Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Great scene

Here's a fine bit of late 60's cinema, courtesy of Director George Roy Hill - a tense-yet-funny scene from "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."



Recognize the big, knife-wielding guy? Why it's none other than Ted Cassidy, who played "Lurch" on "The Addams Family." I stumbled upon this because my wife sent me an article about Lou Ferrigno that mentioned Ted Cassidy doing the 'voice' of the Hulk (more of a growl, really) on "The Incredible Hulk" TV show, as well as the narration during the opening credits that had that speedy piano chord behind it ("Dr. David Banner: physician; scientist. Searching for a way to tap into the hidden strengths that all humans have. Then an accidental overdose of gamma radiation alters his body chemistry. And now when David Banner grows angry or outraged, a startling metamorphosis occurs...."). As you can see from this clip, Ted definitely had some acting chops. He really played the scene nicely.

Another thing I really like about this clip is that Cassidy did the classic George Kennedy technique of slowly taking off his shirt while still talking, thus striking fear into the heart of your opponent. It's a simple formula: If you take your shirt off while talking, you mean business.

A lot of people angrily tear their shirts off these days, which is both obvious and lame (I blame 80's-era Hulk Hogan for this). Plus, you ruin your shirt. Slowly and calmly unbuttoning it is the way to go. It displays a calm and confidence that is guaranteed to make the other guy wet his pants. Try it at your next big meeting, and watch clients fall in line.

Oh yeah - here's a nice still shot of Newman's kick to Cassidy's groin. Should make a nice wallpaper for your laptop:

3 comments:

RGame said...

I always loved that movie, and one of my favorite lines is the one that ends the clip. You ever notice that by the time Sundance says "One, two, three, go" that Butch should have been too far away to punch the big doofis right away?

Blogfoot said...

The magic of editing prevails yet again. It's what saved "Jaws."

James Baker said...

This scene reminds me of a story I heard, told me by my friend MIKE.

A friend of Mike's was at a party and got into an altercation with some Frat-boy types who said "let's take this outside!" Mike's pal agreed and they all head towards the the lawn at the front of the house.

On the way there, the frat boys each took off their jackets and Mike's pal took off his jacket too, plus every other stitch of clothing and confronted his foes on the lawn in a crazy fighting stance yelling "You are all about to get your asses kicked by a naked dude!"

All the frat boys backed down and left the party, because anyone can see it is a lose/lose proposition to tussle with a naked dude. Even if you "win" you'd feel dirty.

I love that story. It would break my spirit if someone proved to me it wasn't true. Verily, I would have to get naked and fight that person.