SCREAMING SERVICE

Check out my short review of Baz Luhrmann's EPIC: Elvis Presley in Concert...

...online at Phoenix Magazine.

The weekend's other big theatrical release, Scream 7...

...was not screened for critics before release, at least not in the Phoenix area. Make of that what you will. In lieu of a review, therefore, here are seven great movie screams [spoilers throughout!]:

I'm aware, of course, that any or all of these screams may have been partially or entirely the work of a clever sound designer; the first two listed below certainly are. But that's the magic of the movies, right? The point is, they're effective.

7. The Wilhelm Scream--Originally created for a scene of Sheb Wooley being attacked by an alligator in the 1951 Florida-set period adventure Distant Drums, this scream earned its moniker when it was looped, rather unconvincingly, as the scream of a "Private Wilhelm" in the 1953 western The Charge at Feather River. The shriek of shock and dismay has been used dozens if not hundreds of times thereafter, in movies ranging from the original Star Wars to Toy Story. It's particularly effective with characters falling from high places.

6. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)--Like the Wilhelm Scream, this one is also studio-generated, but unlike the Wilhelm Scream, it's not even of human origin. It's the screech of revulsion let out by a soulless pod person when they recognize, and point out to their pod brethren, an unsnatched human. Legendary sound designer Ben Burtt, a popularizer of the Wilhelm Scream, created the effect for Philip Kaufman's classic '70s-era remake of the 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, using the squeal of a pig. It chillingly distills the sense of being identified, and publicly denounced, for being out of sync with the masses.

5. Them!--Few who have seen the 1954 sci-fi masterpiece by Gordon Douglas about giant ants are likely to forget the moment: The catatonic little girl (Sandy Descher) found wandering in the New Mexico desert gets her memory jogged by a whiff of formic acid, and lets out a cry of horror followed by repeated screams of "Them! Them! Them!"

4. The Godfather (1972)--The scream to which I'm referring in this one comes when John Marley gets Marlon Brando's famous offer he can't refuse, waking up to the severed head of his beloved horse in bed with him. It was Marley's iconic moment onscreen; his wails somehow get across not only terror but a palpable despair, at the evil with which he's confronted, and his powerlessness against it.

3. Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)--When Bette Davis sees a grinning, dripping Joseph Cotten risen from the swamp, bedecked with mud and Spanish moss, her strangled, barking screams really do sound like somebody at long last taking grateful leave of their sanity.

2. Psycho (1960)--In the shower scene of Hitchcock's 1960 classic, Janet Leigh begins the family tradition which her daughter Jamie Lee Curtis would carry on in 1978's Halloween and other films: a full-throated, full-screen scream of the highest order. But...

...I would argue the scream that Vera Miles lets out near the end of the same movie, when she at last meets Mrs. Bates face to face, is at least as good. Both are greatly abetted, of course, by the musical shrieks of Bernard Hermann's strings.

1. King Kong (1933)--Can there really be any question of first place? The very name "Fay Wray" evokes the gold standard in "scream." Not only did Wray scream the best, she probably screamed the most, from her first meeting with the title simian to his Waterloo atop the Empire State Building.

Of course I realize that this is very far from a definitive list; these are just seven that occurred to me. What obvious candidates have I forgotten? Feel free to scream at me.

POP CULTURE

If Dad’s the sort who would prefer staying home and a watching a movie over putting on his new tie and going out to dinner, here are a few suggestions for a Father’s Day film festival. All are on DVD:

To Kill a Mockingbird—The signature role of Gregory Peck’s career was Atticus Finch, the small-town lawyer and single father who parented by example, eschewing violence while displaying quiet courage, and keeping vigil over those he cared about. Many people probably got their prototype for the ideal father from Robert Mulligan’s 1962 adaptation of Harper Lee’s novel.

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner—It’s easy now to dismiss as dated this topical comedy about a father—an upper-middle-class white liberal—caught off-guard by his daughter’s black fiancé (Sidney Poitier). But it wasn’t such a little thing for a mainstream, big-studio movie to take on in 1967. Besides, the movie contains the final performance of the original Father of the Bride, the great Spencer Tracy, who died less than three weeks after it was completed, and a beautiful, direct piece of acting it is.

Nobody’s Fool—In this 1994 adaptation of Richard Russo’s novel, Paul Newman had the triumph of his late career as, in a sense, the anti-Atticus: Donald “Sully” Sullivan, a handyman in a small town in upstate New York, an absentee father trying to make things up to his own son by being a presence in his grandson’s life. This comedy-drama, directed by Robert Benton, is rich in eccentric characters and lively, touching dialogue, and in addition to one of Newman’s best creations, it contains a wonderful swansong performance by Jessica Tandy.

The Rookie—This easygoing 2002 inspirational drama is about high school science teacher and baseball coach Jimmy Morris, who made his debut as a relief pitcher in the Majors at the age of 35. But much of the film is focused on Morris as a father, schlepping his adoring little son (Angus T. Jones) and baby daughter around with him, and surrogate-fathering the kids on his baseball team. We’re also shown Morris’s attempts to connect with his own distant father, played by the always-superb Brian Cox.

The Godfather—In this 1972 film and its 1974 sequel, The Godfather, Part II, we’re carefully and persuasively shown how Vito Corleone’s criminal empire grows out of his attempts to be a good father; we’re also shown how these pure intentions become corrupted, especially in his son Michael (Al Pacino). These are American masterpieces.

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back—“No Luke, I am your father…” In this, the 1980 pinnacle of the Star Wars series, Darth Vader was established as arguably the most mythic father figure in all movies, and one of the darkest. Over the course of the six films, the character passes from youthful innocence to the depths of evil to a last-minute redemption, and reminds us that fathers are human, and that sometimes they teach us by showing us what not to do, and who not to be.