Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #256 :: June 19•25

This was a pretty huge week for new movie premieres, including the film that launched the Summer Blockbuster. A 1925 film is considered to be one of the many made that is closest to its source material. 1945 and 1955 both had films starring a popular comedy team. 1955 also has one classic that put its star’s health in danger, and a second that was groundbreaking in the world of animation. 1965 saw a famous married couple team up again, while another film won its lead an Oscar for playing dual roles. 1975 gave us that first Summer Blockbuster and instantly made its director a star. A 1985 movie revisited a classic story with a decidedly darker tone, while a 1995 animated film attempted to tell a true story but took creative liberties to keep audiences engaged. A 2005 film tried to reimagine a classic TV comedy and failed miserably, and another animated film in 2015 has been hailed as one of the greatest ever. Scroll down to see the films that premiered this week and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries.

1925

• June 20 – The Adventures of Algy (AUS, Beaumont Smith’s Productions)
• June 21 – High and Handsome (USA, Robertson-Cole Pictures Corporation)
• June 21 – She (Portugal, Prometheus Film)
• June 21 – The Desert Flower (USA, First National Pictures)
• June 21 – The Human Tornado (USA, Robertson-Cole Pictures Corporation)
• June 21 – The Man in Blue (USA, Universal Pictures)
• June 22 – The Light of Western Stars (USA, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)
• June 25 – The Speed Demon (USA, Bud Barsky Corporation)

The Adventures of Algy has no known US theatrical release date. She was released in the US on July 7, 1926.

Lost films: The Light of Western Stars

Unknown status: High and Handsome, The Desert Flower, The Human Tornado, The Speed Demon

The Adventures of Algy was an unofficial follow-up to Hullo Marmaduke. The film was shot on location in New Zealand and Sydney. Most of the movie survives today.

She author H. Rider Haggard wrote the intertitles for the film himself, but he died before getting to see the finished film. The film exists today in its complete form. The film’s 95-minute running time was cut down to 69 minutes for the US release. This version is the most faithful to Haggard’s novel.

The Desert Flower star Colleen Moore injured her vertebra during production, requiring her to be placed in a cast for six weeks which delayed filming. The Man in Blue is preserved in the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

1935

• June 19 – Stranded (New York City, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• June 20 – The Dawn Rider (USA, Paul Malvern Productions)
• June 20 – The Outlaw Deputy (USA, Nat Ross Productions)
• June 20 – Vintage Wine (London, Julius Hagen Productions)
• June 21 – Charlie Chan in Egypt (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• June 21 – College Scandal (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• June 21 – Jubilee Window (London, British & Dominions Film Corporation)
• June 21 – The Girl Who Came Back (London, Chesterfield Motion Pictures Corporation)
• June 21 – Unknown Woman (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• June 22 – Ladies Crave Excitement (USA, Mascot Pictures)
• June 23 – Society Fever (London, Invincible Pictures Corporation)
• June 24 – Lazybones (UK, Julius Hagen Productions)
• June 24 – The Riverside Murder (UK, Fox Film Company)

Stranded entered wide release in the US on June 29, 1935. Vintage Wine has no known US theatrical release date. Jubilee Window received a wide UK release from November 11, 1935, and made its TV debut on a local Detroit station on June 26, 1949. The Girl Who Came Back was released in the US on September 20, 1935. Society Fever was released in the US on July 15, 1935, and went into wide release in the UK on December 23. Lazybones made its US debut at a screening at the Museum of Modern Art on January 2, 1981. The Riverside Murder had its US debut on television in Cincinnati, Ohio on May 9, 1953.

The Dawn Rider has been released on DVD in a colorized version retitled Cold Vengeance. Charlie Chan in Egypt is the eighth of sixteen Charlie Chan films from 20th Century Fox starring Warner Oland in the title role.

Lazybones was produced as a quota quickie at a time when studios in the UK worked through the night. The film’s leading actors were both in plays in London and would report to the studio following their performances to film their roles.

The Riverside Murder marked the film debut of Alastair Sim. It is based on the 1931 novel The Six Dead Men by Belgian author Stanislas-André Steeman, which was later adapted into the 1941 French film The Last of the Six. The 1935 film’s setting was shifted from France to London.

1945

• June 19 – Bells of Rosarita (USA, Republic Pictures)
• June 19 – Captain Eddie (USA, Eureka Productions Inc.)
• June 19 – Those Endearing Young Charms (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
• June 20 – The Naughty Nineties (New York City, Universal Pictures)
• June 21 – A Bell for Adano (USA, Twentieth Century Fox)
• June 21 – Blonde from Brooklyn (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• June 22 – Handling Ships (UK, documentary, Halas and Batchelor Cartoon Films)
• June 22 – Penthouse Rhythm (USA, Universal Pictures)
• June 22 – Scared Stiff (USA, Pine-Thomas Productions)
• June 23 – Murder, He Says (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• June 25 – Flame of the West (USA, Monogram Pictures)

The Naughty Nineties opened in wide release in the US on July 6, 1945. Handling Ships was released in the US on July 13, 1945.

The US Army Air Force cooperated with the production of Captain Eddie, primarly with a loan of a B-17F from the AAF’s First Motion Picture Unit in Culver City, California. The film was Oscar-nominated for Best Special Effects.

RKO borrowed Robert Young from MGM to appear with Laraine Day in her first starring vehicle, Those Endearing Young Charms. The studio also borrowed director Lewis Allen from Paramount. The other roles were filled with RKO contract players.

The Naughty Nineties is famous for containing the filmed version of Abbott & Costello’s famous ‘Who’s on First?’ routine. The scene was to appear later in the film, but Costello begins the routine with ‘When we get to St. Louis…’ and they were already in St. Louis by that point in the film. Crew members can be heard laughing off camera. The riverboat used in the film was originally constructed for Universal’s 1936 musical Show Boat.

Handling Ships was never formally released to UK cinemas, but the stop-motion film is recognized as the first feature length animated film in British history, as well as the first work in Technicolor. The filmmakers were approached by the Admiralty to create an instructional film for Royal Navy navigation trainees.

Scared Stiff is also known as You’ll Be the Death of Me Yet, and was shown on US television as Treasure of Fear.

Murder, He Says was filmed in the Spring of 1944 but held back a year because of Paramount’s backlog of films, as the studio felt it was more important to get war-related films released first so they didn’t become dated.

1955

• June 21 – Summertime (USA, Lopert Film Productions)
• June 22 – Bring Your Smile Along (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• June 22 – Lady and the Tramp (USA, Walt Disney Pictures)
• June 23 – Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (USA, Universal Pictures)
• June 23 – Double Jeopardy (USA, Republic Pictures)
• June 24 – Land of the Pharaohs (USA, Continental Company)
• June 24 – Moonfleet (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

Summertime was filmed on location in Venice, and premiered in the UK as Summer Madness. The film was based on the play The Time of the Cuckoo, which was written specifically for Shirley Booth, but producer Hal Wallis felt Booth was too old for the role when he purchased the film rights, and he envisioned Katharine Hepburn as the lead. Rights to the project went through many hands, with Booth at one point in negotiations to star. At one point Roberto Rossellini was interested in directing, with Ingrid Bergman to star. Olivia de Havilland was rumored to be considering the role as well. David Lean eventually signed to direct with Hepburn starring. It was one of the first British films to be shot entirely on location. Italian officials did not want Lean to shoot the film during the lucrative Summer months, and the gondolieri threatened to go on strike if he was allowed to do so, fearing they would lose income. Distributor United Artists resolved the problem with a generous donation to help fund the restoration of St. Mark’s Basilica. Lean also was required to promise the cardinal that no short dresses or bare arms would be seen in or near the city’s holy sites. Hepburn was reluctant to perform a stunt that required her to fall backwards into a canal, concerned for her health. Lean filled the water with a disinfectant that caused the water to foam, only increasing Hepburn’s concerns. To protect her skin, she covered herself in Vaseline, and Lean made her perform the stunt four times until he was satisfied. Later that night, Hepburn’s eyes began to itch and water, and she was eventually diagnosed with a rare form of conjunctivitis that plagued her for the rest of her life. The Production Code Administration notified UA that the film would not be approved because of its depiction of adultery. Eighteen feet of film was deleted, and the film was approved. The film was banned outright in India. The film earned two Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Actress.

Bring Your Smile Along marked the directorial debut of Blake Edwards, and the film debut of Constance Towers.

Lady and the Tramp was the first animated movie to be filmed in CinemaScope, and was Disney’s first film to be distributed by the company’s own Buena Vista division following the split from RKO. The film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2023. A novelization of the film based on Joe Grant’s storyboards and Ward Green’s short story ‘Happy Dan, the Cynical Dog’ was published two years before the film’s release so audiences would already be familiar with the story. Peggy Lee voiced four characters in the film and co-wrote six songs. The famous spaghetti-eating scene was nearly cut by Disney because he didn’t think it would be romantic and that dogs eating spaghetti would look silly. Animator Frank Thomas objected to Disney’s plan and animated the entire scene himself, impressing Disney with how the scene was romanticized, so it remained. The CinemaScope process caused problems that required the animators to learn how to use the wider frame, reduce the number of edits, and move characters across the background instead of moving the background behind them, basically reinventing their techniques. Not all theaters were equipped to show a CinemaScope film, so Disney had an Academy ratio (4×3 frame) version prepared as well, with the artists restructuring key scenes when characters were on the edge of the screen. The film received a BAFTA nomination for Best Animated Film.

Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy is the 28th and final Abbott & Costello film produced by Universal-International. Lou Costello’s 16-year-old daughter Carole has a small role as a flower girl. While their character names in the script were Pete Patterson and Freddie Franklin, Bud and Lou used their real names during filming, essentially playing themselves. The day after filming ended, the duo arrived in New York City to ride on the first float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. While Universal’s Mummy series had named the mummy Kharis beginning with The Mummy’s Hand, this mummy was called Klaris.

Double Jeopardy is also known as Crooked Ring.

Warner Bros. claimed one scene in Land of the Pharaohs had 9,787 extras. Half of the extras were soldiers in the Egyptian Army. The film was then banned in Egypt on the grounds of ‘distortion of historical facts.’ The film’s failure at the box office, director Howard Hawks’ first, caused him to take a four year break, his longest between films, before making Rio Bravo. The film has been reappraised over the years and has its champions, including Martin Scorsese.

Despite its title, Moonfleet is a swashbuckler film, not science fiction. Merle Oberon was to be the female lead at one point, but Joan Greenwood was brought over from England for the part.

1965

• June 22 – What’s New Pussycat? (USA, Famous Artists Productions)
• June 23 – Harlow (USA, Embassy Pictures)
• June 23 – Guerre secrète (France, Eichberg-Film)
• June 23 – The Hallelujah Trail (USA, The Mirisch Corporation)
• June 23 – The Sandpiper (USA, Filmways Pictures-Venice Productions)
• June 23 – Von Ryan’s Express (USA, P-R Productions)
• June 23 – Willy McBean and His Magic Machine (USA, Rankin-Bass Productions)
• June 24 – Cat Ballou (USA, Harold Hecht Corporation)
• June 24 – The Sons of Katie Elder (USA, Wallis-Hazen)

Guerre secrète was released in the US on April 13, 1966 as The Dirty Game.

What’s New Pussycat? was Woody Allen’s first produced screenplay and his acting debut. Warren Beatty was set to star, but threatened to quit as Allen’s screenplay began to expand his own character at the expense of Beatty’s. Beatty was not a hot commodity at the time so the producers showed him the door and gave the role to Peter O’Toole. Beatty later said he diva’d his way out of the movie, but a new screenwriter was hired and pared Allen’s role back down to a minor character. Groucho Marx was to have played Dr. Fassbender, but he was replaced with Peter Sellers at the suggestion of O’Toole. O’Toole, Sellers and director Clive Donner strained their relationship with constant script changes, and Sellers began to demand top billing. The title song by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, sung by Tom Jones, was nominated for the Best Song Oscar.

Harlow, which purports to tell the story of actress Jean Harlow, never mentions any of Harlow’s films by name, nor are her real-life co-stars depicted, the studio she works for is fictitious, and her first and third marriages are ignored. Her cause of death is also inaccurate, with the movie claiming it was pneumonia while the actual cause was uremic poisoning. The only real names used are her second husband, Paul Bern, agent Arthur M. Landau, her mother and stepfather. Studio head Everett Redman is an obvious caricature of Louis B. Mayer, played by Martin Balsam. The movie also suggests Bern committed suicide due to impotence, but other believe he was either murdered by gangsters, which the studio covered up to avoid bad publicity, or by his former mistress Dorothy Millette, a woman with a history of mental illness who is known to have left Connecticut for Los Angeles two days before Bern’s death, and who committed suicide two days after it. Angela Lansbury plays star Carroll Baker’s mother in the film, although they are just six years apart in age. Shelley Winters declined an offer to play the mother.

Guerre secrète (The Dirty Game) tells three different spy stories with Robert Ryan’s American General Bruce the linking device between them. The film had three different directors: Terence Young (and co-director Werner Klingler) for the Berlin scenes, Christian-Jacque for the French scenes, and Carlo Lizzani for the Italian scenes.

The Hallelujah Trail was an epic comedy along the lines of The Great Race and It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, presented in a pseudo-documentary style with narration by an uncredited John Dehner. The film was shot in Ultra Panavision 70 and screened in select theaters in the Super Cinerama process. Veteran stuntman Bill Williams was killed while filming a scene involving a wagon going over a hill. The scene was kept in the movie. Actor John Moya was to have made his screen debut in the film, but on his first day on set he was stung by a scorpion and had to be hospitalized. The film was intended to have an intermission and originally ran 181 minutes. Test screenings in Minneapolis and Detroit triggered a cut to 165 minutes, and even then many critics still felt it was too long.

The Sandpiper was the third of eleven films starring power couple Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The film was originally written for Kim Novak. The film is set in Big Sur, California, and is one of the few Hollywood films actually shot there. Taylor was filmed topless for one scene but it was cut prior to the film’s release. The theme song ‘The Shadow of Your Smile’ was recorded by an unknown choral group, with Jack Sheldon on trumpet. The song won the Oscar and was re-recorded by Tony Bennett in 1966, winning the Grammy Award for Song of the Year. The Score and the Song were also nominated for Golden Globes, while the Score also won the Grammy for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Show.

Frank Sinatra wanted to buy the film rights to Von Ryan’s Express for himself, but he learned 20th Century Fox had already purchased them for $125,000 so he offered his services for the lead role. It was one of Sinatra’s most financially successful films. Fox was still recovering from the near financial disaster of Cleopatra, and produced the film to prove they could still make films on an epic scale, shooting extensively in Europe, and building a full-scale prison camp instead of shooting on a backlot. Sinatra insisted on changing the book’s more upbeat ending, which ended any chances for a sequel. Jerry Goldsmith composed the score. The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Sound Editing.

Cat Ballou was only the second feature film directed by Elliot Silverstein. Ann-Margret was the first choice for the title role, but her agent turned it down without telling her. She later stated she would have accepted the role. Kirk Douglas and Dick Van Dyke turned down the dual roles of Shelleen/Strawn, which went to Lee Marvin. Michael Callan was under contract to Columbia and was given the third lead role of Clay Boone. Nat King Cole was suffering from lung cancer during filming, and died four months before the film was released. The film earned five Oscar nominations, with Marvin winning Best Actor. It also scored three BAFTA nominations, with Marvin winning again for Best Foreign Actor, and it received five Golden Globe nominations, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, with Marvin winning yet again for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. During his Oscar speech, Marvin said half of the award belonged to the horse his character rode, which had to appear as drunk as his character.

The Sons of Katie Elder was originally based on the 1953 book Life of the Marlows, which writer William H. Wright thought would make a good Western. He paid members of the family $1000 each for the rights to make it into a screenplay. When the film was made twelve years later at Paramount, the film’s plot had been drastically changed, with a script credited to Talbot Jennings. The film was to have starred Alan Ladd, who still owed Paramount one film from his contract, but he bought himself out for a sum somewhere between $135,000 and $250,000. Dean Martin was announced to star in 1959, but by 1964 John Wayne was the lead. Martin got the second lead. Filming was to begin in September 1964, but was delayed to January 1965 following Wayne’s diagnosis of lung cancer, requiring the removal of a lung and two ribs. Wayne still insisted on doing his own stunts, and nearly contracted pneumonia after being dragged into a river. Former Disney star Tommy Kirk was cast, but was fired from the production after his arrest for being at a party where marijuana was used.

1975

• June 20 – Jaws (USA/Canada, Zanuck/Brown Productions)
• June 20 – Once Is Not Enough (USA, Aries Productions)
• June 20 – That’s the Way of the World (USA, Sig Shore Productions)
• June 25 – Bite the Bullet (USA, Persky-Bright Productions)
• June 25 – Cooley High (USA, Cooley High Service Company)
• June 25 – Rollerball (USA, Algonquin)

Bite the Bullet first opened in Australia on May 1, 1975.

Jaws was the first major motion picture to be shot on the open ocean and suffered a troubled production, going over budget and schedule. The mechanical shark was infamous for malfunctioning due to the ocean water, which led director Steven Speilberg to suggest the shark’s presence rather than show it, with John Williams’ theme to indicate its impending appearance. A 450 screen release was considered an exceptionally wide release for a studio at the time, leading the film to become the prototype for what is now the ‘Summer Blockbuster’. The film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2001. Spielberg was initially reluctant to direct the film following his TV movie Duel, not wanting to be known as the ‘truck and shark director’. He wanted to direct Lucky Lady at Fox, but Universal exercised its right under Spielberg’s contract to prevent his departure. The studio gave Spielberg a tight schedule with production set to begin in May 1974 with an end set for the end of June, when a major strike by the Screen Actors Guild was on the horizon. Spielberg complied with the producers’ directive to hire known actors, but he avoided big name stars, preferring somewhat ‘anonymous’ actors to help the audience believe this was happening to real people. Robert Duvall was offered the role of Chief Brody, but he was only interested in playing Quint. Charlton Heston was interested but Spielberg felt his screen persona was too grand. Roy Schieder took interest after overhearing Spielberg talk about the project at a party, but the director was hesitant, fearing Schieder would play a tough guy like his role in The French Connection. The roles of Quint and Hooper were not cast nine days before filming began. Quint was offered to Lee Marvin and Sterling Hayden, both of whom turned it down, while producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown suggested Robert Shaw, with whom they had recently worked on The Sting. Shaw was reluctant as he did not like the book, but his wife and secretary urged him to do it as they had with From Russia With Love. He said they were right on both accounts. Shaw based his performance on local actor Craig Kingsbury, who was cast as Ben Gardner. Spielberg felt Kingsbury was the vision of who Quint was, and incorporated some of his off-screen utterances into the script. Spielberg wanted Jon Voight for the role of Hooper, and also considered Timothy Bottoms, Jan-Michael Vincent, Joel Grey and Jeff Bridges. Friend George Lucas suggested Richard Dreyfuss, with whom he had worked on American Graffiti. The actor initially passed, but after a screening of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, disappointed with his performance, Dreyfuss took the role fearing he’d never get another job (he ended up getting rave reviews, which led to co-star Shaw developing a grudge). Because the character in the film was so different from the book, Spielberg asked Dreyfuss not to read the book. The part was rewritten to suit Dreyfuss, and to be more representative of Spielberg, who came to view Dreyfuss as his alter ego. During production, Spielberg asked the scenery and wardrobe departments to avoid using red so the blood from the shark attacks would cause a bigger shock. The producers originally had the idea to use a trained shark for the film, but quickly realized this was not possible so three mechanical sharks were built. Due to the trouble with the mechanical sharks, disgruntled crew members nicknamed the movie ‘Flaws’. Spielberg later admitted much of the trouble was due to his inexperience as a filmmaker and his desire to film on the ocean. The delays in filming caused by the sharks and the weather were actually beneficial to the film as it gave Spielberg and Carl Gottlieb time to refine the script. Hooper was to have been killed by the shark while in a cage, but footage of an actual shark attack on a cage with no one inside that was filmed in Australia was so exciting that Spielberg wanted to incorporate it into the film, thus saving Dreyfuss’ character. The 55-day schedule ballooned to 159 days, with Spielberg thinking his days as a filmmaker were over. He was not present on the last day of filming when the shark was blown up, believing the crew was going to throw him into the water afterwards. It has now become tradition for him to not attend the final day of shooting. Editor Verna Fields reconstructed some scenes Spielberg had constructed for humor to make them more terrifying, and she made some terrifying scenes humorous. Spielberg paid for the underwater shot of Hooper discovering Ben Gardner’s body, which was filmed in Fields’ swimming pool in Encino, California, with powdered milk poured into the pool which was then covered with a tarp. The film earned four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, and won three for John Williams’ score, Fields’ editing, and Best Sound. It also earned seven BAFTA nominations, with Williams winning again for his score, and also received four Golden Globe nominations, with Williams scoring a hat trick with another win.

Once Is Not Enough marked the return of Alexis Smith to the big screen after a 16 year absence. Brenda Vaccaro was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, and won the Golden Globe. Director Guy Greene wanted Dick Van Dyke for the role of Mike Wayne, but the role went to Kirk Douglas. He also wanted to fire David Janssen and replace him with Robert Shaw, which did not happen. Producer Irving Mansfield said Douglas and Janssen basically directed themselves during filming.

That’s the Way of the World features R&B group Earth, Wind and Fire as fictionalized versions of themselves. The group released a soundtrack album for the movie which became one of their landmark albums.

Director Richard Brooks wanted Gene Hackman for Bite the Bullet, but he was busy with French Connection II. Columbia wanted Paul Newman or Steve McQueen. Brooks met with both McQueen and his wife Ali MacGraw to offer them roles but she could not accept as she was pregnant at the time. In December 1973, Paul Newman and Burt Reynolds were announced to star. Newman didn’t think he was right for the movie, and Columbia wanted a bigger name to co-star with Reynolds. James Caan was interested but the studio didn’t like that combination so both actors dropped out. They came back around to Hackman, who wanted to do the film, so Fox agreed to push back production on French Connnection II. After Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland, Bruce Dern, James Coburn, Michael Moriarty, McQueen, Charles Bronson and George Segal were considered as his co-star, Columbia agreed on Coburn, whom Brooks felt was often better than the material he was given. One of Hackman’s favorite scenes in his career was in this movie. The film earned Oscar nominations for Best Sound and Best Original Score.

Cooley High was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2021.

Rollerball‘s arena sequences were shot at the Rudi-Sedlmayer-Halle in Munich, West Germany, which was selected because it was the only sports arena in the world with a near circular profile. The sport itself was only vaguely described in the source novel, so it was created for the film mostly by director Norman Jewison and production designer John Box. A custom track was designed and created by Herbert Schürmann, who had previously designed the track at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Rollerball was the first major Hollywood film to give credit to its stunt performers because of their contributions to the film. The sport ended up being so realistic that cast, extras and stunt performers played it between takes on the set. Jewison was even contacted about licensing the rights to the game, which he found outrageous as the whole point was to show the ‘sickness and insanity of contact sports and their allure.’

1985

• June 20 – Dot and the Koala (AUS, Yoram Gross Films)
• June 21 – Cocoon (USA/Canada, Zanuck/Brown Productions)
• June 21 – Lifeforce (USA, London-Cannon Films)
• June 21 – Return to Oz (USA, Walt Disney Pictures)

Dot and the Koala was released in the US on March 26, 1986.

Robert Zemeckis was originally hired to direct Cocoon, and spent a year on its development. He was directing Romancing the Stone at the same time and Fox execs hated it, and because his two previous films – I Wanna Hold Your Hand and Used Cars – were commercial failures, he was removed from Cocoon and replaced with Ron Howard. Wilford Brimley was only 49 at the time filming began, and he turned 50 during production while playing a senior citizen. He was as much as 26 years younger than the other senior actors. To play the character, he had his hair and moustache bleached to make them gray, and had wrinkles and liver spots drawn on his face. The film was nominated for two Oscars and won both: Supporting Actor (Don Ameche) and Visual Effects. The film was also nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

Two cuts of Lifeforce were released: a 116-minute international cut, and a 101-minute cut ordered by the American distributor TriStar Pictures. Before Tobe Hooper was approved to direct, Michael Winner was offered the job. Hooper’s first cut of the film ran 128 minutes. Hooper had directed Billy Idol’s Dancing With Myself music video and offered him the role of a vampire but Idol turned it down due to touring commitments. John Gielgud said he had been offered an enormous sum of money to appear in the film, which he almost accepted, but the next time he heard from the producers the money had been cut in half so he declined. The filming went over schedule by five weeks, and many important scenes weren’t filmed because they ran out of money. The film was originally promoted under the same title as the novel upon which it was based, The Space Vampires, but it was changed because it sounded too much like a cheap exploitation film.

Return to Oz went into production because Disney was about to lose the rights to the L. Frank Baum Oz books. MGM was not involved in the production which meant Disney had to pay a huge fee to use the ruby slippers, which had been created for The Wizard of Oz. The slippers are silver in the Baum stories. The film is an unofficial sequel to the 1939 classic. Filming fell behind schedule and after a regime change at Disney, director Walter Murch was briefly fired. Murch was actually grateful because his health was suffering. George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola supported Murch and had discussions with the studio about bringing him back, with Lucas guaranteeing he’d step in to complete the film if Murch was unable to. Emma Ridley’s voice as Ozma was dubbed by Walter Murch’s daughter Beatrice to give her an American-sounding voice. Forty real chickens were used for Billina, each with their own particular talent. A mechanical chicken was also used for some scenes. It was so realistic that the crew in the screening room couldn’t tell the difference. The film was Oscar-nominated for Visual Effects but lost to Cocoon.

1995

• June 23 – Clockwork Mice (UK, Metrodome Films)
• June 23 – Pocahontas (USA/Canada, Walt Disney Animation Studios)
• June 23 – Safe (New York City, Killer Films)
• June 23 – Sister My Sister (USA, limited, British Screen Productions)

Clockwork Mice has no known US theatrical release date. Pocahontas began a limited US release on June 16, 1995. Safe opened in general release in the US on June 30, 1995. Sister My Sister expanded its US release on July 14, 1995.

Pocahontas received Oscar nominations for Best Musical or Comedy Score, and Best Original Song for ‘Colors of the Wind’.

To keep the audience at an emotional distance from the characters in Safe, director Todd Haynes and cinematographer Alex Nepomniaschy never let the camera get too close to any of the actors.

2005

• June 19 – House of 9 (USA, limited, Defender Production)
• June 22 – Herbie: Fully Loaded (USA, Robert Simonds Productions)
• June 24 – Bewitched (USA/Canada, Red Wagon Entertainment)
• June 24 – Land of the Dead (USA/Canada, Romero-Grunwald Productions)
• June 24 – Saving Face (USA, Destination Films)

Herbie: Fully Loaded is the sixth and, to date, final entry in the ‘Herbie the Love Bug’ series. Director Angela Robinson had hoped to get original The Love Bug star Dean Jones to make a cameo appearance as his character Jim Douglas, but he was unable due to scheduling conflicts.

Bewitched was in development for nearly a decade, with Rob Morrow and Cynthia Nixon to star in an early version directed by Ted Bessell before Bessell died in 1996. Jim Carrey was in talks to play Darrin at one point. The film earned five Razzie nominations, with Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell winning for Worst Screen Couple.

Land of the Dead was the fourth of six ‘Living Dead’ movies. It was the highest budgeted of George Romero’s series. Romero had been negotiating with 20th Century Fox but the studio was insisting the title be or include Night of the Living Dead. Romero learned the studio wanted that title because it sought the rights to the franchise so he ended negotiations and took the project to Universal. Romero cast longtime friend and makeup artist Tom Savini to reprise his Dawn of the Dead role Blades, who is now a zombie. He also cast Shaun of the Dead star and writer Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright as Photo Booth Zombies. Filming took place in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario instead of in Romero’s usual Pittsburgh, even though the film is set in the Pennsylvania city. It is the first film in the series to receive a rating from the MPAA. Romero prepared an R-rated cut for theatrical and first DVD release, and an unrated cut for the second DVD release. Both versions were released on DVD the same day.

Saving Face was the feature directorial debut of Alice Wu.

2015

• June 19 – Balls Out (USA, Ralph Smyth Entertainment)
• June 19 – Dope (USA/Canada, i am OTHER)
• June 19 – Gabriel (USA, AgX)
• June 19 – Inside Out (USA/Canada, Pixar)
• June 19 – Mr. Holmes (UK, AI-Film)
• June 19 – Pernicious (USA, limited, Hillin Entertainment)
• June 23 – Creep (USA, Duplass Brothers Productions)

Inside Out first opened in France and other territories on June 17, 2015. Mr. Holmes was released in Canada and the US (limited) on July 17, 2015.

Balls Out was originally titled Intramural. Dope marked the film debut of ASAP Rocky. Forest Whitaker was a producer, and Pharrell Williams and Sean Combs were executive producers. Gabriel was the directorial debut of Lou Howe, who also wrote the screenplay.

Pete Docter conceived the idea for Inside Out as he began to notice his daughter’s personality changing as she got older, wondering what was going on internally. Development of the film took about five-and-a-half years. After two years Docter felt the story was not working and proposed swapping Fear with Sadness to go on the main journey with Joy, and Pixar head John Lasseter agreed. To have diverse input, half of the story team were women. Amy Poehler helped the team write the character Joy. The story underwent ten rewrites during the storyboarding process. Actors with personalities closest to their characters were cast. Poehler was actually the last actor cast, and had three voice recording sessions to complete her role. The character Bing Bong was partly modeled on John Candy’s performance in Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Fear was modeled on Don Knotts and Mr. Bean. Animating the film took a year and a half, with animators emulating the style of Tex Avery and Chuck Jones. The film was Oscar-nominated for Original Screenplay, and won Best Animated Feature. It also won the Golden Globe for Animated Feature.

Creep was the directorial debut of Patrick Brice, who also appears in the ‘found footage’ film as a videographer. The story was inspired by My Dinner with Andre, Misery and Fatal Attraction. The film’s working title was Peachfuzz, but was changed so audiences wouldn’t spend time trying to figure out the title.