Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #272 :: October 9•15

It is a middling week for new movie releases over the past century, with a few notable films that attracted awards attention, both good and bad. One positive note this week is that many of the 1925 films still survive, with only a handful considered lost. 1935 saw the uncredited debut of an actor who would go on to more debonair parts than his first. 1945 gave us the penultimate film of a legendary comedy duo, while 1955 gave us two filmed versions of the same movie musical. A 1965 movie insulted the Navy, which refused to participate with production. 1975 turned out a rock musical biopic about a classical music composer, and saw the debut of a now legendary Canadian director. 1985 brought a Stephen King monster to life, and told the life story of a country music star gone too soon. A 1995 literary adaptation got the wrong kind of awards attention, and a sci-fi drama was ahead of its time. 2005 gave us an unwanted remake of a cult horror classic, and 2015 saw Colin Farrell looking for love in a most unusual place. Scroll down to see all the films that premiered this week, and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries.

1925

• October 9 – Fighting Fate (New York City, Harry J. Brown Productions)
• October 11 – Classified (USA, Corinne Griffith Productions)
• October 11 – Dollar Down (USA, Co-Artists Productions)
• October 11 – Lorraine of the Lions (USA, Universal Jewel)
• October 11 – Lovers in Quarantine (USA, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)
• October 11 – The Everlasting Whisper (USA, J.G. Blystone Productions)
• October 11 – The Man on the Box (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• October 11 – The Prairie Pirate (USA, Hunt Stromberg Productions)
• October 11 – The Tower of Lies (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• October 11 – Thunder Mountain (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• October 12 – New Brooms (USA, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)
• October 13 – Northern Code (USA, Gotham Productions)
• October 14 – The Hurricane Horseman (USA, Action Pictures)
• October 15 – American Pluck (USA, Chadwick Pictures Corporation)
• October 15 – Steppin’ Out (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• October 15 – The Substitute Wife (USA, Arrow Film Corporation)
• October 15 – The Vanishing American (New York City, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)

Fighting Fate was released nationwide in the US on February 6, 1926. The Vanishing American received a nationwide release in the US on February 15, 1926.

The survival statuses of Fighting Fate, The Prairie Pirate, Northern Code, and The Hurricane Horseman are unknown, while The Everlasting Whisper, The Tower of Lies, Thunder Mountain, and New Brooms are considered lost films.

A print of Classified has been preserved at the Library of Congress and the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. A print of Dollar Down is held by the UCLA Film and Television Archive, but one reel is missing.

Prints of Lorraine of the Lions are held by the UCLA Film and Television Archive, Cinémathèque québécoise in Montreal, and Library of Congress. A print of Lovers in Quarantine is preserved at the Library of Congress. Abridged copies of The Man on the Box are held by George Eastman House and UCLA Film & Television Archive.

The Tower of Lies was originally to be titled The Emperor of Portugallia before it was changed. The film is classified as lost, with the last known copy destroyed in the 1965 MGM vault fire, but rumors persist that a print exists in Denmark.

American Pluck was the last film for director Richard Stanton. A print survives in a private collection. An incomplete copy of Steppin’ Out, with reels 3 and 5 missing, is held at the Library of Congress.

The Substitute Wife survives in the Library of Congress collection, Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation. The Vanishing American survives at several restoration archives such as the Library of Congress and is available on home video.

1935

• October 9 – Hot Off the Press (USA, Victory Pictures Corporation)
• October 9 – The Spanish Cape Mystery (USA, Liberty Pictures)
• October 11 – Charlie Chan in Shanghai (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• October 11 – Hi, Gaucho! (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
• October 11 – It’s in the Air (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• October 11 – The Last Outpost (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• October 12 – Shipmates Forever (USA, Cosmopolitan Productions)
• October 13 – Barbary Coast (USA, Samuel Goldwyn Productions)
• October 15 – His Fighting Blood (USA, Conn Pictures Corporation)

Charlie Chan in Shanghai is the ninth Charlie Chan film from Fox Film Corporation starring Warner Oland. The film is thought to be the first to depict a gun silencer onscreen.

John Carroll appears in his first credited role in Hi, Gaucho! It’s in the Air is also known as Chiseling Chiselers, In the Bag and Let Freedom Ring. It marks Jack Benny’s final role at MGM.

The Last Outpost borrows stock footage from other films including Grass — A Nation’s Battle for Life, filmed by Merian C. Cooper. The U.S. Navy provided technical assistance for Shipmates Forever, with some shots filmed at the Naval Academy and footage of the USS Arkansas is included.

David Niven makes an early uncredited performance in Barbary Coast as a drunken sailor being thrown out of a bar. Joseph Breen, of the Production Code, deemed the screenplay to be sordid and having low-tone morality. Months of revisions turned a story of men finding pleasure in drinking, prostitution and gambling into a love story. The new screenplay was met with Breen’s approval. The film’s cinematography received an Oscar nomination.

1945

• October 9 – Why Girls Leave Home (USA, Producers Releasing Corporation)
• October 10 – Border Badmen (USA, Sigmund Neufeld Productions)
• October 10 – George White’s Scandals (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
• October 10 – White Pongo (Los Angeles, Sigmund Neufeld Productions)
• October 11 – The Girl of the Limberlost (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• October 12 – Song of Old Wyoming (USA, Producers Releasing Corporation)
• October 13 – Sensation Hunters (USA, Monogram Pictures)
• October 15 – Flaming Bullets (USA, Alexander-Stern Productions)
• October 15 – Perfect Strangers (UK, London Film Productions)
• October 15 – The Bullfighters (South Africa, Twentieth Century Fox)

White Pongo opened nationwide in the US on November 2, 1945. Perfect Strangers was released in the US on November 1, 1945 as Vacation from Marriage. The Bullfighters first opened in the US in May 1945.

Why Girls Leave Home received Oscar nominations for Best Original Score and Best Original Song (‘The Cat and the Canary’). White Pongo is also known as Adventure Unlimited. The White Pongo costume was used years later as the Abominable Snowman in 1956’s Man Beast.

Lash LaRue made his debut in Song of Old Wyoming playing the Cheyenne Kid. Sensation Hunters is also known as Club Paradise. Flaming Bullets was the last of PRC’s ‘Texas Rangers’ film series.

Perfect Strangers won the Oscar for Best Story. It was to be the first in a series of films between Alexander Korda in the UK and MGM in the US, but it was the only film because Korda didn’t like being bossed around by Louis B. Mayer.

The Bullfighters was the sixth and final film Laurel & Hardy made for 20th Century Fox, and their final American film (their final film, Atoll K, was made in France). It was the film debut of Frank McCown, who would later be famous as Rory Calhoun. The comedy duo was to make one more film for Fox, but the studio closed the B-picture unit at the end of 1944. When the film became a hit, Fox offered to reopen the unit just for Laurel and Hardy, but they declined.

1955

• October 11 – Oklahoma! (USA, Todd-AO version, Rodgers & Hammerstein Productions)
• October 11 – The Tall Men (USA, Twentieth Century Fox)
• October 12 – The Desperate Hours (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• October 13 – The Twinkle in God’s Eye (USA, Mickey Rooney Productions)
• October 14 – A Prize of Gold (USA, Warwick Film Productions)

The Cinemascope version of Oklahoma! opened in the US on November 16, 1956. The film marks the debut of Shirley Jones. It was the first feature film to use the Todd-AO 70mm process. It was simultaneously filmed in Cinemascope. Because of the frame rate differences of the formats, the two versions include different takes for the same scene as the two cameras were only usable together for about ten scenes. The film was to have been shot in Oklahoma, but it was felt the oil wells would be a distraction in outdoor scenes. Several locations in Arizona stood in for the state. MGM’s backlot in Culver City, CA was also utilized. James Dean and Paul Newman auditioned for the role of Curly, which went to Gordon MacRae. Joanne Woodward was offered the role of Laurey, which went to Jones. Eli Wallach and Ernest Borgnine were considered for the role of Jud before Rod Steiger was cast. Rodgers and Hammerstein personally oversaw the film to prevent the studio from making changes like adding songs from different composers, and because of this the film followed the stage version more closely than any other Rodgers & Hammerstein adaptation, although the 45-minute long first scene was broken into several shorter scenes. Only two songs from the show were cut, and with a two-and-a-half hour running time, it was much longer than most screen musicals of the era. It was also the first of the ‘roadshow’ musicals that would become the norm in Hollywood in the 1960s. The film earned four Oscar nominations, and won for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture and Best Sound Recording. It was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2007.

Paul Newman starred in the stage version of The Desperate Hours but he was passed over for the film and his role was given to the much bigger star, Humphrey Bogart, and the character was made older to accommodate the actor. Spencer Tracy was to co-star but they both insisted on top billing so Frederic March was cast instead. It was the first black-and-white film shot in VistaVision. The Leave It to Beaver house was used for exterior shots of the Hilliards’ home.

1965

• October 10 – When the Boys Meet the Girls (USA, Sam Katzman Productions)
• October 11 – The Bedford Incident (USA, Bedford Productions Ltd.)
• October 11 – The Loved One (USA, Filmways Pictures)
• October 13 – Situation Hopeless… But Not Serious (USA, Gottfried-Reinhart Productions)
• October 15 – The Cincinnati Kid (USA, Filmways Pictures-Solar Productions)

When the Boys Meet the Girls is based on the stage musical Girl Crazy, and is a remake of MGM’s 1943 musical Girl Crazy, which starred Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. The remake’s original title was I’ve Got Rhythm before being changed to When the Boys Meet the Girls. It was the film debut of Herman’s Hermits, who did so well that MGM put them in a series of films.

The Department of Defense objected to how the Navy was portrayed in The Bedford Incident and declined to participate in the production, thus the fictitious guided missile destroyer seen in the film is not a US Navy Farragut-class destroyer but a British Type 15 frigate, the HMS Wakeful. Interior scenes were filmed in HMS Troubridge, another Type 15 frigate.

The Loved One features the debut acting performance of songwriter Paul Williams. The Fish Shanty restaurant was used as the entrance to a British club in the film.

Norman Jewison replaced Sam Peckinpah as director of The Cincinnati Kid shortly after filming began. Peckinpah had been fired by the producer for ‘vulgarizing the picture’. Peckinpah had planned to shoot in black-and-white to evoke the 1930s era, but Jewison scrapped the idea because he didn’t want to shoot the reds and blacks of the playing cards in greyscale, although he did keep color muted so the cards would pop when they appeared on screen. Spencer Tracy had been cast as Steve McQueen’s co-star but had to withdraw due to health issues. He was replaced with Edward G. Robinson. Joan Blondell earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.

1975

• October 10 – Lisztomania (UK, Goodtimes Enterprises)
• October 10 – Royal Flash (USA, Two Roads Productions)
• October 10 – Shivers (Canada, DAL Productions)
• October 11 – Let’s Do It Again (USA, First Artists-Verdon Productions Limited)
• October 12 – Lies My Father Told Me (USA, Pentacle VIII Productions)
• October 15 – Whiffs (USA, Brut Productions)

Royal Flash first opened in the Netherlands on October 2, 1975. Shivers was released in the US in March 1976. Lies My Father Told Me first opened in Canada on September 26, 1975.

The Who lead singer Roger Daltry appeared in two rock musical movies in 1975, Lisztomania and Tommy, both directed by Ken Russell. Rick Wakeman, from the band Yes, composed the score and appears in the film as the Nordic god Thor. Ringo Starr appears as the Pope. This film was first to use the new Dolby Stereo sound system. Daltrey said he found the part difficult because he had no lines in Tommy and he could not play the piano.

Royal Flash introduced actors Bob Peck and Christopher Cazenove. The film’s 118 minute running time was cut to 102 minutes before release, losing all of the scenes featuring Roy Kinnear.

Shivers (Canada/UK title) is also known as The Parasite Murders and Frisson in Quebec, and They Came from Within in the US. It took three years for David Cronenberg and distributor Cinépix to get financing from the Canadian Film Development Corporation, which viewed the movie as ‘disgusting, awful, horrific, perverse’. Jonathan Demme had been offered the position of director, but Cronenberg directed even though he had no idea how to make a movie. Ivan Reitman was the line producer.

Let’s Do It Again was the second film starring Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby following Uptown Saturday Night. It was followed by a third film, A Piece of the Action. The films are not related although they are considered a trilogy. Let’s Do It Again was the most successful commercially and critically. John Amos and Jimmie Walker also appear in the film, and at the time of its release they were also starring in TV series Good Times. George Foreman and Jayne Kennedy have cameos.

Lies My Father Told Me won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film in 1975. The film was shot entirely in Montreal, with landmarks Mount Royal and The Plateau appreciated by audiences for the stunning visual aesthetics.

Whiffs was released in the UK as C.A.S.H. The film’s production company, Brut Productions, was an off-shoot of Faberge Cosmetics. When Elliott Gould was cast in the lead role, he insisted his then-girlfriend Jennifer O’Neill play the female lead. Producers had Teri Garr in mind for the role, and were fearful that the couple would break up during filming, but Gould wanted O’Neill … and they did break up during filming. The film received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Best Original Song, ‘Now That We’re in Love’ by George Barrie and Sammy Cahn.

1985

• October 10 – Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Argentina, Zoetrope Studios-Lucasfilm)
• October 11 – Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (USA, Dick Clark Productions)
• October 11 – Silver Bullet (USA, Dino De Laurentiis Company)
• October 11 – Sweet Dreams (USA, Silver Screen Partners)

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters first opened in the US on September 20, 1985. Director Paul Schrader used various colour palettes to differentiate between the frame story, flashbacks and scenes from Mishima’s novels: the scenes set in 1970 were shot in naturalistic colours, the flashbacks in black-and-white, the ‘Temple of the Golden Pavilion’-episode is dominated by golden and green, ‘Kyoko’s House’ by pink and grey, and ‘Runaway Horses’ by orange and black. The film was never officially released in Japan, mostly due to a boycott exercised by Mishima’s widow and threats by right-wing groups opposed to Mishima’s portrayal as a homosexual. Ken Takakura was to play Mishima, but had to withdraw due to pressure from the same groups.

Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins was also released as Remo Williams: Unarmed and Dangerous. The film had been envisioned as the first of a series, with star Fred Ward signed to three films as a ‘red, white and blue-collar James Bond’. Bond film veterans Guy Hamilton directed, and Christopher Wood wrote the screenplay. Joel Grey’s casting as an elderly Korean, requiring four-and-a-half hours of make-up each day, was highly controversial but Grey earned a Golden Globe nomination for his performance. Ward performed most of his stunts.

Gary Busey felt a kinship with his Silver Bullet character Uncle Red, and was allowed to ad lib his lines in certain takes of each scene in which he appeared. While he also recited the scripted dialog by Stephen King, King and director Dan Attias liked his ad libs better and kept most of them in the final film. Producer Dine De Laurentiis was not happy with Carlo Rambaldi’s werewolf creature, which many felt looked more like a black bear and dubbed it a ‘werebear’, and demanded it be changed. King and Rambaldi refused and told De Laurentiis to accept the design or cancel the film, so he relented. De Laurentiis was also not happy with the performance of the modern dancer who was inside the costume so actor Everett McGill, who played the character in human form, ended up also playing the werewolf in the suit and was credited with a dual role.

Sweet Dreams, chronicling the life and death of country singer Patsy Cline, was originally titled I Fall to Pieces, which was also the title of one of her songs. The title was changed to another of Cline’s hit songs to better reflect the film’s narrative (and the original title may have been considered insensitive as Cline died in a plane crash). Meryl Streep was interested in playing Cline, but Jessica Lange was cast. Streep later praised Lange’s performance saying no one could have done it better. Lange worked with Owen Bradley, Cline’s original record producer, to capture the singer’s nuances and mannerisms. Lange lip-synced to Cline’s original recordings for the musical sequences. Martinsburg, West Virginia was chosen to represent Cline’s hometown of Winchester, Virginia due to its preserved mid-20th-century architecture. The film’s depiction of the plane crash into the side of a mountain is not historically accurate, as the plane disintegrated after colliding with trees in a forested area near Camden, Tennessee, likely due to spatial distortion due to poor weather conditions and heavy fog. The pilot was not instrument rated and no evidence of mechanical failure was found. Cline’s second husband also stated that while the incidents with him in the film did happen, they ‘stretched the hell out of the truth.’ Cline’s family also felt the film did not accurately reflect her life or personal relationships. Lange received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her performance.

1995

• October 13 – Blue in the Face (USA, Miramax-InterAL)
• October 13 – Feast of July (USA, Merchant Ivory Productions)
• October 13 – I.D. (Norway, BBC Film)
• October 13 – Jade (USA, Robert Evans Company)
• October 13 – Strange Days (USA/Mexico, Lightstorm Entertainment)
• October 13 – The Scarlet Letter (USA/Canada, Allied Stars Ltd.)

Feast of July first opened in Montreal on October 13, 1995. I.D. first opened in the UK on May 5, 1995, and has no known US theatrical release date.

Blue in the Face was filmed over a five day period as a follow-up to Wayne Wang’s Smoke. Star Harvey Keitel and other cast members ad-libbed scenes in character between takes and the film was made using the improvised material.

The score for Jade was composed by James Horner, based on a song composed by Loreena McKennitt. Warren Beatty was the first choice for the male lead but turned it down. David Caruso was looking for a film project after his sudden departure from TV series NYPD Blue. Kenneth Branagh was offered the role of Matt Gavin before Chazz Palminteri was cast. Both Julia Roberts and Sharon Stone rejected the role of Katrina Gavin so it was offered to Linda Fiorentino, who turned it down as well but changed her mind after the character was more developed through rewrites. Writer Joe Eszterhas claimed director William Friedkin changed the script so much he threated to have his name removed from the credits. Friedkin later admitted he had virtually rewritten the entire script. The film earned two Golden Rasberry Awards nominations for Worst Screenplay and Worst New Star (Caruso, nominated as well for Kiss of Death), but lost in both categories to Showgirls, also written by Eszterhas.

Angela Bassett was attached to Strange Days in its early stages. Andy Garcia was circling the male lead role, but Ralph Fiennes had been cast instead as director Kathryn Bigelow was impressed with his work in Schindler’s List. He received an Oscar nomination for that performance days after being cast. U2 lead singer Bono was also expected to join the film, but the role of Philo Gant eventually went to Michael Wincott. Juliette Lewis was cast because she could sing and the producers wanted to avoid lip-syncing. The film was shot in Los Angeles over a period of 77 nights. They only had four hours a night to film the subway scene.

The Scarlet Letter received seven Golden Raspberry Awards nominations including Worst Picture, Worst Director (Roland Joffé) and Worst Actress (Demi Moore), winning for Worst Remake, Rip-off or Sequel.

2005

• October 14 – Domino (USA/Canada/UK, Scott Free Productions)
• October 14 – Elizabethtown (USA, Cruise/Wagner Productions)
• October 14 – The Fog (USA/Canada, Debra Hill Productions)
• October 14 – The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (USA, limited, Revolution Erie Productions Ltd.)

Domino is inspired by Domino Harvey, the English daughter of stage and screen actor Laurence Harvey, who became a Los Angeles bounty hunter. The film is dedicated to Harvey, who died at age 35 from an overdose of fentanyl on 27 June 2005, a few months before the film was released. Twentieth Century Fox turned down the project, and it was financed by New Line Cinema. Director Tony Scott felt Keira Knightley would be perfect for the role of Domino after seeing Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Mickey Rourke turned down the role of Ed Moseby as being one-dimensional, but accepted it after the role was rewritten.

Jane Fonda was cast as Hollie Baylor in Elizabethtown, but had to drop out. She was replaced with Susan Sarandon. Ashton Kutcher, Seann William Scott, Colin Hanks, Chris Evans, and James Franco all auditioned for Orlando Bloom’s part. Kutcher was actually hired but director Cameron Crowe didn’t feel the chemistry between him and Kirsten Dunst was right and Kutcher left the project. Jessica Biel auditioned for the female lead, but was given a smaller role.

The Fog is a remake of John Carpenter’s 1980 film of the same name, and was produced by Carpenter and Debra Hill. It was the next to last film for Hill before her death from cancer in 2005 (World Trade Center was released in 2006). Tom Welling had filmed for three weeks on the fourth season of Smallville before beginning production on The Fog.

2015

• October 9 – Howl (Vietnam, Starchild Pictures)
• October 9 – Knock Knock (USA/Canada, Black Bear-Camp Grey)
• October 9 – Steve Jobs (USA, limited, Scott Rudin Productions)
• October 12 – Suffragette (UK, Ingenious Media-Ruby Films)
• October 15 – The Lobster (Italy, Element Pictures)
• October 15 – UNindian (AUS, Film & Casting Temple Productions)

Howl was not released theatrically in the US, but made its Digital premiere on January 12, 2016. Knock Knock first opened in the UK on June 26, 2015. Steve Jobs received a wide release in the US and Canada on October 23, 2015. Suffragette received a limited US release beginning October 23, 2015. The Lobster received a limited US release on May 13, 2016. UNindian was screened at the Newport Beach International Film Festival, but did not receive a US theatrical release.

Knock Knock is a remake of the 1974 film Death Game, which was not released until 1977, directed by Peter S. Traynor and starring Sondra Locke and Colleen Camp. All three had a hand in the production of Knock Knock, with Camp also contributing a cameo appearance.

Upon completion of Aaron Sorkin’s script for Steve Jobs in January 2014, David Fincher was attached to direct, with Christian Bale as Jobs. Fincher exited in April and Danny Boyle was hired, with Leonardo DiCaprio in talks to play Jobs. DiCaprio exited in October, with Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Bradley Cooper under consideration but Bale was re-hired. Bale left the project again in November, and Michael Fassbender was the frontrunner to replace him, but Sony Pictures put the project in turnaround, and it was acquired by Universal. The Sony email hack in December 2014 revealed casting demands caused delays and that Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaughey and Charlize Theron were in discussions for roles in the film. In December with Fassbender and Seth Rogan (as Steve Wozniak) confirmed, Kate Winslet was confirmed in January 2015. The film was divided into three acts representing three different years leading up to the launch of the Macintosh 128K in 1984, the NeXT Computer in 1988, and the iMac G3 in 1998. Each act was filmed in chronological order, with editing of the film taking place concurrently with production. The musical score was also composed specifically for each act, with the first being analog, the second orchestral, and the third digital. Analog synthsizers used for the first act were released no later than 1984. The film earned Oscar nominations for Fassbender and Winslet for Actor and Supporting Actress, respectively. The film also earned three BAFTA nominations, with Winslet winning Supporting Actress, and four Golden Globe nominations, with wins for Winslet and Sorkin’s screenplay.

Suffragette was the first film to be shot in the Houses of Parliament in London.

Jason Clarke was originally cast in the lead role in The Lobster, but he left the production and was replaced with Colin Farrell. Elizabeth Olsen turned down a role in the film due to commitments to Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Rachel Weisz was cast in her place. Olsen wondered later what direction her career might have taken if she took the role, but felt she made the right choice. The film was Oscar-nominated for Best Original Screenplay, and BAFTA-nominated for Outstanding British Film.