Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #214 :: August 29 to September 4

Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions

It’s the final week of the Summer movie season heading into the Labor Day weekend in some decades. The early part of the century featured many new film releases including a 1934 film that paired Clark Gable and Joan Crawford, and a Hitchcock classic from 1954. The second half of the century had fewer films and more Golden Raspberry nominees than Oscar nominees and no real blockbusters. Scroll down to see what films were released this week across the decades, get some trivia about them, and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries this week.

1924

• August 30 – The Bowery Bishop (USA, Rellimeo Film Syndicate)
• August 30 – The Speed Spook (USA, C.C. Burr Productions)
• August 30 – Two Fisted Justice (USA, Ben Wilson Productions)
• August 31 – It Is the Law (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• August 31 – Ramshackle House (USA, Tilford Cinema Corporation)
• August 31 – The Female (USA, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)
• August 31 – Wine (USA, Universal Jewel)
• September – Sandra (USA, Associated First National Pictures)
• September – The Man Without a Heart (USA, Banner Productions)
• September 1 – Find Your Man (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• September 1 – The Breath of Scandal (USA, B.P. Schulberg Productions)
• September 1 – The Covered Wagon (UK, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)
• September 1 – The Fatal Mistake (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• September 1 – The Side Show of Life (USA, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)

The Covered Wagon was released in the US on September 8, 1924.

It Is the Law is adapted from the 1922 Broadway play of the same name by Elmer Rice, itself based on a novel by Hayden Talbot. It was the final film for director J. Gordon Edwards. The film was likely lost in the 1937 Fox film vault fire. Unlike the play, which is told in flashback, the film is presented in chronological order. The copyright on the film states it contains eight reels, but the release version only had seven reels.

Ramshackle House is based on the novel of the same name by Hulbert Footner. The film is presumed lost. The Female is based on the novel Dalla, the Lion Cub by Cynthia Stockley. It is considered a lost film as well. Wine featured Clara Bow in her first starring role but the film is considered lost.

Sandra is based on the novel by Pearl Doles Bell, and is considered a lost film though a trailer is preserved in the Library of Congress. Find Your Man survives and was transferred to 16mm film in the 1950s for television broadcast. The Breath of Scandal is based on the 1922 novel of the same title by Edwin Balmer, and is a lost film.

The Covered Wagon is based on a 1922 novel of the same name by Emerson Hough. The covered wagons gathered by Paramount from all over the Southwest were not replicas, but the real wagons that had brought the pioneers West. Most of the extras seen in the film were the families that owned the covered wagons. They were paid $2.00 a day and feed for their stock. The film survives and entered the public domain in 2019.

An incomplete copy of The Fatal Mistake is held at the Library of Congress. The Side Show of Life is based on the 1920 novel The Mountebank by William J. Locke. A print of the film is believed to exist in the Gosfilmofond archive in Moscow.

1934

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

• August 29 – Fighting Through (USA, Willis Kent Productions)
• August 29 – The Man from Hell (USA, Willis Kent Productions)
• August 30 – Crime Without Passion (USA, Hecht-MacArthur Productions)
• August 30 – The Party’s Over (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• August 31 – Chained (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• August 31 – Down to Their Last Yacht (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
• August 31 – Now and Forever (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• August 31 – She Loves Me Not (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• August 31 – The Fountain (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
• September – Badger’s Green (UK, British & Dominions Film Corporation)
• September – Evensong (UK, Gaumont British Picture Corporation)
• September – Money Mad (UK, Basil Humphrys Productions)
• September 1 – Dames (USA, The Vitaphone Corporation)
• September 1 – Embarrassing Moments (USA, Universal Pictures)
• September 1 – Gift of Gab (USA, Universal Pictures)
• September 1 – Happy Landing (USA, Paul Malvern Productions)
• September 1 – The Human Side (USA, Universal Pictures)
• September 1 – Million Dollar Ransom (USA, Universal Pictures)
• September 1 – One Exciting Adventure (USA, Universal Pictures)
• September 3 – Nine Forty-Five (UK, Warner Brothers-First National Productions)

Badger’s Green, Money Mad and Nine Forty-Five have no known US theatrical release dates. Evensong was released in New York City on November 16, 1934, followed by a general US release on December 15.

Though credited to Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, 60%-70% of Crime Without Passion was directed by cinematographer Lee Garmes.

Ward Bond and Mickey Rooney appeared in uncredited roles in Chained. It is the fifth of eight films to star Clark Gable and Joan Crawford. It was Crawford’s first film with cinematographer George J. Folsey, who discovered a lighting scheme that emphasized Crawford’s best features after noticing how the soft light of single small spotlight illuminated her eyes and cheekbones. Crawford was thrilled with the effect and demanded the same type of lighting for the rest of her career.

Producer Lou Brock directed a second unit of production for Down to Their Last Yacht but went considerably over budget. It was his last film for RKO.

Now and Forever is based on the story ‘Honor Bright’ by Jack Kirkland and Melville Baker. Fox loaned Shirley Temple to Paramount for $3,500 a week. It was the first film in which a stand-in was hired for Temple. Temple’s friend and co-star Dorothy Dell died in an auto accident during production but Temple was not told until just before a scene which required her to cry, so in effect the tears she is shedding are real.

She Loves Me Not is based on the novel of the same name by Edward Hope, and the play by Howard Lindsay. The film has been remade twice as True to the Army (1942) and How to Be Very, Very Popular (1955). Paramount planned to change the title to College Rhythm, but kept the original because of the notoriety of the novel and stage production. The film received a Best Original Song Oscar nomination for ‘Love in Bloom’, which became the theme song for Jack Benny. It was one of Bing Crosby’s earliest starring roles, and the last film for Miriam Hopkins under her Paramount contract.

The Fountain, based on the novel by Charles Morgan, is preserved in the Library of Congress.

Badger’s Green was adapted from the 1930 play of the same name by R.C. Sheriff. The film was produced as a ‘quota quickie’ for Paramount. The film is missing and on the BFI’s 75 Most Wanted list. The story was remade in 1949, and that version does survive.

Evensong is loosely based on the story of the singer Nellie Melba. It was the first film in which Alec Guinness appeared as an uncredited extra.

The musical sequences in Dames were designed, staged and directed by Busby Berkeley. Because of the newly enforced Production Code, a musical number about a cat and mouse featuring Joan Blondell that ended with Blondell inviting everyone to ‘come up and see my pussy sometime’ was removed from the script before it even went to the censors at the Hays Office.

The Three Stooges were to appear in Gift of Gab but had just signed a contract with Columbia Pictures for their first short, Woman Haters, so a look-alike trio were cast to replace them.

One Exciting Adventure is a remake of the 1933 German film What Women Dream. Nine Forty-Five was a quota quickie based on a play by Sewell Collins.

1944

• August 30 – Till We Meet Again (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• September – Barbary Coast Gent (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• September – Dark Mountain (USA, Pine-Thomas Productions)
• September 1 – Gunsmoke Mesa (USA, Alexander-Stern Productions)
• September 1 – Youth Runs Wild (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
• September 2 – Janie (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• September 2 – Oh, What a Night (USA, Monogram Pictures)
• September 2 – Our Hearts Were Young and Gay (USA, Paramount Pictures)

Barbary Coast Gent is also known as Gold Town, Honest Plush Brannon and The Honest Thief.

Dark Mountain is also known as Thunderbolt and Thunder Mountain. The original script, titled Thunder Mountain, was bought as a vehicle for Chester Morris but Morris had signed for another film, The Adventures of Jim Burke, and was replaced with Regis Toomey.

Gunsmoke Mesa was the 14th of the ‘Texas Rangers’ film series, and the last to feature James Newill as Jim Steele. He was replaced with Tex Ritter as Tex Haines.

Youth Runs Wild producer Val Lewton asked for his name to be removed from the credits after the final cut of the film differed greatly from the original version, but RKO denied the request. Also some actors whose names appear in the credits were not featured in the final cut of the film. Working titles for the film were The Dangerous Age, Look to Your Children and Are These Our Children? The film was inspired by a photo essay that appeared in Look magazine on September 21, 1943, but the publishers did not like the finished film and refused to promote it or allow the magazine’s name to be used in the credits, although some copies of the film do include a title credit.

Janie is based on a 1942 Broadway play by Josephine Bentham and Herschel V. Williams Jr., which was based on Bentham’s novel of the same name. Julie London and the Williams Brothers with Andy Williams appear in the film uncredited. The sequel Janie Gets Married was released two years later.

Our Hearts Were Young and Gay was based on the real life reminiscences of the comic misadventures of Emily Kimbrough and Cornelia Otis Skinner in their book of the same title. Kimbrough and Skinner contributed to the screenplay but received no credit. Skinner, however, did have a bit part in the film. The pair also unsuccessfully sued Paramount to prevent the making of a sequel. Our Hearts Were Growing Up was released in 1946.

1954

• September – Shield for Murder (USA, Camden Productions Inc.)
• September 1 – Rear Window (USA, Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions)
• September 1 – Romeo and Juliet (UK, J. Arthur Rank Productions)
• September 1 – The Shanghai Story (USA, Republic Pictures)
• September 1 – Tobor the Great (USA, Dudley Pictures Corporation)
• September 2 – The Black Dakotas (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• September 2 – The Black Shield of Falworth (USA, Universal International Pictures)
• September 3 – Down Three Dark Streets (USA, Edward Small Productions)
• September 3 – Private Hell 36 (USA, The Filmakers)
• September 4 – A Bullet Is Waiting (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• September 4 – Dragnet (USA, Mark VII Ltd.)
• September 4 – Jesse James’ Women (USA, Panorama)
• September 4 – Khyber Patrol (USA, Superior Pictures)

Romeo and Juliet was released in the US on December 21, 1954.

Shield for Murder star Edmund O’Brien co-directed the film, which was based on the novel of the same name by William P. McGivern.

Rear Window is based on Cornell Woolrich’s 1942 short story It Had to Be Murder. The film received four Academy Award nominations, including Best Director, and was added to the National Film Registry in 1997. Director Alfred Hitchcock makes his traditional cameo appearance in the songwriter’s apartment, where he is seen winding a clock. The entire courtyard set was built on a soundstage at Paramount, which was the largest of its kind built at the studio at the time. It featured a massive drainage system to accommodate the rain sequence in the film. It also had a nuanced lighting system that could replicate daylight and night scenes naturally. The address in the film is 125 W. Ninth Street, but the set was based on a real courtyard at 125 Christopher Street. Attention and detail were also given to the sounds and music that would drift across the courtyard. Franz Waxman is credited with the film’s score, though that was limited to the opening and closing credits as Hitchcock used diegetic sounds throughout the film. It was Waxman’s last score for Hitchcock.

Romeo and Juliet, based on Shakespeare’s tragedy, won the Golden Lion at the 15th Venice International Film Festival, and was nominated for three BAFTAs including Best Film and Outstanding British Film. The National Board of Review named it Best Foreign Film and awarded Renato Castellani Best Director. The film marked the debut of Susan Shentall as Juliet, but she married shortly after the shoot and never returned to acting. Despite the film’s acclaim, it was a flop at the box office.

The Shanghai Story is based on the novel by Lester Yard. It was one of the more prestigious releases from Republic Pictures.

The original Tobor prop and remote control from Tobor the Great still exists, having been stored away safely in a private collection for more than 50 years. A pilot episode for a TV series based on the film titled Here Comes Tobor was produced but was never aired and the series was not picked up. A sequel to the film was announced in 2011 to star Patrick Dempsey and Christopher Plummer, combining live-action and stop motion animation but no project has materialized.

The Black Dakotas features The Lone Ranger stars Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels in different roles, as well as Richard Webb of Captain Midnight.

The Black Shield of Falworth is based on Howard Pyle’s 1891 novel Men of Iron. The film was Universal International’s first in CinemaScope. It was the second of five films in which Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh starred during their marriage. The film is ‘famous’ for a line of dialogue attributed to Curtis spoken in his New York accent, ‘Yonda stands da castle of my fodda’, but the line does not appear in the film, nor does a ‘castle of my father’. Life magazine attributed the line to Curtis while performing in the 1951 film The Prince Who Was a Thief.

Down Three Dark Streets was based on the novel Case File: FBI by Gordon Gordon and Mildred Gordon, who wrote the screenplay with Bernard C. Schonefeld. J. Edgar Hoover objected to early drafts of the script.

The interiors of real bars and shops were used in Private Hell 36 so the actors could walk out into actual streets within the same scene.

Dragnet was adapted from the radio and TV series of the same name.

1964

• August 29 – Escape by Night (USA, Eternal Films)
• September – Devil Doll (USA, Gordon Films)
• September – The System (UK, Kenneth Shipman Productions)
• September 1 – Bullet for a Badman (USA, Universal Pictures)
• September 2 – The 7th Dawn (USA, Holdean)
• September 4 – Island of the Blue Dolphins (France, Robert B. Radnitz Productions)
• September 4 – Topkapi (France, Filmways Pictures)

Escape by Night was released in the UK in 1963 as Clash by Night. The System was released in the US on April 12, 1966 as The Girl-Getters. The 7th Dawn first opened in the UK on August 13, 1964. Island of the Blue Dolphins was released in the US on September 10, 1964. Topkapi was released in the US on September 17, 1964.

Escape by Night is based on the 1962 novel Clash by Night by Rupert Croft-Cooke.

Devil Doll was based on a story by Frederick E. Smith which was written for London Mystery Magazine, for which he was paid £10 and a condition upon cashing the check was that he surrendered all rights to the story. The film had to re-edited after completion to avoid an X-rating from the British Board of Film Censors. The film was featured in a 1997 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Julie Christie was to appear in The System but had to withdraw and was replaced with Julia Foster. Bullet for a Badman is based on the 1958 novel Renegade Posse by Marvin H. Albert.

The 7th Dawn is based on the 1960 novel The Durian Tree by Michael Keon. The film was originally intended to star William Holden and Audrey Hepburn but Hepburn was not interested and was replaced with Capucine, with whom Holden had previously worked and was not interested in working with again, leading many to speculate she would be replaced. She was not but many felt she was miscast. Susannah York initially refused to do a nude scene but on location the producers insisted. Someone with a long distance camera photographed her and the images were published in Playboy much to her dismay.

Island of the Blue Dolphins is based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Scott O’Dell.

Topkapi is based on Eric Ambler’s novel The Light of Day. Peter Ustinov won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Simpson. Director Jules Dassin wanted to cast Peter Sellers as Simpson but he refused to work with Maximilian Schell. Dassin preferred to keep Schell so Ustinov got the part. The film was the inspiration for the Mission: Impossible TV series, and the scene in the 1996 movie where Tom Cruise hangs by a wire in a secure room to access a computer.

1974

• August 29 – 99 and 44/100% Dead! (USA, Twentieth Century Fox)
• August 29 – Percy’s Progress (UK, Welbeck Films Ltd.)
• August 30 – Amazing Grace (USA, Matt Robinson Productions)
• September – Yackety Yack (AUS, Acme Films)
• September 4 – The Marseille Contract (France, Kettledrum Films)

Percy’s Progress, a sequel to 1971’s Percy, was released in the US on November 22, 1978 as It’s Not the Size That Counts. Yackety Yack has no known US theatrical release date. The Marseille Contract was released in the US on December 4, 1974 as The Destructors.

99 and 44/100% Dead! was released in the UK as Call Harry Crown. The title is a play on an advertising slogan for Ivory soap, ’99 and 44/100% Pure’. First announced in 1969, the film was originally to be directed by Setgio Leone and starring Marcello Mastroianni and Charles Bronson. John Frankenheimer eventually directed the film with Richard Harris and Chuck Connors.

Producer Betty Box only agreed to make Percy’s Progress with producer Nat Cohen if he financed a film about Byron and Shelley to be titled The Reckless Years. Once Percy’s Progress was made, Cohen reneged on the deal. The US version of the film includes several additional scenes shot by the American distributor, which include an opening scene of a penis transplant operation, and a scene in which a dwarf is seen jumping out of a woman’s bed, leaving her to say the film’s American title, ‘It’s not the size that counts.’

Moms Mabley suffered a heart attack while filming Amazing Grace, and had a pacemaker implanted, returning to complete the film three weeks later. It would be her last screen appearance. The film also featured cameos from Butterfly McQueen and Stepin Fetchit.

1984

C.H.U.D. Productions

• August 29 – Choose Me (USA, Tartan Productions)
• August 31 – Bolero (USA, City Films)
• August 31 – C.H.U.D. (USA, C.H.U.D. Productions)
• August 31 – Ellie (USA, Troma)
• August 31 – Flashpoint (USA, HBO Pictures)
• August 31 – Wo die grünen Ameisen träumen (West Germany, Werner Herzog Filmproduktion)

Wo die grünen Ameisen träumen was released in the US on February 8, 1985 as Where the Green Ants Dream.

Bolero executive producer Menahem Golan wanted director John Derek and star Bo Derek to make the film’s sex scenes more explicit, but the pair felt they were strong enough. The film was to be distributed by MGM as part of its deal with Cannon Films and Bo Derek screened the film for studio head Frank Yablans, who hated the film as much as all the other films Cannon was delivering to MGM. When producers refused to cut the film to avoid an X-rating, MGM dropped its distribution and Cannon released the film itself, unrated. Yablans used the quality of Bolero and the other films to use a breach of contract clause to terminate its distribution deal with Cannon. The film earned nine Golden Raspberry Award nominations, winning six including Worst Picture, Worst Actress, Worst Director and Worst Screenplay. It was also nominated for Worst Picture of the Decade but lost to Mommie Dearest.

C.H.U.D. features the film debut of Christopher Curry. The title is an abbreviation for Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers.

Ellie features appearances by Shelley Winters, George Gobel, Edward Albert and Pat Paulsen.

Flashpoint, based on the novel of the same name by George LaFountaine, was the directorial debut of William Tannen. It was the first theatrical film produced by HBO Pictures.

1994

• August 31 – Milk Money (The Kennedy/Marshall Company)
• August 31 – Only the Brave (USA, Pickpocket Productions)
• August 31 – Red Ted and the Great Depression (AUS, documentary)
• September 2 – A Simple Twist of Fate (USA, Touchstone Pictures)
• September 2 – Fresh (USA, Lumière Pictures)

Red Ted and the Great Depression has no known US theatrical release date.

The screenplay for Milk Money was sold to Paramount Pictures in 1992 for $1.1 million, a record for a romantic comedy spec script. Joe Dante was to direct but exited the project over disputes about the budget and his fee. Paramount wanted Dante to accept less than his normal fee and shoot the film in Canada with a non-union crew on a $14 million budget. The film was eventually shot in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Lebanon, Ohio with Richard Benjamin directing on a $20 million budget. The film’s screenplay earned a Razzie nomination but lost to The Flintstones.

The screenplay for A Simple Twist of Fate was written by Steve Martin, who also starred, and was loosely based on the 1861 novel Silas Marner by George Eliot.

Fresh was the directorial debut for Boaz Yakin. The film was marketed as the first hip hop ‘hood film, but went largely unnoticed by the general public while winning critical acclaim.

2004

Tempesta Films

• September 1 – 5×2 (France, Fidélité Productions)
• September 1 – Vanity Fair (USA, Tempesta Films)
• September 3 – Paparazzi (USA, Icon Entertainment)
• September 3 – Stage Beauty (UK, Qwerty Films)
• September 3 – The Cookout (USA, Capital Arts Entertainment)
• September 3 – Warriors of Heaven and Earth (USA, limited, Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia)
• September 3 – Wicker Park (USA, Lakeshore Entertainment)

5×2 received a limited US theatrical release on June 10, 2005 as Five Times Two. Stage Beauty was released in the US on October 29, 2004. Warriors of Heaven and Earth first opened in China on September 23, 2003.

Vanity Fair was adapted from William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1848 novel of the same name, which has been the subject of several film and television adaptations. The film had been in development for over ten years. Once the film was greenlit, it was supposed to be in pre-production for 18 weeks but the process and the filming had to be sped up when star Reese Witherspoon became pregnant. Robert Pattinson had a small role in the film as the grown up son of Witherspoon’s character, but discovered at the premiere that his scenes had been cut.

Paparazzi features cameos by Mel Gibson, who was one of the film’s producers, Chris Rock, Vince Vaughn and Matthew McConaughey.

Stage Beauty is based on the play Compleat Female Stage Beauty by Jeffrey Hatcher, who also wrote the screenplay.

The Cookout was the last film for both Carl Wright and Farrah Fawcett. The film became the inspiration for an all-Black alliance on Season 23 of Big Brother.

Wicker Park is a remake of the 1996 French film L’Appartement, which in turn is loosely based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The movie was partially filmed in Montreal and was nominated for the Grand Prix at the Montreal World Film Festival. The title refers to Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood.

2014

• August 29 – As Above, So Below (USA, Brothers Dowdle Productions)

The title As Above, So Below refers to the popular paraphrase of the second verse of the Emerald Tablet, and was loosely based on the nine circles of Hell from Dante Alighieri’s epic 14th-century poem Divine Comedy. The film was the first in a deal between Legendary and Universal Pictures, and went from pitch to director’s cut in seven months. With permission from French authorities, the film was shot in the real Paris catacombs, the first to shoot in the off-limits area. Some scenes were a surprise for the actors, such as the scene with the all-female choir singing naked in the catacombs. The cast was kept in a separate area while the scene was prepared. They knew their lines, they knew what was happening in the scene, and they were told to just go in that direction and it’ll happen.