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Here are five great unscripted scenes that our movie memories couldn’t do without.
1. Beginning a beautiful friendship
Perhaps no movie has as many famous one-liners as Casablanca (1942). But they weren’t all the work of screenwriters Julius J Epstein, Philip G Epstein and Howard Koch (who deservedly won an Oscar for their work). Based on Murray Burnett and Joan Allison’s unproduced play Everybody Goes to Rick’s, the script was written in a hurry, and was still going through rewrites when filming commenced. As a result, some of the best lines were improvised. “Here’s looking at you, kid,” Humphrey Bogart’s farewell line to Ingrid Bergman, was a popular quote in the 1930s. Bogart ad-libbed it while filming Casablanca, and it worked so well that was used twice. In 2007, Premiere magazine named it the best greatest-ever movie line. Bogart’s final line, however, was created just for the film. Who can forget that last shot, as Rick (Bogart) and Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains) walk away, planning to escape Casablanca after assisting in a noble cause. “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” says Rick. The line was created by producer Hal B. Wallis, and dubbed by Bogart after filming was completed.
2. Indy vs. the Swordsman
In one of the coolest and most memorable scenes of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), ready for action, is confronted by an evil-looking swordsman. Rather than engage him in hand-to hand combat, he gives the swordsman a tired, “you must be joking” expression, pulls out his gun and casually shoots him. This funny and clever moment, filmed in Tunisia, might never have happened if Ford and most of the crew weren’t suffering from food poisoning. Initially, Indy was supposed to defeat the swordsman in an extended fight sequence, using his famous whip. However, as he was so ill, the scene just wasn’t working. Instead, director Steven Spielberg allowed him to dispose of his foe in this simpler, but no less effective method. The tired look on Indy’s face, of course, was utterly real.
3. “You ain’t heard nothing yet!”
Warner Brothers’ The Jazz Singer, immortalized as the first-ever talking picture, was basically a silent film, with just a few moments of synchronised sound. The audio was mainly just a few opportunities for the star, Al Jolson, to sing hit songs like My Mammy and Blue Skies (later a hit for Willie Nelson). The small amount of dialogue was ad-libbed by Jolson and Eugenie Besserer (who played his mother – or his “mammy”). Jolson spoke a grand total of 281 words in the film, and the most memorable line was his final one: “Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain’t heard nothing yet!” It was a prophetic quote, and more than 70 years later, it would earn a place in the American Film Institute’s list of the greatest movie lines. Because Jolson’s line was so off-the-cuff, it might have been removed from the final cut if Sam Warner, the driving force behind talking pictures, had not insisted that it stay. Sadly, Warner died of a sinus infection a day before the film’s release, meaning that he would never witness it making history.
4. The Odessa Steps Massacre
One of the most famous and powerful scenes in movie history, still harrowing after 84 years, showed Tsarist troops slaughtering Russian civilians at the port of Odessa during an unsuccessful 1905 revolution. It was part of Bronenosets Potemkin (1925), known to English-speakers as Battleship Potemkin (or simply Potemkin), commissioned by the Bolskevik authorities to a young filmmaker, Sergei Eisenstein, to fill the public with revolutionary zeal. The sequence originally it took up only three pages of a huge screenplay called The Year 1905 by Nina Agadzhavana-Shutko, a veteran of the 1905 revolution. It was conceived as an eight-part epic, with action taking place at locations around the Soviet Union, but the shooting was interrupted by bad weather (it was winter), making it impossible to meet the deadline. While in Odessa, however, Eisenstein decided to focus on one incident: the mutiny by sailors, and the subsequent massacre of civilians who supported them on the steps at Odessa. To increase the power of the scene, Eisenstein invented “montage”, editing numerous images in a vigorous and dynamic way. Soldiers inhumanly mow down the civilians; people are shot through the head (in close-up); crowds panic, trampling each other; and (most suspensefully) a mother loses control of her baby’s pram, which bounces down the steps before eventually overturning. It’s one of the most influential, imitated (most famously in The Godfather and The Untouchables) movie scenes, but it might have never happened if the weather had been better.
5. The Dance of Death
Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 masterpiece Det Sjunde Inseglet (The Seventh Seal) is set in medieval Sweden, ravaged by the black plague, where a knight returning from the Crusades (Max von Sydow) challenges Death (Bengt Ekerot) to a game of chess. Inevitably, the knight loses in the end. In one of the final scenes, he and five other characters are led away by Death, in the eerie “Dance of Death” sequence, shot against an ominous, cloudy background as the sun prepares to set. This very famous moment wasn’t in Bergman’s original script (or in his play, on which it was based), but added at the end of the day’s filming, when he noticed the visual effect of the clouds. Showing the doomed “dancers” in silhouette makes for a powerful image, but it was also a practical one. Most of the actors had already gone home, so Bergman arranged some technicians and nearby tourists to throw on the costumes as stand-ins. To the tourists, this must have been a real buzz. Spontaneously appearing in a movie is cool, but appearing in one of the greatest scenes of movie history must have been an incredible thrill.
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Comments (37)
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Leia: “I love you.”
Han: “I know.”
posted by Steve on 4-3-2009 at 11:21 am
Star Wars. The Empire Strikes Back. Han is about to be frozen in carbonite.
Leia: “I love you.”
Han: “I know.”
There’s controversy over whether it was ad-libbed or discussed, but it certainly wasn’t in the script.
posted by Justine on 4-3-2009 at 11:23 am
In the long (but wonderful) documentary that came out with the old series on DVD they said that it was originally, “I love you, too”, but Ford said it wasn’t working and that they were going back and forth- then the director (or somebody) said, “Just go with it.” And the very cool, “I know.” was what popped out.
posted by Jo on 4-3-2009 at 12:12 pm
How about Robert De Niro’s famous ‘You talking to me’ ad lib in Taxi Driver? According to IMDB, “the screenplay details just said, ‘Travis looks in the mirror.’”
posted by Sunil on 4-3-2009 at 12:45 pm
Another one is “We’re going to need a bigger boat” from Jaws.
posted by christian on 4-3-2009 at 12:50 pm
If I’m not mistaken, the whole 40-Year Old Virgin “you know how I know you’re gay” scene was improvised as well.The funniest is the one in the deleted scenes,it goes a little something like this:
“You know how I know you’re gay?You shave your [butt].”
“You know how I know you’re gay?You shave my [butt]!”
posted by nikky on 4-3-2009 at 12:52 pm
I’m pretty sure that the shooting scene was “The Last Crusade” not “Raiders of the Lost Ark”
posted by NateJ on 4-3-2009 at 12:53 pm
The original scene discussed was in “Raiders” but was reproduced in some form or fashion in the following films.
posted by BeauD on 4-3-2009 at 1:03 pm
No, the shooting scene WAS in Raiders.
posted by Harold on 4-3-2009 at 1:12 pm
The shooting scene is in Raiders of the lost arc. It happens when Indy is looking for Marian.
posted by Lulu on 4-3-2009 at 1:15 pm
@NateJ: Nope, that shooting scene was in “Raiders”
posted by philth on 4-3-2009 at 1:25 pm
Sorry Nate, you’d be wrong. The scene described above was in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
posted by Mari on 4-3-2009 at 1:33 pm
Superb!
For us Swedish people The Seventh Seal contains lots of famous lines.
Like when the knight encounters death for the first time:
Knight: Vem är du? (Who are you?)
Death: Jag är döden…(I am death…)
Knight: Har du kommit för att hämta mig? (Have you come to get me?)
Death: Jag har redan länge gått vid din sida… (I have since long walked by your side…)
Bengt Ekerot is the best death ever on film I believe!
posted by Jonas Nordin on 4-3-2009 at 1:36 pm
It was in Raiders…
posted by Jonas Nordin on 4-3-2009 at 1:39 pm
And I’m flat-out positive you’re wrong, NateJ.
posted by Skewicide Blonde on 4-3-2009 at 1:41 pm
NateJ
I’m pretty sure you’re wrong.
posted by 8rustystaples on 4-3-2009 at 2:04 pm
I’ve read that James Caan’s “Bada Bing!” in Godfather was ad-libbed.
posted by Southpaw Jones on 4-3-2009 at 2:10 pm
“We’re going to need a bigger boat”
posted by Christian on 4-3-2009 at 2:10 pm
Love the dogpile on NateJ!
posted by Johnny Cat on 4-3-2009 at 3:27 pm
i hear its actually from “Raiders”
posted by tiffany on 4-3-2009 at 4:37 pm
“I’m walkin’ here!”
DeNiro was actually almost hit by the car, and stayed in character, and it was one of that films most memorable lines!
posted by Ben on 4-3-2009 at 4:45 pm
Dustin Hoffman’s “Hey, I’m walkin’ here” from Midnight Cowboy was also an ad lib. The taxi that nearly hit him was not part of the movie or in the script; it was just a taxi driver going through the set. Dustin, in character, made it up on the spot
posted by Michael on 4-3-2009 at 5:18 pm
Regarding the Raiders arguement, one of the other movies includes a scene with two swordsman confronting Ford. He gets the same look on his face and reaches for his pistol, only to find it missing. He gives them a look and start to fight them.
posted by Michael on 4-3-2009 at 5:22 pm
Bill Murray ad-libbed the entire “golfing” scene with the scythe and flowers in Caddyshack. The script said something like “Carl is whacking the tops off the flowers and talking to himself”.
“Cindarella story…this young man, from out of nowhere…Oh, he got ALL of that one!”…ad-libbed by Murray!
posted by Richard Dixon on 4-3-2009 at 5:54 pm
In pretty woman when he’s about to give her the necklace, he snaps it down and you can see Julia Roberts looking around at the crew.
posted by Nobody on 4-3-2009 at 7:02 pm
“It’s not the years, honey, it’s the mileage.”- Indiana Jones, “Raiders of the Lost Ark”
This is easily my favorite Harrison Ford ad-lib. It takes place when Marion (Karen Allen) is frustrated in her attempts to woo/nurse the very banged-up Indy on Katanga’s ship.
posted by Valkyrie on 4-3-2009 at 9:22 pm
I’m not entirely sure what you mean by “off-the-cuff” when referring to Jolson’s line of “Wait a minute, wait a minute…”. This was an extremely common saying for Jolson, and was used to let the audience know he was going to sing additional songs when he was still doing vaudeville as early as the 1910s.
Another funny, at least, moment of adlib is in “When Harry Met Sally” when they are in the museum and Billy Crystal says “I have decided for the rest of the day we are going to talk like this” in that odd voice. You can see Meg Ryan look over to the director, Rob Reiner to see what she should do.
Always liked that one.
posted by john m on 4-3-2009 at 9:36 pm
john m: When Harry Met Sally is my favorite unscripted movie part. “Pecaaan Piiie.” :)
posted by Tricia on 4-4-2009 at 4:44 pm
Don’t be so down on Nate, They basically recreate the scene in “The Last Crusade”, but when Indy smirks and goes for his gun… His holster’s empty, he’s lost it!
One of my favorite parts of that movie.
posted by stephny on 4-5-2009 at 8:27 am
I think it’s hilarious when people like NateJ have the nerve to call an article on a perceived mistake, when they themselves have no clue.
Really Lulu? arc? Come on.
What would the lost arc be? I bet it has something to do with either a pot of gold or a bowl of frosted lucky charms.
posted by Jeremy on 4-8-2009 at 2:35 pm
Could also be a physical structure…you know, like the Arc de Triomphe. But I’m pretty sure that’s not lost.
posted by Kate H. on 4-9-2009 at 12:43 am
In “His Girl Friday” (1940), Cary Grant ad-libbed the line: “Listen- the last man that said that to me was Archie Leach, just a week before he cut his throat.” Grant’s real name was Archibald Leach.
____________________________
In “Bringing Up Baby” (1938) was directed by Howard Hawks and starred Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn.
In one scene, Hepburn loses the heel on one of her shoes. Without breaking character, she ad-libbed: “Oh, look, David, I’ve lost my heel. I’ve lost my heel. Look at me walk. I was born on the side of a hill. I was born on the side of a hill,” as she walks with an exaggerated gait.
Hawks was able to capture it on film because all of the talent on his pictures, both on-screen and off, were instructed to work through a scene regardless of whatever script variations might occur while the cameras were rolling.
posted by Haley on 4-9-2009 at 2:10 am
Another good one is from “It’s a Wonderful Life”- it’s late and George is walking out with Uncle Billy. Uncle Billy goes offscreen, and you hear a crash of what sounds like trashcans. Uncle Billy says “I’m alright” and the scene ends.
What actually happened was that a stage hand accidentally knocked some equipment over, and Thomas Mitchell ad-libbed his line to save the scene.
posted by Bill on 4-9-2009 at 8:22 am
The name of the play from which Casablanca was derived was called EVERYBODY COMES TO RICK’S (not “goes” as listed in this article), and it was produced twice…once on London’s West End (where it was panned and quickly closed) and once at a small liberal arts university in VA (where it was very warmly received.)
posted by F Fredd on 4-9-2009 at 8:40 am
“Raiders of the Lost Ark” does not refer to an “arc.” The ark in question was the Ark of the Covenant that the Jews carried through the desert on their way to Canaan (the promised land). God was “present” in the ark and, therefore, this was a very sacred and dangerous artifact. No one was supposed to touch it. That’s why at the end of the movie the Nazi’s are annihilated. They dared to touch the ark of God.
posted by Doña on 4-9-2009 at 11:41 pm
Of course Dona. I’ll take my tongue out of my cheek now.
If you look back, you’ll recognize my mockery of Lulu’s use of “arc” when of course we know that it is the Ark of the Covenant that is referred to in the movie. Actually, you’ll notice that the Nazis in the film, contrary to Biblical accounts of others who even accidentally touch the Ark, were not killed because they “dared to touch” it. They actually get the ark open. According to the Bible, even touching the ark was enough to be a death sentence. But I guess that wouldn’t be as Hollywood-dramatic as a flaming whirlwind erupting from the Ark and melting the Nazis into lumps of smoking jelly.
posted by jeremy on 4-10-2009 at 1:39 pm
Wow great post. Being a classic movie buff, I love film trivia. I did know the one about Casablanca, as its one of my favorite movies. I even have the original movie poster for Casablanca hanging in my den.
Ralph DeLuca
Madison, NJ
posted by Ralph DeLuca on 4-12-2009 at 11:16 am