Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #189 :: March 6•12

Twentieth Century Fox

Many, many new films were released this week across the decades, and of note are a 1924 short featuring the kids who would come to be known as The Little Rascals, a 1934 film that brought Spencer Tracy to MGM, a 1944 Disney short featuring Goofy, a 1954 film that was the sixth of a series — and the most popular, twin Elvises (Elvi?) in 1964, a 1974 thriller with many different titles, a treasure trove of popular films in 1984 including the first from Disney’s Touchstone Pictures, Wes Anderson’s most popular film in 2014, and two films based on the works of Stephen King in 1984 and 2004. Scroll down the list to see the film debuts for the week and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating anniversaries.

1924

• March 7 – The Rest Cure (UK, Stoll Picture Productions)
• March 9 – A Society Scandal (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• March 9 – Come Take a Trip in My Airship (USA, Red Seal Pictures)
• March 9 – Getting Gertie’s Goat (USA, short, Educational Film Exchanges)
• March 9 – Love’s Detour (USA, Pathé Exchange)
• March 9 – The Buccaneers (USA, short, Pathé Exchange)
• March 9 – The Vagabond Trail (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• March 9 – Try and Get It (USA, Producers Distributing Corporation)
• March 10 – Happiness (USA, Metro Pictures Corporation)
• March 10 – Stolen Secrets (USA, Universal Pictures)
• March 10 – The Galloping Fish (USA, Associated First National Pictures)
• March 12 – Trouble Brewing (USA, short, Vitagraph Company of America)

The Rest Cure has no known US theatrical release date.

A Society Scandal is based on a 1922 play The Laughing Lady, by Alfred Sutro. It is considered a lost film. The film was remade in 1929 as The Laughing Lady. The Buccaneers was the 23rd Our Gang short, and was shown on TV as The Pirates. The Vagabond Trail, based on the 1923 novel Donnegan by George Owen Baxter, is considered a lost film.

A copy of Try and Get It is held in the Library of Congress collection. Happiness is based on the 1914 Broadway play of the same name written by J. Hartley Manners, husband of the film’s star Laurette Taylor. Prints are preserved at George Eastman House and Gosfilmofond. Stolen Secrets is a lost film.

The Galloping Fish is based on the 1917 novel Friend Wife by Frank R. Adams. Prints of the film survive at the Filmoteka Narodowa in Warszawa, Poland and Cineteca Italiana in Milan, Italy. A print of Trouble Brewing is known to exist.

1934

• March 7 – Midnight (USA, Universal Pictures)
• March 9 – A Southern Maid (AUS, British International Pictures)
• March 9 – Coming Out Party (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• March 9 – The Fortunate Fool (AUS, British Australasian Films)
• March 9 – The Show-Off (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• March 10 – Journal of a Crime (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• March 10 – Social Register (USA, Columbia Pictures)

Midnight was based on a Theatre Guild play with the same name by Paul and Claire Sifton. Humphrey Bogart had a small but key role in the film, which was re-released in 1949 as Call It Murder after Bogart became a star, receiving top billing although he is only in a few scenes and was eighth credited in the original release.

A Southern Maid is based on the operetta of the same name by Harold Fraser-Simson. The film has no known US theatrical release date. The Fortunate Fool, produced as a ‘quota quickie’ to help the British film industry, has no known US theatrical release date.

The Show-Off, based on the play of the same name by George Kelly, is the first movie Spencer Tracy made for MGM, on loan from Fox at the time. The story had been filmed twice previously in 1926 and 1930 as Men Are Like That, and then again in 1946 as The Show-Off with Red Skelton.

Journal of a Crime is a remake of the 1933 French film Une vie perdue, written by Jacques Deval. Social Register was based on the 1931 play of the same name by Anita Loos and John Emerson. A print is held by the Library of Congress.

1944

• March 7 – Sweethearts of the U.S.A. (USA, Monogram Pictures)
• March 10 – Hat Check Honey (USA, Universal Pictures)
• March 10 – How to Play Golf (USA, short, RKO Radio Pictures)

Sweethearts of the U.S.A. was released in the UK as Sweethearts on Parade. How to Play Golf was part of a series of Disney shorts starring Goofy learning to play various sports.

1954

Universal Pictures

• March 7 – Paris Playboys (USA, Allied Artists Pictures)
• March 10 – Drive a Crooked Road (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• March 10 – Ma and Pa Kettle at Home (USA, Universal Pictures)
• March 11 – An Inspector Calls (UK, British Lion Film Corporation)
• March 11 – Rhapsody (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• March 12 – Night People (USA, 20th Century Fox)
• March 12 – Stormy the Thoroughbred (USA, Buena Vista Distribution Company)

Paris Playboys is the 33rd film in the Bowery Boys series. After thirty two films in this series, the opening title screen was changed from ‘Starring Leo Gorcey and the Bowery Boys’ to ‘Starring Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall and the Bowery Boys’.

Drive a Crooked Road was adapted from ‘The Wheel Man’ by James Benson Nablo. Ma and Pa Kettle at Home was the sixth, and most successful, film in the Ma and Pa Kettle series.

An Inspector Calls, based upon the 1945 play by J.B. Priestley, was released in the US on November 25, 1954. The Inspector’s named was changed for the film to Poole from the play’s Goole. The play never shows the character Eva Smith, but she is shown in the film’s opening flashbacks.

Rhapsody is based on the 1908 novel Maurice Guest by Henry Handel Richardson.

Night People was developed under the title The Cannibals. The title was changed to avoid audiences from anticipating ‘an African adventure’. The film was Oscar-nominated for Best Story. Billy Wilder admired the movie and reworked the basic premise for his film One, Two, Three.

1964

• March 6 – Kissin’ Cousins (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• March 10 – Nothing but the Best (UK, Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors)
• March 10 – The Empty Canvas (USA, Embassy Pictures)
• March 11 – Becket (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• March 11 – La calda vita (Italy, Unidis)
• March 11 – Mail Order Bride (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• March 12 – A Tiger Walks (USA, Buena Vista Distribution)

Kissin’ Cousins, starring Elvis Presley as look-alike cousins, was set in the Great Smoky Mountains but was filmed in Los Angeles at MGM Studios and the San Bernadino Mountains, with some filming at Big Bear Lake. Presley’s Viva Las Vegas was filmed before Kissin’ Cousins but released after. When the film premiered on VHS in 1988, the song ‘Smokey Mountain Boy’ was deleted. It was restored for the DVD debut in 2007.

Nothing but the Best was released in the US on July 13, 1964. Based on the 1952 short story ‘The Best of Everything’ by Stanley Ellin.

The Empty Canvas was originally released in Italy on December 6, 1963 as La noia (‘Boredom’). Based on the eponymous best-selling novel by Alberto Moravia. The film was shot with the principal actors — including Bette Davis, Horst Buchholz and Catherine Spaak — speaking English, dubbed into Italian for its release in Italy.

Becket is an adaptation of the 1959 play Becket or the Honour of God by Jean Anouilh. The film was restored in 2007 and re-released to 30 cinemas in the US with the stereo soundtrack remastered for Dolby Digital. The film was nominated for 12 Oscars, including Best Picture, winning one for Best Adapted Screenplay. It also received seven BAFTA nominations, winning three (Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design), and four Golden Globe nominations, winning for Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Actor (O’Toole, winning against his co-star Richard Burton). King Henry II was played by Peter O’Toole, who would go on to play the character once more in The Lion in Winter. O’Toole’s Becket co-star Siân Phillips was also his wife at the time.

La calda vita was released in the US in 1967 as The Warm Life. It is based loosely on the novel La calda vita by Pier Antonio Quarantotti Gambini. A Tiger Walks is based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Ian Niall. It was the last film of Sabu, released a few months after his death.

1974

• March 7 – Billy Two Hats (USA, United Artists)
• March 7 – Scream… and Die! (UK, Variety Film Distributors)
• March 10 – Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (USA, limited, Janus Films)

Billy Two Hats is an American Western filmed in Israel, the first of its kind.

Scream… and Die! was released in the US on October 3, 1974 as The House That Vanished through American International Pictures. It was screened at the Trail Drive-In in Lake Worth, Florida on December 7, 1973 as Please! Don’t Go in the Bedroom before being picked up by AIP and receiving the title change. The original UK release found the film in a supporting role to the US film Bonnie’s Kids. The US cut of the film runs 84 minutes while the UK version runs 99 minutes. The film was re-released in 1977 with the titles Psycho Sex Fiend and Psycho Sex.

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders was originally released in Czechoslovakia on October 16, 1970 as Valerie a týden divu. It is based on the 1935 novel of the same name by Vítězslav Nezval.

1984

Touchstone Pictures

• March 9 – Children of the Corn (USA, New World Pictures)
• March 9 – Mike’s Murder (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• March 9 – Splash (USA, Buena Vista Distribution)
• March 9 – The Hotel New Hampshire (USA/Canada/UK, Orion Pictures/Astral Films/Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment)
• March 9 – The Spirits of Jupiter (USA, limited, Rocky Mountain Studios)
• March 9 – Voyage of the Rock Aliens (USA, Inter Planetary Pictures)

Children of the Corn is based upon Stephen King’s 1977 short story of the same name. The first draft of the screenplay was written by King and focused more on the characters of Burt and Vicky, and gave more history on the uprising of the children. The script was disregarded in favor of a more conventional narrative structure with more violence. New screenwriter George Goldsmith admitted after the film’s success that his story was a metaphor for the Iranian Revolution, using horror to expose the dangers and evils of religious fundamentalism … something few critics recognized.

Mike’s Murder was originally edited to play chronologically backwards, and featured a score by Joe Jackson. Warner Bros. hated this approach and director James Bridges had to re-edit the film to play out more conventionally. The score was also replaced with a new one by John Barry, but most of Jackson’s songs remain in the film.

Splash was Oscar-nominated for Best Original Screenplay. It was also Golden Globe nominated in the Best Picture – Musical or Comedy category. It was the first film released by Disney’s new Touchstone Pictures, a division within the company created to release films with more adult content that was not appropriate for the Walt Disney Pictures banner. Splash was rated PG. It was originally set up at United Artists. Director Ron Howard’s father Rance and brother Clint have cameos in the film. Howard turned down Footloose and Mr. Mom to direct Splash. The studio refused to greenlight Tom Hanks as the producers’ choice for the lead. Michael Keaton was offered the lead role but turned it down for Mr. Mom. Steve Guttenberg auditioned, and Chevy Chase, Dudley Moore, Bill Murray and John Travolta were considered, but producers eventually got the okay for Hanks as they felt he would better represent the ‘every man’ character. P.J. Soles, Tatum O’Neal, Michelle Pfeiffer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Melanie Griffith, Kathleen Turner and Sharon Stone all turned down the role of Madison before Daryl Hannah was cast (Lane opted to make Streets of Fire and The Cotton Club instead). Hannah was able to swim with the specially created, fully functional mermaid tail so fast that her safety team could not keep pace with her. Hannah had actually been swimming with her legs bound since childhood because of her fascination with the original Little Mermaid story. Since the tail was so difficult to remove, Hannah would keep it on during breaks (she remained in the water tank as well) and cast members would drop food into the tank for her, as Hanks described, ‘as though she were a trained seal.’

The Hotel New Hampshire is based on John Irving’s 1981 novel of the same name. The film marks Seth Green’s movie debut. The film was shot on location in Montreal and Tadoussac, Quebec, with the Hotel Tadoussac among the locations. Rob Lowe stated in an interview that co-star Matthew Modine accidentally broke his nose with a steel-toed boot in a stunt gone wrong, and director Tony Richardson was so mad at Modine throughout production that he had Modine’s voice dubbed by someone else in post-production. In one scene a hall is decorated with Austrian flags, but the flags are actually the similar-looking flags of Tahiti with stripes of different and unequal proportions to the Austrian flag.

Voyage of the Rock Aliens was originally written as a B-movie spoof titled Attack of the Aliens. When the film went into production, it was titled Attack of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Aliens. The character of Frankie has two songs, but producers wanted someone with acting experience and cast Craig Sheffer, who chose the role over a TV series, another film and the Broadway play Torch Song Trilogy (which he did get after the film wrapped). He thought he had been cast for his long hair but was surprised when he was sent to the barber shop. Tom Nolas as alien leader Absid was also chosen for his acting rather than singing abilities. Star Pia Zadora and Jermaine Jackson recorded the song ‘When the Rain Begins to Fall’ for the film, to which Sheffer lip synced Jackson’s part.

1994

• March 8 – Ladykiller (AUS, limited, Innersense Productions)
• March 11 – Bitter Moon (Canada, Fine Line Features)
• March 11 – Calendar (USA, limited, Zeitgeist Films)
• March 11 – Guarding Tess (USA/Canada, TriStar Pictures)
• March 11 – Lightning Jack (USA, Savoy Pictures)
• March 11 – Raining Stones (USA, limited, Northern Arts Entertainment)
• March 11 – The Ref (USA/Canada, Buena Vista Pictures Distribution)
• March 11 – Salmonberries (USA, limited, Roxie Releasing)

Ladykiller has no known US theatrical release date. Raining Stones originally opened in France on October 6, 1993.

Bitter Moon originally opened in France as Lunes de fiel (a play on the word ‘honeymoon’) on September 23, 1992, and is based on the novel Lunes de fiel by the French author Pascal Bruckner. It opened in the US on March 18, 1994. The film’s score is by Vangelis, but has never been made commercially available.

Calendar originally opened in Germany on June 3, 1993. The film was mostly improvised, and made on a budget of about $80,000.

Guarding Tess was set in Somersville, Ohio but filmed in Parkton, Maryland. Shirley MacLaine received a Golden Globe nomination for her work.

Director Simon Wincer described production of Lightning Jack to be a nightmare because so many other Westerns, including Wyatt Earp, Geronimo, City Slickers 2 and Tombstone were all filming in the same locations in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado.

The Ref was released as Hostile Hostages in some countries. After several drafts of the screenplay were written, the project was pitched to Disney which approved it within 20 minutes. Another year was spent revising the script. Denis Leary joined the film as part of a three-picture deal he had with Disney. After test audiences responded poorly to the film’s original ending, a new one was shot.

Salmonberries was originally released in Germany on October 31, 1991. The film came about after star k.d. lang asked Percy Adlon to direct the music video for the song ‘So In Love’ (from the Red Hot + Blue AIDS benefit album) and he wrote the screenplay especially for her.

2004

• March 07 – Faster (USA, documentary, Slamdance)
• March 10 – Fallacy (USA, Around The Scenes Releasing)
• March 12 – Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London (USA/Canada, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• March 12 – Coffee and Cigarettes (Italy, MGM Distribution Co.)
• March 12 – NASCAR: The IMAX Experience (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• March 12 – Secret Window (USA/Canada, Columbia Pictures)
• March 12 – Spartan (USA/Canada, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• March 12 – Le dernier tunnel (Canada, Christal Films)
• March 12 – Two Men Went To War (USA, limited, Indican Pictures)

Faster, which is about the motorcycle road racing world championship, MotoGP, was narrated by Ewan McGregor. Le dernier tunnel (The Last Tunnel) has no known US theatrical release date.

Coffee and Cigarettes opened in limited release in the US on May 14, 2004 and expanded on June 11. The film is composed of 11 short films with coffee and cigarettes as a common thread.

NASCAR: The IMAX Experience was originally produced for IMAX 3D, but not all IMAX theaters at the time were capable of projecting 3D movies so they were shown ‘flat’.

Secret Window is based on the novella Secret Window, Secret Garden, which appeared in the 1990 collection Four Past Midnight, by Stephen King. Most of the film was shot in various locations in Quebec. According to director David Koepp, the footage of the ocean scene during Mort’s restless night on the couch was extra b-roll footage taken from The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

The Dubai locations for Spartan were filmed in Los Angeles. Then-Senator John Kerry’s daughter Alexandra plays a bartender in the movie.

Two Men Went To War originally opened in the UK on November 1, 2002. The film is based on a true World War II story, from Raymond Foxall’s book Amateur Commandos.

2014

Dreamworks Pictures

• March 6 – Tracks (AUS, Transmission)
• March 7 – Almost Home (USA, short, Twentieth Century Fox)
• March 7 – Bullet (UK, Giant Ape Media)
• March 7 – Haunt (USA, IFC Midnight)
• March 7 – In Fear (USA, limited, Anchor Bay Entertainment)
• March 7 – Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons (USA, limited, Magnet Releasing)
• March 7 – Mr. Peabody & Sherman (USA/Canada, Twentieth Century Fox)
• March 7 – Special ID (USA, limited, Well Go USA Entertainment)
• March 7 – The Face of Love (USA, limited, IFC Films)
• March 7 – The Grand Budapest Hotel (UK, Twentieth Century Fox)
• March 12 – Need for Speed (UK, Entertainment One)

Faults marked the feature film debut for writer and director Riley Stearns. Almost Home was released to theaters accompanying Mr. Peabody and Sherman. Bullet premiered in the US on DVD on February 25, 2014. Special ID originally opened in Australia and China on October 18, 2013. The Face of Love originally opened in Spain on October 25, 2013.

Tracks was released on a limited basis in the US on September 19, 2014. It is an adaptation of Robyn Davidson’s memoir of the same name. There were five attempts in the 1980s and 1990s to make the film, one with Julia Roberts attached to star in 1993.

Haunt originally opened in France on October 9, 2013. The film marks the feature directorial debut for Mac Carter.

In Fear originally opened in the UK on November 15, 2013. It is loosely based on the 2009 short film and web series No Through Road by Steven Chamberlain. Stars Alice Englert and Iain De Caestacker were not told what would happen to their characters during filming, other than the basic setup of the story, with many of their shocked reactions being genuine and not acted. The film was also shot in chronological order to better achieve the realism of the reactions.

Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons originally opened in Hong Kong on February 2, 2013. The film is a loose comedic re-interpretation of the 16th-century novel Journey to the West, a Chinese literary classic often believed to be written by Wu Cheng’en.

Mr. Peabody & Sherman originally opened in the UK on February 7, 2014. The film is based on characters from the Peabody’s Improbable History segments of the animated television series The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends. The film was originally conceived as a live action-CG animation hybrid. Plans to make a live-action film went as far back as 2003 at Sony. Robert Downey Jr. was originally cast as the voice of Mr. Peabody but he was replaced with Ty Burrell because Downey’s Marvel commitments did not afford him time to record his lines. Burrell was essentially unknown at the time but won the role after a successful audition. Ellie Kemper was cast as the voice of Patty Peterson, but was replaced with Leslie Mann. The film was originally to be released with a Rocky & Bullwinkle 3D short, but that was replaced with Almost Home. The Rocky & Bullwinkle short was released on the Blu-ray 3D release of Mr. Peabody & Sherman.

The Grand Budapest Hotel opened in limited release in the US on March 7, 2014 and expanded on March 28. The film draws visually from Europe-set mid-century Hollywood films and the United States Library of Congress’s photochrom print collection of alpine resorts. The film earned nine Oscar nominations including Best Picture, winning four. It is Wes Anderson’s highest grossing film to date. Angela Lansbury was originally cast as Madame D. but had to drop out due to a prior commitment to a theatrical production of Driving Miss Daisy. She was replaced with Tilda Swinton, the only actor who wasn’t a first choice for their role. It took months to find a suitable unknown teenage actor of Arabic descent for the role of Zero, but after Tony Revolori was cast he spent four months rehearsing with Anderson. The movie was shot on 35mm film in three aspect ratios: 1.37:1 Academy ratio for scenes set in 1932, 2.40:1 widescreen for the 1968 scenes, and 1.85:1 for the modern period.

Need for Speed, the film adaptation of the racing video game franchise of the same name by Electronic Arts, opened in the US and Canada on March 14, 2014. Practical effects were used for the film’s chase scenes which required the actors to receive intense driving lessons. All of the exotic cars in the film except the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 Roadster were kit car replicas. The film was post-converted to 3D.