Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #59 :: September 8•14

Walt Disney Pictures

This week in September over the last century only had a handful of titles that are remembered, with a few genuine classics, a few major bombs, and a few that might hold some interest. Two decades had no new releases this week but the biggest came in 1951 from Walt Disney, a film that initially disappointed at the box office but went on to be considered one of Disney’s greatest animated achievements. 1971 gave us an Italian film that may have been the genesis for the slasher cycle a decade later (1981 had one such film with a very similar weapon), 1991 attempted to kill off a popular horror franchise, and 2011 gave us a film that we probably should have paid more attention to. Let’s take a look to see if you remember any of this week’s films.

1921

September 12 – Action

• Cast: Hoot Gibson, Francis Ford, J. Farrell MacDonald, Buck Connors, Clara Horton, William Robert Daly, Dorothea Wolbert, Byron Munson, Charles Newton, Jim Corey
• Director: John Ford
• Studio: Universal Film Manufacturing Company
• Trivia: Based on Peter B. Kyne’s popular novel The Three Godfathers. The film is considered to be lost. This was the first film in which Hoot Gibson received star billing.

September 14 – Brownie’s Little Venus (short)

• Cast: Baby Peggy, Brownie the Dog, Lillian Biron, Bud Jamison
• Director: Fred Fishback (as Fred Hibbard)
• Studio: Century Film, distributed by Universal Film Manufacturing Company
• Trivia: A copy of this film was discovered in 2010 in a collection in Switzerland and has been preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archives.

1931

September 12 – Alexander Hamilton

• Cast: George Arliss, Doris Kenyon, Dudley Digges, June Collyer, Montagu Love, Ralf Harolde, Lionel Belmore, Alan Mowbray, John T. Murray, Morgan Wallace, John Larkin, Charles Middleton
• Director: John G. Adolfi
• Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
• Trivia: Based on the 1917 play Hamilton by George Arliss and Mary Hamlin. Arliss starred in the play with his wife Florence and Jeanne Eagles. The film is preserved in the Library of Congress.

1941

• No new films were released this week in 1941.

1951

September 10 – Saturday’s Hero

• Cast: John Derek, Donna Reed, Sidney Blackmer, Alexander Knox, Elliott Lewis, Otto Hulett, Howard St. John, Aldo Ray, Alvin Baldock, Wilbur Robertson, Charles Barnes, Bill Martin, Mickey Knox, Sandro Giglio, Tito Vuolo
• Director: David Miller
• Studio: Columbia Pictures
• Trivia: Also known as Idols in the Dust. The working title was The Hero, which was the title of the 1949 novel by Millard Lampell upon which the film is based. Columbia bought the novel specifically for John Derek. This was Aldo Ray’s first film (as Aldo DaRe) but the second released after My True Story. This was also the debut film score for Elmer Bernstein.

September 13 – Mysterious Island (serial)

• Cast: Richard Crane, Marshall Reed, Karen Randle, Ralph Hodges, Gene Roth, Hugh Prosser, Leonard Penn, Terry Frost, Rusty Wescoatt, Bernard Hamilton
• Director: Spencer Gordon Bennet
• Studio: Sam Katzman Productions, distributed by Columbia Pictures
• Trivia: A 15-chapter serial, the studio’s 46th. An adaptation of Jules Verne’s 1874 novel, The Mysterious Island. Costumes from Western Costume Company were recycled from earlier serials including Universal’s Flash Gordon and Columbia’s The Spider’s Web.

September 14 – Alice in Wonderland

• Voice Cast: Kathryn Beaumont, Ed Wynn, Jerry Colonna, Richard Haydn, Sterling Holloway, Verna Felton, J. Pat O’Malley, Bill Thompson, Heather Angel, Joseph Kearns, Larry Grey, Queenie Leonard, Dink Trout, Doris Lloyd, Jimmy MacDonald, Thurl Ravenscroft, Bill Lee, Max Smith, Bob Hamlin, Don Barclay, Lucille Bliss, Pinto Colvig, Tommy Luske, Marni Nixon, Norma Zimmer
• Director: Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske
• Studio: Walt Disney Productions, distributed by RKO Radio Pictures
• Trivia: The film’s London premiere was held on July 26, 1951. The film also had premieres in New York City (July 28), Toronto (August 9) and was screened at the Venice Film Festival on August 20 prior to its general US release. Based on the Alice books by Lewis Carroll. The 13th Disney animated feature. Disney originally intended the film to be a live action-animated hybrid that was to star Ginger Rogers. The film was a box office disappointment, so Disney aired it as one of the first episodes of the TV series Disneyland, where it was a success. Theatrical re-releases also proved successful. Disney attempted to make the film in 1938, but a story reel presented a story too dark and grotesque with drawings too difficult to animate that would need major re-working, which combined with the financial costs of Pinocchio, Fantasia and Bambi and the economic devastation of World War II, forced the project to be shelved. The movie has more songs and characters than any other Disney animated film. This was the first Disney animated film to credit the voice talent on screen with their characters. This did not happen again until 1967’s The Jungle Book. This was Dink Trout’s final film. He died before the film was released. A radio adaptation of the Disney film was presented by Lux Radio Theater on December 24, 1951 with Kathryn Beaumont, Jerry Colonna, and Ed Wynn reprising their film roles. Kathryn Beaumont (Alice) is the only credited actor still living, as of 2021.

1961

• No new films were released this week in 1961.

1971

Nuova Linea Cinematografica

September 8 – A Bay of Blood

• Cast: Claudine Auger, Luigi Pistilli, Claudio Volonté, Laura Betti, Leopoldo Trieste, Isa Miranda, Chris Avram, Anna Maria Rosati, Brigitte Skay, Paola Montenero, Guido Boccaccini, Roberto Bonanni, Giovanni Nuvoletti, Renato Cestiè, Nicoletta Elmi
• Director: Mario Bava
• Studio: Nuova Linea Cinematografica
• Trivia: The film was released in Italy on September 8, 1971, but did not premiere in the US until May 3, 1972. An edited re-release debuted in the US on December 1, 1972. The film was re-released again in the US on October 7, 1977 and March 28, 1980. The film was originally released in Italy with the title Ecologia del delitto (‘Ecology of Crime’). It fared poorly, was pulled from theaters and re-released as Reazione a Catena (‘Chain Reaction’), then later re-released as Bahia de Sangre (‘Bay of Blood’ in Spanish). Also known as Carnage, Twitch of the Death Nerve and Blood Bath. Due to the film’s low budget, Mario Bava was his own cinematographer, and a child’s wagon was used to accomplish the many tracking shots. The film’s setting was supposed to be the woods, but the location had only a few trees. Bava used branches from a florist and waved them in front of the camera to simulate the woods. The actors could not move or the ‘woods’ would disappear. The film has been released to home video in the US under the titles A Bay of Blood, Last House on the Left Part II, Last House Part II and New House on the Left. The film heavily influenced the ‘slasher’ genre a decade later, with two sequences in Friday the 13th Part II lifted directly from the film. Dario Argento is said to have loved the film so much he had a projectionist friend steal a print for him during its initial run in Italy, which he still possesses today. Bava suggested the title Twitch of the Death Nerve for the US release when he heard it was being marketed as a sequel to Last House on the Left (which was filmed a year after Bava’s film).

September 10 – Evel Knievel

• Cast: George Hamilton, Sue Lyon, Bert Freed, Rod Cameron, Dub Taylor, Ron Masak, Hal Baylor, Cheryl Smith
• Director: Marvin J. Chomsky
• Studio: Marvin J. Chomsky
• Trivia: The film’s premiere was held in San Francisco on June 30, 1971. The film has fallen into the public domain. This was Cheryl Smith’s film debut, albeit uncredited. George Hamilton was writing a story about a bronc rider, but after meeting Knievel, he found the subject more interesting than his own and announced the Knievel project in February 1970. Actual footage of Knievel jumping his motorcycle was used throughout the film. Knievel also performed a series of new jumps for the production.

September 10 – Please Sir!

• Cast: John Alderton, Deryck Guyler, Noel Howlett, Joan Sanderson, Richard Davies, Erik Chitty, Patsy Rowlands, Peter Cleall, Carol Hawkins, Liz Gebhardt, David Barry, Peter Denyer, Malcolm McFee, Aziz Resham, Brinsley Forde, Jill Kerman, Norman Bird, Barbara Mitchell, Peter Bayliss, Eve Pearce, Jack Smethurst, Brenda Cowling
• Director: Mark Stuart
• Studio: L.W.I. Productions, distributed by the Rank Organisation
• Trivia: The film opened in the UK on September 10, 1971, but does not appear to have received a US release. A spin-off from the ITV television series Please Sir! which ran from 1968 to 1972. The film was one of the most popular at the UK box office in 1972.

1981

September 9 – Looks and Smiles

• Cast: Graham Green, Carolyn Nicholson, Tony Pitts, Roy Haywood, Phil Askham, Pam Darrell, Tracey Goodlad, Patti Nicholls, Cilla Mason, Les Hickin, Arthur Davies, Deirdre Costello, Jackie Shinn, Christine Francis, Rita May
• Director: Ken Loach
• Studio: Black Lion Films, Kestrel Films, distributed by ITC Entertainment
• Trivia: The film was screened at Cannes on May 14, 1981, where Ken Loach won the Young Cinema Award, and opened in Paris on September 9. The film was screened in the US at the New York Film Festival on October 5. Based on the novel of the same name, written by Barry Hines.

September 11 – Night School

• Cast: Rachel Ward, Leonard Mann, Drew Snyder, Joseph R. Sicari, Nicholas Cairis, Karen MacDonald, Annette Miller, Bill McCann, Margo Skinner, Kevin Fennessy, Elizabeth Barnitz, Holly Hardman, Meb Boden, Leonard Corman, Belle McDonald, Ed Higgins
• Director: Ken Hughes
• Studio: Lorimar, Resource Productions, distributed by Paramount Pictures
• Trivia: Known as Terror Eyes in the United Kingdom. Alfred Sole was the film’s original director and Vanity was to star but they both dropped out. Rachel Ward, in her film debut, was cast after being seen on the cover of a magazine. This was director Ken Hughes’ final film. The second feature film to be shot nearly exclusively in Boston (although the final, tacked-on sequence was filmed in New York City). The film was marketed in Spain as Psicosis 2 in an attempt to make movie-goers believe it was a sequel to Psycho, two years before the actual sequel was released. The French title is Les Yeux de la terreur (‘The Eyes of Dread’), and the Italian title is Il Killer della notte (‘The Killer of the Night’).

September 11 – Tales of Ordinary Madness

• Cast: Ben Gazzara, Ornella Muti, Susan Tyrrell, Tanya Lopert, Roy Brocksmith, Katya Berger, Judith Drake, Jay Julien
• Director: Marco Ferreri
• Studio: 23 Giugno, Ginis Films
• Trivia: The film was screened at the Venice Film Festival on September 4, 1981, then opened in Italy on September 11. The film opened in New York City on March 11, 1983. The film’s title and subject matter are based on the works and the person of US poet Charles Bukowski. Tobin Bell appears in an uncredited role.

1991

September 12 – Until the End of the World

• Cast: Solveig Dommartin, Eddy Mitchell, William Hurt, Adelle Lutz, Ernie Dingo, David Gulpilil, Jimmy Little, Sam Neill, Rüdiger Vogler, Max von Sydow, Jeanne Moreau, Chick Ortega, Elena Smirnova, Chishū Ryū, Allen Garfield, Lois Chiles, Kuniko Miyake, Lauren Graham
• Director: Wim Wenders
• Studio: Road Movies Filmproduktion GmbH, Argos Films, Village Roadshow Pictures
• Trivia: The film opened in Germany on September 12, 1991, but was not released in the US until December 25. The film has been released in several editions, ranging in length from 159 to 287 minutes. Wim Wenders was able to get funding for the project, which he started as early as 1977, only after the success of Wings of Desire and Paris, Texas. The budget was around $22 million, more than all of his previous films combined. The original version of the film, shot over 22 weeks and in 11 countries, ran 20 hours. Money ran out to shoot in China, so Solveig Dommartin and one cameraman shot the China scenes on their own. Wenders had approached Robert Mitchum, Richard Widmark and Gregory Peck to play William Hurt’s father, and Willem Dafoe was approached for the Hurt role.

New Line Cinema

September 13 – Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare

• Cast: Lisa Zane, Cassandra Rachel Freil, Robert Englund, Tobe Sexton, Chase Schrimer, Yaphet Kotto, Lezlie Deane, Shon Greenblatt, Breckin Meyer, Ricky Dean Logan, Lindsey Fields, Elinor Donahue, Robert Shaye
• Director: Rachel Talalay
• Studio: New Line Cinema
• Trivia: The film opened in Germany on September 5, 1991. Also known as A Nightmare on Elm Street 6: The Final Nightmare. This was New Line Cinema’s first 3D release. Johnny Depp, Roseanne Barr, Tom Arnold and Alice Cooper have cameos, and Iggy Pop sings the song playing over the end credits. Peter Jackson had written a rejected screenplay. There was very little editing of the film’s violence, but it ran long and about 47 minutes were cut prior to the theatrical release. The film opened with $12.9 million, the most of the franchise so far. This was Breckin Meyer’s first theatrical film. The theatrical release had a running time of 100 minutes, but the film was cut to 88 minutes for home video. All of Freddy’s victims in this film are male.

September 13 – Liebestraum

• Cast: Kevin Anderson, Pamela Gidley, Bill Pullman, Kim Novak, Graham Beckel, Zach Grenier, Thomas Kopache, Anne Lange, Jack Wallace, Max Perlich, Catherine Hicks, Roger Howarth, Ian Rob Witt, Alicia Witt, Taina Elg, Tom McDermott, Joseph McKenna, Hugh Hurd, Joe Aufiery, Harper Harris, Karen Sillas, Tracy Thorne, Bill Raymond, Nola Mae Sanders, Lorie Blanding, Sarah Fearon, Bernie Sheredy
• Director: Mike Figgis
• Studio: Initial Entertainment Group, Pathé Entertainment, distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• Trivia: This was Kim Novak’s last film due to the difficult time she had making this one. Film debut of Roger Howarth.

2001

September 7 – Two Can Play That Game

• Cast: Vivica A. Fox, Morris Chestnut, Anthony Anderson, Gabrielle Union, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Tamala Jones, Bobby Brown, Mo’Nique, Ray Wise, Jeff Markey, Dondre T. Whitfield, Lee Anthony, Cherise Bangs, Zatella Beatty, Mark Brown, Chris Spencer, Pierre Burgess, Mark Christopher Lawrence, Natashia Williams, La La Anthony, Colby Kane, Terrence ‘Skyy’ Grant, Pretty Boy Duncan
• Director: Mark Brown
• Studio: Screen Gems
• Trivia: The film’s premiere was held on August 29, 2001. Vivica A. Fox turned down her role a few times because she didn’t approve of the script. She finally did and this was her first starring role. She also had a smaller role in the direct-to-video sequel Three Can Play That Game. This was La La Anthony’s debut.

September 12 – Human Nature

• Cast: Patricia Arquette, Hilary Duff, Tim Robbins, Rhys Ifans, Rosie Perez, Miranda Otto, Peter Dinklage, Mary Kay Place, Robert Forster, Toby Huss
• Director: Michel Gondry
• Studio: StudioCanal, Good Machine, distributed by Fine Line Features (United States), BAC Films (France)
• Trivia: The film was screened at Cannes on May 18, 2001, the opened in France on September 12. The film screened at Sundance in January 2002 and opened in limited release in the US on April 12, 2002. This was Michel Gondry’s directorial debut. Steven Soderbergh was originally to direct with David Hyde Pierce as Nathan, Chris Kattan as Puff, and Marisa Tomei as Lila Jute. He was offered Out of Sight before he went into pre-production and decided to accept that offer. The studio wanted Spike Jonze to direct but he suggested Gondry. Many of the scenes in the forest are allusions to or recreations of scenes in the Björk music video ‘Human Behavior’, also directed by Michel Gondry. Hilary Duff’s first feature film.

September 14 – Hardball

• Cast: Keanu Reeves, Diane Lane, John Hawkes, Bryan C. Hearne, Michael Perkins, DeWayne Warren, Julian Griffith, Michael B. Jordan, A. Delon Ellis Jr., Brian M. Reed, Kristopher Lofton, Mike McGlone, Graham Beckel, D. B. Sweeney, Sammy Sosa, Sterling ‘Steelo’ Brim, Wa-King Conner, Mark Margolis
• Director: Brian Robbins
• Studio: Fireworks Pictures, Nides/McCormick Productions, Tollin/Robbins Productions, distributed by Paramount Pictures
• Trivia: The film’s premiere was held on September 10, 2001. Based on the book Hardball: A Season in the Projects by Daniel Coyle. Feature film debut of Michael B. Jordan.

September 14 – Kill Me Later

• Cast: Selma Blair, Max Beesley, Brendan Fehr, Keegan Connor Tracy
• Director: Dana Lustig
• Studio: Curb Entertainment, Amazon Film Productions, Bergman Lustig Productions, distributed by Lions Gate Films
• Trivia: The film was screened at the Santa Barbara Film Festival on March 2, 2001, and at WorldFest Houston in April 2001.

September 14 – The Glass House

• Cast: Leelee Sobieski, Diane Lane, Stellan Skarsgård, Bruce Dern, Kathy Baker, Trevor Morgan, Chris Noth, Rita Wilson, Michael O’Keefe, Vyto Ruginis, Gavin O’Connor, Carly Pope, China Jesusita Shavers, Agnes Bruckner, Michael Paul Chan, Rachel Wilson, Rutanya Alda, ohn Billingsley, Julia Vera
• Director: Daniel Sackheim
• Studio: Columbia Pictures, Original Film, distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing
• Trivia: The film’s original cut was said to be 180 minutes long, with 74 minutes removed from the theatrical cut. As the film was a box office flop, the studio had no interest in preserving the cut film, so it is now considered lost. Rita Wilson chose to be uncredited. January Jones’ film debut, as well as Agnes Bruckner’s.

2011

September 9 – Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star

• Cast: Nick Swardson, Christina Ricci, Don Johnson, Stephen Dorff, Ido Mosseri, Kevin Nealon, Edward Herrmann, Miriam Flynn, Mario Joyner, Nick Turturro, Mary Pat Gleason, Curtis Armstrong, Brandon Hardesty, Adam Herschman, Pauly Shore, Beverly Polcyn, Jonathan Loughran, Peter Dante, Pasha Lychnikoff, Jimmy Fallon, Joey Diaz
• Director: Tom Brady
• Studio: Columbia Pictures, Happy Madison Productions, Miles Deep Productions, distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing
• Trivia: The film received six Razzie nominations including Worst Picture, but lost to Jack & Jill (also from Happy Madison Productions).

Warner Bros. Pictures

September 9 – Contagion

• Cast: Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Bryan Cranston, Jennifer Ehle, Elliott Gould, Chin Han, John Hawkes, Josie Ho, Sanaa Lathan, Demetri Martin, Armin Rohde, Enrico Colantoni, Monique Gabriela Curnen
• Director: Steven Soderbergh
• Studio: Participant Media, Imagenation Abu Dhabi, Double Feature Films, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
• Trivia: The film was screened at the Venice Film Festival on September 3, 2011. To keep the film’s premise as authentic as possible, Soderbergh opted to not film anything in a studio. Chicago and the surrounding suburbs were used to emulate Minneapolis and Atlanta as well as Chicago. Most of the cast took very little pay to appear in the film. Gwyneth Paltrow worked basically for free and filmed her scenes in three days. Marion Cotillard was six months pregnant when she finished filming. Kate Winslet filmed her scenes in ten days.

September 9 – Miss Bala

• Cast: Stephanie Sigman, Irene Azuela, Miguel Couturier, Gabriel Heads, Noé Hernández, James Russo, Lakshmi Picazo, José Yenque
• Director: Gerardo Naranjo
• Studio: Canana Films, distributed by 20th Century Fox
• Trivia: The film screened at Cannes on May 13, 2011, then opened in Mexico on September 9. It receives a limited US release on January 20, 2012. An English-language remake was released in 2017.

September 9 – Warrior

• Cast: Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison, Frank Grillo, Kevin Dunn, Vanessa Martinez, Noah Emmerich, Denzel Whitaker, Carlos Miranda, Charlie Smith, Maximiliano Hernández, Fernando Chien, Kurt Angle, Erik Apple, Nate Marquardt, Anthony Johnson, Roan Carneiro, Gavin O’Connor, Dan ‘Punkass’ Caldwell, Timothy ‘Skyskrape’ Katz, Bryan Callen, Sam Sheridan, Josh Rosenthal, Jake McLaughlin
• Director: Gavin O’Connor
• Studio: Mimran Schur Pictures, Solaris Entertainment, Filmtribe, distributed by Lionsgate
• Trivia: Nick Nolte received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, a role that was written specifically for him. Nolte received a standing ovation from the crew after filming his first scene … which was cut from the final edit but appears as an extra on the home video release. The film was shot on location in Pittsburgh and Atlantic City. The Iraq scenes were filmed in an abandoned parking lot in Pittsburgh dressed to look like the desert. The story was originally set in Long Beach, CA but moved to Pittsburgh because of tax breaks from the state of Pennsylvania. Joel Edgerton tore his MCL in the cage during production, halting fight scenes for six weeks. Tom Hardy suffered a broken toe, broken ribs, and a broken finger. The Bollywood film Brothers is a remake of this film and was a blockbuster in India.