Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #300 :: April 23•29

While Movies by the Decade celebrates its own milestone — 300 editions — there are a few cinematic milestones to celebrate this week as well. One 1926 silent film with a Technicolor sequence survives today, a 1936 film features the one and only appearance of a beauty queen, a 1946 serial had to quickly shift gears following the death of its star, 1956 saw the release of a TV-to-film adaptation that ignored its source material, and brought a classic Japanese monster to American shores for the first time, a 1966 film was one of two of a 14-picture deal that were ever produced, Roger Corman scored with two films released in 1976 with the star of one eventually going on to become an A-list director, and the other seeing the directorial debut of another director who went on to bigger and better things, a 1986 film nearly derailed the career of its director, 1996 saw a popular action film star make his directorial debut, a 2006 film was the first to tackle the subject of an American tragedy, and 2016 … took the week off. Scroll down to see all of the films that premiered this week, and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries.

1926  •  1936  •  1946  •  1956  •  1966  •  1976  •  1986  •  1996  •  2006  •  2016

1926

April 23 – The Midnight Sun (USA, Universal Pictures)

• Cast: Laura La Plante, Pat O’Malley, Michael Vavitch, Raymond Keane, Earl Metcalfe
• Director: Dimitri Buchowetzki
• Trivia: The film includes a brief scene shot in Technicolor. A complete print of the film is located in the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

April 24 – Should a Girl Propose? (AUS, P.J. Ramster Photoplays)

• Cast: Cecil Pawley, Thelma Newling, Rex Simpson, Joy Wood, Norma Wood
• Director: P.J. Ramster
• Trivia: The film has no known US theatrical release date, and is considered lost.

April 25 – Early to Wed (USA, Fox Film Corporation)

• Cast: Matt Moore, Katherine Perry, Albert Gran, Julia Swayne Gordon, Arthur Housman
• Director: Frank Borzage
• Trivia: The film’s survival status is unknown.

April 25 – Silence (USA, DeMille Pictures Corporation)

• Cast: Vera Reynolds, H.B. Warner, Raymond Hatton, Jack Mulhall, Rockliffe Fellowes, Virginia Pearson
• Director: Rupert Julian
• Trivia: Once thought lost, a print was discovered in 2016.

April 25 – The Border Sheriff (USA, Universal Pictures)

• Cast: Jack Hoxie, Olive Hasbrouck, S.E. Jennings, Gilbert Holmes, Buck Moulton, Thomas G. Lingham
• Director: Robert N. Bradbury
• Trivia: The film’s survival status is unknown.

April 25 – The Broadway Boob (USA, Oscar Price Productions)

• Cast: Glenn Hunter, Mildred Ryan, Antrim Short, Beryl Halley, Margaret Irving
• Director: Joseph Henabery
• Trivia: The film’s survival status is unknown.

April 25 – The Broadway Gallant (USA, Richard Talmadge Productions-Carlos Productions)

• Cast: Richard Talmadge, Clara Horton, Joseph Harrington, Jack Richardson, Cecile Cameron, Ford West
• Director: Noel M. Smith
• Trivia: The film’s survival status is unknown.

April 25 – The Isle of Retribution (USA, Robertson-Cole Pictures Corporation)

• Cast: Lillian Rich, Robert Frazer, Victor McLaglen, Mildred Harris, Kathleen Kirkham, David Torrence
• Director: James P. Hogan
• Trivia: The film is considered lost.

April 26 – The Lucky Lady (USA, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)

• Cast: Greta Nissen, Lionel Barrymore, William Collier Jr., Marc McDermott
• Director: Raoul Walsh
• Trivia: The film has been listed as lost, but a print survives in the Library of Congress.

1936

April – Three on the Trail (USA, Harry Sherman Productions)

• Cast: William Boyd, James Ellison, Onslow Stevens, Muriel Evans, George ‘Gabby’ Hayes
• Director: Howard Bretherton

April 24 – Absolute Quiet (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

• Cast: Lionel Atwill, Irene Hervey, Raymond Walburn, Stuart Erwin, J. Carroll Naish
• Director: George B. Seitz

April 24 – Captain January (USA, 20th Century Fox)

• Cast: Shirley Temple, Guy Kibbee, Slim Summerville, Buddy Ebsen, Sara Haden, Jane Darwell
• Director: David Butler
• Trivia: Based on the 1890 children’s book of the same name by Laura E. Richards.

April 24 – The Country Beyond (USA, 20th Century Fox)

• Cast: Rochelle Hudson, Paul Kelly, Robert Kent, Alan Hale Sr., Alan Dinehart
• Director: Eugene Forde

April 24 – The Witness Chair (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)

• Cast: Ann Harding, Walter Abel, Douglass Dumbrille, Frances Sage, Moroni Olsen, Margaret Hamilton
• Director: George Nicholls Jr.

April 24 – We Did It (USA, short, Fleischer Studios)

• Voice Cast: Mae Questel
• Director: Dave Fleischer
• Trivia: Animated short with Betty Boop and Pudgy the Pup.

April 25 – I Married a Doctor (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)

• Cast: Pat O’Brien, Josephine Hutchinson, Ross Alexander, Guy Kibbee, Louise Fazenda
• Director: Archie Mayo
• Trivia: Film adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’s 1920 novel Main Street.

April 25 – Rogue of the Range (USA, Supreme Pictures)

• Cast: Johnny Mack Brown, Lois January, Stephen Chase, Phyllis Hume, George Ball
• Director: S. Roy Luby
• Trivia: First and only film for Phyllis Hume (billed as Phyllis Dobson), Miss California 1936 and first runner-up for Miss America. The film was released in the UK as Spider and the Fly.

April 25 – Westward Whoa (USA, short, Leon Schlesinger Studios)

• Voice Cast: Tommy Bond, Bernice Hansen, Joe Dougherty
• Director: Jack King
• Trivia: The story is a Western adaptation of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. The short marks the final appearances of spotted St. Bernard puppies Ham and Ex, Beans and Little Kitty. It is also the last cartoon where Porky Pig is the co-star to Beans.

April 26 – Desert Justice (USA, Berke-Perrin Productions)

• Cast: Jack Perrin, Warren Hymer, Marion Dowling, David Sharpe, Roger Williams
• Director: William Berke

April 29 – Roamin’ Wild (USA, Reliable Pictures Corporation)

• Cast: Tom Tyler, Max Davidson, Carol Wyndham, Al Ferguson, George Chesebro
• Director: Bernard B. Ray

1946

April – Partners in Time (USA, Jack Votion Productions Inc.)

• Cast: Chester Lauck, Norris Goff, Pamela Blake, John James, Teala Loring
• Director: William Nigh
• Trivia: Based on the radio comedy program Lum and Abner.

April 23 – Lost City of the Jungle (USA, serial, Universal Pictures)

• Cast: Russell Hayden, Jane Adams, Keye Luke, Lionel Atwill, John Mylong
• Directors: Lewis D. Collins, Ray Taylor
• Trivia: Universal’s penultimate serial. Lionel Atwill was intended to be the star, but he was ill and died of lung cancer during production, and rather than tossing out the already filmed footage his character was made secondary with a double (sometimes in disguise) and long shots used to supplement his performance, and most of his character’s actions were moved to later in the serial.

April 23 – The Wife of Monte Cristo (USA, Producers Releasing Corporation)

• Cast: John Loder, Lenore Aubert, Fritz Kortner, Charles Dingle, Eduardo Ciannelli
• Director: Edgar G. Ulmer
• Trivia: The film’s title comes from the unofficial sequel to The Count of Monte Cristo, which is attributed to author Alexandre Dumas, but it was actually from the first book of a two-volume English translation of the novel, The Son of Monte Cristo, written by Jules Lermina in 1881. The film was produced by PRC, which usually turned out cheaper B-movies, on a higher than usual budget and was a box office success.

April 25 – Galloping Thunder (USA, Columbia Pictures)

• Cast: Charles Starrett, Adele Roberts, Merle Travis, The Bronco Busters, Smiley Burnette
• Director: Ray Nazarro
• Trivia: 12th of 65 Durango Kid movies. Burnette and The Bronco Busters appeared as themselves.

April 25 – The Three Troubledoers (USA, short, Columbia Pictures)

• Cast: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Dick Curtis, Christine McIntyre
• Director: Edward Bernds
• Trivia: The 91st of 190 Three Stooges shorts from Columbia Pictures. A gag gone wrong caused injury to Moe Howard when a backfiring bazooka had too much pressure, shooting large chunks of soot into his eyes and under his eyelids. They had to pry his eyes open and remove the soot.

April 27 – King of the Forest Rangers (USA, serial, Republic Pictures)

• Cast: Larry Thompson, Helen Talbot, Stuart Hamblen, Anthony Warde, LeRoy Mason, Scott Elliott
• Directors: Spencer Gordon Bennet, Fred C. Brannon
• Trivia: The least expensive serial from Republic for 1946, even though it went over its $135,000 budget by nearly 2%. The serial chapters were edited into six 26½-minute episodes for television broadcast in the 1950s.

April 27 – The Glass Alibi (USA, W. Lee Wilder Productions)

• Cast: Paul Kelly, Douglas Fowley, Anne Gwynne, Maris Wrixon
• Director: W. Lee Wilder

1956

April – Jubal (USA, Columbia Pictures)

• Cast: Glenn Ford, Ernest Borgnine, Rod Steiger, Valerie French, Felicia Farr , Charles Bronson, Jack Elam
• Director: Delmer Daves
• Trivia: Rod Steiger’s role was to be played by Aldo Ray, but contract player Ray was unhappy with Columbia about not receiving a bonus after being loaned out to other studios, and refused to appear in the film.

April 23 – Great Day in the Morning (UK, Edmund Grainger Productions)

• Cast: Robert Stack, Virginia Mayo, Ruth Roman, Raymond Burr, Alex Nicol, Regis Toomey
• Director: Jacques Tourneur
• Trivia: Released in the US on May 16, 1956. The Western film, set in 1860s Denver, was shot in Technicolor and Superscope.

April 24 – Our Miss Brooks (USA, Lute Productions)

• Cast: Eve Arden, Gale Gordon, Don Porter, Robert Rockwell, Jane Morgan, Richard Crenna, Nick Adams, Joseph Kearns
• Director: Al Lewis
• Trivia: Based on the radio and TV sitcom of the same name, though it disregarded the four seasons of the TV series and started with a new storyline, even though the main cast reprised their roles in the film.

April 27 – Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (USA, Toho)

• Cast: Raymond Burr, Takashi Shimura, Momoko Kōchi, Akira Takarada, Akihiko Hirata
• Directors: Terry O. Morse, Ishirō Honda
• Trivia: Heavily re-edited American release of the 1954 Japanese film, Gojira, adding Raymond Burr as an American reporter, and altering or removing key plot points. Burr interacted with body doubles of the original Japanese cast in an attempt to attempt to seamlessly blend the original and new footage. James Hong and Sammee Tong were hired to provide the English dubbing, and the entire process was completed in less than five hours. They read for each role, with lines recorded at different speeds with the best chosen to match the footage, which neither actor saw. They completed their work, locked in a room and sitting at a table with a microphone. Tong did the voices of six older characters, and Hong did seven younger characters.

April 27 – Hooked Bear (USA, short, Walt Disney Productions)

• Voice Cast: Bill Thompson, Jimmy MacDonald
• Director: Jack Hannah
• Trivia: A Humphrey the Bear short.

April 28 – I Never Forget a Face (USA, documentary short, Warner Bros. Pictures)

• Narrators: Dwight Weist, Ward Wilson, Hiram Johnson
• Director: Robert Youngson
• Trivia: Oscar-nominated for Best Live Action Short Film.

1966

April 25 – Out of Sight (USA, Universal Pictures)

• Cast: Jonathan Daly, Karen Jensen, Robert Pine, Deanna Lund, Wende Wagner
• Director: Lennie Weinrib
• Trivia: The film was announced with the title Thunder Blunder, a parody of Thunderball. The film was part of a 14-picture deal Universal struck with Weinrib and producer Bart Patton, of which only two films were actually produced. The film features musical performances by Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Dobie Gray, Freddie and the Dreamers, The Astronauts, The Turtles (in their only film appearance) and The Knickerbockers. The footage of the screaming crowd during the two performances by Freddie & The Dreamers is actually a crowd watching a live performance of the Beatles in 1964. The film’s writer was Larry Hovis, who was also starring on Hogan’s Heroes at the time. The film was shot in two weeks.

April 27 – Gunpoint (USA, Universal Pictures)

• Cast: Audie Murphy, Joan Staley, Warren Stevens, Edgar Buchanan, Denver Pyle, Royal Dano, Ford Rainey
• Director: Earl Bellamy
• Trivia: Audie Murphy’s final film for Universal, working in Europe for a number of years afterward. The film includes scenes from several earlier Murphy films from Universal.

April 28 – Love Me, Love My Mouse (USA, short, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

• Voice Cast: Mel Blanc, June Foray
• Directors: Chuck Jones, Ben Washam
• Trivia: Final appearance of Toodles in a Tom & Jerry cartoon, 20 years after her first appearance in Springtime for Thomas.

1976

April – Eat My Dust! (US, New World Pictures)

• Cast: Ron Howard, Christopher Norrism Brad David, Kathy O’Dare, Clint Howard, Rance Howard, Paul Bartel, Corbin Bernsen
• Director: Charles B. Griffith
• Trivia: The film was originally titled The Car. Ron Howard read the script on the set of Happy Days and thought it was terrible, but he wanted to move into directing and thought that working with Roger Corman would help him get a script produced that he and his father had written. Corman didn’t like that script but told Howard if he did the movie, he would consider a second story that he may direct if he also starred, and if that failed he promised Howard he could direct second unit on an action film. After filming Eat My Dust!, Corman agreed to finance Howard’s Grand Theft Auto, which became his directorial debut. Eat My Dust! filmed for four weeks, but Howard completed his scenes in ten days, working around his Happy Days schedule. The film’s trailer was edited by Allan Arkush and Joe Dante. The film was a hit, and the first from New World to earn $5 million.

April 23 – Rattlers (USA, Boxoffice International Pictures)

• Cast: Sam Chew, Elisabeth Chauvet, Dan Priest, Tony Ballen, Ron Gold
• Director: John McCauley
• Trivia: The film was featured as part of the 2011 Cinematic Titanic Live tour.

April 25 – Hollywood Boulevard (USA, New World Pictures)

• Cast: Candice Rialson, Mary Woronov, Rita George, Jeffrey Kramer, Dick Miller, Paul Bartel, Charles B. Griffith
• Directors: Allan Arkush, Joe Dante
• Trivia: Directorial debuts of Arkush and Dante. The film was made as a bet between producers Jon Davison and Roger Corman that Davison could make the cheapest New World film ever. Corman gave him $60,000 and no more than ten days, instead of the usual fifteen. By using extensive footage from previous films, and featuring a number of in-jokes referencing other New World films, the final budget was $54,000 for a ten day shoot. Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen appear as themselves. Paul Bartel credits the film with launching his acting career (as Eric Von Leppe, the same name as Boris Karloff’s character in The Terror), and Mary Woronov was cast based on her performance in Death Race 2000, another New World film. Corman wanted to call the film Hollywood Hookers, which Dante did not like even though he felt the movie may have made more money with that title. Inside jokes include Dick Miller as Walter Paisley, the name of his character in A Bucket of Blood; John Kramer as Duke Mantee, the name of Humphrey Bogart’s character in The Petrified Forest; Miller watching himself in a scene from The Terror; and cameos from Jonathan Kaplan, Joe Dante, Lewis Teague, Forrest J. Ackerman, and Robby the Robot.

April 25 – Stay Hungry (USA, Outov Productions)

• Cast: Jeff Bridges, Sally Field, Arnold Schwarzenegger, R. G. Armstrong, Robert Englund, Scatman Crothers, Fannie Flagg, Joanna Cassidy, Richard Gilliland, Ed Begley Jr., Joe Spinell, Franco Columbu
• Director: Bob Rafelson
• Trivia: Schwarzenegger won a Golden Globe for Best Acting Debut in a Motion Picture, despite appearing as Hercules (under the name Arnold Strong) in 1970’s Hercules in New York, a gangster’s henchman in 1973’s The Long Goodbye, and a masseur in the 1974 TV movie, Happy Anniversary and Goodbye.

1986

April – Murphy’s Law (USA, Golan-Globus Productions)

• Cast: Charles Bronson, Kathleen Wilhoite, Carrie Snodgress, Robert F. Lyons, Richard Romanus
• Director: J. Lee Thompson
• Trivia: Sixth film for Bronson and Thompson as star and director, respectively.

April 24 – The Still Point (AUS, Rosa Colosimo Films)

• Cast: Nadine Garner, Steve Bastoni, Ben Mendelsohn, Greg Fleet, Alex Menglet
• Director: Barbara Boyd-Anderson
• Trivia: The film has no known US theatrical release date.

April 25 – 8 Million Ways to Die (USA, Producers Sales Organization)

• Cast: Jeff Bridges, Rosanna Arquette, Alexandra Paul, Randy Brooks, Andy García, Tommy Lister
• Director: Hal Ashby
• Trivia: Ashby’s final film. The film was originally to be directed by Walter Hill, with Nick Nolte starring, and was intended to be the first of a series of ‘Matthew Scudder’ films based on the novels by Lawrence Block. Jamie Lee Curtis was cast as the female lead, but she left the film and was replaced with Rosanna Arquette (Cher was also under consideration). After filming was completed, the studio fired Ashby and his editor and hired Stuart H. Pappe to edit the film, drastically changing the tone, deleting important scenes with Arquette and dubbing new dialogue with Bridges. Composer James Newton Howard was also ordered to recompose his score to make it sound more like Miami Vice. Ashby sought arbitration from the DGA but was rejected.

April 25 – Crimewave (USA, Renaissance Pictures)

• Cast: Louise Lasser, Paul L. Smith, Brion James, Sheree J. Wilson, Edward R. Pressman, Bruce Campbell, Reed Birney, Antonio Fargas, Frances McDormand, Ted Raimi
• Director: Sam Raimi
• Trivia: First opened in Germany on April 12, 1985. Also known as The XYZ Murders. The screenplay was by Joel and Ethan Coen, and Bruce Campbell was a co-producer. Joel Coen had been an editor on Rami’s The Evil Dead, and the experience inspired him to complete his own film, Blood Simple. Embassy Pictures’ producer Norman Lear suggested the film’s title after the distributor balked at the original title, Relentless. The studio also rejected Campbell for the lead role, so Raimi retaliated by expanding a smaller role and giving it to Campbell, allowing him to be present during the entire shoot. As Raimi was having battles with the studio, Campbell felt his presence on set helped support Raimi. Star Louise Lasser was under the influence of cocaine during filming, fired her make-up artist, and did her own make-up often appearing on set looking like a clown but totally unaware. Brion James trashed his hotel room to try to exorcise a ghost from his light fixtures. While filming on a bridge overlooking the Detroit River, the script called for clear, running water but the river was frozen at the time. The crew tried to manually break up the ice but eventually used dynamite to blow it up. The studio asserted more control over post-production, choosing its own editor, which effectively took away Raimi’s control over the final cut, and replaced his usual composer, Joseph LoDuca, with one of its own choosing. The cross-genre film was hard to market, and in France and Italy the title was changed to Death on the Grill and The Two Craziest Killers in the World, respectively. The experience was so bad for everyone, so Raimi agreed to make Evil Dead II to try to salvage his career (it became a box office hit). Raimi even went on to use elements of Crimewave in his other projects, including the Spider-Man films.

April 25 – Violets Are Blue (USA, Rastar Films)

• Cast: Sissy Spacek, Kevin Kline, Bonnie Bedelia, John Kellogg
• Director: Jack Fisk
• Trivia: Jack Fisk is the husband of Sissy Spacek, married in 1971.

1996

April 26 – Butterfly Kiss (USA, British Screen Productions)

• Cast: Amanda Plummer, Saskia Reeves, Kathy Jamieson, Des McAleer, Lisa Riley
• Director: Michael Winterbottom
• Trivia: First opened in Germany on July 6, 1995. Also known as Killer on the Road.

April 26 – Cemetery Man (USA, Audifilm-Urania Film)

• Cast: Rupert Everett, François Hadji-Lazaro, Anna Falchi, Mickey Knox, Anton Alexander, Derek Jacobi
• Director: Michele Soavi
• Trivia: First opened in Italy on March 25, 1994 as Dellamorte Dellamore, by Tiziano Sclavi. Sclavi had also created the comic book character Dylan Dog, who was visually based on Rupert Everett, and Everett was cast and costumed similarly to Dylan Dog as an in-joke. Everett’s character in the film, Francesco, had also previously appeared in an issue of Dylan Dog, of which the producers were aware, using the casting of Everett to link the two characters, making Cemetery Man a closer adaptation of Dylan Dog than the 2011 film starring Brandon Routh. While reviews were mixed, Martin Scorsese has called the film one of the best Italian films of the 1990s.

April 26 – Mulholland Falls (USA/Canada, Largo Entertainment)

• Cast: Nick Nolte, Melanie Griffith, Chazz Palminteri, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Treat Williams, Jennifer Connelly, Daniel Baldwin, Andrew McCarthy, John Malkovich, Kyle Chandler, Ed Lauter, Titus Welliver
• Director: Lee Tamahori
• Trivia: Bruce Dern, William Petersen, Louise Fletcher and Rob Lowe appear in uncredited roles. Melanie Griffith won the Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress.

April 26 – Sunset Park (USA, Daniel L. Paulson Productions)

• Cast: Rhea Perlman, Fredro Starr, Terrence DaShon Howard, Carol Kane, Camille Saviola, De’aundre Bonds
• Director: Steve Gomer
• Trivia: Danny DeVito produced the film. Terrence Howard appears in an early role. The soundtrack features one of the first solo performances by Ghostface Killah.

April 26 – The Quest (USA, Selima Films AVV-Signature Pictures)

• Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Roger Moore, James Remar, Janet Gunn, Jack McGee, Aki Aleong, Louis Mandylor
• Director: Jean-Claude Van Damme
• Trivia: First opened in Turkey on April 19, 1996. Van Damme’s directorial debut. Roger Moore accepted an offer to appear in the film as an excuse to spend time in an exotic location with his girlfriend. Tatum O’Neal claims she was up for the female lead, and had a brief romance with Van Damme but he had second thoughts and cast Janet Gunn instead. During filming, Montreal stood in for New York City. The film experienced delays because Van Damme was said to show up on set late, with the producer trying to get the crew to work extra hours without pay. Moore was unhappy that a castle set was built in the mountains about a 90-minute drive from his accommodations, and after his knee locked up during a drive to the location and he spent most of the shoot in a cast, he never spoke to the producer again (although he remained jovial on set).

April 26 – The Truth About Cats & Dogs (USA, Noon Attack)

• Cast: Uma Thurman, Janeane Garofalo, Ben Chaplin, Jamie Foxx, James McCaffrey, Bob Odenkirk
• Director: Michael Lehmann
• Trivia: The story is a modern interpretation of Cyrano de Bergerac. The voices of David Cross, Mary Lynn Rajskub and Robin Williams are heard as callers to the radio show.

2006

April – The Notorious Bettie Page (Canada, Killer Films)

• Cast: Gretchen Mol, Chris Bauer, Jared Harris, Sarah Paulson, Cara Seymour, David Strathairn, Lili Taylor, John Cullum, Austin Pendleton, Norman Reedus, Dallas Roberts, Ann Dowd
• Director: Mary Harron
• Trivia: Harron shot most of the film in black-and-white to capture the nostalgic mood of the period, which also had a psychological effect on the audience, while the Florida scenes were shot in color to provide a sharp contrast between Bettie’s professional life and the escape she made from it. Old color stock was used to approximate the vivid 1950s Technicolor hues. Screenwriter Guinevere Turner was slated to also star as Bettie, but the role went to Gretchen Mol as producers were having trouble getting funding. Harron later said Mol was so right for the part.

April 28 – Akeelah and the Bee (USA, Cinema Gypsy Productions)

• Cast: Keke Palmer, Laurence Fishburne, Angela Bassett, Curtis Armstrong, J.R. Villarreal
• Director: Doug Atchison
• Trivia: 10-year-old Keke Palmer auditioned for the role of Akeelah five times, chosen by the director because of her acting and profound understanding of the script. Fishburne accepted his role for a lower than normal fee, and was made a producer on the film. Despite having to attend school for three hours a day during production, Palmer (who was then 11-years-old) still appears in nearly every scene of the film, which shot ten hour days for 31 days. To keep the film on schedule, Atchison storyboarded scenes ahead of time, and compiled a list of scenes with the cinematographer and production designer so the crew would know what shots would be done each day.

April 28 – Killer Diller (US, limited, Sprocketdyne Entertainment)

• Cast: William Lee Scott, Lucas Black, Niki J. Crawford, John Michael Higgins, Fred Willard, W. Earl Brown, Mary Kay Place
• Director: Tricia Brock
• Trivia: The film’s working title was Bottleneck.

April 28 – RV (USA/Canada, Intermedia Films)

• Cast: Robin Williams, Jeff Daniels, Cheryl Hines, Kristin Chenoweth, Joanna “JoJo” Levesque, Josh Hutcherson, Will Arnett, Tony Hale, Matthew Gray Gubler
• Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
• Trivia: Also known as Runaway Vacation. Chenoweth was Razzi-nominated for Worst Supporting Actor, and the film won the Razzie for Worst Excuse for Family Entertainment.

April 28 – Stick It (USA, Kaltenbach Pictures)

• Cast: Jeff Bridges, Missy Peregrym, Vanessa Lengies, Jon Gries, Gia Carides, Polly Holliday, Kellan Lutz
• Director: Jessica Bendinger
• Trivia: First opened in Canada on April 21, 2006. Bendinger’s directorial debut, and sole directorial effort to date. The film inspired Canadian Olympic medalist Sophiane Méthot to begin her career in gymnastics at the age of eight.

April 28 – United 93 (USA/Canada, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment)

• Cast: J. J. Johnson, Gary Commock, Polly Adams, Trish Gates, Opal AlladinChristian Clemenson, Cheyenne Jackson, David Alan Basche, Peter Hermann, Corey Johnson, David Rasche, Chip Zien, Rebecca Schull, Denny Dillon, Olivia Thirlby, Gregg Henry
• Director: Paul Greengrass
• Trivia: The first Hollywood film directly inspired by the September 11 attacks of 2001. The film takes place in real time from the beginning of the plane’s takeoff. Some imagination was used in the storytelling, with the support and cooperation from many of the passengers’ families, while others wanted nothing to do with the film. Many on-ground personnel, including FAA head Ben Sliney, portray themselves. Flight attendants, the pilots, and other airline personnel were played by actual airline employees. Ten percent of the film’s gross was promised toward the creation of a monument for the flight’s victims. During filming, the actors playing the crew and passengers were housed at a hotel separate from those playing the hijackers to create an air of antagonism between the two groups. The set was built to move the way the actual flight did, and many of the actors were actually injured, with the blood on their faces during the revolt scene being authentic. After the first take, Jamie Harding, who was playing a hijacker, broke down sobbing as he was so overwhelmed. The film was shot in the UK to shield the actors from unwanted scrutiny they may have received in the US. Universal was asked to pull the trailer from theaters as it startled and upset many audience members, but the studio refused. One theater in Manhattan did voluntarily remove the trailer after audience complaints. The film received two Oscar nominations for Directing and Editing, and six BAFTA nominations, including Best British Film.

2016

• No new movies were released this week in 2016.