remake of UA's silent version with Douglas Fairbanks)
The Marrying Kind (1952)	Two middle-class New Yorkers -- Florence (Judy Holliday) and Chet Keefer (Aldo Ray in his film debut) and their marriage difficulties, including the initial, revelatory and reflective flashbacks of the ups and downs of their relationship while in divorce court (in various "he said/she said" scenes), and the tragic family picnic scene in which Joey (Christopher Olsen), their six-year-old son accidentally drowned in a park pond while an oblivious Florence was singing "How I Love the Kisses of Dolores" on a ukelele to her husband, in George Cukor's bittersweet marriage comedy/drama
Marty (1955)	Marty's (Ernest Borgnine) recurring conversation with Angie (Joe Mantell): Angie: "What do you feel like doing tonight?" Marty: "I don't know, Ange. What do you feel like doing?", the realistic depiction of the relationship between Marty and Clara (Betsy Blair), Marty telling Clara: "Dogs like us, we ain't such dogs as we think we are," and Clara apologizing for rejecting his kiss, in director Delbert Mann's Best Picture-winning heartwarming romance drama
Mary Poppins (1964)	The film's amazing blending of live action with animated cartoon characters - and audio animatronics (the robin) - winning a Special Effects Academy Award; the title sequence in which Mary Poppins (Oscar-winner Julie Andrews in her film debut) flies over London with her talking parrot-headed umbrella and drops down to 17 Cherry Tree Lane, Mary's love interest - the carefree Cockney sidewalk artist/chimney-sweep Bert (Dick Van Dyke); the jump into a chalk painting that takes Mary, Dick and the Banks children to a cartoon world where they sing the catchy classic tune "Super-califragilistic-expialidocious", the poignant singing of "Feed the Birds" (pigeons) by Mary - with Jane Darwell (in her final screen appearance) as the old bird woman at St. Paul's Cathedral; the manic, fireworks-filled rooftop dance "Step In Time" by Bert and his fellow chimney-sweeps; the scene in which stodgy father Mr. George W. Banks (David Tomlinson) tells off his bank founder boss - the ancient Mr. Dawes, Sr. (also Van Dyke): "Go fly a kite!", and the other memorable songs including "Chim-Chim-Cher-ee" (which won the Best Song Oscar), "A Spoonful of Sugar" and the triumphant finale, "Let's Go Fly a Kite", in Disney's fantasy adaptation of the beloved P.L. Travers children's books with an Oscar for Best Original Score

---

---

Created in 1996-2008 © by Tim Dirks. All rights reserved.

---