Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #183 :: January 24•30

Columbia Pictures

This last week of January featured a large collection of new films but, as we’ve seen with January releases, not a lot of them were memorable, and most of 1924’s films are now considered lost. There were a few bright spots such as the 1944 film produced by Universal’s first female executive. 1954 had a film notable for its entanglement in the Communist Witch Hunts of the 1950s. 1974 saw Ray Harryhausen return to the tales of the Arabian Nights for another stop-motion extravaganza, while 1984 produced one of Woody Allen’s best. 1994 had an ill-advised remake of a classic TV series, while 2004 adapted Elmore Leonard, and 2014 revisited the Frankenstein story. The biggest release by far this week is a 1964 comedy classic from Stanely Kubrick that is still beloved today. Scroll down to check out this week’s new releases and get a little trivia on some of the films. Are any of your favorites on the list? Tell us in the comments section below!

1924

• January 24 – The Heart Bandit (USA, Metro Pictures)
• January 25 – The Trail of the Law (USA, Producers Security Corporation)
• January 27 – After the Ball (USA, Film Booking Offices of America)
• January 27 – Flaming Barriers (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• January 27 – Name the Man (USA, Goldwyn Pictures)
• January 27 – Not a Drum Was Heard (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• January 27 – The Mask of Lopez (USA, Film Booking Offices of America)
• January 27 – The Shadow of the Desert (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• January 28 – A Fool’s Awakening (USA, Metro Pictures)
• January 28 – Lights of London (UK, Gaumont British Distributors)
• January 28 – Painted People (USA, Associated First National)
• January 28 – The Man from Wyoming (USA, Universal Pictures)
• January 30 – Leave It to Gerry (USA, Grand-Asher Distributing Corporation)

Lights of London has no known US theatrical release date. The Heart Bandit, Flaming Barriers, Not a Drum Was Heard, The Shadow of the Desert, Painted People, The Man from Wyoming and Leave It to Gerry are all lost films.

Name the Man survives in the Cinematheque royale de Belgique in Brussels, Cinemateket-Svenska Filminstitutet in Stockholm, and the Gosfilmofond archive in Moscow. The Shadow of the Desert is also known as The Shadow of the East, and is based upon the novel The Shadow of the East by Edith Maude Hull. Lights of London was based on the 1881 stage melodrama The Lights o’ London by George Sims.

1934

• January 25 – Two Alone (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
• January 26 – Four Frightened People (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• January 26 – Palooka (USA, United Artists)
• January 26 – Sleepers East (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• January 26 – You Can’t Buy Everything (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• January 27 – As Husbands Go (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• January 27 – Bedside (USA, First National Pictures)
• January 27 – Paradise Valley (USA, Imperial Distributing Corporation)

Two Alone was based on the play Wild Birds by Dan Totheroh, and is remembered for its early skinny-dipping scene. Four Frightened People was based on the 1931 novel by E. Arnot Robertson. Sleepers East was based on the 1933 novel Sleepers East by Frederick Nebel, which was also used as inspiration for the 1941 film Sleepers West.

Palooka, known as The Great Schnozzle in the UK, was based on the comic strip by Ham Fisher. The rights to the song ‘Inka Dinka Doo’ were purchased specifically for the movie. Working titles for You Can’t Buy Everything were Rich Widow and Old Hannibal. As Husbands Go was based on the 1931 play of the same name by Rachel Crothers.

1944

Universal Pictures

• January 24 – Headline (UK, Associated British Film Distributors)
• January 25 – Nabonga (USA, PRC)
• January 28 – Beautiful But Broke (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• January 28 – How to Be a Sailor (USA, short, RKO Radio Pictures)
• January 28 – Meatless Flyday (USA, short, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• January 28 – Phantom Lady (USA, Universal Pictures)

Headline has no known US theatrical release date. The film first opened in London on November 16, 1943 before expanding to a general release. Nabonga was retitled Jungle Woman for its UK release.

How to Be a Sailor, a Goofy cartoon short, was the only wartime animated short from Disney about the Navy. All of the other war shorts were about the Army.

Phantom Lady was the first producing credit for former Hitchcock screenwriter Joan Harrison, who was also Universal’s first female executive. The frantic drum solo by Cliff (Elisha Cook Jr.) was dubbed by Dave Coleman, former drummer for Harry James and His Orchestra.

1954

• January 27 – Alaska Seas (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• January 27 – Go Man Go! (USA, United Artists)
• January 28 – The Love Lottery (UK, General Film Distributors)
• January 29 – The Black Glove (USA, Lippert Pictures)
• January 29 – The Great Diamond Robbery (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• January 30 – Posse Cat (USA, short, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

Alaska Seas is a loose remake of the 1938 film Spawn of the North. Van Heflin was cast in the film but withdrew just before production began. He was replaced with Brian Keith, who was already playing another part in the film. His role was taken by Gene Barry.

Go Man Go! was written and produced by Alfred Palca, who was accused of being a Communist (his casting of Sidney Poitier was seen as further proof of his Communism) and refused to cooperate with the government’s investigation into Communist activities in Hollywood. No distributor would release the film with his name on it, so the producing credit was given to his brother-in-law Anton Leader, with the writing credit going to his cousin Arnold Becker. Palca never worked in the film industry again. In 1997, a ceremony at the Academy Theatre honored blacklisted Hollywood writers and directors and restored Palca’s writing credit for the film.

The Love Lottery was released by Continental Distributing in the US in 1956, exact date unknown. The film features an uncredited cameo at the end by Humphrey Bogart as himself. Part of the film was shot on location at Lake Como, Italy which represented the fictional town of Tremaggio.

The Black Glove was produced by Hammer Films, directed by Terence Fisher, and released in the UK as Face the Music.

Posse Cat is considered by many to be the sequel to 1950’s popular Tom & Jerry short, Texas Tom.

1964

• January 29 – Children of the Damned (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• January 29 – Dr. Strangelove (USA/Canada/UK, Columbia Pictures)
• January 30 – A Global Affair (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• January 30 – Man’s Favorite Sport? (USA, Universal Pictures)
• January 30 – Surf Party (USA, Twentieth Century-Fox)
• January 30 – This Is My Street (UK, Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors)

Children of the Damned opened in the US in limited release on January 10, 1964 before expanding to a wide release. The film is a thematic sequel to Village of the Damned.

The full title of Dr. Strangelove is Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. The story is based on the 1958 thriller novel Red Alert by Peter George. Peter Sellers plays three roles in the film. The film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1989. It is widely considered to be one of the best comedies of all time and one of the greatest films of all time. It received four Oscar nominations — Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor for Sellers — and seven BAFTA nominations including Best Film from Any Source and Best British Film. Columbia Pictures greenlit the film on the condition Sellers play four roles, a decision based on his performance in Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita, in which his single character assumed various identities. Sellers also played three roles in The Mouse That Roared in 1959, and Kubrick accepted the demands as a necessary evil to get the film made. Sellers only played three roles, feeling he would not be able to properly portray the fourth, Air Force Major T.J. ‘King’ Kong, because of his already heavy workload. He was also concerned about doing the Texas accent properly, but a sprained ankle while shooting in the aircraft mock-up prevented Sellers from continuing to film in the cramped set. Slim Pickens was chosen as his replacement. John Wayne was offered the role but never responded to Kubrick’s offer. Dan Blocker of Bonanza fame was also offered the role but his agent declared it to be ‘too pinko’. Pickens was never told the film was a black comedy and was only given the pages of the script in which his character appeared so he would play the role ‘straight’. When he arrived on set — his first time leaving the US — someone thought he was already in costume, not realizing he always dressed in Western gear. Pickens said the film helped his career, his salary jumped five times, and people recognized him with ‘Hey, Slim’ instead of ‘Hey, you’.

Sellers improvised much of his dialogue, and Kubrick incorporated the ad-libs into the script as canon, a practice known as ‘retroscripting’. Sellers played President Merkin Muffley for laughs, incorporating a cold to show his weakness which made the crew laugh, ruining several takes. Kubrick eventually felt the role should be played more seriously, but evidence of the cold still exists. The character of Group Captain Lionel Mandrake bore a heavy resemblance to Sellers’ friend and frequent co-star Terry-Thomas. The character of Dr. Strangelove does not appear in the original novel. Many have claimed the character was based on Henry Kissinger, but Kubrick and Sellers denied the claims stating he was always based on Werner von Braun. Kissinger himself noted that at the time of the writing of the film, he was a little-known academic. Strangelove’s accent was influenced by Austrian-American photographer Weegee, who worked for Kurbick as a special photographic effects consultant. The character’s appearance is modeled on Rotwang in the classic Metropolis. For the role of General Buck Turgidson, Kubrick tricked George C. Scott into doing outlandish ‘practice takes’ to prepare for the real takes, assuring him they would not be used. Kubrick used the more unrestrained takes, causing Scott to swear to never work with Kubrick again. The two often disagreed on how to play certain scenes, but Kubrick got Scott to comply by beating him at chess, which they frequently played on set.

Ken Adam, who would be known for his massive James Bond sets, designed the film’s War Room as a two-story set which Kubrick liked … until he didn’t, forcing Adam to reimagine the set as a large, pyramid-shaped bunker, a shape Kubrick felt would better resist an explosion. With no cooperation from the Pentagon, the B-29 Superfortress set was constructed from a single photographic image of the cockpit of a B-52. Some US Air Force personnel who were invited to the set remarked that the set was absolutely correct, even down to the black box, causing Kubrick to fear Adam and his team had not carried out their research legally. Some of the flying footage was reused in The Beatles’ TV movie Magical Mystery Tour, which Kubrick was not happy about. Kubrick learned that the novel Fail Safe — which was so similar to Red Alert that Peter George filed a lawsuit — was being turned into a movie with a name director, Sidney Lumet, and stars Henry Fonda and Walter Matthau. Fearing if the film was released first it would damage his film, Kubrick filed a lawsuit to throw a wrench into the film’s production. An agreement was reached in which Columbia Pictures would also buy Fail Safe, which was being independently produced, and Kubrick insisted his film be released first. Fail Safe was released eight months after Dr. Strangelove to critical acclaim but mediocre box office. The film was originally to end with a massive pie fight in the War Room which Kubrick cut because it was too farcical and didn’t fit with the film’s satirical tone. Others say the scene was cut because everyone was covered in whipped cream to the point they were unrecognizable, and instead of being the serious moment it was intended to be, the actors were laughing and having a good time. Kubrick said it was a disaster of Homeric proportions. The film was intended for a December 1963 release, with its first screening on November 22, 1963 — the day Kennedy was assassinated, which delayed the film’s release until January as audiences were not in the mood for such a film any earlier. The assassination may also be another reason that the pie fight was cut because it featured President Muffley being hit in the face with a pie and General Turgidson exclaiming, ‘Gentlemen! Our gallant young president has been struck down in his prime!’ Kubrick maintained that the scene had already been cut before the assassination. One of Slim Pickens’ lines, ‘a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Dallas with all that stuff’ was dubbed over with ‘Vegas’, but the original reference to Dallas survives in the English audio of the French-subtitled version of the film.

A Global Affair was fraught with conflicts which began during pre-production when star Bob Hope and MGM insisted on Jack Arnold as director over producer Hall Bartlett’s wishes. When French actress Michèle Mercier arrivd on set, she did not speak a word of English and had to learn her lines phonetically, scene-by-scene which delayed the filming process. Hope was not engaged and required cue cards for his lines. Hope was walked through the scenes before filming to try to memorize the lines so his eyes wouldn’t be seen scanning the cards while the film was rolling. Hope hated Bartlett, and only learned the film was shot in black-and-white after production was completed. Arnold clashed with Bartlett over the film’s editing which caused Arnold to demand his name be removed as director from the credits.

Man’s Favorite Sport? was intended by director Howard Hawks to be an homage to his own 1938 classic Bringing Up Baby, and he unsuccessfully tried to get the original stars, Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, to reprise their roles.

Surf Party was the first direct imitation of AIP’s hit Beach Party, which was released six months earlier. It’s one of the few movies of the genre shot in black-and-white. The film has been rarely seen and was only released as a manufacture-on-demand DVD in April 2013. The film marked the debut of singer Bobby Vinton, the first of just three movies in which he appeared. Ken Miller was 33-years-old when playing a teen fresh out of high school.

This Is My Street has no known US theatrical release date.

1974

Columbia Pictures

• January 24 – Bad Man’s River (USA, Scotia International)
• January 24 – Soft Beds, Hard Battles (UK, Fox-Rank)
• January 24 – Il sorriso del grande tentatore (Italy, Euro International Films)
• January 25 – The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (UK, Columbia Pictures Corporation)
• January 29 – Black Belt Jones (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)

Bad Man’s River was originally released in Italy on December 23, 1971 as E continuavano a fregarsi il milione di dollari through Titanus.

Soft Beds, Hard Battles received a limited release in the US by United Artists on December 4, 1974 as Undercover Hero. Star Peter Sellers plays six roles and is the narrator.

Il sorriso del grande tentatore was released in the US as The Devil Is a Woman by Twentieth Century Fox on October 26, 1975.

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad was released in the US on April 5, 1974 through Columbia Pictures. The story was based on the Arabian Nights tales of Sinbad the Sailor, and is the second of three Sinbad films from Columbia Pictures and producer/stop motion effects artist Ray Harryhausen, falling between The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. Christopher Lee was considered for the role of Prince Koura, but Tom Baker got the role which helped him secure the lead as the Fourth Doctor in the Doctor Who TV series.

Black Belt Jones is considered a spiritual successor to Enter the Dragon, in which star Jim Kelly had a supporting role.

1984

• January 25 – Entre Nous (USA, limited, MGM/UA Classics)
• January 26 – And the Ship Sails On (USA, Triumph Films)
• January 27 – Broadway Danny Rose (USA, Orion Pictures)
• January 27 – Never Cry Wolf (USA/Canada, Buena Vista Distribution)
• January 27 – The Lonely Guy (USA, Universal Pictures)

Entre Nous originally opened in France as Coup de foudre on April 6, 1983. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. And the Ship Sails On was originally released in Italy as E la nave va on October 7, 1983.

Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone turned down the role of Lou Canova in Woody Allen’s Broadway Danny Rose. Steve Rossi, former comedy partner of Marty Allen, claims he was offered the role but Allen balked when he was told the film would be known as an ‘Allen and Rossi film’.

Never Cry Wolf was adapted from Farley Mowat’s 1963 autobiography of the same name. It was Disney’s first studio film released under the renamed Walt Disney Pictures banner. It originally received a limited release on October 7, 1983. The film took two years to shoot and star Charles Martin Smith spent three years with the production in total. Often the only actor present during shooting, he said it was the loneliest film he’d ever worked on. Locations included Nome, Alaska, the Yukon Territory, and Atlin, British Columbia, Canada. The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Sound.

The Lonely Guy was based on the 1978 book The Lonely Guy’s Book of Life by Bruce Jay Friedman. The film features cameos from Merv Griffin, Dr. Joyce Brothers, and Loni Anderson. The restaurant scene was supposed to include a waiter with a chainsaw who would cut the table for two in half but someone forgot to bring the chainsaw. Star Steve Martin was a runner in real life and made the run across the 59th Street Bridge to Queens himself.

1994

• January 26 – Blink (USA, New Line Cinema)
• January 28 – Car 54, Where Are You? (USA, Orion Pictures)

Car 54, Where Are You? was based on the television series of the same name, with series stars Nipsey Russell and Al Lewis reprising their roles. Lewis’ former officer Schnauser is seen spending his time watching reruns of The Munsters, in which Lewis played Grandpa. The film was originally produced as a musical comedy but released without the musical numbers. The film was shot in 1990 but re-edited several times, delaying the release until 1994. Rosie O’Donnell won a Golden Raspberry Award for her role in the film, as well as for Exit to Eden and The Flintstones which were also released in 1994.

2004

Warner Bros. Pictures

• January 30 – The Big Bounce (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• January 30 – The Perfect Score (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• January 30 – You Got Served (USA, Screen Gems)

The Big Bounce was based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard, which had previously been adapted for the big screen in 1969 with Ryan O’Neal. The setting was moved from the Thumb area of Michigan to the North Shore of Oahu, and was shot on location in Hawaii. Director George Armitage was hit in the eye with a piece of lava rock on the first day of pre-production, contracting a virus. He came down with an infection two weeks before the end of production, forcing a shut down of the film, which fell during the Christmas and the unplanned break turned into a holiday for the cast and crew.

2014

• January 24 – Mindscape (Spain, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• January 24 – I, Frankenstein (USA, Lionsgate)
• January 24 – Teenage (UK, documentary, Soda Pictures)
• January 24 – Whitewash (Quebec, Entertainment One)

Mindscape was retitled Anna for North America and received a limited US release on June 6, 2014 through Vertical Entertainment. It is the feature directorial debut of Jorge Dorado.

I, Frankenstein was based on the digital-only graphic novel by Kevin Grevioux.

Teenage was released in the US and Canada through Oscilloscope on March 14, 2014. The film is based on Jon Savage’s book Teenage: The Creation of Youth Culture. Four actors narrate different segments of the film: Jena Malone, Ben Whishaw, Jessie Usher and Julia Hummer. Alden Ehrenreich appears as a 1940s teenager.

Whitewash was released in the US by Oscilloscope on May 2, 2014.