“Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
by chuckofish
Today we toast screenwriter Julius J. Epstein (1909-2000) on his birthday. After graduating from Penn State where he became an NCAA Bantamweight Champion, he and his twin brother went to Hollywood where they hoped to work in the movies. They were successful, and he is most fondly remembered for having written (along with his brother Philip and Howard Koch) the screenplay to Casablanca (1940) for which the writers won an Academy Award. Indeed, they wrote some very good movies, but it should also be noted that the Epsteins were also responsible for the adaption of the J.D. Salinger’s short story which became My Foolish Heart (1949)–a movie so bad that it turned Salinger off Hollywood forever. After his brother died, Julius continued to write screenplays, including one of my favorites, Send Me No Flowers (1964) starring Rock Hudson and Doris Day.
Well, you win some, you lose some.
Thinking of Casablanca made me think of a text discussion I had with the boy where we were talking about the best final shots in a movie. The Twitter trail he had been following posited movie endings I could not even identify…
I mean, I saw The Shining once back in like 1983 but…
Here are some much better ones. Can you name these famous final shots?
Ring, ring…
Look, Marguerite–England!
So let’s toast Julius Epstein and watch an old movie with a great ending! (I’ll put the answers in the Comments section later today.)
dual personalities 
I think I recognize many of them!
Oh those are all great! But easy peasy 😘
The Third Man, Shane, The Searchers, Cool Hand Luke, Local Hero, The Great Escape, Hombre, The Scarlet Pimpernel
The last shot in The Professionals is another one I thought of! Much more up-beat than most of our favorites 😁
I thought of it too, but I could not find a picture of the last shot–all four on horseback!
I heartily agree with all of your choices (except maybe The Scarlet Pimpernel…)!
I have to say, one of the “final shots” I think about often is the freeze frame on Del Griffith’s face in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Not exactly on par with the cinematic scenes described here 😉
You’re right–that’s a great one!
Damn! The Third Man.