Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #176 :: December 6•12

Sony Pictures Releasing

It was a mostly underwhelming week for new theatrical releases, but one decade in particular — 1983 — really showed up this week. 1923 is notable in that all three films released are still in existence. 1943 had the second in a series of crime films, while 1953 had the thirty-second film from a popular comedy team. 1963’s lone release scored several Oscar nominations, and 1973 gave us one of the biggest cult films of all time, as well as a film that surprised its cast by being split into two separate films. 1993 featured two Oscar nominated films and two sequels that did not initially attain the popularity of their originals. 2003 saw Tim Burton scale back, while the Farrelly Brothers teamed Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear in an unusual way. 1983 however turned out six films, one of which scored some awards notice, while three others are still popular today. Check out this week’s list and let us know if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries.

1923

• December 8 – Lucretia Lombard (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• December 9 – Reno (USA, Goldwyn-Cosmopolitan Distributing Corporation)
• December 9 – Tiger Rose (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)

Lucretia Lombard, also known as Flaming Passion, was based upon the 1922 novel of the same name by Kathleen Norris. Prints of the film survive at George Eastman House and Pacific Film Archive. It was also transferred to 16mm film in the 1950s for television broadcast.

A print of Reno is preserved by MGM.

Tiger Rose was based on Willard Mack’s 1917 Broadway play starring Lenore Ulric, who reprised her role for the film. The film is believed to survive. The film was remade in 1929.

1933

• December 6 – Under Secret Orders (USA, Progressive Pictures)
• December 8 – Girl Without a Room (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• December 8 – Smoky (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• December 8 – The Women in His Life (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• December 9 – Lady Killer (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• December 11 – Gun Justice (USA, Universal Pictures)

Girl Without a Room features dialogue with rhyming couplets and is an example of Hollywood’s attitude to abstract art in the 1930s.

Smoky was the first of three film adaptations of the 1926 novel Smoky the Cowhorse by Will James, who serves as narrator. The film will enter the public domain in 2029.

Lady Killer was based on the story ‘The Finger Man’ by Rosalind Keating Shaffer.

1943

• December 6 – In Old Oklahoma (USA, Republic Pictures)
• December 9 – The Crime Doctor’s Strangest Case (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• December 10 – She’s for Me (USA, Universal Pictures)

In Old Oklahoma was reissued as War of the Wildcats, which was the title of the ‘oilfield story’ by Thomson Burtis upon which the film is based, as well as the film’s original title.

The Crime Doctor’s Strangest Case was the second in a series of ‘Crime Doctor’ films made by Columbia Pictures.

1953

• December 6 – Private Eyes (USA, Allied Artists Pictures)
• December 6 – Walking My Baby Back Home (USA, Universal Pictures)
• December 9 – Wicked Woman (USA, United Artists)

Private Eyes is the thirty-second film in the Bowery Boys series. The working title was Bowery Bloodhounds.

The working title of Wicked Woman was Free and Easy, and was the first starring vehicle for Richard Egan.

1963

• December 12 – The Cardinal (USA, Columbia Pictures)

The Cardinal was based on the 1950 novel of the same name by Henry Morton Robinson, based on the life of Francis Cardinal Spellman, then the Archbishop of New York. The film received six Oscar nominations, and has been preserved by the Academy Film Archive. Saul Bass created the film’s poster, advertising campaign and opening titles.

1973

British Lion Film Corporation

• December 6 – Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World (UK, Twentieth Century Fox Film Company)
• December 6 – The Wicker Man (UK, British Lion Film Corporation)
• December 7 – Take Me High (UK, EMI)
• December 11 – The Three Musketeers (France, CFDC-UGC)

Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World was released in the US on May 10, 1974 by Cinerama Releasing Corporation. The Wicker Man received a limited US release on August 7, 1974 through Warner Bros. Pictures. Take Me High has no known US theatrical release date. The Three Musketeers was released in the US on March 29, 1974 by Twentieth Century Fox.

Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World was based on the 1960 novel The Biggest Dog in the World by Ted Key. The film’s star was Fernville Lord Digby, then the reigning Dulux Old English Sheepdog.

The Wicker Man was inspired by David Pinner’s 1967 novel Ritual. A screenplay for a proposed sequel, The Loathsome Lambton Worm, was written in 1989 but the original film’s director, Robin Hardy, had no interest in the project and it went unproduced. An American remake was released in 2006 which was poorly received, and Hardy and others from the original film disassociated themselves. Hardy wrote and directed the spiritual sequel The Wicker Tree in 2011, which featured the original film’s star Christopher Lee in a cameo appearance. Author David Pinner originally wrote the story for Michael Winner to direct and John Hurt to star. The role of Sergeant Howie, played by Edward Woodward, was turned down by Michael York and David Hemmings. Britt Ekland found out she was three months pregnant two weeks into filming, and a body double was used for her below the waist nude scenes. The film was rushed into production in October because the studio was in financial crisis, so to portray the Spring setting artificial leaves and blossoms were glued to trees in many scenes.

Take Me High was the final film in which Cliff Richard appeared.

The Three Musketeers was also known as The Three Musketeers (The Queen’s Diamonds), and was based on the 1844 novel by Alexandre Dumas. The film follows the source material closely and interjects a good amount of humor. It had originally been conceived in the 1960s as a project for The Beatles. The film was nominated for five BAFTAs and Raquel Welch won a Golden Globe for her performance. Welch initially withdrew from the production to make another film, but rejoined the production. The sequel The Four Musketeers was filmed back-to-back with the film and released a year later. The film was director Richard Lester’s first in five years. Lester originally wanted to make a four hour film, and the script was divided into two parts but some of the actors were unaware of the decision. The producers intended to release a three hour film with an intermission, but that version would not have been ready for the locked in release date so it was split into two shorter films. The entire cast was made aware of the situation by the time of the Paris premiere. The actors were not happy as they were being paid for one film (Charlton Heston quipped the producers were getting a two-for-one deal), and lawsuits were filed for compensation. The Screen Actors Guild introduced the ‘Salkind Clause’, named for the producers, that requied all future contracts to stipulate that single productions could not be split into film installments without prior contractual agreement. The film was shot in Spain over 17 weeks. Lester assembled about 20 minutes of footage and sold the film to Fox. Much of the cast and crew reunited in 1989 for The Return of the Musketeers, which was based on Dumas’ 1845 novel Twenty Years After.

1983

Universal Pictures

• December 6 – The Dresser (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• December 8 – Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? (USA, Frank Moreno Company)
• December 8 – Sahara (AUS, Hoyts Distribution)
• December 9 – Christine (USA/Canada, Columbia Pictures)
• December 9 – Scarface (USA/Canada, Universal Pictures)
• December 9 – Sudden Impact (USA/AUS, Warner Bros. Pictures/Roadshow Films)

Sahara was released in the US on March 2, 1984 through MGM/UA Distribution Company.

The Dresser was adapted by Ronald Harwood from his 1980 play. Stars Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay were nominated for Oscars, BAFTAs and Golden Globes for their performances, with Courtenay winning the Globe for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama in a tie with Robert Duvall for Tender Mercies. The story was remade for TV by the BBC in 2015 with Anthony Hopkins and Ian McKellan.

Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? was filmed in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, at locations within a 10-block radius of the American Museum of Natural History. Some of the places in the area do not exist anymore. The film’s star, Karen Black, composed the music. Orson Welles and Larry David have cameos.

Sahara was supposedly inspired by the then British Prime Minister’s son, Mark Thatcher, who became lost in North Africa in 1982 during an auto rally. It also came about because of the success of Raiders of the Lost Ark and producer Menahem Golan’s fondness for the Rudolph Valentino film The Sheik (1921). At $15 million, it was one of the biggest budgeted films from Cannon Films. Brooke Shields earned $1-$1.5 million, and her mother Teri was an executive producer who requested eight rewrites of the script. Two directors left the project before filming began. Casting of the male lead took a year. Teri considered Ted McGinley, having his hair darkened and had him grow a beard but he couldn’t get the accent. Adnan Khashoggi’s son was considered (‘a gorgeous boy, but he’s not an actor’), and John Kennedy Jr. (‘the film would get lost’ if he appeared with Brooke). Vincent Spano had recently played a character called The Sheik, but he did not want to play another sheik or wait around in the Sahara for Brooke to fix her eyelashes. Lambert Wilson was eventually cast. The costumes were designed by Valentino, who said 1925 was one of his favorite years. Shields enrolled at Princeton immediately after completing the film.

Christine is shown in the onscreen titles as John Carpenter’s Christine, and is based on Stephen King’s 1983 novel of the same name. Carpenter was originally unavailable to helm the project as he was involved with another King adaptation, Firestarter, and an adaptation of the 1980 novel The Ninja. Delays in those projects freed him up for the directing duties. Carpenter accepted the position merely as ‘a job’ instead of a personal project, saying it was something he needed to do after the box office failure of The Thing. Columbia Pictures wanted Brooke Shields and Scott Baio to star, but Carpenter rejected the suggestions, opting for young actors still fairly unknown. Kevin Bacon auditioned for the lead, but accepted the lead in Footloose instead. Filming began in April 1983, just days after the novel was published. Alexandra Paul pulled a prank on Carpenter by sending her identical twin sister to the set and didn’t reveal the ruse until after a scene had been shot. Caroline Paul stated her ‘highly skilled clutch-pushing actually made it into the movie.’ Twenty-three cars were used in the film.

Scarface was loosely based on the 1930 novel of the same name, and served as a loose remake of the 1932 film. The film was initially met with negative critical reaction due to the excessive violence and drug use, and the Cuban community objected to their depiction as drug dealers. Over the years the film has been reappraised as one of the greatest gangster films ever made, becoming a cult classic in the process. Sidney Lumet was the film’s original director but he dropped out due to creative differences with the producer. He was replaced with Brian De Palma. Al Pacino had been interested in making the film after seeing the original, although Robert De Niro had been offered the lead role of Tony Montana, which he turned down. Pacino and De Palma argued against the casting of Michelle Pfeiffer, who was then known primarily for Grease 2. Glenn Close was the original choice for her role. Steven Bauer was cast without an audition, a decision everyone agreed on. He was the only actual Cuban in the principal cast. The Miami Tourist Board declined to allow filming in the city due to the depiction of drugs and gangsters, so it was filmed in Los Angeles. One scene, however, was shot at Miami’s Fontainebleau Miami Beach. Production in California was halted for a week while Pacino recovered from a burn to his hand after tripping and touching the muzzle of a gun that had just been fired. The gunfight scene at the end of the film includes a single camera shot directed by Steven Spielberg, who was visiting the set at the time. Powdered baby laxative was used as the fake substance for cocaine. Less than two months before the film’s release, the MPAA gave it an X-rating for ‘excessive and cumulative violence and for language’. De Palma had already recut the film three times by that point. De Palma and the producers accepted the X-rating and appealed. Universal would not release the film as an X because of the perception that it was pornographic, and media outlets would not accept ads for an X-rated film. An appeal board of 20 theater owners, studio executives and independent distributors overturned the decision 17 to 3 in favor of an R-rating. De Palma felt the changes he made were minimal and asked to release his original cut of the film with the R but the MPAA refused. He released the uncut version anyway, only admitting to it months after the film’s release.

Sudden Impact was the fourth film in the ‘Dirty Harry’ series, and the only one to be directed by star Clint Eastwood. The film is notable for the phrase, ‘Go ahead, make my day.’ The film was originally written as a separate film for Sondra Locke, but was later adapted into a Dirty Harry film in which Locke co-starred, her last film to receive theatrical distribution. Scenes filmed in the downtown area of Santa Cruz, CA offers a glimpse of the area before it was devastated by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Eastwood received 60% of the film’s profits.

1993

• December 8 – Six Degrees of Separation (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• December 8 – Younger and Younger (USA, Prism Entertainment Corporation)
• December 10 – Geronimo: An American Legend (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• December 10 – Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (USA/Canada, Buena Vista Pictures Distribution)
• December 10 – The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb (UK, Manga Entertainment)
• December 10 – Wayne’s World 2 (USA/Canada, Paramount Pictures)

The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb had a limited run in New York City beginning April 13, 1994, then had a limited nationwide release from January 13, 1995.

Six Degrees of Separation was adapted from John Guare’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated 1990 play of the same name. The plot of the film was inspired by the real-life story of David Hampton, a con man and robber who convinced a number of people in the 1980s that he was the son of actor Sidney Poitier. Stockard Channing received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations in the Best Actress category.

Geronimo: An American Legend features Matt Damon in an early film role. The project was initially under development at Carolco with director Walter Hill planning to focus on Crazy Horse, but found the subject matter too difficult so Geronimo was eventually selected. Hill said the script by John Milius should have been titled The Geronimo War, but he couldn’t make any headway with it. The project moved from Carolco to Columbia in 1992 just as Westerns were experiencing a revival after the success of Dances With Wolves and Unforgiven. Hill said he was pressured by the studio to cast a name Caucasian actor in the role of Geronimo. Wes Studi earned the role after his performance in The Last of the Mohicans. Jason Patric was the next actor cast but the studio kept delaying the film. With Gene Hackman and Robert Duvall joining the cast, the likelihood of it getting made increased. Duvall’s character was supposed to ride off into the sunset at the end of the film, but to contain the running time Hill decided to kill him off. Duvall said he might not have taken the role if he knew he was going to die, having already died in nine previous films. The film earned an Oscar nomination for Best Sound but lost to Jurassic Park. The film was a box office bomb, which Hill blames on the broadcast of a TV movie covering the same subject at the same time of the film’s release.

Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, like the first film, was loosely based on the life of Crenshaw High School choir instructor Iris Stevenson. The film features Lauryn Hill in her breakout role. Jennifer Love Hewitt appears as a choir member. The film was not as well received as the original, but as the stars of Hill and Hewitt began to rise the film has gotten more attention and reappraisal and has become a cult favorite. The film has been credited with ushering in a new era of gospel music for a wider audience, as well as generating interest in ‘glee clubs’ and choirs, becoming a precursor to productions like Glee, Joyful Noise and Praise This. This film inspired the creation of thirty choirs in Japan. Hill also served as a musical inspiration for singers like Colbie Caillat and Hillary Scott of Lady A, while Janelle Monáe cited her performance as an inspiration for her own acting career. The music video for ‘Shake It Off’ by Taylor Swift references the film during the end credits. Lizzo paid tribute to the film during her performance of ‘Juice’ at the 2019 MTV Movie & TV Awards. The film’s ‘Joyful, Joyful’ scene was reenacted in the ‘Game Over’ episode, during season 3 of the American comedy series Broad City by Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson, and featured Goldberg reprising her role.

The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb was made using a combination of stop-motion animation and pixilation (live actors posed and shot frame-by-frame), often with live actors and puppets sharing the frame. The film was originally commissioned as a 10-minute short for BBC2’s Christmas programming but was rejected for being too dark for the holiday season. The short garnered critical acclaim at animation festivals and the BBC commissioned a feature-length version a year later.

Wayne’s World director Penelope Spheeris believes Mike Myers encouraged the studio to not bring her back for Wayne’s World 2 due to personality conflicts during production of the film. She went on to direct The Beverly Hillbillies movie instead. The film’s original story had Wayne and Garth forming their own country after finding an ancient scroll, and was based on the 1949 comedy Passport to Pimlico. Production was well underway when the studio learned of the ‘inspiration’ and production was immediately halted as the rights to the 1949 film had not been obtained. Paramount executive Sherry Lansing was furious with Myers and threatened to ruin his career if he didn’t produce a new script. Dana Carvey cold-called Kim Basinger and asked her to be in the film, refusing to take no for an answer. Basinger stated that he was so kind and once her then-husband Alec Baldwin read the script and insisted she take the part, she agreed and completed her work in three days. The film was meant to be a holiday blockbuster but suffered due to competition from Mrs. Doubtfire, Schindler’s List and The Pelican Brief.

2003

20th Century Fox

• December 10 – Big Fish (Canada, Columbia Pictures)
• December 12 – Blizzard (Canada, Alliance Atlantis)
• December 12 – Love Don’t Cost a Thing (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• December 12 – Something’s Gotta Give (USA, Sony Pictures Releasing)
• December 12 – Stuck on You (USA, 20th Century Fox)
• December 12 – The Statement (USA, limited, Sony Pictures Classics)

Big Fish opened in Los Angeles and New York City for awards consideration on December 10, 2003 then entered limited release on December 25, and expanded wide on January 9, 2004 through Columbia Pictures. Blizzard did not receive a US theatrical release, premiering on home video through MGM Home Entertainment.

Big Fish was based on the 1998 novel Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions by Daniel Wallace. Producers negotiated with Steven Spielberg to direct after Minority Report. Spielberg considered Jack Nicholson for the role of Edward Bloom Sr., but dropped the project for Catch Me If You Can. Tim Burton took over after finishing Planet of the Apes. The set for the town of Spectre still stands in Wetumpka, Alabama at Jackson Lake Island. Burton was drawn to the project due to its originality, and because of the deep effect the death of his father in 2000 and mother in 2002 had on him, wanting to return to making smaller films. Burton also considered Nicholson for the Bloom role, but producers Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks, who were working on Down With Love, suggested Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney for the Blooms, younger and older. Burton felt McGregor had an acting style similar to Johnny Depp, and after seeing Finney in Tom Jones, felt he and McGregor were similar in style. Coincidentally, a People magazine article also compared the style of the two actors. Burton’s girlfriend at the time, Helena Bonham Carter, underwent five hours of makeup application to play the Witch, while she was pregnant. Deliverance banjo player Billy Redden makes a cameo reprising his role from that film. Big Fish author Wallace also has a cameo as an economics teacher. Outside of one week of location filming in Paris, the film was shot in Alabama, generating about $25 million for the economy. Most of Finney’s scenes were filmed first. Production was delayed because of inclement weather, a tornado watch and flooding, but Burton still completed the film on budget and on schedule. Danny Elfman’s score earned an Oscar and Grammy nomination. It also received seven BAFTA nominations and four Golden Globe nominations.

Blizzard was directed by LeVar Burton. It won the Best of the Fest award at the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, and the DGC Team Award from the Directors Guild of Canada.

Love Don’t Cost a Thing is a remake of 1987’s Can’t Buy Me Love, and the title is taken from the Jennifer Lopez song. The critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes is that the film was a ‘stale, unnecessary remake’ but Roger Ebert gave the film three stars as opposed to the half star he gave the original, calling the remake less cynical.

Something’s Gotta Give was to include a score by Alan Silvestri but creative differences led to Silvestri being replaced by members of Remote Control Productions, although some of Silvestri’s already recorded music remains in the film. Diane Keaton earned an Oscar and Golden Globe nomination for her performance, winning the Globe. Co-star Jack Nicholson was also Globe nominated.

Stuck on You features the song ‘Human’ by Cher, which was included on the soundtrack but never officially released. A German promotional CD includes a 3:49 version of the song, but the original 4:25 version has never been released. While Greg Kinnear and Matt Damon play conjoined twins, Kinnear is seven years older than Damon in real life. The film’s cameos include Griffin Dunne, Jay Leno, Ben Carson, Cameron Diaz, Mary Hart, Frankie Muniz, Meryl Streep, Luke Wilson, Jesse Ventura and Tom Brady.

The Statement was based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Brian Moore. It was director Norman Jewison’s final film before his retirement, and Alan Bates’ final film before his death in 2003.

2013

• December 6 – A Long Way from Home (UK, Soda Pictures)
• December 6 – Crave (USA, Phase 4 Films)
• December 6 – Out of the Furnace (USA, Relativity Media)
• December 6 – Traveller (UK, 101 Films)
• December 10 – Sarah’s Room (UK, Tartan Features)
• December 11 – The Enigma (UK, GrayGoo Studios)
• December 12 – Still Life (Italy, BIM Distribuzione)

There is no theatrical release date for A Long Way from Home in the US, however it did receive distribution through Corinth Films. Traveller has no known US theatrical release date. Sarah’s Room, also known as To Here Knows When, originally opened in the US on September 22, 2013. The Enigma has no known US theatrical release date. Still Life received a limited US release on January 16, 2015 through Tribeca Film.

Working titles for Crave include Shatterbrain and Two Wolves. The film’s original setting was New York City, but production shifted to Detroit due to Michigan’s tax credits. A scene to take place on the Detroit People Mover was canceled at the last minute due to concerns over the film’s violent and sexual content.

Most of the filming for Out of the Furnace took place in Braddock, PA, a borough of Pittsburgh. Christian Bale sported a tattoo of Braddock’s zip code on his neck as an homage to the town’s then-mayor John Fetterman, now a US Senator.

Sarah’s Room had a budget of $6,000 and was shot in five days.