Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #233 :: January 9•15

Marvel Enterprises

It was a big week for new movies, with quite a few carry overs from the previous year that got limited releases for ‘Oscar season’. A 1935 Oscar nominee suffered a major loss during early production, Rita Hayworth went full Technicolor and Bugs Bunny met Hitler in 1945. 1955 had a low-budget thriller directed by a future TV star, and had one film whose title angered English teachers across the country. 1985 gave us animated dogs that weren’t for kids, and an Aussie actor trying to play a man from the Deep South. 1995 had one of Woody Allen’s best reviewed films, which was also an Oscar winner, gave us the final film performance from a beloved actress, and brought a comedy-horror TV series to the big screen. 2005 produced a contractually obligated superhero movie, and 2015 gave us a true life, American history film, as well as the third film in a series its star said would never happen. Scroll down to see the list of movies making their debuts this week, and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries.

1925

January 9 – Scandal Street (USA, Arrow Film Corporation)
January 9 – Share and Share Alike (USA, Whitman Bennett Productions)
January 11 – As Man Desires (USA, First National Pictures)
January 11 – He Who Laughs Last (USA, Bud Barsky Corporation)
January 11 – Midnight Molly (USA, Gothic Pictures)
January 11 – The Narrow Street (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
January 12 – East of Suez (USA, Famous Players–Lasky Corporation)
January 15 – Full Speed (USA, Weiss Brothers Artclass Pictures)
January 15 – Gold and Grit (USA, Action Pictures)
January 15 – The Lost Chord (USA, Chord Pictures)
January 15 – Vic Dyson Pays (USA, Ben Wilson Productions)

Lost films: As Man Desires, East of Suez

A print of Midnight Molly exists in the BFI National Archive. While no prints of The Narrow Street are located in any film archives, a private collector reportedly has an incomplete copy. Full Speed is preserved in the Library of Congress collection.

The Lost Chord had previously been made by director Wilfred Noy in Great Britain in 1917, and the 1925 remake marked his American directing debut.

1935

Paramount Pictures

January 11 – Romance in Manhattan (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
January 11 – The County Chairman (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
January 11 – The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (USA, Paramount Pictures)
January 11 – The Night Is Young (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
January 11 – The President Vanishes (USA, Walter Wanger Productions)
January 12 – Girls Will Be Boys (AUS, British International Pictures)
January 12 – Lilies of the Field (AUS, Herbert Wilcox Productions)
January 12 – Maybe It’s Love (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
January 12 – Mister Cinders (AUS, British International Pictures)
January 13 – Nell Gwynn (Finland, Herbert Wilcox Productions)
January 14 – The Primrose Path (UK, Paramount British Pictures)
January 14 – Virginia’s Husband (UK, George Smith Productions)
January 15 – The Best Man Wins (Columbia Pictures)

The Lives of a Bengal Lancer was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning for Assistant Director. The film was originally to be released in 1931, but location footage shot at the time had deteriorated in the hot sun of India and the project was shelved. When the film was revived, much of the location footage was shot around the Los Angeles area.

1945

January 9 – Tonight and Every Night (USA, Columbia Pictures)
January 11 – Youth on Trial (Columbia Pictures)
January 12 – Main Street After Dark (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
January 12 – She Gets Her Man (USA, Universal Pictures)
January 13 – Herr Meets Hare (USA, Warner Bros. Cartoon Studios)
January 15 – The Navajo Trail (USA, Monogram Pictures)

Tonight and Every Night was Columbia’s Technicolor follow-up to Rita Hayworth’s successful Cover Girl (1944), with her musical number ‘You Excite Me’ cited as one of her best performances. The film earned two Oscar nominations for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture and Best Original Song (‘Anywhere’).

Herr Meets Hare was the penultimate wartime themed cartoon from Warner Bros., released just under four months before Victory in Europe Day. The Navajo Trail is the fourteenth film in the ‘Marshal Nevada Jack McKenzie’ series.

1955

January 11 – Prince of Players (USA, Twentieth Century Fox)
January 11 – To Paris with Love (UK, Two Cities Films)

Prince of Players was based on the 1953 biography of the same name by Eleanor Ruggles. The film marked the screen debut of Eva Le Galliene. To Paris with Love was released in the US on March 28, 1955.

1965

January 13 – Baby the Rain Must Fall (USA, Park Place Productions)
January 13 – Two on a Guillotine (USA, William Conrad Productions)
January 14 – Taggart (Netherlands, Universal Pictures)
January 14 – The Outlaws Is Coming (USA, Normandy Productions)
January 15 – None But The Brave (Japan, Tokyo Eiga)

Baby the Rain Must Fall is based on Horton Foote’s 1954 play The Traveling Lady. Foote also wrote the screenplay. Glen Campbell makes his film debut in an uncredited role. Most of the film was shot in Columbus, Texas, the story’s actual location.

Two on a Guillotine was directed and produced by William Conrad, who would later be known to TV viewers on the detective series Cannon. The film was shot in three weeks. Connie Stevens thought the script was stupid at first but challenged herself to make it believable. It was the last film scored by Max Steiner.

Taggart premiered in New York City on December 24, 1964, but was not released in the US until February 1, 1965. It marked the film debut of David Carradine.

The Outlaws Is Coming is the sixth and final feature film starring The Three Stooges. A number of English teachers were displeased with the film’s grammatically incorrect title, but it was a satire of the tagline used for Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, ‘The Birds Is Coming’. In a nod to television’s role in the resurgence of the Stooges’ popularity, the outlaw characters were played by local television hosts from across the U.S. whose shows featured the old Three Stooges Columbia shorts.

None But The Brave was released in the US on February 24, 1965. Frank Sinatra directed and starred. It was his sole directorial work, though the sixth of nine films he produced, and the first major feature co-produced by Japan and the US. During filming Sinatra was caught in a rip tide along with Ruth Koch, wife of Howard Koch. Actor Brad Dexter (Sgt. Bleeker) and two surfers were able to rescue Sinatra and Koch, saving their lives. Toho handled the film’s special effects.

1975

January 9 – The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man (USA, documentary, Appalshop)
January 15 – The Nickel Ride (USA, David Foster Productions)

The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2005. The Nickel Ride was the debut film of screenwriter Eric Roth.

1985

January 9 – The Plague Dogs (USA, Nepenthe Productions)
January 11 – The River (USA, Universal Pictures)
January 11 – Walking the Edge (USA, Cinema Overseas)
January 11 – Water (UK, HandMade Films)

The Plague Dogs, based on Richard Adams’ 1977 novel of the same name, first opened in Austria in October 1982. The film was originally released unrated in the US, but was given a PG-13 rating for its DVD release. It was is the first non-family-oriented animated film released by MGM, and the first adult animated feature by United Artists and MGM. Brad Bird was one of the animators on the San Francisco crew.

The River received a limited US release on December 19, 1984 to qualify for awards consideration, and went into general release in January 1985. The film did received four Oscar nominations: Best Actress (Sissy Spacek), Best Original Score, Best Sound and Best Cinematography, and won the Special Achievement Award. Director Mark Rydell was reluctant to cast Mel Gibson as a man from Tennessee due to his Australian accent, but Gibson pleaded with him to not cast the role before he left for England to film The Bounty. When he returned, he had perfected the Tennessee accent and Rydell gave him the job, but in the end many critics felt he was miscast.

Water was released in the US on April 18, 1986. John Cleese was offered the role of Sir Malcolm Leveridge, but turned it down. The role was played by Leonard Rossiter in what turned out to be his last film. The film went into production at the same time as HandMade’s A Private Function, and the crew on that film felt their budget was sacrificed for Water. The film was shot mostly on Saint Lucia.

1995

Sweetland Films

January 11 – Higher Learning (USA, New Deal Productions)
January 13 – Bullets Over Broadway (France, Sweetland Films)
January 13 – Far from Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog (USA, Twentieth Century Fox)
January 13 – Ladybird, Ladybird (USA, Channel Four Films)
January 13 – Legends of the Fall (USA, The Bedford Falls Company)
January 13 – Nobody’s Fool (USA, Capella International)
January 13 – Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (USA, Universal Pictures)

Higher Learning featured the first theatrical film performance of Tyra Banks.

Bullets Over Broadway received a limited US release on October 21, 1994 for awards consideration, and was released nationwide on February 24, 1995. The film was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Director for Woody Allen, and won Best Supporting Actress for Dianne Wiest. Wiest also received the film’s only Golden Globe nomination and win.

Far from Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog was the final film directed by Phillip Borsos. Ladybird, Ladybird first opened in Italy on April 15, 1994.

Legends of the Fall received an awards consideration limited release in the US on December 23, 1994, expanding nationwide on January 13, 1995. The film is based on the 1979 novella of the same name by Jim Harrison. The film earned three technical Oscar nominations, winning for Best Cinematography.

Nobody’s Fool also received a limited US release on December 23, 1994 for awards consideration, expanding on January 13, 1995. The film is based on the 1993 novel of the same name by Richard Russo. The film was the last for Jessica Tandy before her death on September 11, 1994. The story’s fictional location in New York, North Bath, is based on the city of Ballston Spa in Saratoga County. The film was shot in the Hudson Valley city of Beacon. At a time when he was earning $15 million per film, Bruce Willis accepted the SAG-AFTRA scale of $1,400 per week to appear in the film, and his name only appears in the end credits. The film earned two Oscar nominations. Paul Newman was Best Actor nominated by both the Oscars and Golden Globes.

Unlike the Tales from the Crypt HBO series, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight was not adapted from the pages of EC Comics. The first script was actually written in 1987 two years before the TV series premiered, and was to be directed by Tom Holland, who instead went on direct Fatal Beauty. The script ended up in the possession of screenwriter Mark Carducci, who sat on it for a few years before giving it to Pet Sematary director Mary Lambert. Lambert had some radical ideas for the script, but after Pet Sematary Two bombed she could not get anyone to invest in the project. Full Moon Features took possession of the script next but budgetary issues held it up, and it finally ended up on the desks at Joel Silver’s Silver Pictures. The film was planned to be the second in a Tale from the Crypt trilogy, but Universal felt it had more potential and put it into production first (the other two films were never produced) for an original Halloween 1994 release. Two versions of the script were created — one with demons, the other without — to solve budgetary issues. Another film titled Demon Knight featured demons that looked like killer yuppies, so money was spent to put demons on the screen.

2005

January 14 – Coach Carter (USA, MTV Films)
January 14 – Dear Frankie (Ireland, Scorpio Films)
January 14 – Elektra (USA/Canada, Marvel Enterprised)
January 14 – In Good Company (USA/Canada, Depth of Field Productions)
January 14 – Racing Stripes (USA, Alcon Entertainment)

Dear Frankie was released in the US on March 4, 2005.

Elektra was originally set up at New Line Cinema with Oliver Stone set to direct and Gabrielle Reece to star, but the project was cancelled after the rights to the character were sold to 20th Century Fox. Jennifer Garner did not want to make the movie, but was contractually obligated after she originated the character in Daredevil. Filming had to take place during her hiatus from Alias. Ben Affleck had a cameo as Matt Murdock/Daredevil, but it was cut from the finished film.

During production of Racing Stripes, star Hayden Panettiere was thrown off a zebra and ended up hospitalized with a concussion and a pinched nerve in her neck. The producers forbade her from mentioning the injury during publicity for the film; she finally revealed it during a 2013 episode of British talk show The Graham Norton Show.

2015

Harpo Films

January 9 – Inherent Vice (USA, Ghoulardi Film Company)
January 9 – Let’s Kill Ward’s Wife (USA, limited, Room 215 Productions)
January 9 – Preservation (USA, limited, Present Pictures)
January 9 – Selma (USA/Canada, Harpo Films)
January 9 – Taken 3 (USA, EuropaCorp)
January 14 – Match (USA, Permut Presentations)

Inherent Vice received a limited US release on December 12, 2014 for awards consideration. The film is based on the 2009 novel by Thomas Pynchon, and is to date the only film made from a Pynchon novel. The film earned two Oscar and one Golden Globe nominations.

Let’s Kill Ward’s Wife debuted on the internet in the US on December 23, 2014 before receiving its limited theatrical release. The film was Scott Foley’s feature film directorial debut. The cast is composed almost entirely of actors who are related to one another, with many being siblings or spouses. The film’s original title was Ward’s Wife. Due to the film’s small budget, production was limited to a camera and tripod, with no access to dollies or cranes resulting in the camera remaining static throughout the film. Foley incorporated enough movement into the shots to keep the audience from getting bored. Actors were payed the SAG minimum of $100 per day, and several cast members invested their pay back into the film.

Selma earned two Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, winning for Best Original Song (‘Glory’ by Common and John Legend). It also received four Golden Globe nominations including Best Picture – Drama, also winning for Best Original Song.

Taken 3 first opened in Hong Kong on January 1, 2015. Liam Neeson originally declared there would be no third film in the Taken series, or that the chances of one were slim. Neeson requested and received a $20 million salary, which was nearly half the film’s $48 million budget.

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