Shelley Winters @ 100: A Patch of Blue (1965)
We're celebrating the centennial of Shelley Winters. Here's Nathaniel...
Int. Nathaniel's apartment. Two best friends are bored, realizing it's another "exciting" COVID summer night of what will we eat for dinner / watch on TV?. Nathaniel presents a few movie options (inevitably related to whatever TFE projects are in development). His friend's choice surprises him, "I think I'm really in a Shelley Winters mood." Nathaniel wonders for a split-second what a 'Winters mood' is before realizing he already knows... and approves! Up goes the movie and within seconds they glance at each other. "Shelley is going hard!" Nathaniel proclaims, half-stunned. He really shouldn't be. Going hard is, after all, a Winters mood and specialty.
Still and all, performances that begin at the pitch the Oscar winner risks for her introductory scene in A Patch of Blue rarely have anywhere go to thereafter...