10 Movie Scenes Shot For Real
3. Charles Lifts Mary Into The Clock Tower - The Stranger
Orson Welles' 1946 film noir The Stranger features a feat of strength so distracting everyone just assumes it was achieved through typical movie trickery.
Near the end of the movie, Charles (Welles) lifts Mary (Loretta Young) from a ladder into the clock tower where he's standing, impressively using just one hand to do so.
Though the feat wasn't performed by Welles himself, the stuntman nevertheless pulled it off without any further assistance, nor any safety net to protect Young in case she fell 50 feet to the ground below.
Initially, Young was rigged up with a harness in case the stuntman dropped her, but after numerous takes it was clear that there was no way to conceal the rigging cable running up her sleeve.
And so, Young asked the stuntman if there was any chance of him dropping her without a harness, and when he replied in the negative, she instructed the stuntman, "Cut the cable, or we're going to be here all day."
The next take was mercifully pulled off without a hitch and ended up being the one used in the final film, while Welles was none the wiser about the massive risk Young took to speed things along.
See it for yourself at 1:29:40 in the video below: