Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #291 :: February 19•25

It was a big week for this century of movie releases with many very notable films making their debuts, and one decade in particular having several classics to its credit. But first — 1926 saw the release of a silent film that used a sound recording technique for the first time. A 1946 film saw a popular comedy team begin to fall apart. A 1956 film brought a popular Western TV character and his sidekick to the big screen. 1966 saw a heartthrob movie star appear in his third film starting with the letter ‘H’. 1976 gave us a documentary that has become a cult classic. 1986 gave us one of the first films to deal with the AIDS epidemic, and was a big break for its new star. 1996 saw the debut of a visionary director, and his two stars. 2006 saw the second outing of a popular Tyler Perry character. 2016 was the debut of another visionary director and his star. But 1936 is a benchmark week with the fifth pairing of a popular song and dance duo, a notorious Mae West adaptation, a classic of science fiction, and the final appearance of a character born in the silent era in one of his greatest films. Scroll down — or use the year links below — to see all of the movies released this week, and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries.

1926  •  1936  •  1946  •  1956  •  1966  •  1976  •  1986  •  1996  •  2006  •  2016

1926

February 19 – Don Juan (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)

• Cast: John Barrymore, Jane Winton, John Roche, Warner Oland, Estelle Taylor, Montagu Love
• Director: Alan Crosland
• Trivia: First feature-length film to utilize the Vitaphone sound-on-disc sound system with a synchronized musical score and sound effects, though it has no spoken dialogue. A new multi-microphone technique was devised by George Groves to record the 107-piece orchestra for the soundtrack, making him the first music mixer in film history. A print of the film and the Vitaphone soundtrack is preserved at the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

February 20 – Bride of the Storm (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)

• Cast: Dolores Costello, John Harron, Otto Matieson, Sheldon Lewis, Tyrone Power Sr., Julia Swayne Gordon
• Director: J. Stuart Blackton
• Trivia: Sheldon Lewis plays the son of Tyrone Power in the movie even though Lewis was a year older than Power. The film is considered lost.

February 20 – Pirates of the Sky (USA, William Steiner)

• Cast: Charles Hutchison, Wanda Hawley, Crauford Kent, Jimmy Aubrey, Ben Walker
• Director: Charles Andrews
• Trivia: The film’s survival status is unknown.

February 20 – Shadow of the Law (USA, Associated Exhibitors)

• Cast: Clara Bow, Forrest Stanley, Stuart Holmes, Ralph Lewis, William V. Mong
• Director: Wallace Worsley
• Trivia: The film is considered lost.

February 21 – Beyond the Rockies (USA, Independent Pictures)

• Cast: Bob Custer, Eugenia Gilbert, David Dunbar, Bruce Gordon, Milton Ross
• Director: Jack Nelson
• Trivia: The film’s survival status is unknown.

February 21 – Driftin’ Thru (USA, Charles R. Rogers Productions)

• Cast: Harry Carey, Stanton Heck, Ruth King, G. Raymond Nye, Joseph Girard
• Director: Scott R. Dunlap
• Trivia: The film’s survival status is unknown.

February 21 – Irene (USA, First National Pictures)

• Cast: Colleen Moore, Lloyd Hughes, George K. Arthur, Maryon Aye, Ida Darling, Edward Earle, Bess Flowers
• Director: Alfred E. Green
• Trivia: Based on the musical Irene written by James Montgomery with music and lyrics by Harry Tierney and Joseph McCarthy. In 1944, Moore gifted a copy of the film to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, along with fourteen other films she starred in. Other copies of the film exist with Technicolor sequences intact.

February 21 – The Beautiful Cheat (USA, Universal Pictures)

• Cast: Laura La Plante, Alexander Carr, Harry Myers, Kate Price, Tom Guise, Helen Carr
• Director: Edward Sloman
• Trivia: A print of the film is held at the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

February 21 – The Grand Duchess and the Waiter (USA, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)

• Cast: Adolphe Menjou, Florence Vidor, Lawrence Grant, Andre Beranger, Dot Farley
• Director: Malcolm St. Clair
• Trivia: Actor George Beranger was billed as Andre Beranger. The film exists and has been released on VHS tape, but has yet to be released to DVD or other formats.

February 21 – Two Can Play (USA, Encore Pictures)

• Cast: George Fawcett, Allan Forrest, Clara Bow, Wallace MacDonald, Vola Vale
• Director: Nat Ross
• Trivia: The film is considered lost.

February 22 – Behind the Front (USA, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)

• Cast: Wallace Beery, Raymond Hatton, Mary Brian, Richard Arlen, Hayden Stevenson, Chester Conklin
• Director: A. Edward Sutherland
• Trivia: A print of the film is held by the George Eastman Museum Motion Picture Collection and UCLA Film and Television Archive.

February 22 – Sea Horses (USA, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)

• Cast: Jack Holt, Florence Vidor, William Powell, George Bancroft, Mack Swain, Frank Campeau
• Director: Allan Dwan
• Trivia: The film is considered lost.

1936

February 19 – A Touch of the Moon (London, George Smith Productions)

• Cast: John Garrick, Dorothy Boyd, Joyce Bland, David Horne, Max Adrian, Aubrey Mallalieu
• Director: Maclean Rogers
• Trivia: Opened in general UK release on July 27, 1936, but has no known US theatrical release date.

February 19 – When Knights Were Bold (London, Capitol Film Corporation)

• Cast: Jack Buchanan, Fay Wray, Garry Marsh, Kate Cutler, Martita Hunt
• Director: Jack Raymond
• Trivia: Opened in general UK release on September 14, 1936, and was released in the US on March 30, 1942.

February 20 – Follow the Fleet (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)

• Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Randolph Scott, Harriet Hilliard, Astrid Allwyn
• Director: Mark Sandrich
• Trivia: Fifth collaboration of Astaire and Rogers. Betty Grable, Lucille Ball and Humphrey Bogart have small roles. Film debut of Tony Martin, who would later star in Hit the Deck, which was based on the same source material as Follow the Fleet, the 1922 play Shore Leave. Also making her film debut, Harriet Hilliard would later be known as the wife of Ozzie Nelson.

February 20 – Lucky Terror (USA, Walter Futter Productions)

• Cast: Hoot Gibson, Charles Hill, Lona Andre, George Chesebro, Robert McKenzie
• Director: Alan James

February 20 – Movie Maniacs (USA, Columbia Pictures)

• Cast: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Mildred Harris, Kenneth Harlan, Bud Jamison, Harry Semels
• Director: Del Lord
• Trivia: 13th of 190 Three Stooges shorts produced by Columbia Pictures. The two lions seen at the end of the film had previously been used as MGM mascots.

February 20 – Rhodes of Africa (USA, Gaumont British Distributors)

• Cast: Walter Huston, Oskar Homolka, Basil Sydney, Frank Cellier, Peggy Ashcroft, Bernard Lee
• Director: Berthold Viertel
• Trivia: Leslie Banks, Clive Brook, Cedric Hardwicke and Brian Aherne were all discussed for the lead before Walter Huston was cast.

February 21 – Fast Bullets (USA, Reliable Pictures Corporation)

• Cast: Tom Tyler, Rex Lease, Margaret Nearing, Al Bridge, William Gould, Robert Walker
• Director: Henri Samuels
• Trivia: 14th of 18 films Tom Tyler made for Reliable Pictures. The credited director is actually Associate Producer Harry S. Webb.

February 21 – The Garden Murder Case (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

• Cast: Edmund Lowe, Virginia Bruce, Benita Hume, Douglas Walton, Nat Pendleton, Gene Lockhart
• Director: Edwin L. Marin
• Trivia: Tenth film in the Philo Vance series, and the last made by MGM before moving to Warner Bros. for two films, and PRC for three. The racetrack scene was filmed at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California.

February 21 – Grand Slam Opera (USA, short, Educational Films Corporation of America)

• Cast: Buster Keaton, Diana Lewis, Harold Goodwin, John Ince, Bud Jamison
• Directors: Buster Keaton, Charles Lamont
• Trivia: The film is a satire of the Major Bowes amateur hour radio program. Keaton personally paid the licensing fee for the song ‘So Long, Mary’ because the low-budget studio didn’t want to.

February 21 – Here Comes Trouble (USA, 20th Century Fox)

• Cast: Paul Kelly, Arline Judge, Mona Barrie, Gregory Ratoff, Sammy Cohen
• Director: Lewis Seiler

February 21 – Klondike Annie (USA, Paramount Pictures

• Cast: Mae West, Victor McLaglen, Phillip Reed, Helen Jerome Eddy, Harry Beresford
• Director: Raoul Walsh
• Trivia: Based on Mae West’s play Frisco Kate. Eight minutes of footage was deleted to avoid censorship issues, and the footage is presumed lost. The film was still banned outright by the state of Georgia.

February 21 – Lady of Secrets (USA, Columbia Pictures)

• Cast: Ruth Chatterton, Otto Kruger, Lionel Atwill, Marian Marsh, Lloyd Nolan
• Director: Marion Gering

February 21 – Things to Come (UK, London Films Productions)

• Cast: Raymond Massey, Edward Chapman, Ralph Richardson, Margaretta Scott, Cedric Hardwicke
• Director: William Cameron Menzies
• Trivia: Opened in the US on April 17, 1936. Ernest Thesiger filmed scenes as Theotocopulos, but H.G. Wells, who wrote the original novel and screenplay, was unsatisfied by his performance and had him replaced with Cedric Hardwicke. Terry-Thomas has a small uncredited role in the film. Wells’ first draft was considered terrible as he was wedded too closely to the source material. Wells also gave explicit instructions to composer Arthur Bliss as to the score’s structure, and the film was edited to fit the score.

February 22 – The Return of Jimmy Valentine (USA, Republic Pictures)

• Cast: Roger Pryor, Charlotte Henry, Robert Warwick, James P. Burtis, Edgar Kennedy, J. Carrol Naish
• Director: Lewis D. Collins
• Trivia: The film was retitled Prison Shadows for television broadcast.

February 22 – The Story of Louis Pasteur (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)

• Cast: Paul Muni, Josephine Hutchinson, Anita Louise, Donald Woods, Fritz Leiber, Henry O’Neill, Porter Hall
• Director: William Dieterle
• Trivia: The film won Oscars for Best Screenplay and Best Story, as well as Best Actor for Muni. It was also nominated for Best Picture.

February 25 – Modern Times (USA, Charles Chaplin Productions)

• Cast: Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Henry Bergman, Stanley ‘Tiny’ Sandford, Chester Conklin, Gloria DeHaven
• Director: Charlie Chaplin
• Trivia: Chaplin’s final performance as his Little Tramp character. One of the first group of 25 films selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. The film was prepared as Chaplin’s first talkie, but he decided to revert to a silent format with synchronized sound effects and minimal dialogue. The decision was made because he felt the Little Tramp character would lose his appeal if he ever spoke on screen.

February 25 – Public Nuisance No. 1 (London, Cecil Films)

• Cast: Frances Day, Arthur Riscoe, Muriel Aked, Claude Dampier, Peter Haddon
• Director: Marcel Varnel
• Trivia: Opened in general UK release on May 25, 1936, but has no known US theatrical release date.

1946

February 20 – The Flying Serpent (USA, Producers Releasing Corporation)

• Cast: George Zucco, Ralph Lewis, Hope Kramer, Eddie Acuff, Wheaton Chambers
• Director: Sam Newfield
• Trivia: The film has also been re-edited and retitled Killer with Wings.

February 20 – Tomorrow Is Forever (USA, International Pictures)

• Cast: Claudette Colbert, Orson Welles, George Brent, Lucile Watson, Richard Long, Natalie Wood
• Director: Irving Pichel
• Trivia: Film debuts of Richard Long and Natalie Wood. Wood had to wear a dental bridge after losing two baby teeth during production.

February 21 – The Bandit of Sherwood Forest (USA, Columbia Pictures)

• Cast: Anita Louise, Jill Esmond, Edgar Buchanan, Cornel Wilde, Henry Daniell
• Directors: Henry Levin, George Sherman
• Trivia: Based on the 1941 novel Son of Robin Hood. MGM objected to the title being used for the film, citing their rights to the words ‘Robin Hood’, so Columbia had to change the title. The film featured the first cinematic use of helicopter-mounted cameras used during the scene of the storming of the castle.

February 22 – House of Horrors (USA, Universal Pictures)

• Cast: Rondo Hatton, Martin Kosleck, Robert Lowery, Virginia Grey, Bill Goodwin, Alan Napier
• Director: Jean Yarbrough
• Trivia: Also known as Murder Mansion and Joan Bedford is Missing. The film was followed by the prequel The Brute Man on October 1, 1946.

February 22 – Little Giant (USA, Universal Pictures)

• Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Brenda Joyce, Jacqueline deWit, George Cleveland, Elena Verdugo, Margaret Dumont
• Director: William A. Seiter
• Trivia: Released in the UK as On the Carpet. Abbott and Costello played separate roles instead of their usual partnership due to a slump in box office for their 1945 films, and a growing animosity between the pair that led to a brief split.

February 22 – Loyal Heart (London, British National Films)

• Cast: Fleet the Wonder Dog, Percy Marmont, Harry Welchman, Patricia Marmont
• Director: Oswald Mitchell
• Trivia: Opened in general UK release on February 17, 1947, but has no known US theatrical release date.

February 25 – Claudia and David (USA, 20th Century Fox)

• Cast: Dorothy McGuire, Robert Young, Mary Astor, John Sutton, Gail Patrick
• Director: Walter Lang
• Trivia: McGuire and Young reprise their roles from the 1943 film Claudia.

February 25 – I Ring Doorbells (USA, Producers Releasing Corporation)

• Cast: Anne Gwynne, Robert Shayne, Roscoe Karns, Pierre Watkin, Harry Shannon, John Eldredge
• Director: Frank Strayer
• Trivia: Adapted from the book of the same name by Russell Birdwell.

1956

February 21 – Jumping for Joy (UK, The Rank Organisation)

• Cast: Frankie Howerd, Stanley Holloway, A. E. Matthews, Tony Wright, Alfie Bass, Joan Hickson, Lionel Jeffries
• Director: John Paddy Carstairs
• Trivia: The film has no known US theatrical release date. The film was said to have been written specifically for Howerd, but it had been offered first to Tony Hancock, who turned it down.

February 21 – Now and Forever (UK, Anglofilm)

• Cast: Janette Scott, Vernon Gray, Kay Walsh, Jack Warner, Pamela Brown
• Director: Mario Zampi
• Trivia: Released in the US on June 21, 1958. Janette Scott’s first adult role after a career as a child star in Britain.

February 24 – Chips Ahoy (USA, short, Walt Disney Productions)

• Cast: Clarence Nash, Jimmy MacDonald, Dessie Flynn
• Director: Jack Kinney
• Trivia: The animated short was produced in CinemaScope, and was the second-to-last Disney cartoon distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. It was also the second-to-last appearance of Donald Duck in a starring role, and the final appearance of Chip ‘n’ Dale overall until the 1959 Disney TV special The Adventures of Chip ‘n’ Dale. The short was re-released in 1985 with The Black Cauldron.

February 25 – The Lone Ranger (USA, Wrather Productions)

• Cast: Clayton Moore, Jay Silverheels, Lyle Bettger, Bonita Granville, Perry Lopez
• Director: Stuart Heisler
• Trivia: The first of two theatrical films based on The Lone Ranger TV series. The film was Bonita Granville’s last credited appearance, as she had retired from acting in 1947 following her marriage to Jack Wrather.

1966

February 19 – The Solid Tin Coyote (USA, short, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises)

• Director: Rudy Larriva

February 21 – Lord Love a Duck (USA, George Axelrod Productions)

• Cast: Roddy McDowall, Tuesday Weld, Lola Albright, Martin West, Ruth Gordon, Harvey Korman
• Director: George Axelrod
• Trivia: The film was a satire on everything from progressive education to beach party movies. Film directorial debut of stage director Axelrod. Despite Axelrod’s best efforts, the film was a financial failure, but Lola Albright won the Silver Bear for Best Actress award at the 16th Berlin International Film Festival in 1966.

February 22 – Promise Her Anything (USA, Seven Arts Productions)

• Cast: Warren Beatty, Leslie Caron, Bob Cummings, Keenan Wynn, Hermione Gingold, Lionel Stander
• Director: Arthur Hiller
• Trivia: Jo Anne Worley and Donald Sutherland make uncredited appearances. Two-year-old Philip Barron was to play Baby John Thomas, but he would start crying any time Beatty approached him, so he was replaced at the last minute with Michael Bradley so production could commence (both children did appear in the film). Tom Jones performed the title song, by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

February 23 – Harper (USA, Gershwin-Kastner Productions)

• Cast: Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris, Arthur Hill, Janet Leigh, Pamela Tiffin, Robert Wagner, Robert Webber, Shelley Winters, Harold Gould, Strother Martin
• Director: Jack Smight
• Trivia: Based on William Goldman’s The Moving Target, with the main character’s name changed from Lew Archer to Lew Harper because producers had only purchased the rights to the single novel instead of the entire Archer series. The film’s original title was to be Archer before the name change. Newman also requested the name change due to his success with two previous films that began with the letter ‘H’ — The Hustler and Hud. The film was released outside of the US as The Moving Target. Newman would reprise the role in 1975’s The Drowning Pool.

1976

February 19 – Grey Gardens (USA, limited, documentary, Portrait Films)

• Cast: Edith ‘Big Edie’ Ewing Bouvier Beale, Edith ‘Little Edie’ Bouvier Beale, Brooks Hyers
• Directors: David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer
• Trivia: The film was originally started in 1972 as a documentary on the childhood of Lee Radziwill, funded by Radziwill, who took the Maysles brothers to Grey Gardens. The film was shelved and the footage was lost, but the brothers returned in 1974 without the support of Radziwill to film Grey Gardens. The film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2010.

February 20 – The Devil and Leroy Bassett (Canada, Johnson-Pearson Productions)

• Cast: John F. Goff, George Buck Flower, Don Epperson
• Director: Robert E. Pearson
• Trivia: The 1973 film, which had a premiere screening in Concordia, Kansas, has no known US theatrical release date.

1986

February 19 – Parting Glances (USA, Rondo Productions)

• Cast: Richard Ganoung, John Michael Bolger, Steve Buscemi, Adam Nathan, Kathy Kinney
• Director: Bill Sherwood
• Trivia: One of the first films to deal with the subject of AIDS and the impact of the disease on the gay community in the Reagan era. Director Sherwood died of complications from AIDS in 1990. The film featured Steve Buscemi’s first major role. The film was the first to be preserved as part of the Outfest Legacy Project, by Outfest and the UCLA Television and Film Archive.

February 21 – The Hitcher (USA/Canada, Silver Screen Partners)

• Cast: Rutger Hauer, C. Thomas Howell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jeffrey DeMunn, John M. Jackson, Armin Shimerman, Henry Darrow
• Director: Robert Harmon
• Trivia: First opened in limited US release on January 17, 1986. David Bowie, Sting, Sam Shepard, Harry Dean Stanton, and Terence Stamp were under consideration for the lead role, with Stamp the first choice of director Harmon. Sam Elliott was offered the role but could not come to terms on salary. Rutger Hauer was not looking for a villainous role, but accepted after reading the script. Matthew Modine, Tom Cruise, and Emilio Estevez were considered for the role of Jim Halsey, but producers liked C. Thomas Howell, who was being selective with his roles and had heard the script was a generic thriller, but after reading it he wanted to do the film and work with Hauer. Jennifer Jason Leigh also wanted to work with Hauer again after Flesh + Blood.

February 21 – Mr. Love (UK, Enigma Productions)

• Cast: Barry Jackson, Marcia Warren, Maurice Denham, Margaret Tyzack, Linda Marlowe
• Director: Roy Battersby
• Trivia: Released in the US on April 25, 1986.

1996

February 19 – Nothing Personal (Italy, Bord Scannán na hÉireann-British Screen Productions)

• Cast: Ian Hart, John Lynch, James Frain, Michael Gambon, Rúaidhrí Conroy, Maria Doyle Kennedy
• Director: Thaddeus O’Sullivan
• Trivia: Opened in the US on April 25, 1997.

February 21 – Bottle Rocket (USA, Gracie Films)

• Cast: Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, Robert Musgrave, James Caan, Lumi Cavazos, Ned Dowd
• Director: Wes Anderson
• Trivia: Anderson’s feature directorial debut, and the acting debuts of Owen and Luke Wilson. The film is based on Anderson’s short of the same name, and was co-written with Owen Wilson. After the film’s box office failure, due to a very limited release, Owen Wilson considered joining the Marines.

February 23 – Before and After (USA, Caravan Pictures)

• Cast: Meryl Streep, Liam Neeson, Edward Furlong, Alfred Molina, Julia Weldon, Daniel von Bargen, John Heard, Ann Magnuson
• Director: Barbet Schroeder
• Trivia: The film was shot at various Massachusetts locations including Egremont, Pittsfield, Lee, Great Barrington and Lenox.

February 23 – Mary Reilly (USA, TriStar Pictures)

• Cast: Julia Roberts, John Malkovich, Michael Sheen, George Cole, Kathy Staff, Bronagh Gallagher, Glenn Close, Michael Gambon, Ciarán Hinds
• Director: Stephen Frears
• Trivia: Tim Burton was set to direct the film in 1994, with Winona Ryder in the title role, after completing Ed Wood, but dropped out in anger after producer Peter Guber put Ed Wood in turnaround. Uma Thurman became the first choice to replace Ryder. After 25 drafts and a new director, the film went into production in Spring 1994 with Roberts as Mary. Test audiences did not like Frears’ ambiguous, downbeat ending so the studio had it recut, but audiences didn’t like the new ending either so it reverted back to the original.

February 23 – Unforgettable (USA, Dino De Laurentiis Company)

• Cast: Ray Liotta, Linda Fiorentino, Peter Coyote, Christopher McDonald, Kim Coates, David Paymer, Kim Cattrall, William B. Davis
• Director: John Dahl
• Trivia: The film was a follow-up to Dahl’s The Last Seduction, but was a box office failure.

February 23 – The Young Poisoner’s Handbook (USA, British Screen Productions)

• Cast: Hugh O’Conor, Tobias Arnold, Ruth Sheen, Roger Lloyd-Pack, Norman Caro, Dorothea Alexander, Charlotte Coleman
• Director: Benjamin Ross
• Trivia: Based on the life of Graham Young, more commonly known as ‘The Teacup Murderer’.

2006

February 24 – Doogal (USA, Billionfold)

• Cast: Daniel Tay, Jon Stewart, William H. Macy, Chevy Chase, Whoopi Goldberg, Jimmy Fallon, Bill Hader, Kevin Smith, Judi Dench
• Directors: Jean Duval, Frank Passingham, Dave Borthwick
• Trivia: Doogal was an Americanized version of The Magic Roundabout, with most of the British voice cast replaced with American actors, except for Minogue and McKellen, who used American accents. The American version was heavily re-written to include pop culture references, and gives voice to the originally silent character Moose (Smith) and adds a Narrator (Dench). Chase won a Stinkers Bad Movie Award for Worst Supporting Actor, and the movie won for Worst Animated Film.

February 24 – Madea’s Family Reunion (USA, Lionsgate-Tyler Perry Studios)

• Cast: Tyler Perry, Blair Underwood, Lynn Whitfield, Boris Kodjoe, Henry Simmon, Lisa Arrindell, Maya Angelou, Rochelle Aytes, Jenifer Lewis, Keke Palmer, Tangi Miller, Cicely Tyson
• Director: Tyler Perry
• Trivia: The film is a sequel to Perry’s Diary of a Mad Black Woman. The film grossed $63.4 million against a $6 million budget.

February 24 – Running Scared (USA/Canada, Media 8 Entertainment)

• Cast: Paul Walker, Cameron Bright, Vera Farmiga, Chazz Palminteri, Karel Roden, Johnny Messner
• Director: Wayne Kramer
• Trivia: First opened in the UK on January 6, 2006. Though set in New Jersey, the film was primarily shot in Prague.

2016

February 19 – The Witch (USA/Canada, Parts and Labor)

• Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw
• Director: Robert Eggers
• Trivia: First opened in Indonesia on November 11, 2015. Eggers’ feature directorial debut, and the feature film debut of Anya Taylor-Joy. An uncredited body double performed Taylor-Joy’s nude scenes from behind. Eggers wanted accuracy in the sets and had a thatcher and carpenter from Virginia and Massachusetts brought in who had the experience to build in the style of the film’s period. Eggers also shot only with natural light outdoors and candles indoors to give the film an authentic look.

February 19 – Triple 9 (UK, Worldview Entertainment)

• Cast: Casey Affleck, Anthony Mackie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Clifton Collins, Woody Harrelson, Aaron Paul, Kate Winslet, Gal Gadot, Norman Reedus
• Director: John Hillcoat
• Trivia: Released in the US and Canada on February 26, 2016. Shia LaBeouf was originally cast, but left the project and was replaced with Charlie Hunnam. Hunnam then left and was replaced by Affleck. Cate Blanchett and Christoph Waltz were in talks, but dropped out and were replaced with Winslet and Harrelson. Nick Cave was hired to score the film, but he also left the project and was replaced by Atticus Ross.

February 24 – Gods of Egypt (Philippines, Pyramania-Le Vision Pictures)

• Cast: Brenton Thwaites, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Chadwick Boseman, Élodie Yung, Courtney Eaton, Gerard Butler, Geoffrey Rush, Bryan Brown, Rufus Sewell
• Director: Alex Proyas
• Trivia: Released in the US and Canada on February 26, 2016. The film was criticized for casting mainly white actors in Egyptian roles. The film was shot primarily in Australia for tax incentives. Lionsgate anticipated the film would launch a new franchise following the success of The Hunger Games, but it was a box office bomb. The film earned five Golden Raspberry Awards nominations, including Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Actor (Butler), Worst Screen Combo (Any two Egyptian gods or mortals), and Worst Screenplay.

February 25 – Eddie the Eagle (UAE, Marv Films)

• Cast: Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman, Christopher Walken, Iris Berben, Mark Benton, Keith Allen, Jim Broadbent
• Director: Dexter Fletcher
• Trivia: Opened in the US and Canada on February 26, 2016. Rupert Grint was reportedly in line for the title role.