Last spring, the inaugural round of Screengrab’s Famous Last Words was so competitive that a runoff that ended up lasting nearly a month was required to determine the winners. Thus, when I discovered that this current round would also require a tiebreaker, I began to get anxious. However, only one week was required to whittle the list of contenders down to three. So congratulations to this round’s champs...

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Last week, Screengrab was abuzz with April Fool’s Day gags and hoaxes, and I decided that Famous Last Words needed to get in on the act as well. And what better way than to quote one of the most renowned and prolific pranksters of recent decades, my fellow Ohio State alum Alan Abel? Perhaps his most famous hoax was his creation of the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals (SINA), an organization that advocated for protecting the modesty of beasts both wild and tame by clothing them. Along with a then-largely unknown Buck Henry, Abel made several appearances on The Tonight Show on behalf of the group, and eventually took the group to the big screen in the film No More Excuses, directed by Robert Downey Sr. [a prince], and the source of last week's quote.

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Ever since it played at Toronto back in 2007, I’ve been raving about the latest film by Jacques Rivette, Ne touchez pas la hache- released in the States as The Duchess of Langeais- the source of last week’s quote. Adapted from a novel by Balzac, Duchess is a chilling drama about romantic gamesmanship, taking as its lead players the titular married Duchess (Jeanne Balibar) and a hard-nosed General (the late Guillaume Depardieu), who pursues her beyond all possible reason. Set against the backdrop of nineteenth-century French society, Rivette’s film (his best in over a decade) is a story of what happens when single-minded romantic obsession faces off with strictly regimented social mores, and the fallout that can result from this conflict.

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My goal with last week’s Famous Last Words was to post something more difficult than previous weeks. And based on the low number of correct submissions, it looks like I got my wish. However, I have mixed feelings about this result, since it implies to a certain extent that relatively few of you have seen Peter Bogdanovich’s They All Laughed, the source of last week’s quote.

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In the two decades since the release of the masterful Wings of Desire (the source of last week’s quote), Wim Wenders’ career has become increasing frustrating. To all but a handful of rabidly devoted fans, films such as The End of Violence, Million Dollar Hotel and Don’t Come Knocking feel more like middling festival bait than the work of one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of the 1980s. But regardless of your feelings on Wenders’ recent work, it’s hard to deny the brilliance of his early and mid-period films, particularly the eighties twofer of his Palme d’Or winner Paris, Texas and Wings, his poetic follow-up.

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A favorite of my fellow Screengrabber Vadim Rizov, Yi Yi: A One and a Two… (the source of last week’s quote), was the final film by the late, great Edward Yang. Yang, a major figure in the Taiwanese film movement of the eighties and nineties, passed away in 2007 before his proposed animated collaboration with Jackie Chan (talk about an intriguing combination) could come to fruition. Nonetheless, he left behind him a fascinating body of work, of which Yi Yi was the most widely seen by American audiences.

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The 2007 passing of talk show host and entertainment mogul Merv Griffin also brought to an end the decades-long string of killings committed by Griffin who, in his own words, “always just loved to kill.” For a quarter of a century, the most famous cinematic account of Griffin’s crimes has been 1983’s The Man With Two Brains, which used the killing spree as the backdrop for a love triangle involving an eminent brain surgeon (Steve Martin), his conniving wife (Kathleen Turner), and the preserved brain (voiced by Sissy Spacek) with whom the good doctor falls in love.

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The recent hubbub over Joaquin Phoenix’s antics on David Letterman’s show have overshadowed the release of his latest, and allegedly last, acting role, in the new film Two Lovers. Two Lovers is the third collaboration between Phoenix and the talented- and beloved-in-France- filmmaker James Gray, whose last film with Phoenix, 2007’s underrated police drama We Own the Night, was the source of last week’s quiz. We Own the Night is characterized by the downbeat seventies-style tone of all Gray’s crime stories, and it contains some spellbinding moments of suspense, including a rain-soaked car chase and shootout that was my favorite scene of the year. Congrats to those who guessed it.

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One of the more intriguing of this week's DVD releases was Paul Newman's directorial debut Rachel, Rachel, as part of Warner's new "Paul Newman Series." But a less-heralded title in the series was Martin Ritt's The Outrage, a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon. However, as much as I love Newman, I have a hard time believing the film could possibly be as great as Kurosawa's original, the source of last week's film. Rashomon served as many moviegoers' introduction to Kurosawa back in the day, and even now its title has become synonymous with stories involving conflicting memories and convoluted flashbacks. Congrats to those who got it.

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I recently saw some banner ads advertising a new HBO series entitled Eastbound and Down, starring the awesome Danny McBride. So I was surprised to discover that the series focused on an ex-ballplayer turned gym teacher, instead of being an update of the 1977 Southern-fried hit Smokey and the Bandit, the source of last week’s quote, which featured a song that inspired the title of McBride’s new series.

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There’s only one person who could have not only written but also delivered last week’s Famous Last Words quote (““Sex and death- two things that come once in a lifetime. But at least after death you’re not nauseous.”) That man, of course, is Woody Allen, and the line comes from his early, funny classic Sleeper. It’s the perfect capper to one of his better straight-up comedies, an inspired futuristic pastiche that places Woody 200 years in the future, where the people are beholden to a mysterious Leader and sexual pleasure comes courtesy of The Orgasmitron (it would make an ideal double feature with Zardoz).

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I know of at least one classic movie lover who was disappointed to find that Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece Notorious- the source of last week’s quote- was in fact not given a nationwide rerelease two weekends ago. But while it may not have had the Hollywood hype machine behind it for the past few months, Hitchcock’s film (his best, in my opinion), has plenty of other things going for it- gorgeous black-and-white cinematography, a great cast, and one of the most famous kissing scenes in movie history. To say nothing of its clever storyline- a woman is pressured by the government into spying on her ex-lover- a premise so good it was lifted wholesale for use in Mission: Impossible II.

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After the e-Mail fiasco of the first week, the latest round of Famous Last Words got off to a strong start last week. And in keeping with the usual tradition of starting with an easy quote, few of you had any trouble placing the final line of the cult classic Road House. The subject of one of Onion A.V. Club critic Scott Tobias’ most memorable New Cult Canon appreciations to date, Road House is few people's idea of a good movie. Yet it’s got a cheeseball charm that has turned it into a reliable bit of cinematic comfort food.

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Last week, I posted the introductory quote from this latest round of Famous Last Words, stating that I tried to keep it easy in order to encourage as many players as possible. However, it seems that I’ve shot myself in the foot by inadvertently posted the wrong e-Mail address for you to e-Mail your guesses. The address should have been famouslastwords@nerve.com. Because of my mistake, I’m giving you another week to send me your answers to the first week’s question.

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Welcome, one and all, to the third round of Screengrab’s Famous Last Words game. Or, as I like to call it, Famous Last Words Beyond Thunderdome, presumably because I enjoy amusing myself with references to Mad Max movies. Alas, there is no Master-Blaster (pictured, right) to be found in this contest, only movie quotes, and lots of ‘em, as dozens- scores, even!- of movie lovers compete for three $25 gift certificates from The Criterion Store. If you’re new to the game, take some time to familiarize yourself with the rules and procedures of play. Then when you’re ready, check out the quote after the jump.

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Happy New Year, everybody! While you folks are still nursing your champagne hangovers, I’d like to ring in 2009 in style by announcing that precisely one week from today, everyone’s favorite Screengrab game will be triumphantly returning to this site. That’s right, Famous Last Words is back!

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Well, that wasn’t so bad, was it? Unlike last round- which required a long, drawn out series of runoff quizzes to decide its eventual winners- we were actually able to determine a trio of deserving winners in the regularly scheduled 12 weeks of quotes. So, congratulations to this round’s winners- defending champs Ben Herrera and Victor Morton and newcomer Alex E. As promised, each of them will receive a $25 gift certificate from The Criterion Store to use however they please. Kudos to the three of them…

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Last week, I posted a Trailer Review for the next Pixar production, the succinctly-titled Up. But for fans of the seamy side of cinema, the title conjures up a world alien from the family-friendly confines of Pixar, a world full of bodacious bosoms and gonzo violence. In other words, the world of Russ Meyer, whose film Up! was the source of last week’s quote.

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With only a couple weeks left in this round of Famous Last Words, I’m sure some of you are already making plans for that $25 gift certificate from The Criterion Store. But if you haven’t settled on anything yet, I’d say you could do a whole lot worse than putting it toward the indispensible Carl Theodor Dreyer box set. The set includes DVDs of Dreyer’s last three features- Day of Wrath, Gertrud, and Ordet, the last of which was the source of last week’s quote. In addition, it also contains a feature-length documentary, Carl Theodor Dreyer: My Metier, about the Danish master’s life and work. Truly a must for any self-respecting cinephile’s collection, in my opinion. As for Ordet, I believe it's Dreyer's late-period masterpiece, second only to The Passion of Joan of Arc among his films. Congrats to those who got it.

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A few months ago, The Criterion Collection officially announced their upcoming release of three films from the great Max Ophüls. But while I was excited by the news, my enthusiasm was tempered when I saw that my favorite Ophüls film- 1948’s Letter From An Unknown Woman, the source of last week’s quiz- would not be among the films released on DVD. Given Criterion’s track record, I imagine they’ll release the film sooner or later, but until that happens, Letter will remain near the top of my list of films that are sadly missing from DVD. Frankly, that’s sort of a tragedy, considering that Ophüls’ trademark silky-smooth camera movements and high-contrast cinematography aren’t remotely done justice by VHS. Still, Letter is a weepie for the ages no matter what the format. Congrats to those who got it.

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I could almost hear the joyful noise coming from my Screengrab colleague Leonard Pierce due to my selection of last week’s Famous Last Words quote. The line came from William Peter Blatty’s irresistibly nutzoid The Ninth Configuration, a favorite of Leonard’s that he takes every opportunity he can to shoehorn into our weekly lists. Sadly, very few of the Screengrab readers appear to share Leonard’s enthusiasm for Blatty’s directorial debut, and that’s a shame.

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With the baseball season in full swing and the pennant races beginning to heat up, I figured it was as good a time as any to post a quote from a baseball movie here at Famous Last Words. Last week’s quote was taken from John Hancock’s 1973 film Bang the Drum Slowly, which despite its dying-teammate storyline isn’t so much a weepie as a movie about the dynamic of a team over the course of a season. Featuring a young Robert DeNiro as the slow-witted catcher who mostly catches flak from his teammates, along with Michael Moriarty and an Oscar-nominated Vincent Gardenia, Bang the Drum Slowly holds up surprisingly well after three decades, without succumbing to many of the more formulaic tendencies of most sports movies. Congrats to those who got it.

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I’ll say this for Jean-Luc Godard- he always manages to be divisive. Last week’s quote was taken from the ending of Godard’s 1965 lark Pierrot le Fou, and while some contestants had no trouble guessing the source of the quote- one player even went so far as to call it the easiest quiz yet- others had considerably more difficulty. Perhaps this is due to the film not being made in English- after all, it’s not like you can simply hear those lines in your head, right? Or maybe it was just hard to remember anything that followed Jean-Pierre Belmondo’s explosive final scene. Either way, congrats to those who guessed it.

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To look at Spencer Tracy now, you wouldn’t have thought that he could have been convincing as a badass, particularly once he had passed middle age. But anyone who’s seen John Sturges’ Bad Day at Black Rock- the source of last week’s quiz- might beg to differ. After arriving mysteriously on sunny day on the Streamliner, Tracy proceeds to clean up the most rotten town in the West, doling out one-armed ass-beatings to anyone who stands in his way. It’s a hell of a movie, with perhaps Tracy’s last performance before he began playing senior citizens full-time, and a supporting cast that includes such manly-man staples as Robert Ryan, Ernest Borgnine, Walter Brennan, Lee Marvin, and, uh, Anne Francis. Congrats to those who guessed correctly.

This week’s quiz...

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OK folks, be honest- if I’d included the name of the character to whom last week’s quote was addressed, would that have made it easier for some of you? As it stands, the line proved a bit trickier than I’d originally intended. Perhaps if I’d quoted the entire line, which began with the name “Emily…” it might have done the trick. Emily, of course, being the object of the kinda-sorta affection of Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush (Groucho Marx) and played by eternal Groucho foil Margaret Dumont in the Sam Wood’s A Day at the Races.

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There’s probably an interesting photographic study to be made of filling stations in movies, provided someone is willing to put forth the necessary time and effort to do it. I only float this idea because of last week’s quote from Bob Rafaelson’s Five Easy Pieces, in which the final shot found Jack Nicholson’s Bobby Dupea bumming a ride to Alaska off an unseen trucker at an instantly recognizable Gulf station. The conversation takes place at a distance, with neither party instantly visible to the camera, but that didn’t stop many of you from correctly identifying the quote. Congrats to all who did.

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It takes nearly four hours to get there, but plenty of you were able to make it all the way to the final line of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America, the source of last week’s quiz. The line, of course, is Robert DeNiro’s conflicted final goodbye to an old friend, spoken just before the appearance of the most memorable garbage truck in movie history. It’s a hell of a moment, a perfect mournful capper to the great Leone’s great career, and a lovely reminder of how powerful DeNiro could be back when he was still trying. Congratulations to those who got it.

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Welcome once again to another round of Screengrab’s favorite game, Famous Last Words. After the overwhelmingly positive response to the first round of play, we needed to take a little time off before starting the second bunch of quotations, but we hope this second round will be as much fun as the first. Whether you’re playing for the first time or not, welcome! Here’s a link to the rules of the game, so you know how to play and what to expect. Like last round, contestants will be competing to win one of three $25 gift certificates from The Criterion Store, which is an especially attractive prize when you consider some of the awesome titles they’ve got in the pipeline for both DVD and Blu-Ray buyers.

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Well, it's about stinkin' time. After 12 weeks of regular competition and three tiebreakers- encompassing a total of 21 quotations- we finally have a group of winners for this first round of Screengrab's Famous Last Words game. Even with all of the extra weeks of play, I was unable to whittle down the winners to the pre-determined three, so I decided to award prizes to the five top finishers.  The worthy winners are...

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You know, this is all getting a bit silly. I try to post some tiebreaker quotes to help decide the winners, and what happens but all of the contenders rise to the occasion. I'm glad to see we've got some astute players out there, but I fear I'll run out of good quotes before long. At the very least, I've got some research ahead of me to come up with some more.

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