Touchstone Pictures
It’s another not very impressive week for new movie releases, but there are a few here and there that are quite noteworthy. 1934 produced a highly fictionalized biopic of an Egyptian queen, 1954 gave Frank Sinatra a role different from what he’d normally played to that point, 1964 had a film that pushed the world past the brink of nuclear destruction, 1984 gave Sally Field another film in which people really liked her, 1994 produced another biopic that won an Oscar for a supporting role, 2004 gave us a film that’s even more well known as a TV series, and 2014 put a cursed doll in her own movie. Scroll down to see all the films that premiered this week across the decades, and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries.
1924
- October 3 – Dynamite Dan (USA, Sunset Productions)
- October 4 – Daughter of the East (AUS, Blue Bird Films)
- October 4 – Fisher’s Ghost (AUS, Longford-Lyell Productions)
- October 5 – Hearts of Oak (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
- October 5 – The Millionaire Cowboy (USA, Harry Garson Productions)
- October 5 – The Silent Watcher (USA, Frank Lloyd Productions)
- October 5 – Trouping with Ellen (USA, Eastern Productions)
- October 6 – Circe, the Enchantress (USA, Tiffany Productions)
- October 6 – Her Love Story (USA, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)
- October 6 – The Battling Orioles (USA, Hal Roach Studios)
Daughter of the East and Fisher’s Ghost have no known US theatrical release dates.
Prints of Dynamite Dan do exist and the film has been released on DVD. Boris Karloff appears at the beginning and end of the film. Daughter of the East is also known as The Boy of the Dardanelles, and is considered a lost film, with only 25 seconds of the film surviving today.
Fisher’s Ghost is also a lost film. It was the first of only three films from Longford-Lyell Productions. The film’s working title was The Life and Death of Frederick Fisher. Hearts of Oak is a lost film.
The Silent Watcher, a lost film, was based on the story ‘The Altar on the Hill’ by Mary Roberts Rinehart. Trouping with Ellen, also a lost film, was based on a short story by Earl Derr Biggers that appeared in The Saturday Evening Post. It was the first American production for Basil Rathbone.
Circe, the Enchantress was the last collaboration for director Robert Z. Leonard and star Mae Murray. The couple divorced soon after the film was completed. It was considered lost for decades but a print was found at a foreign film archive. Her Love Story was based on the short story ‘Her Majesty, the Queen’ by Mary Roberts Rinehart. It is considered lost.
1934
Paramount Pictures
- October 5 – Cleopatra (USA, Paramount Pictures)
- October 5 – Dangerous Corner (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
- October 5 – Student Tour (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
- October 8 – No Ransom (USA, Liberty Pictures)
- October 8 – That’s Gratitude (USA, Bryan Foy Productions)
- October 8 – The Path of Glory (UK, Dallas Bower Productions)
The Path of Glory has no known US theatrical release date.
Cleopatra was based on Bartlett Cormack’s adaptation of historical material. The film earned five Academy Award nominations, and was the first Cecil B. DeMille film to be nominated for Best Picture. Victor Milner won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. The production was difficult for star Claudette Colbert, who had contracted appendicitis during her previous film and could only stand for a few minutes at a time. Because of her fear of snakes, DeMille put off her death scene for as long as possible.
Dangerous Corner was based on a novel and play of the same name by J. B. Priestley. The Path of Glory was a quota quickie. It is listed as one of the British Film Institute’s “75 Most Wanted” lost films.
1944
- October 5 – Strange Affair (USA, Columbia Pictures)
- October 6 – Code of the Prairie (USA, Republic Pictures)
- October 6 – Music in Manhattan (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
- October 6 – They Live in Fear (USA, Columbia Pictures)
- October 7 – A WAVE, a WAC and a Marine (USA, Biltmore Productions)
- October 7 – The Last Ride (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
Strange Affair was based on Oscar Saul’s short story Stalk the Hunter. Music in Manhattan was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound Recording. The working title for They Live in Fear was America’s Children.
A WAVE, a WAC and a Marine marked the directorial debut of Phil Karlson. Lou Costello was the film’s producer but is billed as Sebastian Cristillo, his father’s name, so so his diehard movie fan father could see his name on the screen.
1954
- October 3 – The Human Jungle (USA, Allied Artists Pictures)
- October 6 – Beau Brummell (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
- October 6 – La bruja (Mexico, Internacional Cinematográfica)
- October 6 – Passion (USA, Benedict Bogeaus Productions)
- October 6 – Sitting Bull (USA, W.R. Frank Productions)
- October 7 – Suddenly (USA, Libra Productions Inc.)
- October 8 – Sabaka (Finland, Ferrin)
La bruja was released in the US in 1956 as The Witch. Suddenly first opened in the UK on September 17, 1954. Sabaka was released in the US on February 2, 1955.
Beau Brummell was based on the 1890 play by Clyde Fitch, which had been previously adapted as a silent film in 1924. The film was announced in 1951 with Stewart Granger set to star, but production was delayed so Granger could work on 1952’s Scaramouche and The Prisoner of Zenda, and 1953’s All the Brothers Were Valiant and Young Bess, as well as a Robinson Crusoe film that never materialized.
Passion had the working title of Where the Wind Dies. The film was to be directed by Harmon Jones, but the duties eventually went to Allan Dwan.
Sitting Bull, a highly fictionalized account of the war between Sitting Bull and American forces, was the first independent production to be filmed in the CinemaScope process. Boris Karloff was announced in the title role, but J. Carrol Naish ended up reprising his role from Annie Get Your Gun. Credited as ‘Famous T.V. Star’, Iron Eyes Cody played Crazy Horse. The 1965 film The Great Sioux Massacre used stock footage from Sitting Bull.
Suddenly marks star Frank Sinatra’s first role as a ‘heavy’ in a dramatic film. Co-star Paul Frees was better known for his voice-over work for Disney and as cartoon characters like Boris Badenov from Rocky and Bullwinkle. A rumor had persisted that Sinatra asked for the film to be withdrawn from circulation after learning Lee Harvey Oswald had seen it before shooting President Kennedy. Sinatra was said to have bought all remaining copies of the film and had them destroyed, but this was untrue. The film’s copyright was not renewed and it fell into the public domain. Hal Roach Studios colorized the film in 1986, infamously rendering Sinatra’s blue eyes brown. A completely restored version of the film from the camera negative was released on Blu-ray in 2018.
Sabaka was originally to be titled Gunga Ram, which the studio felt was too close to Gunga Din, and was renamed The Hindu for its 1953 premiere.
1964
Coliumbia Pictures
- October 7 – Fail Safe (USA, Columbia Pictures)
- October 7 – The Candidate (USA, Cosnat Productions)
- October 8 – The Outrage (USA, Martin Ritt Productions)
Fail Safe is based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler. The film has no original score. Stock footage of bombers were used as the Air Force declined to participate in the production. Stanley Kubrick and Peter George filed a lawsuit against the film citing its resemblance to George’s Red Alert, upon which Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove was based. The case was settled out of court with the result that Columbia Pictures, which had financed Dr. Strangelove, would buy Fail Safe. Kubrick insisted the studio release his film first. The film was remade as a live CBS television event, broadcast in black-and-white, in 2000 with George Clooney and Noah Wyle.
The Candidate is also known as The Playmates for the Candidate, Party Girls for the Candidate, and Kisses for the Candidate. The Outrage is a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 Japanese film Rashomon, based on stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa.
1974
- No new films were released this week in 1974.
1984
- October 5 – Eureka (USA, Sunley Productions Ltd.)
- October 5 – Places in the Heart (USA/Canada, Delphi II Productions)
- October 5 – Teachers (USA, Aaron Russo Productions)
Eureka first opened in the UK on May 20, 1983. It was withheld from release in the US as distributor United Artists wasn’t sure how to market the film. It was also given an X-rating due to its graphic depictions of violence.
Places in the Heart earned seven Oscar nominations, winning Best Actress for Sally Field (her second Oscar), and Best Original Screenplay (Robert Benton). It was also nominated for Best Picture and Director. It also earned three Golden Globe nominations with Field again winning in the Best Actress – Drama category.
1994
- October 7 – A Troll in Central Park (USA, Don Bluth Ireland Ltd.)
- October 7 – Ed Wood (USA/Canada, Touchstone Pictures)
- October 7 – Only You (USA, TriStar Pictures)
- October 7 – The Specialist (USA, Jerry Weintraub Productions)
A Troll in Central Park was released in some markets as Stanley’s Magic Garden. The film was a box office bomb in the US, grossing just $71,368. The film was completed in 1992, but not released until 1984.
Tim Burton was initially producing Ed Wood with Michael Lehmann (Heathers) directing, but Lehmann had schedule conflicts with his film Airheads and had to bow out, with Burton taking over. The film was originally developed at Columbia Pictures but the studio put the project into turnaround because Burton wanted to film in black-and-white. The film was taken to Disney, which produced through Touchstone Pictures. With an $18 million budget, Disney did not feel it was much of a risk and granted Burton full creative control. Burton also refused to accept a salary. The film still lost money but has gone on to become a cult classic and is now considered one of Burton’s best films. The film was inspired by Rudolph Grey’s Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood Jr. Burton based Wood’s relationship in the film with Bela Lugosi on his own relationship with Vincent Price, which had a major impact on Burton. At the time Burton had been asked to direct Mary Reilly at Columbia, with Winona Ryder starring, but he dropped out when the studio became interested in Julia Roberts as the lead. Lugosi’s son, and other of his acquaintances, said the film’s depiction is inaccurate: Lugosi never used profanity, owned small dogs or slept in a coffin. Dolores Fuller did not like her representation in the film by Sarah Jessica Parker, who played what has been described as a ‘lively, savvy, humorous woman’ as a ‘sitcom moron’ for the first half of the movie and as ‘judgmental and wholly unpleasant’ in later scenes, but Fuller still gave the film a positive review. The film won Oscars for Martin Landau’s performance of Lugosi, and for the Makeup by Rick Baker, Ve Neill and Yolanda Toussieng. Landau also won a Golden Globe, while the film and star Johnny Depp were nominated.
The Specialist is loosely based on ‘The Specialist’ series of novels by John Shirley, with inspiration from the films The Conversation and Last Tango in Paris. Mario Van Peebles was attached to direct the film in 1991 but left the project. David Fincher was briefly attached but was rejected by the producers after the failure of Alien 3. The Hughes Brothers turned down an offer to direct. Steven Seagal was offered to direct and star in the film, but he wanted the sex scenes toned down and $9 million, which the studio was not willing to pay. Sylvester Stallone was offered the lead role instead, with Luis Llosa directing. Roger Moore wrote in his autobiography that he was offered a role in the film but turned it down, admiting he was happy he did after he saw the film. The film was nominated for five Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Picture and Actor. It won two for Worst Actress (Sharon Stone) and Worst Screen Couple (Stallone and Stone, tying with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in Interview with the Vampire).
2004
- October 6 – Bride and Prejudice (UAE, Inside Track Films)
- October 6 – Taxi (USA, Twentieth Century Fox)
- October 8 – Around the Bend (USA, limited, Warner Independent Pictures)
- October 8 – Friday Night Lights (USA, Friday Night Lights LLC)
- October 8 – Raise Your Voice (USA, ChickFlicks Productions)
- October 8 – The Motorcycle Diaries (Canada, limited, FilmFour)
Bride and Prejudice received a limited US theatrical release on February 11, 2005. The Motorcycle Diaries first opened in Norway on February 6, 2004, and was released in the US on October 15.
Bride and Prejudice is a Bollywood-style adaptation of Jane Austen’s 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice. Taxi, a remake of the 1998 French film of the same name, marks the film debut of Gisele Bündchen.
Friday Night Lights is based on the book Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream (1990) by H. G. Bissinger, which also inspired the TV series Friday Night Lights.
The Motorcycle Diaries (‘Diarios de motocicleta’) is based primarily on Che Guevara’s trip diary of the same name, with additional context supplied by Traveling with Che Guevara: The Making of a Revolutionary by Alberto Granado. Gael Garcia Bernal had agreed to play Guevara after previously playing him in the TV movie Fidel. The film’s song ‘Al otro lado del rio’ won the Oscar for Best Original Song.
2014
Atomic Monster
- October 3 – Annabelle (USA, Atomic Monster)
- October 3 – Gone Girl (USA, New Regency Production)
- October 3 – Left Behind (USA, Stoney Lake Entertainment)
- October 3 – The Good Lie (USA, limited, Alcon Entertainment)
The Good Lie first opened in Israel on October 2, 2014.
Annabelle is a spin-off and prequel to 2013’s The Conjuring. The film was shot in sequence so that the actors were always aware of their emotional arcs. The film has had a prequel of its own, Annabelle: Origins (2017) and a sequel, Annabelle Comes Home (2019).
Gone Girl is based on Gillian Flynn’s 2012 novel of the same name. This was Carrie Coon’s film debut. As part of the deal to secure the rights, Flynn negotiated that she would be responsible for the first draft of the screenplay. When David Fincher came on as director, he decided to work with Flynn to continue to develop the screenplay instead of hiring someone else. One of the film’s producers stated that Fincher took an average of 50 takes for each scene. Rosamund Pike earned Oscar, BAFTA, Critics Choice, Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations for her performance.
Left Behind is based on the 1995 novel of the same name written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. This is the second film adaptation of the novel, but does not follow the book’s chronology, and the character Nicolae Carpathia does not appear in the film. The film earned three Razzie nominations for Worst Picture, Worst Screenplay and Worst Actor (Nicolas Cage).
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