Turnbull and Don Cardi, you mean it? I really came up with an original topic? I'm so proud of myself. "Original thinking" is not an attribute usually associated with me. (Heck, there are times when "thinking" isn't even associated with me. )

Before I start getting too smug, I'll contribute mine:

Godfather I - the deserted hospital, after Vito's bed has been moved. We hear the amplified echo of footsteps coming up the stairs (and there lots of steps, which draws out the segment even more). Michael is tensely watching behind a door, barely showing his face. The first time I saw this, I held my breath the whole time. didn't know who the heck was coming up those stairs; and it wasn't until Enzo identified himself that I could exhale.

Godfather I - My second choice is everything else about the hospital scene. Not only was the hospital devoid of people, which is strange enough, but the scene also suggested that it had been abruptly abandoned, as if workers were so frightened they fled their posts in mid-activity: witness the partially eaten sandwich, the messy paperwork, the skipped record playing the word "tonight" over and over again. It was like The Twilight Zone. Then FFC channels Hitchcock with a shadowy, overhead shot of Michael running down the empty hallway in a panic to reach his father's room. THEN he's still not finished toying with us: the lone nurse abruptly breaks the silence. (And wasn't she scary -- all white and starched like an avenging angel, or a ghost.) And then there's that tense scene outside with Enzo, and we see Enzo's shaking hands. That's one scary hospital.

Godfather I - What can I say about the baptism scene? The organ accompaniment, the voiceover intoned in Latin, the dimness of the church all spell foreboding. We just know that the end is near for some blissfully unaware people. That eerie organ music nails it. The cross-cutting between scenes of sacredness and evil give the proceedings a sense of cosmic ritual. Brilliantly conceived and executed from start to finish.

Godfather I - The dinner with Sollozzo and McCluskey. Here the tension from anticipation, the relative emptiness of the restaurant, and selective sounds make the scene spooky. FFC almost employs an "echo" effect to ordinarily quiet sounds to emphasize a "pin-drop" atmosphere: the ch*nk of cutlery, the softly spoken dialogue, the tap of shoes on tile... By the time we hear the rumbling of the train, FFC has built it up to a crescendo. We know what Michael plans to do, but will he do it? Until the moment he pulls his gun out, we question our own senses. Are we hearing a train outside? Or is what we're hearing the pounding of blood in Michael's temples?

... and I haven't even started on Godfather II yet. I'll save it for my next post...