Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #303 :: May 14•20

Still from "Top Gun" features Val Kilmer as Iceman and Tom Cruise as Maverick, dressed in flight suits and facing each other in a locker room during an argument. To the left is Rick Rossovich as Slider, and Anthony Edwards as Goose, both in flight suits, watching the argument. In the middle is Adrian Pasdar as Chipper, clad only in a white towel and sitting on a bench, also observing the argument.

Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films

Things kick into gear this second week of May with some major stars appearing on the list in some major movies. Silent screen queens Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish are on the list, but in films 60 years apart. James Whale switched from horror and created a classic musical in 1936. 1946 saw a comedy team of brothers fake a legal controversy to boost interest in their film, and long before June Lockhart got lost in space, she found herself in a hairy situation. 1956 saw Gene Kelly attempt to bring the art of dance to the big screen, and Alfred Hitchcock remade one of his own films, and gave us an Oscar winning song that has become a standard. A 1966 movie about the Navy almost had a mutiny by the cast. Gene Kelly returned to the director’s chair in 1976 for a second homage to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Tom Cruise flew into the danger zone in 1986. A 1996 film promised more from its star than was delivered. A 2006 novel-to-film adaptation offended Catholics across the globe, and a 2016 noir thriller failed to find an audience despite its two major stars. Scroll down to see all of the films released this week across the decades, and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries.

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


1926

May 14 – Silken Shackles (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)

  • Cast: Irene Rich, Huntley Gordon, Bertram Marburgh, Victor Varconi, Evelyn Selbie, Robert Schable
  • Director: Walter Morosco
  • Trivia: This film is considered lost.

May 14 – Sparrows (USA, Mary Pickford Company)

  • Cast: Mary Pickford, Roy Stewart, Mary Louise Miller, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Charlotte Mineau, Spec O’Donnell, Lloyd Whitlock
  • Director: William Beaudine
  • Trivia: Originally titled Scraps. The film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2025.

May 15 – The Set-Up (USA, Blue Streak Western)

  • Cast: Art Acord, Alta Allen, Albert Schaefer, Thomas G. Lingham, C. Montague Shaw
  • Director: Clifford Smith
  • Trivia: The film’s survival status is unknown.

May 15 – The Social Highwayman (USA, limited, Warner Bros. Pictures)

  • Cast: John Patrick, Dorothy Devore, Montagu Love, Russell Simpson, George Pearce
  • Director: William Beaudine
  • Trivia: The film’s survival status is unknown.

May 16 – Aloma of the South Seas (USA, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)

  • Cast: Gilda Gray, Percy Marmont, Warner Baxter, William Powell, Harry T. Morey
  • Director: Maurice Tourneur
  • Trivia: While the film is lost, a trailer does survive.

May 16 – The Valley of Bravery (USA, Independent Pictures)

  • Cast: Bob Custer, Tom Bay, Eugenia Gilbert, William Gillespie, Ernie Adams
  • Director: Jack Nelson
  • Trivia: This film is considered lost.

May 16 – The Wilderness Woman (USA, Robert Kane Productions)

  • Cast: Aileen Pringle, Lowell Sherman, Chester Conklin, Henry Vibart
  • Director: Howard Higgin
  • Trivia: This film is considered lost.

May 17 – The Boob (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

  • Cast: Gertrude Olmstead, George K. Arthur, Joan Crawford, Charles Murray, Antonio D’Algy
  • Director: William A. Wellman
  • Trivia: Released in the UK as The Yokel. The film survives and has been released on home video by the Warner Archive.

May 17 – The Palm Beach Girl (USA, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)

  • Cast: Bebe Daniels, Lawrence Gray, Marguerite Clayton, Josephine Drake, John G. Patrick
  • Director: Erle C. Kenton
  • Trivia: This film is considered lost.

May 19 – Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em (USA, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)

  • Cast: Evelyn Brent, Lawrence Gray, Louise Brooks, Osgood Perkins
  • Director: Frank Tuttle
  • Trivia: A 16mm print of the film is said to exist.


1936

May – The Ex-Mrs. Bradford (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)

  • Cast: William Powell, Jean Arthur, James Gleason, Eric Blore, Robert Armstrong, Lila Lee
  • Director: Stephen Roberts
  • Trivia: Last film directed by Stephen Roberts before his death from a heart attack.

May 14 – Pinto Rustlers (USA, Reliable Pictures Corporation)

  • Cast: Tom Tyler, George Walsh, Al St. John, Marie Burton, Earl Dwire
  • Director: Harry S. Webb

May 14 – The Speed Reporter (USA, Reliable Pictures Corporation)

  • Cast: Richard Talmadge, Luana Walters, Richard Cramer, Frank Hall Crane, Robert Walker
  • Director: Bernard B. Ray

May 15 – Fatal Lady (USA, Walter Wanger Productions)

  • Cast: Mary Ellis, Walter Pidgeon, John Halliday, Ruth Donnelly, Alan Mowbray
  • Director: Edward Ludwig

May 15 – Forgotten Faces (USA, Paramount Pictures)

  • Cast: Herbert Marshall, Gertrude Michael, James Burke, Robert Cummings, Betty Jane Rhodes
  • Director: Ewald André Dupont

May 15 – The Cobweb Hotel (USA, short, Fleischer Studios)

  • Voice Cast: Jack Mercer
  • Director: Dave Fleischer
  • Trivia: Part of the Fleischer Studios’ ‘Color Classics’ film series.

May 15 – The 3 Wise Guys (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

  • Cast: Robert Young, Betty Furness, Raymond Walburn, Thurston Hall, Bruce Cabot
  • Director: George B. Seitz

May 16 – The Law in Her Hands (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)

  • Cast: Margaret Lindsay, Glenda Farrell, Warren Hull, Lyle Talbot, Eddie Acuff
  • Director: William Clemens
  • Trivia: The working title was Lawyer Woman.
Still from "Show Boat" features a black-and-white image of a multi-decked paddlewheel steamboat docked at a riverbank. Large bales of cotton are piled high on the dock and being loaded onto the boat by a group of men. The steamboat, labeled "LOUISVILLE RIVER QUEEN NEW ORLEANS", has ornate railings and two tall smokestacks. The sky is overcast with dramatic clouds.

Universal Pictures

May 17 – Show Boat (USA, Universal Pictures)

  • Cast: Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Charles Winninger, Paul Robeson, Helen Morgan, Helen Westley, Queenie Smith, Hattie McDaniel
  • Director: James Whale
  • Trivia: Several members of the Broadway cast of Show Boat reprised their roles in the film, all of the songs were retained, and composers Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote three additional songs for the film. The song ‘Why Do I Love You?’ was filmed, but cut to tighten the running time. As presented on stage, the song clocks in at six minutes, forty seconds. It is not known if the footage survives. Irene Dunne claimed her pre-recorded vocals were too smooth to sync with the jerky motion of the car in which she was riding while performing the song, and that’s why it was cut. The film was withdrawn from circulation in the 1940s when MGM bought the rights for a remake, which was not released until 1951. Due to the blacklisting of Paul Robeson, the film was not seen again until after his death in 1976, making its cable TV premiere in 1983. The film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1996.

May 20 – Three of a Kind (USA, Invincible Pictures Corp.)

  • Cast: Evalyn Knapp, Chick Chandler, Berton Churchill, Richard Carle, Bradley Page, Patricia Farr
  • Director: Phil Rosen


1946

May 16 – A Night in Casablanca (USA, Loma Vista Productions)

  • Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Charles Drake, Lois Collier
  • Director: Archie Mayo
  • Trivia: The original story was to be a parody of Warner Bros. Casablanca, and the studio issued an inquiry to the Marx Brothers concerning the plot and character names. Groucho Marx’s character was originally named ‘Humphrey Bogus’. Groucho then ran with the story claiming the studio threatened to sue for the use of the word ‘Casablanca’, while he countered that they used the word ‘brothers’ long before the studio was established and threatened to counter-sue. There is no evidence Warner Bros. was going to sue, and the open letters Groucho sent to Warner Bros. for publicity purposes were donated to the Library of Congress. In the end, the film’s story was changed to be a send up of the entire genre rather than Casablanca specifically, with the working title Adventures in Casablanca.

May 16 – That Texas Jamboree (USA, Columbia Pictures)

  • Cast: Ken Curtis, Jeff Donnell, Andy Clyde, Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams, Robert Kellard
  • Director: Ray Nazarro

May 17 – Do You Love Me (USA, 20th Century Fox)

  • Cast: Maureen O’Hara, Dick Haymes, Harry James, Reginald Gardiner, Richard Gaines, Stanley Prager
  • Director: Gregory Ratoff
  • Trivia: The film features Harry James and His Orchestra, and James’ wife at the time, Betty Grable, has a cameo at the end of the film. The film is also known as Kitten on the Keys.

May 17 – She-Wolf of London (USA, Universal Pictures)

  • Cast: June Lockhart, Don Porter, Sara Haden, Jan Wiley, Lloyd Corrigan
  • Director: Jean Yarbrough
  • Trivia: Universal horror regular Una O’Connor was set to appear, but was dropped in favor of Eily Malyon. The film was released in the UK as The Curse of the Allenbys.

May 17 – Strange Triangle (USA, 20th Century Fox)

  • Cast: Signe Hasso, Preston Foster, Anabel Shaw, Shepperd Strudwick, Roy Roberts, Emory Parnell
  • Director: Ray McCarey

May 17 – The Cat Creeps (USA, Universal Pictures)

  • Cast: Noah Beery Jr., Lois Collier, Paul Kelly, Fred Brady, Douglass Dumbrille
  • Director: Erle C. Kenton

May 17 – The Well Groomed Bride (USA, Paramount Pictures)

  • Cast: Olivia de Havilland, Ray Milland, Sonny Tufts, James Gleason, Constance Dowling, Percy Kilbride, Jean Heather
  • Director: Sidney Lanfield
  • Trivia: The working title was Night Before. Olivia DeHavilland’s first film in two years after a legal battle with Warner Bros. regarding her rights under contract.

May 18 – The French Key (USA, Walter Colmes Productions)

  • Cast: Albert Dekker, Mike Mazurki, Evelyn Ankers, John Eldredge, Frank Fenton
  • Director: Walter Colmes

May 18 – The Milky Waif (USA, short, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

  • Voice Cast: William Hanna, Lillian Randolph
  • Directors: Joseph Barbera, William Hanna
  • Trivia: The 24th Tom & Jerry short. First appearance of Nibbles.


1956

May 15 – Invitation to the Dance (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

  • Cast: Gene Kelly, Igor Youskevitch, Claire Sombert, Claude Bessy, Tamara Toumanova
  • Director: Gene Kelly
  • Trivia: The dance anthology film was the first solo directing effort for Gene Kelly, who also appears in all three of the film’s segments, following three collaborations with Stanley Donen. Kelly did not want to appear in the film, but was forced by the studio. The film has no spoken dialogue. A fourth segment was filmed, but later cut. Filming completed in 1954, but MGM was doubtful about the production and shelved it until 1956. MGM barely promoted the film, and the UK release only contained two segments. It was an artistic and commercial failure.

May 15 – The Proud Ones (USA, 20th Century Fox)

  • Cast: Robert Ryan, Virginia Mayo, Jeffrey Hunter, Robert Middleton, Walter Brennan, Arthur O’Connell, Edward Platt, Whit Bissell, Richard Deacon, Jackie Coogan
  • Director: Robert D. Webb
  • Trivia: Rights to the novel upon which the film is based were purchased in 1952, with Victor Mature, Robert Wagner and Debra Paget announced to star. The film did not go into production until 1955, with Robert Ryan, Virginia Mayo and Guy Madison starring. Madison dropped out and was replaced with Robert Stack, then Stack was replaced with Jeffrey Hunter.

May 16 – The Man Who Knew Too Much (USA, Paramount Pictures)

  • Cast: James Stewart, Doris Day, Brenda de Banzie, Bernard Miles, Ralph Truman, Daniel Gélin, Reggie Nalder, Carolyn Jones
  • Director: Alfred Hitchcock
  • Trivia: Remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s own 1934 film of the same name, with a significantly altered plot. Hitchcock’s cameo comes 25:42 into the film, his back to the camera. Composer Bernard Herrmann makes his only screen appearance as the conductor at the Royal Albert Hall, in a scene that runs about 12 minutes with no dialogue. Hitchcock considered a remake in 1941, and revisited the idea in 1956 to fulfill a contractual obligation to Paramount. Hitchcock instructed writer John Michael Hayes to not watch the original film, with the director supplying him with a basic outline to work from. Hayes’ screenplay was not complete when production began, and pages were sent to the studio via air mail as they were finished. The film introduced the song ‘Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)’, which became a pop hit for star Doris Day, and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

May 16 – While the City Sleeps (USA, Bert E. Friedlob Productions)

  • Cast: Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, George Sanders, Howard Duff, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price, John Barrymore Jr., Ida Lupino
  • Director: Fritz Lang
  • Trivia: First opened in the UK on April 15, 1956. Inspired by the case of Chicago serial killer William Heirens, the ‘Lipstick Killer’, with the film’s antagonist suggested as a copycat killer.

May 18 – 23 Paces to Baker Street (USA, 20th Century Fox)

  • Cast: Van Johnson, Vera Miles, Cecil Parker, Patricia Laffan, Maurice Denham, Estelle Winwood
  • Director: Henry Hathaway

May 20 – Navy Wife (USA, Walter Wanger Productions)

  • Cast: Joan Bennett, Gary Merrill, Judy Nugent, Maurice Manson, Teru Shimada
  • Director: Edward Bernds


1966

May 17 – And Now Miguel (USA, Robert B. Radnitz Production)

  • Cast: Pat Cardi, Michael Ansara, Guy Stockwell, Clu Gulager, Joe De Santis, Pilar Del Rey, Buck Taylor
  • Director: James B. Clark
Still from "The Navy vs. the Night Monsters" features a black-and-white image of four people in a dimly lit room; two men in military-style uniforms, Anthony Eisley as Lt. Charles Brown and Phillip Terry as Base Doctor, stand to the left, looking at a woman, Mamie Van Doren as Nora Hall, with blonde hair in a sleeveless top in the center, while another man, Edward Faulkner as Bob Spaulding, in a V-neck sweater and collared shirt, bends over a person lying on a bed to the right.

Standard Club of California Productions Inc.

May 19 – The Navy vs. the Night Monsters (USA, Standard Club of California Productions Inc.)

  • Cast: Anthony Eisley, Mamie Van Doren, Edward Faulkner, Walter Sande, Bobby Van, Billy Gray, Pamela Mason
  • Director: Michael A. Hoey
  • Trivia: Also known as Monsters of the Night and The Night Crawlers (the original screenplay title). The cast nearly walked out when they learned the screenplay’s title was being changed. The film was to run 90 minutes so it could be sold to television, but the final cut ran 78 minutes. After the director departed the project, a new director was hired to shoot additional footage, which ultimately changed the entire premise of the original film.

May 20 – Intimacy (USA, Victor Stoloff Productions)

  • Cast: Barry Sullivan, Joan Blackman, Jack Ging, Nancy Malone, Jackie DeShannon
  • Director: Victor Stoloff


1976

May 14 – The Sell Out (West Germany, Amerfilm)

  • Cast: Oliver Reed, Richard Widmark, Gayle Hunnicutt, Sam Wanamaker, Shmuel Rodensky
  • Director: Peter Collinson
  • Trivia: Released in the US in May 1977.

May 17 – That’s Entertainment, Part II (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

  • Cast: Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire
  • Director: Gene Kelly
  • Trivia: That’s Entertainment, Part II (some publicity materials used ‘Part 2’), included more obscure musical numbers from the MGM vaults, as well as tributes to the studio’s comedy teams like The Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy, and romantic teams like Tracy and Hepburn. This was the last film Gene Kelly directed. New musical numbers were created, including one in which Kelly and Fred Astaire dance together for the first time since 1945’s Ziegfeld Follies, and only the second time in their careers. It was the last time Astaire, who was 76 at the time, danced in a film (he made TV appearances until 1981). Astaire actually suggested the last-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and Kelly had actually wished for it out loud during his narration for That’s Entertainment! A third film was released in 1994, with Kelly making an appearance two years before his death.

May 19 – The Missouri Breaks (USA, Devon/Persky-Bright)

  • Cast: Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, Randy Quaid, Frederic Forrest, Harry Dean Stanton
  • Director: Arthur Penn

May 19 – The Premonition (US, Movicorp Media)

  • Cast: Sharon Farrell, Edward Bell, Danielle Brisebois, Ellen Barber, Richard Lynch
  • Director: Robert Allen Schnitzer


1986

May 14 – Combat Shock (USA, 2000 A.D. Productions)

  • Cast: Rick Giovinazzo, Veronica Stork, Mitch Maglio, Asaph Livni, Leo Lunney
  • Director: Buddy Giovinazzo

May 14 – Sweet Liberty (USA, Universal Pictures)

  • Cast: Alan Alda, Michael Caine, Michelle Pfeiffer, Bob Hoskins, Lise Hilboldt, Lillian Gish, Saul Rubinek, Lois Chiles, Lynne Thigpen
  • Director: Alan Alda
  • Trivia: Features the penultimate film appearance of Lillian Gish, who made her screen debut in 1912.

May 16 – Hard Choices (USA, Breakout)

  • Cast: Margaret Klenck, John Sayles, John Seitz, J. T. Walsh,John Snyder, Martin Donovan, Spalding Gray
  • Director: Rick King
  • Trivia: While set in Tennessee, Hard Choices was filmed on location in New York’s Catskill Mountains.

May 16 – Rockin’ Road Trip (USA, Triad Entertainment Group)

  • Cast: Leon Rippy, Martin Tucker, Pat Miller, Garth McLean, Katherine Harrison, Leland Gantt, Steve Boles, Margaret Currie
  • Director: William Olsen
  • Trivia: Also known as Summer Time Blues.

May 16 – Top Gun (USA, Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films)

  • Cast: Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, Tom Skerritt, Michael Ironside, John Stockwell, Rick Rossovich, Tim Robbins, Whip Hubley, Barry Tubb, James Tolkan, Meg Ryan, Adrian Pasdar
  • Director: Tony Scott
  • Trivia: Oscar and Golden Globe winner for Best Original Song, ‘Take My Breath Away’ by Berlin. The film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2015. Kelly McGillis had to be shoeless while filming scenes with Tom Cruise to match his height. McGillis moved on to make Made in Heaven, with brown hair, after filming completed, and had to hide her hair under a baseball cap during reshoots for Top Gun. Acrobatic pilot Art Scholl lost control of his Pitts Special biplane during a stunt shot, crashing into the Pacific Ocean. Neither his body or the plane were recovered, with the cause of the accident unknown. The film was dedicated to his memory.


1996

May 17 – Flipper (USA/Canada, American Films)

  • Cast: Paul Hogan, Elijah Wood, Chelsea Field, Isaac Hayes, Jonathan Banks
  • Director: Alan Shapiro
  • Trivia: Remake of the 1963 film of the same name, which in turn was adapted from the 1964-1967 TV series. While three real dolphins were used in the film, animatronic dolphins were mostly used for interaction with humans.

May 17 – Heaven’s Prisoners (USA, PVM Entertainment)

  • Cast: Alec Baldwin, Kelly Lynch, Mary Stuart Masterson, Teri Hatcher, Eric Roberts, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Paul Guilfoyle
  • Director: Phil Joanou
  • Trivia: During a frontal nude scene on the balcony of a plantation, Teri Hatcher noticed a group of senior citizens out of the corner of her eye as she walked past them, causing her to burst into laughter. The group was on a museum tour, in the wrong place at the wrong time (or right time, depending on who you ask).

May 18 – Naked Souls (USA, Mr. E Productions Inc.)

  • Cast: Brian Krause, Pamela Anderson, David Warner, Dean Stockwell, Clayton Rohner
  • Director: Lyndon Chubbuck
  • Trivia: Star Pamela Anderson only appears fully nude in the unedited video version of the film, despite the promise of the theatrical release’s advertising.


2006

May 19 – 12 and Holding (USA, Serenade Films)

  • Cast: Connor Donovan, Jesse Camacho, Zoe Weizenbaum, Jeremy Renner, Annabella Sciorra, Linus Roache, Jayne Atkinson
  • Director: Michael Cuesta

May 17 – The Da Vinci Code (Belgium/France, Skylark Productions)

  • Cast: Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen, Alfred Molina, Jürgen Prochnow, Jean Reno, Paul Bettany, Seth Gabel
  • Director: Ron Howard
  • Trivia: Released in the US, Canada and UK on May 19, 2006. The interior of the Louvre was recreated on the 007 sound stage at Pinewood Studios, though the museum did give permission to film relevant scenes on the premises. A replica of the Mona Lisa was used as the original could not be filmed under the production’s intense lighting. Pinewood’s Underwater Stage, where the temperature is maintained at 86°F for a comfortable environment, was also used for underwater sequences. Westminster Abbey refused requests to film on its premises, as did the church of Saint-Sulpice, which had to be recreated in post-production. Winchester Cathedral subbed for Westminster Abbey, and to quash protests over the use of the property for a film that contains ‘heresy’, the church used its location fee for an exhibit and lecture series to debunk the book upon which the film is based. Hans Zimmer’s score received Golden Globe and Grammy nominations, while director Ron Howard earned a Razzie nomination.

May 19 – Over the Hedge (USA/Canada, DreamWorks Animation)

  • Voice Cast: Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, Steve Carell, Wanda Sykes, William Shatner, Avril Lavigne, Allison Janney, Thomas Haden Church, Nick Nolte, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara
  • Director: Tim Johnson, Karey Kirkpatrick
  • Trivia: Bill Murray and Harold Ramis were considered for the voice roles of RJ and Verne, but they ultimately went to Jim Carrey and Garry Shandling, but Carrey dropped out and was replaced with Bruce Willis. Gene Wilder was offered the role of an owl, but he turned it down and the character was scrapped altogether.

May 19 – See No Evil (USA, World Wrestling Entertainment)

  • Cast: Kane, Christina Vidal, Samantha Noble, Luke Pegler, Michael J. Pagan, Rachael Taylor
  • Director: Gregory Dark
  • Trivia: The first major film produced by the WWE. The working title was Eye Scream Man, but was later changed to The Goodnight Man, then Goodnight before settling on See No Evil.


2016

Still from "The Nice Guys" features Ryan Gosling with a mustache as Holland March standing to the left, in a blue two-piece suit with white shirt and gold necktie, his right arm up, holding a cigarette and leaning against the corner of a wall, his left hand in a white cast, and Russell Crowe with stubble as Jackson Healy wearing a light blue leather jacket, a light blue Oxford shirt and blue denim jeans. A blurry city is in the background.

Silver Pictures

May 15 – The Nice Guys (France/Belgium, Silver Pictures)

  • Cast: Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Angourie Rice, Matt Bomer, Margaret Qualley, Yaya DaCosta, Keith David, Gil Gerard, Kim Basinger
  • Director: Shane Black
  • Trivia: Opened in the US and Canada on May 20, 2016. Robert Downey Jr. appears in an uncredited cameo as the corpse of Sid Shattuck. Shane Black originally wrote a script in 2001 with the main characters, but a vastly different story. The script was reworked into a 64-page version to serve as a TV pilot for CBS. It was rejected by the network’s Standards and Practices for content and did not progress. The original screenplay was set in contemporary times, but co-writer Anthony Bagarozzi suggested changing the era to the 1970s, drawing inspiration from films like Vanishing Point and Five Easy Pieces. Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe were the first choices for the lead roles and they both accepted as they wanted to work with each other. Their casting helped the film progress. While set in Los Angeles, most of the film was shot in Atlanta, which created challenges for the production design, however the Atlanta Hilton had remained virtually unchanged since it was built in 1976. Some filming did take place in L.A., mostly to get exterior shots of The Comedy Store. To maintain the feel of the era, Warner Bros. used the 1972-1984 production logo, designed by Saul Bass, to open the film. Despite positive critical reaction, the film was a flop but has developed a cult following.

May 20 – The Angry Birds Movie (USA/Canada, Rovio Entertainment)

  • Voice Cast: Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Bill Hader, Peter Dinklage, Sean Penn, Keegan-Michael Key, Kate McKinnon, Tony Hale
  • Director: Clay Kaytis, Fergal Reilly
  • Trivia: First opened in France and Egypt on May 11, 2016. Josh Gad originally refused an offer to voice a character in The Angry Birds Movie, feeling it was too close to his Olaf character in Disney’s Frozen, but he was convinced to sign after viewing a visual pitch. The film’s production budget was $73 million, with a marketing budget of $400 million, the largest for any animated Sony feature film at the time.

May 20 – Departure (UK, Amaro Films)

  • Cast: Juliet Stevenson, Alex Lawther, Phénix Brossard, Niamh Cusack, Finbar Lynch
  • Director: Andrew Steggall
  • Trivia: Outside of a January 2, 2016 film festival screening, the film has no known US theatrical release date.

May 20 – Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (USA/Canada, Perfect World Pictures)

  • Cast: Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Rose Byrne, Chloë Grace Moretz, Dave Franco, Ike Barinholtz, Jerrod Carmichael, Carla Gallo, Kiersey Clemons, Beanie Feldstein, Hannibal Buress, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Selena Gomez, Lisa Kudrow, John Early, Kelsey Grammer, Awkwafina, Kyle Mooney
  • Director: Nicholas Stoller
  • Trivia: First opened in Sweden on May 4, 2016. Released in some countries as Bad Neighbours 2. Scenes featuring Lena Dunham, LL Cool J and Cameron Dallas were cut from the film during post-production.
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