On Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:36:25 -0500, notbob > wrote:

>On 2007-07-19, blake murphy > wrote:
>
>> the greatest movie fight scenes of all time, a one-armed spencer tracy
>> whips the shit out of ernest borgnine.
>
>I wouldn't go so far as to say "greatest". Actually, I thought it was
>pretty silly. I remember it vividly because Tracy used that tired old
>50's cliche, the "judo chop". Open handed blow delivered with edge of
>hand to back of neck. No spin kicks, no head butts, no crouched
>ritual stance, just the lone judo chop delivered in a single deft flat
>footed motion. The judo chop was a deadly blow oringinating in the
>mysterious East and could kill or at least render helpless any foe
>that was unlucky enough to suffer it. This was all the rage in so
>many films both on tv and the movies of that era and preceded real
>martial arts in American film fiction. Even little kids, I being one
>at the time, regularly included it in their make-believe repertoire.
>But, after years of Lee's and Li's and other sophisticated martial
>arts chop-socky, this silly old bit was long forgotten by me until I
>saw that movie about 3 yrs ago. I was stunned by the memory of it.
>Whatta hoot. Other than that, I agree, it was a good movie.
>
>nb

i dunno, i like it. putting ernie through the screen door was a good
touch, i thought.

your pal,
blake