The Sheila Variations

"He used to be a big shot."

Great still from a great scene.

I think it's one of the best death scenes ever filmed, at least in the top 5 - and if you've seen it - you'll know why. It's a long drawn-out run - all one take - almost balletic - Cagney running and tripping and swooning up and down the steps - it's incredible. Not just the shot itself - but his athleticism, his control of how his body moves, his ability to fling himself into the reality of the moment. It never fails to stun me.

Peter Bogdonavich interviewed James Cagney, hung out with him a couple of times and had this to say about Cagney and death scenes:

One of the guests asked how he had developed his habit of physically drawn-out death scenes, probably the best coming at the conclusion of The Roaring Twenties, where he runs (in one long continuous shot) along an entire city block, and halfway up, then halfway down, the stairs in front of a church before finally sprawling dead onto them. In answer, Cagney described a Frank Buck documentary he'd once seen, in which the hunter was forced to kill a giant gorilla. The animal died in a slow, "amazed way," Cagney said, which gave him the inspiration, and which he played out for us in a few riveting moments of mime.

The animal died in a slow amazed way.

Wow.

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