Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #130 :: January 18•24

Miramax

It was another big week for new theatrical releases, but only a few are still remembered today, and the majority of 1922’s films no longer exist, although one that does, mostly, was a milestone for Anna May Wong. 1933 saw a ‘Poverty Row’ film snag two major stars to cash in on their success, while 1943 saw a film with a huge cast and several directors that was meant to bolster morale during wartime, and also had two wartime propaganda cartoons, with Popeye an dPorky Pig, that are rarely seen today. 1953 produced a movie serial that was notable for its casting of Black actors, while 1963 saw a marionette/sock puppet terrorize Denmark. 1973 had classic Blaxploitation, and a Donald Pleasance character with a familiar name. 1983 gave us yet another slasher film that has become a cult classic, as well as another film to cash in on the new 3D craze of the time. 2003 saw a film that revealed the ‘truth’ about a classic TV game show host and producer, as well as a film that scored an Oscar for Adrien Brody, and 2013 gave us a horror film that launched the career of the director of It, and saw the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger to the big screen. Readon to learn about these movies and more films celebrating anniversaries, and tell us if your favorites are on the list!

1923

January 18 – The Fog (USA)

• Cast: Mildred Harris, Louise Fazenda, Louise Dresser, Marjorie Prevost, Ann May, Ethel Wales, Cullen Landis, Ralph Lewis, David Butler, Frank Currier, Eddie Phillips
• Director: Paul Powell
• Production Company: Max Graf Productions, distributed by Metro Pictures Corporation
• Trivia: Adapted from the novel of the same name by William Dudley Pelley. The film is presumed lost.

January 19 – Bell Boy 13 (USA)

• Cast: Douglas MacLean, John Steppling, Margaret Loomis, William Courtright, Emily Gerdes, Eugene Burr, Jean Walsh
• Director: William A. Seiter
• Production Company: Thomas H. Ince Corporation, distributed by First National Pictures
• Trivia: Prints of the film survive in the Library of Congress and UCLA Film and Television Archive.

January 21 – As a Man Lives (USA)

• Cast: Robert Frazer, Gladys Hulette, Frank Losee, Jack Baston, Alfred E. Wright, Kate Blancke, Tiny Belmont, Charles Sutton
• Director: J. Searle Dawley
• Production Company: Achievement Films, distributed by American Releasing Corporation

January 21 – Border Law (USA, short)

• Cast: Leo D. Maloney, Pauline Curley, Pedro Valenzuela, Bud Osborne, Tommy Grimes
• Director: Ford Beebe
• Production Company: Malobee Productions, distributed by Pathé Exchange
• Trivia: 11th release in ‘The Range Rider’ series of two-reel westerns.

January 21 – Canyon of the Fools (USA)

• Cast: Harry Carey, Carmen Arselle, Marguerite Clayton, Jack Curtis, Mignonne Golden, Joseph Harris, Charles J. Le Moyne, Murdock MacQuarrie, Vester Pegg, Fred R. Stanton
• Director: Val Paul
• Production Company: Robertson-Cole Pictures Corporation, distributed by Film Booking Offices of America
• Trivia: Once thought to be lost, Canyon of the Fools was one of ten silent films digitally preserved in Russia’s Gosfilmofond archive and provided to the Library of Congress in October 2010.

January 21 – Dark Secrets (USA)

• Cast: Dorothy Dalton, Robert Ellis, José Ruben, Ellen Cassidy, Pat Hartigan, Warren Cook, Julia Swayne Gordon
• Director: Victor Fleming
• Production Company: Paramount Pictures
• Trivia: The film is presumed lost.

January 21 – The Ghost Patrol (USA)

• Cast: Ralph Graves, Bessie Love, George Nichols, George B. Williams, Max Davidson, Wade Boteler, Melbourne MacDowell, Lydia Yeamans Titus, George Cooper
• Director: Nat Ross
• Production Company: Universal Pictures
• Trivia: It is considered a lost film.

January 21 – While Paris Sleeps (USA)

• Cast: Lon Chaney, Jack F. MacDonald, Mildred Manning, John Gilbert, Hardee Kirkland, J. Farrell MacDonald, Fred Gamble
• Director: Maurice Tourneur
• Production Company: Maurice Tourneur Productions, distributed by W.W. Hodkinson
• Trivia: The film was actually made in 1920 as The Glory of Love, but was not released until 1923. Based on the novel The Glory of Love by Leslie Beresford. The film is now believed to be lost.

January 22 – The Balloonatic (USA, short)

• Cast: Buster Keaton, Phyllis Haver, Babe London
• Director: Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline
• Production Company: Buster Keaton Productions, distributed by Associated First National Pictures
• Trivia: One of Keaton’s final short films.

January 22 – The Toll of the Sea (USA)

• Cast: Anna May Wong, Kenneth Harlan, Beatrice Bentley, Baby Moran, Etta Lee, Ming Young
• Director: Chester M. Franklin
• Production Company: Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation, distributed by Metro Pictures Corporation
• Trivia: Anna May Wong’s first leading role. The second Technicolor feature (after 1917’s The Gulf Between), the first color feature made in Hollywood, and the first Technicolor color feature anywhere that did not require a special projector to be used for screenings. Once believed to have been lost, the film was restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive in 1985. As the final two reels were missing, an original Technicolor camera was used to shoot a sunset from the California beach much as it would have looked in the original film.

1933

January 20 – Man Of Action (USA)

• Cast: Tim McCoy, Caryl Lincoln, Julian Rivero, Wheeler Oakman, Walter Brennan, Joseph W. Girard, Stanley Blystone, Ted Adams
• Director: George Melford
• Production Company: Columbia Pictures
• Trivia: Part of a collection of features sold to Hygo Television Films, which redesigned opening titles and closing credits, with misspelled titles, rearranged cast credits, and misspelled names, and the removal of any evidence the films came from Columbia Pictures. Apparently only these versions of the films exist today.

January 20 – The Cheyenne Kid (USA)

• Cast: Tom Keene, Mary Mason, Roscoe Ates, Otto Hoffman, Al Bridge, Alan Roscoe, Anderson Lawler
• Director: Robert F. Hill
• Production Company: RKO Pictures

January 20 – The Mad Doctor (USA, short)

• Voice Cast: Walt Disney, Pinto Colvig, Allan Watson
• Director: David Hand
• Production Company: Walt Disney Productions, distributed by United Artists Pictures
• Trivia: One of the few Mickey Mouse cartoons that is in the public domain.

January 20 – The Past of Mary Holmes (USA)

• Cast: Helen MacKellar, Eric Linden, Jean Arthur, Richard ‘Skeets’ Gallagher, Ivan F. Simpson, Clay Clement, J. Carrol Naish, Roscoe Ates, Rochelle Hudson, John Sheehan, Edward J. Nugent
• Director: Slavko Vorkapich, Harlan Thompson
• Production Company: RKO Radio Pictures
• Trivia: A remake of the silent film The Goose Woman (1925), which is based on a short story by Rex Beach, partly based on the Hall-Mills murder case.

January 20 – The Wrestler’s Bride (USA, short)

• Cast: Eddie Gribbon, Joyce Compton, Arthur Stone, Hans Steinke, Fred Warren
• Director: Arthur Ripley, Babe Stafford
• Production Company: Mack Sennett Comedies, distributed by Paramount Pictures

January 21 – Asleep in the Feet (USA, short)

• Cast: Zasu Pitts, Thelma Todd, Billy Gilbert, Eddie Dunn
• Director: Gus Meins
• Production Company: Hal Roach Studios, distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• Trivia: Debut of actress Kay Lavelle.

January 21 – Coo Coo the Magician (USA, short)

• Production Company: Celebrity Productions, distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• Trivia: Remade as Insultin’ the Sultan in 1934.

January 21 – The Vampire Bat (USA)

Majestic Pictures

• Cast: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Melvyn Douglas, Maude Eburne, George E. Stone, Dwight Frye, Robert Frazer
• Director: Frank R. Strayer
• Production Company: Larry Darmour Productions, distributed by Majestic Pictures
• Trivia: With Lionel Atwill’s and Fay Wray’s success in Doctor X, and The Mystery of the Wax Museum in a lengthy post-production process, Majestic Pictures took advantage of the advance publicity for that film by casting the pair in this low-budget quickie. The film looked expensive because Majestic leased the ‘German village’ backlot sets from Frankenstein, and the interior sets from The Old Dark House. Majestic was able to rush the film into theaters about a month before Mystery of the Wax Museum.

January 21 – Tonight Is Ours (USA)

• Cast: Claudette Colbert, Fredric March, Alison Skipworth, Arthur Byron, Paul Cavanagh, Ethel Griffies, Clay Clement, Warburton Gamble, Edwin Maxwell
• Director: Stuart Walker
• Production Company: Paramount Pictures
• Trivia: Based on the play The Queen Was in the Parlour by Noël Coward.

January 21 – Whistling in the Dark (USA)

• Cast: Ernest Truex, Una Merkel, Edward Arnold, John Miljan, C. Henry Gordon, Johnny Hines, Joseph Cawthorn, Nat Pendleton, Tenen Holtz
• Director: Elliott Nugent
• Production Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• Trivia: Based on the Broadway play of the same name by Laurence Gross and Edward Childs Carpenter. Shown on television under the title Scared! Remade in 1941 with Red Skelton and Ann Rutherford.

January 22 – Robin Hood (USA, short)

• Production Company: Terrytoons

January 22 – Torchy’s Kitty Coup (USA, short)

• Cast: Ray Cooke, Franklin Pangborn, Edmund Breese, Marion Shockley, Dot Farley, Adeline Ashbury, Charles K. French, Sequoian Quartette
• Director: C.C. Burr
• Production Company: C.C. Burr Productions, distributed by Fox Film Corporation

January 24 – Drum Taps (USA)

• Cast: Ken Maynard, Tarzan, Dorothy Dix, Frank Coghlan Jr., Charles Stevens, Al Bridge, Harry Semels, Jim Mason, Slim Whitaker, Kermit Maynard, Hooper Atchley, Lloyd Ingraham
• Director: J.P. McGowan
• Production Company: K.B.S. Productions Inc., distributed by Sono Art-World Wide Pictures

1943

January 21 – Forever and a Day (USA)

• Cast: Kent Smith, Reginald Gardiner, Victor McLaglen, Arthur Treacher, June Lockhart, Ruth Warrick, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Herbert Marshall, Ray Milland, Dame May Whitty, Gene Lockhart, Claude Rains, Reginald Owen, Charles Laughton, Anna Lee, Buster Keaton, Montagu Love, Edward Everett Horton, Ida Lupino, Merle Oberon, Una O’Connor, Nigel Bruce, Elsa Lanchester, Roland Young, Gladys Cooper, Robert Cummings
• Director: Edmund Goulding, Cedric Hardwicke, Frank Lloyd, Victor Saville, Robert Stevenson, Herbert Wilcox, René Clair
• Production Company: RKO Radio Pictures
• Trivia: Employed seven directors, 22 writers and 78 stars.

January 21 – Wen die Götter lieben (Germany)

• Cast: Hans Holt, Irene von Meyendorff, Winnie Markus, Paul Hörbiger, Walter Janssen, Rosa Albach-Retty, Annie Rosar, René Deltgen, Thea Weis, Susi Witt, Curd Jürgens
• Director: Karl Hartl
• Production Company: Wien-Film, distributed by UFA
• Trivia: Released in the US on November 13, 1948 as Whom the Gods Love.

January 22 – Cinderella Swings It (USA)

• Cast: Guy Kibbee, Gloria Warren, Dick Hogan, Leonid Kinskey, Helen Parrish
• Director: Christy Cabanne
• Production Company: Pyramid Pictures, distributed by RKO Radio Pictures
• Trivia: Based on short stories by Clarence Budington Kelland about small-town philanthropist Scattergood Baines. The last of the six films in the Scattergood Baines series and the only one without the word ‘Scattergood’ in the title. Originally called Scattergood Swings It, the picture was renamed because the franchise was declining in popularity. It was also the only musical of the series.

January 22 – The Crystal Ball (USA)

• Cast: Ray Milland, Paulette Goddard, Gladys George, Virginia Field, Cecil Kellaway, William Bendix
• Director: Elliott Nugent
• Production Company: Cinema Guild Productions, distributed by United Artists
• Trivia: Ginger Rogers and Charles Boyer were originally considered for the leads before Paulette Goddard and Ray Milland were cast.

January 22 – One Dangerous Night (USA)

• Cast: Warren William, Marguerite Chapman, Eric Blore, Mona Barrie, Tala Birell, Margaret Hayes, Ann Savage
• Director: Michael Gordon
• Production Company: Columbia Pictures
• Trivia: Also known as The Lone Wolf Goes to a Party, and the tenth ‘Lone Wolf’ film. Warren William’s seventh and second-to-last portrayal of the Lone Wolf. Ann Savage’s film debut.

January 22 – Spinach Fer Britain (USA, short)

• Voice Cast: Jack Mercer
• Director: I. Sparber
• Production Company: Famous Studios, distributed by Paramount Pictures
• Trivia: The film was kept out of distribution for several decades, due to its propagandistic nature and frequent display of Nazism, until it received an official release in November 2008 in a DVD collection of Popeye cartoons produced between 1941–1943.

January 23 – Confusions of a Nutzy Spy (USA, short)

• Voice Cast: Mel Blanc
• Director: Norman McCabe
• Production Company: Leon Schlesinger Productions, distributed by Warner Bros.
• Trivia: The title is a play on words of that of Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939).

1953

January 18 – Fangs of the Arctic (USA)

• Cast: Kirby Grant, Lorna Hanson, Warren Douglas, Leonard Penn, Richard Avonde
• Director: Rex Bailey
• Production Company: Allied Artists Pictures
• Trivia: Eighth in the series of ten films featuring Kirby Grant as a Canadian Mountie.

January 21 – Jungle Drums of Africa (USA, serial)

• Cast: Clayton Moore, Phyllis Coates, Johnny Spencer, Henry Rowland, John Cason, Roy Glenn, Bill Walker, Steve Mitchell, Don Blackman
• Director: Fred C. Brannon
• Production Company: Republic Pictures
• Trivia: This serial features Black American actors in major roles, including that of a college-educated chieftain. Filmed under the working title Robin Hood of Darkest Africa. The serial was edited down to 100 minute for television broadcast and retitled U-238 and the Witch Doctor.

January 21 – Taxi (USA)

• Cast: Dan Dailey, Constance Smith, Mark Roberts, Neva Patterson
• Director: Gregory Ratoff
• Production Company: Twentieth Century Fox
• Trivia: DeForest Kelley and Stubby Kaye appear in uncredited roles.

January 23 – Hysterical History (USA)

• Voice Cast: Jackson Beck, Jack Mercer, Mae Questel
• Director: Isadore Sparber
• Production Company: Famous Studios, distributed by Paramount Pictures
• Trivia: Part of the ‘Kartunes’ series.

1963

January 20 – Reptilicus (USA)

• Cast: Carl Ottosen, Ann Smyrner, Mimi Heinrich, Asbjørn Andersen, Bodil Miller, Marla Behrens, Bent Mejding, Povl Wøldike, Dirch Passer, Ole Wisborg, Claus Toksvig
• Director: Poul Bang (Danish version), Sidney W. Pink (English version)
• Production Company: Saga Studios, distributed by Saga Studios (Denmark), American International Pictures (USA)
• Trivia: Opened in Denmark on February 20, 1961. Filmed in both Danish and English language versions with the same cast except for Bodil Miller, who was replaced with Marla Behrens since Miller could not speak English. Still, the English version was heavily edited and the actors’ voices were redubbed for release in the US.

January 22 – The Bad Sleep Well (USA)

• Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Masayuki Mori, Kyōko Kagawa, Tatsuya Mihashi, Takashi Shimura, Kō Nishimura, Takeshi Katō, Kamatari Fujiwara, Chishū Ryū, Seiji Miyaguchi
• Director: Akira Kurosawa
• Production Company: Toho Studios, Kurosawa Productions, distributed by Toho
• Trivia: Opened in Japan on September 15, 1960 as Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru. To convincingly play the part of a disabled wife, Kyōko Kagawa used uneven shoes and a knee brace. During filming of a car scene, Kagawa suffered injuries in her face and considered quitting her acting career. At the hospital where she was being treated, Toshiro Mifune stopped the press from interviewing her by standing in front of the door to her room.

1973

January 19 – Black Mama, White Mama (USA)

• Cast: Pam Grier, Margaret Markov, Sid Haig, Lynn Borden, Zaldy Zshornack, Laurie Burton, Eddie Garcia, Alona Alegre, Dondo Fernanco, Vic Díaz
• Director: Eddie Romero
• Production Company: Four Associates Ltd., distributed by American International Pictures
• Trivia: Also known as Women in Chains, and was also was released as Hot, Hard and Mean in the UK. The movie was reportedly inspired by the 1958 film The Defiant Ones in which Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis. The film was reportedly originally titled Chains of Hate and was based on a treatment by Jonathan Demme.

January 19 – The All-American Girl (USA)

• Cast: Peggy Church, Alan Abelew, Andy Mitchell, Paul Berry, Tracy Rodgers, Gloria Harris, Rim Randall
• Director: Mark Haggard
• Production Company: Markland Productions, distributed by Manuel S. Conde Distribution
• Trivia: Some scenes were filmed in the Carolands Mansion, a 19th century estate in Hillsborough, CA.

January 24 – Innocent Bystanders (USA)

• Cast: Stanley Baker, Geraldine Chaplin, Donald Pleasence, Dana Andrews, Sue Lloyd, Derren Nesbitt, Vladek Sheybal, Warren Mitchell, Cec Linder, Howard Goorney, J. G. Devlin, Ferdy Mayne
• Director: Peter Collinson
• Production Company: Sagittarius Productions, distributed by Paramount Pictures
• Trivia: Based on James Mitchell’s novel The Innocent Bystanders. First opened in Sweden on July 23, 1972. Donald Pleasance plays a character named Loomis five years before he appeared in John Carpenter’s Halloween as Dr. Sam Loomis.

1983

January 19 – Lianna (USA)

• Cast: Linda Griffiths, Jane Hallaren, Jon DeVries, Jo Henderson, Jessica MacDonald, Jesse Solomon, John Sayles
• Director: John Sayles
• Production Company: Winwood Productions, distributed by United Artists Classics
• Trivia: Debuts of both Linda Griffiths and Chris Elliott. Johhn Sayles’ second feature film as director.

January 21 – Independence Day (USA)

• Cast: Kathleen Quinlan, David Keith, Frances Sternhagen, Cliff DeYoung, Dianne Wiest, Josef Sommer, Bert Remsen, Richard Farnsworth, Brooke Alderson, Noble Willingham, Cheryl Smith
• Director: Robert Mandel
• Production Company: Warner Bros. Pictures
• Trivia: Cheryl Smith was sometimes billed as Rainbeaux Smith. This was her last film. It’s unclear why she quit acting but she lived until 2002.

January 21 – The House on Sorority Row (USA/Brazil)

VAE Productions

• Cast: Kathryn McNeil, Eileen Davidson, Janis Zido, Robin Meloy, Harley Kozak, Jodi Draigie, Ellen Dorsher
• Director: Mark Rosman
• Production Company: VAE Productions, distributed by Artists Releasing Corporation, Film Ventures International
• Trivia: Opened first in limited US release on November 19, 1982. Also known as House of Evil in the United Kingdom. Partly inspired by the 1955 French film Les Diaboliques. The screenplay was written in 1980 as Sister, Sister. Other potential titles were Seven Sisters and Screamer. Shot on location in Pikesville, Maryland, with establishing campus shots filmed at the University of Maryland. Directorial debut of Mark Rosman. John Waters’ longtime production designer Vincent Peranio dressed the house to appear as a sorority. Lois Kelso Hunt’s performance is entirely dubbed, as her natural speaking voice was deemed not ‘scary’ enough for the role of Mrs. Slater. The film’s distributor requested two changes before releasing the film — the opening black and white scene needed to be colorized, so it was tinted blue, and the ending was changed so that the character of Katherine survives.

January 21 – Threshold (USA)

• Cast: Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum, Sharon Acker, Mare Winningham, John Marley, Allan Nicholls
• Director: Richard Pearce
• Production Company: Canada Permanent Trust Company, Paragon Motion Pictures, distributed by Pan-Canadian Film Distributors (Canada), 20th Century Fox International Classics (USA)
• Trivia: Premiered in Canada on September 19, 1981, but did not receive a theatrical release until 1983.

January 21 – Treasure of the Four Crowns (USA)

• Cast: Tony Anthony, Ana Obregón, Gene Quintano, Jerry Lazarus, Francisco Rabal, Emiliano Redondo, Francisco Villena, Lewis Gordon
• Director: Ferdinando Baldi
• Production Company: The Lupo-Anthony-Quintano Company, M.T.G. Productions, Lotus Films, distributed by Cannon Film Distributors
• Trivia: The musical score was composed by Ennio Morricone. The film is a spiritual sequel to 1981’s Comin’ At Ya! which was also directed by Ferdinando Baldi and starred Tony Anthony and Gene Quintano. Both films were shot in 3D.

1993

January 22 – Aspen Extreme (USA)

• Cast: Paul Gross, Peter Berg, Finola Hughes, Teri Polo, William Russ, Trevor Eve, Martin Kemp
• Director: Patrick Hasburgh
• Production Company: Hollywood Pictures, distributed by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
• Trivia: David Boreanaz appears as an uncredited Spectator. Avalanche and rescue scenes were filmed over four days on a sound stage in North Hollywood, CA.

January 22 – Hexed (USA)

• Cast: Arye Gross, Claudia Christian, Adrienne Shelly, R. Lee Ermey, Ray Baker, Michael E. Knight, Robin Curtis, Norman Fell
• Director: Alan Spencer
• Production Company: Price Entertainment, distributed by Columbia Pictures
• Trivia: The original screenplay was titled Shattered Nerves.

January 24 – Space Zombie Bingo!!! (USA)

• Cast: William Darkow, Ramona Provost, Hugh Crawford, Michael Wood, Carl Cook, James Wark, Jason Gayden, Roger Barrett, John Sabotta, Eugene Sabotta
• Director: George Ormrod
• Production Company: Troma

2003

January 24 – Amen. (USA)

• Cast: Ulrich Tukur, Mathieu Kassovitz, Ulrich Mühe, Michel Duchaussoy, Ion Caramitru, Marcel Iureş, Friedrich von Thun, Antje Schmidt, Hanns Zischler, Sebastian Koch, Erich Hallhuber, Angus MacInnes
• Director: Costa-Gavras
• Production Company: CanalPlus, K.G. Productions, KC Medien, Katharina, Renn Productions, TF1 Films Production, distributed by Pathé (France), Kino International (USA)
• Trivia: Opened in France on February 23, 2002. Based on the play The Deputy, a Christian Tragedy by Rolf Hochhuth. The German-language version of the film was released under the play’s original title Der Stellvertreter. Nominated for seven César Awards, including for Best Film and Best Director, and won the award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

January 24 – Blind Spot: Hitler’s Secretary (USA)

• Cast: Traudl Junge
• Director: André Heller, Othmar Schmiderer
• Production Company: Dor Film Produktionsgesellschaft, distributed by Piffl Medien (Germany), Atrix Films (Worldwide)
• Trivia: Opened in Austria on March 22, 2022 as Im toten Winkel – Hitlers Sekretärin.

January 24 – Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (USA/Canada)

• Cast: Sam Rockwell, Michael Cera, Drew Barrymore, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Rutger Hauer, Jerry Weintraub, Robert John Burke, Michael Ensign, Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Urbaniak, Richard Kind
• Director: George Clooney
• Production Company: Mad Chance, Section Eight, Mel’s Cite du Cinema, JVS & Co., distributed by Miramax Films
• Trivia: Based on Chuck Barris’s 1984 ‘unauthorized autobiography’ of the same name. Opened in limited US release on December 31 to meet awards deadline. Brad Pitt and Matt Damon appear in cameos as Bachelors on The Dating Game. Chuck Barris, Dick Clark, Jim Lange, Murray Langston, Jaye P. Morgan, and Gene Patton are featured in interviews central to the storyline. George Clooney’s feature directorial debut. David Fincher, Brian De Palma and Bryan Singer were among the directors interested in the project before Clooney was hired. Mike Myers, Ben Stiller and Johnny Depp were interested in the Barris role but Clooney fought for relative unknown, at the time, Sam Rockwell. Clooney also brought Barris on to provide additional authenticity, which led to uncredited rewrites on the script which did not sit well with writer Charlie Kaufman. To accommodate the $30 million budget, Clooney convinced Drew Barrymore and Julia Roberts to lower their usual salaries. Rockwell won the Silver Bear Award for Best Actor at the 2003 Berlin International Film Festival. The project was originally in development in the late 1980s at Sony with Richard Dreyfuss under consideration for the lead, but he refused to even read the script because of his distaste for Barris’ ‘morbid humor’. The project moved to Warner Bros. in 1997 with Kaufman’s script and Curtis Hanson set to direct, with Sean Penn as Barris and Clooney and Barrymore co-starring. Barris was so enthusiastic with Clooney’s work on the film that it inspired him to write a sequel to his original book titled Bad Grass Never Dies, to which Miramax also holds the rights. Rockwell spent more than two months with Barris for research, and had Barris record his lines so he could get the voice down. The role of the mysterious CIA agent was originally cast with Nicole Kidman, but she had to exit due to her work on The Hours. Though Rockwell was cast as Barris, Miramax would not greenlight the film until Julia Roberts signed on to replace Kidman. Miramax was still unsure of Rockwell but Clooney agreed to give Miramax first look at projects from his Section Eight Productions, and to make a cameo appearance in Spy Kids 3D.

January 24 – Darkness Falls (USA/Canada)

• Cast: Chaney Kley, Emma Caulfield, Emily Browning, Lee Cormie, Grant Piro, John Stanton, Sullivan Stapleton, Steve Mouzakis, Peter Curtin, Kestie Morassi, Jenny Lovell
• Director: Jonathan Liebesman
• Production Company: Revolution Studios, Columbia Pictures, Distant Corners, distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing
• Trivia: Jonathan Liebesman’s feature directorial debut.

January 24 – The Pianist (UK/Canada)

• Cast: Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay, Maureen Lipman, Emilia Fox, Ed Stoppard, Julia Rayner, Jessica Kate Meyer, Ronan Vibert, Ruth Platt
• Director: Roman Polanski
• Production Company: CanalPlus, Studio Babelsberg, StudioCanal
• Trivia: First opened in France and Belgium on September 25, 2002. Based on the autobiographical book The Pianist (1946), a Holocaust memoir by the Polish-Jewish pianist and composer Władysław Szpilman, a Holocaust survivor. Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, winning three (Director, Adapted Screenplay, Actor). Also won the BAFTA for Best Film and Best Direction. Joseph Fiennes was the first choice to play Szpilman, but he was committed to a theatrical role. Over 1,400 actors auditioned for the part, and the unsatisfied Polanski sought out Adrien Brody after their first meeting in Paris.

January 24 – Super Sucker (USA, limited)

• Cast: Jeff Daniels, Matt Letscher, Harve Presnell, Dawn Wells, John Seibert, Guy Sanville, Kate Packham, Sandra Birch, Michelle Mountain, Will Young
• Director: Jeff Daniels
• Production Company: Purple Rose Films
• Trivia: Winner of the 2002 US Comedy Arts Festival audience award for Best Picture, the film never received national distribution.

2013

January 18 – Broken City (USA/Canada)

• Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Barry Pepper, Kyle Chandler, Natalie Martinez, Jeffrey Wright, Alona Tal, Michael Beach, James Ransone, Griffin Dunne, Justin Chambers, Gregory Jbara, Dana Gourrier
• Director: Allen Hughes
• Production Company: Regency Enterprises, Emmett/Furla Films, Inferno Distribution, Black Bear Pictures, New Regency, Closest to the Hole Productions, Leverage Entertainment, Allen Hughes Productions, 1984 Private Defense Contractors, Envision Entertainment, distributed by 20th Century Fox
• Trivia: Allen Hughes’ first feature film solo project without his twin brother Albert.

January 18 – Luv (USA, limited)

• Cast: Common, Michael Rainey Jr., Dennis Haysbert, Danny Glover, Lonette McKee, Charles S. Dutton, Meagan Good, Marz Lovejoy, Marc John Jefferies, Michael K. Williams, Tracey Heggins, Clark Johnson, Russell Hornsby, Sammi Rotibi
• Director: Sheldon Candis
• Production Company: Film Forward Independent, Gordon Bijelonic/Datari Turner Films, Freedom Road Entertainment, TideRock Films, ZHI Media, Taggart Productions, Cinephile Academy, Hollywood Studios International, Rival Pictures, distributed by Indomina Releasing
• Trivia: Filmed in and around Baltimore, and premiered at the Maryland Film Festival.

January 18 – Mama (USA/Canada)

Universal Pictures

• Cast: Jessica Chastain, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Megan Charpentier, Morgan McGarry, Isabelle Nélisse, Daniel Kash, Javier Botet, Hannah Cheesman, Jane Moffat, David Fox, Julia Chantrey
• Director: Andy Muschietti
• Production Company: Toma 78, De Milo Productions, distributed by Universal Pictures
• Trivia: Andy Muschietti’s feature directorial debut. Based on his 2008 Argentine short film Mamá. While the film is set in Clifton Forge, Virginia it was shot in Canada, with some parts shot in Quebec City, Quebec. The film was originally set to be released in October 2012 but moved to January so it didn’t compete for the horror crowd with Paranormal Activity 4.

January 18 – The Last Stand (USA/Canada)

• Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Johnny Knoxville, Forest Whitaker, Jaimie Alexander, Luis Guzmán, Eduardo Noriega, Rodrigo Santoro, Peter Stormare, Zach Gilford, Genesis Rodriguez
• Director: Kim Jee-woon
• Production Company: di Bonaventura Pictures, distributed by Lionsgate
• Trivia: Kim Jee-woon’s American directorial debut. Schwarzenegger’s first leading role since 2003’s Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines because of his time as governor of California. Liam Neeson was originally offered the role but passed. Producers wanted to film in Downtown Las Vegas, but found that downtown Albuquerque looked similar and filmed there instead, adding the Vegas Strip in post-production. The town allowed filming from 6PM to 6AM, which would not disturb local businesses.