Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #209 :: July 25•31

Endgame Entertainment

The last week of July was a big one for new movies, with quite a few of them getting awards recognition from the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes and the Cannes Film Festival. One interesting note this week is that there are two films ten years apart from the same writer/director/actor. So without further fanfare or ado, scroll down the list to see the new films that premiered this week, and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries!

1924

• July 27 – Girls Men Forget (USA, Sol Lesser Productions)
• July 27 – Single Wives (USA, Corinne Griffith Productions)
• July 28 – A Fighting Heart (USA, Hercules Film Productions)
• July 31 – Dope (AUS, Australasian Picture Productions)
• July 31 – The Gaiety Girl (USA, Universal Pictures)

Single Wives is preserved at the George Eastman House Motion Picture Collection. The Gaiety Girl is considered a lost film.

Dope has no known US theatrical release date, and is considered a lost film. The working title was The Trail of the Twang. It was the only film produced by Australasian Picture Productions.

1934

• July 25 – Name the Woman (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• July 27 – Bachelor Bait (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
• July 27 – Handy Andy (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• July 27 – Paris Interlude (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• July 28 – Friends of Mr. Sweeney (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• July 30 – Boots! Boots! (UK, John E. Blakeley Productions)
• July 30 – Bypass to Happiness (UK, Sound City)
• July 30 – My Song for You (UK, Ciné-Alliance)
• July 30 – The Star Packer (USA, Paul Malvern Productions)
• July 30 – The Warren Case (UK, British International Pictures)
• July 31 – Beyond the Law (USA, Columbia Pictures)

Boots! Boots!, Bypass to Happiness and The Warren Case have no known US theatrical release dates. My Song for You was released in the US on May 1, 1935 as A Song for You.

Name the Woman was mistakenly reported in Variety at the time as a remake of Columbia’s 1928 silent of the same name.

Bachelor Bait was originally titled The Great American Harem. It was director George Stevens’ first feature-length film for RKO. The film ended up losing $3,000 for the studio.

Handy Andy is adapted in turn from the play Merry Andrew by Lewis Beach. Friends of Mr. Sweeney is based on the 1925 novel of the same name by Elmer Davis.

Boots! Boots! had a budget of £3,000 and was one of the biggest hits of the year in the UK. The 80-minute film was cut to 55 minutes for a 1938 reissue and was the only known version to exist until an uncut 80-minute print was discovered and restored for DVD release.

The Warren Case was based on the play The Last Chance by Arnold Ridley.

1944

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

• July 25 – Raiders of Ghost City (USA, serial, Universal Pictures)
• July 25 – U-Boat Prisoner (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• July 26 – Secrets of Scotland Yard (USA, Republic Pictures)
• July 26 – Step Lively (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
• July 27 – Shadows in the Night (USA, Larry Darmour Productions)
• July 28 – English Without Tears (UK, Two Cities Films)
• July 28 – The Canterville Ghost (USA/UK, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• July 29 – Call of the Jungle (USA, Monogram Pictures)
• July 29 – Marked Trails (USA, Monogram Pictures)
• July 30 – Brand of the Devil (USA, Alexander-Stern Productions)
• July 30 – Secret Command (USA, Terneen Productions)
• July 31 – Christmas Holiday (USA, Universal Pictures)
• July 31 – Give Us the Moon (UK, Gainsborough Pictures)
• July 31 – Swing in the Saddle (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• July 31 – Three Little Sisters (USA, Republic Pictures)

English Without Tears was released in the US as Her Man Gilbey, a reference to My Man Godfrey, on June 8, 1949. Give Us the Moon has no known US theatrical release date.

U-Boat Prisoner is also known as Dangerous Mists.

Secrets of Scotland Yard was adapted from ‘Room 40, O.B.’ from Blue Book Magazine by Denison Clift, who also wrote the screenplay.

Step Lively was based on the 1937 play Room Service, by Allen Boretz and John Murray, and was a remake of 1938’s Room Service starring the Marx Brothers and Lucille Ball. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Art Direction.

Shadows in the Night is part of Columbia Pictures’ ‘Crime Doctor’ series and is also known as Crime Doctor’s Rendezvous.

The Canterville Ghost is loosely based on the 1887 short story of the same title by Oscar Wilde. The film was shot at Busch Gardens in Pasadena, California.

Brand of the Devil was the 13th of 22 ‘Texas Rangers’ films. Secret Command earned an Oscar nomination for Best Effects.

Christmas Holiday is based on the 1939 novel of the same name by W. Somerset Maugham. It was Oscar nominated for Best Musical Score. The film was originally developed in 1939 but the Hays Office rejected it for its subject matter of an Englishman meeting a Russian prostitute as too sordid. Universal bought the rights to the book in 1943 as a vehicle for Deanna Durbin. Universal loaned Turhan Bey to MGM in exchange for Gene Kelly as the male lead. Broadway star Dean Harens made his screen debut in the film.

Give Us the Moon is based on the 1939 novel The Elephant is White, written by Caryl Brahms and her Russian émigré writing partner S. J. Simon. The film’s setting was changed from Paris to London. Margaret Lockwood chose to do the film so she was not typecast in villaness roles.

1954

• July 26 – The Harassed Hero (UK, Corsair Pictures)
• July 28 – Return from the Sea (USA, Scott R. Dunlap Productions)
• July 28 – Susan Slept Here (USA, Harriet Parsons Productions)
• July 29 – Crossed Swords (USA, Errol Flynn Productions)
• July 30 – Francis Joins the WACS (USA, Universal-International Pictures)

The Harassed Hero, based on a novel of the same name by Ernest Dudley, has no known US theatrical release date.

Return from the Sea was based on a novelette No Home of His Own by Jacland Marmur that appeared in Saturday Evening Post in 1952.

Susan Slept Here, based on the play of the same name, was the last film in which Dick Powell appeared. Red Skelton makes a cameo appearance. The plotline was revised and reused for 1952’s Bachelor Flat. When the film was put together, Debbie Reynolds was borrowed from MGM to star, and the package was sold to RKO. The studio announced Robert Mitchum as her co-star but he refused the role and was fined $40,000. Powell, who had been focusing on directing, agreed to take the role. The film earned two Oscar nominations for Best Original Song, ‘Hold My Hand’, and Best Sound Recording.

Working titles for Crossed Swords were The Teacher of Don Juan and The Master of Don Juan. The film was the first for Gina Lollobrigida outside the Italian market, made just before Beat the Devil.

Francis Joins the WACS is the fifth film in Universal’s ‘Francis the Talking Mule’ series. Chill Wills, who provided the voice of Francis, also appears in the film. Star Donald O’Conner’s contract with the studio had expired and his participation was in doubt but he eventually agreed to make the film. It outperformed the previous three films at the box office.

1964

• July 29 – One Potato, Two Potato (USA, Bawalco Picture Company)
• July 31 – The Visit (France, Cinecittà)

One Potato, Two Potato, which was about an interracial romance, earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Barbara Barrie shared the 1964 Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award with Anne Bancroft (for The Pumpkin Eater). The film preceded the more well-known Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? by three years.

The Visit was released in the US on October 4, 1964. It was based on Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s 1956 play of the same name. The film was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival. It was also Oscar-nominated for Best Costume Design – Black and White. The film’s ending differs from the play in which the character Serge Miller dies, but is spared in the movie.

1974

• July 26 – Uptown Saturday Night (USA, First Artists)
• July 28 – Gone in 60 Seconds (USA, H.B. Halicki Mercantile Company)
• July 31 – Bank Shot (USA, Landers-Roberts Productions)
• July 31 – The Bears and I (USA, Walt Disney Productions)

Uptown Saturday Night is considered to be part of a trilogy starring Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier, including Let’s Do It Again and A Piece of the Action, even though their character names are different in each film. Poitier directed all three films.

93 cars were destroyed in a 40-minute chase scene in Gone in 60 Seconds, the longest in film history, with a total of 127 cars damaged or destroyed throughout the film. Director and star H.B. Halicki employed friends and family as actors to keep the budget down. Emergency services characters were actual police officers, firemen and paramedics. The then-mayor or Carson, California, Sak Yamamoto, also appears as himself. The film had no official script other than an outline of several pages, causing issues for the editor who didn’t know what footage was coming or where it went in the film. One driver was nearly killed in an unplanned accident when his car overturned and the siren on the roof caved the roof in. The footage was used in the film. Halicki himself was seriously injured in a real accident, and when he regained consciousness, people on the set said he asked if they got the coverage. He had to finish the film in a full leg cast with several broken ribs.

Bank Shot was loosely based upon Donald E. Westlake’s 1972 novel of the same name, the second book in his ‘Dortmunder’ series.

The Bears and I features the original song ‘Sweet Surrender’ by John Denver.

1984

• July 27 – Meatballs Part II (USA, TriStar Pictures)
• July 27 – Purple Rain (USA, Purple Films)

Meatballs Part II is an ‘in name only’ sequel to Meatballs.

Purple Rain was filmed almost entirely in Minneapolis. The film grossed $70.3 million against a $7.2 million budget. It earned an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. The film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2019. The film’s soundtrack has sold over 25 million copies worldwide. Every studio turned down the premise of a musician-led musical so the film was produced independently. Prince spent months writing down basic plot points, and Fame screenwriter was commissioned to write the screenplay, originally titled Dreams, which had a much darker tone. In the first meeting with Warner Bros., the studio asked if John Travolta could replace Prince as the star. Vanity was to co-star but she left the group Vanity 6 before filming began. Jennifer Beals was offered the female lead but wanted to focus on college, so the virtually unknown Apollonia Kotero was cast after Prince saw her on an episode of Tales of the Gold Monkey. Kotero had no singing skills and was dubbed by Lisa Coleman of Wendy & Lisa. Almost every character except Prince and his on-screen parents is named after the actor who plays them. Warner Bros. felt the film was ‘outrageous’ at the time a nearly refused to distribute it. Music industry publicist Howard Bloom had advocated for the film to be released and said that ‘killing Purple Rain would be a sin against art!’. Kotero and the original song ‘Sex Shooter’ received Razzie nominations. Prince directed the 1990 sequel Graffiti Bridge, which follows up on the rivalry between Morris Day and The Kid.

1994

New Line Cinema

• July 27 – Dragonworld (USA, Full Moon Entertainment)
• July 28 – The Sum of Us (AUS, Southern Star Entertainment)
• July 29 – Barcelona (USA, Barcelona Films)
• July 29 – Black Beauty (UK, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• July 29 – Foreign Student (USA, Carthago Films S.a.r.l.)
• July 29 – It Could Happen to You (USA, TriStar Pictures)
• July 29 – Necronomicon (UK, Davis-Films)
• July 29 – The Mask (USA/Canada, New Line Cinema)

Dragonworld was a direct-to-video release in the US. The Sum of Us was released in the US on March 8, 1995. Foreign Student first opened in France on April 20, 1994. It Could Happen to You first opened in Japan on July 16, 1994. Necronomicon premiered on home video in the US on October 29, 1996 as Necronomicon: Book of the Dead.

The Sum of Us is based on the 1990 play of the same name by David Stevens, who also wrote the screenplay.

Barcelona is the second film, between Metropolitan and The Last Days of Disco, in Whit Stillman’s ‘Doomed Bourgeois in Love’ series. The three films are independent of each other but have cameo appearances from common characters.

Black Beauty was the directorial debut of Caroline Thompson, and the fifth cinematic adaptation of Anna Sewell’s 1877 novel of the same name. The story is told from the horse’s point of view, with Alan Cumming acting as Black Beauty’s ‘voice’ narrating the story.

It Could Happen to You is based on a real-life news story. Isaac Hayes is the film’s narrator, and has a supporting role. The diner where Yvonne works in the film was constructed in a parking lot at the corner of N. Moore St. and West Broadway in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan. The film’s working title was Cop Gives Waitress Million Dollar Tip.

Necronomicon is a horror anthology film with three stories based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft.

The Mask is loosely based on the 1989–1991 premiere comic book of the series of the same name by Mike Richardson, published by Dark Horse Comics. The film features Cameron Diaz in her film debut. Grossing over $351 million, it was the most profitable film based on a comic book up to that time. Jim Carrey earned a Golden Globe nomination for his performance, and the film’s special effects were Oscar-nominated. The idea to adapt the comic into a film first occurred in 1989, making it a dark horror film. Hoping to launch a new horror franchise, New Line Cinema hired Chuck Russell to direct but he found the violence off-putting and wanted to make the film less grim and adult-oriented and more family-friendly and fun, redeveloping it as a comedy film. Rick Moranis, Martin Short and Robin Williams were considered for the lead role. Jim Carrey’s contortions in an In Living Color sketch helped secure him the role as it would require less special effects work because of what he could do with his body. The script was rewritten for him but Nicolas Cage and Matthew Broderick were kept in consideration. Diaz’s role was originally intended for Anna Nicole Smith, but she made Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult instead, prompting a rewrite of the character from a good girl who is actually bad to a genuinely good girl. Since Carrey was not yet a star, New Line invested more heavily on the special effects, although many were cut for budgetary reasons. Carrey’s make-up process took about four hours and included large plastic teeth that were meant to be used outside of dialogue scenes. Carrey learned to talk while wearing them to play the character more convincingly.

2004

• July 28 – Garden State (Turkey, Jersey Films)
• July 28 – Los Angeles Plays Itself (USA, documentary, Thom Andersen Productions)
• July 29 – Under the Radar (AUS, Macquarie Film Corporation)
• July 30 – 16 Years of Alcohol (UK, Tartan Works Ltd.)
• July 30 – Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (USA/Canada, Endgame Entertainment)
• July 30 – She Hate Me (USA, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks)
• July 30 – The Manchurian Candidate (USA, Scott Rudin Productions)
• July 30 – The Village (USA, Touchstone Pictures)
• July 30 – Transfixed (USA, limited, Ognon Pictures)

Garden State was released in the US first on a limited basis beginning on July 28, 2004, and expanded wide on August 20. Under the Radar has no known US theatrical release date. 16 Years of Alcohol had a limited US run beginning March 18, 2005. Transfixed first opened in France on August 8, 2001 as Mauvais genres.

Garden State was directed and written by star Zach Braff, who based the story on his own experiences. It was Braff’s directing and writing debut. He also selected the songs for the film’s soundtrack, which won a Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. The film’s title was originally to be Large’s Ark, a reference to his character Andrew Largeman, but Braff changed it because no one understood what it meant. Most of the film’s $2.5 million budget was provided by Rocket Mortgage co-founder Gary Gilbert, a first-time producer. Most of the film was shot in New Jersey.

16 Years of Alcohol was based on writer and director Richard Jobson’s semi-autobiographical 1987 novel. The film marked Johnson’s directorial debut after a career of being a TV presenter and the vocalist for the punk rock band The Skids.

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle was released to some international territories as Harold & Kumar Get the Munchies. White Castle granted permission to use the company name in 2002, and contributed to the film’s marketing campaign. The original story was to have been a quest for Krispy Kreme donuts, but the company refused the use of its name. John Cho and Neil Patrick Harris were cast early on, but Kal Penn went through seven auditions before winning the part of Kumar. Sendhil Ramamurthy was also in the running. Bobby Lee was also under consideration for Harold. Penn and Cho earned $75,000 each for their work, and after deducting taxes and fees, the take-home pay was about $22,500. The role for Harris playing a fictionalized version of himself was written before Harris was even approached for the movie. Ralph Macchio was the back-up if Harris turned it down. Cho and Penn decided they’d better hang out together if they were supposed to be best friends in the movie, and a real friendship developed. While the film is set in New Jersey, it was filmed mostly in Toronto where a White Castle had to be specially built since Canada has no White Castle restaurants. Vegetarian Penn ate veggie burgers during filming.

She Hate Me was filmed mostly in New York City and its five boroughs. The film’s title was based on XFL football player Rod Smart who nicknamed himself ‘He Hate Me.’ The title words were originally spoken by Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s Monster in Bride of Frankenstein as a response to the revulsion Elsa Lanchester’s bride displays upon seeing him for the first time. Spike Lee shot the movie on Super 16 film. The film also includes a close-up scene of a real birth, similar to Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues.

The Manchurian Candidate is based on Richard Condon’s 1959 novel of the same name and a reworking of the previous 1962 film. Al Franken, Sidney Lumet, Anna Deavere Smith, Roger Corman and Gayle King make cameo appearances. Tina Sinatra was a co-producer on the film as father Frank, who appeared in the original film, owned the distribution rights into the late 1980s, never re-releasing the film during that time. The Persian Gulf War scenes were filmed in New Jersey. Meryl Streep was nominated for a Golden Globe for Supporting Actress.

The Village earned an Oscar nomination for James Newton Howard’s score. The film was originally titled The Woods, but was changed because another film in production, released in 2006, already had that title. The film was surrounded by typical secrecy for an M. Night Shyamalan movie, but the script was stolen a year before the film was released, prompting many pre-reviews on several internet film sites. The film’s ending was changed and differs from the ending in the stolen script. The titular village was built on one field outside Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. An adjacent field contained a temporary sound stage.

2014

EuropaCorp

• July 31 – A Most Wanted Man (AUS, Potboiler Productions)
• July 25 – And So It Goes (USA/Canada, Castle Rock Entertainment)
• July 25 – Happy Christmas (USA, limited, Lucky Coffee Productions)
• July 25 – Hercules (USA/Canada/UK, Flynn Picture Company)
• July 25 – Lucy (USA/Canada, EuropaCorp)
• July 25 – My Man Is a Loser (USA, limited)
• July 25 – Wish I Was Here (USA, limited, Worldview Entertainment)
• July 31 – Magic in the Moonlight (Israel, Dippermouth)
• July 31 – These Final Hours (AUS, 8th In Line)

A Most Wanted Man received a limited release in the US and Canada on July 25, 2014, and expanded in the US on August 1. And So It Goes first opened in Italy on July 10, 2014. Happy Christmas was first released on the internet in the US on June 26, 2014 before its limited theatrical release. Hercules first opened in the Philippines on July 23, 2014. Magic in the Moonlight opened in limited release in the US on July 25, 2014 and expanded on August 15. These Final Hours opened in limited release in the US on March 6, 2015.

A Most Wanted Man is based on the 2008 novel of the same name by John le Carré. It was the last of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s films to be finished and premiered before his death.

And So It Goes was Frances Sternhagen’s final film before her death in 2023. The dialogue in Happy Christmas was entirely improvised.

Hercules is based on Steve Moore’s graphic novel Hercules, specifically ‘The Thracian Wars’ limited series. The film was one of two Hercules films released in 2014. Dwayne Johnson trained for eight months to embody the role of Hercules.

Lucy grossed over 11 times its $40 million budget worldwide. It was the second largest French production in 2013. The film contains over 1,000 visual effects shots, mostly produced by Industrial Light and Magic, the most for a film directed by Luc Besson.

Wish I Was Here is the second film on the list this week written and directed by Zach Braff. It was the last film for James Avery and Allan Rich. Braff launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the film’s $2 million budget, and the goal was reached in three days. The campaign ended with over $3.1 million. Actress Joey King revealed she had donated to the campaign before she had been cast in the film. The film was a box office failure, mainly due to the negative publicity surrounding the fundraising campaign.

These Final Hours marked the film debut of Angourie Rice.