Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #212 :: August 15•21

Paramount Pictures

Many films made their debuts this week across the last century, some classics, some not, some forgotten, some fondly remembered. Scroll down the list to see the movies that opened this week and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries.   

1924

• August 15 – Rarin’ to Go (USA, Action Pictures)
• August 15 – The Foolish Virgin (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• August 17 – Empty Hands (USA, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)
• August 17 – Flirting with Love (USA, Associated First National Pictures)
• August 17 – That French Lady (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• August 17 – The Man Who Came Back (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• August 17 – The Siren of Seville (USA, Hunt Stromberg Productions)
• August 18 – Broken Barriers (USA, Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corporation)

Empty Hands, Flirting with Love, That French Lady and Broken Barriers are lost films. Incomplete fragments of The Man Who Came Back are held at Narodni Filmovy Archive and incomplete print at UCLA Film & Television. A copy of The Siren of Seville is preserved in the foreign archive EYE Institute in Amsterdam.

The Foolish Virgin is based on the 1915 novel The Foolish Virgin: A Romance of Today by Thomas Dixon Jr. This is the second known film adaptation of the novel, the first in 1916. The 1924 version is considered lost.

Flirting with Love is based upon the short story ‘Counterfeit’ by Leroy Scott. That French Lady was based on a play by William Hurlbut, The Strange Woman. The Man Who Came Back was remade in 1931 as a talkie with the same title. Broken Barriers is based upon the novel of the same name by Meredith Nicholson.

1934

Monogram Pictures

• August 15 – Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back (USA, 20th Century Pictures)
• August 15 – Jane Eyre (USA, Monogram Pictures)
• August 17 – Beggar’s Holiday (USA, Tower Productions)
• August 20 – Chu Chin Chow (UK, Gainsborough Pictures)
• August 20 – Rolling in Money (UK, Fox Film Company)

Chu Chin Chow was released in the US on September 21, 1934. Rolling in Money has no known US theatrical release date.

Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back was a loose sequel to the 1929 film Bulldog Drummond which had also starred Ronald Colman.

Jane Eyre is based on the 1847 novel by Charlotte Brontë, and is the first adaptation to use sound.

Chu Chin Chow was an adaptation of the hit musical Chu Chin Chow by Oscar Asche and Frederick Norton. The movie’s title inspired the name of the Marvel Comics monster Fin Fang Foom.

Rolling in Money was an adaptation of the play Mr. Hopkinson by R. C. Carton, and unlike most of the studio’s output at the time was not produced as a ‘quota quickie’.

1944

• August 15 – Dixie Jamboree (USA, Jack Schwarz Productions)
• August 16 – Going My Way (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• August 16 – Seven Doors to Death (USA, Alexander-Stern Productions)
• August 16 – The San Antonio Kid (USA, Republic Pictures)
• August 17 – Cry of the Werewolf (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• August 17 – The Soul of a Monster (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• August 18 – In Society (USA, Universal Pictures)
• August 18 – Machine Gun Mama (USA, Jack Schwarz Productions)
• August 18 – Trail to Gunsight (USA, Universal Pictures)
• August 19 – Black Magic (USA, Monogram Pictures)
• August 21 – A Canterbury Tale (UK, The Archers)
• August 21 – When Strangers Marry (USA, King Brothers Productions)

A Canterbury Tale was released in the US on January 21, 1949.

Going My Way was the highest grossing film of 1944, and was nominated for ten Academy Awards, winning seven including Best Pictures. Due to the film’s success, star Bing Crosby was named the biggest box office draw of the year, a record he would hold for the rest of the 1940s. The film was followed by the sequel The Bells of St. Mary’s the following year.

Seven Doors to Death is also known as Vanishing Corpses in its American re-release. The San Antonio Kid was the fourth of twenty-three Red Ryder films from Republic Pictures, and the first without Gabby Hayes.

Working title for Cry of the Werewolf was Bride of the Vampire. The Soul of a Monster was developed under the title Death Walks Alone.

In Society was the first of five Abbott & Costello films directed by Jean Yarbrough. The movie was filmed after Abbott & Costello filmed Lost in a Harem for MGM, but was released first. To release the film as quickly as possible, Universal lifted much of the climactic fire scene from W.C. Fields’ Never Give a Sucker an Even Break.

Machine Gun Mama was PRC’s first attempt at a film with a comedy team to compete with Universal’s Abbot & Costello films and Paramount’s Hope & Crosby ‘Road to….’ films. It was also their entry in the Good Neighbor Policy film genre where the United States presented both a positive image to Latin and South America as well as stimulating American tourism to the region. The film’s working titles were Mexican Fiesta and Moonlight Fiesta, but is known on TV as Tropical Fury.

Black Magic was retitled Meeting at Midnight for TV broadcast. It was the third Charlie Chan film from Monogram Pictures starring Sidney Toler.

For the American release of A Canterbury Tale, narration was provided by Raymond Massey (Esmond Knight handled the UK narration), and Kim Hunter was added to the film. Large portions of Canterbury Cathedral were recreated on a sound stage as the actual cathedral was unavailable for filming.

When Strangers Marry was re-released as Betrayed. The film’s working titles were Love from a Stranger and I Married a Stranger. Director William Castle was borrowed from Columbia Pictures, but hated the script and advised the producers not to accept it. They agreed and devised a new story with Philip Yordan, with a screenplay by Dennis Cooper, which Yordan eventually rewrote with both receiving screen credit. With a budget of $50,000 Castle encouraged his lead actors to rehearse without pay and on their own time. The film marked the screen debut of Rhonda Fleming. She claimed she was not paid for the role, and was cast after Castle saw her on the backlot and said, ‘You’ll do.’ The film also marks a very early role for Robert Mitchum.

1954

• August 15 – The Master Plan (UK, Gibraltar Films Ltd.)
• August 15 – The Outcast (USA, Republic Pictures)
• August 16 – The Vanishing Prairie (USA, documentary, Walt Disney Productions)
• August 21 – Duel in the Jungle (USA, Marcel Hellman Productions)

The Master Plan has no known US theatrical release date. Duel in the Jungle first opened in London on June 30, 1954 and expanded in the UK on September 22.

The Master Plan was based on the teleplay Operation North Star by Harald Bratt.

The theme music for The Vanishing Prairie was given lyrics and rechristened ‘Pioneer’s Prayer’ and used in the film Westward Ho, the Wagons! The film won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.

Duel in the Jungle filmed for five weeks in South Africa. Assistant director Anthony Kelly died when he was thrown from a canoe into a whirlpool. Two hunters and an African guide got to safety. American audiences jeered the film’s ending at a preview and Warner Bros. re-edited the final scenes, reducing the UK running time of 105 minutes to 98 minutes in the US.

1964

• August 16 – East of Sudan (UK, Ameran Films)
• August 19 – Master Spy (USA, Eternal Films)
• August 19 – The Horror of It All (USA, Lippert Films)

East of Sudan was released in the US in July 1965.

1974

• August 15 – 11 Harrowhouse (UK, Elliott Kastner Productions)
• August 15 – Once Upon a Scoundrel (Mexico, Otto Preminger Films)
• August 16- Confessions of a Window Cleaner (UK, Columbia Pictures Corporation)
• August 18 – Act of Vengeance (USA, American International Pictures)
• August 21 – Newman’s Law (USA, Universal Pictures)
• August 30 – The Longest Yard (USA, Albert S. Ruddy Productions)

11 Harrowhouse was released in the US on September 26, 1974. Once Upon a Scoundrel has no known US theatrical release date. Confessions of a Window Cleaner was released in the US on November 8, 1974.

1984

Orion Pictures

• August 15 – The Woman in Red (USA, Orion Pictures)
• August 16 – Street Hero (AUS, Paul Dainty Films)
• August 17 – Dreamscape (USA, Zupnik-Curtis Enterprises)
• August 17 – Sheena (USA, Colgems Productions Ltd.)
• August 17 – Tightrope (USA, The Malpaso Company)

Street Hero has no known US theatrical release date.

1994

• August 17 – Andre (USA, The Kushner-Locke Company)
• August 18 – Nostradamus (Germany, Allied Entertainments Group PLC)
• August 19 – Blankman (USA, Wife N’ Kids)
• August 19 – Color of Night (USA, Hollywood Pictures)
• August 19 – Killing Zoe (USA, Davis-Films)
• August 19 – Prince of Jutland (Denmark, Les Films Ariane)

Nostradamus first opened in South Korea on July 2, 1994, and was released in the US on September 16, 1994. Color of Night first opened in Israel on January 1, 1994. Killing Zoe first opened in Japan on April 30, 1994. Prince of Jutland, also known as Royal Deceit, has no known US theatrical release date.

2004

Morgan Creek Productions

• August 18 – The Crop (AUS, Miracle Productions)
• August 19 – Tom White (AUS, Fandango Australia)
• August 20 – 11:14 (Italy, Firm Films)
• August 20 – Benji: Off the Leash! (USA, Mulberry Square Releasing)
• August 20 – Exorcist: The Beginning (USA/Canada, Morgan Creek Productions)
• August 20 – Nicotina (USA, Altavista Films)
• August 20 – Without a Paddle (USA/Canada, De Line Pictures)

The Crop and Tom White have no known US theatrical release dates. 11:14 was released in the US on August 12, 2005. Nicotina first opened in Mexico on October 3, 2003.

2014

• August 15 – Life After Beth (USA, limited, Abbolita Productions)
• August 15 – The Giver (USA/Canada, Tonik Productions)
• August 20 – Winter in the Blood (USA, Ranchwater Films)
• August 21 – The Reckoning (AUS, Reckoning Productions)

Life After Beth was first released in the US on the internet before its limited theatrical release. The Reckoning was released in the US on October 28, 2014.