Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies: All These Years Edition, Part V

Wonderland Burlesque's 

Let's All Go To The Movies

All These Years Edition, Part V

What's a year? 365 days... and the key word for the final installment of this series of Let's All Go To The Movies posts.

This is the last in a five part run. Yes... the years, they spread out before us like so many possibilities yet to be realized. Let's realize a few of them today. 

Don't worry, I've mixed them up extremely well - variety being the spice of life. I've also included a slew of foreign films and documentaries, for whom among us couldn't use our horizons broadened?

Well, we're not getting any younger, so let's take a final look at All These Years...

Part V

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One Year Later

(1933)

"Anything to save her man from the electric chair!"

(First, we watch a pair of blissful honeymooners traveling by train. Then, a year later, in the same train car sits the husband, who has been convicted of killing his boss whom he suspected was having an affair with his wife. Accompanying him in another train car is the man's wife who doesn't believe her husband is guilty. She desperately wants to speak with him, but he steadfastly refuses to see her. On board the same train is a reporter dying of lung cancer who wants to interview the husband in order to supply him with some inside information regarding the circumstances of the man's case. Will the information be enough to exonerate the man or will he be executed for his boss's death?)

(Directed by E. Mason Hopper, this little potboiler stars Mary Brian, Russel Hopton, and Jim Collins.) 

Mary Brian

(Mary Brian got her start in silent films and managed to make the transition to talkies. During WWII, she traveled with the USO entertaining troops. Of that time, she said... "I was with Charlie Ruggles in Okinawa. And I was on the island of Tinian when they dropped the atomic bomb. Colonel Paul Tibbets, who was the pilot and the officer in charge [of dropping the bomb] took Charlie and me on the plane the next day, and nobody had been allowed in that encampment. So I was on the Enola Gay." Heading to England, she got caught in the Battle of the Bulge and ended up spending Christmas 1944 with the soldiers fighting that battle.)

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Freshman Year

(1938)

(A quintet of new students experience their freshman year at Carlton college. Among them: the daughter of a judge, the son of a Carlton alumnus whose family has lost its money, the son of a theatrical producer, a former chorus girl and a hunky Texan. A tug of war, class elections, fraternities, classism, and some good old-fashioned cheating on exams fill out their year.)

 

(This film features the uncredited film debut of actor Arthur O'Connell.)

Constance Moore

(Constance Moore was an American singer and actress. Her most noted work was in wartime musicals such as Show Business and Atlantic City. She also had the reoccurring role of Wilma Deering in the classic 1939 movie serial Buck Rogers - the only female character in the serial.)

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The Best Years Of Our Lives

(1946)

(A trio of World War II veterans return home, only to find their midwestern lives and families altered forever. Two of the three must also deal with the physical and mental trauma inflicted, their disabilities affecting not only their loved ones, but their re-entry into society.)

"The most honored picture in history!"

(This groundbreaking, epic drama was directed by William Wyler, and features an all-star cast including: Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo and newcomer, Harold Russell.) 

(After reading an August 7, 1944, article in Time about the difficulties experienced by men returning to civilian life, Samuel Goldwyn wanted to produce a film in order to capture what these soldiers were going through. He hired former war correspondent MacKinlay Kantor to write a screenplay. which was first published as a novella, Glory For Me. Written in blank verse, Robert E. Sherwood was then tasked with adapting Kantor's novella into a screenplay.)

 (Wyler was hoping to inject the film with a bit of realism. He had flown combat missions over Europe while filming 1944's Memphis Belle, and leveraged that experience to get accurate depictions of the action soldier's experienced in combat. He also rejected the original casting, eventually finding Harold Russell, a non-actor, to portray one of the returning soldiers.)

(Instead of utilizing one of the studio's costume designers, he told the principal actors to go buy their own clothes off-the-rack. In doing so, he hoped to produce an authentic feeling, making the film more relatable and connected with the daily life of the average citizen. He also insisted on realistically-sized sets, rather than those typically built to allow room for easier camera movement. This helped remove any sense of staginess, placing viewers right in the room with the actors.)

(A critical and commercial success, it won seven Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director - William Wyler, Best Actor - Fredric March, Best Supporting Actor - Harold Russell, Best Film Editing - Daniel Mandell, Best Adapted Screenplay - Robert E. Sherwood, and Best Original Score - Hugo Friedhofer.)

(Since Russell was not a professional actor, the Academy Board of Governors, who considered him a long shot but wished to honor his work, decided to give him an Honorary Academy Award "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance." When Russell actually won the Best Supporting Actor award, he became the only actor to receive two Academy Awards for the same performance. Sadly, in 1992, Russell was forced to sell his Best Supporting Actor statuette at auction for $60,500 in order to pay his wife's medical bills.)

"The screen's greatest love story!"

"Acclaimed by critics as the greatest picture to come from Hollywood in a long time."

(The highest-grossing film in both the United States and United Kingdom since the release of Gone with the Wind, to this day it remains the sixth most-attended film of all time in the United Kingdom, with over 20 million tickets sold.)

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The Year Long Road

(1958)

AKA: La Strada Lunga Un Anno/The Road A Year Long

(In an underdeveloped, remote area of a fictitious country, the locals try to build an asphalt road in spite the indifference of their Government. Self-reliant, their quest lasts an entire year.)

(This Yugoslavian-Italian co-production was directed by Giuseppe De Santis and served as Yugoslavia's first-ever submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It did receive a nomination, but failed to win. However, it did win a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, while actor Massimo Girotti was named Best Actor at the San Francisco International Film Festival.)

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One Million Years B.C.

(1966)

"Travel back through time and space to the edge of man's beginnings... discover a savage world whose only law was lust!"

(Two prehistoric men battle for the love a woman.)

(This British adventure fantasy, a remake of the 1940 American film, One Million B.C., was directed by Don Chaffey and produced by Hammer Film Productions with Seven Arts.) 

"A time when there was no law and man... woman... and beast roamed the earth-untamed." 

(This film has several ties to the various James Bond films. Ursula Andress, who was a Bond Girl in 1962's Dr. No,  was first offered the role Raquel Welch would play, but passed on the project due to salary demands. Welch's grunting was dubbed by Nikki Van der Zyl, who is best known for dubbing numerous voices in the James Bond movies. And, as a former Bond Girl  - 1963's From Russia With Love and 1965's Thunderball - Mary Beswick didn't have to audition for the movie; Hammer Studios felt she should join their stable of actors, so they offered her the role.)

  (Welch's bikini was made of fur and hide. She was described as "wearing mankind's first bikini" and the bikini was described as a "definitive look of the 1960's." A publicity photograph of Welch from the film became a best-selling pinup poster and a cultural phenomenon. In a 2012 interview, Welch said that three form-fitting bikinis were made for her, including two for a wet scene and a fight scene, by costume designer Carl Toms: "Carl just draped me in doe-skin, and I stood there while he worked on it with scissors.")

(Beswick is on record stating that the fur bikinis were very uncomfortable because the actresses were constantly in the water, so the bikinis dripped, stuck to them, and got very heavy. To offset the cost of  the costumes - 140,000 pounds sterling - they, along with the sets, were re-used in 1967's Prehistoric Women, which also featured Beswick and Yvonne Horner. Beswick also said that she and Raquel Welch got along great during filming, and while they were offered stunt doubles for their fight scene, they insisted on doing it themselves.) 

(In the movie, John Richardson's love interest was Raquel Welch, but in real-life, behind the scenes, he fell in love with and eventually married co-star Martine Beswick. Beswick said that she and Richardson fell madly in love at first sight on-set and remained together for seven years.)

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Man Of The Year

(1971)

AKA: Homo Eroticus

(A sexually-insatiable man with three testicles goes around bedding all the women in town - regardless of age - until, one day, things go terribly, terribly wrong. Seeking asylum in a neighboring town, he is hired as a butler and driver by an affluent family. His employer takes him to a doctor who discovers the man's physical peculiarity: triorchidism. News of his condition spreads like wildfire throughout the city and soon, the man's sexual appetite is once more quenched, thanks to a number of willing locals. However, the female head of the household, weary of the rumors and innuendo, fires the man and he is forced to seek shelter at one of her friend's villas - a situation where he, no doubt, will quickly wear out his welcome.)

(This Italian commedia sexy all'italiana was directed by Marco Vicario and proved to be a bonafide  blockbuster at the Italian box office.)

(Stateside and in the UK, it was promoted under the title, Man Of The Year.)

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The Year Without Santa Claus

(1974)

(Santa Claus is tired. He's considering cancelling his Christmas Eve run, reminiscent of the time Santa had a bad cold and decided to take a vacation from Christmas. So Mrs. Claus and two of his elves - Jingle and Jangle Bells - set out to change his mind. The elves decide to go out, accompanied by Vixen, to find children in order to convince Santa that the Christmas spirit is still important to the world. They set their sights on bringing snow to Southtown, USA, where it never snows. However, they need the cooperation of bickering brothers, Heat Miser and Snow Miser and that is only going to happen if Mrs. Claus pays a visit to her old friend, their mother, Mother Nature!)

(This Rankin/Bass Productions stop-motion animated Christmas television special is based on  Phyllis McGinley's 1956 book of the same name. Narrated by Oscar-winner Shirley Booth, in her final acting credit before retiring, and starring the voices of Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, and George S. Irving, it first aired on December 10, 1974, on ABC.)

(Snow Miser and Heat Miser were based on the physicality of the actors doing their voices, Dick Shawn and George S. Irving.)

(This is the second of two Rankin/Bass Christmas specials where Mickey Rooney voiced Santa Claus. The first was 1970's Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town. The painting hanging in Santa Claus' bedroom in The Year Without Santa Claus is the same one that is put up in the town hall at the end of Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town.)

(The Year Without Santa Claus spun off two related projects. The first, a live-action remake, starring John Goodman as Santa, Michael McKean as the Snow Miser and gay icon Harvey Fierstein as Heat Miser premiered on NBC on December 11, 2006. The second, a sequel, titled A Miser Brothers' Christmas, was produced in 2008 by Warner Bros. Animation and Cuppa Coffee Studios. It utilized stop-motion animation with Mickey Rooney, age 88, reprising his role as Santa Claus, and George S. Irving, age 86, reprising his role as Heat Miser.) 

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Father Cami's Wedding

(1979)

AKA: La boda del señor cura

(The evolution of a devout Jesuit priest, from his earliest days of great faith and patriotism to the moment he loses his faith, becomes a Communist and marries a stripper. This Spanish drama was directed by Rafael Gil and stars José Sancho, José Bódalo and Manuel Tejada. It serves as the final film of Carlota Bilbao.)

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And In The Third Year, He Rose Again

(1980)

AKA: Y al tercer año, resucitó

(On November 20, 1978, a truckdriver picks up a man, dressed in military garb on the road, who wishes to be taken to Pardo's Palace. At the same time, a radio station broadcasts a story regarding France's economy, saying the franc (in Spanish: franco) has risen from the dead. The truckdriver jumps to the conclusion that the man he is transporting is none other than notorious dictator Francisco Franco - returned from the dead. As rumors run rampant, the Spanish people react in various ways in light of their recent transition to democracy.) 

(This Spanish comedy film, based on a best-selling novel by Fernando Vizcaíno Casas, was directed by Rafael Gil.)

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Warriors Of The Year 2072

(1984)

AKA: I Guerrieri dell'anno 2072

(In 2072 Rome, Italy, a ruthless CEO of a TV network stages a series of modern gladiator games in the hopes of garnering high ratings. However, things begin to shift once one of the contestants learns of the true motivations behind event.)  

(This Italian dystopian sci fi film, directed by Lucio Fulci, is based on a story devised by husband and wife team Dardano Sacchetti and Elisa Briganti and was inspired by - and hoping to capitalize on - the success of films such as Mad Max and Escape From New York . The completed script of was further edited by Cesare Frugoni and Fulci.)

 (This was originally to have been the first of a two-film deal between Fulci and the producers, with the second film being Blastfighter. However, creative differences, such as the producers insisting upon modern skyscrapers in Fulci's domed futuristic Rome, ended with the two sides facing off in court. In the end, the title of the film Blastfighter was awarded to the producers while the script for that picture was given to Fulci. The producers forged ahead, using the title, with a completely different story.) 

(The film would also mark the last time Sacchetti would work with Fulci. Fulci would accuse Sacchetti of stealing an idea for a film to be titled Evil Comes Back; an allegation Sacchetti has denied. As Sacchetti remembers it, Fulci was originally excited over his initial drafts and had it read to a producer who then commissioned Sacchetti for a script which would later be made by Lamberto Bava under the title Until Death.)

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Year Of The Dragon

(1985)

(Following the murders of  the leaders of two crime families - The Triad and The Mafia - a police detective strives to clean up organized crime in Chinatown.)

(This neo-noir crime thriller was directed by Academy-Award winner Michael Cimino and stars Mickey Rourke, Ariane Koizumi and John Lone. Adapted from a novel by Robert Daley, the screenplay was written by Cimino and Oliver Stone.)

(This was Cimino's first film after the box office disaster which was 1980's Heaven's Gate. He'd been approached numerous times to direct the film version of  Robert Daley's novel, but had always turned it down. When he finally did agree, due to a start date slated by the producers, he quickly realized he didn't have enough time to both write and direct, so he brought in Oliver Stone. Cimino was impressed with Stone's screenplay for the still-to-be-filmed Platoon. Stone agreed to sign-on with the caveat that producer Dino De Laurentiis help him secure funding for his film, Platoon. Stone later said of the experience: "With Michael, it's a 24-hour day. He doesn't really sleep; he's truly an obsessive personality. He's the most Napoleonic director I ever worked with.")

 (Cimino spent a year and a half doing research on the project. With the start date set, casting began before the script was completed. Initially, Nick Nolte or Jeff Bridges were first choice for the role of the police detective, however, after Cimino saw The Pope Of Greenwich Village and then worked with the actor on Heaven's Gate, Mickey Rourke got the nod. Rourke struggled, trying to play a character 15 years his senior. To give the character a needed edge, Cimino played off Rourke's rea-life boxing skills. A trainer was hired, but Rourke failed to take the training seriously, so Cimino brought in Hells Angels Chuck Zito to train the actor. Rourke, who was paid $1 million to star in the film, loved working with Cimino, and has said of the director: "He was a ball of fire. I hadn't seen anyone quite like him.")

(The film was met with controversy. Members of the Chinese American and Asian American communities protested against it, criticizing the film for its racial stereotyping, widespread xenophobia, and use of racial slurs and abundant sexism. Director Cimino addressed the controversy, saying: "The film was accused of racism, but they didn't pay attention to what people say in the film. It's a film which deals with racism, but it's not a racist film. To deal with this sort of subject, you must inevitably reveal its tendencies. It's the first time that we deal with the marginalization which the Chinese were subject to. On that subject, people know far too little. Americans discover with surprise that the Chinese were excluded from American citizenship up until 1943. They couldn't bring their wives to America. Kwong's speech to Stanley is applauded. For all these reasons, the Chinese love the film. And the journalists' negative reactions are perhaps a shield to conceal these unpleasant facts.")

(The film, a box-office flop - it cost $24 million, but only made $18 million - is now considered a cult-classic, with the likes of Quentin Tarantino singing its praises.)

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The Year My Voice Broke

(1987)

(A boy watches helplessly as his best friend falls in love with a small-time crook, setting off a violent chain of events in 1960's rural Australia.)

(This Australian coming-of-age drama  written and directed by John Duigan, stars Noah Taylor, Loene Carmen and Ben Mendelsohn. Originally meant to be part of a trilogy of films, it was followed by a sequel, 1991's Flirting. It won the 1987 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film, a prize which Flirting would, in turn, also win.)

(John Duigan wrote Flirting first. However, he was unable to secure funding, so he wrote a prequel which became The Year My Voice Broke. It features the same main character as Flirting and was originally scheduled to be released as a television movie, but received a wide release due to its quality and because it had been filmed on 35mm stock. It had several ridiculous working titles, including Reflections of a Golden Childhood and Museum of Desire.)

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And that's all for now.

Tune in next week...

Same time, same channel.

Freshman Year - Isaac Dunbar