Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #302 :: May 7•13

There were a handful of notable films released this week across the decades, some for good reasons, others for not-so-great reasons. A 1936 horror sequel broke new ground with subtle hints to the main character’s sexuality, while a comedy feature film was completely re-edited to a short after threat of a lawsuit. A 1946 film gave a red-headed MGM showgirl a lead role in a noir crime drama, and a classic horror film drew inspiration from a painting. A 1956 documentary sought to uncover the truth about UFOs, while a 1976 documentary was nearly confiscated by the FBI. A 1986 film brought a robot to life, a 1996 disaster movie injured its stars and broke new ground in CGI effects, a 2006 disaster movie remake sank faster than its titular ship, and 2016 saw Jodie Foster behind the camera once again. Scroll down to see all the films 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

May – Mistaken Orders (USA, Morris R. Schlank Productions)

• Cast: Helen Holmes, Jack Perrin, Henry A. Barrows, Hal Walters, Harry Tenbrook
• Director: J.P. McGowan
• Trivia: Prints held by Library of Congress, Academy Film Archive and BFI National Film and Television Archive.

May 9 – A Man Four-Square (USA, Fox Film Corporation)

• Cast: Buck Jones, Marion Harlan, Harry Woods, W.E. Lawrence, Jay Hunt
• Director: Roy William Neill
• Trivia: The film is considered lost.

May 9 – Shipwrecked (USA, Metropolitan Pictures Corporation of California)

• Cast: Seena Owen, Joseph Schildkraut, Matthew Betz, Clarence Burton, Laska Winter
• Director: Joseph Henabery
• Trivia: A print is preserved at the Library of Congress at its Packard Campus.

May 9 – The Phantom Bullet (USA, Universal Pictures)

• Cast: Hoot Gibson, Eileen Percy, Allan Forrest, Pat Harmon, Nelson McDowell
• Director: Clifford Smith
• Trivia: The film is preserved at the Library of Congress and UCLA Film & Television Archive.

May 10 – Bachelor Brides (USA, DeMille Pictures Corporation)

• Cast: Rod La Rocque, Elinor Fair, Eulalie Jensen, George Nichols, Lucien Littlefield
• Director: William K. Howard
• Trivia: Prints are in the collections of the UCLA Film & Television Archive and Cinémathèque française.

May 10 – Money Talks (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

• Cast: Claire Windsor, Owen Moore, Bert Roach, Ned Sparks, Phillips Smalley
• Director: Archie Mayo
• Trivia: The film is considered lost.

May 10 – The Rainmaker (USA, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)

• Cast: William Collier Jr., Georgia Hale, Ernest Torrence, Brandon Hurst, Joseph J. Dowling, Tom Wilson
• Director: Clarence G. Badger
• Trivia: The film is considered lost.

May 12 – The Virgin Wife (USA, MacFadden True Story Pictures)

• Cast: Pauline Garon, Niles Welch, Kenneth Harlan, Jane Jennings, Fritzi Brunette
• Director: Elmer Clifton
• Trivia: The film’s survival status is unknown.

1936

May 8 – Avenging Waters (USA, Larry Darmour Productions)

• Cast: Ken Maynard, Beth Marion, Ward Bond, John Elliott, Zella Russell
• Director: Spencer Gordon Bennet

May 8 – Champagne Charlie (USA, 20th Century Fox)

• Cast: Paul Cavanagh, Helen Wood, Thomas Beck, Minna Gombell, Herbert Mundin, Montagu Love
• Director: James Tinling

May 8 – Let’s Sing Again (USA, Bobby Breen Productions Inc.)

• Cast: Bobby Breen, Henry Armetta, George Houston, Vivienne Osborne, Grant Withers
• Director: Kurt Neumann

May 8 – Special Investigator (RKO Radio Pictures)

• Cast: Richard Dix, Margaret Callahan, Erik Rhodes, Owen Davis Jr.
• Director: Louis King
• Trivia: Working title was Fugitive Gold.

May 8 – Speed (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

• Cast: James Stewart, Wendy Barrie, Una Merkel, Weldon Heyburn, Ted Healy
• Director: Edwin L. Marin
• Trivia: The film contains scenes from the actual Indianapolis 500, and location footage of the Muroc dry lake bed, used for high-speed racing. Film debut of Patricia Wilder.

May 8 – The Case Against Mrs. Ames (USA, Walter Wanger Productions)

• Cast: Madeleine Carroll, George Brent, Arthur Treacher, Alan Baxter, Beulah Bondi
• Director: William A. Seiter
• Trivia: Madeleine Carroll’s film debut. Her lead role was initially announced with Carole Lombard, while the male lead was to be Gary Cooper.

May 9 – Neighborhood House (USA, Hal Roach Studios)

• Cast: Charley Chase, Rosina Lawrence, Darla Hood, George Meeker, Dick Elliott, Ben Taggart
• Directors: Charley Chase, Harold Law, Alan Hale, Sr.
• Trivia: The film was originally a 55-minute feature titled Bank Night, but changed to Neighborhood House. The Bank Night lottery, which organized cash giveaways in American movie theaters, threatened legal action against the studio, so the film was withdrawn from release and edited to a standard 22-minute Charley Chase short from MGM. The removed footage consisted of a gangster subplot in which Chase is held captive in a movie theater. The result of the editing removed actors Margaret Irving, George Chandler, Charles Lane, and Tom Dugan from the short.

May 9 – Times Square Playboy (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)

• Cast: Warren William, June Travis, Barton MacLane, Gene Lockhart, Kathleen Lockhart
• Director: William C. McGann
• Trivia: Also known as His Best Man.

May 10 – And So They Were Married (USA, Columbia Pictures)

• Cast: Melvyn Douglas, Mary Astor, Edith Fellows, Jackie Moran, Donald Meek
• Director: Elliott Nugent

May 10 – Last of the Warrens (USA, Supreme Pictures)

• Cast: Bob Steele, Margaret Marquis, Charles King, Horace Murphy, Lafe McKee
• Director: Robert N. Bradbury

May 11 – Dracula’s Daughter (USA, Universal Pictures)

• Cast: Otto Kruger, Gloria Holden, Marguerite Churchill, Irving Pichel, Halliwell Hobbes, Hedda Hopper Edward Van Sloan
• Director: Lambert Hillyer
• Trivia: A sequel to 1931’s Dracula, Edward Van Sloan is the only returning cast member as Van Helsing, but his name is altered to Von Helsing. The story was said to be based on Bram Stoker’s short story ‘Dracula’s Guest’, an omitted chapter from the novel Dracula, but it bears no resemblance to the source material. Modern sources suggest the film is actually based on Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 Gothic novella, Carmilla, often cited as the first British work of fiction to deal with lesbian relationships. The Stoker material had been purchased by David O. Selznick for MGM, but Universal then bought the rights in 1934 (because Selznick was forbidden from using any characters from Dracula that did not appear in ‘Dracula’s Guest’), which would revert back to MGM if a film did not enter production by October 1935, which was extended to February 1936, with Universal rushing the film into production that month with a partially completed script to beat the deadline. The script was finalized three weeks into production. Some suspect Selznick only bought the rights so he could then sell them to Universal, to profit from the studio’s desire to make a sequel to Dracula. The film had initially been assigned to James Whale, but studio head Carl Laemmle Jr. gave the directing job to Hillyer. The film was Gloria Holden’s first starring role, but she looked down on horror films and was depressed at being assigned the role, knowing how Bela Lugosi struggled with his career following Dracula, fearing she would be typecast in the same way. Critic Mark Clark believes that her own disgust for the role perfectly translated into the self-loathing of her troubled character. Lugosi was initially to appear in the film, along with Frankenstein‘s Boris Karloff and Colin Clive. Only a wax bust of Lugosi used for a shot of Dracula in his coffin appeared in the film. Universal announced a reboot of the film in 2023 to be titled Dracula’s Daughter, and was released on April 7, 2024 as Abigail.

May 11 – The Singing Cowboy (USA, Republic Pictures)

• Cast: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Lois Wilde, Lon Chaney Jr., Champion
• Director: Mack V. Wright

May 13 – One Rainy Afternoon (Pickford-Lasky Productions)

• Cast: Francis Lederer, Ida Lupino, Hugh Herbert, Roland Young, Erik Rhodes
• Director: Rowland V. Lee
• Trivia: Final film of Florence Lawrence, who had an uncredited role. Produced by Mary Pickford, the first film for Pickford-Lasky Productions, and the first starring role at the studio for Francis Lederer.

1946

May 8 – The Dark Corner (USA, 20th Century Fox)

• Cast: Lucille Ball, Clifton Webb, William Bendix, Mark Stevens, Kurt Kreuger
• Director: Henry Hathaway
• Trivia: Ida Lupino was originally cast as Kathleen, but had to withdraw due to scheduling conflicts. The role went to Lucille Ball, who was borrowed from MGM. Fred MacMurray was to play Galt, but was replaced with Mark Stewart, whom director Hathaway felt was too arrogant and could not handle the role.

May 9 – Rainbow Over Texas (USA, Republic Pictures)

• Cast: Roy Rogers, George ‘Gabby’ Hayes, Dale Evans, Sheldon Leonard
• Director: Frank McDonald
• Trivia: Roy Rogers portrays an overly glamorized version of himself in the film.

May 10 – Bedlam (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)

• Cast: Boris Karloff, Anna Lee, Billy House, Richard Fraser, Glen Vernon, Jason Robards Sr., Ellen Corby
• Director: Mark Robson
• Trivia: The last of producer Val Lewton’s stylish horror B-movies for RKO. The film was inspired by William Hogarth’s 1732–1734 painting series A Rake’s Progress, and Hogarth was given a writing credit.

May 10 – Heartbeat (USA, Robert & Raymond Hakim Company)

• Cast: Basil Rathbone, Ginger Rogers, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Adolphe Menjou, Melville Cooper
• Director: Sam Wood
• Trivia: A remake of the French romantic drama Battement de cœur (1940).

May 10 – Sun Valley Cyclone (USA, Republic Pictures)

• Cast: Wild Bill Elliott, Alice Fleming, Robert Blake, Monte Hale, Roy Barcroft, Kenne Duncan
• Director: R. G. Springsteen
• Trivia: 16th of 24 Red Ryder films from Republic Pictures.

May 11 – Facing Your Danger (USA, short, The Vitaphone Corporation)

• Cast: Norman Nevills
• Director: Edwin E. Olsen
• Trivia: Oscar winner for Best Short Subject (One-Reel) at the 19th Academy Awards.

May 11 – Junior Prom (USA, Sam Katzman Productions)

• Cast: Freddie Stewart, June Preisser, Judy Clark, Noel Neill, Jackie Moran, Frankie Darro
• Director: Arthur Dreifuss
• Trivia: The first of The Teen Agers series of movies. The film was spoofed by Mary Jo Pehl and Bridget Nelson for RiffTrax.

May 11 – Passkey to Danger (USA, Republic Pictures)

• Cast: Kane Richmond, Stephanie Bachelor, Adele Mara, Gregory Gaye, Gerald Mohr
• Director: Lesley Selander

May 12 – Winter Wonderland (USA, Walter Colmes Productions)

• Cast: Lynne Roberts, Charles Drake, Roman Bohnen, Eric Blore, Elinor Donahue
• Director: Bernard Vorhaus

May 13 – Without Reservations (USA, Jesse L. Lasky Productions)

• Cast: Claudette Colbert, John Wayne, Don DeFore, Anne Triola, Phil Brown
• Director: Mervyn LeRoy
• Trivia: Jack Benny, Dolores Moran, Raymond Burr, Cary Grant and director LeRoy make uncredited cameo appearances. The film’s original title was Thanks, God! I’ll Take it from Here, the title of the novel upon which the film is based. The Arrowhead Pictures studio seen at the beginning of the film is actually the RKO Radio Pictures building.

1956

May 9 – Gaby (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

• Cast: Leslie Caron, John Kerr, Cedric Hardwicke, Taina Elg, Margalo Gillmore
• Director: Curtis Bernhardt
• Trivia: Third film adaptation of the play, Waterloo Bridge, the only version in color and the least faithful to the source material.

May 9 – UFO (USA, documentary, Ivar Productions)

• Narrator: Olan Soule
• Director: Winston Jones
• Trivia: The film’s full title is Unidentified Flying Objects: The True Story of Flying Saucers. Willis Sperry, Nicholas Mariana, Delbert Newhouse, Wendell Swanson and U.S. Air Force General John A. Samford appear as themselves. Harry Morgan’s disguised voice is heard as an Air Force pilot.

May 11 – Nightmare (Pine-Thomas-Shane Productions)

• Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Kevin McCarthy, Connie Russell, Virginia Christine, Rhys Williams
• Director: Maxwell Shane
• Trivia: The film is based on a novel by William Irish, which was a pseudonym for Cornell Woolrich. The book had also been adapted in 1947 as Fear in the Night, which was originally titled Nightmare. The film was to be the first of three from the newly renamed Pine-Thomas-Shane Productions (adding Maxwell Shane for his screenwriting contributions) for United Artists, but was the only film produced. Edward G. Robinson was promoted as the hypnotist character in the film, but he did not play that character.

May 11 – The Revolt of Mamie Stover (USA, 20th Century Fox)

• Cast: Jane Russell, Richard Egan, Joan Leslie, Agnes Moorehead, Jorja Curtright, Alan Reed
• Director: Raoul Walsh
• Trivia: The title role was intended for Marilyn Monroe, but she was ‘on strike’ with the studio over contract negotiations and was turning down many roles. Rita Hayworth, Susan Hayward and Lana Turner were under consideration, but Turner was on an extended vacation and unable to accept the offer. Future Leave It to Beaver star Hugh Beaumont can be seen as a police officer briefly at the beginning and end of the film. The film marked Joan Leslie’s final screen appearance before retiring.

May 12 – Good-bye, My Lady (USA, Batjac Productions)

• Cast: Walter Brennan, Phil Harris, Brandon deWilde, Sidney Poitier, William Hopper, Louise Beavers
• Director: William A. Wellman
• Trivia: When not filming, the Basenji puppy, My Lady of the Congo, spent all of her time with child star Brandon deWilde. The two bonded, and movie-goers were not aware that while the two parted company at the end of the film, a stipulation in deWilde’s contract gave the boy possession of the dog after filming. The film inspired many people to become owners of Basenji dogs, which had been a relatively unknown breed in the US. The film was produced by John Wayne’s production company.

May 13 – The Three Outlaws (USA, Sigmund Neufeld Productions)

• Cast: Neville Brand, Alan Hale Jr., Bruce Bennett, Jose Gonzales-Gonzales, Rodolfo Hoyos Jr., Jonathan Hale
• Director: Sam Newfield

1966

May 11 – Las Vegas Hillbillys (USA, Woolner Bros. Pictures Inc.)

• Cast: Ferlin Husky, Jayne Mansfield, Mamie Van Doren, Don Bowman, Billie Bird, Richard Kiel
• Director: Arthur C. Pierce
• Trivia: Country entertainers Bill Anderson, Wilma Burgess, Roy Drusky, Sonny James, Duke of Paducah, Del Reeves, and Connie Smith appear as themselves. The film was followed by the 1967 sequel, Hillbillys in a Haunted House.

May 11 – The Fat Spy (USA, Phillip Productions)

• Cast: Jack E. Leonard, Brian Donlevy, Phyllis Diller, Jayne Mansfield, Johnny Tillotson
• Director: Joseph Cates
• Trivia: Despite the film’s title, it actually attempts to spoof beach party films rather than spy films. The film was rarely seen after its brief release, regarded as one of the worst films ever made, but became available after entering the public domain in the 1990s, with various editions of the film appearing on DVDs sold mainly at dollar stores. Rock band The Wild Ones appear as themselves. Linda Harrison, who would become well-known for the role of Nova in Planet of the Apes and Beneath the Planet of the Apes, has a small role in the film.

1976

May 9 – Underground (USA, documentary, Action 27-Turin Film)

• Cast: Bill Ayers, Kathy Boudin, Bernardine Dohrn, Jeff Jones, Cathy Wilkerson
• Directors: Emile de Antonio, Mary Lampson, Haskell Wexler
• Trivia: The main cast of the film were known as the Weathermen, a militant faction of Students for a Democratic Society. As they were fugitives wanted by the FBI at the time, their interviews were filmed in three days, either from behind or through a screen to protect their identities, leaving the filmmakers visible but not the subjects. The directors were later subpoenaed by the FBI in an attempt to confiscate the film footage and gain information that would help in the arrest of the Weathermen. It has been rumored that Wexler may have been removed as director of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest due to his involvement with the documentary.

1986

May 9 – Dangerously Close (USA, Golan-Globus Productions)

• Cast: John Stockwell, J. Eddie Peck, Carey Lowell, Bradford Bancroft, Don Michael Paul, Dedee Pfeiffer
• Director: Albert Pyun

May 9 – Fire with Fire (USA, Paramount Pictures)

• Cast: Craig Sheffer, Virginia Madsen, Jon Polito, J. J. Cohen, Kate Reid, Jean Smart, Tim Russ, Kari Wuhrer
• Director: Duncan Gibbins

May 9 – Last Resort (USA, Trinity Pictures)

• Cast: Charles Grodin, Megan Mullally, Scott Nemes, Robin Pearson Rose, Christopher Ames, Ian Abercrombie, Brenda Bakke, Gerrit Graham, Phil Hartman, Jon Lovitz, Mario Van Peebles, Zane Buzby
• Director: Zane Buzby
• Trivia: The film’s original title was Club Sandwich. While the film is credited to writers Jeff Buhai and Steve Zacharias, Charles Grodin claimed that he rewrote about 90% of the film and added about 20 new scenes. Grodin also had his choice of director and went with Buzby, who had never directed a film before but knew the undiscovered comedy actors in Hollywood, including Phil Hartman and Jon Lovitz.

May 9 – Seven Minutes in Heaven (USA, limited, Fifteen)

• Cast: Jennifer Connelly, Byron Thames, Maddie Corman, Michael Zaslow, Polly Draper, Billy Wirth, Terry Kinney, Spalding Gray
• Director: Linda Feferman
• Trivia: Linda Feferman’s only full-length feature film. The film completed production in 1984. Lauren Holly’s film debut.

May 9 – Short Circuit (USA, Turman-Foster Company)

• Cast: Ally Sheedy, Steve Guttenberg, Fisher Stevens, Austin Pendleton, G. W. Bailey
• Director: John Badham
• Trivia: Director Badham has an uncredited cameo as a cameraman. Tim Blaney provided the puppetry and voice for Number 5, performing on set for better interaction with the cast. Fisher Stevens’s character, Ben, was not originally intended to be Indian. Stevens was fired at one point and replaced with Bronson Pinchot, but he left the movie for Perfect Strangers so Stevens was rehired. He had to grow a beard, dye his hair black, darken his skin with makeup, wear brown contact lenses over his blue eyes, speak with an East Indian accent, and walk hunched over like a cricket player. Austin Pendleton has said the original script was beautifully written but it was turned into a bland movie for kids, and cast with attractive leads not right for the parts, according to Badham, because the studio insisted.

1996

May 10 – Boys (USA, Polygram Filmed Entertainment)

• Cast: Winona Ryder, Lukas Haas, John C. Reilly, James LeGros, Skeet Ulrich, Chris Cooper, Catherine Keener, Jessica Harper
• Director: Stacy Cochran
• Trivia: Cochran cites studio interference in the editing process that took away the original intent of the film.

May 10 – Cold Comfort Farm (USA, BBC Films)

• Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Joanna Lumley, Ian McKellen, Rufus Sewell, Eileen Atkins, Stephen Fry, Freddie Jones, Miriam Margolyes
• Director: John Schlesinger
• Trivia: Cold Comfort Farm first premiered as a TV movie in the UK on January 1, 1995. Final film Schlesinger directed in his home country of Britain. Schlesinger put up his own money to transfer the film from 16mm to 35mm for a festival screening to secure a North American theatrical release.

May 10 – Dead Man (USA, Pandora Filmproduktion)

• Cast: Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Crispin Glover, Lance Henriksen, Michael Wincott, John Hurt, Robert Mitchum, Iggy Pop, Gabriel Byrne, Jared Harris, Billy Bob Thornton, Alfred Molina
• Director: Jim Jarmusch
• Trivia: Dead Man opened first in Japan on December 23, 1995. The film earned four Independent Spirit Awards nominations including Best Film.

May 10 – Love Is All There Is (USA, Cinema 7)

• Cast: Angelina Jolie, Nathaniel Marston, Lainie Kazan, Joseph Bologna, Barbara Carrera, Paul Sorvino, Connie Stevens, Renée Taylor, William Hickey, Dick Van Patten, Abe Vigoda, Joy Behar
• Directors: Joseph Bologna, Renée Taylor
• Trivia: Bologna and Taylor also wrote the screenplay, a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet.

May 10 – Of Love and Shadows (USA, Aleph Producciones S.A.)

• Cast: Antonio Banderas, Jennifer Connelly, Stefania Sandrelli, Diego Wallraff, Camilo Gallardo
• Director: Betty Kaplan
• Trivia: Of Love and Shadows first opened in Germany on October 6, 1994.

May 10 – Original Gangstas (USA, Po’ Boy Productions)

• Cast: Fred Williamson, Jim Brown, Pam Grier, Paul Winfield, Isabel Sanford, Oscar Brown Jr., Richard Roundtree, Ron O’Neal, Robert Forster, Charles Napier, Wings Hauser
• Director: Larry Cohen
• Trivia: Final film directed by Cohen, though he continued to write screenplays through 2010. Cohen died in 2019. Because distributor Orion Pictures went bankrupt, producer Fred Williamson never saw a profit from the film, many expenses coming from his own pocket.

May 10 – Twister (USA/Canada, Amblin Entertainment)

• Cast: Helen Hunt, Alexa Vega, Bill Paxton, Jami Gertz, Cary Elwes, Lois Smith, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alan Ruck, Joey Slotnick, Jeremy Davies, Anthony Rapp, Abraham Benrubi, Jake Busey, Rusty Schwimmer
• Director: Jan de Bont
• Trivia: The script for the troubled production went through several writers and experienced rewrites until production ended. Helen Hunt nearly bailed on the project because her character’s interactions with Jami Gertz’s character was too catty, and she didn’t want to play that and didn’t think it would be fun for audiences to watch. Filming was to take place in California, but Jan de Bont insisted the film be shot in Oklahoma. Production was suspended in April 1995 following the Oklahoma City bombing so the cast and crew could help with relief efforts. Hunt and co-star Bill Paxton were temporarily blinded by bright lamps used to make the sky behind them look dark and stormy. They also had to get hepatitis shots after filming the first tornado chase scene while in an unsanitary ditch. Hunt also hit her head several times, reportedly sustaining a concussion in one instance. Some of the crew quit after five weeks of filming feeling that de Bont was out of control and didn’t know what he wanted until he saw it. De Bont countered that the weather changed so frequently the camera crew couldn’t keep up. De Bont knocked a camera assistant into a ditch for missing a cue and refused to apologize, and the crew walked off set. They stayed on for one week until a new crew was in place, and produced Steven Spielberg flew to Oklahoma to admonish the director for his behavior. The shoot had a given deadline so Hunt could return to California to begin filming the fourth season of Mad About You, but the film ran over schedule and co-star Paul Reiser agreed to delay the start of production for two-and-a-half weeks so she could complete the film. The film earned two Razzie nominations, winning for Worst Written Film Grossing Over $100 Million, two Oscar nominations (Sound and Visual Effects), and a BAFTA for Visual Effects, which it won.

2006

May – Love + Hate (UK)

• Cast: Miriam Ali, Dean Andrews, Samina Awan, Liam Barr, Liam Boyle
• Director: Dominic Savage

May 12 – Just My Luck (USA, New Regency Productions)

• Cast: Lindsay Lohan, Chris Pine, McFly, Faizon Love, Samaire Armstrong, Missi Pyle, Tovah Feldshuh, Chris Carmack, Carlos Ponce
• Director: Donald Petrie
• Trivia: Principal interior photography took place in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina hit the area.

May 12 – Poseidon (USA/Canada, Virtual Studios-Radiant Productions-Next Entertainment-Irwin Allen Productions-Synthesis Entertainment)

• Cast: Kurt Russell, Josh Lucas, Richard Dreyfuss, Emmy Rossum, Jacinda Barrett, Mike Vogel, Mía Maestro, Kevin Dillon, Freddy Rodriguez, Stacy Ferguson, Andre Braugher
• Director: Wolfgang Petersen
• Trivia: Poseidon first opened in the Philippines on May 10, 2006. Wolfgang Petersen was originally to serve as producer on the film, but to get the film made Mike Fleiss had to promise the family of the 1972 film’s producer, Irwin Allen, that he would not direct as they had reservations after he directed Drunken Jackasses: The Quest, so Petersen took the reins. The script went through many rewrites which made it challenging to attract major names to the project. The sets drew inspiration from the RMS Queen Mary 2 (the first film based its sets on the RMS Queen Mary). Two sets for each main room were built, one right-side up, the other upside-down, with the upside-down ballroom built over a large tank so it could be flooded and drained in a matter of hours. Scenes of the ship capsizing were done with CGI effects. Industrial Light and Magic was responsible for all of the exterior ship scenes. The film earned a Razzie nomination for Worst Remake, Rip-off or Sequel, and an Oscar nomination for Visual Effects.

2016

May 13 – Money Monster (USA/Canada, LStar Capital-Smokehouse Pictures)

• Cast: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O’Connell, Dominic West, Caitriona Balfe, Giancarlo Esposito
• Director: Jodie Foster
• Trivia: First opened in France and Italy on May 12, 2016. Clooney was Foster’s first choice for the lead role.

May 13 – Sundown (USA, Irreversible Pictures)

• Cast: Devon Werkheiser, Sean Marquette, Camilla Belle, Silverio Palacios, Jordi Mollà, Sara Paxton, Teri Hatcher, John Michael Higgins
• Director: Fernando Lebrija
• Trivia: First opened in Mexico on April 22, 2016.

May 13 – The Darkness (USA/UK/Ireland, Chapter One Films)

• Cast: Kevin Bacon, Radha Mitchell, David Mazouz, Lucy Fry, Matt Walsh, Jennifer Morrison, Ming-Na Wen, Parker Mack, Paul Reiser
• Director: Greg McLean