Greatest Film Moments and Scenes

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 31

O (continued)

Once Upon A Time in the West (1968)

The detailed, almost wordless presentation of hired killers in the widescreen opening sequence - with ambient sounds (a dry dusty wind) and a pesky fly in the deliberately-slow credit sequence as a trio of hired assassins waits at a small-town's train station - followed by a sudden shoot-out when the train pulls away and an unnamed gunman known as Harmonica (Charles Bronson) has stepped off the train and appears in the middle of the screen, flanked by three men that are soon left dead; the first appearance of black-hatted, blue-eyed killer-villain Frank, portrayed uncharacteristically by Henry Fonda, and his cold-blooded and merciless murder of a family (including a nine-year-old boy); the character of Claudia Cardinale as the widow and reformed prostitute Jill McBain from New Orleans who is protected by honorable outlaw Cheyanne (Jason Robards); and other classic showdowns - especially in the closing sequence, and the fateful flashback/revelatory moment when "Harmonica" (The Man) remembers the cold-hearted, steely blue-eyed, mean badman Frank's cruel jest: "Keep your lovin' brother happy" (a young "Harmonica" was forced to support his elder brother (with a noose around his neck) on his shoulders and to play a harmonica until he weakened and collapsed- and thereby killed his brother), and Frank's final question: "Who are you?" - he finally remembers about Harmonica after a harmonica is placed in his mouth to remind him, in Sergio Leone's western masterpiece with a great musical score (with harmonica melody) by Ennio Morricone

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

The characterization of rebellious patient Randle P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) opposed to the stern, rigid and authoritarian Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher), the memorable scenes of playing basketball in the exercise yard, gambling card games with cigarettes as currency, the two scenes in which votes are taken to change the daily schedule so that they can watch the World Series - followed by McMurphy's defiance to Nurse Ratched's technicalities by a recreation of the play-by-play action of an imaginary ballgame in front of a blackened TV set - contagiously infecting the other inmates with his enthusiasm; also the wild, fishing field trip scene, McMurphy's challenge to the other inmates to leave the institution ("You're no crazier than the average asshole out walkin' around the streets") after learning that he won't automatically be released, McMurphy's shocked realization that giant Chief Bromden (Will Sampson) can actually talk when he lends him a stick of Juicy Fruit gum, the scene of McMurphy's zombie-like return from electro-shock therapy, the midnight celebration and McMurphy's enraged attack and its disastrous consequences, Chief Bromden's suffocation/mercy killing of his lobotomized friend and his escape from the institution by throwing a previously-immovable water fountain/sink through a window, in Milos Forman's Best Picture-winning drama (and the top five awards) based upon Ken Kesey's anti-establishment book

One Foot in Heaven (1941)

The poignant scene in which devoted Methodist minister Rev. William Spence (Fredric March) views his first movie (a William S. Hart western) with his son, and the memorable sequence in which he replaces an aging church chorus with young, fresh-faced children, in director Irving Rapper's religious drama

One Million Years B.C. (1966)

Ray Harryhausen's animated dinosaurs, and the views of half-clad cave woman Loana (Raquel Welch) in tight-fitting animal skins, who speaks only one decipherable word ("Tumak!"), in this camp classic fantasy prehistoric adventure film from director Don Chaffey

Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

The nerve-wracking scene of the attempted fog landing by flier Joe Souther (Noah Berry, Jr.) - ending with a fatal crash; the on/off again love story between Latin American pilots' boss Geoff Carter (Cary Grant) and perky Brooklynite blonde Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur); the arrival of flier Bat MacPherson/alias Kilgallen (Richard Barthelmess) with his radiant wife Judy (Rita Hayworth in her first appearance in a major film), Geoff's ex-wife; the discovery that MacPherson is really a disgraced, unworthy pilot whose cowardice once caused the death of older daredevil pilot Kid Dabb's (Thomas Mitchell) younger brother; the scene of MacPherson's treacherous flight carrying nitroglycerin to prove his bravery; and aging daredevil pilot Kid Dabb's (Thomas Mitchell) affecting death and farewell scene after a crucial flight with a redeemed MacPherson, in director Howard Hawks' quintessential aviation-adventure film

Open Water (2004)

The incredibly realistic situation of two scuba divers: Susan (Blanchard Ryan) and Daniel (Daniel Travis) left behind by their tour boat and stranded in open Bahamas water with real sharks circling them for the majority of the film, in writer/director Chris Kentis' effectively suspenseful, low-budget shark tale

Open Your Eyes (1997, Sp.) (aka Abre Los Ojos)

The sight of nude, brown-haired Sofia (Penelope Cruz) straddling, sitting up, and posing above Cesar (Eduardo Noriega) in his 'dream' (?) life, and the transcendental, stunning conclusion when Cesar plunges from a 50-story skyscraper roof to 'awaken', in director Alejandro Amenabar's film, remade in Hollywood with Penelope Cruz (again) and Tom Cruise (real-life lovers at the time) as Vanilla Sky (2001), by director Cameron Crowe

Ordinary People (1980)

The moving scene of suicidal, guilt-ridden 18 year-old high-school student Conrad "Con" Jarrett (Oscar-winning Timothy Hutton) admitting his feelings about his older brother Buck's (Scott Doebler) accidental drowning (during a sailing trip revealed over the course of the film by flashbacks) in his late-night therapy session with his sometimes unorthodox psychiatrist Dr. Berger (Judd Hirsch): ("What was the one thing wrong you did?" "I hung on"), and the icy portrayal of grieving, hostile and rejecting mother Beth Jarrett by Mary Tyler Moore contrasted with her warm-hearted and compassionate husband Calvin (Donald Sutherland) - who ultimately admits the loss of his love for his wife: ("We would have been all right if there hadn't been any mess. But you can't handle mess. You need everything neat and easy. I don't know. Maybe you can't love anybody. It was so much Buck. When Buck died, it was like you buried all your love with him, and I don't understand that, I just don't know, I don't... maybe it wasn't even Buck; maybe it was just you. Maybe, finally, it was the best of you that you buried. But whatever it was... I don't know who you are. I don't know what we've been playing at. So I was crying. Because I don't know if I love you any more. And I don't know what I'm going to do without that"); and the closing scene before the credits in which Calvin begins to re-connect with his son and hugs him; also the brilliant mood-setting use of Johann Pachelbel's mournful adagio Canon in D Major, in actor Robert Redford's directorial debut film - an intense psychological drama (an adaptation of the Judith Guest novel by Alvin Sargent)

Orphans of the Storm (1921-2)

Close-ups of virginal Henriette Girard's (Lillian Gish) face, the spectacular crowd scenes, and the scene in which Henriette hears the voice of her blind, kidnapped half-sister Louise (Dorothy Gish) singing in the street below but is arrested before she can get to her from the balcony, and the thrilling rescue scene of Louise from the guillotine by revolutionary hero Danton (Monte Blue) - and a tearful reunion scene between the sisters (and the miraculous restoration of eyesight for Louise), in D.W. Griffith's melodramatic epic about the French Revolution and two orphans half-sisters that were separated during the Reign of Terror

Out of Africa (1985)

The lyrically-beautiful scenes on location in Kenya, Africa (the opening voice-over narration: "I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Mountains"), including the biplane ride in which Danish authoress/wife Karen Tania Blixen-Finecke (Meryl Streep) (aka pen name Isak Dinesen) reaches back and holds hands with white hunter Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford), and the scene of Hatton shampooing Karen's hair during a safari, in director Sydney Pollack's Best Picture-winning biographical romantic epic

Out of Sight (1998)

The reassuring words of charming bank robber Jack Foley (George Clooney) to bank teller Loretta Randall (Donna Frenzel): "Is this your first time being robbed?" (she nods) "You're doing great"; and the very memorable and erotically-flirtatious, dialogue-rich scene in the trunk of a car between Foley (George Clooney) and kidnapped federal marshal Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez) when they exchange sexy quips and banter (a discussion of Faye Dunaway films such as Bonnie and Clyde, and Three Days of the Condor), and he strokes her thigh - and their later sexual encounter in which they flirtatiously call each other different names: Gary and Celeste, with the sequence cutting between their conversation in a hotel lounge over drinks - and the scene of them, minutes later, kissing, undressing and getting into bed in a penthouse hotel room with snow falling outside, in Steven Soderbergh's sexy crime thriller

Out Of The Past (1947) (aka Build My Gallows High)

The flashback structure of the film and shadowy cinematography, with the archetypal, duplicitous femme fatale Kathie Moffett's (Jane Greer) silhouetted entrance into a Mexican cantina from the bright and hot outdoors - wearing a broad-brimmed white hat during the pursuit of cool private eye Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) for her after being hired by menacing gangster Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas); the snappy dialogue and tawdriness of the love/hate relationship between Jeff and Kathie ("I think we deserve a break" and his reply: "We deserve each other") and his sneering insult of her: "You're like a leaf that the wind blows from one gutter to another"; their romantic interlude on a moonlit beach (where they are framed by an entrapping fish net); and the final tragic end at the police roadblock, in Jacques Tourneur's great film noir - one of the best ever made

The Outlaw (1943)

The buxom cleavage of statuesque and formidable Rio (Jane Russell) was displayed to the fullest and greatest effect (and angered censors) throughout this notorious film, although the publicity shots were much more revealing, sultry and suggestive than the film itself; the wrestling in the hay stable scene with Billy the Kid (Jack Beutel) with him cautioning her to end her struggling resistance in the dark shadows ("Let me go" -- "Hold still lady or you won't have much dress left") as the scene faded to black; and later as Rio cared for Billy, she promised: "I'll warm him up"; she bent down (in the uncensored version) - and then there was an incredible zooming full-face (and lips) closeup when preparing to kiss him; also the close-up view of Rio galloping along on horseback, in producer/director Howard Hughes' "adult" sex-western film

Outrage (1950)

The memorable rape scene (in one of the first films to address the taboo subject in the 50s, called a 'criminal attack/assault') in which young naive plant secretary-bookkeeper Ann Walton (Mala Powers) leaves work one night and her ordeal while being pursued through a maze of streets and alleys for over five minutes - the camera pulls back behind a building and doesn't show the act, and the devastating aftermath for the traumatized victim, in director/writer Ida Lupino's B-level crime-related drama

The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)

The "trial" at the hanging tree with Gil Carter's (Henry Fonda) witnessing of the sham trial and his forceful statement to the lynch mob: "Hangin's' any man's business that's around"; the actual hanging (with the shadows of the dead men hanging), and the final scene of the reading of a letter of one of the victims, Donald Martin (Dana Andrews) by Gil Carter, in director William Wellman's "Western noir" adaptation of Walter Van Tilburg Clark's novel

P

The Palm Beach Story (1942)

The frenzied opening credit montage of confusing, mystifying marital vignettes without dialogue (unexplained until film's end); the character of the hard-of-hearing "Wienie King" (Robert Dudley); the madcap scenes on the southbound train with the Ale and Quail Club and runaway wife Gerry (Claudette Colbert); the crackpot billionaire J.D. Hackensacker (Rudy Vallee) and his yacht; the "Goodnight Sweetheart" serenade scene; and the two unzipping of gown romantic scenes between Gerry and poor struggling inventor husband Tom (Joel McCrea), in Preston Sturges' fast-paced 'comedy-of-errors' classic comedy

Pandora's Box (1929, Ger.) (aka Die Büchse der Pandora)

The scene of the insatiable, free-spirited, 18 year-old cabaret chorus girl and femme fatale Lulu (Louise Brooks), with a black bob (pageboy) haircut, caught backstage in a wardrobe room scandalously kissing her obsessed and spell-bound patron - a wealthy newspaper owner named Dr. Ludwig Schon (Fritz Kortner) - by his more socially-acceptable fiancee Charlotte Marie Adelaide (Daisy d'Ora); and the scene of Dr. Schon's subsequent wedding party in which virginally white-dressed (inappropriately), bi-sexual and amoral bride Lulu engages in an intimate, flirtatious tango with black silken-dressed, chic lesbian aristocrat Countess Anna Geschwitz (Alice Roberts); also the dramatic scene in which just-married bridegroom Dr. Schon becomes enraged with jealousy at Lulu (for her starry-eyed flirtations with his son Alwa (Franz Lederer)) and thrusts a gun at her, crying: "Take it! Kill yourself!...so that you don't drive me to murder as well" - and the moment of his accidental murder/manslaughter during a struggle for the gun between them; also the trial scene in which the prosecutor accuses the hedonistic Lulu (wearing a black veil) of being like a Pandora's box of evil; and the expressionistic finale on Christmas Eve as London Soho prostitute Lulu becomes another gleaming-knifed victim of Jack the Ripper (Gustav Diessl) during an erotic embrace and kiss (her hand goes limp to indicate her death), in director G.W. Pabst's classic silent film melodrama

Paper Moon (1973)

The character of young and precocious, orphaned 9 year-old Addie (Oscar-winning Tatum O'Neal in her film debut) who convinces her 'father' Moses Pray (Ryan O'Neal) in a diner (while eating a Coney dog and drinking a Nehi) to let her accompany him ("We got the SAME jaw!" and "I want my $200") on the road; the image of Addie smoking in bed; the scenes of their conversations on the road and her manipulative swindling with Moses as they sell Bibles to recent widows - especially when she suggests upping the price for rich widows and giving Bibles away to poor clients; also the entrance of gold-digging carnival dancer Miss Trixie Delight (Madeline Kahn) walking to Moses' car - and when she tries to cajole Addie on a hillside to come down to the car and sit in the back seat ("But right now, you're gonna pick your little ass up and you're gonna drop it in the back seat and you're gonna cut out the crap - you understand?"); and later the scene of Addie ingeniously devising a way to separate Trixie from Moses by having her bed the hotel clerk; and the final tearjerking scene in which Addie leaves Moze a picture of herself in his car after they parted - of her sitting on a paper moon at a carnival - so that she could be reunited again with him on the road by film's end, in director Peter Bogdanovich's comic road-drama

Papillon (1973)

The horrible prison conditions in the notorious French penal colony of Devil's Island, with the character of French prisoner Henri "Papillon" Charriere's (Steve McQueen) feeding on bugs (centipedes, cockroaches) during solitary confinement at half-rations and his response to guards during an interrogation ("Give me the name
and you're back on full rations") when asked to rat on a friend: "I was born skinny"; also the idyllic scenes of Charriere being nursed back to health by topless native girl Zoraima (Ratna Assan) after a miraculous escape; and the final successful third escape attempt of Charriere as he takes a plunge off a Devil's Island cliff with a raft made of coconuts lashed together, in director Franklin J. Schaffner's biographical prison-escape film

The Parallax View (1974)

The memorable six-minute sequence in the middle of this film - a 'brainwashing' montage-collage of non-verbal images (juxtaposed with white-on-black words such as "Mother", "Country", and "Me") that functioned as a psychological test for rogue investigative newspaper reporter Joe Frady (Warren Beatty) by the shadowy Parallax Corporation - he was obsessively pursuing a possible conspiracy about political assassination ("Who's ever behind this is in the business of recruiting assassins") and was recruited into the organization as a disaffected political assassin - with unforseen consequences, in Alan J. Pakula's post-Watergate political conspiracy film

Paris, Texas (1984, US/W. Germ.)

The music of Ry Cooder accompanying the quest by wanderer Travis Clay Henderson (Harry Dean Stanton) for his estranged wife Jane (Nastassia Kinski) - his stumbling through the Texas desert, and the end of his search when he finds her on the other side of a one-way mirror in a peepshow booth, the bravura scene of their long conversation (through microphones) and his confession to her; her gradual realization that she recognizes his voice, and the moment he turns his booth light off so that she can see him; also the overlapping or melting together of their images and then their separation; and the heartbreaking conclusion - estranged father Travis returns his seven year old son Hunter (Hunter Carson) to Jane and then drives away, in director Wim Wenders' road movie drama

The Passion of the Christ (2004)

The quiet prayer scene of Christ (Jim Caviezel) in the garden of Gethsemane before the graphic and unforgiving torture scenes of Christ that include a whipping, a bloody crown of thorns, and the agonizing, unsparing crucifixion itself with nails driven into hands and feet, in Mel Gibson's popular version of the final twelve hours of Jesus Christ's life (in Aramaic and Latin with English subtitles)

Pat and Mike (1952)

The scene of Spencer Tracy (as sports promoter Mike Conovan) telling Katharine Hepburn (as outdoorsy athlete and college phys-ed instructor Pat Pemberton): "A lady athlete properly handled - always a market...I don't think you've ever been properly handled" and her retort: "That's right, not even by myself" - and then his commenting about her figure as she walked away across a golf course green: "Nicely packed that kid...There's not much meat on 'er, but what's there is cherce", and their concluding decision to get married: "Together, we can lick 'em all", in director George Cukor's sports romantic comedy

Paths of Glory (1957)

The tracking shot as WWI French commander Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) walks through the trenches; the authentic battle scenes and devastating suicidal attack on the Ant Hill ordered by Gen. Paul Mireau (George Macready); the courtmartial trial scene in the chateau; the march of the scapegoated soldiers toward the firing squad-execution scene; and the final tavern scene in which a captured blonde German girl (Susanne Christian in the credits) sings for French soldiers and the look on their faces as they first humiliate her, and then soften, listen empathically and understand her pain, in Stanley Kubrick's pacifist war film

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

O (continued)
Once Upon A Time in the West (1968)	The detailed, almost wordless presentation of hired killers in the widescreen opening sequence - with ambient sounds (a dry dusty wind) and a pesky fly in the deliberately-slow credit sequence as a trio of hired assassins waits at a small-town's train station - followed by a sudden shoot-out when the train pulls away and an unnamed gunman known as Harmonica (Charles Bronson) has stepped off the train and appears in the middle of the screen, flanked by three men that are soon left dead; the first appearance of black-hatted, blue-eyed killer-villain Frank, portrayed uncharacteristically by Henry Fonda, and his cold-blooded and merciless murder of a family (including a nine-year-old boy); the character of Claudia Cardinale as the widow and reformed prostitute Jill McBain from New Orleans who is protected by honorable outlaw Cheyanne (Jason Robards); and other classic showdowns - especially in the closing sequence, and the fateful flashback/revelatory moment when "Harmonica" (The Man) remembers the cold-hearted, steely blue-eyed, mean badman Frank's cruel jest: "Keep your lovin' brother happy" (a young "Harmonica" was forced to support his elder brother (with a noose around his neck) on his shoulders and to play a harmonica until he weakened and collapsed- and thereby killed his brother), and Frank's final question: "Who are you?" - he finally remembers about Harmonica after a harmonica is placed in his mouth to remind him, in Sergio Leone's western masterpiece with a great musical score (with harmonica melody) by Ennio Morricone
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)	The characterization of rebellious patient Randle P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) opposed to the stern, rigid and authoritarian Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher), the memorable scenes of playing basketball in the exercise yard, gambling card games with cigarettes as currency, the two scenes in which votes are taken to change the daily schedule so that they can watch the World Series - followed by McMurphy's defiance to Nurse Ratched's technicalities by a recreation of the play-by-play action of an imaginary ballgame in front of a blackened TV set - contagiously infecting the other inmates with his enthusiasm; also the wild, fishing field trip scene, McMurphy's challenge to the other inmates to leave the institution ("You're no crazier than the average asshole out walkin' around the streets") after learning that he won't automatically be released, McMurphy's shocked realization that giant Chief Bromden (Will Sampson) can actually talk when he lends him a stick of Juicy Fruit gum, the scene of McMurphy's zombie-like return from electro-shock therapy, the midnight celebration and McMurphy's enraged attack and its disastrous consequences, Chief Bromden's suffocation/mercy killing of his lobotomized friend and his escape from the institution by throwing a previously-immovable water fountain/sink through a window, in Milos Forman's Best Picture-winning drama (and the top five awards) based upon Ken Kesey's anti-establishment book
One Foot in Heaven (1941)	The poignant scene in which devoted Methodist minister Rev. William Spence (Fredric March) views his first movie (a William S. Hart western) with his son, and the memorable sequence in which he replaces an aging church chorus with young, fresh-faced children, in director Irving Rapper's religious drama
One Million Years B.C. (1966)	Ray Harryhausen's animated dinosaurs, and the views of half-clad cave woman Loana (Raquel Welch) in tight-fitting animal skins, who speaks only one decipherable word ("Tumak!"), in this camp classic fantasy prehistoric adventure film from director Don Chaffey
Only Angels Have Wings (1939)	The nerve-wracking scene of the attempted fog landing by flier Joe Souther (Noah Berry, Jr.) - ending with a fatal crash; the on/off again love story between Latin American pilots' boss Geoff Carter (Cary Grant) and perky Brooklynite blonde Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur); the arrival of flier Bat MacPherson/alias Kilgallen (Richard Barthelmess) with his radiant wife Judy (Rita Hayworth in her first appearance in a major film), Geoff's ex-wife; the discovery that MacPherson is really a disgraced, unworthy pilot whose cowardice once caused the death of older daredevil pilot Kid Dabb's (Thomas Mitchell) younger brother; the scene of MacPherson's treacherous flight carrying nitroglycerin to prove his bravery; and aging daredevil pilot Kid Dabb's (Thomas Mitchell) affecting death and farewell scene after a crucial flight with a redeemed MacPherson, in director Howard Hawks' quintessential aviation-adventure film
Open Water (2004)	The incredibly realistic situation of two scuba divers: Susan (Blanchard Ryan) and Daniel (Daniel Travis) left behind by their tour boat and stranded in open Bahamas water with real sharks circling them for the majority of the film, in writer/director Chris Kentis' effectively suspenseful, low-budget shark tale
Open Your Eyes (1997, Sp.) (aka Abre Los Ojos)	The sight of nude, brown-haired Sofia (Penelope Cruz) straddling, sitting up, and posing above Cesar (Eduardo Noriega) in his 'dream' (?) life, and the transcendental, stunning conclusion when Cesar plunges from a 50-story skyscraper roof to 'awaken', in director Alejandro Amenabar's film, remade in Hollywood with Penelope Cruz (again) and Tom Cruise (real-life lovers at the time) as Vanilla Sky (2001), by director Cameron Crowe
Ordinary People (1980)	The moving scene of suicidal, guilt-ridden 18 year-old high-school student Conrad "Con" Jarrett (Oscar-winning Timothy Hutton) admitting his feelings about his older brother Buck's (Scott Doebler) accidental drowning (during a sailing trip revealed over the course of the film by flashbacks) in his late-night therapy session with his sometimes unorthodox psychiatrist Dr. Berger (Judd Hirsch): ("What was the one thing wrong you did?" "I hung on"), and the icy portrayal of grieving, hostile and rejecting mother Beth Jarrett by Mary Tyler Moore contrasted with her warm-hearted and compassionate husband Calvin (Donald Sutherland) - who ultimately admits the loss of his love for his wife: ("We would have been all right if there hadn't been any mess. But you can't handle mess. You need everything neat and easy. I don't know. Maybe you can't love anybody. It was so much Buck. When Buck died, it was like you buried all your love with him, and I don't understand that, I just don't know, I don't... maybe it wasn't even Buck; maybe it was just you. Maybe, finally, it was the best of you that you buried. But whatever it was... I don't know who you are. I don't know what we've been playing at. So I was crying. Because I don't know if I love you any more. And I don't know what I'm going to do without that"); and the closing scene before the credits in which Calvin begins to re-connect with his son and hugs him; also the brilliant mood-setting use of Johann Pachelbel's mournful adagio Canon in D Major, in actor Robert Redford's directorial debut film - an intense psychological drama (an adaptation of the Judith Guest novel by Alvin Sargent)
Orphans of the Storm (1921-2)	Close-ups of virginal Henriette Girard's (Lillian Gish) face, the spectacular crowd scenes, and the scene in which Henriette hears the voice of her blind, kidnapped half-sister Louise (Dorothy Gish) singing in the street below but is arrested before she can get to her from the balcony, and the thrilling rescue scene of Louise from the guillotine by revolutionary hero Danton (Monte Blue) - and a tearful reunion scene between the sisters (and the miraculous restoration of eyesight for Louise), in D.W. Griffith's melodramatic epic about the French Revolution and two orphans half-sisters that were separated during the Reign of Terror
Out of Africa (1985)	The lyrically-beautiful scenes on location in Kenya, Africa (the opening voice-over narration: "I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Mountains"), including the biplane ride in which Danish authoress/wife Karen Tania Blixen-Finecke (Meryl Streep) (aka pen name Isak Dinesen) reaches back and holds hands with white hunter Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford), and the scene of Hatton shampooing Karen's hair during a safari, in director Sydney Pollack's Best Picture-winning biographical romantic epic
Out of Sight (1998)	The reassuring words of charming bank robber Jack Foley (George Clooney) to bank teller Loretta Randall (Donna Frenzel): "Is this your first time being robbed?" (she nods) "You're doing great"; and the very memorable and erotically-flirtatious, dialogue-rich scene in the trunk of a car between Foley (George Clooney) and kidnapped federal marshal Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez) when they exchange sexy quips and banter (a discussion of Faye Dunaway films such as Bonnie and Clyde, and Three Days of the Condor), and he strokes her thigh - and their later sexual encounter in which they flirtatiously call each other different names: Gary and Celeste, with the sequence cutting between their conversation in a hotel lounge over drinks - and the scene of them, minutes later, kissing, undressing and getting into bed in a penthouse hotel room with snow falling outside, in Steven Soderbergh's sexy crime thriller
Out Of The Past (1947) (aka Build My Gallows High)	The flashback structure of the film and shadowy cinematography, with the archetypal, duplicitous femme fatale Kathie Moffett's (Jane Greer) silhouetted entrance into a Mexican cantina from the bright and hot outdoors - wearing a broad-brimmed white hat during the pursuit of cool private eye Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) for her after being hired by menacing gangster Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas); the snappy dialogue and tawdriness of the love/hate relationship between Jeff and Kathie ("I think we deserve a break" and his reply: "We deserve each other") and his sneering insult of her: "You're like a leaf that the wind blows from one gutter to another"; their romantic interlude on a moonlit beach (where they are framed by an entrapping fish net); and the final tragic end at the police roadblock, in Jacques Tourneur's great film noir - one of the best ever made
The Outlaw (1943)	The buxom cleavage of statuesque and formidable Rio (Jane Russell) was displayed to the fullest and greatest effect (and angered censors) throughout this notorious film, although the publicity shots were much more revealing, sultry and suggestive than the film itself; the wrestling in the hay stable scene with Billy the Kid (Jack Beutel) with him cautioning her to end her struggling resistance in the dark shadows ("Let me go" -- "Hold still lady or you won't have much dress left") as the scene faded to black; and later as Rio cared for Billy, she promised: "I'll warm him up"; she bent down (in the uncensored version) - and then there was an incredible zooming full-face (and lips) closeup when preparing to kiss him; also the close-up view of Rio galloping along on horseback, in producer/director Howard Hughes' "adult" sex-western film
Outrage (1950)	The memorable rape scene (in one of the first films to address the taboo subject in the 50s, called a 'criminal attack/assault') in which young naive plant secretary-bookkeeper Ann Walton (Mala Powers) leaves work one night and her ordeal while being pursued through a maze of streets and alleys for over five minutes - the camera pulls back behind a building and doesn't show the act, and the devastating aftermath for the traumatized victim, in director/writer Ida Lupino's B-level crime-related drama
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)	The "trial" at the hanging tree with Gil Carter's (Henry Fonda) witnessing of the sham trial and his forceful statement to the lynch mob: "Hangin's' any man's business that's around"; the actual hanging (with the shadows of the dead men hanging), and the final scene of the reading of a letter of one of the victims, Donald Martin (Dana Andrews) by Gil Carter, in director William Wellman's "Western noir" adaptation of Walter Van Tilburg Clark's novel
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The Palm Beach Story (1942)	The frenzied opening credit montage of confusing, mystifying marital vignettes without dialogue (unexplained until film's end); the character of the hard-of-hearing "Wienie King" (Robert Dudley); the madcap scenes on the southbound train with the Ale and Quail Club and runaway wife Gerry (Claudette Colbert); the crackpot billionaire J.D. Hackensacker (Rudy Vallee) and his yacht; the "Goodnight Sweetheart" serenade scene; and the two unzipping of gown romantic scenes between Gerry and poor struggling inventor husband Tom (Joel McCrea), in Preston Sturges' fast-paced 'comedy-of-errors' classic comedy
Pandora's Box (1929, Ger.) (aka Die Büchse der Pandora)	The scene of the insatiable, free-spirited, 18 year-old cabaret chorus girl and femme fatale Lulu (Louise Brooks), with a black bob (pageboy) haircut, caught backstage in a wardrobe room scandalously kissing her obsessed and spell-bound patron - a wealthy newspaper owner named Dr. Ludwig Schon (Fritz Kortner) - by his more socially-acceptable fiancee Charlotte Marie Adelaide (Daisy d'Ora); and the scene of Dr. Schon's subsequent wedding party in which virginally white-dressed (inappropriately), bi-sexual and amoral bride Lulu engages in an intimate, flirtatious tango with black silken-dressed, chic lesbian aristocrat Countess Anna Geschwitz (Alice Roberts); also the dramatic scene in which just-married bridegroom Dr. Schon becomes enraged with jealousy at Lulu (for her starry-eyed flirtations with his son Alwa (Franz Lederer)) and thrusts a gun at her, crying: "Take it! Kill yourself!...so that you don't drive me to murder as well" - and the moment of his accidental murder/manslaughter during a struggle for the gun between them; also the trial scene in which the prosecutor accuses the hedonistic Lulu (wearing a black veil) of being like a Pandora's box of evil; and the expressionistic finale on Christmas Eve as London Soho prostitute Lulu becomes another gleaming-knifed victim of Jack the Ripper (Gustav Diessl) during an erotic embrace and kiss (her hand goes limp to indicate her death), in director G.W. Pabst's classic silent film melodrama
Paper Moon (1973)	The character of young and precocious, orphaned 9 year-old Addie (Oscar-winning Tatum O'Neal in her film debut) who convinces her 'father' Moses Pray (Ryan O'Neal) in a diner (while eating a Coney dog and drinking a Nehi) to let her accompany him ("We got the SAME jaw!" and "I want my $200") on the road; the image of Addie smoking in bed; the scenes of their conversations on the road and her manipulative swindling with Moses as they sell Bibles to recent widows - especially when she suggests upping the price for rich widows and giving Bibles away to poor clients; also the entrance of gold-digging carnival dancer Miss Trixie Delight (Madeline Kahn) walking to Moses' car - and when she tries to cajole Addie on a hillside to come down to the car and sit in the back seat ("But right now, you're gonna pick your little ass up and you're gonna drop it in the back seat and you're gonna cut out the crap - you understand?"); and later the scene of Addie ingeniously devising a way to separate Trixie from Moses by having her bed the hotel clerk; and the final tearjerking scene in which Addie leaves Moze a picture of herself in his car after they parted - of her sitting on a paper moon at a carnival - so that she could be reunited again with him on the road by film's end, in director Peter Bogdanovich's comic road-drama
Papillon (1973)	The horrible prison conditions in the notorious French penal colony of Devil's Island, with the character of French prisoner Henri "Papillon" Charriere's (Steve McQueen) feeding on bugs (centipedes, cockroaches) during solitary confinement at half-rations and his response to guards during an interrogation ("Give me the name and you're back on full rations") when asked to rat on a friend: "I was born skinny"; also the idyllic scenes of Charriere being nursed back to health by topless native girl Zoraima (Ratna Assan) after a miraculous escape; and the final successful third escape attempt of Charriere as he takes a plunge off a Devil's Island cliff with a raft made of coconuts lashed together, in director Franklin J. Schaffner's biographical prison-escape film
The Parallax View (1974)	The memorable six-minute sequence in the middle of this film - a 'brainwashing' montage-collage of non-verbal images (juxtaposed with white-on-black words such as "Mother", "Country", and "Me") that functioned as a psychological test for rogue investigative newspaper reporter Joe Frady (Warren Beatty) by the shadowy Parallax Corporation - he was obsessively pursuing a possible conspiracy about political assassination ("Who's ever behind this is in the business of recruiting assassins") and was recruited into the organization as a disaffected political assassin - with unforseen consequences, in Alan J. Pakula's post-Watergate political conspiracy film
Paris, Texas (1984, US/W. Germ.)	The music of Ry Cooder accompanying the quest by wanderer Travis Clay Henderson (Harry Dean Stanton) for his estranged wife Jane (Nastassia Kinski) - his stumbling through the Texas desert, and the end of his search when he finds her on the other side of a one-way mirror in a peepshow booth, the bravura scene of their long conversation (through microphones) and his confession to her; her gradual realization that she recognizes his voice, and the moment he turns his booth light off so that she can see him; also the overlapping or melting together of their images and then their separation; and the heartbreaking conclusion - estranged father Travis returns his seven year old son Hunter (Hunter Carson) to Jane and then drives away, in director Wim Wenders' road movie drama
The Passion of the Christ (2004)	The quiet prayer scene of Christ (Jim Caviezel) in the garden of Gethsemane before the graphic and unforgiving torture scenes of Christ that include a whipping, a bloody crown of thorns, and the agonizing, unsparing crucifixion itself with nails driven into hands and feet, in Mel Gibson's popular version of the final twelve hours of Jesus Christ's life (in Aramaic and Latin with English subtitles)
Pat and Mike (1952)	The scene of Spencer Tracy (as sports promoter Mike Conovan) telling Katharine Hepburn (as outdoorsy athlete and college phys-ed instructor Pat Pemberton): "A lady athlete properly handled - always a market...I don't think you've ever been properly handled" and her retort: "That's right, not even by myself" - and then his commenting about her figure as she walked away across a golf course green: "Nicely packed that kid...There's not much meat on 'er, but what's there is cherce", and their concluding decision to get married: "Together, we can lick 'em all", in director George Cukor's sports romantic comedy
Paths of Glory (1957)	The tracking shot as WWI French commander Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) walks through the trenches; the authentic battle scenes and devastating suicidal attack on the Ant Hill ordered by Gen. Paul Mireau (George Macready); the courtmartial trial scene in the chateau; the march of the scapegoated soldiers toward the firing squad-execution scene; and the final tavern scene in which a captured blonde German girl (Susanne Christian in the credits) sings for French soldiers and the look on their faces as they first humiliate her, and then soften, listen empathically and understand her pain, in Stanley Kubrick's pacifist war film