Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #23 :: December 30 to January 5

AB Svensk Filmindustri

It’s an interesting week as we close out an old year and ring in a new in that there are no new releases between 1980-81 and 2010-11 (1940-41 is absent as well). The 1920a and 1930s only had a couple of releases, the most notable of which is a classic Swedish silent, and looking at the rest list the only ‘major’ title is a new Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis comedy. All of the Oscar heavy-hitters were released the previous week so there’s not much to write home about this week. But let’s take a stroll down Memory Lane to see if you remember any of this week’s new movies.

1920-1921

December 30 – The Pleasure Seekers

Cast: Elaine Hammerstein, James A. Furey, Webster Campbell, Marguerite Clayton, Frank Currier
Director: George Archainbaud
Studio: Selznick Pictures, distributed by Select Pictures
Trivia: The film is considered lost.

January 1 – The Phantom Carriage

Cast: Victor Sjöström, Hilda Borgström, Tore Svennberg, Astrid Holm, Concordia Selander, Lisa Lundholm, Einar Axelsson, Nils Aréhn, Olof Ås, Tor Weijden, Simon Lindstrand, Nils Elffors, John Ekman
Director: Victor Sjöström
Studio: AB Svensk Filmindustri
Trivia: The film opened in Sweden in 1921 but did not see a US theatrical release until February 1, 1922. Based on the novel Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness! (Körkarlen; 1912), by Nobel prize-winning Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf. The film is notable for its advanced narrative structure with flashbacks within flashbacks, and was a major influence on Ingmar Bergman. Also known as The Phantom Chariot, Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness! and The Stroke of Midnight (1922 US release). The set design was inspired by the Swedish town of Landskrona and Lagerlöf hoped filming would take place on location. Sjöström chose to shoot in studio for technical reasons. The film pioneered an in-camera double exposure effect for the ghosts that allowed them to move about in three dimensions. The process required the hand-cranked cameras to be cranked at the same rate for each exposure.

1930-1931

December 30 – Paid

Cast: Joan Crawford, Robert Armstrong, Marie Prevost, Douglass Montgomery, John Miljan, Purnell Pratt, Hale Hamilton, Robert Emmett O’Connor, Tyrell Davis, William Bakewell, George Cooper, Gwen Lee, Louise Beavers, Edward Brophy, Polly Moran
Director: Sam Wood
Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Trivia: Adapted from the 1912 play Within the Law by Bayard Veller, and was the fourth film version. The film was remade in Bollywood in 1969 as Intaqam.

January 3 – The Criminal Code

Cast: Walter Huston, Phillips Holmes, Constance Cummings, Boris Karloff, DeWitt Jennings, Mary Doran, Ethel Wales, Clark Marshall, Arthur Hoyt, John St. Polis, Paul Porcasi, Otto Hoffman, John Sheehan
Director: Howard Hawks
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Trivia: Based on the 1929 play by Martin Flavin. The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. This was the first of three film adaptations. Boris Karloff reprised his stage role in the film, helping to accelerate his career. Stock footage from the film was used in 1932’s Behind the Mask, which also featured Cummings and Karloff. While an early sound film, Hawks makes a sophisticated use of sound including overlapping dialogue.

1940

No new films were released this week in 1940.

1950

December 30 – Dallas

Cast: Gary Cooper, Ruth Roman, Steve Cochran, Raymond Massey, Barbara Payton, Leif Erickson, Antonio Moreno, Jerome Cowan, Reed Hadley
Director: Stuart Heisler
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Trivia: A novelization of the screenplay by Will F. Jenkins was issued concurrent with the film. Jenkins is better known by his pseudonym Murray Leinster, who is considered a pioneer in the Golden Age of Science Fiction.

Paramount Pictures

December 31 – At War with the Army

Cast: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Mike Kellin, Angela Greene, Tommy Farrell, Polly Bergen, Jean Ruth, William Mendrek, Douglas Evans, Kenneth Forbes, Danny Dayton, Paul Livermore, Frank Hyers, Ty Perry, Jimmie Dundee, Dick Stabile, Dewey Robinson, Joe Gray
Director: Hal Walker
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Trivia: Based on the play by James B. Allardice, with Mike Kelling and Kenneth Forbes reprising their stage roles. The film opened on New Year’s Eve 1950 in San Francisco before expanding nationwide on January 17, 1951. The film was re-released in 1958. Filmed before My Friend Irma Goes West, the film was held until after that film was released. Under their contract with Paramount, Martin & Lewis were allowed to make one film a year through their own production company, York Productions. With this film, the stars took a small salary in exchange for 90% of the profits. The duo were embroiled in a long legal battle upon the film’s release, and after several years relinquished all financial interest in the film in exchange for not making any more ‘outside the studio’ films. The copyright lapsed in 1977 and the film fell into public domain. A later Martin & Lewis film, Sailor Beware, had the working title At Sea with the Navy.

1961

January – Nude on the Moon

Cast: Marietta, William Mayer, Lester Brown, Pat Reilly, Ira Magee
Director: Raymond Phelan, Doris Wishman
Studio: J.E.R. Pictures Inc.
Trivia: The film’s exact release date is unknown. The directors are credited under their pseudonyms ‘O.O. Miller’ and ‘Anthony Brooks’. This was the second of eight nudist films produced and directed by Wishman. The moon sequences were shot at Coral Castle in Homestead, Florida. The film has developed a cult following. The B-52’s, whose lead singer Fred Schneider befriended Wishman in her later years, released an anthology of their music under the title Nude on the Moon. Electronica duo Tipsy released an album in 1996 titled Trip Tease which included the track ‘Nude on the Moon’, which had a ‘naked volleyball mix’.

1970-1971

December 31 – Loot

Cast: Richard Attenborough, Lee Remick, Hywel Bennett, Milo O’Shea, Roy Holder, Dick Emery, Joe Lynch, John Cater, Aubrey Woods, Enid Lowe, Harold Innocent, Kevin Brennan, Andonia Katsaros, Jean Marlow, Robert Raglan, Hal Galili, Douglas Ridley, Stephen Yardley, Edwin Finn
Director: Silvio Narizzano
Studio: Performing Arts, distributed by British Lion Film Corporation
Trivia: Based on the play by Joe Orton.

January 1 – Punishment Park

Cast: Mark Keats, Gladys Golden, Sanford Golden, Sigmund Rich, George Gregory, Katherine Quittner, Carmen Argenziano, Mary Ellen Kleinhall, Stanford Armstead, Patrick Boland, Kent Foreman, Luke Johnson, Scott Turner, Norman Sinclair, Paul Rosenstein
Director: Peter Watkins
Studio: Chartwell, Francoise, distributed by Project X Distribution
Trivia: The film was shot in a documentary style with amateur actors, improvisation and newsreel footage but with Watkins having tight control over the editing to fully involve the audience. A detailed script was written but Watkins allowed the actors to improvise based on their own instinctive reactions while following a rough outline. One on occasion, an actor was so involved in a scene that they actually threw a rock at their pursuers, resulting in one firing shots in return. The panic of the film team was real, believing the actors had actually been shot. The film was shot in less than three weeks at a cost of $95,000, including the transfer from 16mm to 35mm film.

January 1 – Something Big

Cast: Dean Martin, Brian Keith, Carol White, Honor Blackman, Ben Johnson, Albert Salmi, Don Knight, Joyce Van Patten, Judi Meredith, Denver Pyle, Merlin Olsen, Robert Donner, Harry Carey, Jr., Paul Fix, Bob Steele
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen
Studio: National General Pictures