Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #194 :: April 11•17

Savoy Pictures

Quite a few films were released this week across the decades. 1944 produced two Oscar nominees, while 1954 produced a mystery that suffered from a case of bad timing. 1974 saw the release of a film now considered a masterpiece of Canadian cinema, and 1984 gave us what was supposed to be the conclusion of a slasher franchise. It wasn’t. 1994 gave us a black comedy that’s become a cult classic, 2004 saw a Marvel anti-hero come to life, and 2014 gave Tom Hardy a role that put him squarely front and center. Scroll down the list to learn more about these and other films this week, and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating anniversaries.

1924

• April 12 – The Digger Earl (AUS, Beaumont Smith’s Productions)
• April 12 – Twenty Dollars a Week (USA, Distinctive Pictures)
• April 13 – Borrowed Husbands (USA, Vitagraph Company of America)
• April 13 – Excitement (USA, Universal Pictures)
• April 13 – A Son of the Sahara (USA, Edwin Carewe Productions)
• April 14 – His Forgotten Wife (USA, Palmer Photoplay Corporation)
• April 14 – Mademoiselle Midnight (USA, Tiffany Productions)
• April 16 – Nellie, the Beautiful Cloak Model (USA, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation)

The Digger Earl has no known US theatrical release date. Only eight minutes of the film survives today.

Twenty Dollars a Week was thought to be a lost film until a copy was discovered in the Library of Congress. Another print is held in the New Zealand Film Archive.

Borrowed Husbands and Excitement are considered lost films. A Son of the Sahara is considered a lost film, although a trailer survives at the Library of Congress. A complete print of Mademoiselle Midnight survives. The film was the last Tiffany Productions film released by Metro Pictures.

Nellie, the Beautiful Cloak Model is based on a play by Owen Davis, which premiered on Broadway in 1906. A copy is held in Russia by the Gosfilmofond Russian State Archive.

1934

• April 12 – Mystery Ranch (USA, Reliable Pictures Corporation)
• April 13 – Bottoms Up (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• April 13 – Laughing Boy (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• April 15 – City Limits (USA, W.T. Lackey Productions)
• April 15 – Sisters Under the Skin (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• April 15 – St. Louis Woman (USA, Screencraft Productions)
• April 17 – The Line-Up (USA, Columbia Pictures)

Mystery Ranch was the first of 18 films Tom Tyler made for Reliable Pictures. Laughing Boy is based on the 1929 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Oliver La Farge. City Limits was remade on 1941 as Father Steps Out.

Sisters Under the Skin was later renamed The Romantic Age. The film’s working title was Excursion to Paradise. St. Louis Woman is also known as Missouri Nightingale.

1944

Sigmund Neufeld Productions

• April 11 – Lady, Let’s Dance (USA, Monogram Pictures)
• April 13 – Broadway Rhythm (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• April 13 – Jam Session (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• April 13 – Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (USA, documentary, U.S. Army Air Corps)
• April 15 – The Monster Maker (USA, Sigmund Neufeld Productions)
• April 16 – To the People of the United States (USA, short, United States Public Health Service)
• April 17 – The Lady and the Monster (USA, Republic Pictures)

Lady, Let’s Dance was nominated for two Oscars including Original Score. Ice skater Myrtle Godfrey is seen wearing the same green bonnet with ostrich plume worn by Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind. The film also featured skating the skating team known as Frick & Frack.

Broadway Rhythm was originally announced as Broadway Melody of 1944 to follow MGM’s Broadway Melody films of 1929, 1936, 1938, and 1940. Gene Kelly was intended to star but MGM had loaned him out to Columbia for Cover Girl.

The 16mm film shot for Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress did not include sound, which was added later in Hollywood. The original crew of the B-17 made typical appropriate comments to each other while watching the silent movie in a studio. The result was difficult to distinguish from real combat recordings. The film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2001. The film was restored in 2016 from 34 reels of raw footage that were available in the United States National Archives and Records Administration. Following the restoration, 90 hours of the raw footage was cut into a new documentary, The Cold Blue.

The Monster Maker contains the first score by Albert Glasser, for which he was paid $250.

To the People of the United States is a propaganda film produced by the US Public Health Service in 1943 to warn the American GIs against syphilis. It was directed by Arthur Lubin and produced by Walter Wanger. The director and all of the actors volunteered their time to make the film. The film was protested by the Catholic League of Decency. The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Short.

Working titles for The Lady and the Monster include Donovan’s Brain, The Monster’s Castle, The Monster and The Brute. It was based on Curt Siodmak’s 1942 novel Donovan’s Brain, which was adapted into a film of the same title in 1953, and again in 1962 as The Brain.

1954

• April 14 – Rails Into Laramie (USA, Universal-International Pictures)
• April 15 – Gunfighters of the Northwest (USA, serial, Sam Katzman Productions)
• April 15 – Witness to Murder (USA, Chester Erskine Productions)
• April 16 – Bell Hoppy (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• April 16 – Carnival Story (USA, King Brothers Productions)
• April 16 – Rhapsody (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• April 16 – Heat Wave (USA, Hammer Films)
• April 17 – Hic-cup Pup (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• April 17 – The Fighting Pimpernel (USA, The Archers)
• April 17 – Yankee Pasha (USA, Universal International Pictures)

Heat Wave was released in the UK as The House Across the Lake. The Fighting Pimpernel was originally released in the UK on January 1, 1951 as The Elusive Pimpernel.

Both stars of Gunfighters of the Northwest were injured on the second day of filming. Clayton Moore was thrown from a horse, landed on his back and was knocked unconscious, preventing him from doing any riding scenes for several days, although he could act in dramatic scenes. Jock Mahoney injured a metatarsal in a fight scene, but he was able to walk and continue filming the next day.

Witness to Murder had the misfortune of opening less than a month before Hitchcock’s Rear Window, which went on to become a major hit. Carnival Story was a co-production between the US and Germany, with a German version of the film shot simultaneously under the title Circus of Love. Rhapsody is based on the 1908 novel Maurice Guest by Henry Handel Richardson.

Heat Wave was based on the 1952 novel High Wray by Ken Hughes. Alex Nicol and Hillary Brooke were the only Americans in the cast, though Brooke played a British character. Her mastery of a ‘posh’ accent caused her to be typecast as British in Hollywood films starting in the 1940s.

The Fighting Pimpernel is based on the novel The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905) by Baroness Emmuska Orczy. The film was intended to be a musical but was reworked into a light comedy. Neither the director, Michael Powell, or star David Niven were interested in making the film but were threatened with contract suspensions.

Yankee Pasha is based on the 1947 novel of the same name by Edison Marshall. The film was one of Mamie Van Doren’s first major movie roles, as Universal was eager to promote her as their answer to Marilyn Monroe.

1964

• April 14 – Much Ado About Mousing (USA, short, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• April 16 – The Tattooed Police Horse (USA, short, Walt Disney Productions)
• April 17 – Carry On Jack (UK, Peter Rogers Productions)
• April 17 – Cent mille dollars au soleil (France, Trianon Films)

Carry On Jack has no known US theatrical release date. It was the eighth in the series of 31 ‘Carry On’ films, the second to be filmed in color. Most of the regular cast is missing save for Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawley, with Jim Dale making a cameo appearance. The script started off as a non-‘Carry On’ film titled Up the Armada.

Cent mille dollars au soleil opened in the US on August 18, 1965 as Greed in the Sun. It was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival.

1974

• April 11 – The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (Canada, Astral Bellevue Pathé)
• April 11 – The Spikes Gang (West Germany, Duo Productions)
• April 14 – Lovin’ Molly (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• April 14 – The Single Girls (USA, Sebastian Films Limited)

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz was released in the US on July 14, 1974. The Spikes Gang opened in the US on May 1, 1974. The Single Girls, also known as Bloody Friday and Private School, played four single city US dates in 1973 before its general release in 1974.

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz was adapted by Mordechai Richler and Lionel Chetwynd from Richler’s novel of the same name. It won the Canadian Film Award for Best Motion Picture, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film. The film has been designated as a ‘masterwork’ by the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada.

The Spikes Gang is based on the novel The Bank Robber by Giles Tippette.

Lovin’ Molly is based on one of Larry McMurtry’s first novels, Leaving Cheyenne. It is also known as Molly, Gid, and Johnny and The Wild and The Sweet. Warner Bros. originally purchased the rights to the novel in 1964 and planned to call the film Gid to cash in on the success of Hud, which was based on McMurtry’s Horseman Pass By. Seven or more scripts were written but none were successful until Columbia acquired the rights. McMurtry hated the finished film.

1984

Paramount Pictures

• April 13 – Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• April 13 – Iceman (USA, Universal Pictures)
• April 13 – Kidco (USA, limited, 20th Century Fox)
• April 13 – Privates on Parade (USA, HandMade Films)
• April 13 – Sugar Cane Alley (USA, NEF Diffusion)
• April 13 – Swing Shift (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)

Privates on Parade, adapted from the play by Peter Nichols, originally opened in the UK on March 18, 1983. Sugar Cane Alley, based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Joseph Zobel of the same title, originally opened in in France on September 21, 1983 as Rue Cases Nègres.

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is the fourth film in the franchise, and like the third film was intended to be the last of the series because producer Frank Mancuso Jr. felt no one respected his work despite how much money the films made. Paramount agreed because of the declining popularity of slasher films. Tom Savini, who provided the makeup effects for the first film, returned so he could help kill off Jason, whom he helped create. The film was originally to be released in October 1984. The film’s success prompted the fifth film in the series a year later, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, and six more sequels plus a reboot. The film is the first in the series to have two survivors, one of whom is a child. Part 2 star Amy Steel talked her The Powers of Matthew Star co-star Peter Barton into appearing in the film. He wanted no part of a horror movie after his experience on Hell Night but since she starred in the second film he decided to take the offer.

While the premise of Kidco sounds far-fetched, it is based on the true story of a land purchase in California by Kidco Limited Ventures, a corporation owned by the minor children who were the heirs of the family that owned the Cessna Aircraft company. The film only received a theatrical release in Alabama, but gained exposure through HBO broadcasts.

Swing Shift was one of Holly Hunter’s early films. Christine Lahti was Oscar nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Star Goldie Hawn, who was also an executive producer, demanded additional scenes be written and filmed because she felt her character was being upstaged by Lahti’s. Director Jonathan Demme and editor Craig McKay walked away from the project, unhappy with the reshoots. Demme had the phrase ‘A Jonathan Demme Film’ removed from the credits and advertising to protest what he felt didn’t represent his work. Screenwriter Nancy Dowd also had her name replaced with the pseudonym ‘Rob Morton’ after agreeing with the studio to not discuss the film publicly.

1994

• April 13 – Naked in New York (USA, Some Film)
• April 13 – Serial Mom (USA, Savoy Pictures)
• April 14 – Bad Boy Bubby (Netherlands, Bubby)
• April 14 – White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf (USA, Walt Disney Pictures)
• April 15 – Cops & Robbersons (USA, Channel Productions)
• April 15 – Stalingrad (UK, B.A. Produktion)
• April 15 – Surviving the Game (USA, New Line Productions)
• April 15 – White Angel (UK, Living Spirit Pictures)

Stalingrad, the first Russian movie released in IMAX, originally opened in Turkey on January 20, 1983, and was released in the US on May 24, 1995. Bad Boy Bubby received a limited US release on April 26, 2005. White Angel has no known US theatrical release date.

Naked in New York featured multiple celebrity cameos including author William Styron, Whoopi Goldberg and David Johansen, all arranged by executive producer Martin Scorsese.

John Waters had considered Meryl Streep, Kathy Bates, Glenn Close and Julie Andrews for the role of Beverly Sutphin in Serial Mom before casting Kathleen Turner. The voice of Ted Bundy in the film is provided by Waters. Waters and Savoy Pictures endured conflict over the film’s violence and dark comedy, with the studio demanding Waters re-edit the film and give it a different ending, which Waters refused to do. He alleges the studio held a test screening of the film for a chosen audience of conservatives who would not enjoy it, which contrasted with an industry screening Waters held which was met with more enthusiasm. Turner discussed the ordeal with her gossip columnist friend Liz Smith, who then wrote a column titled ‘Leave Serial Mom Alone’, which forced Savoy to relent on its demands. The film was a box office bomb but is now considered a cult classic.

All of the wild animals in White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf were professionally trained by employees of Jungle Exotica in San Bernadino, California. A grizzly bear and white wolf were trained by employees of Vancouver’s Creative Animal Talent.

Stalingrad employed 900 extras and historical reenactors for crowd scenes. The centre of Stalingrad was painstakingly reconstructed at a cost of more than $3.5 million, utilizing 400 workers over a span of six months. The film was produced in 3D.

Surviving the Game is loosely based on the 1924 short story ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ by Richard Connell. The film’s city scenes are set in Seattle, but the skyline of Philadelphia can be seen in some shots. Outdoor scenes are set across the Oregon border but were filmed in Wenatchee, Washington.

2004

• April 14 – Wild Side (France, Maïa Films)
• April 16 – Connie and Carla (USA, Spyglass Entertainment)
• April 16 – Kill Bill: Volume 2 (USA/Canada, A Band Apart)
• April 16 – Klezmer on Fish Street (USA, documentary, BlackStream Films)
• April 16 – The Punisher (USA, Artisan Entertainment)
• April 16 – Young Adam (USA, limited, Young Adam Productions)

Wild Side received a limited US release on June 10, 2005. Young Adam, based on the 1954 novel of the same name by Alexander Trocchi, originally opened in the Netherlands on September 4, 2003.

Connie and Carla references a number of musicals including Oklahoma!, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, The Rocky Horror Show, Cabaret, Evita, Mame, South Pacific, Funny Girl, Rent, Hairspray, Gypsy, Hair, The Music Man, A Chorus Line, Grease and Guys and Dolls.

Kill Bill: Volume 2 was released six months after the first film. They were intended to be released as one film, but with a running time of more than four hours, it was decided to release them in two parts.

The Punisher was based mainly on two Punisher comic book stories: the 1994 miniseries The Punisher: Year One by writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, and the 2000-01 miniseries Welcome Back, Frank by writer Garth Ennis. The film marked the directorial debut of Jonathan Hensleigh, who also co-wrote the screenplay, despite a dispute with Marvel Studios over the budget which was half of what was usually required for an action film. A sequel was developed but it became the 2008 reboot Punisher: War Zone after Hensleigh and star Thomas Jane left the project due to creative differences. Jane was offered the lead role twice, turning it down until seeing Tim Bradstreet’s artwork and learning more about the character. Jane trained for six to seven months with the United States Navy SEALs and gained more than twenty pounds of muscle for the part. The film was part of a 2000 deal Marvel made with Artisan Entertainment to turn 15 of their characters into films and TV shows.

Young Adam was scored by David Byrne, with a soundtrack album released under the title Lead Us Not into Temptation. The film received an NC-17 rating in the US mainly due to a 14-second oral sex scene.

2014

IM Global

• April 11 – 13 Sins (Poland, Automatik Entertainment)
• April 11 – Calvary (UK, Lipsync Productions)
• April 11 – Cuban Fury (USA, Big Talk Productions)
• April 11 – Draft Day (USA, Summit Entertainment)
• April 11 – Hateship, Loveship (USA, limited, The Film Community)
• April 11 – Joe (USA, limited, Worldview Entertainment)
• April 11 – Locke (Poland, IM Global)
• April 11 – Oculus (USA, Intrepid Pictures)
• April 11 – Only Lovers Left Alive (USA, limited, Recorded Picture Company)
• April 11 – Rio 2 (USA, Blue Sky Studios)
• April 11 – The Forgotten Kingdom (South Africa, Black Kettle Films)
• April 16 – Antboy (USA, limited, Nimbus Film)
• April 16 – Heaven Is For Real (USA/Canada, TriStar Pictures)
• April 17 – Transcendence (Italy, Straight Up Films)

13 Sins opened in limited US release on April 18, 2014. Calvary received a limited US release on August 1, 2014. Cuban Fury originally opened in the UK on February 14, 2014. Locke opened in limited US release on April 25, 2014. Only Lovers Left Alive originally opened in Lithuania on November 7, 2013. The Forgotten Kingdom was released in the UK on June 26, 2015 but did not receive a US theatrical release outside of several film festival screenings. Antboy originally opened in Denmark on October 3, 2013. Transcendence was released in the US and Canada on April 18, 2014.

13 Sins is a remake of the 2006 Thai comedy horror film 13 Beloved. It marks the final performance of George Coe before his death in 2015.

Draft Day was the final acting role for Jim Brown. The film was to feature the Buffalo Bills football team, but it was changed to the Cleveland Browns because of cheaper production costs in Ohio. The screenwriters were needed on set nearly every day to meet with star Kevin Costner to make any needed changes, resulting in adjustments made to the script on the fly during shooting days.

Hateship, Loveship is based on the 2001 short story ‘Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage’ by Alice Munro. The film’s original title was Hateship, Friendship.

Joe is based on Larry Brown’s 1991 novel of the same name. Actor Gary Poulter was found dead in a shallow body of water before the film’s release. He only had one previous acting credit as a background extra on thirtysomething.

Tom Hardy is the only actor who appears onscreen in Locke. He has a series of phone calls with characters voiced by Olivia Colman, Ruth Wilson, Andrew Scott, Ben Daniels, Tom Holland and Bill Milner, recorded in real time from a conference room. Hardy received widespread critical acclaim for his performance and won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor. The car in the film, a BMX X5, was pulled down the M6 motorway on a low flatbed trailer for most of the shoot. Shooting took place over six nights, with the crew only taking breaks to change the three cameras’ memory cards.

Oculus, written and directed by Mike Flanagan, is based on his short film Oculus: Chapter 3 – The Man with the Plan. The film was a co-production with WWE Studios. The mirror auctioned in the film was said to come from the Levesque estate, a reference to WWE wrestler Triple H, whose real name is Paul Michael Levesque. Flanagan had received offers to produce the film as a ‘found footage’ film, which he refused. He accepted Intrepid Pictures’ offer as long as it was not found footage. Karen Gillan was cast by Flanagan based on her work on Doctor Who. Katee Sackhoff was cast as Marie, mother of Kaylie, and Flanagan wrote Kaylie based on Sackhoff’s performance on Battlestar Galactica. Brenton Thwaites joined the cast after production had started.

Rio 2 was the final film performance for Miguel Ferrer, who died in 2017. The film is dedicated to screenwriter Don Rhymer, who died in November 2012.

Heaven Is For Real is based on Pastor Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent’s 2010 book of the same name.

Transcendence marked the directorial debut of Wally Pfister. Preferring film stock over digital, Pfister shot the movie on 35mm film. The film was released in China in post-produced 3D and IMAX 3D.