Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #205 :: June 27 to July 3

Columbia Pictures

It’s another big Summer week of movies with quite a few popular films across the decades. 1924 produced one of the longest filmed comedies of the time. 1934 had Shirley Temple in one of the earliest films to fall under the production code, while Joe E. Brown played two characters in another film. 1944 saw Universal’s Mummy rise again, and gave us Esther Williams in color for the first time. 1954 had a disaster movie that set the template for those to follow and inspired a hugely popular comedy film. 1974 reunited Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland and tried hard to remind movie-goers they were both in M*A*S*H. 1984 had a groundbreaking LGBTQ film, a popular Tom Hanks comedy, a not-so popular all-star comedy sequel, the return of a comic book barbarian, and the screen debut of the Girl of Steel. 1994 saw Jeff Bridges become an action star, and 2004 produced one of the best sequels of all-time. 2014 had more Transformers, and a Razzie nominated comedy. Scroll down the list to see what films premiered this week and learn a bit more about them. Are any of your favorites celebrating milestone anniversaries?

1924

• June 28 – The Other Kind of Love (USA, Phil Goldstone Productions)
• June 29 – A Self-Made Failure (USA, J.K. McDonald Productions)
• June 30 – Love of Women (USA, Interlocutory Films)
• June 30 – The Fighting Sap (USA, Monogram Pictures)
• June 30 – Tiger Love (USA, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)
• July 1 – Being Respectable (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• July 1 – The Truth About Women (USA, Banner Productions)

Running at 8 reels, A Self-Made Failure was one of the longest film comedies at the time. Sadly the it is considered lost, but a trailer exists in the Library of Congress. Love of Women and Tiger Love are also considered lost.

1934

• June 29 – Cockeyed Cavaliers (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
• June 29 – Murder in the Private Car (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• June 29 – She Learned About Sailors (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• June 30 – Baby, Take a Bow (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• June 30 – The Circus Clown (USA, First National Pictures)
• July 2 – Faces (UK, Herbert Wilcox Productions)
• July 2 – Range Riders (USA, Victor Adamson Productions)
• July 2 – Without You (UK, British Lion Film Corporation)
• July – Girls Please! (UK, Herbert Wilcox Productions)
• July – To Be a Lady (UK, British & Dominions Film Corporation)

Girls Please!, To Be a Lady, and Without You have no known US theatrical release dates. Faces premiered in the US on television in Los Angeles on April 24, 1949.

Murder in the Private Car is based on the play The Rear Car by Edward E. Rose. The story had previously been filmed in 1923 as Red Lights.

Baby, Take a Bow is the third film produced under the Hays Code. Working titles were Always Honest and Going Straight. The screenplay is based on the 1926 play Square Crooks by James P. Judge. A film was also made under that title in 1928.

The Circus Clown star Joe E. Brown actually plays two roles in the film — Happy Howard and his father H. ‘Chuckles’ Howard. The two characters are shown together in two scenes through the use of split-screen technology. Brown is only credited for the role of Happy Howard.

A third-billed Lew Meehan plays the role of Bull Crawford in Range Riders, but only after another actor played the role for the first 13 minutes of the film. Fred Parker plays Tom Waldon in some scenes, and the sheriff in other after donning a large mustache.

The kitten rescue scene in To Be a Lady took an entire day to film, but lasts just sixty seconds in the film.

1944

Universal Pictures

• June 27 – Are These Our Parents (USA, Monogram Pictures)
• June 27 – Bathing Beauty (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• June 29 – Once Upon a Time (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• June 29 – She’s a Soldier Too (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• June 30 – Sensations of 1945 (USA, Andrew L. Stone Productions)
• July 1 – The Mask of Dimitrios (USA, Warner Bros.-First National Pictures)
• July 1 – The Mummy’s Ghost (Mexico, Universal Pictures)
• July 2 – Marshal of Reno (USA, Republic Pictures)
• July 2 – The Hairy Ape (USA, Mayfair Productions Inc.)
• July 3 – Tawny Pipit (UK, Two Cities Films)
• July – Roger Touhy, Gangster (USA, Twentieth Century Fox)

The Mummy’s Ghost opened in the US on July 7, 1944. Tawny Pipit opened in general release in the US on October 5, 1947.

Bathing Beauty was Esther Williams’ first Technicolor musical. The film’s working title was Mr. Co-Ed, with Red Skelton receiving top billing. After screening the first cut of the film, MGM execs realized that Williams’ role should be showcased more, and changed the title to Bathing Beauty, giving her prominent billing and featuring her bathing-suit clad figure on the posters. The film marks the debut of Janis Paige. Skelton refused to shave his chest for the swimming scenes until MGM paid him $200 cash. The pool sequences were shot on location at the Lakeside Country Club in the San Fernando Valley. The film was shot in January and the grass of the rolling hills behind the club were dead and brown. A paint crew was brought in to paint the dead grass green, which lasted for a week but ruined the grass and the studio had to pay to have the lawn re-seeded.

Once Upon a Time was based on a 1940 radio play called My Client Curley from a magazine story by Lucille Fletcher. The film’s working titles were Curly, My Friend Curly, My Client Curly and Yes Sir, That’s My Baby.

Sensations of 1945 marks the last screen appearance of W.C. Fields. It was also Eleanor Powell’s final starring role in a film. The film was Oscar nominated for Best Music Scoring.

The Mask of Dimitrios is based on the 1939 novel of the same title written by Eric Ambler. The film marked the screen debut of Zachary Scott, who had just made a splash on Broadway in Those Endearing Young Charms.

The Mummy’s Ghost is the second of three sequels to Universal’s The Mummy. Lon Chaney Jr. once again takes on the title role. Acquanetta was originally to co-star in the film, but she fell and hit her head on what she believed were papier-mache rocks, but were real rocks painted white. She had to be replaced with Ramsay Ames.

Marshal of Reno was the second of twenty-three Red Ryder films produced by Republic Pictures. A young Blake Edward appears as a man framed for murder.

The Hairy Ape is based upon the 1922 play of the same name by Eugene O’Neill.

The birds seen in Tawny Pipit are actually meadow pipits because it was impossible to get genuine tawny pipits from German-occupied Europe.

1954

• June 29 – Happy Ever After (UK, Mario Zampi Productions)
• June 30 – Return to Treasure Island (USA, Edward Small Productions)
• July 1 – The Lawless Rider (USA, Royal West Productions)
• July 3 – Tanganyika (USA, Universal International Pictures)
• July 3 – The High and the Mighty (USA, Wayne-Fellows Productions)
• July 3 – The Outlaw Stallion (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• July – Princess of the Nile (USA, Panoramic Productions)

Happy Ever After opened in the US on December 19, 1954 as Tonight’s the Night. The film’s original title was O’Leary Night. The film’s co-star Yvonne De Carlo was happy to do a comedy after a string of sexy siren roles.

Return to Treasure Island treats Robert Louis Stevenson’s fictional novel Treasure Island as fact for the film’s story purposes.

Ed Wood helped to write the screenplay for The Lawless Rider, which was to originally be titled The Outlaw Marshall. The film was completed in 1952 but not released until 1954 due to cost overruns and legal issues. The film was financed by a group of Mormons.

The High and the Mighty was based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Ernest K. Gann, who also wrote the screenplay. Dimitri Tiomkin won an Oscar for his original score and also received a nomination for the title song, which did not appear in the film. Star John Wayne insisted the film be shot in CinemaScope even though it was set on an airliner with cramped quarters. Most of the cast sat in the passenger cabin set for weeks during filming, with Claire Trevor calling it ‘a dreary picture to make’. The soundstage was also not heated and cast members suffered from the cold. Wayne and Robert Stack (in a role promised by Wayne to Bob Cummings) filmed their cockpit scenes separately and comfortably. As the film had no real leading roles, many Hollywood stars turned down roles in the film including Barbara Stanwyck, Dorothy McGuire, Ginger Rogers, Ida Lupino, and Joan Crawford. The film served as a template for all-star disaster films of the 1970s like Airport and its sequels, and was a direct influence on Airplane!, in which Robert Stack also appears and lampoons his role in The High and the Mighty.

Princess of the Nile was originally intended as a vehicle for Marilyn Monroe, with Tyrone Power as the male lead and filmed in CinemaScope. It ended up becoming a B-movie with Debra Paget and Jeffrey Hunter filmed in Technicolor.

1964

• July 3 – Wonderful Life (UK, Ivy Productions)
• July – Batman Dracula (USA, Andy Warhol)

Wonderful Life was released in the US as Swingers’ Paradise, but the date is unknown. It was the third of a series of musical starring Cliff Richard following The Young Ones and Summer Holiday.

Batman Dracula, directed by Andy Warhol, is considered the first ‘fan film’, made without the permission of DC Comics. It was only screened at Warhol’s art exhibits. Actor Jack Smith appeared as both Batman and Dracula. The film was thought lost until some scenes appeared in the 2006 documentary Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis.

1974

• June 27 – Keep It Up, Jack (UK, Blackwater Films)
• June 27 – W (UK, Bing Crosby Productions)
• June 28 – S*P*Y*S (USA, American Film Properties)
• June 28 – Stone (AUS, Hedon Productions)

Keep It Up, Jack opened in the US in December 1975. W originally opened in the US in June 1974, release date unknown. Stone has no known US release date.

A version of Keep It Up, Jack exists with hardcore inserts, but there is no suggestion that any of the credited cast participated in those scenes (similar to the 1979 film Caligula). The hardcore version was released on Blu-ray in 2022.

W is also known as I Want Her Dead and W Is the Mark of Death.

S*P*Y*S reunited M*A*S*H stars Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland, with the film’s title strongly reminding audiences of the previous but unconnected film. The film’s original title was Wet Stuff, spy slang for blood.

1984

Artistry Limited

• June 29 – Another Country (USA, Goldcrest Films International)
• June 29 – Bachelor Party (USA, Bachelor Party Productions)
• June 29 – Cannonball Run II (USA, Golden Harvest)
• June 29 – Conan the Destroyer (USA, Dino De Laurentiis Company)
• July – Supergirl (Japan, Artistry Limited)
• July – The Census Taker (USA, Argentum Productions)

Another Country also opened in the UK in June 1984, exact date unknown. Supergirl opened in the UK on July 19, 1984, Canada on October 24, and the US on November 21.

Another Country is adapted from the play of the same name by Julian Mitchell, who also wrote the screenplay. The film marks the feature debut of Colin Firth. The film received three BAFTA nominations for editing, screenplay, and Outstanding Newcomer to Film for Rupert Everett.

Jim Carrey, Tim Robbins, and Howie Mandel were all considered for the role of Rick Gassko in Bachelor Party, while Tom Hanks was ultimately cast.

Cannonball Run II marked the final film appearances of Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, and with Sammy Davis Jr. and Shirley MacLaine it also marked the last appearance of the legendary Rat Pack. It was also the last film in which Jim Nabors appeared, although he lived until 2017. Jackie Chan makes his third appearance in a Hollywood film. Jaclyn Smith was originally the female lead but she dropped out. Director Hal Needham suggested she was fearful of the film’s improvisational style. She was replaced with MacLaine. Sinatra suggested the casting of Davis and Martin, and with three scripts prepared for him in which he could work a week, two days or one day, Sinatra took the third option and was paid $30,000 which he donated to charity. It was the first time he’d been reunited with the Rat Pack members in three years. Sinatra showed up on set 30 minutes early and filmed with minimal fuss.

Conan the Destroyer is the sequel to Conan the Barbarian. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mako reprise their roles from the original. The studio felt the original film would have been more successful had it not been rated R, so an effort was made to tone down the violence for the sequel, which received a PG rating (PG-13 did not yet exist until two days after the film’s release). Sven-Ole Thorsen also returns from the original, but his face is covered with a mask as he is playing a different character. The film marked the first and only film role for Wilt Chamberlain, and the debut of Olivia d’Abo. Tracey Walter took over the role of Malak from David Lander, who had to withdraw due to deteriorating health issues from the onset of multiple sclerosis. André the Giant makes an uncredited appearance. A third film was planned but Schwarzenegger’s contract with Dino De Laurentiis had expired after Red Sonja (for a role that was originally meant to be Conan) and he was committed to Predator. The third film eventually became 1997’s Kull the Conqueror.

Supergirl is the fourth film in the Superman film series, set after the events of Superman III. Marc McClure reprised his role as Jimmy Olsen. Christopher Reeve was to have a cameo as Superman but withdrew early in production. His absence is explained in a news broadcast that he’s left Earth on a ‘peace-seeking mission’ to a distant galaxy. Demi Moore was cast as Lucy Lane but left the project to make Blame It On Rio. Moore had also tested for the role of Supergirl, as did Brooke Shields. The producers wanted an unknown actress for the part and went with Helen Slater. The Supergirl character was originaly intended to debut in Superman III. Dolly Parton turned down the role of Selena before it was offered to and accepted by Faye Dunaway. Warner Bros. was actively involved in the production of the film and wanted a Summer release, but the producers demanded a holiday release to avoid other Summer films and the 1984 Summer Olympics. When WB could not provide a winter date, the studio relinquished distribution rights to the Salkinds, who then sold it to Tri-Star Pictures. The film, however, was released overseas in the Summer and received a Royal Premiere on July 1. The film was edited from 138 minutes to 105 minutes for US theatrical release. The European version ran 124 minutes. The US version was cut further to 92 minutes for television broadcast, with scenes added from the European cut and ‘offensive’ dialogue re-dubbed. The longer Director’s Cut was released on home video for the first time in 2002. The film earned two Razzie nominations for Worst Actress (Dunaway) and Worst Actor (Peter O’Toole). Slater received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Actress. Slater later went on to appear as Kal-El’s mother in the TV series Smallville, and as Eliza Danvers, adopted mother of Kara, on the TV series Supergirl. A CGI version of Slater’s Supergirl appears in 2023’s The Flash alongside a CGI version of Reeves’ Superman.

1994

• June 29 – I Love Trouble (USA, Touchstone Pictures)
• June 29 – Little Big League (USA, Castle Rock Entertainment)
• July 1 – Baby’s Day Out (USA, John Hughes Entertainment)
• July 1 – Blown Away (USA, Trilogy Entertainment Group)
• July 1 – The Shadow (USA, Bregman/Baer Productions, inc.)

I Love Trouble stars Nick Nolte and Julia Roberts did not get along during the making of the film, and Nolte has since disowned it, feeling he sold his soul and did it just for the money. Roberts said Nolte was the worst actor she’d ever worked with and called him ‘disgusting’. Nolte said Roberts is ‘not a nice person’.

Little Big League is director Andrew Scheinman’s first and only feature film directorial project.

Baby’s Day Out featured one of the earliest fully computer-generated 3D cityscapes which was a challenge for Industrial Light and Magic. Senior digital artist Henry LaBounta was surprised he was given the task of creating the CGI version of Chicago as he had just started with ILM, but he was told he was the ‘3D guy’ as most of the other CGI artists had only worked with 2D compositing.

Blown Away was the first action film for Jeff Bridges, who was by that time a 45-year-old leading man. He was the first choice for director Stephen Hopkins, who was happy MGM backed him up as Bridges was not the obvious choice for the role. Richard Harris was intended to play the role of Bridges’ mentor, but the role went to his father Lloyd — who was asked to audition because the producers associated him with comedy. The film was, at the time, the biggest budgeted film to be shot in Boston. The Boston Bomb Squad acted as consultants. The climactic ship explosion was so powerful it shattered 8,000 windows in East Boston during filming. The film’s opening was MGM’s biggest in a decade, but it suffered at the box office because of competition from Speed, which was rushed into theaters to beat Blown Away.

The Shadow is based on the pulp fiction character of the same name created in 1931 by Walter B. Gibson. Sam Raimi originally pitched his idea for the film to Universal, which was ignored, but the studio eventually allowed him to develop a treatment that became Darkman. The film was shot on the Universal backlot across five soundstages over two months. A week was lost when the Hall of Mirrors set was destroyed by an earthquake. The film was meant to be a Summer blockbuster to start a new franchise, but it was a failure due to strong competition from The Lion King before it and The Mask after.

2004

• June 30 – Spider-Man 2 (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• July 2 – America’s Heart and Soul (USA, documentary, Blacklight Films)

Spider-Man 2 features cameos from Bruce Campbell and Stan Lee. Willem Dafoe reprises his role as the deceased Norman Osborn, who appears as an hallucination. Elya Baskin’s character Mr. Ditkovitch is a reference to Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko. Cliff Robetson also reprises his role as Uncle Ben in a dream sequence. Joel McHale portrays a bank teller, Hal Sparks plays an elevator passenger who has a conversation with Spider-Man, Emily Deschanel portrays a receptionist, Reed Diamond plays Algernon, Daniel Dae Kim plays an assistant of Otto Octavius, Aasif Mandvi plays the owner of Joe’s Pizza, and John Landis is one of the doctors who operates on Doctor Octopus. Peyton and Spencer List were to make their film debuts as children playing on steps but their scenes were cut from the film. The film’s original title was to have been The Amazing Spider-Man. Tobey Maguire was nearly replaced as Peter Parker/Spider-Man after a back injury flared up during production on Seabiscuit. Sam Raimi was told Maguire could be paralyzed if he reinjured his back doing any stunts. Jake Gyllenhaal was at the top of the list to replace him, but the head of Universal Studios helped Maguire get the role back with a $17 million salary. He underwent tests to make sure his back was fit for filming. Maguire enjoyed doing his stunts after the back pain scare, and incorporated the line ‘My back, my back’ as a joke as Spider-Man tries to regain his powers. Raimi was also concerned that Maguire and Kirsten Dunst wouldn’t have the same chemistry as on the first film as they had recently broken up. Ed Harris, Chris Cooper, and Christopher Walken were among the actors considered for Doctor Octopus before Alfred Molina was cast. Molina wasn’t even aware that he was under consideration for the role. The film was shot on over a hundred sets and locations. Filming had to pause for eight weeks while Doc Ock’s lair was constructed.

2014

RatPac-Dune Entertainment

• June 27 – Lilting (Turkey, London Film Productions)
• June 27 – Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed (USA, limited, Fernando Trueba Producciones Cinematográficas)
• June 27 – They Came Together (USA/Canada, limited, Lionsgate Films)
• June 27 – Transformers: Age of Extinction (Indonesia, Di Bonaventura Pictures)
• June 27 – Obvious Child (USA, Rooks Nest Entertainment)
• July 2 – Deliver Us from Evil (USA, Screen Gems)
• July 2 – Earth to Echo (USA, Relativity Media)
• July 2 – School Dance (USA, limited, N’ Credible Entertainment)
• July 2 – Tammy (USA, RatPac-Dune Entertainment)

Lilting, originally titled Lilting the Past, was released in the US on September 26, 2014. Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed originally opened in Spain on October 31, 2013 as Vivir es fácil con los ojos cerrados. Transformers: Age of Extinction opened in the US and Canada on June 27, 2014.

The title Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed comes from a lyric in the Beatles’ song ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’.

Transformers: Age of Extinction is the fourth film in the Transformers franchise. It does not feature the human cast from the previous three films, and it introduces new Transformers including the Dinobots. It was the only film of 2014 to gross over $1 billion despite negative reviews. Jason Statham was rumored to be signed for the lead and would star in two films produced back-to-back, but these rumors were unfounded. Michael Bay stated he would not return to direct the film but he ultimately did. Three possible subtitles were considered before ‘Age of Extinction’: ‘Last Stand’, ‘Future Cast’, and ‘Apocalypse’. Filming began in 2013 with Detroit standing in for Hong Kong, and McCormick Place in Chicago re-dressed to portray another city in China. The film was the first to be shot with the new digital IMAX 3D cameras. Nine formats were used in total: IMAX film, IMAX digital, single-frame anamorphic film, GoPros, crash cams, Red cameras on 3Ality stereo 3D gigs, and Red cameras for 3D. Of the film’s 165 minute run time, about 90 minutes of that contains visual effects.

Obvious Child was the directorial debut of Gillian Robespierre. The film was expanded on from a short film by Robespierre with the same title, also starring Jenny Slate. Predestination is based on the 1959 short story ‘— All You Zombies —’ by Robert A. Heinlein.

Deliver Us from Evil claimed to be based on a 2001 non-fiction book entitled Beware the Night by Ralph Sarchie and Lisa Collier Cool, and its marketing campaign highlighted that it was ‘inspired by actual accounts’, however the plot is an original piece written by director Scott Derrickson. The film’s working title was Beware the Night.

Earth to Echo was originally developed at Disney, but the studio was unhappy with the project, which had been completed, and sold it to Relativity Media in 2013.

School Dance is the directorial debut of Nick Cannon.

Shirley MacLaine was offered the role of the diabetic grandmother in Tammy, but could not accept the role due to her involvement with the TV series Downton Abbey. Debbie Reynolds was also considered before Susan Sarandon was cast. She wore prosthetic ankles to reflect the disease. Melissa McCarthy and Sarandon received Razzie nominations for Worst Actress and Supporting Actress, respectively.