Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #32 :: March 3•9

Paramount Pictures

New movies premiered in every decade over the last 100 years this week, from classic silents to modern animated films. This week saw Valentino’s big break, the third Sherlock Holmes film, the screen debuts of several actors including Grace Kelly, John Cassavetes, Joyce Van Patten and Jeffrey Hunter, a Disney film that ruffled feathers for its adult content, the film debut of Elizabeth Olsen, and several foreign language films. Let’s stroll down the red carpet and see if any of your favorites (or future favorites) are on the list.

1921

March 6 – The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Cast: Pomeroy Cannon, Josef Swickard, Bridgetta Clark, Rudolph Valentino, Virginia Warwick, Alan Hale, Mabel Van Buren, Stuart Holmes, John St. Polis, Alice Terry, Mark Fenton, Derek Ghent, Nigel De Brulier, Bowditch M. Turner, Edward Connelly, Wallace Beery, Harry Northrup, Arthur Hoyt
Director: Rex Ingram
Studio: Rex Ingram Productions, distributed by Metro Pictures
Trivia: Based on the 1916 Spanish novel The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez. Regarded as one of the first true anti-war films. The film made a star of Valentino, and inspired a tango craze and fashion fads. The film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1995. Since the film was made before 1923, it is now in the public domain. Screenwriter June Mathis became the head of the scenario department at Metro in 1919 and was on of the first female executives in film history. Her screenplay was so well-regarded that she was asked to choose the director. She also selected Valentino after seeing him in one of his early B-movies. Studio executives were nervous about his Latin look but Mathis insisted, and after seeing the rushes, she and Ingram expanded his role to showcase Valentino’s talents, including the tango scene which was not in the original script. Valentino was paid $350 a week, much less than the other players and had to provide his own costumes. Mathis also included depictions of alternative lifestyles in her screenplay, including a scene with German officers in drag. Valentino and Alice Terry spoke French in their scenes together to make them more authentic to lip readers. Adjusted for inflation, the film is the highest grossing silent in history, earning $9.18 million, which translates to more than $132 million today. The film was remade by Vincente Minnelli in 1962 as The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse with the setting changed to World War II.

March 6 – The Nut

Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Marguerite De La Motte, William Lowery, Gerald Pring, Morris Hughes, Barbara La Marr, Sidney De Gray
Director: Theodore Reed
Studio: Douglas Fairbanks Pictures, distributed by United Artists
Trivia: Claims that Charlie Chaplin appears in the film have been debunked by Fairbanks biographer Jeffrey Vance who notes it is clearly a Chaplin impersonator wearing the Little Tramp costume.

1931

March 5 – The Speckled Band

Cast: Lyn Harding, Raymond Massey, Angela Baddeley, Nancy Price, Athole Stewart, Marie Ault, Stanley Lathbury, Charles Paton, Joyce Moore, Ivan Brandt
Director: Jack Raymond
Studio: British & Dominions Film Corporation, distributed by Woolf & Freedman Film Service
Trivia: The film opened on March 5, 1932 in the UK. It premiere in the US on November 6, 1932. Adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s original 1892 story The Adventure of the Speckled Band and the 1910 play he adapted from it, The Speckled Band. This was Raymond Massey’s first film role, and only the third Sherlock Holmes film. The film changes Holmes’ famous home address 221B Baker Street to 107 Baker Street, turning it into a state-of-the-art office. The film has fallen into the public domain resulting in many inferior and edited copies available on the market.

March 6 – Ten Cents a Dance

Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Ricardo Cortez, Monroe Owsley, Sally Blane, Blanche Friderici, Martha Sleeper, David Newell, Victor Potel, Sidney Bracey, Abe Lyman, Aggie Herring, Harry Todd, Phyllis Crane, Olive Tell, Al Hill, Pat Harmon
Director: Lionel Barrymore
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Trivia: The film held its world premiere on February 20, 1932. The film was inspired by the popular song of the same name. The film was also produced as a Spanish-language version titled Carne de Cabaret, starring Lupita Tovar, Ramón Pereda, and René Cardona.

1941

March 7 – Rage in Heaven

Cast: Robert Montgomery, Ingrid Bergman, George Sanders, Lucile Watson, Oskar Homolka, Philip Merivale, Matthew Boulton, Aubrey Mather, Frederick Worlock, Francis Compton, Gilbert Emery, Ludwig Hardt
Director: W.S. Van Dyke, Robert B. Sinclair, Richard Thorpe
Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Trivia: Based on the 1932 novel by James Hilton. MGM forced Montgomery to make the picture after he’d requested time off of his seven-year contract for a vacation. The studio threatened to suspend him and cut his salary. To get even, Montgomery decided to just read his lines in a deadpan manner and not act. Sinclair was the film’s original director but fell ill shortly after production began. Van Dyke was in the Marines at the time but was granted a 14-day leave to complete the film. Neither he nor Sinclair were available for reshoots which were handled by Thorpe. Van Dyke got sole credit. Bergman was loaned to MGM by David O. Selznick, and Sanders was on loan from Twentieth Century-Fox.

March 8 – Footsteps in the Dark

Cast: Errol Flynn, Brenda Marshall, Ralph Bellamy, Alan Hale, Lee Patrick, Allen Jenkins, Lucile Watson, William Frawley, Roscoe Karns, Grant Mitchell, Maris Wrixon, Noel Madison, Jack La Rue, Turhan Bey
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Trivia: The film was based on two plays, Footsteps in the Dark (1935) and Blondie White (1937). When the film was announced in 1937, Joan Blondell and Claude Rains were mentioned as possible stars. Edward G. Robinson and Lya Lys were announced as the stars in 1938, with Anatole Litvak directing. While production was announced in May 1939, it did not happen and Robinson had to drop out to make The Sea Wolf. Errol Flynn lobbied for the role after completing seven period films in a row. Once cast, Olivia de Havilland was announced as his co-star. She was then replaced by Brenda Marshall, and William Keighley was announced as the director. Filming finally commenced in October 1940 with Lloyd Bacon directing. It was one of Flynn’s less successful films, but a sequel titled Ghosts Don’t Leave Footprints was being written for Marshall and Flynn, but it was never produced. The BBC produced a TV adaptation of Blondie White titled The Strange Case of Blondie White in 1947.

1951

March 1 – Fourteen Hours

Cast: Paul Douglas, Richard Basehart, Barbara Bel Geddes, Debra Paget, Agnes Moorehead, Robert Keith, Howard Da Silva, Jeffrey Hunter, Martin Gabel, Grace Kelly, Frank Faylen, Jeff Corey, James Millican, Donald Randolph
Director: Henry Hathaway
Studio: Twentieth Century-Fox
Trivia: The film opened on March 1, 1951 in the UK. It made its US debut in New York City on March 6. This film marked the screen debuts of Grace Kelly, John Cassavetes, Joyce Van Patten and Jeffrey Hunter. The film was based on an article by Joel Sayre in The New Yorker, ‘That Was New York: The Man on the Ledge’, describing the 1938 suicide of John William Warde. The film’s original title was The Man on the Ledge, but Fox changed it at the request of Warde’s mother so the film wouldn’t be closely identified with her son. It was, however, filmed on location in New York City. Howard Hawks was approached to direct, but refused because of the subject matter. He wanted to turn it into a comedy for Cary Grant but Fox turned him down. The story was originally purchased with Richard Widmark in mind to play the man on the ledge, and Robert Wagner in the role of Danny but he was replaced by Hunter. Kelly beat out Anne Bancroft for her role. Hathaway hired over 300 actors for bit parts and as extras including Ossie Davis, Harvey Lembeck, Joyce Van Patten, Brad Dexter, John Cassavetes, Brian Keith, Richard Beymer, Janice Rule, Leif Erickson and John Randolph in uncredited roles. The film was shot in six weeks. Two endings were filmed with Basehart’s character falling to his death and surviving the fall. Hathaway preferred the realistic ending, but before the film was released the daughter of Fox’s president jumped to her death from the roof of the Fox West Coast Building the same day the film was first previewed. The film was shelved, but was released six months later with the ending in which the man on the ledge survived. Basehart’s performance impressed Federico Fellini, who then cast him in La Strada. Barbara Bel Geddes didn’t appear in another film until Vertigo seven years later. The film was remade in 1955 as Man on the Ledge as an episode of The 20th Century Fox Hour, starring Cameron Mitchell and Joseph Cotten.

March 3 – The Sword of Monte Cristo

Cast: George Montgomery, Rita Corday, Berry Kroeger, William Conrad, Rhys Williams, Steve Brodie, Robert Warwick, David Bond, Lillian Bronson, Acquanetta, Trevor Bardette, Crane Whitley, Leonard Mudie, John Davidson, George Baxter, Steve Darrell, Kenneth MacDonald, Henry Corden, Michael Vallon, Stuart Holmes
Director: Maurice Geraghty
Studio: Edward L. Alperson Productions, distributed by 20th Century Fox
Trivia: The film’s world premiere was held on March 1, 1951. Loosely based on the 1844 novel The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. The first feature length film to be shot in SuperCinecolor.

1961

March 3 – Lola

Cast: Anouk Aimée, Marc Michel, Jacques Harden, Alan Scott, Elina Labourdette, Margo Lion, Annie Duperoux, Catherine Lutz, Corinne Marchand
Director: Jacques Demy
Studio: Films Around the World Inc.
Trivia: The film opened in France on March 3, 1961. It debuted in the UK in December of 1961, but didn’t open in the US until October 14, 1962. The debut film of Demy as a tribute to director Max Ophuls. Demy described the film as a ‘musical without music’. The film was inspired by Marlene Dietrich’s Lola Lola in the 1930 German version of The Blue Angel.

1971

March 8 – The Emigrants

Cast: Max von Sydow, Liv Ullmann, Eddie Axberg, Pierre Lindstedt, Allan Edwall, Monica Zetterlund, Hans Alfredson, Åke Fridell, Agneta Prytz, Halvar Björk, Tom C. Fouts
Director: Jan Troell
Studio: Svensk Filmindustri, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures (U.S.)
Trivia: The film opened on March 8, 1971 in Sweden, but did not get a US premiere until September 24, 1972. The US version was cut from 190 to 150 minutes. The original Swedish title is Utvandrarna, and is based on the first two of the four novels of ‘The Emigrants’ series by Vilhelm Moberg — The Emigrants (1949) and Unto a Good Land (1952) — with the desire to film the other two as well. Nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 1971, and for four more Oscars in 1972, after the US release, including Best Picture, the third film not in English to be nominated in that category. The 1972 sequel The New Land (Nybyggarna), with the same cast, was also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. The pair of films won the 1973 Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, and Liv Ullmann won Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. The 1974 US television series The New Land is loosely based on both films. Other than a 1998 laserdisc, neither film was released on home video until 2016 when the Criterion Collection released them on Blu-ray. Stanely Kubrick admired the film and tried to call director Troell, who hung up thinking it was a prank call. This allegedly happened several times when Kubrick placed calls to other directors. Kubrick went on to hire costume designer Ulla-Britt Söderlund to work with Milena Canonero on the 18th century costumes for Barry Lyndon.

March 10 – When Eight Bells Toll

Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Robert Morley, Nathalie Delon, Jack Hawkins, Corin Redgrave, Derek Bond, Ferdy Mayne, Maurice Roëves, Leon Collins, Wendy Allnutt, Peter Arne, Oliver MacGreevy, Tom Chatto, Edward Burnham
Director: Étienne Périer
Studio: Gershwin-Kastner Productions, Winkast Film Production, distributed by Rank Film Distributors (UK), Cinerama Releasing Corporation (US)
Trivia: The film had its UK premiere on March 9, 1971 before opening to the general public on March 10. The film played in New York City beginning May 26, 1971, with a San Francisco engagement on June 9, 1971. Based on Alistair MacLean’s 1965 novel of the same name, with a screenplay by the author. An uncredited Charles Gray dubbed the voice of Jack Hawkins, whose larynx had been removed after he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1966. Because of the similarities of their voices, Gray dubbed him in other films as well. The film was meant to be the first of a series of spy films to capture the Bond fans as Sean Connery was leaving the role and it was assumed the franchise would not continue after his departure. Hopkins nearly turned the role down, fearful of being an action star. It was his first top billed role, earning him £8,000.

1981

March 6 – The Devil and Max Devlin

Cast: Elliott Gould, Bill Cosby, Susan Anspach, Adam Rich, Julie Budd,Sonny Shroyer, David Knell, Chuck Shamata, Ronnie Schell, Reggie Nalder
Director: Steven Hilliard Stern
Studio: Walt Disney Productions, distributed by Buena Vista Distribution
Trivia: The film’s Los Angeles premiere was held on February 11, 1981. The film was atypical for a Disney film and was one of three that inspired the formation of Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures, which allowed the company to release more adult-skewing films. The film was originally conceived by Jimmy Sangster in 1973 as a Hammer horror film titled The Fairytale Man to star Vincent Price. The underworld set on Soundstage 3 used so many butane furnaces that the temperature rose to well over 100 degrees, limiting the amount of time cast and crew could shoot their scenes. Max Devlin’s initial decent into Hell used footage of bodies marching from Disney’s 1979 film The Black Hole. In the UK, journalist Liam T. Sanford wrote a letter to the Police Watch Committee falsely claiming the film to be ‘sick and horrific’ in an attempt to discredit the local police force and expose their lack of film knowledge during the ‘video nasties’ craze in which objectionable films were pulled from video store shelves. The police did in fact pull the film but it was hastily returned when they learned the film had already received an A classification for all audiences from the BBFC. Disney did receive angry letters about the use of the word ‘hell’ saying Walt would have never allowed it if he was alive. In fact, the word is spoken in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Sleeping Beauty, both with Walt’s permission, as well as depicted in the cartoon short Pluto’s Judgement Day (1935) where the pooch dreams of ending up there for chasing cats.

Universal Pictures

March 6 – All Night Long

Cast: Gene Hackman, Barbra Streisand, Dennis Quaid, Diane Ladd, Kevin Dobson, William Daniels, Hamilton Camp, Terry Kiser, Charles Siebert, Vernee Watson-Johnson, Raleigh Bond, Annie Girardot, Ann Doran
Director: Jean-Claude Tramont
Studio: Universal Pictures
Trivia: The film was originally planned to be a low-budget production with Hackman and Lisa Eichorn. Streisand’s manager Sue Mengers was married to the film’s director and suggested her for the role even though filming had already begun. Streisand was paid $4 million, the highest salary for an actor up to that point. Some have suggested the film’s failure led Streisand to fire Mengers. Streisand was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress while Hackman was nominated for the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor. The UltraSave All-Night Drug Store in the film was so realistic that people tried to shop there. When told it was just a movie set, one woman exclaimed, ‘But we NEED a drug store in this area!’ The movie’s working title was Night People.

March 6 – On the Right Track

Cast: Gary Coleman, Maureen Stapleton, Norman Fell, Michael Lembeck, Lisa Eilbacher, Bill Russell, Herb Edelman, Nathan Davis, Page Hannah, Jami Gertz
Director: Lee Philips
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Trivia: This was Coleman’s first feature film. An early working title for the film was New York Loves Lester, when the film was to be set in New York. It was subsequently shot in Chicago. A second working title was A Guy Could Get Killed Out There. While released on VHS in the 80s, the film has never been released on DVD.

1991

March 6 – Closet Land

Cast: Madeleine Stowe, Alan Rickman
Director: Radha Bharadwaj
Studio: Imagine Entertainment, distributed by Universal Pictures
Trivia: The film was shot in 18 days with a budget of $2.5 million. Bharadwaj considered Peter O’Toole, Ian Holm and Anthony Hopkins before Rickman was cast.

March 8 – American Ninja 4: The Annihilation

Cast: Michael Dudikoff, David Bradley, James Booth, Dwayne Alexandre, Ken Gampu, Robin Stille, Frantz Dobrowsky, Ron Smerczak
Director: Cedric Sundstrom
Studio: Cannon Pictures
Trivia: Despite his top billing, Dudikoff doesn’t appear in the film until 45 minutes in. This was Dudikoff’s final appearance in the American Ninja series. There would be one additional film. This was Robin Stille’s final film.

March 8 – New Jack City

Cast: Wesley Snipes, Ice-T, Allen Payne, Chris Rock, Judd Nelson, Mario Van Peebles, Michael Michele, Bill Nunn, Russell Wong, Bill Cobbs, Christopher Williams, Vanessa Estelle Williams, Tracy Camilla Johns, Anthony DeSando, Nick Ashford, Keith Sweat, Flavor Flav
Director: Mario Van Peebles
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Trivia: The film was screened at Sundance on January 17, 1991. Its official US premiere was held on March 6 in Hollywood. This was Van Peebles’ directorial debut thanks to the friendship he developed with Clint Eastwood while making Heartbreak Ridge. Eastwood told the studio to ‘give the kid a shot’. The story was based on a real-life Detroit gang known as The Chambers Brothers. Snipes wanted the role of Scotty Appleton, but Van Peebles insisted he play the role of Nino Brown as it was written specifically for him. Ice-T nearly turned down the film fearing if it failed it would hurt his rap career. In fact, it was a hit and gave him his huge break as an actor.

March 8 – The Hard Way

Cast: Michael J. Fox, James Woods, Stephen Lang, Annabella Sciorra, John Capodice, Delroy Lindo, Luis Guzmán, LL Cool J, Mary Mara, Penny Marshall, Christina Ricci, Kathy Najimy, Lewis Black, Bill Cobbs, Bryant Gumbel
Director: John Badham
Studio: The Badham/Cohen Group, distributed by Universal Pictures
Trivia: Universal originally wanted Kevin Kline and Gene Hackman to star. Jack Nicholson was also under consideration. This was the last film to feature Universal’s 75th Anniversary variant studio logo. Director Badham fired Director of Photography Robert Primes midway through production because he felt he was working too slowly. He had the same complaint when they worked together on Bird on a Wire. The film is regarded as the template for the series Castle.

2001

March 7 – Das Experiment

Cast: Moritz Bleibtreu, Justus von Dohnányi, Christian Berkel, Oliver Stokowski, Andrea Sawatzki, Wotan Wilke Möhring, Danny Richter, Timo Dierkes, Antoine Monot, Jr., Edgar Selge, Maren Eggert, André Jung, Heiner Lauterbach, Fatih Akin
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Studio: Fanes Film, Senator Film Produktion, Seven Pictures, Typhoon, distributed by Senator Film
Trivia: The film premiered in Berlin on March 7, 2001 before its opening on March 7. It opened in the UK on March 22, 2002. The film screened at the Seattle International Film Festival on May 25, 2002 before getting a limited US release on September 20, 2002. Based on Mario Giordano’s novel Black Box. The film was inspired by the Stanford prison experiment. The film was shot in chronological order. An American remake with Adrien Brody, Forest Whitaker, Maggie Grace, and Cam Gigandet was released direct-to-video in 2010.

March 9 – 15 Minutes

Cast: Robert De Niro, Edward Burns, Kelsey Grammer, Avery Brooks, Melina Kanakaredes, Karel Roden, Oleg Taktarov, Vera Farmiga, John DiResta, James Handy, Darius McCrary, Bruce Cutler, Charlize Theron, Kim Cattrall, David Alan Grier, Vladimir Mashkov, Irina Gasanova, Noelle Evans, Tygh Runyan, Ritchie Coster, Gabriel Casseus, Anton Yelchin
Director: John Herzfeld
Studio: TriBeCa Productions, New Redemption Pictures, distributed by New Line Cinema
Trivia: The film’s world premiere was held on March 1, 2001. The film was originally scheduled for release in the Spring of 2000. Charlize Theron took her role with no pay as a thank you to Herzfeld for giving her the breakthrough role in 2 Days in the Valley. The immigrant officer at the beginning of the film was not an actor. While the film was delayed, J. Peter Robinson was brought in to beef up Anthony Marinelli’s score which the studio was unhappy with.

March 9 – Born Romantic

Cast: Craig Ferguson, Jane Horrocks, Adrian Lester, Catherine McCormack, Jimi Mistry, David Morrissey, Olivia Williams, Kenneth Cranham, John Thomson, Ian Hart, Paddy Considine, Hermione Norris, Sally Phillips, Jessica Hynes, Ashley Walters
Director: David Kane
Studio: BBC Films, United Artists, distributed by 20th Century Fox
Trivia: The film screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 14, 2000. It first opened in the UK on March 9, 2001. It screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival on April 26, 2001 before getting a limited US release on September 28, 2001. The interiors of the Salsa club ‘El Corazon’ were filmed in a real club called the Loughborough Hotel. The Salsa dancers were actual club members who were cast as extras.

March 9 – Get Over It

Cast: Ben Foster, Kirsten Dunst, Melissa Sagemiller, Sisqó, Shane West, Colin Hanks, Zoe Saldana, Mila Kunis, Swoosie Kurtz, Ed Begley Jr., Martin Short, Carmen Electra, Jeanie Calleja, Christopher Jacot, Kylie Bax, Dov Tiefenbach, Vitamin C, Coolio
Director: Tommy O’Haver
Studio: Ignite Entertainment, Morpheus, distributed by Miramax Films
Trivia: Loosely based on William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Singer Aaliyah was considered for the role that went to Zoe Saldana. Kirsten Dunst makes her singing debut in the film. Sisqó appeared in the film just before he gained fame for ‘The Thong Song’. The film was shot under the title Getting Over Allison.

2011

March 4 – Beastly

Cast: Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Hudgens, Mary-Kate Olsen, Neil Patrick Harris, LisaGay Hamilton, Peter Krause, Dakota Johnson, Erik Knudsen, Rhiannon Moller-Trotter, Regina King, David Francis, Brian Eastman, Gio Perez, Roc Lafortune
Director: Daniel Barnz
Studio: CBS Films
Trivia: Loosely based on Alex Flinn’s 2007 novel. The film was intended for a late 2008 theatrical release but a Writers Guild strike prevented that from happening. The screenplay was inspired by the film Say Anything… Pettyfer’s beast makeup consisted of 67 prosthetic pieces: seven on his head, and sixty tattoos and scars applied after the full body makeup, taking about six hours to finish. The film was shot in various locations around Montreal, doubling for New York City. The film was scheduled to be released on July 30, 2010, but was moved to March 18, 2011 to avoid competition with Charlie St. Cloud starring Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens’ then-boyfriend. The date was again shifted up to March 4, which placed it between the releases of Pettyfer’s I Am Number 4 and Hudgens’ Sucker Punch. Neil Patrick Harris wore opaque contacts so he would be sightless during filming. This was Mary-Kate Olsen’s last acting role; Lindsay Lohan had originally been offered her role but turned it down. Olsen was unavailable for conference scenes, so she was greenscreened into those shots. Regina King was included in promotional material for the film, but all of her scenes were cut from the film.

March 4 – Rango

Voice Cast: Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Ned Beatty, Alfred Molina, Bill Nighy, Harry Dean Stanton, Ray Winstone, Timothy Olyphant, Stephen Root, Maile Flanagan, Alanna Ubach, Ian Abercrombie, Gil Birmingham, James Ward Byrkit, Claudia Black, Blake Clark, John Cothran, Jr., Patrika Darbo, George DelHoyo, Charles Fleischer, Beth Grant, Ryan Hurst, Vincent Kartheiser, Joseph Nunez, Chris Parson, Lew Temple, Gore Verbinski, Kym Whitley, Alex Manugian
Director: Gore Verbinski
Studio: Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies, Blind Wink Productions, GK Films, Industrial Light & Magic, distributed by Paramount Pictures
Trivia: The film’s US premiere was held on February 14, 2011, and had a European premiere in Berlin on February 20. The film opened in several European countries on March 3 before the US release on March 4. The film won the Oscar for Best Animated Film, the first non-Disney film to do so since 2006’s Happy Feet, and the last one until 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. A likeness of Benicio del Toro as his Dr. Gonzo character from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is seen briefly alongside Johnny Depp as Raoul Duke. The actors were given costumes and small sets in order to give them the feel of the Wild West, and the cast recorded their parts together to achieve a natural rhythm. Verbinski wanted to do something on a smaller scale after three Pirates of the Caribbean films, but underestimated the complexities of animated filmmaking. Depp recorded his lines in 20 days. The film drew fire from anti-smoking groups citing at least 60 instances of smoking and petitioned to have the film rated R. It retained its PG rating with no changes to the smoking scenes. An owl in a saloon is seen holding a pair of black aces and a pair of black eights, the same cards ‘Wild Bill’ Hickock was holding when he was shot dead in a saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota. The hand is known now as the ‘Dead Man’s Hand’. Rattlesnake Jake was modeled after Lee Van Cleef. Clint Eastwood is the inspiration for the Spirit of the West, complete with five Oscar-like film awards. Eastwood has five Oscars. John Krazinski voiced the role of Frog Fritz, Tom Kenny voiced Chicken Craig, and Cedric the Entertainer voiced Chuckwalla Jack but they were all deleted from the final cut of the film.

March 4 – Take Me Home Tonight

Cast: Topher Grace, Anna Faris, Dan Fogler, Teresa Palmer, Chris Pratt, Michael Biehn, Lucy Punch, Demetri Martin, Michael Ian Black, Seth Gabel, Nathalie Kelley, Candace Kroslak, Ryan Bittle, Robert Hoffman, Edwin Hodge, Jay Jablonski, Kimberly Dearing, Michelle Trachtenberg
Director: Michael Dowse
Studio: Imagine Entertainment, Rogue, distributed by Relativity Media
Trivia: The film’s premiere was held on March 2, 2011. The title comes from the Eddie Money song which was played in the trailer but is not heard in the film. Working titles for the film included Young Americans and Kids in America, songs by David Bowie and Kim Wilde. The film was completed in 2007 but shelved until 2011 when it was acquired by Rogue. Topher Grace said the film’s original distributor, Universal Pictures, did not know how to market a youth comedy that included prominent cocaine use. As a fan of The Terminator and Aliens, Grace personally called Michael Biehn to offer him the role of his father. In the film, Grace’s character works at a Suncoast Motion Picture Company video retail store, a store in which Grace actually worked while in high school. Anna Faris and Chris Pratt met while making the film and were married a year later. Grace’s character is a graduate of Shermer High School, the same school mentioned in 1980s films Weird Science, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and National Lampoon’s Vacation.

Universal Pictures

March 4 – The Adjustment Bureau

Cast: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Anthony Mackie, John Slattery, Michael Kelly, Terence Stamp, Donnie Keshawarz, Anthony Ruivivar
Director: George Nolfi
Studio: Media Rights Capital, Gambit Pictures, Electric Shepherd Productions, distributed by Universal Pictures
Trivia: The film premiered on February 14, 2011 in New York City. It screened at the Belgrade Film Festival on February 26, and opened in several international markets on March 3 before the US release on March 4. Based on the 1954 Philip K. Dick short story ‘Adjustment Team’. The character of Norris was changed from the short story’s real estate salesman to an up-and-coming US Congressman. The final scene was filmed four months after the rest of principal photography had been completed. The phone number in the film, 212-664-7665, was owned by Universal Studios and used in other studio films to avoid the use of the typical 555 number. This was the first of three films in which Emily Blunt’s character tried to change the future. Daniel Dae Kim filmed scenes that were eventually cut from the film, but two scenes appear as bonus material on the DVD release. Shohreh Aghdashloo played God in the film’s original ending but the scene was changed after the studio felt a Muslim woman was not the right choice to play the part.

March 9 – Silent House

Cast: Elizabeth Olsen, Adam Trese, Eric Sheffer Stevens, Julia Taylor Ross, Adam Barnett, Haley Murphy
Director: Chris Kentis, Laura Lau
Studio: LD Entertainment, Elle Driver Productions, Eye for an Eye Filmworks, Tazora Films, Cinema Management Group, distributed by Open Road Films, Universal Pictures
Trivia: The film first screened at Sundance on January 21, 2011. A remake of the 2010 Uruguayan film, La Casa Muda (lit. English: The Silent House), which is allegedly based on an actual incident from the 1940s. The film is presented as a single take, shot in 12-15 minute segments and edited together. The technique was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope, and 2002’s Russian Ark. Several scenes had to be completely re-shot due to lighting and mobility issues in the house. Elizabeth Olsen appears in every shot of the film. This was the first film released in which she stars, but the third film in which she appeared.

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