Shake the Scene: Cool Hand Luke

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

The Scene: The Car Wash

Why We Love This Scene: Seems like a fine time to remember George Kennedy, the lovable character actor who passed away this past weekend at the age of 91. Kennedy was in a slew of films and really never headlined any of them—which is fine by me because he was the archetypical great side character and buddy persona. From The Dirty Dozen, Airport to the Naked Gun series he was reliable, funny and a pleasure to watch act. The first foray I ever had with Kennedy was of course the Naked Gun series and like Leslie Nielsen was considered a serious dramatic actor who played the ZAZ team’s brand of spoof comedy straight which made the performances even funnier.

But today I’m going to highlight this key funny scene from the great Cool Hand Luke. This is an example of a classic film that should be viewed often. Sure it’s Paul Newman’s movie and it’s one of his very best but you can’t forget how great George Kennedy is in it either and he absolutely deserved to win Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Dragline. I mean, it speaks volumes to say that in a Paul Newman masterpiece Newman doesn’t win an acting award at the Oscars but someone else does right?

In the Car Wash scene below you’ll see that it isn’t Newman who is in the forefront of this scene but Kennedy and the other inmates who ogle and torture themselves over watching some young darling lewdly wash a car while they’re on highway ditch digging duty. Rewatching this scene just now made me further appreciate how great an actor Kennedy was. I love his line: “Hey, Lord…whatever I done, don’t strike me blind for another couple of minutes.”