Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #140 :: March 29 to April 4

Hal Roach Studios

The beginning of the month is always a bigger than usual week due to many films not having exact release dates, and that is the case with many of this week’s new releases. But there are many more films for which we do have release dates and many of them are notable for one reason or another. Films this week saw debut (or second) performances from Katharine Hepburn, Dick Van Dyke, Ann-Margret and Alicia Silverstone, and had two films interrupted by hurricanes. The silent era gave us one of the most famous film images ever. 1943 saw new films from The Three Stooges, Our Gang and Bugs Bunny. 1953 gave Ethel Merman a Golden Globe-winning role and Leslie Caron a BAFTA-winning role, saw the release (and disappearance) of Stanley Kubrick’s first film, and revealed Ed Wood’s truth. 1963 took Elvis to Seattle, and said ‘bye bye’ to Birdie. 1973 produced a classic of the Blaxploitation era, and 1983 documented the shocking end of a Playmate, and gave us the last film with all six Pythons. 1993 gave Burt Reynolds a hit and Hulk Hogan a flop. 2003 stuck Colin Farrell in a phone booth, and 2013 gave Ryan Gosling a tailor-fit role. Read on to see which films are celebrating anniversaries this week and tell us if your favorites are on the list!

1923

March 30 – Lost in a Big City (USA)

Cast: John Lowell, Baby Ivy Ward, Jane Thomas, Charles Byer, Evangeline Russell, Edgar Keller, Whitney Haley, Eddie Phillips, Ann Brody
Director: George Irving
Production Company: Blazed Trail Productions, distributed by Arrow Film Corporation
Trivia: Evangeline Russell’s debut.

March 30 – The Law Rustlers (USA)

Cast: William Fairbanks, Edmund Cobb, Joseph W. Girard, Ena Gregory, Ashton Dearholt, Wilbur McGaugh, Claude Payton, Mark Hamilton
Director: Louis King
Production Company: Ben Wilson Productions, distributed by Arrow Film Corporation

March 31 – Enemies of Women (USA)

Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Alma Rubens, Pedro de Cordoba, Gareth Hughes, Gladys Hulette, William H. Thompson, William Collier, Jr., Mario Majeroni, Betty Bouton, Jeanne Brindeau, Ivan Linow, Paul Panzer
Director: Alan Crosland
Production Company: Cosmopolitan Productions, distributed by Goldwyn Distributing Corporation
Trivia: Opened in New York City on March 31, 1923, but did not go into wide release until September 2. Clara Bow and Margaret Dumont appear in uncredited roles. Based on the novel of the same title by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez. A partial copy of the film is preserved at the Library of Congress, missing reels 3 and 9 out of 11.

March 31 – Paganini (Germany)

Cast: Conrad Veidt, Eva May, Greta Schröder, Harry Hardt, Hermine Sterler, Jean Nadolovitch, Gustav Fröhlich, Alexander Granach, Martin Herzberg
Director: Heinz Goldberg
Production Company: Conrad Veidt-Film GmbH, Richard-Oswald-Produktion
Trivia: The film is considered lost.

March 31 – This Freedom (UK)

Cast: Fay Compton, Clive Brook, John Stuart, Athene Seyler, Nancy Kenyon, Gladys Hamer, Fewlass Llewellyn, Adeline Hayden Coffin, Mickey Brantford
Director: Denison Clift
Production Company: Ideal Film Company, distributed by Fox Film
Trivia: Released in the US on November 27, 1923. Based on the novel This Freedom by A.S.M. Hutchinson.

April – The Lady Owner (UK)

Cast: Violet Hopson, James Knight, Warwick Ward, Arthur Walcott, Fred Rains, Marjorie Benson, Edwin Ellis, Jeff Barlow
Director: Walter West
Production Company: Walter West Productions, distributed by Butcher’s Film Service

April 1 – Bella Donna (USA)

Cast: Pola Negri, Conway Tearle, Conrad Nagel, Adolphe Menjou, Claude King, Lois Wilson, Antonio Corsi, Macey Harlam, Robert Schable
Director: George Fitzmaurice
Production Company: Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, distributed by Paramount Pictures
Trivia: Based on the 1909 novel, Bella Donna, by Robert Smythe Hichens. Remake of the 1915 Paramount film Bella Donna starring Pauline Frederick. Pola Negri’s first American film. A print is reportedly held at the Gosfilmofond Archive in Moscow. The film’s premiere was shown with the sound-on-film proces Phonofilm, which likely included music and sound effects but no dialogue.

April 1 – Bucking the Barrier (USA)

Cast: Dustin Farnum, Arline Pretty, Léon Bary, Colin Chase, Hayford Hobbs, Sidney D’Albrook
Director: Colin Campbell
Production Company: Fox Film Corporation

April 1 – Crashin’ Thru (USA)

Cast: Harry Carey, Cullen Landis, Myrtle Stedman, Vola Vale, Charles Le Moyne, Winifred Bryson, Joseph Harris, Donald MacDonald, Charles Hill Mailes
Director: Val Paul
Production Company: Robertson-Cole, distributed by Film Booking Offices of America
Trivia: No copies are known to exist in any film archive.

April 1 – Safety Last! (USA)

Cast: Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Bill Strother, Noah Young, Westcott Clarke
Director: Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
Production Company: Hal Roach Studios, distributed by Pathé Exchange
Trivia: The film includes the famous image of Harold Lloyd clutching the hands of a large clock as he dangles above moving traffic, a real stunt made all the more incredible because Lloyd had lost a thumb and forefinger on one hand four years earlier in a film accident. Selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1994. The film entered the public domain in 2019.

April 1 – Surprise (USA, short)

Cast: Max Fleischer
Director: Dave Fleischer
Production Company: Out of the Inkwell Films, distributed by Margaret J. Winkler

April 1 – Wolf Tracks (USA)

Cast: Jack Hoxie, Andrée Tourneur, Marin Sais, Jim Welch, Albert J. Smith, Thomas G. Lingham, William Berke, Kate Price
Director: Robert N. Bradbury
Production Company: Sunset Productions, distributed by Aywon Film Corporation

April 2 – Nobody’s Bride (USA)

Cast: Herbert Rawlinson, Edna Murphy, Alice Lake, Harry von Meter, Frank Brownlee, Sidney Bracey, Phillips Smalley, Robert Dudley, Lillian Langdon
Director: Herbert Blaché
Production Company: Universal Pictures

1933

March 29 – Below the Sea (USA)

Cast: Ralph Bellamy, Fay Wray, Frederick Vogeding, Esther Howard, Paul Page
Director: Albert S. Rogell
Production Company: Columbia Pictures
Trivia: A short documentary sequence on undersea life, filmed in two-strip Technicolor, running approximately 4 minutes, originally filmed to be used in The Uninvited Guest (1924), and shown at the shipboard party at the beginning of the third reel, is now missing and apparently lost. The role of McCreary was originally intended for Humphrey Bogart.

March 31 – Christopher Strong (USA)

Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Colin Clive, Billie Burke, Helen Chandler, Ralph Forbes, Irene Browne, Jack La Rue
Director: Dorothy Arzner
Production Company: RKO Radio Pictures
Trivia: Also known as The Great Desire and The White Moth. Katharine Hepburn’s second screen role, the the film was intended for Ann Harding, with Leslie Howard in the role taken by Colin Clive. It’s the only time Hepburn ever played ‘the other woman’. Adaptation of the 1932 British novel Christopher Strong by Gilbert Frankau. The life preserver seen in the opening scavenger hunt sequence, the ‘SS Venture’, is from the ship in King Kong, another RKO production, shot earlier that year.

March 31 – Gabriel Over the White House (USA)

Cast: Walter Huston, Karen Morley, Franchot Tone, Arthur Byron, Dickie Moore, C. Henry Gordon, David Landau, Samuel Hinds, William Pawley, Jean Parker, Claire DuBrey
Director: Gregory La Cava
Production Company: Cosmopolitan Productions, distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Trivia: The film received the financial backing and creative input of businessman William Randolph Hearst. Based upon the novel Rinehard: A Melodrama of the Nineteen-Thirties (1933) by Thomas Frederic Tweed. Tweed did not receive an on-screen credit. The released film ran about 87 minutes, but review prints ran 102 minutes.

March 31 – Murders in the Zoo (USA)

Cast: Charlie Ruggles, Lionel Atwill, Gail Patrick, Randolph Scott, John Lodge, Kathleen Burke, Harry Beresford, Edward McWade
Director: A. Edward Sutherland
Production Company: Paramount Productions Inc.
Trivia: The preview version of the film ran 65 minutes, while the release version ran for 61. Several state censors requested cuts to some of the film’s more grisly scenes.

April – Leave It to Me (UK)

Cast: Gene Gerrard, Olive Borden, Molly Lamont, George K. Gee, Gus McNaughton, Clive Currie, Toni Edgar-Bruce, Peter Godfrey, Syd Crossley, Melville Cooper, Wylie Watson
Director: Monty Banks
Production Company: British International Pictures, distributed by Wardour Films
Trivia: Adaptation of the play Leave It to Psmith (1930) by Ian Hay and P.G. Wodehouse, which is based on Wodehouse’s novel Leave It to Psmith (1923).

April – The Lost Chord (UK)

Cast: John Stuart, Elizabeth Allan, Mary Glynne, Anne Grey, Leslie Perrins, Jack Hawkins, Garry Marsh, Betty Astell, Frederick Ranalow, Barbara Everest
Director: Maurice Elvey
Production Company: Julius Hagen Productions, distributed by Associated Producers & Distributors (UK), Treo Film Exchanges (USA)
Trivia: Opened in the US on August 12, 1937. Inspired by the Arthur Sullivan song The Lost Chord.

April – Timbuctoo (UK)

Cast: Henry Kendall, Margot Grahame, Emily Fitzroy, Hubert Harben, Jean Cadell, Victor Stanley, Una O’Connor, Edward Cooper
Director: Walter Summers, Arthur B. Woods
Production Company: British International Pictures, distributed by Wardour Films
Trivia: British International Pictures was known for its quick and cheap pictures, but this one had enough of a budget for location filming in Africa. The film has never been shown on television or released on home video, but is available to screen by appointment at any of the Mediatheques run by the British Film Institute. Unfortunately, the film does include a scene of a hippopotamus being hunted and killed which modern audiences have found upsetting.

April 1 – Alimony Madness (USA)

Cast: Helen Chandler, Leon Ames, Edward Earle, Charlotte Merriam, Blanche Friderici, Alberta Vaughn, Arthur Loft, Richard Cramer, Gordon De Main, Mildred Gover
Director: B. Reeves Eason
Production Company: Fanchon Royer Pictures, distributed by Mayfair Pictures

April 1 – Black Beauty (USA)

Cast: Esther Ralston, Alexander Kirkland, Gavin Gordon, Hale Hamilton, Don Alvarado, George Walsh, Theodore Lorch, John Larkin
Director: Phil Rosen
Production Company: Chadwick Pictures, distributed by Monogram Pictures
Trivia: Adaptation of Anna Sewell’s 1877 novel Black Beauty, with the setting moved from Victorian Britain to a plantation in Virginia.

April 1 – Destination Unknown (USA)

Cast: Pat O’Brien, Ralph Bellamy, Alan Hale Sr., Russell Hopton, Tom Brown, Betty Compson, Noel Madison, Stanley Fields, Rollo Lloyd, Willard Robertson
Director: Tay Garnett
Production Company: Universal Pictures
Trivia: W. Franke Harling’s musical score and classical music arrangements were used as stock music in several Universal serials.

April 1 – Gun Law (USA)

Cast: Jack Hoxie, Betty Boyd, Mary Carr, Paul Fix, Harry Todd, J. Frank Glendon, Otto Lederer
Director: Lewis D. Collins
Production Company: Larry Darmour Productions, distributed by Majestic Pictures
Trivia: Remade in 1937 as Melody of the Plains.

April 1 – Pleasure Cruise (USA)

Cast: Genevieve Tobin, Roland Young, Ralph Forbes, Una O’Connor, Herbert Mundin, Minna Gombell, Theodore von Eltz
Director: Frank Tuttle
Production Company: Fox Film Corporation
Trivia: Una O’Connor has a rare role in which she is not playing someone’s servant.

April 1 – The Mind Reader (USA)

Cast: Warren William, Constance Cummings, Allen Jenkins, Natalie Moorhead, Mayo Methot, Clarence Muse, Earle Foxe, George Chandler, Wilson Benge
Director: Roy Del Ruth
Production Company: First National Pictures, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures

April 4 – Soldiers of the Storm (USA)

Cast: Regis Toomey, Anita Page, Robert Ellis, Wheeler Oakman, Barbara Barondess, Dewey Robinson, George Cooper, Arthur Wanzer, Barbara Weeks, Henry Wadsworth
Director: D. Ross Lederman
Production Company: Columbia Pictures

1943

March 29 – Corregidor (USA)

Cast: Otto Kruger, Elissa Landi, Donald Woods, Frank Jenks, Rick Vallin, Wanda McKay, Ian Keith
Director: William Nigh
Production Company: Atlantis Pictures Corporation, distributed by Producers Releasing Corporation
Trivia: The film is set in December 1941 through May 1942 during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines.

April – Hangmen Also Die! (USA)

Cast: Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennan, Anna Lee, Gene Lockhart, Dennis O’Keefe, Nana Bryant, Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, Margaret Wycherly, Tonio Selwart, Alexander Granach, Reinhold Schünzel
Director: Fritz Lang
Production Company: Arnold Pressburger Films, distributed by United Artists
Trivia: Bertolt Brecht’s only script for a Hollywood film, although he allegedly worked on other screenplays with no credit. Lionel Stander has a small part as a taxi-driver. Hangmen Also Die had a world premiere in Prague, Oklahoma on March 27,an event which featured Adolf Hitler, Hirohito and Mussolini being hanged in effigy on Main Street. The film received Oscar nominations for its Score and Sound Recording.

April 1 – Food for Fighters (USA, short)

Production Company: Office of War Information, distributed by War Activities Committee of the Motion Picture Industry
Trivia: Propaganda short about nutrition in the Armed Services produced by the Office of War Information.

April 1 – Fugitive of the Plains (USA)

Cast: Buster Crabbe, Al St. John, Maxine Leslie, Jack Ingram, Kermit Maynard, Karl Hackett, Hal Price, George Chesebro, Frank Ellis, John Merton
Director: Sam Newfield
Production Company: Sigmund Neufeld Productions, distributed by Producers Releasing Corporation
Trivia: Ninth film in the ‘Billy the Kid’ series. Edited down and re-released as a ‘Bronco Buckaroo’ film in 1947 titled Raiders of Red Rock.

April 1 – Murder in Times Square (USA)

Cast: Edmund Lowe, Marguerite Chapman, John Litel, William Wright, Bruce Bennett, Esther Dale, Veda Ann Borg, Gerald Mohr, Sidney Blackmer
Director: Lew Landers
Production Company: Columbia Pictures

April 2 – Border Patrol (USA)

Cast: William Boyd, Andy Clyde, Jay Kirby, Russell Simpson, Claudia Drake, George Reeves, Duncan Renaldo, Pierce Lyden, Robert Mitchum
Director: Lesley Selander
Production Company: Harry Sherman Productions, distributed by United Artists
Trivia: The 45th of 66 Hopalong Cassidy movies. Robert Mitchum’s first film, though released after other films he’d made later.

April 2 – He Hired the Boss (USA)

Cast: Stuart Erwin, Evelyn Venable, Thurston Hall, Vivian Blaine, William T. Orr, Benny Bartlett, James Bush, Chick Chandler, Hugh Beaumont, Ray Walker
Director: Thomas Z. Loring
Production Company: 20th Century Fox

April 2 – Sagebrush Law (USA)

Cast: Tim Holt, Cliff Edwards, Joan Barclay, John H. Elliott, Roy Barcroft, Ernie Adams, Edward Cassidy, John Merton
Director: Sam Nelson
Production Company: RKO Pictures
Trivia: Cliff Edwards is better known as the original voice of Jiminy Cricket.

April 2 – Spook Louder (USA, short)

Cast: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Stanley Blystone, Heinie Conklin, William Kelley, Lew Kelly, Helen Servis, Symona Boniface, Stanley Brown, Charles Middleton, Ted Lorch, Shirley Patterson
Director: Del Lord
Production Company: Columbia Pictures
Trivia: The 69th Three Stooges film. Remake of the 1931 Mack Sennett film The Great Pie Mystery.

April 2 – The Ghost Rider (USA)

Cast: Johnny Mack Brown, Raymond Hatton, Harry Woods, Beverly Boyd, Tom Seidel, Edmund Cobb, Bud Osborne, George DeNormand
Director: Wallace Fox
Production Company: Monogram Pictures
Trivia: The first film in the ‘Marshal Nevada Jack McKenzie’ series. 20 films were released between 1943 and 1946.

April 3 – Family Troubles (USA, short)

Cast: Janet Burston, Bobby Blake, Billy Laughlin, Billie Thomas, Mickey Laughlin, Dickie Hall, Beverly Hudson, Barbara Bedford, Harry C. Bradley, Elspeth Dudgeon, Sarah Padden, Byron Shores
Director: Herbert Glazer
Production Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Trivia: The 212th Our Gang short.

April 3 – Super-Rabbit (USA, short)

Voice Cast: Mel Blanc, Kent Rogers, Tedd Pierce
Director: Charles M. Jones
Production Company: Leon Schlesinger Productions, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
Trivia: The 16th Bigs Bunny short.

April 4 – Air Raid Wardens (USA)

Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Edgar Kennedy, Jacqueline White, Horace McNally, Nella Walker, Donald Meek, Henry O’Neill, Howard Freeman
Director: Edward Sedgwick
Production Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, distributed by Loew’s Inc.
Trivia: The first of two features Laurel & Hardy made for MGM.

1953

March 29 – Fort Vengeance (USA)

Cast: James Craig, Rita Moreno, Keith Larsen, Reginald Denny, Charles Irwin, Morris Ankrum, Guy Kingsford
Director: Lesley Selander
Production Company: Walter Wanger Productions, distributed by Allied Artists Pictures
Trivia: Also known as Royal Mounted Police.

March 30 – Jeopardy (USA)

Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, Ralph Meeker, Lee Aaker
Director: John Sturges
Production Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Trivia: Based on the 22-minute radio play A Question of Time.

March 30 – Rough Shoot (UK)

Cast: Joel McCrea, Evelyn Keyes, Herbert Lom, Roland Culver, Marius Goring, Frank Lawton, Patricia Laffan, Cyril Raymond, Karel Stepanek, Jack McNaughton
Director: Robert Parrish
Production Company: Raymond Stross Productions, distributed by United Artists
Trivia: Released in the US on May 15, 1953 under the title Shoot First. Inspired by Geoffrey Household’s novel Run from the Hangman (1953). Joel McCrea’s only post-war non-Western role.

March 30 – The Lady Wants Mink (USA)

Cast: Dennis O’Keefe, Ruth Hussey, Eve Arden, William Demarest, Gene Lockhart, Hope Emerson, Hillary Brooke, Tommy Rettig
Director: William A. Seiter
Production Company: Republic Pictures

April – Call Me Madam (USA)

Cast: Ethel Merman, Donald O’Connor, Vera-Ellen, George Sanders, Billy De Wolfe, Helmut Dantine, Walter Slezak
Director: Walter Lang
Production Company: 20th Century Fox
Trivia: Based on the 1950 stage musical of the same name. Ethel Merman won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy. Alfred Newman won the Oscar for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture, and Irene Sharaff was nominated for her costume design. Walter Lang received a nomination from the Directors Guild. Donald O’Connor said the film contains his best dancing.

April – Glen or Glenda (USA)

Cast: Bela Lugosi, Ed Wood, Timothy Farrell, Dolores Fuller, ‘Tommy’ Haynes, Lyle Talbot, Charlie Crafts, Conrad Brooks, William M. A. deOrgler
Director: Ed Wood
Production Company: Screen Classics
Trivia: Ed Wood was actually credited as ‘Daniel Davis’ for his starring role in the film. Shot in four days. The erotic vignettes were not filmed by Wood, added by the producer to pad what he thought as a too-short film.

April – Laxdale Hall (UK)

Cast: Ronald Squire, Kathleen Ryan, Raymond Huntley, Sebastian Shaw, Fulton Mackay, Jean Colin, Jameson Clark, Grace Gavin, Keith Faulkner, Prunella Scales, Kynaston Reeves, Andrew Keir
Director: John Eldridge
Production Company: Group 3 Films, distributed by Associated British-Pathé (UK)
Trivia: Released in the US on June 5, 1954 as Scotch on the Rocks. Adapted from the 1951 novel Laxdale Hall by Eric Linklater.

April – Sea Devils (UK)

Cast: Rock Hudson, Yvonne De Carlo, Maxwell Reed, Denis O’Dea, Michael Goodliffe, Bryan Forbes, Jacques B. Brunius, Ivor Barnard, Arthur Wontner, Gérard Oury
Director: Raoul Walsh
Production Company: Coronado Productions, distributed by RKO Radio Pictures
Trivia: Opened in the US on May 23, 1953. Based on Victor Hugo’s novel Toilers of the Sea which was the working title of the film. The storyline was changed substantially and Hugo is not credited on screen.

April – Street of Shadows (UK)

Cast: Cesar Romero, Kay Kendall, Edward Underdown, Victor Maddern, Bill Travers, Simone Silva, Liam Gaffney, Robert Cawdron, John Penrose, Molly Hamley-Clifford
Director: Richard Vernon
Production Company: William Nassour Productions, Merton Park Studios, distributed by Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors (UK), Lippert Pictures (USA)
Trivia: Opened in the US on October 16, 1953 as The Shadow Man.

April 1 – Count the Hours (USA)

Cast: Macdonald Carey, Teresa Wright, John Craven, Jack Elam, Edgar Barrier, Dolores Moran, Adele Mara, Ralph Sanford
Director: Don Siegel
Production Company: Benedict Bogeaus Production, distributed by RKO Pictures
Trivia: Dolores Fuller (Ed Wood’s girlfriend) appears uncredited as a reporter.

April 1 – Fear and Desire (USA)

Cast: David Allen, Frank Silvera, Kenneth Harp, Paul Mazursky, Steve Coit, Virginia Leith
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Production Company: Kubrick Family, distributed by Joseph Burstyn Enterprises
Trivia: Stanley Kubrick’s directorial debut. He utilized a crew of 15 people. The film’s original budget has been estimated at $10,000. Since there was no budget for tracks for dolly shots, Kubrick put the camera in a baby carriage. The film was shown at the 1952 Venice Film Festival as Shape of Fear. The film seems to have disappeared since its releas, with Kubrick destroying the original negative and looking to do the same to any leftover prints. Some prints remained in private collections, and it had its first retrospective screening at the 1993 Telluride Film Festival. An original print was found at a Puerto Rican film laboratory in 2010, and TCM aired a print restored by the George Eastman House in 2011.

April 1 – Jack McCall, Desperado (USA)

Cast: George Montgomery, Angela Stevens, Douglas Kennedy, James Seay, Eugene Iglesias, Willam Tannen, Jay Silverheels, John Hamilton, Selmer Jackson
Director: Sidney Salkow
Production Company: Columbia Pictures

April 1 – Man on a Tightrope (USA)

Cast: Fredric March, Terry Moore, Gloria Grahame, Cameron Mitchell, Adolphe Menjou, Robert Beatty, Alexander D’Arcy, Richard Boone, Pat Henning, Paul Hartman, John Dehner
Director: Elia Kazan
Production Company: Twentieth Century Fox, Bavaria Film, distributed by Twentieth Century Fox
Trivia: Based on a 1952 novel of the same title by Neil Paterson, whcih was based on the escape of the Circus Brumbach from East Germany in 1950. Members of the Circus Brumbach appeared in the film version in both character roles and as extras. Shot on location in Bavaria and West Germany.

April 1 – The Girls of Pleasure Island (USA)

Cast: Don Taylor, Leo Genn, Elsa Lanchester, Philip Ober, Joan Elan, Audrey Dalton, Dorothy Bromiley, Peter Baldwin, Gene Barry, Arthur Gould-Porter, Barry Bernard
Director: Alvin Ganzer, F. Hugh Herbert
Production Company: Paramount Pictures
Trivia: Based on the novel Pleasure Island by former Marine William Maier. Earl Holliman and Ross Bagdasarian Sr. play Marines.

April 1 – Trail Blazers (USA)

Cast: Alan Hale Jr., Richard Tyler, Barney McCormack, Jim Flowers, Henry Blair, Robert Hyatt, Danny Welton, Mickey Colpack, Duke York, Lyle Talbot, Rick Vallin
Director: Wesley Barry
Production Company: Newhall Productions, distributed by Allied Artists Pictures
Trivia: Duke York died before the film was released.

April 3 – Stolen Identity (USA)

Cast: Donald Buka, Joan Camden, Francis Lederer, Adrienne Gessner, Inge Konradi, Hermann Erhardt, Egon von Jordan
Director: Gunther von Fritsch
Production Company: Transglobe-Film Inc., distributed by Helen Ainsworth
Trivia: English-language version of the film Adventure in Vienna (1952), directed by Emil-Edwin Reinert, starring Gustav Fröhlich and Cornell Borchers. Besides the two leading roles the cast of both films is essentially the same. The film was also known as I Was Jack Mortimer.

April 4 – Fair Wind to Java (Italy)

Cast: Fred MacMurray, Vera Ralston, Robert Douglas, Victor McLaglen, John Russell, Buddy Baer, Claude Jarman Jr., Grant Withers, Howard Petrie, Paul Fix
Director: Joseph Kane
Production Company: Republic Pictures, distributed by Republic Pictures of Italy (Italy), Republic Pictures (USA)
Trivia: Released in the US on April 28, 1953. Based on the 1948 novel of the same name by Garland Roark.

April 4 – Lili (AUS)

Cast: Leslie Caron, Mel Ferrer, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Kurt Kasznar, Amanda Blake, Alex Gerry, Ralph Dumke, Wilton Graff, George Baxter
Director: Charles Walters
Production Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, distributed by Loew’s, Inc.
Trivia: Opened in wide release in the US on July 10, 1953. Oscar winner for Best Original Score, and nominated for five other Oscars including Best Director, Best Actress and Best Screenplay. Leslie Caron won the BAFTA for Best Foreign Actress.

April 4 – Stazione Termini (Italy)

Cast: Jennifer Jones, Montgomery Clift, Dick Beymer, Gino Cervi, Memmo Carotenuto, Paolo Stoppa, Oscar Blando, Nando Bruno, Enrico Glori, Enrico Viarisio
Director: Vittorio De Sica
Production Company: Columbia Pictures, Produzione Films Vittorio De Sica, Produzioni De Sica, Selznick Releasing Organization, distributed by Lux Film (Italy), Columbia Pictures (USA)
Trivia: Opened in the US on April 24, 1954 as Indiscretion of an American Wife. Based on the story Stazione Termini by Cesare Zavattini. Debut film of Richard Beymer, credited as Dick Beymer. First Hollywood film for Vittorio De Sica.

April 4 – Trouble Along the Way (USA)

Cast: John Wayne, Donna Reed, Charles Coburn, Tom Tully, Sherry Jackson, Marie Windsor, Tom Helmore, Dabbs Greer, Leif Erickson
Director: Michael Curtiz
Production Company: Warner Bros. Pictures
Trivia: Chuck Connors and James Dean appear in small roles.

1963

March 29 – Miracle of the White Stallions (USA)

Cast: Robert Taylor, Lilli Palmer, Curd Jürgens, Eddie Albert, James Franciscus, John Larch, Brigitte Horney, Philip Abbott, Douglas Fowley, Charles Régnier, Fritz Wepper
Director: Arthur Hiller
Production Company: Walt Disney Productions, distributed by Buena Vista Distribution
Trivia: Major parts of the movie were shot at the Hermesvilla palace in the Lainzer Tiergarten of Vienna, a former hunting area for the Habsburg nobility.

March 29 – The Wrong Arm of the Law (UK)

Cast: Peter Sellers, Lionel Jeffries, Bernard Cribbins, Davy Kaye, Nanette Newman, Bill Kerr, Ed Devereaux, Reg Lye, John Le Mesurier, Graham Stark
Director: Cliff Owen
Production Company: Robert Velaise Productions, Romulus Films, distributed by British Lion Film Corporation (UK), Continental Distributing (USA)
Trivia: Opened in the US on April 2, 1963. The film features an Aston Martin DB4 GT, which Peter Sellers bought after the production on the condition the engine was replaced with a 4.0-litre Lagonda Rapide.

April – Captain Sindbad (Austria)

Cast: Guy Williams, Heidi Brühl, Pedro Armendáriz, Abraham Sofaer, Bernie Hamilton, Helmuth Schneider, Margaret Jahnen, Rolf Wanka, Walter Barnes, James Dobson, Maurice Marsac
Director: Byron Haskin
Production Company: King Brothers Productions, distributed by Bavaria-Filmkunst Verleih (Austria), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (USA)
Trivia: Released in the US on June 19, 1953. Outtakes of the film’s ‘Dragon-Ogre’ were used briefly in the film Natural Born Killers.

April – The Sadist (USA)

Cast: Arch Hall Jr., Marilyn Manning, Richard Alden, Helen Hovey, Don Russell, Joe Jesgarz
Director: James Landis
Production Company: Fairway International Pictures
Trivia: Also known as Profile of Terror and Sweet Baby Charlie. Vilmos Zsigmond’s first full-length film as a director of photography, and he is credited as ‘William Zsigmond’.

April – The Small World of Sammy Lee (UK)

Cast: Anthony Newley, Julia Foster, Robert Stephens, Wilfrid Brambell, Warren Mitchell, Miriam Karlin, Kenneth J. Warren
Director: Ken Hughes
Production Company: Elgin Films, distributed by British Lion Film Corporation (UK), Seven Arts Productions (USA)
Trivia: Opened in the US on August 13, 1963. Based on a 1958 television play written and directed by Ken Hughes which also featured Anthony Newley in the lead.

April 2 – The Ugly American (USA)

Cast: Marlon Brando, Eiji Okada, Sandra Church, Pat Hingle, Arthur Hill, Jocelyn Brando, Kukrit Pramoj, Judson Pratt, Reiko Sato, George Shibata, Judson Laire, Philip Ober
Director: George Englund
Production Company: Universal Pictures
Trivia: Based on the 1958 novel The Ugly American by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer.

April 3 – It Happened at the World’s Fair (USA)

Cast: Elvis Presley, Joan O’Brien, Gary Lockwood, Vicky Tiu, Yvonne Craig, H. M. Wynant, Kam Tong, Edith Atwater, Guy Raymond, Dorothy Green
Director: Norman Taurog
Production Company: Ted Richmond Productions, distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Trivia: Filmed at the site of the Century 21 Exposition in Seattle, Washington. Kurt Russell’s film debut.

April 3 – My Six Loves (USA)

Cast: Debbie Reynolds, Cliff Robertson, David Janssen, Eileen Heckart, Hans Conried, Mary McCarty, John McGiver, Max Showalter, Alice Ghostley, Alice Pearce, Pippa Scott
Director: Gower Champion
Production Company: Paramount Pictures
Trivia: Gower Champion’s directorial debut. Based on the novel of the same name by Peter Funk.

April 4 – Bye Bye Birdie (USA)

The Kohlmar-Sidney Company

Cast: Janet Leigh, Dick Van Dyke, Ann-Margret, Maureen Stapleton, Bobby Rydell, Jesse Pearson, Ed Sullivan, Paul Lynde, Mary LaRoche, Michael Evans, Robert Paige
Director: George Sidney
Production Company: The Kohlmar-Sidney Company, distributed by Columbia Pictures
Trivia: Based on Michael Stewart’s book of the 1960 musical of the same name. Dick Van Dyke and Paul Lynde reprised their roles from the Broadway musical. It was also Van Dyke’s feature film debut. Whats My Line? host John Daly cameos as a reporter doing a live news report from the front of the US Capitol. The Ed Sullivan Show orchestra leader Ray Bloch cameos as himself. Elvis Presley was suggested for the role of Conrad Birdie, but his manager Colonel Tom Parker did not want Elvis taking on any roles that were parodies of himself or his career. The film is credited with making Ann-Margret a superstar, and she would appear with Presley immediately after this film in Viva Las Vegas. George Sidney was so smitten with his new star that Janet Leigh was upset that she was getting all the close-ups while Leigh was the lead star of the film. In the show, The Ed Sullivan Show scene comes before the end of Act I, but it is moved to the end of the movie. Oscar nominated for Best Scoring and Best Sound. Golden Globe nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy (Ann-Margret).

April 4 – Call Me Bwana (UK)

Cast: Bob Hope, Anita Ekberg, Edie Adams, Lionel Jeffries, Arnold Palmer, Orlando Martins, Percy Herbert, Paul Carpenter, Al Mulock
Director: Gordon Douglas
Production Company: Danjaq, Eon Productions, distributed by Rank Film Distributors (UK), United Artists (USA)
Trivia: Opened in the US on June 14, 1963. The only non-James Bond film made by Eon Productions until 2014’s The Silent Storm. The original contract with United Artists required Eon to make two films a year, one Bond and one non-Bond with Sean Connery approached to star, but he turned them all down not wanting to be in complete control of Eon. Most of the Dr. No crew worked on the film. Edie Adams’ original role, a big-game hunter, was given to Anita Ekberg, but Bob Hope had promised her a role so a new character was written specifically for her, a secret agent, of which she was unaware until she got to the set.

1973

April – Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing (UK)

Cast: Maggie Smith, Timothy Bottoms, Jaime de Mora y Aragón, Charles Baxter, Emiliano Redondo, Margaret Modlin, May Heatherly, Lloyd Brimhall, Elmer Modlin
Director: Alan J. Pakula
Production Company: Gus Productions, distributed by Columbia Pictures
Trivia: Opened in the US on April 19, 1973. Also known as The Widower in the US.

April – Stacey (USA)

Cast: Anne Randall, Marjorie Bennett, Anitra Ford, Alan Landers, James Westmoreland, Cristina Raines, Nicholas Georgiade, Richard LePore, John Alderman, Stewart Moss
Director: Andy Sidaris
Production Company: Penn-Pacific Corporation, Andy Sidaris Company, distributed by New World Pictures
Trivia: Re-released in 1975 as Stacy and Her Gangbusters. Material from the film was reworked in to 1985’s Malibu Express.

April 1 – Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies (USA)

Cast: Cliff Robertson, Pamela Franklin, Eric Shea, Bernadette Peters, Rosemary Murphy, Alice Ghostley, Royal Dano, Kelly Jean Peters, Don Keefer
Director: John Erman
Production Company: 20th Century Fox
Trivia: The first feature film credit for Steven Spielberg (story). He had hoped to direct the film himself but Fox head Richard D. Zanuck turned him down. The studio recut the film to give it a happier ending, and Spielberg said they should bury the film. He would not make another film for the studio until 2002’s Minority Report, and that was a co-production with DreamWorks. The directors, producers and screenwriter also disapproved of the studio’s re-edit and had their names removed from the credits.

April 4 – The Mack (USA)

Cast: Max Julien, Richard Pryor, Juanita Moore, Carol Speed, Roger E. Mosley, Dick Anthony Williams, Don Gordon, William Watson, George Murdock, Paul Harris
Director: Michael Campus
Production Company: Harbor Productions, distributed by Cinerama Releasing Corporation
Trivia: The film is considered by many to be the best film of the Blaxploitation era. The film was only released in about 20 mostly Black communities. The distributors avoided theaters in predominantly white neighborhoods. Michael Campus notes the film out-performed The Godfather in the cities which it played.

1983

March 30 – Star 80 (Sweden)

Cast: Mariel Hemingway, Eric Roberts, Cliff Robertson, Carroll Baker, Roger Rees, Stuart Damon, David Clennon, Josh Mostel, Jordan Christopher, Ernest Thompson, Neva Patterson, Liz Sheridan, Robert Picardo, Keenen Ivory Wayans
Director: Bob Fosse
Production Company: The Ladd Company, distributed by Warner-Columbia Film (Sweden), Warner Bros. Pictures (USA)
Trivia: Received a limited US release on November 10, 1983, but did not go into wide release until February 3, 1984. Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning Village Voice article ‘Death of a Playmate’ by Teresa Carpenter. The film was announced as The Dorothy Stratten Story. The death scene was filmed in the same house in which the real murder-suicide took place. Hugh Hefner did not like his depiction in the film and sued the producers. In accordance with the Stratten family’s wishes, Stratten’s mother is never mentioned by name in the film and the names of her sister and brother were changed. Other names were changed because of legal concerns. Carroll Baker’s first Hollywood film since 1967.

March 31 – Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (USA)

Cast: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Carol Cleveland, Simon Jones, Patricia Quinn, Judy Loe, Andrew Bicknell, Mark Holmes, Valerie Whittington, Matt Frewer, John Scott Martin
Director: Terry Jones
Production Company: Celandine Films, The Monty Python Partnership, distributed by Universal Pictures
Trivia: The last feature film to star all six Python members before the death of Graham Chapman in 1989. The Mr Creosote sketch was filmed at Porchester Hall, and hundreds of pounds of fake vomit had to be cleaned up on the last day due to a wedding being scheduled hours later.

April 1 – Born in Flames (West Germany)

Cast: Honey, Adele Bertei, Jean Satterfield, Flo Kennedy, Becky Johnston, Pat Murphy, Kathryn Bigelow, Hillary Hurst, Sheila McLaughlin, Marty Pottenger
Director: Lizzie Borden
Production Company: The Jerome Foundation, C.A.P.S., Young Filmmakers Ltd., distributed by First Run Features
Trivia: Opened in the US on November 9, 1983. This film marks the first screen appearance of Eric Bogosian. The film also features a rare acting performance by director Kathryn Bigelow.

April 1 – Heart Like a Wheel (USA)

Cast: Bonnie Bedelia, Beau Bridges, Leo Rossi, Hoyt Axton, Bill McKinney, Anthony Edwards, Tiffany Brissette, Ellen Geer
Director: Jonathan Kaplan
Production Company: Aurora Productions, distributed by 20th Century Fox
Trivia: Based on the life of drag racing driver Shirley Muldowney. Bonnie Bedelia was Golden Globe nominated for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, and the Costume Design received an Oscar nomination. Muldowney did not like Bedelia and would have preferred Jamie Lee Curtis playing her. She did feel the film was very good for the sport of racing even though it did not depict her very well.

April 1 – Man, Woman and Child (USA)

Cast: Martin Sheen, Blythe Danner, Craig T. Nelson, David Hemmings, Nathalie Nell, Maureen Anderman, Sebastian Dungan
Director: Dick Richards
Production Company: Gaylord Productions, distributed by Paramount Pictures
Trivia: Based on Erich Segal’s book of the same name.

1993

April 2 – Cop and a Half (USA)

Cast: Burt Reynolds, Norman D. Golden II, Ruby Dee, Holland Taylor, Ray Sharkey
Director: Henry Winkler
Production Company: Imagine Entertainment, distributed by Universal Pictures
Trivia: Ray Sharkey’s final role. Macaulay Culkin and Kurt Russell were originally set to star but dropped out. The script was rewritten for a female child, and rewritten again when Norman D. Golden II was cast.

April 2 – Jack the Bear (USA)

Cast: Danny DeVito, Robert J. Steinmiller Jr., Miko Hughes, Gary Sinise, Art LaFleur, Carl Gabriel Yorke, Stefan Gierasch, Andrea Marcovicci, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Reese Witherspoon, Lee Garlington, Christopher Lawford
Director: Marshall Herskovitz
Production Company: Twentieth Century Fox, American Filmworks, Lucky Dog Productions Inc., distributed by Twentieth Century Fox
Trivia: Based on the novel by Dan McCall.

April 2 – Jamon Jamon (Sweden)

Cast: Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Jordi Mollà, Stefania Sandrelli, Anna Galiena, Juan Diego, Tomás Penco
Director: Bigas Luna
Production Company: Lolafilms, Ovídeo TV, Sogepaq, distributed by Vídeo Mercury Films (Spain), Academy Entertainment (USA)
Trivia: Originally opened in Spain on September 4, 1992. Went into wide release in the US on February 4, 1994. Nominated for six Goya Awards including Best Film, Director, actor and Actress.

April 2 – Mr. Nanny (UK)

Cast: Hulk Hogan, Sherman Hemsley, Austin Pendleton, Madeline Zima, Robert Gorman, Mother Love, David Johansen, Raymond O’Connor
Director: Michael Gottlieb
Production Company: New Line Cinema, distributed by Entertainment Film Distributors (UK), New Line Cinema (USA)
Trivia: Originally released in the US on January 15, 1993. Professional wrestlers Afa Anoaʻi, Brutus Beefcake and George ‘The Animal’ Steele make credited appearances, while Jim ‘The Anvil’ Neidhart and Kamala appear uncredited. The working title of the film was Rough Stuff.

April 2 – Splitting Heirs (UK)

Cast: Rick Moranis, Eric Idle, Barbara Hershey, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Cleese, Sadie Frost, Stratford Johns, Brenda Bruce, William Franklyn
Director: Robert Young
Production Company: Prominent Features, distributed by United International Pictures (UK), Universal Pictures (USA)
Trivia: Opened in the US and Canada on April 30, 1993.

April 2 – The Adventures of Huck Finn (USA)

Cast: Elijah Wood, Courtney B. Vance, Robbie Coltrane, Jason Robards, Ron Perlman, Dana Ivey, Mary Louise Wilson, Anne Heche, James Gammon, Paxton Whitehead, Laura Bundy, Curtis Armstrong, Frances Conroy
Director: Stephen Sommers
Production Company: Walt Disney Pictures, distributed by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Trivia: Based on Mark Twain’s 1884 novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and focuses on at least three-fourths of the book. Filmed on location in Natchez, Mississippi, with the first day of production interrupted by the arrival of Hurricane Andrew.

April 2 – The Crush (USA)

Morgan Creek Productions

Cast: Cary Elwes, Alicia Silverstone, Jennifer Rubin, Kurtwood Smith, Gwynyth Walsh, Amber Benson, Matthew Walker
Director: Alan Shapiro
Production Company: Morgan Creek Productions, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
Trivia: Alicia Silverstone’s feature film debut.

2003

April 3 – What a Girl Wants (AUS)

Cast: Amanda Bynes, Colin Firth, Kelly Preston, Eileen Atkins, Anna Chancellor, Jonathan Pryce, Oliver James, Christina Cole, Sylvia Syms, Tara Summers, Ben Scholfield
Director: Dennie Gordon
Production Company: Warner Bros. Pictures, Gaylord Films, DiNovi Pictures, Gerber Pictures, HSI Tomorrow Film, Sloane Square Films, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
Trivia: Opened in the US and Canada on April 4, 2003. Based on the 1955 play The Reluctant Debutante by William Douglas-Home, and is the second adaptation after 1958’s The Reluctant Debutante.

April 4 – A Man Apart (USA/Canada/UK)

Cast: Vin Diesel, Larenz Tate, Timothy Olyphant, Geno Silva, Jacqueline Obradors, Karrine Steffans, Steve Eastin, Juan Fernández, Jeff Kober, Marco Rodríguez
Director: F. Gary Gray
Production Company: ‘DIA’ Productions GmbH & Co. KG, Joseph Nittolo Entertainment, New Line Cinema, Newman/Tooley Films, distributed by New Line Cinema (USA/Canada), Entertainment Film Distributors (UK)
Trivia: The original title of the movie was Diablo. New Line Cinema had to change the title to avoid a lawsuit of the role-playing hack and slash video game Diablo.

April 4 – Dysfunktional Family (USA)

Cast: Eddie Griffin
Director: George Gallo
Production Company: Brad Grey Pictures, Gold Circle Films, Heartland Productions, Permut Presentations, distributed by Miramax Films

April 4 – Phone Booth (USA/Canada)

Fox 2000 Pictures

Cast: Colin Farrell, Kiefer Sutherland, Forest Whitaker, Katie Holmes, Radha Mitchell, Paula Jai Parker, Tia Texada, John Enos III, Richard T. Jones, Keith Nobbs, Josh Pais
Director: Joel Schumacher
Production Company: Fox 2000 Pictures, Zucker/Netter Productions, distributed by 20th Century Fox
Trivia: The film was screened at TIFF on September 10, 2002, and at the South by Southwest Film Festival on March 11, 2003. The film’s original release date was November 2002, but delayed because of the D.C. sniper attacks in October of that year. Ben Foster appears uncredited as Big Q. Jared Leto played Bobby but his scene was deleted from the final cut. Writer Larry Cohen originally pitched the story idea to Alfred Hitchcock in the 1960s, which Hitch liked but did not move forward with it because Cohen could not establish a reason as to why the story had to be set in the single phone booth location. Over the years they would meet and Hitch would ask if he solved the problem, but it wasn’t until the 1990s, long after Hitchcock’s death, that he finally did. Michael Bay was one of the directors interested in the film but was removed from consideration when his first question was how they got the story out of the phone booth. Jim Carrey was originally to star but he dropped out, concerned the part was not right for him. Principal photography on the film was completed in ten days.

2013

March 29 – Himmatwala (USA)

Cast: Ajay Devgn, Tamannaah, Paresh Rawal, Mahesh Manjrekar, Adhyayan Suman, Zarina Wahab, Leena Jumani, Anil Dhawan
Director: Sajid Khan
Production Company: UTV Motion Pictures, Pooja Entertainment, distributed by UTV Motion Pictures
Trivia: The title translates to ‘the brave one’.

March 29 – Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor (USA)

Cast: Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Lance Gross, Brandy Norwood, Vanessa Williams, Robbie Jones, Renée Taylor, Ella Joyce
Director: Tyler Perry
Production Company: Tyler Perry Studios, distributed by Lionsgate
Trivia: Adapted from Tyler Perry’s play The Marriage Counselor. The film was originally scheduled to be released in 2012.

March 29 – The Host (USA)

Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Jake Abel, Max Irons, Frances Fisher, Chandler Canterbury, Diane Kruger, William Hurt, Boyd Holbrook, Scott Lawrence, Rachel Roberts
Director: Andrew Niccol
Production Company: IAV International, Silver Reel, Nick Wechsler Productions, Chockstone Pictures, distributed by Open Road Films
Trivia: Based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Stephenie Meyer.

March 29 – The Place Beyond the Pines (USA)

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Dane DeHaan, Emory Cohen, Ben Mendelsohn, Rose Byrne, Mahershala Ali, Bruce Greenwood, Ray Liotta, Harris Yulin, Robert Clohessy, Olga Merediz
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Production Company: Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Electric City Entertainment, Verisimilitude, distributed by Focus Features
Trivia: The role of Luke was written for Ryan Gosling, and the role of Peter Deluca was written for Ray Liotta. Production was briefly interrupted by Hurricane Irene, which flooded the equipment trucks.

March 29 – Wrong (USA)

Cast: Jack Plotnick, Éric Judor, Alexis Dziena, Steve Little, William Fichtner, Regan Burns, Mark Burnham, Arden Myrin, Maile Flanagan, Gary Valentine
Director: Quentin Dupieux
Production Company: Realitism Films, Canal+, Arte Cinema, distributed by Drafthouse Films
Trivia: Director Quentin Dupieux produced the film’s soundtrack under the name Mr. Oizo.

March 30 – Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods (USA)

English Voice Cast: Sean Schemmel, Jason Douglas, Ian Sinclair, Christopher R. Sabat, Monica Rial, Chuck Huber, Colleen Clinkenbeard, Kyle Hebert, Laura Bailey, Chris Cason
Director: Masahiro Hosoda
Production Company: Toei Animation, Fox International Productions, Shueisha, Fuji Television Network, Toei Animation, Bandai, Bandai Namco Games, distributed by FUNimation Entertainment
Trivia: The eighteenth feature film based on the Dragon Ball series, and the fourteenth to carry the Dragon Ball Z branding.

April 1 – The Hands You Shake (USA, limited)

Cast: James Morosini, Chris Fornataro, Jeff Randhawa, Garrett Coffey, Kevin Graber, Paul Stanko, Rachel Quinn
Director: Kent Lamm
Production Company: Oh Good Productions

April 2 – 13 Eerie (USA)

Cast: Katharine Isabelle, Michael Shanks, Brendan Fehr, Brendan Fletcher, Nick Moran, Jesse Moss
Director: Lowell Dean
Production Company: Don Carmody Productions, Mind’s Eye Entertainment, distributed by Front Row Filmed Entertainment
Trivia: Lowell Dean’s feature directorial debut.

April 3 – Free Angela and All Political Prisoners (France, documentary)

Cast: Angela Davis, Eisa Davis, Brandon Dirden
Director: Shola Lynch
Production Company: Realside Productions, De Films En Aiguille, Direct Cinéma, Direct 8, La Région Île-de-France, Canal+, The Ford Foundation, Black Entertainment Television, Overbrook Entertainment, Roc Nation, distributed by Jour2Fête (France), Codeblack Entertainment (USA)
Trivia: Opened in the US on April 5, 2013.

April 4 – Tattoo Nation (USA, documentary)

Cast: Don Ed Hardy, Freddy Negrete, Travis Barker, Mister Cartoon, C.W. Eldridge, Mark Mahoney, Corey Miller, Danny Trejo
Director: Eric Schwartz
Production Company: Visions Verite, distributed by Evan Saxon Productions

April 4 – The Brass Teapot (Russia)

Cast: Juno Temple, Michael Angarano, Alexis Bledel, Alia Shawkat, Bobby Moynihan, Ben Rappaport, Billy Magnussen, Steve Park, Lucy Walters, Claudia Mason, Debra Monk, Thomas Middleditch, Cristin Milioti
Director: Ramaa Mosley
Production Company: Atlantic Pictures, Laundry Films, Northern Lights Films, Northern Lights Films and Media Ventures, Queen Nefertari Productions, Union Entertainment Group, distributed by Magnolia Pictures (USA)
Trivia: Received a limited US release on April 5, 2013. Based upon the short story by Tim Macy.

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