Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #17 :: November 18•24

Walt Disney Pictures

Heading into the holiday season, studios began releasing a lot of big budget, big name, high concept films to bring audiences back to the cinemas after a slowdown following the summer season. This time of year normally sees a lot of films looking for award recognition, but there are many films that are simply meant to be crowd-pleasers as well. This week over the last 100 years has given us adaptations of literary classics, Bette Davis at her best, action-packed blockbusters, a Jerry Lewis take on a classic fairy tale, a notorious Western flop, another Western hit, a cult musical, more than one sequel, and a comic book movie that wasn’t marketed as a comic book movie. Take a stroll down the red carpet to see all the movies that premiered this week, and check out the highlighted links for the best value to buy a movie, book or collectible and help support Hotchka in the process.

1920

November 21 – Burglar Proof

• Cast: Bryant Washburn, Lois Wilson, Grace Morse, Emily Chichester, Clarence Geldart, Clarence Burton, Tom Bates, Hayward Mack, Blanche Gray
• Director: Maurice Campbell
• Studio: Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, distributed by Paramount Pictures
• Trivia: The film’s status is unknown.

November 21 – The Frisky Mrs. Johnson

• Cast: Billie Burke, Ward Crane, Jane Warrington, Lumsden Hare, Huntley Gordon, Jean De Briac, Robert Agnew, Leonora von Ottinger, Emily Fitzroy
• Director: Edward Dillon
• Studio: Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, distributed by Paramount Pictures
• Trivia: Based on the 1903 stage play by Clyde Fitch. This was Burke’s next to last silent film, and it is considered lost.

November 21 – The Last of the Mohicans

• Cast: Wallace Beery, Barbara Bedford, Lillian Hall, Alan Roscoe, Harry Lorraine, Henry Woodward, James Gordon, George Hackathorne, Nelson McDowell, Theodore Lorch, Jack McDonald, Sydney Deane
• Director: Maurice Tourneur, Clarence Brown
• Studio: Associated Producers, Inc.
• Trivia: Adapted from the 1826 novel by James Fenimore Cooper. The film has been labeled a masterpiece and was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry in 1995. Boris Karloff has an uncredited role as an Indian.

November 21 – Life of the Party

• Cast: Roscoe Arbuckle, Winifred Greenwood, Roscoe Karns, Julia Faye, Frank Campeau, Allen Connor, Fred Starr
• Director: Joseph Henabery
• Studio: Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, distributed by Paramount Pictures
• Trivia: A copy of the film is held by the Library of Congress.

November 22 – The Devil’s Garden

• Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Doris Rankin, May McAvoy, H. Cooper Cliffe
• Director: Kenneth Webb
• Studio: Whitman Bennett Productions, distributed by First National Exhibitor’s Circuit
• Trivia: Based on the novel by William Babington Maxwell. The film is considered lost. First National Exhibitor’s Circuit was later known as First National Pictures. It was the first film produced by Whitman Bennett Productions.

November 22 – Love, Honor and Behave

• Cast: Charles Murray, Ford Sterling, Phyllis Haver, Marie Prevost, George O’Hara, Charlotte Mineau, Billy Bevan, Kalla Pasha, Eddie Gribbon, Fanny Kelly, Billy Armstrong, Joseph Belmon, Raymond Griffith, Sybil Seely, James Finlayson, Dave Anderson
• Director: F. Richard Jones, Erle C. Kenton
• Studio: Mack Sennett Comedies, distrbuted by First National Pictures

November 22 – West is West

• Cast: Harry Carey, Charles Le Moyne, Ted Brooks, Ed Lattell, Otto Nelson, Frank Braidwood, Arthur Millett, Adelaide Hallock, James O’Neill, Scott McKee, Mignonne Golden, Jack Dill, Sue Mason
• Director: Val Paul
• Studio: Universal Film Manufacturing Company

1930

November 23 – Just Imagine

• Cast: El Brendel, Maureen O’Sullivan, John Garrick, Marjorie White, Frank Albertson, Hobart Bosworth, Kenneth Thomson, Mischa Auer, Ivan Linow, Joyzelle Joyner, Wilfred Lucas
• Director: David Butler
• Studio: Fox Film Corporation
• Trivia: The massive 1980 Art Deco city, featuring New York skyscrapers 250-stories tall connected by suspension bridges with multi-lane elevated roads, was built in a former Army balloon hangar by 205 technicians over five months at a cost of $168,000. It was wired with 15,000 miniature bulbs and lit from above by 74 arc lights. The film features the first on screen appearance of electrical equipment designed by Kenneth Strickfaden that would become more well-known from James Whale’s Frankenstein. While the film was a box office flop, the studio was able to get some return on its investment by licensing clips of the futuristic sets and props for other films, including Universal’s Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials. Because of the film’s failure, studios would not back another big budget science fiction film until 1951. Film serials were exempt from that trend. It is the first film of the science fiction genre to be nominated for an Oscar (Best Art Direction).

1940

Warner Bros. Pictures

November 22 – The Letter

• Cast: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson, Frieda Inescort, Gale Sondergaard, Bruce Lester, Elizabeth Earl, Cecil Kellaway, Sen Yung, Doris Lloyd, Willie Fung, Tetsu Komai
• Director: William Wyler
• Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
• Trivia: Based on the 1927 play by W. Somerset Maugham from his own short story. The play was first filmed in 1929. The Production Code Administration rejected the original storyline because it contained adultery and unpunished murder (any crime had to be punished according to the code), so a new final scene was added in which Davis’ character was killed. The character of Mrs. Hammond was originally Hammond’s Chinese mistress but was changed to his Eurasian wife to placate the Hays Office. Davis walked off the set after a disagreement with Wyler over a climactic scene in which her character admits to her husband she’s still in love with the man she murdered. Davis insisted no woman would look her husband in the eye when admitting such a thing. She eventually returned to the set to do it Wyler’s way but always insisted her way would have been better. Herbert Marshall also appears in the 1929 version as the murdered lover. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director, Actress and Supporting Actor.

1950

November 18 – Harriet Craig

• Cast: Joan Crawford, Wendell Corey, Lucile Watson, Allyn Joslyn, William Bishop, K.T. Stevens, Viola Roache, Raymond Greenleaf, Ellen Corby
• Director: Vincent Sherman
• Studio: Columbia Pictures
• Trivia: Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning 1925 play Craig’s Wife by George Kelly. The story was filmed twice previously with the original title as a 1928 silent and again in 1936 with Rosalind Russell. This was the second of three collaborations between Sherman and Crawford.

November 24 – King Solomon’s Mines

• Cast: Deborah Kerr, Stewart Granger, Richard Carlson, Hugo Haas, Lowell Gilmore, Kimursi of the Kipsigi Tribe, Siriaque, Sekaryongo, Baziga of the Watussi Tribe
• Director: Compton Bennett, Andrew Marton
• Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• Trivia: This was the second of five adaptations to date of the 1885 novel by H. Rider Haggard. MGM typically made one or two big films overseas around the time of this film’s production, and when Quo Vadis was postponed the studio decided to film King Solomon’s Mines on location in Africa. The film’s plot deviates from the novel by including a female lead. MGM wanted Errol Flynn to star as he had just finished That Forsyth Woman with Compton Bennett, but Flynn chose to do Kim instead. The majority of filming was done in Africa with additional scenes shot at Carlsbad Caverns National Park and Sitting Bull Falls in New Mexico. After five months of location film, Bennett was replaced as director with Andrew Marton. The official story was that Bennett had fallen ill, but rumors suggested he’d had a falling out with some of the cast. The film was MGM’s most successful of the year, and the second highest grossing film of 1950 over all. The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, and won Oscars for Best Cinematography – Color, and Best Film Editing. A one-hour adaptation of the film was presented on Lux Radio Theatre on December 1, 1952 with Kerr and Granger reprising their screen roles.

1960

November 22 – Cinderfella

• Cast: Jerry Lewis, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Judith Anderson, Ed Wynn, Henry Silva, Robert Hutton, Count Basie
• Director: Frank Tashlin
• Studio: Paramount Pictures
• Trivia: Based on the classic Cinderella story with most of the characters changed in gender. After running up a staircase for one shot in nine seconds, Lewis collapsed at the top and was hospitalized for four days, in an oxygen tent, with his second cardiac event. Production was delayed for two weeks. The exterior mansion shots are of the Chartwell in Bel Air, CA, which would later be used as the exterior of the Clampetts’ mansion on The Beverly Hillbillies. A studio cast album of the semi-musical featured Lewis with a different supporting cast, and most of the songs on the album were not in the movie. Paramount wanted to release the film in the summer, but Lewis felt it was a holiday film so the studio agreed to delay the film if Lewis gave them another for summer release. In four weeks he wrote, produced, directed and starred in The Bellboy while performing at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. That film was released on July 20, 1960. The film opened in Chicago on November 22, followed by Los Angeles on December 14 and New York on December 16 before its national release on December 18, when it became the Number 1 film for the week. The film was re-released in 1967 on a double bill with Lewis’ The Errand Boy.

1970

November 18 – Dirty Dingus Magee

• Cast: Frank Sinatra, George Kennedy, Anne Jackson, Lois Nettleton, Jack Elam, Michele Carey, John Dehner, Henry Jones, Harry Carey, Jr., Paul Fix, Terry Wilson
• Director: Burt Kennedy
• Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• Trivia: Based on the novel The Ballad of Dingus Magee by David Markson. Roger Ebert said in his review that the film was ‘awful’, blaming Sinatra for not really caring about his movies, more worried about getting to Vegas while collecting a paycheck and getting top billing while the co-stars do all the work.

November 18 – I Walk the Line

• Cast: Gregory Peck, Tuesday Weld, Estelle Parsons, Ralph Meeker, Lonny Chapman, Charles Durning, Jeff Dalton, Freddie McCloud, Jane Rose, J.C. Evans, Margaret A. Morris, Bill Littleton, Leo Yates, Nora Denney
• Director: John Frankenheimer
• Studio: Columbia Pictures
• Trivia: Adapted from Madison Jones’ novel An Exile. Frankenheimer wanted Gene Hackman for the lead but Columbia insisted Peck be cast as he was under contract. Will Geer was called on to dub dialog for J.C. Evans, Frankenheimer’s wife’s 82-year-old grandfather. The film playing at the drive-in is The Big Mouth but the posters are for Hook, Line & Sinker (both Jerry Lewis films). The DVD release alters the ending with a freeze frame of Peck’s face. In the original release, his face is not frozen. Also for the video release, a scene showing the shooting of Durning’s character from a distance has been removed.

November 24 – The Act of the Heart

• Cast: Geneviève Bujold, Donald Sutherland, Monique Leyrac, Sharon Acker
• Director: Paul Almond
• Studio: Universal Pictures
• Trivia: The Canadian film is the second of three collaborations between Bujold and Almond. It won six Canadian Film Awards including Best Director and Best Actress.

1980

November 19 – Heaven’s Gate

• Cast: Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Brad Dourif, Isabelle Huppert, Joseph Cotten, Jeff Bridges, Geoffrey Lewis, Paul Kosl, Richard Masur, Ronnie Hawkins, Terry O’Quinn, Tom Noonan, Mickey Rourke, Roseanne Vela, Nicholas Woodeson
• Director: Michael Cimino
• Studio: Partisan Productions, distributed by United Artists
• Trivia: Willem Dafoe has an uncredited role. This is both Dafoe’s and Woodeson’s first film roles. The story is loosely based on the Johnson County War. The film cost nearly four times its original budget, and was critically trounced upon its release, prompting United Artists to pull the film from distribution, re-cutting it and re-releasing a shortened version that was still a financial failure, causing UA to go bankrupt. The film’s original cut has been called one of the worst films ever made, while the re-cut was labeled a cinematic injustice. Later re-edits have met critical acclaim. Cimino wrote the original script, then titled The Johnson County War, in 1971 but it was shelved after failing to attract big-name talent. Just as Cimino was on track to win the Best Director Oscar for The Deer Hunter, which also won Best Picture, he convinced UA to resurrect the project. Cimino was given an $11.4 million budget and carte blanche. According to legend, the film was five days behind schedule by the sixth day of shooting. Cimino ended up shooting 1.3 million feet of film, approximately 220 hours of footage. Cimino was said to demand up to 50 takes of scenes, and delaying filming until a particular cloud rolled into frame. Musicians brought to Montana for three weeks of filming were stranded, waiting to be called for shots. UA considered firing Cimino and replacing him with David Lean. John Hurt reportedly had time between filming his scenes to leave and make The Elephant Man before returning to complete the film. Cimino reportedly changed the lock to the editing room upon completion of filming to prevent studio execs from seeing the footage (he disputes that story). Cimino previewed his original cut for the studio that ran 5 hours and 25 minutes, about 15 minutes longer than his proposed final cut. The studio refused to release a film of that length and contemplated firing Cimino again, but he promised to produce a new cut, bringing it down to 3 hours and 39 minutes. The original release was set for December 1979, but the delays in finishing the film pushed it to November 1980. The film is known as one of the biggest box office bombs of all time. A 216-minute ‘director’s cut’ was released in 2012 to great acclaim. The original version of the film was nominated for the Best Art Direction Oscar, as well as five Golden Raspberry Awards (in its second year), with Cimino winning Worst Director.

November 21 – The Apple

• Cast: Catherine Mary Stewart, George Gilmour, Grace Kennedy, Vladek Sheybal, Allan Love, Joss Ackland, Ray Shell, Miriam Margolyes, Derek Deadman, Michael Logan, George S. Clinton
• Director: Menahem Golan
• Studio: NF Geria II Filmgesellschaft mbH, distributed by The Cannon Group
• Trivia: The film is also known as Star Rock. The story was based on rock producer Coby Recht’s personal experience working with French producer Eddie Barclay. Recht has said the story was supposed to be 1984 with music. The original intention was to present the story as a Hebrew stage musical but it was too expensive to produce. Recht had known Golan since he was a child, and pitched the story and music to his friend. After four hours, Golan agreed to produce the film. In Los Angeles, Recht rewrote the script and songs so many times they no longer resembled his original work. Recht complained that Golan was turning the story into something corny instead of his more dramatic Orwellian take on the music industry. Around 1,000 people auditioned for the film. Catherine Mary Stewart originally auditioned to be a dancer but Recht saw her and immediately knew she was Bibi, even though Stewart did not have the vocal skills for the role. Recht lied to Golan that Stewart was a great singer so he’d cast her as Bibi. Mary Hylan served as Bibi’s singing voice. Nigel Lythgoe was a choreographer on the film, and Finola Hughes can be seen as a dancer.

November 21 – Hurray for Betty Boop

• Voice Cast: Victoria Dorazi, Tom Smothers, David Somerville, David Swanson, Danny Bravin, Tom Murphy, Tony Pope, Pete Williams
• Director: Dan Dalton
• Studio: Dan Dalton Productions, National Telefilm Associates (NTA), distributed by New Line Cinema
• Trivia: Also known as Betty Boop for President, the film assembles a loose story assembled from original Betty Boop cartoons, redrawn and colored by Korean animators.

November 21 – The Visitor

• Cast: Mel Ferrer, Glenn Ford, Lance Henriksen, John Huston, Joanne Nail, Sam Peckinpah, Shelley Winters, Paige Conner
• Director: Giulio Paradisi (as Michael J. Paradise)
• Studio: Brouwersgracht Investments, Film Ventures International, Swan American Film, distributed by American International Pictures, The International Picture Show Company
• Trivia: The film is known by its Italian title Stridulum, and was released in Italy on August 3, 1979. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar makes an uncredited appearance as himself. Franco Nero also appears in an uncredited supporting role as a Christ figure. A DVD release in 2010 presented the film uncut for the first time in the United States.

1990

November 21 – Dances With Wolves

• Cast: Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, Rodney A. Grant, Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Tantoo Cardinal, Jimmy Herman, Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse, Michael Spears, Charles Rocket, Robert Pastorelli, Kirk Baltz, Tom Everett, Maury Chaykin, Wes Studi
• Director: Kevin Costner
• Studio: Tig Productions, distributed by Orion Pictures
• Trivia: The film had its premiere at DC’s Uptown Theater on October 19, 1990. Adapted from the 1988 book by Michael Blake. Blake had written the screenplay in the mid-1980s but it went unsold. Costner had appeared in a film written by Blake, Stacy’s Knights, and suggested he sell it as a book to improve its chances of being turned into a film. The novel was rejected numerous times but finally published in 1988. Costner then purchased the rights. Studios were reluctant to produce the film after the disaster of Heaven’s Gate, but Costner was able to secure foreign rights in several countries, and Orion Pictures agreed to distribute in North America. The fourth highest grossing film of 1990, and Orion Pictures highest grossing film ever with $424.4 million worldwide. Nominated for 12 Academy Awards, winning seven: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, and Best Sound Mixing. Also the Golden Globe winner for Best Motion Picture – Drama. Selected for preservation by the National Film Registry in 2007. Blake published a sequel, The Holy Road, in 2001, and was prepping a script as late as 2007. Costner, however, refuses to do sequels and would not participate in the film. A third novel was planned but Blake died in 2015.

November 21 – Hidden Agenda

• Cast: Frances McDormand, Brian Cox, Brad Dourif, Maurice Roëves, Ian McElhinney, Mai Zetterling, Michelle Fairley
• Director: Ken Loach
• Studio: Hemdale Film Corporation
• Trivia: The film was originally set up at Columbia Pictures in 1987 under David Puttnam, but after he was ousted as studio head, Loach had to find new financial backing, with Hemdale eventually picking up the film.

November 21 – The Nutcracker Prince

• Voice Cast: Kiefer Sutherland, Megan Follows, Peter Boretski, Phyllis Diller, Mike MacDonald, Peter O’Toole, Lynne Gorman, George Merner, Stephanie Morgenstern, Christopher Owens, Diane Stapley, Mona Waserman, Noam Zylberman
• Director: Paul Schibli
• Studio: Lacewood Productions, Boulevard Entertainment, Allied Filmmakers, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures (United States), Cineplex Odeon (Canada), Entertainment Film Distributors (United Kingdom)
• Trivia: Based on the story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E. T. A. Hoffmann and also influenced by its ballet adaptation The Nutcracker. Tchaikovsky’s music to that ballet is used as the main instrumental soundtrack.

20th Century Fox

November 21 – Predator 2

• Cast: Danny Glover, Kevin Peter Hall, Gary Busey, Ruben Blades, María Conchita Alonso, Bill Paxton, Lilyan Chauvin, Robert Davi, Adam Baldwin, Kent McCord, Steve Kahan, Morton Downey Jr., Calvin Lockhart, Elpidia Carrillo, Henry Kingi
• Director: Stephen Hopkins
• Studio: Silver Pictures, Gordon Company, Davis Entertainment, distributed by 20th Century Fox
• Trivia: Writers Jim and John Thompson pitched six story ideas to Fox with the studio liking the ‘Predator in an urban jungle setting’, which became Los Angeles. The script was developed in three weeks. Original star Arnold Schwarzenegger declined to appear in the sequel due to a salary dispute. The Predator was redesigned to look more urban and hip, with tribal ornamentation on the forehead, brighter skin coloration and more fangs representing a different individual of the same species but not the same creature from the first film. The film was set in the then-future of 1997 and included new video technology and a then-nonexistent subway in Los Angeles (an actual Metro Rail started operating in L.A. the year the film opened). The film originally received an NC-17 rating leading to several cuts being made to bring it down to an R.

November 21 – Robot Jox

• Cast: Gary Graham, Anne-Marie Johnson, Paul Koslo, Robert Sampson, Danny Kamekona, Hilary Mason, Michael Alldredge, Jeffrey Combs, Michael Saad, Ian Patrick Williams, Jason Marsden
• Director: Stuart Gordon
• Studio: Empire Pictures, Trans World Entertainment, distributed by Triumph Releasing Corporation
• Trivia: Principal photography had been completed in 1987, but the bankruptcy of Empire Pictures delayed the release from 1989 to 1990. A novelization of the screenplay was published in 1989. Director Stuart Gordon said the inspiration for the film came from the Transformers toy line. Proposed titles for the film were The Mechanics and Robojox. The film was not met with success upon its initial release but has developed a cult following, especially after the release of Pacific Rim in 2012 with critics and bloggers noticing the similarities between the two films.

November 21 – Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation

• Cast: Clint Howard, Neith Hunter, Tommy Hinkley, Reggie Bannister, Allyce Beasley, Maud Adams, Hugh Fink, Richard N. Gladstein, Glen Chin, Jeanne Bates, Laurel Lockhart, Ben Slack, Conan Yuzna, Marjean Holden, Ilsa Setzoil, David Wells
• Director: Brian Yuzna
• Studio: Silent Films, distributed by Live Video
• Trivia: Known as Bugs in the UK. The film drops the ‘Killer Santa’ theme and bears no resemblance to the previous films. The film was released directly to video.

November 21 – Three Men and a Little Lady

• Cast: Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, Ted Danson, Nancy Travis, Christopher CazeNovembere, Fiona Shaw, Robin Weisman, John Boswall, Sheila Hancock
• Director: Emile Ardolino
• Studio: Touchstone Pictures, Silver Screen Partners IV, Interscope Communications, distributed by Buena Vista Pictures
• Trivia: The film’s soundtrack album features the film’s three stars singing ‘Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnight’ from Three Men and a Baby, which had no soundtrack album of its own. Disney announced a potential third film in 2010 titled Three Men and a Bride which has not come to pass.

November 22 – Life is Sweet

• Cast: Alison Steadman, Jim Broadbent, Claire Skinner, Jane Horrocks, Timothy Spall
• Director: Mike Leigh
• Studio: Thin Man Films, distributed by Palace Pictures
• Trivia: This was Mike Leigh’s third, and most popular at the time, theatrical film. It was the first film produced by Leigh’s company Thin Man Films, which has produced all of his films since. David Thewlis was disappointed with his small role in the film, so Leigh promised he’d consider him for for a larger role next time. Thewlis’s next role for Leigh was the lead in Naked.

November 23 – Mr. and Mrs. Bridge

• Cast: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Margaret Welsh, Kyra Sedgwick, Robert Sean Leonard, Simon Callow, Remak Ramsay, Blythe Danner, Austin Pendleton, Gale Garnett
• Director: James Ivory
• Studio: Cineplex Odeon Films, Merchant Ivory Productions, distributed by Miramax Films
• Trivia: The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 1990. Based on the novel Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell. Mrs. Bridge is based on Connell’s mother Ruth. The film was shot entirely on location in Kansas City, Missouri; Paris, France; and Ottawa, Canada. Woodward received an Oscar and Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.

2000

November 22 – 102 Dalmatians

• Cast: Glenn Close, Gérard Depardieu, Ioan Gruffudd, Alice Evans, Tim McInnerny, Eric Idle, Ben Crompton, Carol MacReady, Ian Richardson, David Horovitch, Kerry Shale, Ron Cook
• Director: Kevin Lima
• Studio: Walt Disney Pictures, Cruella Productions, Kanzaman S.A.M. Films, distributed by Buena Vista Pictures
• Trivia: This was Lima’s live-action directorial debut after working on The Goofy Movie and Tarzan. Close and McInnerny were the only two actors to return from the first film. The film scored an Oscar nomination for Best Costumes but lost to Gladiator. The film’s early working title was 101 Dalmatians Returns. The film was produced without John Hughes, who produced the 1996 film, because of the failure of Flubber. The film’s trailer featured stock footage from The Shawshank Redemption.

November 22 – Quills

• Cast: Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Caine, Billie Whitelaw, Stephen Marcus, Amelia Warner, Stephen Moyer, Jane Menelaus, Ron Cook, Patrick Malahide, Elizabeth Berrington, Tony Pritchard, Michael Jenn, Edward Tudor-Pole
• Director: Philip Kaufman
• Studio: Industry Entertainment, Walrus & Associates, distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures
• Trivia: The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on September 2, 2000 before its US release. It then opened in the UK on December 15, followed by a screening at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 10, 2001 and a German opening on March 8. Adapted from the Obie Award winning play by Doug Wright, who also wrote the screenplay. Rush was nominated for the Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe. The film was criticized for its historical inaccuracies but the filmmakers stated they were not making a biography of De Sade, instead exploring issues of censorship, pornography, sex, art, mental illness and religion.

November 22 – Unbreakable

• Cast: Bruce Willis, Davis Duffield, Samuel L. Jackson, Johnny Hiram Jamison, Robin Wright Penn, Laura Regan, Spencer Treat Clark, Charlayne Woodard, Eamonn Walker, Leslie Stefanson, Michaelia Carroll, Whitney Sugarman, Bostin Christopher, Elizabeth Lawrence, Chance Kelly, Michael Kelly
• Director: M. Night Shyamalan
• Studio: Touchstone Pictures, Blinding Edge Pictures, Barry Mendel Productions, Limited Edition Productions Inc., distribtued by Buena Vista Pictures
• Trivia: Shyamalan cameos in the film as Stadium Drug Dealer. In Glass, he plays Jai, a security guard, who is implied in Split to be the same character from the first film. Shyamalan confirmed a fan theory that a mother and child who bump into David Dunn were younger versions of Kevin Wendell Crumb and Penelope Crumb from Split, which was confirmed in the 2019 film Glass. Shyamalan had already conceived his idea for the film and approached Bruce Willis for the lead while working on The Sixth Sense. Shyamalan had written the script for Willis and Jackson, and Willis told Jackson about the script while the two met at a casino in Casablanca while on vacation. Julianne Moore was originally cast as David’s wife but dropped out to play Clarice Starling in Hannibal. Using purple as Mr. Glass’ color to Dunn’s green was Jackson’s idea, and his wig was modeled after Frederick Douglass’ hair. Shyamalan wanted to market the movie as a comic book film, but Disney — not yet Marvel’s owner — preferred to advertise it as a thriller like The Sixth Sense.

2010

November 19 – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

• Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Warwick Davis, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon, Brendan Gleeson, Richard Griffiths, John Hurt, Jason Isaacs, Alan Rickman, Fiona Shaw, Timothy Spall, Imelda Staunton, David Thewlis, Julie Walters
• Director: David Yates
• Studio: Warner Bros. UK Services Ltd., Heyday Films, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
• Trivia: The film premiered November 11, 2010 at the Odeon Leicester Square in London. The film earned $330 million worldwide its opening weekend, the third highest of the series and the highest opening of 2010, and the third highest grossing film of 2010. The film earned two Oscar nominations for Art Direction and Visual Effects. Deathly Hallows 1 & 2 were filmed back-to-back from February 19, 2009 to June 12, 2010. The film was originally intended to just be a single final chapter. Part 1 was intended to be released in both 2D and 3D but the conversion process was not going to be completed in time for the film’s release. A 3D version was eventually released on Blu-ray as a Best Buy exclusive. Part 2 was released theatrically in 3D. Two days before the film’s official release, 36 minutes of the film were leaked online. Some thought it was a marketing ploy but WB had not created any screener discs. Tom Felton won the Best Villain Award at the 2011 MTV Movie Awards.

November 19 – The Next Three Days

• Cast: Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Brian Dennehy, Lennie James, Olivia Wilde, Ty Simpkins, Helen Carey, Liam Neeson, Daniel Stern, Kevin Corrigan, Jason Beghe, Aisha Hinds, Tyrone Giordano, Jonathan Tucker, Allan Steele, RZA, James Ransone, Moran Atias, Michael Buie, Trudie Styler
• Director: Paul Haggis
• Studio: Lionsgate, Highway 61 Films, Fidélité Films, distributed by Lionsgate
• Trivia: Filmed on location in Pittsburgh. Remake of the 2008 French film Pour elle (Anything for Her) by Fred Cavayé and Guillaume Lemans. Haggis had been developing a film about Martin Luther King Jr. but could not secure financing so he looked for a less expensive project and found the French film upon which The Next Three Days is based.

November 24 – Burlesque

• Cast: Christina Aguilera, Cher, Cam Gigandet, Kristen Bell, Stanley Tucci, Eric Dane, Alan Cumming, Julianne Hough, Peter Gallagher, Dianna Agron, Glynn Turman, David Walton, Terrence J, Chelsea Traille, Tyne Stecklein, Michael Landes, Tanee McCall, Blair Redford, James Brolin, Stephen Lee
• Director: Steven Antin
• Studio: De Line Pictures, distributed by Screen Gems/Sony Pictures Releasing
• Trivia: Aguilara contributed eight songs to the soundtrack album with Cher providing two tracks. The album received two Grammy nominations. The song ‘You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me’, sung by Cher, won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song. The film was also nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. Diablo Cody provided an uncredited screenplay revision. This was Aguilara’s film debut and Cher’s first movie musical.

November 24 – Faster

• Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, Maggie Grace, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Carla Gugino, Moon Bloodgood, Courtney Gains, John Cirigliano, Lester Speight, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Tom Berenger, Mike Epps, Xander Berkeley, Matt Gerald, Annie Corley, Jennifer Carpenter, Michael Irby
• Director: George Tillman Jr.
• Studio: Castle Rock Entertainment, State Street Pictures, CBS Films, distributed by CBS Films (United States), TriStar Pictures (International)
• Trivia: Phil Joanou was the film’s original director as announced in May 2009, but he dropped out and was replaced by Tillman. Salma Hayek was cast in the role of Cicero but dropped out a week before filming was to begin due to ‘scheduling issues’. She was replaced with Gugino.

November 24 – Tangled

• Voice Cast: Mandy Moore, Delaney Rose Stein, Zachary Levi, Donna Murphy, Brad Garrett, Ron Perlman, Jeffrey Tambor, Richard Kiel, M. C. Gainey, Paul F. Tompkins
• Director: Nathan Greno, Byron Howard
• Studio: Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios
• Trivia: This is the 50th Disney animated film. The film’s original title was Rapunzel, but changed to Tangled to make the marketing more gender-neutral after The Princess and the Frog under-performed at the box office. Disney was accused of sexism, but the studio said the change was because Rapunzel is not the only main character in the film. But John Lasseter said in 2014 that the change was a marketing decision to appeal to boys and men who may normally stay away from a film centered on a female character. The film was in production for six years at a reported cost of $260 million, one of the most expensive animated films ever. The film combined traditional and computer animation with a non-photorealistic rendering style to give the impression of a painting. It took six years to develop a program that could render hair to move the way the filmmakers wanted. The film premiered at the El Capitan Theater on Novemberember 14, 2010. Mandy Moore heard about the project and auditioned for the role of Rapunzel because she always wanted to be a Disney princess. Actors recorded their dialogue separately. Moore said she never met Donna Murphy during the process and only met Zachary Levi once when they recorded the song ‘I See the Light’ together. Actors had to jog in place during action scenes to make their dialogue seem believable. Watching the finished film, Moore felt her voice sounded shrill and Levi thought he sounded ‘incredibly nasally’.