Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #210 :: August 1•7

Marvel Studios

It was a very big week for new movie premieres as the Summer begins to wind down. This week we have several films that earned major awards consideration, a few saw the debuts of actors who would go on to very prolific careers, many films based on literary works, a presidential biopic, and a film that took the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a whole new direction. Scroll down to see the list of films that premiered this week, get a little fun trivia along the way, and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries!

1924

• August 1 – A Fight for Honor (USA, Perfection Pictures)
• August 1 – Cornered (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• August 1 – Lure of the Yukon (USA, Norman Dawn Alaskan Company)
• August 1 – Passion’s Pathway (USA, Jean Perry & Edward Small Company)
• August 1 – The Battling Fool (USA, Perfection Pictures)
• August 1 – The Torrent (USA, Phil Goldstone Productions)
• August 1 – The Virgin (USA, Phil Goldstone Productions)
• August 1 – Youth for Sale (USA, C.C. Burr Productions)
• August 2 – Unmarried Wives (USA, Gotham Productions)
• August 3 – Behold This Woman (USA, Vitagraph Company of America)
• August 3 – The Legend of Hollywood (USA, Charles R. Rogers Productions)
• August 4 – Bread (USA, Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corporation)
• August 4 – Fools in the Dark (USA, Robertson-Cole Pictures Corporation)

A Fight for Honor, Cornered, The Torrent, and Bread are considered lost films.

Cornered was remade as a talkie in 1930 with the title Road to Beaudine. Lure of the Yukon, classified as a ‘Northern film’, was shot on location in the Alaska Territory. Unmarried Wives is preserved in a foreign archive, Filmoteca Espanola Madrid.

The full version of Behold This Woman may be lost, but an abridged or shortened version of the film is held by a collector. Bread is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Charles G. Norris.

1934

• August – Are You a Mason? (UK, Julius Hagen Productions)
• August – Easy Money (UK, British & Dominions Film Corporation)
• August – Get Your Man (UK, British & Dominions Film Corporation)
• August – The Battle (UK, Gaumont British Picture Corporation)
• August 3 – The Girl from Missouri (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• August 4 – Elmer and Elsie (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• August 4 – The Man with Two Faces (USA, First National Pictures)
• August 6 – Happy (UK, British International Pictures)
• August 6 – One More River (USA, Universal Pictures)
• August 6 – The Admiral’s Secret (UK, Julius Hagen Productions)
• August 7 – The Cat’s-Paw (USA, The Harold Lloyd Corporation)

Are You a Mason? was released in the US on October 30, 1934. Easy Money, Get Your Man, Happy and The Admiral’s Secret have no known US theatrical release dates. The Battle was released in the US on November 22, 1934 as Thunder in the East.

Easy Money was produced as a ‘quota quickie’ to help bolster the then-faltering British film industry. Get Your Man is based on the play Tu m’epouseras by Louis Verneuil. It features the second screen appearance of future star Rex Harrison.

The Battle was adapted from a 1909 French novel by Claude Farrère entitled La bataille. It was originally released as a French film titled La bataille with many of the same cast members, however Merle Oberon’s part was played by the French actress Annabella. A new prologue and epilogue were added to the film for a 1943 US re-release, re-titled Hara-Kiri, and transformed into an anti-Japanese wartime propaganda film.

The Girl from Missouri‘s working title was Born to Be Kissed.

The Man with Two Faces was adapted from the play The Dark Tower by George S. Kaufman and Alexander Woollcott. It was Margaret Dale’s first talkie and final film. She and Anton Stengel are the only two actors from the Broadway play to appear in the film.

One More River, based on the 1933 novel of the same title by John Galsworthy, marks the screen debut of Jane Wyatt. The film was one of the first to be subjected to the rigid censorship of the Production Code under Joseph Breen. The film’s trailer is preserved in the Library of Congress.

The Admiral’s Secret was based on the play by Cyril Campion. It was produced as a quota quickie. The Cat’s-Paw, based on the novel by Clarence Budington Kelland, was Harold Lloyd’s fourth of seven sound films.

1944

• August – Dragon Seed (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• August 1 – Minstrel Man (USA, Producers Releasing Corporation)
• August 1 – The Pearl of Death (USA, Universal Pictures)
• August 1 – Wilson (USA, Twentieth Century Fox)
• August 2 – Gypsy Wildcat (USA, Universal Pictures)
• August 2 – Mademoiselle Fifi (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
• August 4 – Abroad with Two Yanks (USA, Edward Small Productions)
• August 4 – The Falcon in Mexico (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
• August 5 – Song of Nevada (USA, Republic Pictures)
• August 5 – The Girl Who Dared (USA, Republic Pictures)
• August 5 – West of the Rio Grande (USA, Monogram Pictures)
• August 7 – This Happy Breed (UK, Two Cities Films)

This Happy Breed was released in the US on April 12, 1947.

Dragon Seed was based on the 1942 novel of the same name by Pearl S. Buck. The film earned Aline MacMahon a Best Supporting Actress nomination.

Minstrel Man director Joseph H. Lewis was drafted during production and was replaced by Edgar G. Ulmer and then Wallace W. Fox. Production began in late 1943 but was shut down for a month and retooled when various cast and crew members became unavailable. Lewis was released from the Army in March 1944 and returned to complete the film. The film, one of PRC’s most expensive, was the biggest critical and financial success for the studio, earning two Oscar nominations as well for Best Original Score and Best Original Song.

The Pearl of Death was the ninth of fourteen Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. The story is loosely based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story ‘The Adventure of the Six Napoleons’. Rondo Hatton makes his first appearance as The Hoxton Creeper. Universal Pictures tried to capitalize on the performance by casting Hatton as The Creeper in two unrelated films, House of Horrors and The Brute Man (both 1946), which were released posthumously. A character called ‘The Golem’, a direct reference to The Creeper, appears in the third episode of the first series of Sherlock.

Wilson, a biographical film about President Woodrow Wilson, was shot in Technicolor. Character actor Alexander Knox appeared in a rare lead role as Wilson. Ronald Colman and Frank Conroy were also considered for the part. The original story was a historical drama about a fictional family during the Progressive Era but was rewritten into the biopic of Wilson. Dwight Frye was cast as Secretary of War Newton D. Baker but died of a heart attack on November 7, 1943, a few days prior to his filming start. Cinematographer Ernest Palmer had to be replaced with Leon Shamroy after falling ill. Art director James Basevi quit due to disagreements with the crew. At $5.2 million, it was the most expensive film produced by Fox at the time. Most of the budget went to creating historically accurate and detailed sets for the White House. The film was met with negative press and was a financial failure due to the high budget, prompting studio head Darryl Zanuck to forbid employees from mentioning the film in his presence. Still, it earned ten Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Director and Actor, winning five: Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration: Color, Best Cinematography: Color, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Recording, Best Original Screenplay.

Gypsy Wildcat was produced following the success of Arabian Nights. Universal wanted a series of films to feature the three stars Maria Montez, Jon Hall and Sabu, and Gypsy Wildcat was the fourth (originally titled Zorya, then Gypsy Girl).

Mademoiselle Fifi was the solo directorial debut of Robert Wise. The film was based on two short stories by Guy de Maupassant, ‘Mademoiselle Fifi’ and ‘Boule de Suif’. The film’s working title was The Silent Bell. With the shockingly low budget of $200,000, much less than a standard period costume drama, sets from 1939’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame were reused, as well as sets made out of cardboard. It was the first film screened in France after the Allied invasion of Normandy.

Abroad with Two Yanks was the third and last film in which William Bendix played a US Marine. The film was to be produced by Hal Roach, but his studio was contracted to produce Army training films, so the project was sold to Edward Small. Under Small, the film’s title was Waltzing Matilda. A sequel, Two Yanks in Paris, was announced but never produced.

The Falcon in Mexico was the ninth of 16 films in the Falcon detective series. West of the Rio Grande is the tenth in the ‘Marshal Nevada Jack McKenzie’ film series.

This Happy Breed was David Lean’s screenwriting and solo directing debut. The script is based on the 1939 play This Happy Breed, by Noël Coward. Robert Donat turned down the lead role, and it was given to Robert Newton. Newton was known for his alcoholism by this time and was required to sign a contract relinquishing £500 of his £9,000 salary every time production was delayed due to his drinking. By the end of the film Newton had lost his entire salary, but the studio forgave him and paid him in full. Lean insisted on shooting the film in the three-strip Technicolor process, which required a Technicolor consultant on set to make sure everything was handled properly. Lean was contractually obligated to follow the strict guidelines of the consultant, whose expertise Lean questioned. A full restoration of the film was conducted between 2006 and 2008.

1954

Horizon Pictures

• August 1 – The Law vs. Billy the Kid (USA, Sam Katzman Productions)
• August 1 – Up to His Neck (UK, Group Film Productions Limited)
• August 3 – About Mrs. Leslie (USA, Hal Wallis Productions)
• August 4 – The Gambler from Natchez (USA, Panoramic Productions)
• August 4 – The Raid (USA, Panoramic Productions)
• August 5 – Robinson Crusoe (USA, Oscar Dancigers Productions)
• August 6 – Human Desire (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• August 6 – On the Waterfront (USA, Horizon Pictures)
• August 6 – Pushover (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• August 7 – King Richard and the Crusaders (USA, Warner Bros.-First National Pictures)
• August 7 – Magnificent Obsession (USA, Universal International Pictures)

Up to His Neck has no known US theatrical release date. On the Waterfront first opened in Japan on June 22, 1954.

About Mrs. Leslie is based on the novel of the same name by Viña Delmar.

The Raid is loosely based on a true incident, the St. Albans Raid, as well as the 1948 novel Affair at St. Albans by Herbert Ravenal Sass. The film was shot on the same outdoor set that would be used for The Andy Griffith Show, with Josiah’s Bank becoming the Mayberry courthouse.

English and Spanish versions of Robinson Crusoe, directed by Luis Buñuel, were produced with the film titled Aventuras de Robinson Crusoe in Spanish. The film is also known as Adventures of Robinson Crusoe in English. It was Buñuel’s first English-language film. The film is based on the 1719 novel of the same name by Daniel Defoe. Dan O’Herlihy received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. More than 300 actors were considered for the role, with producers pressuring Buñuel to cast Orson Welles, whom Buñuel insisted was ‘too loud and too fat.’ Negotiations were conducted with O’Herlihy in secret and at the last minute to prevent a larger studio from rushing a similar story into production. Jaime Fernández was cast as Friday. He knew no English and learned it on set much in the same way his character did.

Human Desire is loosely based on Émile Zola’s 1890 novel La Bête humaine, which had been filmed twice before: La Bête humaine (1938) and Die Bestie im Menschen (1920). A copy of the film was preserved in the Academy Film Archive in 1997.

On the Waterfront, inspired by the series of articles titled ‘Crime on the Waterfront’ by Malcolm Johnson, was the screen debut of Eva Marie Saint. The film earned 12 Academy Award nominations and won eight, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Marlon Brando), Supporting Actress (Saint) and Director (Elia Kazan). The film was among the first 25 to be selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Brando initially refused the role of Terry Malloy, and Frank Sinatra was given a ‘handshake deal’ for the part but no contract. Kazan still pursued Brando and asked Karl Malden to film a scene with a ‘Brando-like’ actor, which he did with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward performing the love scene between Terry and Edie. Producer Sam Spiegel agreed to consider Brando again and convinced his agent to talk Brando into taking the part. A furious Sinatra then demanded to play the role of the priest but Spiegel had to tell him Malden had already signed on.

Pushover featured Kim Novak in her first credited role. The story was adapted from two novels – Thomas Walsh’s The Night Watch and William S. Ballinger’s Rafferty. The film’s working title was The Killer Wore a Badge. The film inspired Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless.

King Richard and the Crusaders is based on Sir Walter Scott’s The Talisman, which was the film’s original title. This was Warner Bros.’ first CinemaScope film. It was also the first Hollywood movie for Laurence Harvey.

Magnificent Obsession is a remake of the 1935 film of the same name. Both are based on the 1929 novel Magnificent Obsession by Lloyd C. Douglas. Charles Bickford had to withdraw from the role of Randolph as filming was delayed due to illnesses of director Douglas Sirk and star Jane Wyman, as well as an injury suffered by co-star Rock Hudson, and production was to resume later than Bickford anticipated. Bickford went on to appear in A Star is Born.

1964

• August – The Devil-Ship Pirates (UK, Hammer Films)
• August 2 – Carry On Spying (UK, Peter Rogers Productions)
• August 5 – Looking for Love (USA, Euterpe)
• August 5 – Ride the Wild Surf (USA, Jana Productions)
• August 6 – Iolanta (Hungary, Rigas Kinostudija)
• August 6 – The Night of the Iguana (USA, Seven Arts Productions)

The Devil-Ship Pirates first opened in the US in May 1964. Carry On Spying was released in the US on March 10, 1965. Iolanta was released in the US as Yolanta on December 22, 1964.

Outdoor sets for The Devil-Ship Pirates were reused from Hammer’s The Scarlet Blade. A full size galleon was constructed on a steel structure in a flooded sand pit. Production was warned to not have too many people on board, but when a tea boat arrived to serve the cast and crew, too many people rushed to one side and capsized the ship, with star Christopher Lee hanging on to a railing. It took several days to right the ship … which was blown up at the end.

Carry On Spying was the ninth of 31 Carry On films, and was Barbara Windsor’s first appearance in the series. It was the last of the series to be shot in black-and-white. James Bond producer Albert Broccoli objected to a character in the film named ‘James Bind, Agent 006½’ and threatened legal action, so the character’s name was changed to Charlie with the agent code number changed to ‘Double-0–ooh!’. The film’s poster artwork also had to be changed when it was seen to be too similar to the artwork for the From Russia with Love poster.

Looking for Love starred Connie Francis, and featured most of the supporting cast from her first film, Where the Boys Are. Celebrity cameos included Johnny Carson, Danny Thomas, Paula Prentiss, George Hamilton and Yvette Mimieux. It was Carson’s first cameo and first film. Carson used to joke that the film was so bad it was transferred to the highly flammable nitrate film stock.

Unlike most beach movies of the era, Ride the Wild Surf was a drama and only included one pop song, the Jan and Dean title track. The film was originally going to be titled Surfing Wild. Jan and Dean were to appear in the film but were removed after Dean’s friend, Barry Keenan, became involved in the kidnapping of Frank Sinatra, Jr. in December 1963. They were replaced with Tab Hunter and Peter Brown. Shelley Fabares, known for her role on The Donna Reed Show, makes her film debut. The film’s star, Fabian, took three weeks of surfing lessons for the film. Peter Brown’s hair was made blond so all three male leads weren’t brunettes, which then required blonde Barbara Eden, playing his girlfriend, to have auburn hair. Fabares was paired with the brunette Fabian and she became a Scandinavian blonde. Susan Hart’s and Tab Hunter’s hair were different enough to not require any changes. The stunt surfers were given identical trunks to the actors except for James Mitchum, who was given trunks identical to his stunt surfer’s, a ‘jailhouse stripe’. Hunter and Brown also dyed their hair to match the stunt surfers, which caused Hunter to later quip that it was a rare case of the stars doubling for the stunt men. Unlike the Southern California-filmed Beach Party movies, Ride the Wild Surf was filmed in Hawaii because of the large waves.

The Night of the Iguana was based on the 1961 play of the same name by Tennessee Williams. The film earned four Oscar nominations, winning for Best Costume Design – Black and White. Grayson Hall was nominated for Supporting Actress. Ava Gardner received a Best Foreign Actress BAFTA nomination. The film also received five Golden Globe nominations included Best Picture – Drama, Actress (Gardner), Supporting Actress (Hall) and Director (John Huston).

1974

• August – Cockfighter (USA, Rio Pinto Productions)
• August – Once (USA, Communication Design)
• August – Open Season (USA, Arpa Productions)
• August 1 – The Castaway Cowboy (USA, Walt Disney Productions)
• August 2 – Tie jin gang da po zi yang guan (Hong Kong, Golden Harvest Company)
• August 3 – Nosutoradamusu no daiyogen (Japan, Toho-Eizo)
• August 7 – Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (USA, Optimus Films)
• August 7 – California Split (USA, Spelling-Goldberg Productions)
• August 7 – Together Brothers (USA, Twentieth Century Fox)

Tie jin gang da po zi yang guan was not released in the US until 1981 titled The Shrine of Ultimate Bliss. Nosutoradamusu no daiyogen was released in the US on July 13, 1979 as Prophecies of Nostradamus.

Cockfighter is also known as Born to Kill, Gamblin’ Man and Wild Drifter. The screenplay is based on the 1962 novel of the same title by Charles Willeford. Willeford indicted that the story is loosely based on Homer’s The Odyssey.

Open Season was based on the novel The All Americans by David Osborn, who also co-wrote the screenplay. The Castaway Cowboy was filmed on location in Hawaii. Star James Garner later wrote the best thing in the film was the scenery.

The Shrine of Ultimate Bliss is also known as Stoner, A Man Called Stoner, and Hong Kong Hitman. The film was intended to be Bruce Lee’s next after Game of Death, but he died during production on that film, which delayed its release for five years. Sonny Chiba was also intended to star in the film.

Nosutoradamusu no daiyogen is based on the 1973 novel Prophecies of Nostradamus: The Approaching Month of July 1999 and the Day of Humanity’s Collapse by Ben Goto, which was inspired by the prophecies of Nostradamus. This was Toho’s second disaster film following Submersion of Japan. Some of the film’s effects sequences were reused from Japan Sinks and The Last War. A forest fire effects scene created for the movie ignited the miniature and destroyed Toho’s Studio 7.

California Split was the first non-Cinerama film to use eight-track stereo sound. The film’s screenwriter Joseph Walsh was friends with up-and-coming filmmaker Steven Spielberg and the two worked on the script, then titled Slide, for nine months. The film was set up at MGM with Steve McQueen set to star, but the studio began making unrealistic demands, including setting the film at Circus Circus in Las Vegas because MGM owned the casino. New studio executives took over a month before filming and wanted the story to be about a mafia-related sting with Dean Martin as one of the two main characters, and Walsh would no longer be a producer. He and Spielberg took the script to Universal, where Spielberg was hired to direct The Sugarland Express and Walsh was left stranded with his script. Walsh’s agent contacted Robert Altman’s agent and convinced him to have a look at the script. Altman loved it, Columbia Pictures became involved, and it received a greenlight with the script to be produced on the author’s terms. Walsh and Altman did butt heads over Altman’s tendency to take liberties with the screenplays for his movies, with Altman often storming off set but returning to listen to Walsh’s ideas. Altman formed a production compnay with Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg to finance the film. Barbara Ruick, who played a poker room bartender, died in her sleep at the age of 41 from a cerebral hemorrhage. Ruick was married to film composer John Williams. The film was dedicated to her.

1984

New World Pictures

• August 2 – The Bostonians (USA, Merchant Ivory Productions)
• August 3 – Grandview, U.S.A. (USA, CBS Theatrical Films)
• August 3 – Joy of Sex (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• August 3 – The Philadelphia Experiment (USA, New World Pictures)

The Bostonians is based on the 1886 American novel The Bostonians by Henry James. The film earned two Academy Award nominations, one BAFTA nomination and one Golden Globe nomination. Vanessa Redgrave was Oscar and Golden Globe nominated in the Best Actress category.

Grandview, U.S.A. was filmed on location in Pontiac and Fairbury, Illinois.

Joy of Sex is also known as National Lampoon’s Joy of Sex, and is based on the sex manual by Alex Comfort. Paramount Pictures paid a huge sum for the manual just so they could use the title. Charles Grodin was initially hired to write a screenplay ‘about anything’, so he made it into his own situation — a Hollywood writer struggling to write a script based on a sex manual which had been acquired by a major studio. Paramount passed after his first draft. Grodin did get his screenplay filmed in 1985 as Movers & Shakers. Penny Marshall wrote in her book that she had been hired to direct — which would have been her directorial debut — with a script from John Hughes, which would have been his first filmed screenplay. John Belushi was to star but died before filming began. Martha Coolidge was then hired to direct, and then fired for cutting scenes of graphic nudity. She declined to have her director credit changed to Alan Smithee. National Lampoon producer Matty Simmons claims to have paid $250,000 to have the National Lampoon name removed from the project. After previewing the film with the gratuitous nudity intact, the female members of the audience objected and Paramount rehired Coolidge to remove as much of it as she could. The film was released to VHS in the 1980s but has never been given a DVD or Blu-ray release.

John Carpenter wrote an original draft of The Philadelphia Experiment, but could not come up with a third act and rejected a ‘revenge against the crew’ scenario for being too similar to The Fog. By the time director Steve Raffill became involved, the screenplay had been rewritten nine times. The film was remade for TV in 2012 for Syfy, with the original film’s star Michael Paré appearing but in a different role.

1994

• August 3 – Clear and Present Danger (USA, Mace Neufeld Productions)
• August 3 – Eat Drink Man Woman (USA, Ang Lee Pictures)
• August 5 – Airheads (USA, Island World)
• August 5 – The Little Rascals (USA, Amblin Entertainment)

Eat Drink Man Woman first opened in Taiwan on July 2, 1994 as Yin shi nan nu.

Clear and Present Danger is based on Tom Clancy’s 1989 novel of the same name, and is the third film in the Jack Ryan series. It’s the last film to star Harrison Ford as Ryan and James Earl Jones as Vice Admiral James Greer. The film ran behind schedule and over budget, and part of the footage shot in the US was destroyed in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The film earned two Oscar nominations for Sound and Sound Effects Editing.

Eat Drink Man Woman is Ang Lee’s only film to date to be shot entirely in his native Taiwan. The film was nominated by the Oscars, Golden Globes and BAFTAs in the Foreign Language Film category. It served as an inspiration for Tortilla Soup and Joyful Reunion. The opening Sunday lunch scene took over a week to film and was accomplished with the use of an actual master chef, who doubled for actor Sihung Lung.

Airheads was a critical and commercial failure but has gained a cult following.

The Little Rascals is an adaptation of Hal Roach’s Our Gang, a series of short films of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Surviving members of the Our Gang films were not invited to make cameos in the film, which they found hurtful since director Penelope Spheeris included Buddy Ebsen in her 1993 adaptation of The Beverly Hillbillies.

2004

• August 6 – Collateral (USA/Canada, Parkes/MacDonald Image Nation)
• August 6 – De-Lovely (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• August 6 – Little Black Book (USA, Blue Star Pictures)
• August 6 – The Door in the Floor (USA, Focus Features)

De-Lovely was first released in the US in a limited run on July 2, 2004. The Door in the Floor began a limited US run on July 14, 2004 before expanding to general release.

Collateral was originally pitched to HBO, but it was rejected. DreamWorks purchased the rights but it would be three years before development started. Russell Crowe and Adam Sandler were in talks to star before Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx were cast. It was the first feature film to be shot with a Viper FilmStream High-Definition Camera.

De-Lovely is the second film about composer Cole Porter after 1946’s Night and Day. Porter was a passable singer, so star Kevin Kline, a Tony Award winner for his Broadway musical performances, limited his own vocals which were recorded live on set, and played the piano himself. Ashley Judd wanted to play Porter’s wife Linda so badly that she agreed to a lower salary than usual. Judd is twenty years younger than Kline, while in real life Linda was eight years older than Porter. Kline and Judd both received Golden Globe nominations for their work.

Little Black Book features the film debuts of Dave Annable, Yvette Nicole Brown and Gavin Rossdale.

Carly Simon makes a cameo appearance at the end of Little Black Book. The Door in the Floor is based on the first third of the 1998 novel A Widow for One Year by John Irving.

2014

Imagine Entertainment

• August 1 – 4 Minute Mile (USA, Phoenix Rising Motion Pictures)
• August 1 – Get On Up (USA/Canada, Imagine Entertainment)
• August 1 – Guardians of the Galaxy (USA/Canada, Marvel Studios)
• August 4 – The Expendables 3 (Indonesia, Lionsgate Films)
• August 5 – Mercenaries (USA, Internet, The Asylum)

4 Minute Mile, originally titled One Square Mile, was screened at the Seattle International Film Festival on June 5, 2014 before making its US internet and DVD premiere on August 1. Guardians of the Galaxy was first released in the UK and other international markets on July 31, 2014. The Expendables 3 was released in the US and Canada on August 15, 2014.

Chadwick Boseman did all of his own dancing and some singing as James Brown in Get On Up. The soundtrack contains live recordings of Brown.

Guardians of the Galaxy is the tenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Actors who tested for the role of Peter Quill included Joel Edgerton, Jack Huston, Jim Sturgess, Eddie Redmayne and Lee Pace (Pace eventually played the film’s villain). Others considered included Adam Brody, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Rosenbaum, and John Gallagher Jr. Chris Pratt was cast with Glenn Howerton second choice. Isaiah Mustafa, Jason Momoa and Chadwick Boseman were considered for the role of Drax before Dave Bautista was cast. Zoe Saldaña took the role of Gamora after Amanda Seyfried turned it down due to the amount of time it requird to apply the makeup and her uncertainty about the film’s commercial viability. Lupita Nyong’o also auditioned for the role. The film’s working title was Full Tilt. Director James Gunn’s brother Sean would stand in on set for the CGI Rocket Raccoon and Groot to give the actors some reference points. Two life-size Rockets and a bust of Groot were also created as aids for the visual effects and to assist with the lighting process for the CGI characters. The film features 2,750 visual effects shots making up about 90% of the film.

Unlike the first two films in the franchise, The Expendables 3 received a PG-13 rating which angered fans of the previous R-rated films. The movie was also leaked online three weeks before its theatrical release which may have hurt its box office performance. Jason Statham survived an on-set mishap when the truck he was driving lost its breaks and plunged into the Black Sea.

Mercenaries is also known as Prison Raid. Cynthia Rothrock stated that she was originally to play the role played by Brigitte Nielsen but she was unable to be on set at the start of filming due to a previous obligation. The role she eventually took was to have been played by Rebecca DeMornay.