Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #263 :: August 7•13

As the Summer season begins to wind down, new film releases grow a bit smaller and a bit less memorable but there are still a few this week that are notable for bad, good or scandalous reasons. 1935 saw two films released on the same day with the same major star, one an adaptation of a classic novel and the other that carried a secret that could have been the end of its stars’ careers. 1975 saw the film debut of an actor who would gain fame on the small screen just over a month later, and gave us a cult classic from Down Under. 1985 saw the big screen debut of a character who would become beloved and made an historical monument even more famous. One 1995 film became a success because of a song, while another tore apart a real-life relationship. A 2005 film gave a prestige actress a chance to star in a horror film, and a 2015 brought a 1960s spy TV series to life on the big screen. Scroll down to see the movies that were released this week across the decades and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries.

1925

• August 7 – The Business of Love (USA, Sol Lesser Productions)
• August 9 – A Woman’s Faith (USA, Universal Pictures)
• August 9 – Fine Clothes (USA, Louis B. Mayer Productions)
• August 9 – The Home Maker (New York City, King Baggot Productions)
• August 10 – In the Name of Love (USA, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)
• August 12 – Border Vengeance (USA, Harry Webb Productions)

The Home Maker entered nationwide release in the US on November 22, 1925.

The survival status of The Businss of Love and Border Vengeance is unknown, while Fine Clothes and In the Name of Love are considered lost films.

A print of A Woman’s Faith is listed as being in a private collection. A print of The Home Maker is preserved in the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

1935

• August 7 – Western Frontier (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• August 9 – Call of the Wild (USA, 20th Century Pictures)
• August 9 – China Seas (New York City, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• August 9 – Jalna (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
• August 9 – Pursuit (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• August 9 – Welcome Home (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• August 10 – Orchids to You (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• August 12 – Smith’s Wives (UK, Fox Film Company)
• August 12 – Ten Minute Alibi (UK, British Lion Film Corporation)

China Seas entered wide release in the US on August 16, 1935. Smith’s Wives and Ten Minute Alibi have no known US theatrical release dates.

Call of the Wild, based on the Jack London novel, is the last film released by 20th Century Pictures before merging with Fox Film Corporation. Critics noted the chemistry betWeen leads Clark Gable and Loretta Young, and it was not known at the time that the two were engaged in a romantic relationship that resulted in a pregnancy, which would have destroyed their careers. Young’s daughter was transferred to an orphanage after her birth in 1935, and then was ‘adopted’ by Young more than 18 months later. Young revealed the identity of the father to her daughter in 1966.

Producer Irving Thalberg tasked three different writers to come up with a treatment for China Seas in 1930, and settled on a story in 1931 with a script being fine-tuned over the next four years with two dozen writers, six directors and three supervisors. One script required massive rewrites due to the lifting of major pieces of dialog from the works of Mark Twain and Somerset Maugham, with an entire speech taken from a well-known English novel at the time. Star Clark Gable was temperamental on set, but Louis B. Mayer tolerated the behavior because Gable had recently won an Oscar for It Happened One Night, for which he’d been loaned to Columbia and Mayer didn’t want to risk losing him. The film was a formula movie that reused the plot of Gable’s Red Dust.

Smith’s Wives was the only film in which star Ernie Lotinga didn’t play his trademark character Jimmy Josser.

1945

• August 7 – Pride of the Marines (New York City, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• August 8 – The Gay Senorita (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• August 8 – Mama Loves Papa (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
• August 8 – Over 21 (USA, Sidney Buchman Enterprises)
• August 9 – Know Your Enemy: Japan (USA, short, U.S. War Department)
• August 10 – Easy to Look At (USA, Universal Pictures)
• August 10 – West of the Pecos (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
• August 11 – Saddle Serenade (USA, Monogram Pictures)
• August 13 – Waltz Time (UK, British National Films)

Pride of the Marines opened nationwide in the US on August 24, 1945. Waltz Time was released in the US on February 9, 1946.

Pride of the Marines received an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, based on Roger Butterfield’s 1944 book Al Schmid, Marine. The working title for The Gay Senorita was Fiesta Town.

Mama Loves Papa was a remake of the 1933 film of the same title from Paramount. RKO bought the rights, and enlisted Tom McGuire and Ruth Warren, who had appeared in the original film, to appear in the new film but in different roles.

Frank Capra directed the World War II propaganda film Know Your Enemy: Japan. Easy to Look At was the last film under star Gloria Jean’s contract with Universal. The studio had to work Jean constantly to produce the three remaining films, which had already been promised to exhibitors for 1945, before the end of her tenure.

West of the Pecos, based on the Zane Grey novel, had previously been made in 1934, but has no relation to a 1922 silent film of the same name. The film was star Robert Mitchum’s last before his service in the Army started. He had just starred in his first film with top billing a year earlier.

1955

• August 9 – Value for Money (UK, J. Arthur Rank Organisation)
• August 10 – The Kentuckian (USA, Hecht-Lancaster Productions)
• August 10 – Wiretapper (USA, Great Commission Films)

Value for Money was released in the US on July 31, 1957. Producer Sergei Nolbandov did not want Diana Dors to star in the movie, but director Ken Annakin insisted. It was her first movie under a three-picture deal with the Rank Organisation. It was also the first film under Rank’s new program to shoot everything in VistaVision. Costume designer Julie Harris recalled they had to shoot two versions, with one for American distribution in which no navels were visible.

The Kentuckian is one of only two films directed by Burt Lancaster. It marks Walter Matthau’s film debut. The film features an appearance by the famed sternwheel riverboat Gordon C. Greene, the same steamboat used in Gone with the Wind and Steamboat Round the Bend.

1965

• August 9 – The Brigand of Kandahar (UK, Hammer Films)
• August 12 – Motorpsycho! (USA, Eve Productions)

The Brigand of Kandahar was released in the US in November 1965.

Motorpsycho!, produced just before Russ Meyer’s better-known Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, features one of the first portrayals of a disturbed Vietnam veteran character in film. The film’s working title was Rio Vengeance. Nightclub dancer Haji had been cast in a small role but Meyer soon promoted her to one of the leads.

1975

• August 7 – That Lucky Touch (UK, De Grunwald Productions)
• August 7 – The Devil’s Rain (USA, Estudios Churubusco Azteca S.A.)
• August 8 – Farewell, My Lovely (USA, An EK ITC Production)
• August 8 – Journey into Fear (USA, New World Productions)
• August 8 – Picnic at Hanging Rock (AUS, McElroy & McElroy Productions)
• August 13 – Darktown Strutters (USA, Penelope Productions)

That Lucky Touch was released in the US in December 1975. Picnic at Hanging Rock was released in the US on February 2, 1979.

That Lucky Touch was originally titled Heaven Save Us from Our Friends. Sophia Loren was to co-star with Roger Moore, but when she dropped out Moore suggested Susannah York, with whom he’d just made Gold.

John Travolta makes his film debut in a small role in The Devil’s Rain. Travolta converted to Scientology during filming after co-star Joan Prather gave him a copy of L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics. Satanist Anton LaVey has a small role in the film and is credited as the technical advisor. Ernest Borgnine appeared in the film following his successes The Poseidon Adventure and Emperor of the North. The film has a shockingly A-List cast including Eddie Albert, William Shatner, Ida Lupino, Tom Skerritt, and Keenan Wynn.

Jack O’Halloran, best known for his role as Non in Superman and Superman II, makes his film debut in Farewell, My Lovely. The film also features crime novelist Jim Thompson in his only acting role. Star Robert Mitchum reprised the role of Philip Marlowe in 1978’s The Big Sleep, making him the only actor to play the role in more than one feature film. Richard Burton had been first choice for the role but he was too busy. The film earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for Sylvia Miles.

Journey into Fear is a remake of a 1943 film of the same name which starred Orson Welles.

Picnic at Hanging Rock is regarded as one of the most iconic and defining films of the Australian New Wave. The etheral and dreamy look of many scenes in the film was accomplished by placing a bridal veil over the camera lens. Director Peter Weir and Cinematographer Russell Boyd were inspired by the work of photographer and director David Hamilton, who had draped different types of veils over his camera lens to produce diffused and soft-focus images. The role of Mrs. Appleyard was to have been played by Vivien Merchant, but she fell ill and was replaced by Rachel Roberts at the last minute. Many of the schoolgirls’ voices were dubbed in secret by professional voice actors, as Weir had cast the girls for their innocent appearance rather than their acting abilities. In 1998, Weir removed seven minutes from the film for a theatrical re-release, creating a 107-minute director’s cut. The film earned three BAFTA nominations, winning one for Best Cinematography. The film was an influence on the second season of HBO’s The Leftovers.

Darktown Strutters was produced by Gene Corman for a company in Tennessee, which was unable to secure a release for the film. Corman sent the film to his brother Roger, who released it through his New World Pictures. The film was re-released in 1977, retitled Get Down and Boogie.

1985

• August 7 – Real Genius (USA, Delphi III Productions)
• August 9 – Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart (USA, CIM)
• August 9 – My Science Project (USA, Touchstone Pictures)
• August 9 – Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (USA, Aspen Film Society/Robert Shapiro Productions)
• August 9 – Pray for Death (USA, Pray Films)
• August 9 – Summer Rental (USA/Canada, Brillstein Company)

Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure first opened in limited release in the US on July 26, 1985. Pray for Death first opened in Denmark on August 5, 1985.

For the popcorn-filled house climax of Real Genius, the production team popped popcorn continuously for three months. The popcorn was treated with fire retardant so it would not combust and covered so that it would not be eaten by birds and possibly poison them. The popcorn was then shipped to a subdivision under construction in Canyon Country, northwest of Los Angeles, and placed in the house.

Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure was the feature film directing debut of Tim Burton. Studio execs had initially selected a director, but Paul Reubens didn’t feel he was appropriate so the studio told him and the producers to find someone they would approve within a Week. The producers and Reubens hired Burton after being impressed with his work on the short film FrankenWeenie. The film marked the first collaboration betWeen Burton and Danny Elfman. The film’s success, coupled with the success of Beetlejuice, prompted Warner Bros. to hire Burton to direct Batman. Notable names in small roles include Prof. Toru Tanaka, Ed Herlihy, Jan Hooks, Cassandra Peterson, Jason Hervey, Jon Paragon, Lynn Stewart, and Phil Hartman. The film also included special appearances by James Brolin, Morgan Fairchild, Tony Bill and Twisted Sister. Burton has an uncredited cameo as a street thug, and Milton Berle also make an uncredited appearance. Reubens’ original script for the film was a remake of his favorite film, Pollyanna, with Pee-Wee Herman in the Hayley Mills role. Noticing that many people on the Warner Bros. backlot rode bicycles, it prompted him to start a new script. The exterior shots of The Alamo are real, but the interiors were filmed at the Mission San Fernando Rey de España in Mission Hills, Los Angeles. At the time, The Alamo did not have a basement but now it has two. The Alamo acquired one of the screen-used bike props to put on permanent display at the Alamo Visitor Center and Museum.

When Pray for Death was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, it had a running time of 123 minutes and was unrated following an X-rating from the MPAA. The film was edited to 92 minutes for its theatrical release and received an R-rating.

1995

• August 11 – The Brothers McMullen (USA, Brothers McMullen Productions)
• August 11 – A Kid in King Arthur’s Court (USA, Tapestry Films)
• August 11 – A Walk in the Clouds (USA, Zucker Brothers Productions)
• August 11 – Dangerous Minds (USA, Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films)
• August 11 – Unzipped (USA, documentary, Hachette Filipacchi Films)

A Walk in the Clouds first opened in Japan on May 27, 1995.

The Brothers McMullen was the first film released by Fox Searchlight. Ed Burns wrote the screenplay in the spring of 1993 while working as a production assistant for Entertainment Tonight. The film was shot mostly in Burns’ real-life family home on Weekends over a period of eight months on 16mm film at a cost of $25,000 which was the cost of the film stock. Burns placed an ad in Backstage magazine looking for Irish-American actors willing to work for free. When Robert Redford was doing an interview at Entertainment Tonight studios, Burns gave him a copy of the film and after watching it Redford extended an invitation to screen the film at the Sundance Film Festival, which led to the distribution deal. The deal afforded Burns an additional $213,000 for post-production and an opportunity to get the rights to Sarah McLachlan’s ‘I Will Remember You’ which played over the end credits.

A Kid in King Arthur’s Court was the final film directed by Michael Gottlieb before his death in 2014. The story was based on Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, which Disney had previously filmed as Unidentified Flying Oddball in 1978. The film features some of the earliest film roles for Daniel Craig and Kate Winslet. Despite universally poor reviews, the film received a direct-to-video sequel, A Kid in Aladdin’s Palace, which had star Thomas Ian Nicholas reprising his role as Calvin Fuller.

A Walk in the Clouds is the English-language remake of the 1942 Italian film Four Steps in the Clouds. Maurice Jarre’s original score won a Golden Globe.

After a disastrous test screening, producers spent nearly a year reworking Dangerous Minds including changes in editing and tone, with the inclusion of Coolio’s ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ being a major turning point, anchoring the film’s theme and becoming a cultural phenomenon, helping drive the film’s success. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer compared it to the impact ‘What a Feeling’ had on Flashdance. The song was Grammy nominated for Record of the Year, and won Best Rap Solo Performance.

Unzipped was directed by fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi’s then-boyfriend Douglas Keeves, but the production put such a rift in their relationship over Mizrahi’s depiction that the two broke up.

2005

• August 10 – The Great Raid (Philippines, Marty Katz Productions)
• August 12 – Asylum (USA, limited, Zephyr Films)
• August 12 – Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (USA, Happy Madison Productions)
• August 12 – Four Brothers (Canada, Di Bonaventura Pictures)
• August 12 – The Skeleton Key (USA/Canada, ShadowCatcher Entertainment)

The Great Raid was released in the US on August 12, 2005. Four Brothers first opened in the US on July 1, 2005. The Skeleton Key first opened in Spain and the UK on July 29, 2005.

The Great Raid was filmed in 2002, but the release date was delayed several times from its original Fall 2003 schedule. Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo earned five Golden Raspberry Awards nominations including Worst Picture, with Rob Schneider winning for Worst Actor.

Kate Hudson claimed to have finished reading the screenplay for The Skeleton Key in 45 minutes before she was cast, though her pregnancy at the time delayed the film’s production by eight months. Gena Rowlands took the role of Violet Devereaux because she had never made a horror film before. John Hurt accepted the role of mute Ben Devereaux because he had no lines, Rowlands was in it, and it was filming around New Orleans. During a nighttime sequence during a rainstorm, Rowlands fell and broke her hand, forcing her to take a five-Week break from filming. Her remaining scenes were filmed in California.

2015

• August 7 – Ricki and the Flash (USA/Canada, Clinica Estetico)
• August 7 – The Gift (USA/Canada/UK, Blumhouse Productions)
• August 8 – Soldiers of the Damned (UK, Blackdog Productions)
• August 13 – The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (AUS, Wigram Productions)

The Gift first opened in Lithuania on July 31, 2015. Soldiers of the Damned has no known US theatrical release date. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was released in the US, Canada and the UK on August 14, 2015.

Ricki and the Flash was the last narrative film directed by Jonathan Demme before his death in 2017. The film starred Meryl Streep, with her real-life daughter Mamie Gummer playing her on-screen daughter in their third film together.

The Gift was written, co-prodcued and directed by Joel Edgerton in his directorial debut. Edgerton received a DGA nomination for First-Time Feature Film Director.

A film adaptation of the TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. had been in the works as far back as 1993, but the project fell into development hell due to multiple script rewrites. Twelve to fourteen different scripts had been commissioned over a 20 year period. Quentin Tarantino was briefly attached until he decided to make Jackie Brown instead. Matthew Vaughn, David Dobkin and Steven Soderbergh had all been attached to direct at various points until Guy Ritchie signed on. Emily Blunt was nearly the female lead, but she exited the project shortly after Soderbergh left. In 2010, George Clooney was interested in the role of Napoleon Solo, but had to withdraw due to a recurring back injury. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ryan Gosling, Channing Tatum, Alexander Skarsgård, Ewan McGregor, Robert Pattinson, Matt Damon, Christian Bale, Michael Fassbender, Bradley Cooper, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joel Kinnaman, Russell Crowe, Chris Pine, Ryan Reynolds, and Jon Hamm were considered for the lead role. Tom Cruise was in early talks to take the role in March 2013. Armie Hammer was cast as second lead Illya Kuryakin in April 2013. Cruise dropped out in May 2013 due to his commitment to Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation, with Henry Cavill replacing him. Rose Byrne and Charlize Theron were considered for the femme fatale role before Elizabeth Debicki was cast. Ritchie continued to rework the script throughout production.