Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #216 :: September 12•18

Brooklyn Films II

The Autumn movie season is in full swing but we didn’t get many memorable films until later in the century. This week in 1964 saw the release of two major production, one that launched its lead into stardom, and another that became a blueprint for the other films in its series that followed. 1984 saw the release of two critically acclaimed films, one of which got the attention of the Oscars. 1994 saw the release of two action classic and one film that earned major awards for its lead actress. 2004 produced a groundbreaking film that has become a cult classic, and 2014 gave us the final chapter in a trilogy based on a controversial novel, and an indie film with two stars from Saturday Night Live. Scroll down the list to see all the films that were released this week, and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries.

1924

• September 14 – Chalk Marks (USA, Peninsula Studios)
• September 14 – The Cyclone Rider (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• September 14 – The Luck o’ the Foolish (USA, short, Mack Sennett Comedies)
• September 14 – The Turmoil (USA, Universal Jewel)
• September 15 – Biff Bang Buddy (USA, Approved Pictures)
• September 15 – Empty Hearts (USA, Banner Productions)
• September 15 – Fast and Fearless (USA, Action Pictures)
• September 15 – Sinners in Heaven (USA, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)
• September 15 – The Clean Heart (USA, Vitagraph Company of America)
• September 15 – The Fire Patrol (USA, Hunt Stromberg Productions)
• September 15 – The Man Who Fights Alone (USA, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)
• September 15 – The Price She Paid (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• September 15 – Wine of Youth (USA, Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corporation)
• September 15 – Yolanda (USA, Cosmopolitan Productions)
• September 17 – Tarnish (USA, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation)

Considered lost: Chalk Marks, Sinners in Heaven, The Man Who Fights Alone, Tarnish.

Prints of The Cyclone Rider survive in the Czech Film Archive. The Turmoil is based on the novel by Booth Tarkington, and is preserved at the UCLA Film and Television Archive. An incomplete print of Empty Hearts is held by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Two of five reels of Fast and Fearless are preserved at the Library of Congress.

The Fire Patrol was based upon the 1891 play of the same name by James W. Harkins and Edwin Barbour. A copy is preserved at La Corse Et Le Cinema, Porto Vecchio. A copy of The Price She Paid is held at the George Eastman House. Wine of Youth is one of the first films released by the newly conglomerated Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and is preserved at George Eastman House.

Yolanda began production in 1923 as a Metro-Goldwyn film before becoming Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1924. The film was based on the novel of the same name by Charles Major, and the second film based on a Major novel starring Marion Davies. A copy of the film exists at Cinematheque de Belgique and the Museum of Modern Art and a trailer survives at the Library of Congress.

1934

Columbia Pictures

• September 12 – Charlie Chan in London (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• September 14 – Death on the Diamond (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• September 14 – The Age of Innocence (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
• September 15 – British Agent (USA, First National Pictures)
• September 15 – King Kelly of the U.S.A. (USA, Monogram Pictures)
• September 15 – One in a Million (USA, Invincible Pictures)
• September 15 – One Night of Love (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• September 15 – Tangled Evidence (AUS, Julius Hagen Productions)
• September 17 – The Bedroom Diplomat (UK, Sound City)
• September 18 – The Scarlet Letter (USA, Larry Darmour Productions)

Tangled Evidence and The Bedroom Diplomat have no known US theatrical release dates.

Charlie Chan in London is the sixth film produced by Fox with Warner Oland as the detective, and the second not to be lost, after The Black Camel (1931). The Age of Innocence is an adaptation of the 1920 novel of the same name by Edith Wharton. This was one of only two films directed by Philip Moeller. British Agent is based on Memoirs of a British Agent, the 1932 autobiography of R. H. Bruce Lockhart. King Kelly of the U.S.A. features singer Guy Robertson in his only feature film appearance.

One Night of Love was adapted from the story Don’t Fall in Love, by Charles Beahan and Dorothy Speare. The complete proscenium and part of the wings and seating plan of the Metropolitan Opera House were duplicated for this production and occupied the whole of Columbia’s largest sound stage. The film was the first to win an Oscar for Best Original Score. It also won for Sound Recording and received a Scientific or Technical Award for its use of the Vertical Cut Disc Method of sound recording. It was also nominated for Outstanding Production, Best Directing, Best Actress (Grace Moore) and Best Film Editing.

The Scarlet Letter is based on the 1850 novel of the same name by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is the first sound version of the story. The film has been preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

1944

• September 12 – Strangers in the Night (USA, Republic Pictures)
• September 14 – Casanova Brown (USA/Mexico, International Pictures)
• September 14 – Ever Since Venus (USA, Larry Darmour Productions)
• September 14 – That’s My Baby! (USA, Walter Colmes Productions)
• September 15 – Atlantic City (USA, Republic Pictures)
• September 15 – San Fernando Valley (USA, Republic Pictures)
• September 15 – Stagecoach to Monterey (USA, Republic Pictures)
• September 15 – The Merry Monahans (USA, Universal Pictures)
• September 16 – Land of the Outlaws (USA, Monogram Pictures)

Casanova Brown is based on the 1927 novel An Unmarried Father by Floyd Dell and the 1928 play Little Accident by Dell and Thomas Mitchell, which had been previously filmed by Universal Pictures in 1930 as The Little Accident and in 1939 as Little Accident. The film earned three Oscar nominations for Best Score, Sound Recording and Art Direction.

Ever Since Venus was the first starring role for Ina Ray Hutton, who was known for her all-female band which served as the inspiration for the band in Some Like It Hot.

Atlantic City was reissued in 1950 as Atlantic City Honeymoon. It was the most expensive film in Republic Pictures’ history. Land of the Outlaws is the eleventh film in the ‘Marshal Nevada Jack McKenzie’ series.

1954

• September 12 – Two Guns and a Badge (USA, Silvermine Productions)
• September 13 – Profile (UK, Major Pictures)
• September 14 – The Purple Plain (UK, Two Cities Films)
• September 17 – Rogue Cop (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• September 17 – Silent Raiders (USA, L&B Productions)

Profile has no known US theatrical release date. The Purple Plain was released in the US on April 10, 1955.

The Purple Plain was based on the 1947 novel of the same name by H. E. Bates. It was nominated for two BAFTA Awards. Rogue Cop was the last film Janet Leigh made under her contract with MGM, where she had been for eight years.

1964

United Artists

• September 12 – A Fistful of Dollars (Italy, Jolly Film)
• September 16 – The Secret Invasion (USA, San Carlos Productions)
• September 17 – Robinson Crusoe (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• September 18 – Diary of a Bachelor (USA, American International Pictures)
• September 18 – Goldfinger (UK, United Artists)

A Fistful of Dollars was released in the US on January 18, 1967. It started the popular spaghetti Western genre in the US, followed by For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. All three films were released in order in the US in 1967, catapulting actor Clint Eastwood to stardom. Toho successfully sued the producers after director Akira Kurosawa noted many similarities to his film Yojimbo. He and Toho received 15% of the film’s profits, with many believing Kurosawa made more money from the settlement than he did from his own film.

Goldfinger is the third film in the James Bond series, and based on the 1959 Ian Fleming novel of the same name. The film brought Bond into focus, introducing many elements which have become mainstays of the franchise including high tech gadgets, a pre-credits sequence that generally stood alone from the film’s plot, foreign locales and tongue-in-cheek humor. It was the first Bond film to win an Oscar (Best Sound Editing). Desmond Llewelyn, who plays Q, did not receive a credit in the opening sequence. He played the role in the next 16 Bond films except for Live and Let Die. The third Bond film was supposed to be On Her Majesty’s Secret Service but there was not enough time to plan for the location shooting in Switzerland, so it was put on hold. And with Fleming and Kevin McClory still in court fighting over rights to Thunderball, Goldfinger was chosen to be the third film. The film’s $3 million budget was the equivalent of the first two films combined. Filming began in Miami Beach, Florida, but Sean Connery was busy filming on location for Marnie and never traveled to Miami. Of the main cast, only Cec Linder, who played Felix Leiter, was at the Miami location. After five days in the US, the bulk of the film was shot at Pinewood Studios in England. Additional location filming did take place in Switzerland, and producer Cubby Broccoli was given permission to film in the Fort Knox area, but no one was allowed near or inside the United States Bullion Depository, with the interiors seen in the film designed from the imagination of Ken Adam. Aston Martin was convinced to make a product placement deal after initial reluctance. The car in the original script was armed only with a smoke screen, but crew members kept suggesting new ideas for different gadgets to be installed. Lasers did not exist when Fleming wrote the original novel, having Goldfinger use a circular saw to try to kill Bond, but a laser was used in the film to give it a more modern feel. The laser beam was a special effect added in post-production. The model jet used for wide shots of Goldfinger’s Lockheed JetStar was painted differently on the right side to be used as the presidential plane that crashes at the film’s end. Shirley Bassey sang the movie’s theme song and is still the only artist to have sung three Bond film themes including ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ and ‘Moonraker’. Goldfinger was the first Bond movie to premiere on the ABC network in the US, starting a nearly 20-year relationship with the film series.

1974

• September 13 – Homebodies (USA, Cinema Entertainment)
• September 14 – The Dove (USA)

Homebodies was filmed on location in Cincinnati, Ohio with a cast of veteran actors and actresses who had appeared in a collective 900 films but were receiving top billing for the first time in their careers.

The Dove was the third and final film produced by Gregory Peck. The story is adapted from the book Dove by Robin Lee Graham, which documents his real-life experience of sailing around the world as a single-handed sailor starting at the age of 16. Filming began with the title Here There Be Dragons. That title was changed because it was believed audiences would think it was a martial arts film. Upon a Painted Ocean was considered before settling on The Dove. The film was shot on location around the world over a four-month period with a 32-person crew.

1984

• September 13 – My First Wife (AUS)
• September 14 – A Soldier’s Story (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• September 14 – Secret Honor (USA)
• September 14 – The Brother from Another Planet (USA, A-Train Films)

A Soldier’s Story is adapted from Charles Fuller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play A Soldier’s Play. Fuller also wrote the screenplay. Denzel Washington, who was still in the early stage of his career, has a supporting role. Several actors reprise their roles from the play. The film earned three Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Screenplay and Supporting Actor (Adolph Caesar). No studio wanted to make the film, and while Columbia Pictures was interested the studio was concerned about the film’s profitability. Director Norman Jewison offered to do the film on a $5 million budget and no salary but the DGA insisted he have a fee so he took the lowest possible amount. Many of the cast members worked for scale or less. The film earned $22.1 million. Howard Rollins Jr. was cast after earning an Oscar nomination for Ragtime. The film was shot entirely in Arkansas. Then-governor Bill Clinton stopped by the set and was enthused by the production, providing the Arkansas Army National Guard in full regalia for one scene.

The Brother from Another Planet fell into the public domain following an error in proper copyright protocols. Star Joe Morton earned high praise for his performance which featured no dialogue, forcing him to communicate through facial expressions and body language. The film was shot primarily at night in Harlem. For a scene at the Baby Grand nightclub in which the filmmakers needed a smoky atmosphere but could not afford a smoke machine, gaffers smoked cigarettes and blew smoke behind actress Dee Dee Bridgewater. Permits were difficult to obtain for filming in the subway so a scene in which ‘The Brother’ looks out the window of a moving subway car was shot illicitly with a hidden camera inside a working subway car.

1994

• September 14 – Léon: The Professional (France, Gaumont)
• September 15 – Spider and Rose (AUS, Dendy Films)
• September 16 – Blue Sky (USA, Orion Pictures)
• September 16 – Princess Caraboo (USA/UK, Ardican Films)
• September 16 – Timecop (USA, Largo Entertainment)

Léon: The Professional, simply titled Leon outside the US) was released in the US on November 14, 1994. Spider and Rose was screened at the Palm Springs International Film Festival but has no known US theatrical release date.

Léon: The Professional features the film debut of Natalie Portman.

Jessica Lange won an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a SAG Award for Best Actress for Blue Sky. It was the final film of director Tony Richardson, who died before the film was released.

Timecop is based on a story of the same title by Mike Richardson, written by Mark Verheiden, and drawn by Ron Randall, which appeared in the anthology comic Dark Horse Comics. The film is still Jean Claude Van Damme’s highest grossing film and his second to cross $100 million worldwide.

2004

• September 16 – Somersault (AUS, Red Carpet Productions)
• September 17 – Head in the Clouds (USA, limited, Remstar Productions)
• September 17 – Mr. 3000 (USA, Touchstone Pictures)
• September 17 – Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (USA, Brooklyn Films II)
• September 17 – Trauma (UK/Ireland)
• September 17 – Wimbledon (USA/Canada, StudioCanal)

Somersault received a limited US release on April 14, 2006. Trauma premiered in the US on DVD on June 14, 2005.

John Travolta was offered the role of Stan Ross in Mr. 3000, but turned it down as he was busy doing promotional work for Qantas. Bernie Mac got the part.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was the directorial debut of Kerry Conran, who also wrote the film. It was one of the first film to be shot entirely against blue screens, blending actors with CG surroundings created by nearly 100 digital artists, modelers, animators and compositors. Conran spent four years making a black-and-white teaser with a blue screen in his living room and a Macintosh IIci personal computer. The entire movie was sketched out with hand-drawn storyboards which were turned into 3D animatics, and grids were created to map the camera and actor movements. The grids were then converted into actual maps on the blue screen stage to help the actors move around invisible scenery. Ten months before shooting with the cast, Conran shot the entire film with stand-ins so the actors had an idea of what the film would look like and where to move on the soundstage. The entire film was shot in 26 days. One scene was added which was written after production ended that was filmed on a physical set because there was no time to shoot it on the blue screen stage. Most of the effects were composited with Adobe After Effects and the film was edited with Final Cut Pro. The distinctive look of the film was achieved by running footage through a diffusion filter and then tinting it in black and white before color was blended, balanced and added back in. The film’s villain was played by Laurence Olivier, who died in 1989. Digitally manipulated archival footage from the BBC was used to add one more film to his credit.

2014

Duplass Brothers Productions

• September 12 – Atlas Shrugged Part III: Who Is John Galt? (USA, limited, Atlas 3 Productions)
• September 12 – Dolphin Tale 2 (USA/Canada, Alcon Entertainment)
• September 12 – No Good Deed (USA/Canada, Will Packer Productions)
• September 12 – Open Windows (Turkey, Apaches Entertainment)
• September 12 – The Boxtrolls (UK/Ireland)
• September 12 – The Skeleton Twins (USA, limited, Duplass Brothers Productions)
• September 18 – The Infinite Man (AUS, Infinite Releasing)

Dolphin Tale 2 first opened in international markets including Brazil, Chile and Russia on September 11, 2014. No Good Deed first opened in Thailand and other international markets on September 11, 2014. Open Windows premiered on the internet in the US on October 2, 2014. The Boxtrolls was released in the US and Canada on September 26, 2014. The Skeleton Twins first opened in New Zealand on September 11, 2014. The Infinite Man received a limited US theatrical release on March 14, 2015.

Atlas Shrugged Part III: Who Is John Galt? is based on Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged, and used a completely different cast from the second film, which used a completely different cast than the first film.

In the original script for The Skeleton Twins, the character of Milo (Bill Hader) was to be a drag queen and the film would be more like a road movie, but it was decided to take a more low-key approach like the films of Hal Ashby and Alexander Payne. The two main characters lip sync to Starship’s ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’, but the original song was to be ‘Hold On’ by Wilson Phillips which had already played a big part in Bridesmaids so the song was replaced.