Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #229 :: December 12•18

Walt Disney Productions

With Christmas approaching, the studios are rolling out the big movies to draw crowds and court awards organizations, particularly in the latter part of the century. Things really get busy in 1964, which gave an actor and actress their signature roles, one of them honored with nomination and the other scoring major wins. 1974 produced a big budget disaster epic that also scored Oscar nominations and wins, as well as a beloved comedy that was also honored with nominations. 1984 was a big year with three sci-fi films, one a cult classic today, one mostly forgotten, and one scoring an Oscar nomination for its lead actor. 1994 saw a pair of brothers make their film debut with a comedy about a pair of brothers, while 2004 had a hard-hitting Best Picture winner, and 2014 closed out the second trilogy of a beloved fantasy film and book franchise. Scroll down the list to see all the films released this week, learn a bit more about some of them, and then tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries.

1924

• December 12 – Secrets of the Night (USA, Universal Pictures)
• December 14 – Flashing Spurs (USA, Independent Pictures)
• December 14 – Love’s Wilderness (USA, Corinne Griffith Productions)
• December 14 – The White Sheep (USA, Hal Roach Studios)
• December 15 – Geared to Go (USA, Harry J. Brown Productions)
• December 15 – I Am the Man (USA, Chadwick Pictures Corporation)
• December 15 – Playthings of Desire (USA, Burton King Productions)
• December 15 – Tainted Money (USA, Perfection Pictures)
• December 15 – The Triflers (USA, B.P. Schulberg Productions)
• December 15 – Thundering Romance (USA, Action Pictures)
• December 15 – Tongues of Flame (USA, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)
• December 18 – A Lost Lady (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• December 18 – The Law and the Lady (USA, Marlborough Productions)

Lost films: Flashing Spurs, I Am the Man, Tongues of Flame, A Lost Lady

Status unknown: Geared to Go, Thundering Romance, The Law and the Lady

Secrets of the Night was adapted from the play The Nightcap written by Guy Bolton and Max Marcin. The film was thought lost until a complete print was rediscovered in a basement in Mississauga, Ontario, in 2017. A fragment of Love’s Wilderness is held in an American collection. A copy of The White Sheep is held by a private collector and it has been released on DVD.

A complete print of Playthings of Desire is listed in the Library of Congress. A complete copy of Tainted Money is held at the Archives Du Film Du CNC. A print of The Triflers is preserved in the Library of Congress collection.

1934

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

• December 12 – Hell in the Heavens (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• December 12 – Radio Parade of 1935 (UK, British International Pictures)
• December 13 – Music in the Air (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• December 14 – Father Brown, Detective (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• December 14 – Little Men (USA, Mascot Pictures)
• December 14 – One Hour Late (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• December 14 – Red Morning (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
• December 14 – The Gay Bride (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• December 14 – The Old Curiosity Shop (UK, British International Pictures)
• December 15 – Mills of the Gods (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• December 15 – Murder in the Clouds (USA, First National Pictures)
• December 15 – Sing Sing Nights (USA, Trem Carr Pictures)
• December 15 – Sons of Steel (USA, Chesterfield Motion Pictures Corporation)
• December 15 – Strike Me Lucky (AUS, Cinesound Productions Limited)

Radio Parade of 1935, also known as Radio Follies, was screened at the Chicago International Film Festival in October 1983, but had no known US theatrical release. The Old Curiosity Shop was released in the US on December 21, 1935. Strike Me Lucky has no known US theatrical release date.

Hell in the Heavens was based on the 1931 stage play Flieger by Hermann Roßman and the 1933 English-language adaptation The Ace by Miles Malleson. Some stock footage from 1930’s Hell’s Angels was integrated into the film. Radio Parade of 1935 includes two sequences that were filmed in Dufaycolor, an early British color process for film. Red Morning was based on a story by Gouverneur Morris, a Founding Father of the United States.

Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson and Gene Lockhart have small roles in The Gay Bride. The film’s working title was Repeal, which was the name of the story by Charles Francis Coe upon which it was based, referring to the repeal of Prohibition. The Old Curiosity Shop is based on Charles Dickens’ 1841 novel of the same name.

Much of the aerial photography by Elmer Dyer for Murder in the Clouds would be reused in future Warners programmers such as Fly-Away Baby and Fugitive in the Sky. Strike Me Lucky, originally titled Swastikas for Luck, was the one and only film to star popular Australian stage comic Roy Rene.

1944

• December 14 – Dancing in Manhattan (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• December 15 – The Keys of the Kingdom (USA, Twentieth Century Fox)
• December 15 – The Old Texas Trail (USA, Universal Pictures)
• December 15 – The Town Went Wild (USA, Roth-Greene-Rouse Productions)
• December 18 – Dangerous Passage (USA, Pine-Thomas Productions)
• December 18 – Double Exposure (USA, Pine-Thomas Productions)
• December 18 – Here Come the Waves (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• December 18 – Hi, Beautiful (USA, Universal Pictures)
• December 18 – Music for Millions (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

Dancing in Manhattan was originally titled Tonight We Dance. The Keys of the Kingdom is based on the 1941 novel of the same name by A. J. Cronin. Alfred Hitchcock had hoped to direct the film but chose to do Lifeboat instead. Music for Millions was Oscar nominated for Best Original Screenplay.

1954

• December 12 – Four Guns to the Border (USA, Universal-International Pictures)
• December 15 – Hell’s Outpost (USA, Republic Pictures)
• December 16 – Long John Silver (AUS, Treasure Island Pictures)
• December 16 – There’s No Business Like Show Business (USA, 20th Century Fox)
• December 18 – Sign of the Pagan (USA, Universal International Pictures)

Long John Silver was released in the US on December 21, 1954 as Long John Silver’s Return to Treasure Island. Though not produced by Disney, Robert Newton reprises the title role he originally played in the Disney film Treasure Island. Rod Taylor is credited as Rodney Taylor. The film was shot in CinemaScope, and was followed by a TV series with the same actors titled The Adventures of Long John Silver. Byron Haskin directed both this and the Disney film, and at least one episode of the series.

The title There’s No Business Like Show Business is taken from the famous song heard in the stage and film musical Annie Get Your Gun, which was originally sung by Ethel Merman, who also performed it in the movie. The film was Fox’s first in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color. The film received three Oscar nominations.

Sign of the Pagan was Universal’s first picture to be filmed in CinemaScope.

1964

• December 12 – Raiders from Beneath the Sea (USA, Lippert Pictures)
• December 14 – Zorba the Greek (Greece, Twentieth Century Fox)
• December 16 – The Disorderly Orderly (USA, Jerry Lewis Productions)
• December 17 – Mary Poppins (UK, Walt Disney Productions)
• December 18 – Emil and the Detectives (USA, Walt Disney Productions)
• December 18 – Get Yourself a College Girl (USA, Four Leaf Productions)
• December 18 – Das Verrätertor (West Germany, Rialto Film)

Zorba the Greek, known in Greece as Alexis Zorbas, was released in the US on December 17, 1964. Mary Poppins was released in the US on June 18, 1965. Das Verrätertor was released in the US in November 1966 as Traitor’s Gate.

Zorba the Greek is based on the 1946 novel The Life and Times of Alexis Zorba by Nikos Kazantzakis. The film was produced in Greece for less than $1 million, and grossed more than nine times its budget in its US release. Anthony Quinn’s performance as Zorba has been called one of the most iconic in film history. The film was later adapted into a Tony Award winning stage musical. Simone Signoret began filming the role of Madame Hortense, but Lila Kedrova replaced her early in the production. The film earned seven Oscar nominations including three for Michael Cacoyannis (Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay), and Best Actor (Quinn), winning three — Supporting Actress (Kedrova), Art Direction, Black-and-White, and Cinematography, Black-and-White. It also received three BAFTA nominations, and five Golden Globe nominations, as well as a Grammy nomination for the film’s score. The Academy Film Archive preserved the film in 2004.

Mary Poppins is based on the P. L. Travers’ book series. The film was shot entirely at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. Walt Disney’s attempts to secure the rights from Travers to produce the movie are depicted in the feature film Saving Mr. Banks, starring Tom Hanks as Disney and Emma Thompson as Travers. Travers finally relented and Disney secured the rights in 1961. Pre-production and music creation took about two years, and Travers obtaind script-approval rights in the deal. Travers was not thrilled with many aspects of the production and hated the animated sequences so much that she refused to sell rights to any of the other books in the series. Julie Harris, Angela Lansbury and Bette Davis were considered for the role of Mary, and Cary Grant was Disney’s choice for the role of Bert, while Laurence Harvey and Anthony Newley were also considered. Julie Andrews made her film debut as Mary after being passed over for the role of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, despite having originated the role on Broadway. Andrews was three months pregnant when Disney offered her the role, and assured her he was willing to wait until after she gave birth to begin production. In addition to Mary, Andrews also provided the whistling of the bird during the ‘A Spponful of Sugar’ song, and she was one of the Pearly singers during ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’. David Tomlinson (Mr. Banks) also provided the voice of Mary’s umbrella, Admiral Boom’s first mate, and numerous other characters. The three Cockney geese in the ‘Jolly Holiday’ number are all sung by Marni Nixon (who, ironically, sang for Audrey Hepburn in the film adaptation of My Fair Lady). Songwriter Richard Sherman voiced a penguin and a Pearly, while brother Robert spoke one line for Jane Darwell, the bird lady, as her voice was too soft to be heard on the soundtrack. Dick Van Dyke was cast as Bert after Disney saw his work on his TV sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show. After winning the role, Van Dyke lobbied to play the senior Mr. Dawes role, but Disney felt he was too young. Van Dyke won him over after doing a screen test. Van Dyke had difficulty doing the Cockney accent, and while actor J. Pat O’Malley provided coaching, Van Dyke’s accent is still widely considered to be one of the worst accents in film history. Travers was not invited to the film’s premiere, but obtained a ticket from a Disney executive. After the screening she approached Disney and told him the animated sequences had to go, to which Disney replied, ‘Pamela, the ship has sailed’, and walked away. The film received 13 Oscar nominations, the most for any Disney film, and the only film to earn a Best Picture nomination during Disney’s lifetime. Andrews won the Best Actress Oscar (Hepburn wasn’t even nominated for My Fair Lady), and the film also won for Editing, Music Score, and Original Song (‘Chim Chim Cher-ee’). Andrews also received a BAFTA for Most Promising Newcomer, and she also won the Golden Globe for Best Actress over Hepburn (who was nominated). The film also received three additional Golden Globe nominations. The film’s soundtrack also won its two Grammy nominations for Best Recording for Children and Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television show.

Get Yourself a College Girl was also released as The Swingin’ Set, and is also known as Watusi A Go-Go and The Go Go Set.

1974

• December 12 – Barry McKenzie Holds His Own (AUS, Reg Grundy Productions)
• December 14 – The Towering Inferno (Canada, Irwin Allen Productions)
• December 15 – Young Frankenstein (USA/Canada, Gruskoff/Venture Films)
• December 16 – Alvin Rides Again (AUS, Bilcock & Copping Film Productions)
• December 16 – The Island at the Top of the World (UK, Walt Disney Productions)
• December 18 – Steppenwolf (USA, D-R Films)
• December 18 – The Front Page (USA, Universal Pictures)

Barry McKenzie Holds His Own was released in the US on January 24, 1985. The Towering Inferno was released in the US on December 19, 1974. Alvin Rides Again has no known US theatrical release date. The Island at the Top of the World was released in the US on December 20, 1974.

The Towering Inferno was adapted by Stirling Silliphant from the novels The Tower by Richard Martin Stern and The Glass Inferno by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson. Warner Bros. purchased the rights to The Tower for $350,000, winning a bidding war between the studio, 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures. Irwin Allen, who had a success in 1972 with The Poseidon Adventure, had urged Fox to outbid Warners. Two months later, Fox received a submission for The Glass Inferno, which Allen said was basically the same story and Fox bought the rights for $400,000. Allen worried that both films would cannibalize the audience for each and urged studio exec at WB and Fox to join forces to make one film. The studios agreed in an historic deal, the first major studio collaboration, with Fox taking domestic and Canadian release rights, while Warners took international distribution. Several actors from The Poseidon Adventure appeared in small roles, including Ernie Orsatti who was familiar as the man falling into a lighted skylight when the Poseidon capsizes. Stars Paul Newman and Steve McQueen were each paid $1 million, and Newman’s son Scott played the acrophobic fireman afraid to rappel down the elevator shaft. Fred Astaire earned his only Oscar nomination for his role, despite his decades-long career, and he also won the BAFTA and Golden Globe. Newman, McQueen and William Holden all wanted top billing, but Holden was refused as Newman and McQueen were bigger stars at that point. To give both men ‘top billing’, their names were arranged on screen diagonally, with McQueen at the lower left and Newman upper right, the first time a ‘staggered but equal’ billing was used. The film earned eight Oscar nominations including Best Picture, winning for Cinematography, Editing and Original Song (‘We May Never Love Like This Again’). It received four BAFTA nominations with the win for Astaire and John Williams’ score. Of the five Golden Globe nominations and Astaire’s win, Susan Flannery also won New Star of the Year – Actress.

Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein used much of the lab equipment that was created and used in 1931’s Frankenstein. Brooks also chose to shoot the film in black-and-white, using 1930s-style opening credits and scene transitions such as iris outs, wipes, and fades to black. The film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2003. When Gene Wilder suggested another Frankenstein film to Brooks, he said there had already been ‘the son of, cousin of, brother-in-law of’ and they didn’t need another but when Wilder suggested the story of a grandson who didn’t want anything to do with the family legacy, Brooks felt it could be funny. One line of the film when someone says they know what Frankenstein is up to based on previous experience is a reference to the five classic Frankenstein films from Universal Pictures. Brooks felt the Monster singing and dancing to ‘Puttin’ On the Ritz’ was too silly, but gave in to Wilder’s arguments. Unlike his other films, Brooks does not appear onscreen in a significant role, he appears as a German villager in one scene, but provides several voice parts. A deal was initially set with Columbia Pictures but the studio refused a budget higher than $1.75 million, Brooks wanted $2.3 million, and was not happy making it in black-and-white. Brooks and producer Michael Gruskoff took the film to Fox and they agreed to a higher budget. Wilder wrote the role of Igor (pronounced Eye-gore) for Marty Feldman, and Feldman added a comic twist to his character by constantly swapping the side the hump on his back was located. Igor’s line, ‘Walk this way’, inspired the song of the same name by Aerosmith. The film earned Oscar nominations for Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound.

Pre-production for The Island at the Top of the World lasted several years, with a pre-production trailer released in 1968. The film was based on the 1961 novel The Lost Ones, written by Ian Cameron. The novel was later re-issued with the film’s title as a tie-in promotion. There are several changes from the book to the movie including the time period, 1960 in the book and 1907 in the movie, and location, Prince Patrick Island in the book and Ellesmere Island in the movie. The Hyperion airship also does not appear in the book. The film earned an Oscar nomination for Art Direction.

Steppenwolf was based on Hermann Hesse’s 1927 novel of the same name. The film employs cutting edge, for the time, visual effects. Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon and Timothy Leary were considered for the lead role of Harry Haller, but Max Von Sydow was cast. The film was produced in English, but none of the principal cast were native English speakers. In a marketing disaster, the color of the film’s prints came out incorrectly, and the film was little seen outside of art houses. Disappointed with how the film, and a second based on a Hesse novel (Siddhartha) turned out, rights were never given for any other Hesse novel to be adapted for the screen.

The Front Page is based on Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s 1928 play of the same name, which was filmed in 1931 under the original title, and again in 1940 as His Girl Friday. Allen Jenkins appeared in the 1928 production and has a small role in the 1974 film, his last before his death in July 1974. Screenwriter and director Billy Wilder insisted all of the dialogue be delivered exactly as written with no overlapping. Star Jack Lemmon wished they had been allowed to overlap, feeling it would have made the film better. Wilder had a tendency to ‘cut in camera’, a form of spontaneously editing, which resulted in a minimum of footage being shot, and allowed the editor to assemble a rough cut of the film four days after principal photography had ended. The film earned Golden Globe nominations for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy, losing to The Longest Yard, with stars Lemmon and Walter Matthau competing in the Best Actor category, losing to Art Carney for Harry and Tonto.

1984

Dino De Laurentiis Corporation

• December 12 – Nemo (France, Christel Films)
• December 12 – Ordeal by Innocence (Japan, London-Cannon Films)
• December 13 – Tale of a Tiger (AUS, Producer’s Circle Production)
• December 14 – Mass Appeal (USA, David Foster Productions)
• December 14 – Dune (USA/UK/AUS, Dino De Laurentiis Corporation)
• December 14 – Runaway (USA, Delphi III Productions)
• December 14 – Starman (US, Delphi II Productions)
• December 14 – The Cotton Club (USA, American Zoetrope)

Nemo, also known as Dream One, has no known US theatrical release date. Ordeal by Innocence was released in the US on May 17, 1985. Tale of a Tiger has no known US theatrical release date.

Dune is based on the 1965 Frank Herbert novel of the same name. Kyle MacLachlan makes his film debut. David Lynch was suggested to direct the film based on his work on The Elephant Man. Lynch had not heard of the book, but read it and loved it, spending six months writing the script with Eric Bergren and Christopher De Vore. Two drafts were produced but the team split over creative differences. Lynch produced five more drafts, intending the story to be split across two films. Val Kilmer was the top choice for Paul Atreides until MacLachlan screen-tested. Aldo Ray was cast as Gurney Halleck, but due to his alcoholism was replaced with Patrick Stewart. Glenn Close tested for the role of Lady Jessica, but lost to Francesca Annis. Helena Bonham Carter was originally cast as Princess Irulan, but she left due to scheduling conflicts with A Room with a View. Virgina Madsen replaced her and later said she had been contracted for three films, with the producers planning to make the film series a ‘Star Wars for adults’. Lynch’s rough cut ran more than four hours, with his intended cut clocking in at almost three hours. The studio and producers expected a standard two-hour movie and made significant cuts and filmed additional scenes to simplify plot points, and tacked on a new introduction with Madsen. Lynch disowned the various versions of the film, and contrary to rumor made no other version than the theatrical cut. A two-part TV version was created with Lynch demanding his name be removed from the credits, replaced with Alan Smithee. Other recuts of the film credit Judas Booth as director. Universal has approached Lynch to produce an authorized Director’s Cut, but he has refused and prefers to not discuss the film. The film did receive an Oscar nomination for Best Sound.

Director/Writer Michael Crichton deliberately left vague how far into the future Runaway is set, but his personal opinion was that it was just about a year ahead. Starman was in development for five years. Jeff Bridges received a Best Actor Oscar nomination.

The Cotton Club was notorious for going over its budget and taking five years to complete. Robert Altman was originally selected to direct the film by producer Robert Evans, who planned to direct the film himself after Altman departed. Evans ultimately decided he didn’t want to direct and called Francis Ford Coppola at the last minute, despite their contentious relationship on the Godfather films. Coppola needed the money after sinking his own money into One from the Heart, which left him deeply in debt and bankrupted his studio, Zoetrope Studios. $13 million had already been spent on the production before Coppola stepped in. Shady behind-the-scenes financing and the murder of vaudeville promoter Roy Radin are detailed in The Cotton Club Murder podcast. Coppola spent $500,000 of his own money to restore the film after discovering a Betamax tape that ran 25 minutes longer than the theatrical version, releasing The Cotton Club: Encore in 2017. The original film earned Golden Globe nominations for Best Picture (Drama) and Director, and Oscar nominations for Art Direction and Editing.

1994

• December 16 – Dumb and Dumber (USA, New Line Cinema)
• December 16 – Speechless (USA, Forge)

John Hughes originally conceived Dumb and Dumber before selling it to the Farrelly Brothers and asking for his name to be removed from the writing credits. The brothers had no idea who Jim Carrey was, only as ‘the white guy’ from In Living Color, but were interested in casting him after seeing Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Based on that film’s success, Carrey negotiated a $7 million salary for the film. Nicolas Cage was considered as his co-star but the studio decided against him and his $2 million fee and signed Jeff Daniels, a noted dramatic actor at that point, for about $50,000. New Line did not want Daniels and low-balled the salary hoping he would refuse, but Carrey and the Farrelly’s were adamant that he be cast.

Michael Keaton joined Speechless after dropping out of Batman Forever.

2004

• December 15 – Million Dollar Baby (Canada, Malpaso Productions)
• December 17 – Flight of the Phoenix (USA, Optional Pictures)
• December 17 – Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (USA, Scott Rudin Productions)
• December 17 – Spanglish (USA, Gracie Films)

Million Dollar Baby opened in limited release in the US on December 15, 2004 for awards consideration, expanding nationwide on January 28, 2005. Hilary Swank traind for five hours every day for her role as a boxer, gaining 19 pounds of muscle, and winding up with a potentially life-threatening staphylococcus infection out of blisters on her foot. She did not tell director and co-star Clint Eastwood about the infection because she thought it would be out of character for Maggie. The film earned seven Oscar nominations and won Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Supporting Actor (Morgan Freeman). It also revved five Golden Globe nominations, winning Best Actress and Director.

Flight of the Phoenix is a remake of the 1965 film of the same name, both based on the 1964 novel The Flight of the Phoenix, by Elleston Trevor. The film endured several mishaps during production including the sinking of a ferry transporting the aircraft fuselage across a river, Jared Padalecki flipping his vehicle, and damage to the wing of the C-119G N15501 when a truck backed under it. Second unit cameraman Ciaran Barry was severely injured when an 800-pound model plane crashed into a barrier intended to protect him and his equipment, successfully suing for his injuries to the tune of nearly $4 million.

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events is based on the first three Lemony Snicket novels by Daniel Handler, writing as Lemony Snicket. Handler adapted the screenplay and courted Jim Carrey for the role of Count Olaf. Carrey shaved his head to make the prosthetic makeup more comfortable and easy to apply and remove. Director Brad Silberling restricted the use of green screen and digital effects so the child actors could work in a real environment, with the mansion taking space on two soundstages, and the graveyard constructed on the Paramount back lot. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning for Best Makeup.

Adam Sandler was cast in Spanglish after director James L. Brooks saw his dramatic performance in Punch-Drunk Love. Paz Vega could not speak English when she was cast and used an interpreter on set to communicate with Brooks. Cloris Leachman replaced Anne Bancroft, who dropped out due to illness. Hans Zimmer received a Golden Globe nomination for his score.

2014

WingNut Films

• December 12 – Exodus: Gods and Kings (USA, Scott Free Productions)
• December 12 – The Color of Time (USA, limited, Rabbit Bandini Productions)
• December 12 – Tip Top (USA, limited, Les Films Pelléas)
• December 12 – Top Five (USA, IAC Films)
• December 17 – Goodbye to All That (USA, limited, Epoch Films)
• December 17 – The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (USA, WingNut Films)

The Color of Time, known as Forever Love in the UK, first opened in Australia on May 14, 2014. Tip Top first opened in France on September 11, 2013. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies began opening in international markets on December 10, 2014.

Exodus: Gods and Kings, inspired by the Biblical episode of The Exodus, was criticized for ‘whitewashing’ its characters with a primarily Caucasian cast. It was banned in Egypt and the UAE for ‘historical inaccuracies’. 1,500 visual effects shots were used to increase crowd size (Moses walk through the parted Red Sea which included Christan Bale and 40 others with CGI creating a crowd of 400,000, a 180-foot wave and horses and chariots) and the plagues of hail, locusts and frogs, although 400 live frogs were used on set. Thirty special cannons were built to fire polymer balls to bounce and shatter with the same characteristics as an ice ball.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is the final installment of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy, and serves as a prequel to his Lord of the Rings trilogy. The film was originally subtitled There and Back Again. The trilogy was originally planned as a two-part adaptation of The Hobbit. The film received one Oscar nomination for Best Sound Editing.