You can’t beat an action moment

TIME for a little self-indulgence this week. Something I’ve always wanted to do is to appear on one of those programmes where they ask you for your top 10 film moments.

Now, you probably know by now that I see films as entertainment. I have no time for any arty-farty stuff. I don’t want messages.

Having seen close relatives suffer Alzheimer’s and cancer I have absolutely no idea why anyone would want to pay a fiver to watch a film about such things.

I just want 90 minutes in the pictures and to come out feeling good . . . though realistically-priced refreshments would help too. Do they dip the popcorn in gold? How can something that is so cheap in a supermarket be so dear at the flicks?

But I digress. Here are my top 10 film moments, in no particular order:

1 The saloon fight in “Dodge City”. Guinn “Big Boy” Williams leads the way in a riot of fun.

2 The duel between Basil Rathbone and Tyrone Power in “The Mark of Zorro”. Rathbone slashes a candle in half, then Zorro copies the action but seems to miss — only to pick up the top half of his candle which has stayed in place.

3 William Bendix, Bing Crosby and Cedric Hardwicke singing “Busy Doing Nothing” in “A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court”.

4 The last frame of “Some Like It Hot”, when Joe E Brown proposes to Jack Lemmon (who is in drag). After a variety of excuses fails, Lemmon rips off his wig and admits to being a man. Brown replies: “Well, nobody’s perfect”.

5 “True Grit” where Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne) tells the baddies he will kill them or they will hang. “That’s mighty fine talk for a one-eyed, pot-bellied fat man,” comes the reply. An angry Duke rides into action.

6 Fred Astaire dancing to “Steppin’ Out With My Baby” in “Easter Parade”. The sequence, in which he goes into slow motion while the background dancers stay at normal speed is a superb piece of Hollywood.

7 Ursula Andress appearing out of the surf in that white bikini in “Dr No”. Nuff said.

8 The camel spitting in Bob Hope’s eye in “Road to Morocco”. Bing Crosby dissolves into laughter.

9 Bob Hope in bed with Trigger in “Son of Paleface”. Absolutely hilarious.

And my favourite moment? The duel between Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone at the end of “Robin Hood”. For me that’s the best film ever made.