Punch Productions
The second week of March across the decades was a lackluster one for new movies, with 1935 having the largest number of releases including a notable musical and a comedy whose star was in two other films that year, all of them competing for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. A 1965 film could have been notable for a nude scene by its female star, but her husband wouldn’t let it happen. 1975 had a notable ‘giallo’ film from Italy, and 1995 had a medical horror film that became eerily prescient 25 years later. 2015’s ‘biggest’ film included some groundbreaking visual effects, but was unable to spawn its intended trilogy. Scroll down the list to see all of the films that premiered this week, and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries.
1925
- March 8 – Galloping Vengeance (USA, Independent Pictures)
- March 9 – The Great Circus Mystery (USA, serial, Universal Pictures)
- March 11 – The Shield of Silence (USA, William Steiner)
The survival status of these films is unknown.
1935
Paramount Pictures
- March 8 – Big Calibre (USA, Supreme Pictures)
- March 8 – Roberta (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
- March 8 – Ruggles of Red Gap (USA, Paramount Pictures)
- March 8 – Times Square Lady (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
- March 9 – While the Patient Slept (USA, First National Pictures)
- March 9 – Wilderness Mail (USA, Conn Pictures Corporation)
- March 11 – Behind the Green Lights (USA, Mascot Pictures)
- March 11 – The Crimson Trail (USA, Buck Jones Productions)
Roberta, the third film with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, was an adaptation of the 1933 Broadway musical Roberta, which in turn was based on the novel Gowns by Roberta by Alice Duer Miller. While keeping several songs from the show, many were dropped and replaced. One new song, ‘Lovely to Look At’, was Oscar nominated for Best Original Song. A platinum blonde Lucille Ball makes her first appearance in an RKO film. It was the first Astaire-Rogers film to be remade with different actors in MGM’s 1952 Technicolor version, Lovely to Look At. MGM had purchased the rights to Roberta in 1945 with the intention of producing a remake and kept the original film out of circulation until the 1970s. The rehearsal period for Roberta lasted nine weeks, and production was postponed to accommodate the marriage of Ginger Rogers and Lew Ayres.
Ruggles of Red Gap was Oscar nominated for Best Picture against two other films at the time that also starred Charles Laughton — Les Misérables and Mutiny on the Bounty, which took home the prize. The film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2014.
1945
- March 8 – A Guy, a Gal and a Pal (USA, Columbia Pictures)
- March 9 – See My Lawyer (USA, Universal Pictures)
See My Lawyer is based on the 1939 musical of the same name by Richard Maibaum and Harry Clork.
1955
- March 12 – New York Confidential (USA, Edward Small Productions)
New York Confidential was inspired by the 1948 book New York: Confidential! by Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer.
1965
- March 6 – Nightmare in the Sun (USA, Afilmco Productions)
- March 12 – Those Calloways (UK, Walt Disney Productions)
Nightmare in the Sun features a cameo by Sammy Davis Jr., and an early performance by Robert Duvall. Star John Derek was given a co-producer credit so he would allow his wife Ursula Andress would do a nude scene, but when it came time to do the scene Derek changed his mind.
Though Those Calloways premiered in Atlanta, Georgia on January 28, 1965, the film was not released in the US until November 5. It marks the last credit for composer Max Steiner.
1975
Seda Spettacoli
- March 7 – Profondo rosso (Italy, Seda Spettacoli)
- March 7 – Zerkalo (USSR, Mosfilm)
- March 7 – The Firm Man (AUS, Australia Council for the Arts)
- March 12 – F for Fake (France, Les Films de l’Astrophore)
Profondo rosso was released in the US on June 11, 1976 as Deep Red (US home video title was Deep Red Hatchet Murders). Zerkalo was released in the US on August 17, 1983 as Mirror. The Firm Man has no known US theatrical release date. F for Fake had a limited US theatrical release on January 7, 1977.
Profondo rosso was the first collaboration between director Dario Argento, actress Daria Nicolodi and Goblin, the group that composed the film’s score. It was the last giallo film for Argento before 1982’s Tenebre, which came years after the genre’s heyday. The film was shot on location in Turin, with some scenes filmed in Rome and Perugia. Argento chose Turin because at the time it was the European city with the most practicing Satanists, outside of Lyon in France. The film’s working title was La Tigre dei Denti a Sciabola (The Sabre-Toothed Tiger). The close-up shots of the killer’s hands, clad in black leather gloves, were performed by Argento himself, because he felt it would be quicker than teaching an actor how to do all of the moves. Carlo Rambaldi, known later for his work on Alien, created the numerous mechanical heads and body parts. As was common at the time, the film was shot without sync sound, and all of the dialogue was dubbed in post-production. The screenplay was written in both Italian and English, and all of the actors except for Clara Calamai spoke English, though most of the voices were dubbed by other actors in both languages. Star David Hemmings did his own dubbing.
Orson Welles shot and edited a nine-minute ‘trailer’ for F for Fake which was made up almost entirely of footage not in the 88-minute film.
1985
- March 8 – The Hit (USA, Zenith Entertainment)
- March 8 – Wetherby (UK, Zenith Entertainment)
The Hit first opened in the UK on September 7, 1984. Wetherby was released in the US on July 19, 1985.
The Hit featured the film debut of Tim Roth. It was Terence Stamp’s first starring role in over a decade. Judi Dench received a Best Actress in a Supporting Role BAFTA nomination for Wetherby.
1995
- March 10 – Outbreak (USA, Punch Productions)
- March 10 – The Final Stage (AUS, Boulevard Films)
The Final Stage has no known US theatrical release date.
Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson were offered the role of Sam Daniels in Outbreak, but all turned it down. The role eventually went to Dustin Hoffman. Producer Lynda Obst has stated that production on Outbreak caused Fox to drop her adaptation of the novel The Hot Zone, and Outbreak‘s director Wolfgang Petersen had also tried to lure Robert Redford away from The Hot Zone, even though he had already been cast. The Hot Zone was eventually made as a TV miniseries for National Geographic in 2019. The film became the fourth most streamed movie on Netflix in March 2020 due to the COVID pandemic.
2005
- March 10 – Robots (Puerto Rico, Blue Sky Studios)
- March 11 – Hostage (USA, Miramax)
- March 12 – The Comeback Kings (AUS, Film Buff Productions)
Robots was released in Canada on March 11, 2005, and in the US on March 27. The Comeback Kings has no known US theatrical release date.
2015
Simon Kinberg Productions
- March 6 – A Year in Champagne (USA, documentary, Samuel Goldwyn Films)
- March 6 – Bad Asses on the Bayou (USA, Sense and Sensibility Ventures)
- March 6 – Chappie (USA/Canada/UK, Simon Kinberg Productions)
- March 6 – Faults (USA, Snoot Entertainment)
- March 6 – Road Hard (USA, limited, Sontalia)
- March 6 – Unfinished Business (USA/Canada/UK, New Regency Productions)
Chappie first opened in Belgium and France on March 4, 2015. Unfinished Business first opened in Malaysia on March 3, 2015.
Bad Asses on the Bayou is also known as Bad Ass 3 (yes, it’s the third part of a trilogy).
Sharlto Copley acted out the character of Chappie with the cast and provided the voice, but the visual effects supervisor has stated motion capture was not used, rather Copley’s performance served as a reference for the VFX artists creating and animating the robotic character, replacing the actor with the CGI Chappie. Writer-Director Neil Blomkamp wrote Chappie as a trilogy if the sequels were economically feasible. The film did not perform well enough to warrant making more films.
Faults was the feature directorial debut of Riley Stearns. Road Hard was the last film for Windell Middlebrooks, who died three days after the film premiered.