Wonderland Burlesque's
Let's All Go To The Movies:
All These Years Edition, Part IV
What's a year? 365 days... and the key word for today's Let's All Go To The Movies post, which is part four of a five part series.
And the years? They sure do add up, now don't they?
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, seeing as how time is of the essence... let's take yet another look at All These Years...
Part IV
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20,000 Men A Year
(1939)
AKA: Air Story /Aviation Story
(A fly-boy drama serving as propaganda for recruitment and to raise interest in the aviation industry.)
(The U.S. government encouraged Hollywood to produce films designed to buildup of the aviation industry as well as the military. Released on October 27, 1939 by 20th Century Fox, this picture reflected the spirit of the times. It was the fourth and final film produced by Cosmopolitan Pictures during its final year of operation.)
(Directed by Alfred E. Green and written by Lou Breslow and Owen Francis, the film stars Randolph Scott, Preston Foster, Margaret Lindsay, Mary Healy, Robert Shaw, George Ernest, Jane Darwell, Kane Richmond and Maxie Rosenbloom.)
(Scott married twice. He first married in 1936, becoming the second husband of DuPont paint company heiress Marion duPont. It would last three years. Scott had served as the best man at Marion's previous marriage.)
Randolph Scott
(Offscreen, Scott was 'good friends' with Fred Astaire and Cary Grant. He met Grant in 1932 on the set of Hot Saturday. Shortly afterwards, the pair moved in together, sharing a beach house in Malibu which was dubbed 'Bachelor Hall'. It was widely rumored the two were romantically involved at the time, something both men, their wives and families have repeatedly denied. In 1944, Scott and Grant stopped living together when Scott remarried. However, they remained close friends for the remainder of their lives.)
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Candida, Woman Of The Year
(1943)
AKA: Cándida, la mujer del año
(This Argentinian comedy was directed by Enrique Santos Discépolo and stars Niní Marshall, Augusto Codecá, and Carlos Morganti.)
(Niní Marshall was a beloved Argentinian humorist, comic actress and screenwriter known as 'Chaplin In A Skirt' and 'The Lady Of Humor.')
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The Dancing Years
(1950)
(Set in the days of old Vienna, this episodic British musical, tells the story of a composer of operettas and the two women in his life. One, his sweetheart -an operetta star who becomes his first patron and, then, his mistress - becomes a lost love, after a misunderstanding which leads her to marry a prince. Soon after, she gives birth to a son the composer remains unaware of for many years. While the other, his first love, serves as the brokenhearted composer's companion during his later years.)
(Based on the popular stage musical by Ivor Novello; the most successful wartime show in London. It was mounted twice, with Ivor Novello played the lead in both productions.)
(While on location in Austria, actor Dennis Price spent his breaks between scenes teaching the Austrian crew how to play cricket using a ball made from tape and a bat improvised from something found by the props department.)
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The Last Year
(1951)
(Based on a novel by Ludwig Turek. and made by the state-controlled DEFA in communist East Germany, this drama, directed by E.W. Fiedler and Hans Heinrich, stars the enigmatic Inge Keller, Hans Klering and Hermann Stövesand. Filmed entirely at the Johannisthal Studios in Berlin, the sets were designed by Wilhelm Depenau and Artur Günther.)
(Keller, one of the most prominent performers in the former German Democratic Republic, enjoyed a career on stage and screen which spanned seventy years.)
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Terror From The Year 5000
(1958)
AKA: Cage Of Doom
(A professor and his financial backer build a prototype time machine to obtain objects from the ancient past. The pair, along with a colleague, place modern items in the time machine and receive in exchange an something from a bygone era. Once one of the trio begins attempting to lure a living being from the past, they open a portal to pure horror.)
(Reportedly based on the short story Bottle Baby by Henry Slesar published in the science fiction magazine Fantastic in April of 1957, this independently made black-and-white science fiction film was produced by Robert J. Gurney Jr., Samuel Z. Arkoff, James H. Nicholson, and Gene Searchinger. Directed by Robert J. Gurney Jr., it stars Ward Costello, Joyce Holden, John Stratton, Salome Jens, and Fred Herrick.)
(While shooting, the working title of the film was The Girl from 5000 A.D.)
(Edited by Dede Allen, who went on to a long, distinguished career editing such feature films as The Hustler, Bonnie and Clyde, Dog Day Afternoon, and Reds.)
(The film is also credited as the first movie appearance of the 1958 Edsel automobile.)
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All Year Is Christmas
(1960)
(Unsatisfied doing good only one day a year, Santa Claus sets out to bring joy and happiness to the lives of others. In order to do so, he disguises himself as a common worker, a maid, an office worker and a bartender while solving the problems of various people.)
(Based on the popular Argentinian television program which ran for several seasons and structured in five episodes, this black and white film, directed by Román Viñoly Barreto with a script by Horacio S. Meyrialle premiered on February 25 , 1960. It starred Raúl Rossi , Olga Zubarry , Carlos Estrada and Nelly Meden.)
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Nine Days in One Year
(1962)
AKA: Девять дней одного года)
(In love with the same woman, two physicists risk their lives achieving scientific breakthroughs in the field of nuclear particle physics. One of them marries the object of their shared affections, only to become deathly ill when exposed to radioactivity during an experiment. The physicist's will to survive is driven by his love for his wife, science and mankind.)
(The film's working title was 365 Days. Reportedly based on true events, this black-and-white drama, directed by Mikhail Romm has been called one of the most important Soviet films of the 1960's. It won the Crystal Globe Award in 1962.)
(Screen favorites, Yury Yakovlev and Alexey Batalov were hired for the main roles. However, before the filming began, Yakovlev was hospitalized and had to be replaced. A young and little-known actress, Tatyana Lavrova was cast in the female lead.)
(Batalov witnessed Soviet censors removing numerous 'dark parts' from the film, as per the Kremlin's wishes.)
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The Year Of The Cannibals
(1970)
AKA: I Cannibali
(City streets are littered with the dead bodies of rebels who protested and opposed an oppressive regime. The powers that be purposely leave the bodies on display to serve as a warning to others. A young woman discovers the body of her brother among them and wishes to bury him. Soliciting the help of a foreigner who speaks another language, the duo defy the authorities who, in retaliation, kill them both. Their deaths become a battle cry among the city's citizens, as the young take to the streets in order to put the dead to rest.)
(A modernized retelling of the Greek tragedy Antigone, set in contemporary Milan, drawing upon the socio-political themes and imagery of the the protests of 1968, the counter-cultural movement, and the Years of Lead.)
(This Italian drama was directed by Liliana Cavani and stars Britt Ekland and Pierre Clémenti.)
(Starring sex symbol Britt Ekland who is most famous for her high-profile social life, her 1964 marriage to actor Peter Sellers and her relationship with singer Rod Stewart; all of which attracted considerable media attention. She was one of the most photographed celebrities in the world during the 1970's. In 1976, Ekland provided the French spoken part at the end of then-boyfriend Rod Stewart's classic hit Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright). The pair was introduced in 1975 by Joan Collins and would live together for more than two years, with Ekland giving up her career to focus on the relationship. In a much publicized case, she later sued Stewart for palimony.)
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The 300 Year Weekend
(1971)
(At a 24-hour clinic, a group of patients share their life stories and how each of them became dependent on drugs.)
(Starring William Devane, this drama was repeatedly tested at audience previews, but, ultimately, not released. It would eventually make its debut as an ABC TV Movie of the Week.)
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The Year Of The Yahoo!!
(1972)
(The President of the United States wants a liberal incumbent Senator defeated. In an effort to do so, a naïve country-western singer is recruited to run against him. The candidate soon clashes with his unscrupulous campaign manager regarding the tactics used to run his political campaign.)
(A drive-in theatre favorite!)
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Holy Year
(1976)
(An elderly bank robber and his younger cohort, escape from prison dressed as priests in order to retrieve a sizeable amount of gold stashed in Italy from a previous bank heist. Their plane is hijacked, but the terrorists prove no match for the old man, who soon gets the better of them. However, the delay allows the police in Rome time to track him down and it quickly devolves into a cat and mouse situation.)
(Bernard Menez was first offered the role of the younger bank robber, but declined because he disliked the script. He later had deep regrets, missing a unique opportunity to play opposite legendary actor Jean Gabin. This would turn out to be Gabin's final film.)
(Gabin is considered a key figure in French cinema, having starred in several classics including 1937's Pépé le Moko, 1937's La grande illusion, 1938's Le Quai des brumes and La bête humaine, 1939's Le jour se lève, and 1952's Le plaisir. Twice each, he won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival. Gabin was made a member of the Légion d'honneur in recognition of his important contributions to French cinema.)
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The Year Of Living Dangerously
(1982)
"A love caught in the fire of a revolution."
(Navigating the harrowing political turmoil of Indonesia during the rule of President Sukarno, an Australian reporter, with the help of a diminutive photographer, attempts to capture the chaos.)
(For the part of Billy Kwan, Joel Grey, Bob Balaban, and Wallace Shawn all auditioned. Director Peter Weir initially cast David Atkins in the role, but after meeting Linda Hunt, he realized that she was the only person right for the role. Weir said on casting Hunt, "I never would have started out looking for a woman, But from the moment I saw her test, I knew she was appropriate." Hunt ended up being the first actress to win an Academy Award for portraying a member of the opposite sex, and the only actress to win an Academy Award for playing a cisgender man.)
(Due to the movie's subject matter, permission to shoot in Indonesia was denied, so the majority of the movie was filmed in the Philippines, in and around Manila. According to Coming Attractions magazine: "At one point, during a reenactment of the 1965 storming of the American embassy, the action became so real that pistol shots were fired over the crowd to restore order, when more than a thousand extras got carried away hurling stones at the building. This incident, along with a bomb threat from militant Muslims, precipitated the crew's return to Australia ahead of schedule.")
(Death threats against Weir and Mel Gibson from Muslims who believed the film would be anti-Islam forced the production to move to Australia. In hindsight, Gibson believed: "It wasn't really that bad. We got a lot of death threats to be sure, but I just assumed that when there are so many, it must mean nothing is really going to happen. I mean, if they meant to kill us, why send a note?")
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And that's all for now.
Tune in next week...
Same time, same channel.
Waltz Of My Heart - Anthony Valentine & Cast
from The Year Of Dance
