The 2 greatest pans in movie comedy history…..

I contend that the 2 funniest pans in motion picture history both occur in the second half of “Cold Turkey,” during the televised church service at Eagle Rock Community Church. Not pans as in “pots and pans,” but the horizontal camera move --- right-to-left in both cases here. Both pans occur in the same scene and within a minute of each other.

The first pan is of the choir singing “O God, Our Help in Ages Past.” Every choir member is super-conscious of the television camera. I love how director Norman Lear assigned each choir member a special reaction to the presence of TV’s powerful eye. One choir girl fiddles with her hair. A boy tries vainly to focus on his hymnal, but his eyes keep darting up toward the camera. A little old lady adjusts her eyeglasses. Letitia Hornsby is so overcome with attention that she gets the giggles and loses her place in the song. Best of all, there is one man in the back row whose response is so priceless that I won’t ruin it for you by describing it. Each little nuance dreamed up by Lear is a brilliant, but quick, character study of different people’s reactions to the spotlight.

This pan is followed by a second, even more brilliant one. The camera pans quickly across the faces of the congregation as they sing the final verse --- no wait, the FINAL WORD of the hymn, “Ahhhhhhhhhhh-mennnnnnnnnnnn.” That’s it --- “Amen.” The camera races past the faces of 8 featured players in “Cold Turkey,” each one singing his/her heart out to…..the camera (you though I was going to say ‘to God’?). The shot lasts maybe 10 seconds, but Lear manages to capture so much mock sincerity in this brief moment that I find it perfect in every way. This shot blows me away every time --- it’s impeccably timed and acted. My favorite expressions of mock piousness come from Peggy Rea, Sudie Bond, Raymond Kark, and Vincent Gardenia.

What an overlooked gem of a movie this is! Some of the second unit scenes were shot in documentary style and provide a fascinating look inside small-town America in the late 1960s.