Journal: News & Comment

Origins of three movie clichés?

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Darren Barefoot is fond of making lazyweb requests, but I don't do it too often. Here's one.

Somehow the topic of anvils came up today at bedtime, and my oldest daughter (age 8) asked, "What's an anvil for?" (That's not my question, by the way.) I realized that for most people, an anvil is something that gets dropped on the heads of cartoon characters far more often than it's something a blacksmith uses to hammer hot metal. And that gave rise to my three questions, which all have to do with film clichés:

1. In what film, cartoon or live action, did an anvil first get dropped on someone, and it was supposed to be funny?
2. In what film did two lovers first run toward each other in slow motion across a field? (Wuthering Heights?)
3. Most importantly, in what film did a character first shout, "Noooooo!" to the heavens while the camera zoomed away dramatically above them?

Inquiring Dereks want to know.

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