Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #274 :: October 23•29

Many new films made their debuts this week across the decades, with quite a few receiving awards attention. Of note, a portion of a 1925 film was reconstructed with only two minutes of surviving film, a 1935 film was the first biopic about a composer, a now controversial author wrote the screenplay for a 1945 romantic mystery, a 1955 film nearly had a cinematic first, a 1965 film put established characters into an original story, a director used his own home for a 1975 film, a 1985 cult classic was loosely based on a real-life record company, actors in two 1995 films were honored with Oscars, a 2005 American film became a British film, and then a partly American film, and a 2015 action film brought a character back to the big screen for the twenty-fourth time (officially). Scroll down to see the movies released this week, and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries.

1925

• October 23 – Wandering Footsteps (USA, Banner Productions)
• October 24 – Compromise (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• October 24 – Jewelled Nights (AUS, Louise Lovely Productions)
• October 24 – The Unnamed Woman (USA, Embassy Pictures Corporation)
• October 25 – Bobbed Hair (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• October 25 – Heads Up (USA, Harry Garson Productions)
• October 25 – The Beautiful City (USA, Inspiration Pictures)
• October 25 – The Winding Stair (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• October 26 – The Blackguard (UK, Universum Film-Gaumont British Picture Corporation)

Jewelled Nights and The Blackguard, also known as Die Prinzessin und der Geiger, have no known US theatrical release dates.

The survival statuses of Wandering Footsteps and Heads Up are unknown, while Compromise, The Unnamed Woman, The Beautiful City and The Winding Stair are considered lost films.

Two minutes of Jewelled Nights has survived, and with photographic reconstruction, newly found footage, animation and a copy of the original novel, 20 minutes of the film have been reconstructed and it plays daily at the Gaiety Theatre in Zeehan (part of the West Coast Heritage Centre), near where the movie was shot. A surviving print of Bobbed Hair is housed in a foreign archive.

Alfred Hitchcock was a writer on The Blackguard, and while the film was being made he was able to study other films being made nearby, including F.W. Murnau’s The Last Laugh, which were major influences on his later work. The film survives in several archives.

1935

• October 23 – Harmony Lane (USA, Mascot Pictures)
• October 23 – The River House Mystery (London, Imeson-Foulsham Films)
• October 24 – Rip Roaring Riley (USA, C.C. Burr Productions)
• October 24 – The New Frontier (USA, Paul Malvern Productions)
• October 25 – Bad Boy (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• October 25 – The Eagle’s Brood (USA, Harry Sherman Productions)
• October 25 – A Feather in Her Hat (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• October 25 – Grand Exit (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• October 25 – I Give My Heart (London, British International Pictures)
• October 25 – The Rainmakers (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
• October 25 – Rendezvous (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• October 25 – Way Down East (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• October 26 – Personal Maid’s Secret (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• October 27 – Transatlantic Tunnel (USA, Gaumont British Picture Corporation)
• October 28 – Hello, Sweetheart (UK, Warner Brothers-First National Productions)
• October 28 – No Limit (London, Associated Talking Pictures)
• October 29 – Between Men (USA, Supreme Pictures)
• October 29 – Western Courage (USA, Larry Darmour Productions)

The River House Mystery received a general UK release on January 27, 1936, but has no known US theatrical release date. I Give My Heart went into general UK release on April 13, 1936, and was released in the US on April 1, 1938 as The Loves of Madame Dubarry. Transatlantic Tunnel was released in the UK as The Tunnel. Hello, Sweetheart first opened in London on May 24, 1935, but has no known US theatrical release date. No Limit entered general UK release on March 23, 1936, and made its US debut on television on August 20, 1949.

Harmony Lane was the first sound film based on the life of a composer (Stephen Foster). The River House Mystery is the second film featuring Bernard Lee, who would become better known as M in the James Bond series. Rip Roaring Riley was known as The Mystery of Diamond Island in the UK.

The New Frontier star John Wayne also appeared in a 1939 movie titled New Frontier, but the title was changed years later to Frontier Horizon to avoid confusion. Grand Exit was the second film together for stars Edmund Lowe and Ann Sothern.

Fifteen-year-old Mickey Rooney, and Marx Brothers foil Margaret Dumont have uncredited cameos in Rendezvous. The film was intended to star William Powell and Myrna Loy, but Loy was ‘on strike’ in order to get better pay from MGM. She was replaced with Hollywood newcomer Rosalind Russell. Working titles were Blonde Countess, White Bird and Puzzle Man. Production had to be suspended briefly when co-star Binnie Barnes suffered an appendicitis attack. Rumors swirled that the film was going to be scrapped, re-written and re-shot, but director William K. Howard denied the claims stating that it was just the ending that was unsatisfactory and that was known going into production. Seventeen new sets had to be built for the new ending which was filmed over the course of twenty days. The final released film runs 94 minutes, but the preview version ran 106 minutes.

Way Down East is a remake of the 1920 silent film of the same title, directed by D.W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. A print of Personal Maid’s Secret is held in the Library of Congress.

The original novel upon which Transatlantic Tunnel is based, 1913’s The Tunnel, had been previously filmed three times: as the German silent Der Tunnel (1915), a German sound film of the same title and a French version, Le Tunnel, both released in 1933. Transatlantic Tunnel uses extensive footage from the 1933 German version.

1945

• October 23 – The Royal Mounted Rides Again (USA, serial, Universal Pictures)
• October 25 – Johnny Angel (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
• October 26 – Love Letters (USA, Hal Wallis Productions)
• October 26 – Pursuit to Algiers (USA, Universal Pictures)
• October 29 – Home Sweet Home (UK, Butcher’s Film Service-Mancunian Film)
• October 29 – Johnny Frenchman (UK, Ealing Studios)
• October 29 – Painted Boats (UK, Ealing Studios)

Home Sweet Home first opened in London on August 14, 1945, but has no known US theatrical release date. Johnny Frenchman first opened in London on July 10, 1945, and was released in the US on October 19, 1946. Painted Boats first opened in London on August 28, 1945, made its US TV debut on January 12, 1946, and received a US theatrical release on October 6, 1947 as The Girl of the Canal.

Ayn Rand wrote the screenplay for Love Letters, based on the novel Pity My Simplicity by Christopher Massie. Rand’s adaptation was heavily influenced by the play Cyrano de Bergerac, which she had admired since reading it in her youth. This is the second of four films to feature Jennifer Jones and Jospeh Cotten in leading roles. Both actors had to be borrowed from David O. Selznick. Cotten was actually the second choice as Gregory Peck turned down the film for being too similar to Spellbound. The film received four Oscar nominations: Best Actress (Jones), Best Art Direction (Black-and-White), Music Score, Best Original Song (‘Love Letters’).

Pursuit to Algiers is the twelfth of fourteen Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.

1955

• October 24 – 5 Against the House (Sweden, Romson Productions)
• October 26 – King’s Rhapsody (UK, Herbert Wilcox Productions)
• October 27 – No Man’s Woman (USA, Republic Pictures)
• October 27 – Rebel Without a Cause (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• October 28 – A Man Alone (USA, Republic Pictures)
• October 29 – Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (New York City, Russ-Field Productions)

5 Against the House was first released in the US on May 12, 1955. King’s Rhapsody has no known US theatrical release date. Gentlemen Marry Brunettes entered general US release on January 27, 1956.

5 Against the House features one of the earliest screen performances of Kim Novak. Her singing voice is dubbed by Jo Ann Greer. Errol Flynn and Patrice Wymore co-starred in King’s Rhapsody. Wymore was Flynn’s wife at the time.

Rebel Without a Cause marks the film debut of Dennis Hopper in a minor role. The film was released nearly a month after James Dean died in a car crash. This was the only one of Dean’s three films in which he received top billing. The film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1990. Natalie Wood almost missed out on the role of Judy because dirctor Nicholas Ray didn’t think she fit the role of a wild teenager. After she was involved in a car accident during a night out with friends, Ray rushed to the hospital. A delirious Wood overheard a doctor mumbling that she was a ‘goddamn juvenile delinquent’ and she shouted at Ray, ‘Did you hear what he called me, Nick?! He called me a goddamn juvenile delinquent! Now do I get the part?!’ Sal Mineo noted in 1972 that his character Plato was meant to be gay, which would have made him the first gay teenager on film. He also said that was why Plato had to be killed off, alluding to Dean’s own bisexuality and his character both interested in Plato and Judy, so Plato had to die. The film was originally considered a B-movie and production began with black-and-white film. Once studio head Jack Warner realized Dean’s star was rapidly rising, the production quickly switched to color film, and it was shot in CinemaScope. The William O. Jenkins House was used as the abandoned mansion. The same location had been used two years earlier for Sunset Blvd., and it was torn down two years after Rebel Without a Cause. The film earned three Oscar nominations for Supporting Actor (Mineo), Supporting Actress (Wood) and Motion Picture Story. The film and Dean received BAFTA nominations, while Wood won the Most Promising Newcomer – Female Golden Globe.

To prepare for his feature directorial debut on A Man Alone, Ray Milland — who also starred in the film — directed episodes of his 1953-1955 sitcom Meet Mr. McNutley. Gwen Verdon filmed a musical specialty number for Gentlemen Marry Brunettes which was cut from the US release as being too sexy.

1965

• October 26 – A Study in Terror (UK, limited, Compton Films)
• October 27 – Die, Monster, Die! (USA, Alta Vista Productions)
• October 27 – King Rat (USA, Coleytown)
• October 28 – Winter A-Go-Go (USA, R.C. Productions)

A Study in Terror was released in the US on August 10, 1966. Although based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s Holmes and Watson characters, the story is original to the film, challenging Holmes to solve the crimes of Jack the Ripper. It is the first Holmes film to feature the character Mycroft Holmes.

Die, Monster, Die! is known in the UK as Monster of Terror and The House at the End of the World. It is a loose adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Colour Out of Space.

Richard Dawson has a small role as a paratrooper at the end of King Rat. The film earned Oscar nominations for Cinematography and Art Direction.

1975

• October 26 – Black Moon (USA, Nouvelles Éditions de Films-Bioskop Film)
• October 29 – Take a Hard Ride (USA, Bernsen-Ludwig-Bercovici Productions)

Black Moon first opened in France on September 24, 1975. Take a Hard Ride first opened in the UK on September 25, 1975.

Director Louis Malle shot Black Moon in his own 200-year-old manor house and the surrounding grounds. The house was the inspiration for the story. Malle was also influenced by Alice in Wonderland. Take a Hard Ride was the second of three films starring Jim Brown, Lee Van Cleef and Fred Williamson.

1985

• October 23 – Twice in a Lifetime (New York City, Bud Yorkin Productions)
• October 24 – Wills & Burke (AUS, Stony Desert)
• October 25 – Krush Groove (USA), Crystalite Productions)

Twice in a Lifetime entered general US release on November 8, 1985. Wills & Burke has no known US theatrical release date.

Paul McCartney composed and performed the theme song to Twice in a Lifetime, but the song was never made commercially available until it was included as a bonus track on the 1993 re-issue of McCartney’s album Pipes of Peace. Amy Madigan received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Supporting Actress, while Gene Hackman was Golden Globe nominated for Best Actor.

Wills & Burke is also known as The Wacky World of Wills & Burke and Wills & Burke: The Untold Story. It opened a week before the drama film Burke & Wills.

Blair Underwood makes his feature film debut in Krush Groove playing Russell Walker, loosely based on Def Jam Recordings producer Russell Simmons. Simmons was a producer and story consultant on the film, and had a cameo as a club owner named Crocket. Chris Rock and Coati Mundi have uncredited roles.

1995

• October 27 – Copycat (USA, Regency Enterprises)
• October 27 – Haunted (UK, October Films-Lumière Pictures-Double ‘A’ Pictures)
• October 27 – Leaving Las Vegas (USA, limited, Initial Productions)
• October 27 – Mighty Aphrodite (USA, limited, Sweetland Films-Magnolia Pictures)
• October 27 – Powder (USA, Caravan Pictures)
• October 27 – The Doom Generation (USA, Desperate Pictures)
• October 27 – Three Wishes (USA, Rysher Entertainment)
• October 27 – Vampire in Brooklyn (USA, Eddie Murphy Productions)
• October 26 – Angel Baby (AUS, Astral Films)

Haunted was released in the US on June 18, 1996. Leaving Las Vegas entered wide release in the US on February 9, 1996. Mighty Aphrodite went into wide release in the US on November 10, 1995. Angel Baby was released in the US on January 24, 1997.

Leaving Las Vegas was filmed on Super 16mm film rather than the traditional 35mm used for mainstream films due to the limited budget, which also led director Mike Figgis to compose his own score. Nicolas Cage prepared for his role by binge drinking for two weeks in Dublin and having a friend videotape him so he could study his speech. He said it was one of the most enjoyable research periods he’d ever done for a part. Elisabeth Shue spent her research time interviewing Las Vegas prostitutes. Figgis did not have permits to shoot on the streets of Las Vegas, and often had to do single takes to avoid the police. Figgis felt this approach made the acting more authentic. The film earned four Oscar nominations, with Cage winning Best Actor. It also received three BAFTA nominations, and four Golden Globe nominations with Cage winning the Globe as well.

Mighty Aphrodite received two Oscar nominations, one BAFTA nomination, and one Golden Globe nominations. Mira Sorvino won both the Oscar and the Golden Globe for Supporting Actress.

The Doom Generation is the second film in Greg Araki’s Teenage Apocalypse trilogy, with Totally F***ed Up and Nowhere.

2005

• October 26 – Match Point (France, DreamWorks Pictures)
• October 28 – Saw II (USA, Lionsgate)
• October 28 – The Legend of Zorro (USA, Amblin Entertainment)
• October 28 – The Weather Man (USA, Escape Artists Productions)

Match Point received a limited US release on December 28, 2005, and entered wide release on January 20, 2006.

Finding difficulty in getting funding for Match Point in the US, Woody Allen took the project to British backers, with BBC Films partially funding the project on the condition that the film was shot in the UK with a mostly British cast. Allen had to rewrite the screenplay, shifting the setting from The Hamptons to London. Kate Winslet was the female lead in the film but withdrew a week before production, so Scarlet Johannson accepted the role which required Allen to then rewrite the character as American. Allen said it only took about an hour for that rewrite. While US critics praised Allen’s return to form, British critics found fault with locations and idioms in the dialog. Allen still received an Oscar and Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Screenplay. The film also earned three additional Globes nominations for Motion Picture – Drama, Director and Supporting Actress (Johansson).

The screenplay for Saw II was developed from a different screenplay which had been sent to the producers, who felt it could be the basis for the Saw sequel with rewrites. The script titled The Desperate, by Darren Lynn Bousman, had been rejected by other studios as being too similar to Saw. When Bousman was contacted by the producers, he feared he was going to be accused of plagiarism, but instead he learned they were interested in his project. Within two months, he was brought in to direct the film. Original Saw writer Leigh Wannell revised Bousman’s screenplay with input from original director James Wan to integrate it into the Saw universe while retaining Bousman’s characters, traps and deaths. To keep the film’s ending a secret, only the key cast and crew members involved with the climax were given the complete script. Everyone else only got the first 88 pages. Rewritten pages were shredded and everyone involved had to sign NDAs. It was reported that four or five endings were filmed to keep it a surprise. Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith reprised their roles from the first film, though Smith was surprised to get the call thinking the first movie would not be a hit. Bousman himself is the hooded figure who places a key behind a character’s eye, with many fans believing it was supposed be Cary Elwes’ character from the first movie. Bousman later said it was not his intention to imply that. Bousman allowed the actors to improvise their lines, which he said they did about five percent of the time. The film’s original teaser poster showing two bloody severed fingers forming the Roman numeral II had been briefly circulated but was rejected by the MPAA, prompting Lionsgate to remove the image from its website. The image was used for the soundtrack album cover.

The Legend of Zorro was the sequel to The Mask of Zorro, with Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones reprising their roles. A film adaptation of the Django/Zorro comic book series, for which Quentin Tarantino and Jamie Foxx expressed interest in having Banderas reprise his role in a crossover film, was proposed in 2019 but it had been cancelled by 2022.

Bryant Gumbel, Ed McMahon, Cristina Ferrare, and Wolfgang Puck have cameos in The Weather Man.

2015

• October 23 – Bone Tomahawk (USA, Platinum Platypus)
• October 23 – I Smile Back (USA, limited, Egoli Tossell Pictures)
• October 23 – Jem and the Holograms (USA, Allspark Pictures)
• October 23 – Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (USA, Blumhouse Productions)
• October 23 – Rock the Kasbah (USA, Covert Media)
• October 23 – The Last Witch Hunter (USA, TIK Films-Mark Canton Productions)
• October 24 – Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me (USA, documentary, limited, PCH Films)
• October 26 – Spectre (UK, Eon Productions)
• October 29 – The Dressmaker (AUS, White Hot Productions)

Spectre was released in the US and Canada on November 6, 2015. The Dressmaker received a limited release in the US and Canada on September 23, 2016.

Bone Tomahawk was the directorial debut of S. Craig Zahler. Peter Sarsgaard, Timothy Olyphant, and Jennifer Carpenter were originally cast in the film but were replaced with Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox and Lili Simmons. Sarsgaard had actually received the script first, signed on and had his agent pass it on to Kurt Russell, who quickly agreed to be in the film. Zahler was given a budget of $10 million and sixty days to complete the film, so actors performed their roles in the shortest time possible.

Jem and the Holograms director Jon M. Chu had attempted to get the film made 11 years earlier but Universal rejected it because of the cost. Chu wanted to make the film after watching the original animated series with his sisters while growing up. Samantha Newark and Britta Phillips, the original voice and singing voice actresses for the animated Jem, have cameos, as does Jem creator Christy Marx. Marx had no involvement with the film aside from her cameo. Ariana Grande and manager Scooter Braun were to also have cameos but their scene was cut from the film. Braun was one of the film’s producers.

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension is the sixth film in the Paranormal Activity franchise. Most of the film takes place after the fourth but ties in heavily to the third as well. It is the first in the series to not feature Katie Featherston as Katie, although the character does appear as played by Chloe Csengery, who played the younger version of Katie in the fourth and fifth films. The film marked the directorial debut of Gregory Plotkin, who was the editor for the second, third, fourth, and fifth films.

The Last Witch Hunter was the final film distributed by Summit Entertainment before being absorbed into Lionsgate. Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me received an Oscar nomination and a Grammy Award for the film’s theme song ‘I’m Not Gonna Miss You’, written by Campbell and Julian Raymond.

Spectre is the twenty-fourth James Bond film, and the fourth to star Daniel Craig as Bond. Nicolas Winding Refn was offered the directing duties but turned down the offer, prompting the previous film’s director, Sam Mendes, to return. He was the first of the series’ directors since John Glen to direct back-to-back Bond films. This was the first Bond film to mark the inclusion of Spectre and its associated characters since Diamonds Are Forever (1971) because of lengthy legal issues between Kevin McClory and Ian Fleming/Eon Productions over the right to the Thunderball novel. The film’s theme song, ‘Writing’s On the Wall’ performed by Sam Smith, won both the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Original Song. At 50, Monica Bellucci was the oldest actress cast as a ‘Bond girl’. No Day of the Dead parade like the one seen in the film’s opening ever took place in Mexico City, but due to the interest in such a parade raised by the film an actual ‘Día de Muertos’ parade was held in 2016, which was attended by 250,000 people. The film’s opening ‘single take’ was actually composed of six shots seamlessly edited together. An explosion filmed in Morocco holds a Guinness World Record for the largest film stunt explosion in cinematic history, involving 8,140 litres of kerosene and 24 charges each with a kilogramme of high explosives.

Producer Sue Maslin always had Kate Winslet and Jady Davis in mind for the roles of Myrtle and Molly Dunnage in The Dressmaker, but knew the chances of getting them both were slim, however they both joined the cast in August 2013. Isla Fisher had been cast in the film as well but dropped out due to her pregnancy and was replaced with Sarah Snook.