Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #178 :: December 20•26

Universal Pictures

It’s Christmas week at the movies with the studios bringing out all of their big guns to take advantage of the holiday season. Each decade has multiple new releases, many of which were recognized by the various awards organizations, and a few of which have gone on to become classics and selected for preservation. You may find at least one familiar movie in every decade this week, and while 1983 is usually a banner year, 1973 takes the cake with a list of iconic films making their premieres. There is a lot to look at this week, so we’ll just get right to it. Scroll through the list to see all of this week’s new releases, and tell us if your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries!

1923

• December 20 – Hoodman Blind (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• December 21 – The Covered Wagon (France, Famous-Lasky Film Service)
• December 21 – The Ten Commandments (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• December 23 – Big Brother (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• December 24 – Gentle Julia (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• December 24 – The Song of Love (USA, Associated First National Pictures)

The Covered Wagon premiered in New York City on March 16, 1923 but did not go into national release in the US until September 8, 1924, through Paramount Pictures.

Hoodman Blind is based on the play of the same name, and is a remake of a 1913 film of the same name and a 1916 film titled A Man of Sorrow. The film is considered lost.

The Covered Wagon was based on a 1922 novel of the same name by Emerson Hough. The film entered the public domain on January 1, 2019. The covered wagons gathered by Paramount from all over the Southwest were not replicas, but the real wagons that had brought the pioneers west. Most of the extras seen on film are the families who owned the covered wagons and were perfectly at home driving them and living out of them during the production.

The Ten Commandments entered the public domain on January 1, 2019. It is the first in Cecil B. DeMille’s biblical trilogy, followed by The King of Kings (1927) and The Sign of the Cross (1932). The idea for the film came from a contest to suggest stories for DeMille’s next film. The original idea was to interpret the Commandments in episodic form, but DeMille and screenwriter Jeanie MacPherson settled on a two-part story — a Biblical prologue and a modern story showing the consequences of breaking the Ten Commandments. The Exodus scenes were filmed at the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes in northern Santa Barbara County. The set was thought to have been dynamited and buried in the sand, but the truth is the set was consumed by the wind, rain and sand, buried under the ever changing dunes. The effort to locate and excavate the set was the subject of a 2016 documentary, The Lost City of Cecil B. DeMille. The parting of the Red Sea was accomplished with a slab of Jell-O, cut in half, filmed in close up as it jiggled, then combined with live-action footage of the Israelites walking into the distance. DeMille expanded the Biblical story and focused on the early life of Moses in the 1956 version of The Ten Commandments. Many scenes in that version were shot-for-shot from the 1923 film, and many set pieces constructed were near duplicates of the 1923 set.

Big Brother is considered a lost film. It was remade with sound in 1931 as Young Donovan’s Kid. Gentle Julia is considered lost. Bessie Love was cast because she was the ‘last girl in Hollywood with long hair’. Unaware of this, Love got an ‘Eton crop’ before production began.

The Song of Love was based on the 1922 novel The Dust of Desire by Margaret Peterson. A copy of the film is preserved in the Library of Congress and other film archives.

1933

RKO Radio Pictures

• December 21 – The Film Parade (USA, Imperial Distributing Corporation)
• December 22 – Alice in Wonderland (USA/UK, Paramount Pictures/Paramount British Pictures)
• December 22 – Going Hollywood (USA, Loew’s Inc.)
• December 22 – Mr. Skitch (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• December 22 – Son of Kong (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
• December 22 – Straightaway (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• December 23 – Design for Living (Canada, Paramount Pictures)
• December 23 – Son of a Sailor (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• December 25 – Counsellor at Law (USA, Universal Pictures)
• December 25 – I Am Suzanne (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• December 25 – Lot in Sodom (USA, short)
• December 26 – Let’s Fall in Love (USA, Columbia Pictures)

Design for Living opened in New York City on November 22, 1933, and in Los Angeles on November 29, then received a wide US release on December 29 through Paramount Pictures.

The Film Parade is considered to be the first film to cover the history of movies. It’s also known as March of the Movies.

Alice in Wonderland was based on Lewis Carroll’s books Alice in Wonderland (1865) and Alice Through the Looking-Glass (1871). It also drew heavily from Eva Le Gallienne and Florida Friebus’s then-recent stage adaptation. The film’s original preview ran 90 minutes, but the studio cut the release version to 77 minutes, with many reviews still saying it was too long. It has been mistakenly reported that Universal edited to film after purchasing the Paramount catalog for TV broadcast. Billy Barty appears uncredited in the roles of the White Pawn and The Pig-Baby. The film was a box office bomb, leading many to wonder if a fantasy film with strange-looking characters could be successful, until The Wizard of Oz was released in 1939.

Son of Kong was a sequel to King Kong, and released just nine months later. The film had an intentional less serious tone, with the screenwriter Ruth Rose saying it could not surpass the original, so if you can’t make it bigger, make it funnier. Robert Armstrong preferred this film over the original as his character Carl Denham gets the young girl in the end. The original script featured a dinosaur stampede which was not filmed due to the tight budget. Helen Mack’s character is only named ‘Hilda’ in the end credits. She is never called by that name in the film. Little Kong was also referred to as Kiko during production, but the name was never used in the film. Director Peter Jackson, who remade King Kong in 2005, owns one of two existing Kong model armatures as well as the original Styracosaurus model and other dinosaurs.

Design for Living was based on the play of the same name by Noël Coward. Director Ernst Lubitsch wanted Ronald Colman and Leslie Howard as the male leads, but Colman wanted too much money and Howard feared comparison with the Broadway cast. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was cast but had to withdraw after contracting pneumonia just before filming began, replaced with Gary Cooper. Paramount contract player Frederich March was cast as his co-star. The film was eventually approved by the Hays Office but was banned by the Legion of Decency for its sexual discussions and innuendo. It was refused a certificate for re-release in 1934 under the strict new Production Code rules.

Counsellor at Law was based on Elmer Rice’s 1931 Broadway play of the same title. Rice also wrote the screenplay. The studio wanted to cast Paul Muni for the role he had created on stage, but Muni turned it down for fear of being typecast as Jewish. John Barrymore was cast to capitalize on his box office success. Barrymore received a $25,000 a week salary. Production was to take two weeks but extended to three-and-a-half because Barrymore couldn’t remember his lines, and his heavy drinking also took a toll, giving his face a puffy look that required the makeup crew to tape his jowls.

A 35mm print of I Am Suzanne is owned by the Museum of Modern Art, which is occasionally exhibited. The Eastman House holds a 16mm print. Lot in Sodom is a silent short that uses Bible quotes for the intertitles, experimental techniques, avant-garde imagery and strong allusions to sexuality, especially homosexuality. Let’s Fall in Love featured the title song of the same name introduced in the film by Ann Sothern. The film was remade in 1949 as Slightly French.

1943

• December 20 – Gung Ho! (USA, Universal Pictures)
• December 23 – Cowboy in the Clouds (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• December 23 – Lost Angel (USA, Loew’s Inc.)
• December 23 – The Vigilantes Ride (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• December 24 – Jack London (USA, United Artists)
• December 24 – Jane Eyre (UK/Ireland, Twentieth Century Fox Film Company)
• December 24 – Moonlight in Vermont (USA, Universal Pictures)
• December 24 – The Gang’s All Here (USA, 20th Century Fox)
• December 24 – The Ghost Ship (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
• December 24 – The Phantom (USA, serial, Columbia Pictures)
• December 24 – True to Life (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• December 25 – Baby Puss (USA, short, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

Jane Eyre was released in the US on April 7, 1944 through Twentieth Century Fox. Jack London is also known as The Story of Jack London, and was based on the 1921 book The Book of Jack London by London’s second wife, Charmian London.

The full title of Gung Ho! is Gung Ho!: The Story of Carlson’s Makin Island Raiders. The film was made with the cooperation of the United States Marine Corps and filmed at the Recruit Depot in San Diego, as well as at Camp Pendleton. The Japanese characters were played by Chinese and Filipino extras.

Jane Eyre was based on Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel of the same name, with a screenplay by John Houseman, Aldous Huxley and director Robert Stevenson. Star Orson Welles was also an uncredited producer. Houseman believed he would be producing the film since his employer David O. Selznick had just completed Gone With the Wind and presumably needed a break. Houseman was wrong, and it was out of the question that Selznick would allow anyone else to produce except for himself. Houseman also discovered that Stevenson had no intention of producing the screenplay he submitted. He was so unhappy with the finished film that he asked for his name to be removed from the credits, but it remains. Welles accepted the lead role after his RKO contract expired, needing the salary to complete his own ill-fated, self-financed project It’s All True. Welles often hired himself out as an actor to fund his own projects. Welles had also previously adapted to story twice for radio. Welles was supposed to receive an onscreen producer credit, but Selznick felt it would take away from the director’s work, and Welles chose to waive the credit.

The Gang’s All Here is known for a Busby Berkeley musical number with fruit hats. It was Berkeley’s first full color film. It was Fox’s most expensive production at the time, and was among the Top Ten films of 1943. The film was Oscar nominated for Best Art Direction – Interior Decoration, Color. It was the last musical Alice Faye made as a Hollywood superstar. She was pregnant during filming. She returned to film musicals with 1962’s State Fair. The film’s working title was The Girls He Left Behind. Linda Darnell was to have her first dancing role in the film but sprained her ankle in rehearsal, and after her recovery eloped with the film’s cinematographer and asked for an extended leave of absence. She was replaced with Sheila Ryan. The film marked the debuts of June Haver, Jeanne Crain and Jo-Carroll Dennison, who was Miss America 1942. The film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2014.

Producer Val Lewton was sued for plagiarism for the script for The Ghost Ship, with playwrights Samuel R. Golding and Norbert Faulkner claiming the script was based on a play that was submitted to Lewton for a possible film. Because of the lawsuit, the film was withdrawn from circulation for almost 50 years until the copyright was not renewed and it entered the public domain in the 1990s. Production used an existing ship set built for Pacific Liner for Lewton’s next film while production was delayed on Curse of the cat People, and it was the set that gave Lewton the idea for the film, according to editor Robert Wise. Lewton also saw the plot as a way to criticize his micro-managing superiors at RKO. Director Mark Robson used a single-source lighting to make the sets and performances more interesting, and the sets were created for this lighting design. Lawrence Tierney, who had a modeling career in the Sears catalog, made his film debut in The Ghost Ship.

The Phantom was based on Lee Falk’s comic strip The Phantom, first syndicated to newspapers in 1936 by King Features Syndicate. For the serial, The Phantom’s real name is given as Geoffrey Prescott, although it had not been introduced in the comic, which later mentioned the character’s real name as Kit Walker. A sequel was in production in 1955 with John Hart as the Phantom (Tom Tyler died in 1954) until producer Sam Katzman discovered Columbia’s rights to the character had expired, and King Features was unwilling to renew them. The film was hastily reworked into The Adventures of Captain Africa, which used a considerable amount of stock footage from the original film including footage of Tyler in costume as The Phantom.

Baby Puss is the first MGM cartoon to use ‘An M.G.M. Tom and Jerry Cartoon’ in the end credits.

1953

• December 20 – Texas Bad Man (USA, Allied Artists Pictures)
• December 21 – Small Town Story (UK, General Film Distributors)
• December 22 – Cease Fire! (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• December 22 – King of the Khyber Rifles (USA, Twentieth Century Fox)
• December 23 – Miss Sadie Thompson (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• December 24 – Bad for Each Other (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• December 25 – Easy to Love (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

Small Town Story has no known US theatrical release date. It features the only screen acting role by Kent Walton, who went on to become a famous sports commentator in the UK. It was the only known British black-and-white football-thriller aside from The Arsenal Stadium Mystery, and was considered lost for many years. It has been found, restored and released on DVD.

Cease Fire! featured real soldiers and ammunition, and was filmed on location in Korea, the first 3D war movie to be filmed in an actual theatre of operation.

King of the Khyber Rifles shares a title but little else with the 1916 novel by Talbot Mundy, which was the basis for John Ford’s The Black Watch (1929). The film was announced for production in 1938 but delayed due to the start of World War II. It was reactivated in 1951 for Tyrone Power. It was announced as one of a series of ‘super specials’ filmed in CinemaScope. During filming, 22 people were injured when an explosion went off with more force than expected.

Miss Sadie Thompson was based on W. Somerset Maugham’s 1921 short story ‘Miss Thompson’ (later retitled ‘Rain’). The film was Oscar-nominated for Best Original Song, ‘Sadie Thompson’s Song’. The film was produced in 3D. Exteriors were filmed on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. Rita Hayworth’s singing was dubbed by Jo Anne Greer. The 3D fad had waned by the time of the film’s release, and after a two-week run all 3D prints were pulled from release with a ‘flat’ presentation released nationwide. A 3D version of the film was released on Blu-ray in 2016.

The screenplay for Bad for Each Other was adapted from Scalpel, an unpublished novel by Horace McCoy. It mirrored the plot of the 1939 British film The Citadel so closely that one critic referred to it as ‘the poor man’s version’ of that film.

Easy to Love was Esther Williams’ final aquatic film set in the United States. It was shot partly in Cypress Gardens in Florida. Carroll Baker made her film debut in a small role.

1963

• December 20 – Death Drums Along the River (West Germany, Constantin Film)
• December 21 – 4 for Texas (Japan, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• December 23 – Ladybug Ladybug (USA, United Artists)
• December 25 – Captain Newman, M.D. (USA, Universal Pictures)
• December 25 – Love with the Proper Stranger (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• December 25 – Move Over, Darling (USA, 20th Century Fox)
• December 25 – The Prize (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• December 25 – Who’s Been Sleeping in My Bed? (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• December 26 – Act One (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• December 26 – Kvarteret Korpen (Sweden, Europa Film)

Death Drums Along the River has no known US theatrical release date. 4 for Texas opened in the US on December 25, 1963 through Warner Bros. Pictures. Kvarteret Korpen was released in the US as Raven’s End on May 21, 1970 by New Yorker Films, and was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Death Drums Along the River uses characters from Edgar Wallace’s 1911 novel Sanders of the River and Zoltán Korda’s 1935 film based on the novel, but placed in a totally different story. It was filmed on location in South Africa. It was the first feature film for producer Harry Alan Towers. Star Richard Todd reprised his role of Harry Sanders in the 1965 sequel Coast of Skeletons.

4 for Texas features cameos from Arthur Godfrey and the Three Stooges. Director Robert Aldrich announced the film in 1960 as Two for Texas. Once the cast was set — Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Anita Ekberg and Ursula Andress — the film was retitled Four for Texas. Andress was featured in footage filmed for the trailer addressing the audience. Aldrich and Sinatra’s relationship soured during production, with Aldrich citing Sinatra’s lack of enthusiasm for the project, working only 80 hours of 37 days of filming. Bette Davis was to make a cameo at one point. A role had been written for Peter Lawford, but after Sinatra threw him out of the Rat Pack, the role was written out.

Ladybug Ladybug marked the film debuts of William Daniels, Estelle Parsons and Jane Connell.

Captain Newman, M.D. was based on the 1961 novel by Leo Rosten. The story was used again for a 1972 TV pilot starring Jim Hutton and Joan Van Ark. The film was nominated for three Oscars: Supporting Actor (Bobby Darin), Sound, Adapted Screenplay.

Love with the Proper Stranger features the screen debut of Tom Bosley, and a brief uncredited appearance by Richard Mulligan, brother of the film’s director Robert Mulligan. The film earned five Oscar nominations: Best Actress (Natalie Wood), Original Screenplay, Art Direction – Black-and-White, Cinematography – Black-and-White, Costume Design – Black-and-White.

Move Over, Darling is a remake of the 1940 screwball comedy My Favorite Wife. A previous version, 1962’s Something’s Got to Give, went unfinished due to the death of Marilyn Monroe. As the studio had already put a lot of money into the project, a new director and cast were hired and the title was changed. Thelma Ritter appeared in the same role in both the 1962 and 1963 versions. Doris Day earned a Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Golden Globe nomination. The film’s story is an update of the 1864 poem ‘Enoch Arden’ by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and the poem’s title is the source of the lead characters’ surname. This was the seventh film based on ‘Enoch Arden’. James Garner accidentally broke Doris Day’s rib during a massage scene, which he didn’t realize until he felt the bandage the next day.

The Prize was adapted for the screen by Ernest Lehman from the novel The Prize by Irving Wallace, and features an early score by Jerry Goldsmith. Director Mark Robson wanted to film on location in the Grand Hôtel and the Stockholm Concert Hall, but as the popularity of Irving Wallace’s novel grew, Swedes became wary of the production. He had to settle on sending a crew to film exteriors of the locations.

Act One was adapted from the 1959 autobiographical book Act One by playwright Moss Hart. Anthony Perkins and Dean Jones were considered for the lead role of Hart, which eventually went to George Hamilton, who knew Hart and whom Hart wanted for the role.

1973

Warner Bros. Pictures

• December 20 – Alvin Purple (AUS, Roadshow Films)
• December 20 – Magnum Force (Netherlands, Warner-Columbia Films)
• December 20 – The Laughing Policeman (USA, 20th Century Fox)
• December 21 – Hell Up in Harlem (USA, American International Pictures)
• December 21 – Marco (USA, Cinerama Releasing Corporation)
• December 21 – That Man Bolt (USA, Universal Pictures)
• December 21 – The Deadly Trackers (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• December 25 – The Sting (USA/Canada, Universal Pictures)
• December 26 – Holiday on the Buses (UK, MGM-EMI)
• December 26 – The Exorcist (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)

Alvin Purple was released in the US on October 11, 1974 through Sands Film Company. Magnum Force was released in the US on December 25, 1973 through Warner Bros. Pictures. Holiday on the Buses has no known US theatrical release date.

Magnum Force was the second film to feature Clint Eastwood as Harry ‘Dirty Harry’ Callahan. It is the longest of the Dirty Harry films at 124 minutes. The film’s original title was Vigilance, but because of the extensive gun use it was retitled to refer to Harry’s .44 Magnum.

The Laughing Policeman, loosely based on the 1968 novel of the same name by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, was released in the UK as An Investigation of Murder.

Hell Up in Harlem is a sequel to Black Caesar.

That Man Bolt was titled Operation Hong Kong outside of the United States. Star Fred Williamson was signed by Universal for three Bolt films, but he said the studio was not prepared to launch a film series with a Black lead so no further films were made, although he was paid for the two unmade films.

The Deadly Trackers was based on the novel Riata by Samuel Fuller, and began production under the novel’s title. Filming was halted with the director and cast replaced, except for Richard Harris. Harris walked off the first production because he hated Fuller’s script, but after Rod Taylor was cast for the second version, Harris returned and contributed to re-writes of the script. Taylor credits Harris’ relentless drive for getting the film made at all.

The Sting‘s story was inspired by real-life cons perpetrated by brothers Fred and Charley Gondorff and documented by David Maurer in his 1940 book The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man. Scott Joplin’s song ‘The Entertainer’ was adapted for the film by Marvin Hamlisch, and it became a Top Ten hit for Hamlisch when it was released as a single, sparking a renewed interest in the music of Joplin. The film was a huge hit, earning ten Oscar nominations, including Best Actor for Robert Redford, and winning seven including Best Picture, Director, Editing and Original Screenplay. The success of the film also led to a resurgence in Paul Newman’s film career after a series of box office flops. Jack Nicholson had been offered the lead but turned it down. Newman signed on in exchange for top billing, $500,000 and a percentage of the film’s profits. Director George Roy Hill wanted Richard Boone for the role of Lonnegan, something producer Julia Phillips was not comfortable with. Newman had sent the script to Robert Shaw to ensure his participation in the film. Phillips claims Shaw did not receive a Best Supporting Actor nomination because he demanded his name follow Newman’s and Redford’s before the film’s title which, theoretically, made him a lead actor as well. Shaw’s character’s limp was real as Shaw had injured himself playing handball shortly before production began and Hill encouraged him to incorporate it into the character rather than leave the film. Hill wanted to emulate the films of the 1930s, and noticed many of those films had no extras, so he avoided using extras. Most of the movie was shot on the Universal backlot, with a few small scenes shot in Wheeling, West Virginia, the Santa Monica Pier carousel, and Union Station in Chicago. Lonnegan’s private car in the film, a 1935 Pierce-Arrow, belonged to co-producer Tony Bill, an antique car buff. Universal tried to cash in on the film’s success a decade later with The Sting II with an entirely different cast (Oliver Reed played Lonnegan) and the first names of Newman’s and Redford’s characters are changed. The film was not a success and holds a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The Sting was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2005.

Holiday on the Buses is the third and final spin-off from the ITV sitcom On the Buses, following On the Buses (1971) and Mutiny on the Buses (1972). A fourth film, Fun on the Buses, was planned but cancelled. This was Michael Robbins and Reg Varney’s final appearance in the On the Buses franchise having already quit the TV series, the final season of which aired the same year as the film’s release.

The Exorcist was based on the 1971 novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty, who also wrote the screenplay. William Friedkin was Blatty’s only choice for director, but Friedkin’s desire to cast unknown actors (Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Jason Miller) was opposed by Warner Bros. which wanted name stars. The film took twice as long to complete than scheduled due to several mishaps that occured during production, including the deaths of crew members, leading many to believe the film was cursed. It became the first horror film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture as well as nine other nominations. Blatty won for his screenplay, as did the sound engineers for Best Sound. The film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2010. Jack Nicholson had been considered for the role of Father Karras, and Paul Newman expressed interest, but Blatty hired Stacy Keach. After Friedkin had given a copy of the novel to Jason Miller, Miller felt Karras was him and requested a screen test. Friedkin filmed two scenes with Miller and Burstyn and realized Miller was exactly right for the part and the studio bought out Keach’s contract. Audrey Hepburn, Anne Bancroft and Jane Fonda were considered for the role of Chris but turned it down. Blatty suggested Shirley MacLaine, but Friedkin rejected her because she had recently appeared in a similar possession film, The Possession of Joel Delaney. Friedkin believed Carol Burnett had the necessary range for the role and Blatty agreed but the studio rejected her. Ellen Burstyn was cast after she told Friedkin that she was destined to play Chris because of her Catholic upbringing which she had rejected. The studio vigorously protested her casting but had no other viable choices. The casting of Regan was most difficult, as no one felt a child actor could handle the role. Pamelyn Ferdin was turned down for being a too-familiar face. Denise Nickerson, Violet Beauregarde in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, said her family felt the script was too dark. Janet Leigh would not allow her daughter Jamie Lee Curtis to audition. Older actresses were considered until Elinore Blair arrived unannounced with her daughter Linda. 12-year-old Blair told Friedkin she had read the book and knew what it was about, and she was cast after a screen test with Burstyn. Friedkin planned to use Blair’s electronically altered voice for the possession scenes but found it was not powerful enough, so he hired experienced actress Mercedes McCambridge to provide the vocals. Warner Bros. did not credit her until the Screen Actors Guild intervened to resolve the dispute. End credits on all but the first 30 prints of the film were amended to credit the actress. 27-year-old Eileen Dietz acted as Blair’s stunt double and is the face of the demon Pazuzu. Dietz later felt her contributions were minimized by Friedkin and began to claim to have performed all of the possession scenes. Blair thought Dietz was in the film for about 17 seconds at most, but to settle the dispute the studio timed all of her scenes which came to a total of 28.25 seconds, denying her contributions were dramatically significant. Warner Bros. wanted Marlon Brando for the role of Father Merrin but Friedkin refused. A photo of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, one of Blatty’s inspirations for Father Merrin, inspired Friedkin to cast Max von Sydow instead of Paul Scofield, whom Blatty had wanted. Before Friedkin was hired to direct, the studio considered many others including Mike Nichols, Arthur Penn, Stanley Kubrick, John Boorman and Peter Bogdanovich. Mark Rydell was actually hired but Blatty insisted on Friedkin. The studio held off until Friedkin’s The French Connection (1971) won the Oscar for Best Picture. Friedkin manipulated his actors to get genuine reactions, slapping the face of Father William O’Malley to get a solemn yet shaken look as he attends to the dying Karras (offending many Catholic crew members), firing blanks without warning to elicit shock from Miller as well as during a scene where Regan assaults the doctors, and rehearsing the vomit scene with Miller where the concoction would hit him in the chest, but during the actual take it hit him in the face, generating a genuine look of disgust. The crew also found Friedkin difficult to work with. One crew member returned from three days of sick leave to find Friedkin still filming the same scene. He fired and rehired crew members regularly, earning him the name ‘Wacky Willy’. Regan’s bedroom was refrigerated to -20 °F (−29 °C) for the exorcism scenes so the actors’ breath would be visible. The lights heated the room so filming could only take place in 3 minute increments. The complete scene took a month to complete. The iconic scene of Father Merrin arriving at the MacNeil house was filmed on Von Sydow’s first day on set. The dummy used for Regan’s head rotation was so realistic that Blair felt uncomfortable in its presence. The angiography scene, in which a needle spurts blood from Regan’s neck, caused audiences the most discomfort with many viewers feeling the scene was unnecessary and irresponsible, while medical professionals describe the scene as a realistic depiction of the procedure. The famous spider walk scene was cut by Friedkin just before the film’s release, and it became such a legendary topic that many wondered if it had ever been shot. Even Friedkin denied shooting it until the footage was found in the Warners archives. It was restored for the 2000 Director’s Cut re-release, albeit in a lesser quality than the rest of the film. Stuntwoman Ann Miles performed the scene but she was not credited, and was misidentified as Sylvia Hager, Miles’ lighting double, costing Miles jobs as other producers believed she was falsely taking credit for Hager’s work. SAG stepped in again and got her properly credited. It took four hours every day to apply Von Sydow’s old age makeup, which many people didn’t even realize was makeup. Friedkin said if there had been a regular Academy Award at the time for makeup, Dick Smith would have won it. Some have accused Friedkin of incorporating sublimial images into the film, but Blatty stated in a 1999 interview that ‘if you can see it, it’s not subliminal.’ Bernard Herrmann turned down the job of composing the musical score after viewing a rough cut of the film. Lalo Schifrin had written about six minutes of music for the film before the studio told Friedkin they wanted something softer. Friedkin never told Schifrin and rejected what had been written, ultimately using modern classical compositions making up just 17 minutes of the film’s two hour run time. Friedkin wanted the film released before or on Christmas Day, but the studio wanted to avoid controversy from releasing a film about demonic possession on the holiday. The release delay was attributed to post-production delays. With most people off for the holidays, the film was a hit and is still the second highest-grossing Christmas week release after Titanic. The film had a theatrical run of 105 weeks, a run unheard of today.

1983

• December 21 – Le Bal (France, AMLF)
• December 21 – Tchao Pantin (France, AMLF)
• December 22 – BMX Bandits (AUS, Filmways Australasian Distributors)
• December 22 – Bush Christmas (AUS, Hoyts Distribution)
• December 22 – Project A (Hong Kong, Media Asia Distribution)

Le Bal, Oscar nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, received a limited US release on March 23, 1984 through Almi Classics. Tchao Pantin, based on a novel by Alain Page, received a limited US release as So Long, Stooge on February 17, 1985 through European Classics. BMX Bandits received a limited US release under the title Short Wave on July 13, 1984 through Comworld Pictures. Bush Christmas, also known as Prince and the Great Race, has no known US theatrical release date. Project A debuted in the US on home video on May 16, 2000 through Buena Vista Home Video.

BMX Bandits was the second film of Nicole Kidman. Kidman sprained her ankle during filming. No female stunt double that looked like her could be found, so her bike stunts were performed by an 18-year-old man in a wig. Bush Christmas was Kidman’s first film. It is a remake of a 1947 film of the same name.

Jackie Chan wrote, directed and starred in Project A. He chose the title so as not to give away anything about the plot of the film, as some tiles of previous films like Drunken Master did. The film’s original title was going to be Pirate Patrol, but Chan feared other Hong Kong producers would rush to copy and release films featuring pirates. Chan went to a showing of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, halting production on his film, so he could make sure his bike chase scene was not similar to the one in E.T. Chan ended up injuring his neck while filming the bike chase scene. After appearing in The Cannonball Run, Chan employed the use of bloopers and outtakes under the credits of his films beginning with Dragon Lord. The process was so popular with Japanese audiences that film companies demanded the inclusion of ‘NGs’ (‘no good’ shots) in all Chan films released in Japan. Chan’s stunt work in Project A has been seen to have similarities to the stunt work of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, but Chan had not seen the films of either actor, nor were they available on home video. It was just an evolution of the comedy stunt work he’d already been doing. He only became aware of Keaton after the comparisons were made, and finally watched Keaton’s films when they became available on home video, only then seeing the similarities.

1993

• December 22 – American Yakuza (Japan, Toei Company)
• December 25 – Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• December 25 – Grumpy Old Men (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• December 25 – Heaven & Earth (Japan, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• December 25 – Tombstone (USA, Buena Vista Pictures Distribution)
• December 25 – What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (Turkey, J&M Entertainment)

American Yakuza premiered on home video in the US through Columbia TriStar Home Video on February 14, 1995. Heaven & Earth opened in limited US release on December 25, 1993 before its general release on January 7, 1994 through Warner Bros. Pictures. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape received a limited US release on December 17, 1993 for awards consideration, then went into general release on March 4, 1994 through Paramount Pictures.

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was based on Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1999) and is the first original theatrical film produced by Warner Bros. Animation. Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Bob Hastings and Robert Costanzo reprise their voice roles from the TV series. The film was produced between the first and second seasons of the series, and was originally planned as a direct-to-video release. It was the only animated Batman film to have a theatrical release until 2016’s limited release of Batman: The Killing Joke, and the only one to get a full theatrical release until 2017’s The LEGO Batman Movie. Citizen Kane served as an influence for the film’s flashback scenes, a story of loss and the passage of time. The Phantasm went through 20 different designs until one was found that convinced the film’s crew. The design was meant to resemble The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come from A Christmas Carol. Warner Bros’ decision to release the film theatrically cut production time down drastically, and the animators had to go over scenes in order to prepare them for a widescreen format. The film was completed in eight months instead of the usual two years for an animated production.

Grumpy Old Men‘s screenwriter Mark Steven Johnson envisioned the film to star Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau and Sophia Loren. Matthau was convinced by Lemmon and his son Charles Matthau to do the film. Ann-Marget was cast as the love interest, but Loren did appear in the sequel. The script was re-written in pre-production to be more comedic. Cast and crew arrived in Minnesota in January 1993 but had to wait until February 2 to start shooting due to a lack of snow. Filming wrapped in June after a delay of several months when Matthau contracted pneumonia while filming a fight scene with Lemmon in subzero temperatures.

Heaven & Earth, based on the books When Heaven and Earth Changed Places and Child of War, Woman of Peace is the third and final film in Stone’s Vietnam War trilogy, following Platoon (1986) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989).

Tombstone was written by Kevin Jarre, who was also to direct but was replaced a month into filming, quickly overwhelmed by the production — his directorial debut — and falling behind schedule. The film was shot primarily on location in Arizona. When Jarre was fired, Michael Biehn considered quitting but all of the actors stayed on when George P. Cosmatos was hired. Kurt Russell worked with the producer to pare down the sprawling screenplay, and later claimed it was he who directed the film with Cosmatos a ‘ghost director’ as Russell didn’t want it known he was directing. Co-star Val Kilmer supports Russell’s statement, but Biehn says Russell never personally directed him. All of the actors sported their own real mustaches except for Jon Tenney, who had to be clean-shaven for his prior project and had no time to grow his own. Billy Bob Thornton ad libbed his lines as an abusive card dealer being thrown out of a saloon because the only direction he was given was to be a bully.

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape was based on his 1991 novel of the same name by Peter Hedges, who also wrote the screenplay. 19-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio received his first Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for the film. Christian Bale had been considered for the same role.

2003

• December 24 – Monster (USA, Newmarket Films)
• December 25 – Cheaper by the Dozen (USA/Canada, 20th Century Fox)
• December 25 – Cold Mountain (USA/Canada, Miramax Films)
• December 25 – The Young Black Stallion (USA, Walt Disney Pictures)

Monster was the feature directorial debut of Patty Jenkins. Charlize Theron earned Best Actress nominations from the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, BAFTAs, Screen Actors Guild and many more, winning the Oscar, Golden Globe and SAG Award, 25 awards in total.

Cheaper by the Dozen is a remake of the 1950 film of the same name, both films inspired by the semi-autobiographical book Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr. and his sister Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, although the 2003 film has little connection to the book. Director Shawn Levy has a cameo as a reporter. Jared Padalecki has an uncredited cameo as a bully who causes problems for Charlie (Tom Welling). Wayne Knight also has an uncredited cameo as an electrician.

Cold Mountain was based on the bestselling 1997 novel of the same name by Charles Frazier. The film was praised for its general historical accuracy, although some inaccuracies are present. Two ‘Sacred Harp’ songs were authentic to the period, however the lyrics to the songs were not as they had not been written yet. The beginning Battle of the Crater is depicted as happening in broad daylight but it began at 4:44 AM with the detonation of a mine. Tom Cruise, married to Nicole Kidman at the time, wanted to play Inman but the studio didn’t want to pay his $20 million fee. The budget had already grown from $40 million to $120 million, so to cut costs the production was to move from the US to Romania, doubling for North Carolina, but three weeks before production was to begin, MGM pulled out. Producer Harvey Weinstein was going to cancel the project, but it was already deep into pre-production so he agreed to fund the $80 million project after a $10 million tax break. Most of the film shot in Romania, with scenes also filmed in Virginia, South Carolina and North Carolina. The film’s editing process was groundbreaking as Walter Murch utilized Apple’s Final Cut Pro software and off-the-shelf Mac G4s, instead of the much more expensive and industry standard AVID editing system. The film earned seven Oscar nominations — including one for Editing and two for Original Song — with Renée Zellweger winning Best Supporting Actress. It earned 13 BAFTA nominations and two wins (Zellweger again, and Best Original Music), and eight Golden Globe nominations with another win for Zellweger.

The Young Black Stallion was based on the 1989 novel of the same name by Black Stallion creator Walter Farley and his son Steven Farley. Patrick Elyas’ voice was dubbed by an uncredited Eric Grucza, who was nominated in 2004 for a Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Voice-Over Role. The 50-minute film is Disney’s first filmed specifically for IMAX.

2013

Paramount Pictures

• December 20 – Moshi Monsters: The Movie (UK, Universal Pictures International)
• December 20 – Paradise Place (UK, Ipode Productions)
• December 20 – The Harry Hill Movie (UK, Entertainment Film Distributors)
• December 24 – The House of Magic (UK, StudioCanal)
• December 25 – 47 Ronin (USA, Universal Pictures)
• December 25 – Grudge Match (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• December 25 – Lone Survivor (USA, Universal Pictures)
• December 25 – Nymphomaniac (UK, Artificial Eye)
• December 25 – The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (Denmark, Buena Vista International)
• December 25 – The Invisible Woman (USA, limited, Lionsgate)
• December 25 – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (USA, 20th Century Fox)
• December 25 – The Wolf of Wall Street (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• December 26 – The East London Story: Slap or Die (UK, Enigmar Entertainment)
• December 26 – The Railway Man (AUS, Transmission Films)

Moshi Monsters: The Movie was released in the US through CJ Entertainment America on December 20, 2013. Paradise Place, The Harry Hill Movie, and The East London Story: Slap or Die have no known US theatrical release dates. The House of Magic received a limited US release as Thunder and the House of Magic on September 5, 2014 through Shout! Factory. Nymphomaniac received a limited US release through Magnolia Pictures on March 21, 2014. After several festival screenings, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared was released in the US on May 8, 2015 through Music Box Films. The Railway Man opened in wide release in the US on May 23, 2014 through The Weinstein Company.

Moshi Monsters: The Movie was based on the virtual world video game of Moshi Monsters.

47 Ronin was the directorial debut of Carl Rinsch. The film was such a box office bomb that it put Universal Pictures in the red for 2013. The film was released in both 2D and 3D formats. Reshoots in London were delayed by the 2012 Summer Olympics. Rinsch was removed from the project during the editing phase in late 2012, with Universal chairwoman Donna Langley taking over, adding a love scene, extra close-ups and lines of dialogue to boost Keanu Reeves’ presence in the film, significantly adding to the budget.

Grudge Match had originally been scheduled for release on January 10, 2014 but was moved up to December 25, 2013. Stars Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro, both stars of successful boxing movies, trained with Bob Sale. Stallone dropped to 168 lbs, his lowest weight since 1981.

Lone Survivor was based on the 2007 nonfiction book of the same name by Marcus Luttrell with Patrick Robinson. Director Peter Berg began work on the film right after completing Battleship. Berg worked for a minimum salary of $17,000 to help keep the budget down. Luttrell and other Navy SEALS served as advisers on the film, and multiple branches of the US Armed Forces aided the production. The film was Oscar nominated for Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing.

Nymphomaniac features Mia Goth in her screen debut. The film was supposed to be a single production but because of the length of the final edit, director Lars von Trier decided to split the film into two parts. The producers announced there would be two versions of each volume, an explicit version and a softer cut. Shia LaBeouf was asked to send photos of his penis to von Trier to see if he was right for the part, so LaBeouf sent him a tape of he and his girlfriend having sex instead.To film the hardcore sex scenes, von Trier filmed the actors simulating sex then digitally blended their top halves with the bottom halves of real adult film actors actually having sex. Prosthetic vaginas were also used and closed sets were employed. Stacy Martin said shooting the scenes were quite boring because of the technical nature. The film earned an NC-17 from the MPAA, but the rating was surrendered and the film was released unrated.

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared was based on the 2009 novel of the same name by Jonas Jonasson. The film was Oscar nominated for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. A sequel, titled The 101-Year-Old Man Who Skipped Out on the Bill and Disappeared, was released in 2016.

The Invisible Woman was based on the book of the same name by Claire Tomalin. The film was Oscar nominated for Best Costume Design. Ralph Fiennes joined the project as director but cast another actor in the lead role of Charles Dickens. When that didn’t work out, Fiennes took the role himself. Actresses up for the role of Nelly Ternan included Carey Mulligan, Abbie Cornish and Felicity Jones, with Jones cast before Fiennes took the role of Dickens.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a remake of the 1947 film of the same name, both of which were adapted from James Thurber’s 1939 short story of the same name. Jim Carrey had been in line for the lead role when the film was first conceived in 1994. A final draft screenplay was turned in in 1997. New Line Cinema won the distribution rights to the film, with the participation of the Samuel Goldwyn Company. Ron Howard was to direct with his company Imagine Entertainment also producing. Howard and Imagine left the project for EDtv, and Walter Mitty went to development hell. Chuck Russell was hired to rewrite the script in 1999, and to serve as Howard’s replacement as director. Filming was to start in early 2000 but was delayed. Goldwyn filed a lawsuit against New Line in 2001 for breach of contract, stating that New Line extended their deal until May 2001 and then announced that it wanted to transfer the remake to another company and cut Goldwyn out completely. New Line was forced to revert the rights back to Goldwyn in 2002, and the property was taken to Paramount. Steven Spielberg wanted to work with Jim Carrey again and signed to direct in 2003, with his company DreamWorks co-financing. Spielberg and DreamWorks left the project in 2004 for War of the Worlds and Munich. Richard Lagravanese completed a new script in 2005, but Carrey left the project due to scheduling conflicts, and was replaced with Owen Wilson. Paramount rushed the film into production one week before the studio was set to lose the rights, but Wilson dropped out over creative differences. Paramount could not find an actress to co-star with Wilson, failing to seal a deal with frontrunner Scarlet Johansson and the project was put into turnaround. Goldwyn took the project to 20th Century Fox in 2007, and Mike Myers was attached to star. Time passed and in 2010 Sacha Baron Cohen accepted the lead role, and Gore Verbinski was announced as director. That too fell apart, and Ben Stiller was announced to star in 2011 but no director had been chosen. Three months later, Stiller was also announced to direct. In early 2012 Kristen Wiig was cast as the female lead. The film received mixed reviews.

The Wolf of Wall Street was based on Jordan Belfort’s 2007 memoir of the same name. It was Leonardo DiCaprio’s fifth collaboration with Martin Scorsese. While most of the movie was shot on 35mm film (except scenes that required green screen which were shot digitally), it was the first major American film to be distributed to theaters digitally. The film courted controversy for its graphic sexual content and extreme profanity, depictions of drug use, and the use of animals during the production. The film was originally given an NC-17 rating, but Scorsese made slight editorial changes and the rating was appealed to an R. It set a Guinness World Record for the most instances of swearing in a film. Vitamin D powder was used as the fake substance for cocaine in the film. Jonah Hill was hospitalized with bronchitis due to snorting large quantities during filming. The film contains 400-500 visual effects shots. The film earned five Oscar nominations — Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Actor (DiCaprio) and Supporting Actor (Hill). It was also nominated for four BAFTAs and two Golden Globes, with DiCaprio winning the Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

The Railway Man was an adaptation of the 1995 autobiography of the same name by Eric Lomax. Rachel Weisz was set to play Patricia Lomax but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with re-shoots on another film. Nicole Kidman replaced her.