Category Archives: Uncategorized

August 4, 1954 –Douglas Sirk’s first Technicolor gift for film goers, Magnificent Obsession, was released on this date. Rock Hudson never knew that Jane Wyman had served as an FBI informer under the code name T-10, providing the names of actors within the motion picture industry whom they believed to be communist sympathizers.

August 4, 1942 –The Paramount Picture film, Holiday Inn, directed by Mark Sandrich and starring Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby was released in theaters on this date. Kemmons Wilson, who founded the Holiday Inn motel chain in 1952, named it after this movie. Strangely enough, White Christmas was not expected to be a hit song.Continue reading “If you’re burdened down with trouble”

August 3, 1968 –The revisionist Western film, Hang ‘Em High, directed by Ted Post and starring Clint Eastwood, Inger Stevens, Ed Begley, and Pat Hingle, was released on this date. Clint Eastwood’s first leading role in a Hollywood film. He was already 38 years old. Hang ‘Em High is also notable for being Eastwood’s firstContinue reading “Hang ‘Em High premiered”

August 3, 1929 – Four famous vaudevillian performers took a chance on the new medium of ‘talking pictures‘ with the general release of the film, The Cocoanuts, starring the Four Marx Brothers — Chico, Groucho, Harpo and Zeppo, on this date,. When The Marx Brothers were shown the final cut of the film, they wereContinue reading “Here is a viaduct leading over to the mainland.”

July 30, 1946 – The Merrie Melodies short, Bacall to Arms, directed by Bob Clampett, was released on this date Originally, the audio track for the To Have and Have Not parody featured the actual audio of Bogart and Bacall from the film. However, the Warner Bros. legal department informed the producers that they couldContinue reading “Bacall to Arms premiered”

August 03, 1947– The Merrie Melodies short, A Pest in the House, directed by Chuck Jones, and starring Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd, was released on this date The film is notable for featuring a sort of “in-between” interpretation of Daffy Duck. He is not necessarily the zany, impish interpretation used famously by Tex AveryContinue reading “A Pest in the House premiered”

August 3, 1966 – Following the end of the series, Columbia Pictures released the animated film, The Man Called Flintstone, directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and featuring the voice work of Alan Reed, Mel Blanc, Jean Vander Pyl, and Gerry Johnson, on this date. This was the last Hanna-Barbera theatrical cartoon for ColumbiaContinue reading “The Man Called Flintstone premiered”

August 3, 1970 – Shelved for two years after a disastrous test screening at which audiences yelled at the screen and walked out of the theater, Warner Brothers finally released Performance, directed by Donald Cammell, and Nicolas Roeg, and starring James Fox, Mick Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, and Michèle Breton, on this date in New YorkContinue reading “Performance premiered (finally)”

August 2, 1985 –Universal Pictures released the sci-fi comedy film Weird Science, directed by John Hughes and starring Anthony Michael Hall, Kelly LeBrock and Ilan Mitchell-Smith, on this date. In the scene where Bill Paxton is speaking to Kelly LeBrock while interrogating everyone over what had happened the previous night, in the background, Suzanne SnyderContinue reading “Weird Science popped up from the lab”

August 2, 1989 –Universal Pictures released Ron Howard’s film, Parenthood, starring Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen, Dianne Wiest, Martha Plymton and Keanu Reeves on this date. This movie is based on Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Lowell Ganz, and Babaloo Mandel’s experiences as parents.