Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #41 :: May 5•11

Sony Pictures

The was a wide range of new films released this week over the last 100 years, except for the year 1971. There are only a few ‘big’ titles this week, one true classic, and a lot of cult films and those with large fan followings. The classic launched the film career of Peter Lorre in 1931. !961 saw a sequel less successful than the original, 1981 gave us dueling slasher films, 1991 had the most financially successful documentary of the time, 2001 gave Heath Ledger a breakthrough role, and 2011 saw Rutger Hauer in a cult classic. Let’s take a look to see if you know or remember any of these films.

1921

May 5 – Through the Back Door

Cast: Mary Pickford, Gertrude Astor, Wilfred Lucas, Helen Raymond, C. Norman Hammond, Elinor Fair, Adolphe Menjou, Peaches Jackson, Doreen Turner, John Harron, George Dromgold, Jeanne Carpenter
Director: Alfred E. Green, Jack Pickford
Studio: United Artists
Trivia: Swedish author Astrid Lindgren saw the film in 1922 at the age of 15, and later borrowed ideas from the film for her Pippi Longstocking books.

1931

Nero-Film A.G.

May 11 – M

Cast: Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke, Gustaf Gründgens, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Theodor Loos, Friedrich Gnaß, Fritz Odemar, Paul Kemp, Theo Lingen, Rudolf Blümner, Georg John, Franz Stein, Ernst Stahl-Nachbaur, Gerhard Bienert, Karl Platen, Rosa Valetti, Hertha von Walther, Hanna Maron, Heinrich Gotho, Klaus Pohl
Director: Fritz Lang
Studio: Nero-Film A.G., distributed by Vereinigte Star-Film GmbH (Germany), Foremco Pictures (US)
Trivia: The film opened in Berlin on May 11, 1931, and played various European countries though the year. The film opened in France on April 8, 1932, the UK on June 22, and the US on March 31, 1933. This was Peter Lorre’s breakthrough film. It was Fritz Lang’s first sound film. When Lang announced his next film, Mörder unter uns (Murderer Among Us), would be about a child murderer, he received threatening letters and was denied studio space because the Nazi’s believed it was meant to depict them. When told of the plot, they relented. Before settling on M, the film was also known as Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder (A City searches for a Murderer) and Dein Mörder sieht Dich an (Your Murderer Looks At You). Lang spent eight days inside a mental institution to research and met several child murderers. Several real criminals were used as extras and 25 cast members were arrested during the film’s production. Peter Lorre was thrown down stairs for one scene over a dozen times. When Lang wanted to work with him again in 1954, Lorre refused. The use of voice-over was groundbreaking at the time. This was also one of the first times a musical theme was used to specify a character, as Lorre’s character is introduced by the musical cue ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’. Lorre’s character whistles this cue throughout the film, but Lorre couldn’t whistle so Lang handled that for him.

1941

May 7 – Sheriff of Tombstone

Cast: Roy Rogers, George ‘Gabby’ Hayes, Elyse Knox, Addison Richards, Sally Payne, Harry Woods, Zeffie Tilbury, Hal Taliaferro, Jay Novello, Jack Ingram, Jim Corey, Trigger
Director: Joseph Kane
Studio: Republic Pictures
Trivia: Roy Rogers played a character with the same name as his character in this film, Brett Starr, in the unrelated Republic Pictures film Bad Man of Deadwood. Gabby Hayes also co-starred but as a differently named character.

May 10 – Spellbound

Cast: Derek Farr, Vera Lindsay, Hay Petrie, Felix Aylmer, Frederick Leister, Marian Spencer, Diana King, W.G. Fay, Winifred Davis, Enid Hewit, Gibb McLaughlin, Cameron Hall, Irene Handl, Hannen Swaffer
Director: John Harlow
Studio: Pyramid Amalgamated, distributed by Producers Releasing Corporation (US)
Trivia: The film opened in the UK on May 10, 1941. It did not debut in the US until February 10, 1945, retitled The Spell of Amy Nugent (also as Ghost Story) to avoid confusion with Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound which was set to open in December of that same year. Based on the 1909 novel The Necromancers by Robert Hugh Benson.

1951

May 5 – Apache Drums

Cast: Stephen McNally, Coleen Gray, Willard Parker, Arthur Shields, James Griffith, Armando Silvestre, Georgia Backus, Clarence Muse, Ruthelma Stevens, James Best, Chinto Guzman, Ray Bennett
Director: Hugo Fregonese
Studio: Universal Pictures
Trivia: Based on an original story, Stand at Spanish Boot, by Harry Brown. The last film produced by Val Lewton before his death. The ‘Apaches’ in the film are actually Santa Monica beach lifeguards in full body paint, hired for their athletic skills because the budget did not allow for actual stunt people.

May 5 – Half Angel

Cast: Loretta Young, Joseph Cotten, Cecil Kellaway, Basil Ruysdael, Jim Backus, Irene Ryan, John Ridgely
Director: Richard Sale
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Trivia: Loretta Young had approval of the director and reluctantly accepted Jules Dassin, but ten days later she refused to work with him any further and told the studio either he went or she did. Overnight Dassin was replaced with Richard Sale. A poster for this movie can be seen at the beginning of 1981’s Porky’s.

1961

May 5 – Return to Peyton Place

Cast: Carol Lynley, Jeff Chandler, Eleanor Parker, Mary Astor, Robert Sterling, Luciana Paluzzi, Brett Halsey, Gunnar Hellström, Tuesday Weld
Director: José Ferrer
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Trivia: Based on the 1959 novel Return to Peyton Place by Grace Metalious, and is a sequel to Peyton Place (1957), set eight to ten years after that film. Rights to the novel were sold for $500,000 before a single word had been written, and gave Fox the rights to Metalious’ second novel The Tight White Collar. Fox wanted Diane Varsi to reprise her role of Allison MacKenzie, but she quit Hollywood two years into a seven year contract with the studio. Anna Maria Alberghetti was announced as her replacement, and Robert Evans was cast as Nils Larsen but both were eventually replaced. Carol Lynley was cast as Allison after producer Jerry Wald met her on the set of Hound-Dog Man in 1959. Hope Lange had been announced as returning in the role of Selena in October 1959, but she had backed out by November. Brett Halsey was announced in June 1959, but not for the role he eventually played, which had been cast with Dean Stockwell. In February 1960, Trevor Howard and Suzy Parker were announced, but Parker’s role had been cut by June and no original cast members were among those appearing in the sequel. Lana Turner passed on the role of Constance MacKenzie, and it was then offered to Joan Crawford. Norma Shearer was next on the list but declined, and Bette Davis was offered the role but she had to turn it down due to a Broadway commitment. Gene Tierney and Lee Remick were both cast and then had to both withdraw due to pregnancies. By November 1960, Eleanor Parker was cast as Constance, with Lynley as her daughter. Though she turned down the role of Constance, Joan Crawford did accept the role of Roberta, then withdrew because she didn’t want to work and be away from family during the Christmas holiday. Bette Davis was also approached to replace Crawford. At that time Norma Shearer was the hoped for Constance. Mary Astor was cast in December 1960 as Roberta. Tuesday Weld replaced Lois Smith at the last minute, and Luciana Paluzzi replaced Barbara Steele. Producer Wald was notorious for throwing any names he could think of out to the press just to keep his projects in the public eye. The mention of Shearer was probably one such stunt as she’d been retired from films for 18 years. The film was shot on location in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The voice of the character ‘Mark Steele’ is credited to Bill Bradley but is actually the film’s director José Ferrer, who was married to Rosemary Clooney who sings the film’s theme song. Halsey and Paluzzi, playing husband and wife, were actually married at the time of filming. Bob Crane makes his feature film debut uncredited. The sets for the MacKenzie house and Tweed Shop are completely different from the first film. The climactic fire that burns down Roberta Carter’s house was filmed but cut from the final film. A brief snippet of the scene appears in the trailer.

1971

No new films were released this week in 1971.

1981

May 8 – Graduation Day

Cast: Christopher George, Patch Mackenzie, E. Danny Murphy, Michael Pataki, E. J. Peaker, Linnea Quigley, Denise Cheshire, Billy Hufsey, Tom Hintnaus, Vanna White, Karen Abbott, Linda Shayne, Richard Balin, Carmen Argenziano, Virgil Frye, Carl Rey, Erica Hope, Beverly Dixon, Hal Bokar, Grant Loud, Felony
Director: Herb Freed
Studio: IFI/Scope III
Trivia: The film earned $24 million against a $250,000 budget. The film opened first in Los Angeles on May 1 and expanded to 83 theaters on May 8. Linnea Quigley was hired to replace an actress who refused to do the film’s nude scenes. When the dead bodies are found near the end of the film, Quigley’s decapitated head is never found because she hadn’t been hired when that scene was filmed, but the head of the actress she replaced remains in the scene.

Cropsy Venture

May 8 – The Burning

Cast: Brian Matthews, Keith Mandell, Leah Ayres, Brian Backer, Lou David, Larry Joshua, Jason Alexander, Ned Eisenberg, Carrick Glenn, Carolyn Houlihan, Fisher Stevens, Shelley Bruce, Sarah Chodoff, Bonnie Deroski, Holly Hunter, Kevi Kendall, J.R. McKechnie, George Parry, Ame Segull, Jeff De Hart, Bruce Kluger, Jerry McGee, Mansoor Najeeullah, Willie Reale, John Roach, K.C. Townsend, John Tripp, James Van Verth, Therese Morreale
Director: Tony Maylam
Studio: Cropsy Venture, Miramax Films, distributed by Filmways Pictures
Trivia: Based on the New York urban legend of the Cropsy maniac. The film marks the debuts of Fisher Stevens, Jason Alexander and Holly Hunter. Rick Wakeman from the rock band Yes composed the film’s score. The film was not a success financially (although it did well in the Buffalo area where it was filmed) — facing off against Friday the 13th Part II, Happy Birthday to Me, Graduation Day, The Fan, Final Exam and Eyes of a Stranger, plus the re-release of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre — or critically upon its release, but it has since developed a cult following and has received positive reappraisal from critics. The film was developed a year before Friday the 13th was released, and a month before its release the film’s story treatment was registered in April 1980. Another film in production at the time carried the title The Burning but it was changed to Don’t Go in the House. The film also bore similarities to another slasher film in production at the time titled Madman, with that film’s entire premise built around the Cropsy legend being changed after an actress in the film said her boyfriend was in The Burning. The Burning was rushed into production to take advantage of the warm weather since it was set mostly outside. Producers did not want to wait a year to film and possibly miss the entire ‘slasher movie’ phase. The film’s original ending was to have taken place in a boathouse. Another change to the original script was that Todd ends up as the ‘final boy’ rather than as the heroic adult, and Alfred is killed by Cropsy. This was Bob and Harvey Weinstein’s entry into the film business, allowing them to form Miramax Films. Brian Matthews was told to dye his blond hair brown to appear more macho. Friday the 13th make-up artist Tom Savini turned down the offer to do Part II because he didn’t understand the logic of Jason being the killer, so he accepted The Burning because he liked the script more. Filming took place in late Summer around Buffalo and North Tonawanda, New York in existing summer camps. The cast wore their own clothes. Savini only had three to four days to create the Cropsy make-up. The boathouse ending was changed to a mine system because bats were roosting in the boathouse. Director Tony Maylam claims he performed the role of Cropsy for about 90% of the film because he couldn’t find an actor who could hold the shears exactly as he wanted. Most of the scenes in the woods were filmed day-for-night, with only the campfire scenes filmed at night. Filmways picked up the film as a way to cash in quickly on the slasher boom, and wanted to rename the film Tales Around the Campfire because of the film’s now iconic campfire scenes. The film may have also been released with the titles Cropsy and Campfire Tales. The film’s violence and gore were heavily cut in the US to receive an R-rating and it wasn’t until a DVD release in 2007 that the film was restored. The film was also heavily cut in the UK, and Thorn EMI accidentally released the uncut version to the home video market, unwittingly releasing a ‘video nasty’ for which the company could have faced prosecution under the Obscene Publications Act. An approved version was quickly released to replace the uncut edition, which is now worth a great deal of money. The film received further cuts for UK video in 1992, but the uncut version was finally released in 2002.

1991

May 10 – F/X2

Cast: Bryan Brown, Brian Dennehy, Rachel Ticotin, Joanna Gleason, Philip Bosco, Kevin J. O’Connor, Tom Mason, Dominic Zamprogna, Josie de Guzman, John Walsh, Peter Boretski, Lisa Fallon, Lee Broker, Philip Akin, Tony De Santis James Stacy
Director: Richard Franklin
Studio: Orion Pictures
Trivia: Also known as F/X2: The Deadly Art of Illusion. This was Richard Franklin’s last American film before returning to his home of Australia, but Vic Armstrong was called in to take over the last few weeks of production for unknown reasons. Brown, Dennehy (who doesn’t appear until more than 43 minutes into the film) and de Guzman are the only actors to reprise their roles from the original film. The film was shot for an R-rating but was cut down to a PG-13 because of the success of the previous film’s television broadcast which required that R-rated film to be trimmed for network standards.

May 10 – Madonna: Truth or Dare

Cast: Madonna, Donna DeLory, Niki Haris, Luis Camacho, Oliver Crumes Jr., Salim Gauwloos, Kevin Alexander Stea, Gabriel Trupin, Carlton Wilborn
Director: Alek Keshishian
Studio: Boy Toy, Inc., Propaganda Films, distributed by Miramax Films
Trivia: The film opened in limited release in the US on May 10, 1991 before its general release on May 24. Known internationally as In Bed with Madonna, a title Madonna did not like. Warren Beatty, Sandra Bernhard, Antonio Banderas, Pedro Almodovar, Kevin Costner, Adam Curry, Rossy de Palma, Matt Dillon, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Coati Mundi, Olivia Newton-John, Al Pacino, Mandy Patinkin, and Lionel Richie appear as themselves. Originally conceived as a concert film of the Blonde Ambition World Tour, director Keshishian was so impressed with the backstage life that he persuaded Madonna to do the film focusing on that. Madonna funded the film and served as Executive Producer. David Fincher was set to direct but pulled out shortly before the tour started. Madonna received a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress. With $29 million in earnings, it was the most successful documentary ever until 2002’s Bowling for Columbine. The film was originally set to be released by New Line Cinema, but was dropped because of the decision to film the backstage scenes in black and white. Over 200 hours of footage was shot, taking a month and a half to edit to a reasonable length. The first cut was over three hours long. Before the film’s release, Madonna invited friends to a screening at Warren Beatty’s house, who she was dating at the time. After seeing the film, Beatty disapproved and the next day Madonna received a letter from his attorneys demanding certain scenes featuring Beatty be removed or she would be sued. The two came to an agreement privately and the scenes were removed. Dancers Oliver Crumes, Kevin Stea and Gabriel Trupin did sue Madonna and her production company in 1992 for “invasion of privacy, fraud and deceit, misrepresentation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress”, claiming personal, non-performance scenes discussing intimate facts about their private lives subjected them to ‘contempt and ridicule’. The suit was settled in 1994. Keshishian later commented that although releases were signed, some of the dancers didn’t want people to know they were gay, and others wanted more money, calling it extortion in his opinion. Ironically, the film has been praised for its depiction of gay men, the first mainstream gay film that many people saw, leading to the acceptance of gay themes in future films and TV shows.

May 10 – Sweet Talker

Cast: Bryan Brown, Karen Allen, Chris Haywood, Bill Kerr, Bruce Spence, Bruce Myles, Paul Chubb, Peter Hehir, Justin Rosniak
Director: Michael Jenkins
Studio: New Visions Pictures, distributed by Seven Arts
Trivia: The South Australian seaside town of Beachport was going to be named ‘Port Davis’ in the film but it was decided to keep the town’s actual name for the film. This is Bryan Brown’s only screenwriting credit.

May 10 – Switch

Cast: Ellen Barkin, Jimmy Smits, JoBeth Williams, Lorraine Bracco, Tony Roberts, Perry King, Bruce Payne, Lysette Anthony, Victoria Mahoney, Basil Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Kevin Kilner, David Wohl, James Harper, John Lafayette, Téa Leoni
Director: Blake Edwards
Studio: HBO Pictures, Cinema Plus, distributed by Warner Bros.
Trivia: Based on George Axelrod’s 1959 play Goodbye Charlie. Ellen Barkin received a Golden Globe nomination for her role. This was Téa Leoni’s film debut. JoBeth Williams was up for a different role in the film, but after reading the script she said she’d only accept the role of Margo, and she got it.

2001

May 11 – A Knight’s Tale

Cast: Heath Ledger, Shannyn Sossamon, Rufus Sewell, Mark Addy, Alan Tudyk, Paul Bettany, Laura Fraser, Bérénice Bejo, James Purefoy, Leagh Conwell, Christopher Cazenove, Steven O’Donnell, Nick Brimble, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, David Schneider, Alice Connor, Berwick Kaler, Jonathan Slinger
Director: Brian Helgeland
Studio: Columbia Pictures, Escape Artists, Finestkind Productions, distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing
Trivia: The film’s premiere was held on March 8, 2001. The film takes its name from Chaucer’s ‘The Knight’s Tale’ in his The Canterbury Tales, but the two plots are un-related. The film is set during the year in which historians have no record of Chaucer’s life, suggesting what he might have been doing during that time. Lances were created that would easily explode and not injure the stunt performers. The lance body was scored so it would break apart easily, and the tips were made of balsa wood, hollowed out and filled with balsa splinters and uncooked linguine. Ledger’s full suit of armor was made of steel, but replicas and other armor worn by the actors were made of lightweight, flexible and nearly unbreakable polyurethane resin. The Czech extras didn’t understand the introduction of ‘Sir Ulrich’ and didn’t cheer on cue, so Mark Addy’s loud reaction tipped them off to start. The scene was left in the film because it was funnier. Heath Ledger was largely unknown at the time of his casting, and director Helgeland cast him based on the strength of his performance seen in the rushes for The Patriot. Ledger knocked out one of Helgeland’s front teeth with a broomstick while demonstrating a jousting move. The aerial shot of London, including a medieval version of the London Eye, was a model, not CGI, that cost $500,000. Several of the named knights in the film were real, although from different time periods. The crunching sound of the shattering lances was the sound of a howitzer slowed down by half. Olivia Williams had a role as Chaucer’s wife, but her scenes were cut. They did end up as bonus material for the DVD release. Ledger, Sossamon and Addy appeared together in Helgeland’s 2003 film The Order.

2011

May 5 – Something Borrowed

Cast: Ginnifer Goodwin, Kate Hudson, Colin Egglesfield, John Krasinski, Steve Howey, Ashley Williams, Geoff Pierson, Jill Eikenberry
Director: Luke Greenfield
Studio: Alcon Entertainment, 2S Films, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures (North America), Summit Entertainment (international)
Trivia: The film premiered at the Newport Beach International Film Festival in April 2011. It opened in general release in Australia on May 5, followed by the US, Canada and UK on May 6. Based on Emily Giffin’s 2005 book of the same name. Hilary Swank was cast but dropped out, replaced by Ginnifer Goodwin. A woman seen on a park bench reading the book Something Blue (the sequel to Something Borrowed) is the book’s author Emily Giffin.

Magnet Releasing

May 6 – Hobo with a Shotgun

Cast: Rutger Hauer, Molly Dunsworth, Brian Downey, Gregory Smith, Nick Bateman, Peter Simas, Robb Wells, Jeremy Akerman, David Brunt, Pasha Ebrahimi, George Stroumboulopoulos
Director: Jason Eisener
Studio: Rhombus Media, Whizbang Films, Yer Dead Productions, distributed by Alliance Films, Magnet Releasing
Trivia: The film premiered at Sundance on January 21, 2011, and screened at Frightfest in the UK on February 26, followed by the Imagine Film Festival on April 13 in the Netherlands. The film had a limited release in Canada beginning March 25, and opened in the US in limited release on May 6. Based on a faux-trailer of the same title featured in the Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez film Grindhouse. The trailer was made as a contest entry to promote the release of Grindhouse, which it won. David Brunt, who played the Hobo in the trailer, has a cameo as a cop who shoots the Hobo at the end of the film. He was offered the lead but didn’t think he’d be able to carry an entire film on his own. The moment Rutger Hauer loses his balance while climbing out of a shopping cart was real, and Eisener decided to keep it in the movie. It was Hauer’s idea to cut holes in his hat and use it as a mask. The opening scene was shot on the last day of filming. Each byline in the Hope Town Gazette is the name of a crew member. Though each article has a different title, the text content is the same.

May 6 – Jumping the Broom

Cast: Paula Patton, Laz Alonso, Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine, Valarie Pettiford, Mike Epps, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Meagan Good, Tasha Smith, DeRay Davis, Romeo Miller, Pooch Hall, Gary Dourdan, Julie Bowen, Vera Cudjoe, Tenika Davis, T.D. Jakes, El DeBarge, Laura Kohoot
Director: Salim Akil
Studio: TriStar Pictures, Our Stories Films, Stage 6 Films, distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing
Trivia: The film was shot in Blue Rocks, Nova Scotia, standing in for Martha’s Vineyard.

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