Black Christmas [1974]
1. CU hockey mask.
2. “It’s a new exchange.”
3. He grabs her by the hair.
The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek [1943]
1. Walking through the screen door.
2. Zipperpuss.
3. She replies at lightning speed, while stuttering: “K-O-C-K-E-N-L-O-C-K-E-R.”
The Laundromat [2019]
1. Cows and bananas. The way Gary Oldman pronounces “bananas.”
2. It’s all shells.
3. Statue of Liberty with a hairbrush.
Batman Returns [1992]
1. What is Jan Hooks doing in this movie? I don’t know, but for about 45 seconds while she’s onscreen everything comes alive.
2. In neon, HELL HERE.
3. Penguin pallbearers.
Blech.
The Petrified Forest [1936]
1. “Joseph, let us see if their car will function.”
2. Two black men share a moment at the bar.
3. Intimate kiss under the table.
The Wizard of Oz [1939]
1. Farmland just outside Emerald City.
2. Musical quotation from “A Night on Bald Mountain.”
3. “Silence, whippersnapper!”
Murder on the Orient Express [1974]
1. Very, very heavy gray makeup.
2. Long take Ingrid. (A golden choice: I meant, why would you want to cut away?)
3. Biting his nails.
Three on a Match [1932]
1. “I can tell you’re a real woman. Not one of those stuffed brassieres you see on Park Avenue.”
2. Bette Davis in a “bathing costume.”
3. A truly shocking death. The discovery of a warning written in lipstick on her dress.
City That Never Sleeps [1953]
1. “Come over here,” she says seductively.
“I’ve been there,” he replies.
2. Long fter midnight. Mechanical Man performing in a storefront window to an empty street.
3. Beware the third rail.
