« Previous Post | Main | Next Post »

Last week's Movie Quiz winners

Filed under: Imported

What we got here is a failure to regurgitate-- the egg-eating scene from Cool Hand Luke.

While last week's quiz movie wasn't in his "H" series (Hud, Hombre, Harper), Cool Hand Luke is still in the top group of Paul Newman's most memorable characters, and from the period when he could do little wrong. (It was released in 1967, right after Hombre.) Funny and grim at the same time, the film features one of his best performances as a poor devil who gets sent to a Southern prison for vandalizing parking meters and refuses to let the place break him.

The film also had an ensemble cast second to none. While everyone remembers George Kennedy and the immortal Strother Martin, whose nasal drawl gave the film's most memorable line about communication its resonance, Newman's chain-gang buddies also included Dennis Hopper, Harry Dean Stanton, Wayne Rogers, Anthony Zerbe and Joe Don Baker, just to name a handful. Maybe best of all was Morgan Woodward as the silent, menacing Boss Godfrey, a character (and actor) who was scary even when he didn't move.

Newman made the news recently when he announced that he was retiring. (Then again, maybe he's not.) As hard as it is to believe that he's now 80, it's still going to be a sad day for movie fans if and when he finally does. Good as Cool Hand Luke is-- and it hardly looks its age, either-- it's only one of many of his films that pass the test of time. It's hard to think of any movie star who's made as many first-rate movies as he has over so long a time-period. Every now and then, an artist comes along whose work pleases almost everybody, and Paul Newman is definitely one.

So congratulations and 50 hard-boiled eggs to last week's quiz winners: Wayne A. Palmer, Corey Anderson, Steve Perry, Evan Cook, E. Yarber (welcome back!), Hank Parmer and Grandpa Joe Rosenberg. Thanks to all for playing, as always.

Posted by Steve Monaco at April 11, 2005 11:43 PM

« Happy belated birthday to Roger Corman! | Main | The Monday Movie Quiz #54 »