Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #38 :: April 14•20

Universal Pictures

The first half of the century saw several new films released, but none that are really remembered today or considered classics. It’s not until 1971 when we get the first bona fide box office smash, but even today you may be hard pressed to find anyone who knows that film. Moving forward, 1981 saw a comedy that brought Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach together, and one of the biggest box office flops of the decade. 1991 saw Demi Moore and Bruce Willis acting together, 2001 saw Tom Green’s directorial debut … and swan song, and a different kind of ghost story, and 2011 gave us two sequels, the fourth and fifth in their respective franchises. What are they? Read on to find out and tell us if any of your favorites are on the list!

1921

April 17 – The Sky Pilot

• Cast: John Bowers, Colleen Moore, David Butler, Harry Todd, James Corrigan, Donald MacDonald, Kathleen Kirkham
• Director: King Vidor
• Studio: First National Pictures
• Trivia: Based on the novel of the same name by Ralph Connor. A newly restored print of the film was screened at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival in 2020. Shot in the High Sierras near Truckee, California, weather and the efforts to create landscapes on location led to budget overruns that reduced the film’s profitability, causing First National to decline financing of future Vidor projects signaling the demise of King Vidor Productions. Vidor lost his studio, Vidor Village, in the process. Vidor began an affair with his leading lady, Colleen Moore, during filming while married to his childhood sweetheart. The affair ended in 1924 and the marriage ended in 1926.

1931

April 15 – Bachelor Apartment

• Cast: Lowell Sherman, Irene Dunne, Mae Murray, Ivan Lebedeff, Norman Kerry, Arline Judge, Noel Francis, Claudia Dell, Purnell Pratt, Kitty Kelly, Charles Coleman
• Director: Lowell Sherman
• Studio: RKO Radio Pictures
• Trivia: Based on a story by New York playwright John Howard Lawson. Despite a screen credit to J. Walter Ruben for adapting the screenplay, Lawson claimed not a word was changed from what he originally wrote. Lawson was later blacklisted as one of the Hollywood Ten during the Communist witch hunt. Mae Murray was a silent film star attempting a comeback in talkies but it proved to be her penultimate film. This was Lowell Sherman’s fifth film as director, and the combination of acting and directing was unusual for the time. This was Irene Dunn’s third film.

April 18 – City Streets

• Cast: Gary Cooper, Sylvia Sidney, Paul Lukas, William ‘Stage’ Boyd, Wynne Gibson, Guy Kibbee, Stanley Fields, Betty Sinclair, Robert Homans
• Director: Rouben Mamoulian
• Studio: Paramount Pictures
• Trivia: The film premiered in Tucson, Arizona on April 14. This was to be Clara Bow’s last film under her five year contract with Paramount, but a nervous breakdown led to Sylvia Sidney’s casting after Nancy Carroll declined the part. It was Sidney’s first starring role. Two china cats shown in one scene came from director Rouben Mamoulian’s personal collection. This was Dashiell Hammett’s only original screenplay. The film features what is believed to be the first audio flashback in a movie as sound from an earlier scene is replayed over a close-up of Sidney.

April 18 – The Secret 6

• Cast: Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, John Mack Brown, Jean Harlow, Marjorie Rambeau, Paul Hurst, Clark Gable, Ralph Bellamy, John Miljan, DeWitt Jennings, Murray Kinnell, Fletcher Norton, Louis Natheaux, Frank McGlynn Sr., Theodore von Eltz
• Director: George W. Hill
• Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• Trivia: Wallace Beery’s character ‘Slaughterhouse Scorpio’ was loosely based on Al Capone. This was Ralph Bellamy’s first screen role. Producer Irving Thalberg had Clark Gable’s role made three times larger than in the original script, and he was given an MGM contract after filming was completed. This was the first of six film in which Gable starred with Jean Harlow. The project was put into motion after Thalberg saw Warner Bros. upcoming Public Enemy and Little Caesar, wanting MGM’s first real ‘talking’ gangster picture.

1941

• There were no new films released this week in 1941.

1951

April 17 – Tom Brown’s Schooldays

• Cast: John Howard Davies, Robert Newton, John Charlesworth, James Hayter, John Forrest, Michael Hordern, Brian Worth, Rachel Gurney, Max Bygraves, Francis de Wolff, Diana Wynyard, Hermione Baddeley, Kathleen Byron, Amy Veness, Michael Brennan, Michael Ward, Neil North, Glyn Dearman, Ben Aris, Peter Scott
• Director: Gordon Parry
• Studio: Talisman Productions, distributed by Renown Pictures (UK), United Artists (US)
• Trivia: Based on the 1857 novel of the same name by Thomas Hughes. The second film to feature Robert Newton and John Howard Davies after Oliver Twist a few years earlier.

1961

April 19 – Hercules and the Conquest of Atlantis

• Cast: Reg Park, Fay Spain, Ettore Manni, Luciano Marin, Laura Efrikian, Enrico Maria Salerno, Ivo Garrani, Gian Maria Volonté, Mimmo Palmara, Mario Petri, Mino Doro
• Director: Vittorio Cottafavi
• Studio: SpA Cinematografica, Comptoir Francais du Film Production
• Trivia: The Italian title is Ercole alla conquista di Atlantide. The film is known as Hercules Conquers Atlantis in the UK, and Hercules and the Captive Women in the US (where the film was re-edited, re-scored and given a new opening title sequence by Filmation). This was Reg Park’s debut as Ercole/Hercules. The film was originally released in Super Technirama 70, the only Hercules movie to be filmed in 70mm. The American score includes music cues from The Creature from the Black Lagoon, including the instantly recognizable three-note ‘Creature Theme’. The film has been lampooned on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

April 19 – Portrait of a Mobster

• Cast: Vic Morrow, Leslie Parrish, Peter Breck, Norman Alden, Robert McQueeney, Frank DeKova, Ray Danton, Anthony Eisley, Joseph Gallison
• Director: Joseph Pevney
• Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
• Trivia: The film’s score was compiled from other scores including White Heat and four others by Max Steiner. 25 seconds of the film Bullets or Ballots were used in a police raid sequence.

1971

Warner Bros. Pictures

April 19 – Summer of ’42

• Cast: Gary Grimes, Jerry Houser, Oliver Conant, Jennifer O’Neill, Katherine Allentuck, Christopher Norris, Lou Frizzell
• Director: Robert Mulligan
• Studio: Mulligan–Roth Productions, Warner Bros. Pictures
• Trivia: Based on the memoirs of screenwriter Herman ‘Hermie’ Raucher. Director Robert Mulligan provides the film’s voice-over, uncredited. Maureen Stapleton has an uncredited voice role as well. A novelization of the film’s screenplay by Raucher was released prior to the film, becoming a runaway bestseller leading readers to believe the film was based on the book and not vice versa. The film’s trailer perpetuated the myth. The book was reprinted 23 times between 1971 and 1974 but eventually went out of print and out of public consciousness until a 2001 Broadway adaptation brought it back to light, prompting Barnes & Noble to acquire the publishing rights. The film was followed by the sequel Class of ’44 with Grimes, Houser and Conant reprising their roles. Raucher wrote the script in the 1950s but ‘couldn’t give it away’. He met Mulligan in the 1960s and Mulligan took the script to Warner Bros. with the promise he could direct the film for $1 million. The studio had so little faith they decided to offer Raucher 10% of the film’s gross instead of paying him outright for the screenplay. The film ultimately earned just over $32 million against that $1 million budget. The studio did not want to cast any actress under 30 for the role of Dorothy, but Jennifer O’Neill’s agent liked the script and convinced the studio to audition her. O’Neill was 22 years old at the time and was hesitant to take the part because she didn’t want to do any nudity. Mulligan agreed to find a way to make it work without blatant nudity. O’Neill was sequestered from the boys in the cast to keep the sense of awkwardness between them realistic. Michel Legrand’s ‘Theme from Summer of ’42’ won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition, and the 17-minute score won the Oscar despite Legrand having previously used the main theme for the film La Piscine. The same year, Nino Rota’s score for The Godfather was disqualified because Rota had borrowed just a few seconds of music from another film he had scored. The film is said to have been a favorite of Stanley Kubrick, and it can be seen playing on television in The Shining.

1981

April 17 – Caveman

• Cast: Ringo Starr, Barbara Bach, Dennis Quaid, Shelley Long, Jack Gilford, Cork Hubbert, Evan C. Kim, Carl Lumbly, Gigi Vorgan, John Matuszak, Avery Schreiber, Richard Moll
• Director: Carl Gottlieb
• Studio: Turman-Foster Company, distributed by United Artists
• Trivia: Jim Danforth constructed the stop motion dinosaurs, which were animated by Randall W. Cook. Danforth was heavily involved in the special effects sequences but left the film about two-thirds of the way through production as the Directors Guild of America refused his contractual on-screen credit as co-director with Carl Gottlieb in his directorial debut. Subsequently, Danforth’s name appears nowhere on the film. The film’s dialogue is almost entirely in ‘caveman’ language with some modern English used for comedic effect. Shelly Long did not speak any English for her audition, responding to everything with grunts. It was Long’s first major screen role. Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach met on the set of the film and were married a year later. Bach had originally lamented that a talented comic like Dudley Moore hadn’t been cast in the lead role.

April 17 – Lion of the Desert

• Cast: Anthony Quinn, Oliver Reed, Irene Papas, Raf Vallone, Rod Steiger, John Gielgud, Andrew Keir, Gastone Moschin, Sky du Mont, Robert Brown, Luciano Bartoli, Franco Fantasia
• Director: Moustapha Akkad
• Studio: Falcon International Productions, distributed by United Film Distribution Company
• Trivia: The film was funded by the Libyan government under Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who also loaned the film 5,000 military personnel. The film was banned in Italy as ‘damaging to the honor of the army’, and was only shown on pay TV for the first time on June 11, 2009 during an official visit to Italy by Gaddafi. With attention to detail and authenticity, the same barber who shaved Mussolini’s head was hired to shave Rod Steiger’s. This was the second time Steiger played Mussolini. The Italian flags on the armored cars were painted incorrectly with horizontal stripes, depicting the flag of Hungary. The stripes should be vertical. The film cost $35 million and earned just about $1 million worldwide, making it one of the biggest box office bombs of the 1980s.

1991

April 17 – Delicatessen

• Cast: Dominique Pinon, Marie-Laure Dougnac, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Karin Viard, Ticky Holgado, Edith Ker, Rufus, Jacques Mathou, Howard Vernon, Marc Caro
• Director: Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet
• Studio: UGC, Hachette Première, Constellation, Victoires Productions, distributed by Miramax Films
• Trivia: Released in America as ‘presented by Terry Gilliam’. The film was planned for production after The City of Lost Children, but that film’s city set was deemed too expensive at the time for unknown directors, so Delicatessen was filmed first on a very tight budget with limited sets, friends and family members appearing in the film, and props being scavenged to cut costs. The City of Lost Children was finally produced and released in 1995. One character in the film says they are entering the age of Virgo which, astrologically, places the setting in the year 12,150 A.D.

April 19 – Mortal Thoughts

• Cast: Demi Moore, Glenne Headly, Bruce Willis, Harvey Keitel, John Pankow, Billie Neal, Frank Vincent, Doris McCarthy, Karen Shallo
• Director: Alan Rudolph
• Studio: New Vision Pictures, Polar Entertainment Corporation, Rufglen Films, distributed by Columbia Pictures
• Trivia: The film’s title is derived from a quote in William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth. Co-screenwriter Claude Kerven was also hired to direct the film but was replaced after a week by Alan Rudolph. The film was partly improvised, and the ending was undetermined until the day it was to be filmed. The film was originally to be released in December 1990. The character of James Urbanski was to be a small role but was expanded when Bruce Willis agreed to do the film. Robin Wright was considered for the role of Cynthia Kellogg, which went to Demi Moore. Peter Gallagher was cast as Arthur Kellogg but dropped out due to delays in filming. He was replaced with John Pankow. The final scene was shot at the Bowcraft Playland amusement park in Scotch Plains, NJ. The park was closed in 2018 and demolished in 2020. The Ferris wheel is included on the film’s poster.

2001

April 20 – The Center of the World

• Cast: Peter Sarsgaard, Molly Parker, Mel Gorham, Shane Edelman, Karry Brown, Alisha Klass, Lisa Newlan, Jason Calacanis, Travis Miljan, Jerry Sherman, Carla Gugino, Pat Morita, Balthazar Getty, Robert Lefkowitz, John Lombardo
• Director: Wayne Wang
• Studio: Redeemable Features, distributed by Artisan Entertainment
• Trivia: The film was mired in a censorship scandal when a theater owner in Cincinnati ordered a staff member to cut a five second shot from the film. The theater, the only one in town that would show NC-17 films, banned a critic who called them out on the censorship, and the issue raised questions as to whether the theater had censored other films. The theater owner refused to comment, and the film’s distributor ordered him to stop showing the censored film altogether.

April 20 – Freddy Got Fingered

• Cast: Tom Green, Rip Torn, Marisa Coughlan, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Harland Williams, Anthony Michael Hall, Julie Hagerty, Drew Barrymore, Shaquille O’Neal, Jackson Davies, Connor Widdows, Lorena Gale, Noel Fisher
• Director: Tom Green
• Studio: Regency Enterprises, distributed by 20th Century Fox
• Trivia: Tom Green’s feature film directorial debut. Also the only film Green has directed. Stephen Tobolowsky played Uncle Neil but his scene was cut. The film ‘won’ five of its eight Golden Raspberry Award nominations including Worst Picture, Worst Director and Worst Actor. Tom Green came to the ceremony to collect his awards, bringing his own red carpet and playing an endless harmonica solo which resulted in him being dragged off stage. The 87 minute film originally received an NC-17 rating and was cut to tone it down to an R. Green also edited a PG-rated version that runs a full three minutes. The film has developed a cult following since its home video release and received some positive critical reevaluation. Jerry Still and Gene Wilder were offered the role of Jim Brody but turned it down because they felt the script was offensive.

April 20 – The Devil’s Backbone

• Cast: Fernando Tielve, Íñigo Garcés, Eduardo Noriega, Marisa Paredes, Federico Luppi, Junio Valverde, Irene Visedo
• Director: Guillermo del Toro
• Studio: Canal+ España, Tequila Gang, Sogepaq, Anhelo Producciones, El Deseo, distributed by Warner Sogefilms A.I.E. (Spain), Sony Pictures Classics (International)
• Trivia: The Spanish title is El espinazo del diablo. Guillermo del Toro wrote the first draft of the screenplay before writing his debut film Cronos. The first draft was very different, focusing on a ‘Christ with three arms’ rather than the ghost of a child. The Criterion Collection spine number for the Blu-ray and DVD is 666. The only del Toro film in which neither Ron Perlman or Doug Jones appear.

2011

April 14 – 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy

• Cast: Hayama Hiro, Lan Yan, Saori Hara, Vonnie Lui, Yukiko Suo, Irene Chen, Tony Ho, Kirt Kishita, Wong Shu-tong, Tenky Tin
• Director: Christopher Suen
• Studio: One Dollar Production, Ltd.
• Trivia: Loosely based on the 17th century Chinese novel The Carnal Prayer Mat. The film was promoted as Hong Kong’s first IMAX 3D erotic film, but that statement was false as IMAX rejected the film due to its content.

April 15 – Atlas Shrugged: Part I

• Cast: Taylor Schilling, Grant Bowler, Matthew Marsden, Graham Beckel, Edi Gathegi, Jsu Garcia, Michael Lerner, Jack Milo, Ethan Cohn, Rebecca Wisocky, Christina Pickles, Neill Barry, Patrick Fischler, Sylva Kelegian, Jon Polito, Michael O’Keefe, Geoff Pierson, Armin Shimerman
• Director: Paul Johansson
• Studio: The Strike Productions, distributed by Rocky Mountain Pictures, 20th Century Fox
• Trivia: The film’s onscreen title is simply Atlas Shrugged. The story was intended to be a trilogy of films but it was unknown at the time of release if the other two films would follow. Despite the film’s critical and box office failure, a sequel — with an all-new cast — was produced and released in 2012, with the third film following in 2014, again with a new (less expensive) cast. Director Paul Johansson appears in silhouette as John Galt at the end of the film. Stephen Polk was the original director, but was replaced nine days before filming was to begin. Rosamund Pike and Stana Katic were considered for the role of Dagney Taggart. With the option to the film rights set to expire on June 15, 2010, the film was rushed into production on June 13. The film was intended to have a ‘timeless’ setting but the released film is set in 2016. The film reportedly had a budget of $20 million, which was cut in half for Part II, and cut in half again for Part III.

Dimension Films

April 15 – Scream 4

• Cast: David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Anthony Anderson, Adam Brody, Rory Culkin, Mary McDonnell, Marley Shelton, Alison Brie, Marielle Jaffe, Nico Tortorella, Erik Knudsen, Anna Paquin, Kristen Bell, Lucy Hale, Shenae Grimes, Britt Robertson, Aimee Teegarden, Roger L. Jackson
• Director: Wes Craven
• Studio: Corvus Corax Productions, Outerbanks Entertainment, The Weinstein Company, distributed by Dimension Films
• Trivia: The title was stylized as SCRE4M. This was the final film directed by Wes Craven. In an early draft of the script, Dewey and Gale had a baby but the idea was dropped as bringing a baby into the film would make shooting impossible. Another early draft opened with Sidney fighting Ghostface and being left for dead, the story then picking up two years after her recovery. The hospital finale scene was not in the original script but added later in the writing process. The film was intended to end on a cliffhanger at the house where an unidentified victim was found alive. The cast was not given the 140 page script past page 75 to protect the identity of the Ghostface killer. The film is the first in the franchise to use extensive CGI effects. Instead of a collapsible knife, the blade was added with CGI effects. Anthony Anderson’s scene where he is stabbed in the head was not in the script. Craven saw a real-life incident in a medical documentary and decided to include it in the film, not telling the studio that he was taking that approach for the death scene. The roles of Chloe and Rachel were written with Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan in mind. Lauren Graham was originally cast as Jill’s mother but dropped out due to script re-writes. She was replaced by Mary McDonnell. Lake Bell had been cast as Judy Hicks but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts and was replaced by Marley Shelton. Selena Gomez was considered for the role of Jill Roberts. Emma Roberts had to wear boots that boosted her height by three inches since she was the shortest member of the cast, and she wore hair extensions as well. The footage of the ‘Stab’ movie includes the credit ‘A Robert Rodriguez Film’; Rodriguez actually directed the footage.

April 15 – We Have a Pope

• Cast: Michel Piccoli, Nanni Moretti, Jerzy Stuhr, Massimo Dobrovic, Renato Scarpa, Margherita Buy, Franco Graziosi, Leonardo Della Bianca, Camilla Ridolfi, Camillo Milli, Roberto Nobile, Gianluca Gobbi, Ulrich von Dobschütz
• Director: Nanni Moretti
• Studio: Sacher Film, Fandango, Le Pacte, France 3 Cinéma, distributed by 01 Distribution (Italy), Le Pacte (France)
• Trivia: The film opened in Italy on April 15, but did not play in the US, in limited release, until April 6, 2012. The film’s original title is Habemus Papam.

April 15 – Fast Five

• Cast: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges, Matt Schulze, Sung Kang, Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot, Joaquim de Almeida, Elsa Pataky
• Director: Justin Lin
• Studio: Original Film, One Race Films, distributed by Universal Pictures
• Trivia: Also known as Fast & Furious 5 and Fast & Furious 5: Rio Heist. Universal deliberately altered the franchise’s format from street racing to a heist movie with cars to attract a wider audience. It is considered the transformational film of the series. The film premiered in Brazil on April 15, with the US opening on April 29. Production was to take place in Rio de Janeiro but the Puerto Rican government offered $11 million in tax incentives, although the cast did travel to Rio to understand the culture. Establishing shots and some shots of the cast were filmed in Rio. The final phase of filming took place in Atlanta. The scene of the flatbed truck slamming into a moving train was not done with CGI effects and nearly derailed the train. The role of Hobbs was originally intended for Tommy Lee Jones. Dwayne Johnson got the role because a fan said she’d love to see Johnson and Diesel work together. Gal Gadot’s character’s name is never mentioned in the film (it’s Gisele). This was the first Fast & Furious film to be released in IMAX. Tyrese Gibson was filming Transformers: Dark of the Moon at the same time, flying between Puerto Rico and Atlanta to accommodate the shooting schedules. Despite three units filming simultaneously, the two month shoot went three months over schedule. This was Matt Schulze’s first appearance in the franchise since the first film ten years earlier. While shooting the sixth film, Michelle Rodriguez stated she didn’t know of the fifth film’s twist ending until she saw the movie. Eva Mendes has a post-credits cameo. Although The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is the third film in the franchise, films four and five take place before it as the character of Han is still alive (he dies in Tokyo Drift).