Showbiz History: Dunne born, Dick Tracy begins, Scream opens
Sunday, December 20, 2020 at 8:00AM 
10 random things that happened on this day, December 20th, in showbiz history
1945 Seventy-five years ago today the first feature film based on the comic strip Dick Tracy arrived. The syndicated newspaper hero had been a popular character in film serials since the mid 1930s. He'd get three more features (the last arriving in 1947) before being revived again for Warren Beatty's Oscar-winning spectacle in 1990.
1946 It's a Wonderful Life has ts world premiere in NYC. Why a Christmas classic opened in January for most of the nation is a mystery whose answer is surely lost in 1940s era moviegoing / holiday habits...
1951 The first of many film versions of the hit play Death of a Salesman (starring two time Best Actor winner Fredric March) arrives in movie theaters on its way to 5 Oscar nominations.
1964 Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster opens in Japan's movie theaters. It was the first Godzilla movie where Godzilla was viewed as the hero rather than the villain. It took about a year for it to make it to US cinemas.
1971 Intergenerational pitch-black comedy classic Harold and Maude opens in theaters. Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon were both Golden Globe nominated for their leading roles but Oscar ignored the film entirely.
1974 The Godfather Part II arrives in theaters. It will become the first sequel to win Best Picture. Only one other movie sequel has accomplished that feat (Lord of the Rings: Return of the King)
1979 Bob Fosse's second masterpiece All That Jazz (1979) opens. We were just obsessively thinking about it this week due to Ann Reinking's death.
1995 Today marks the 25th anniverary of the release of Oliver Stone's divisive Nixon. Where do you fall on the scale of Oliver Stone's work? Hate? Love? Indifferent? All over the place?
1996 Scream and One Fine Day both open in movie theaters. It may surprise you to hear that your host here was at Scream rather than the Michelle Pfeiffer movie on this very day in 1996 but that's because I was obsessed with this boy and he was going with a group of our mutual friends and he asked me if I was going so of course I pretended that I was going all along! We sat next to each other and I guess my trembling / screaming -- I'm not good with slasher flicks, even comic ones -- didn't turn him off because we became boyfriends a coupld of months later so the story has a happy ending. That said I felt tremendously guilty about skipping a Pfeiffer opening day. Naturally I also saw One Fine Day that weekend!
2019 Cats opens in movie theaters, an instant 'what were they thinking?' catastrophe. And come to think of it...
It’s one year to the day since the release of the Cats film - which, in hindsight, we should have all recognised as a harbinger of everything to come. pic.twitter.com/eBWVSL2y8g
— Nick Hern Books 🎅🏼🎄🎁 (@NickHernBooks) December 20, 2020
Today's Birthday (Skirt) Suit
122 years ago today glamorous funny Irene Dunne was born.
Other showbiz types with birthdays today: Director Kim Ki-duk (Pieta, Spring summer fall winter...and spring), Director Terry George (Hotel Rwanda), Oscar winning dirctor George Roy Hill (The Sting), Producer/Director Todd Phillips (Joker, Old School), Jonah Hill (Moneyball), Jenny Agutter (Logan's Run), Melanie Scrofano (Ready or Not), John Spencer (The West Wing), TV giant Dick Wolf (Law & Order), screenwriter Joe Cornish (Attack the Block, Ant Man), Dylan Wang (Meteor Garden), screenwriter Ron Leshem (Euphoria)
Reader Comments (12)
I think Nixon is flawed and Hopkins miscast but for me contains Joan Allen's finest performance and 1 of the Top 3 of the 90's.
I loved the sweet Pfeiffer/Scream story luckily they opened different times here in the UK so I saw them both opening w/end.
I am 1 of those outliers who finds Scream overrated and unscary but the actings good.
So very indifferent on Oliver Stone - I've only seen NBK and U-Turn, and those more out of my adolescent interests in Juliette and Claire.
Pfeiffer had a rough late 90s run, and I wonder, do you think any of her work between Innocence and What Lies Beneath is essential Pfeiff?
I agree she did have a rough patch from about 97 onwards,the roles were Oscar baity and the films but didn't click with the critics and she was overshadowed in A Thousand Acres by Jessica Lange.
What Lies Beneath is a great scary popcorn flick which Pfeiffer anchors perfectly.
There's good Oliver Stone, and bad Oliver Stone. NIXON is right at the top. I love this Shakespearean epic and think it was one of several films from it's era, another one is Michael Mann's HEAT that unaccountably didn't get the love it deserved.
One Fine Day x Scream: I'm sure the boy was worth it. 😋
One Fine Day is underrated. The film that most demands the charisma and charm of G Clooney and M Pfeiffer.
Harold and Maude: Soundtrack is so good as the movie.
It's a Wonderful Life: Wasn't an initial idea that the film was a "Christmas movie". Became a favorite of the season with its TV reruns years later. For Miracle on 34th Street, this a "Christmas movie", studio head Darryl F. Zanuck insisted that it to be released in May, arguing that more people go to the movies in warmer weather.The studio rushed to promote it while keeping its Christmas setting a secret. But the Idea was to release It appropriately in December. Anyway, unlikely Capra's movie, It was a smashing hit and took home two Oscars.
Nixon: Good. That's It. Anthony Hopkins is very good as always, but I think that Al Pacino was born to play Nixon. (But Hannibal Lecter was flying high at the box office so the choice is understandable and, as I said, he's very good with that makeup).
#Irene DunneForever 💗💗💗💗💗
Basically indifferent to Oliver Stone but I am a big fan of Natural Born Killers, loved Heaven & Earth and never forgot that one scene in Any Given Sunday when Cameron Diaz walked in a locker room full of naked men (and an alligator!).
Was at Scream opening day. Hard to describe how great the experience was at the time, not knowing the cultural phenomenon it would become.
I was in the audience for Dick Tracy test screening. Warren Beatty snuck in just after the lights went down
There was an over the top scene where Madonna was threatened with a shiny knife. We began to boo and yell, "No violence against women." The scene failed to make the final cut!
The first issue of Captain America appears on newsstands 80 years ago today (despite a cover date of March 1941). Happy Birthday, Cap!
PS. Oliver Stone - "all over the place": love some (Platoon, JFK, Natural Born Killers, U Turn, Any Given Sunday) hate some (Seizure, The Hand, Born on the Fourth of July, Alexander) indifferent to some (Wall Street, The Doors, Nixon, W., Snowden), haven't seen some/don't remember (Salvador, Heaven & Earth, Talk Radio, Savages, World Trade Center, Wall Street 2, documentaries).
Nixon is fine and has its moments but I could never get over Hopkins in the role, there's never a moment that I'm not aware it's "Anthony Hopkins trying to portray Richard Nixon". However, Joan Allen > Mira Sorvino and everyone else that year.
Oliver Stone is very variable. I've seen a couple of his films I've liked very much but others I thought were terrible.
That first Dick Tracy (a mediocre affair) is one of Jane Greer's earliest films and the first time she was billed under that name. I her two previous small roles she had used her birth name of Bettejane Greer.
I enjoy Irene Dunne on the screen but I've never been as fond of her since I read Judy Lewis's (Loretta Young & Clark Gable's illegitimate daughter) autobiography "Uncommon Knowledge". Irene was Loretta's best friend. According to Judy all that open warmth and saucy humor that she radiates on screen was reserved for just that purpose and off screen she was a chilly, distant, withdrawn woman. Disappointing but a reminder that what we see on screen isn't necessarily so.
Oliver Stone had a good run from Salvador to Natural Born Killers (in its director's cut) with the exception of The Doors which was a horrible film. Nixon was OK as was U-Turn. Any Given Sunday is the last film he did that was worthwhile and watchable. Everything else after that is just fucking shit. I think he needs to retire and just needs to shut the fuck up with his politics because I honestly don't give a fuck about what he thinks anymore.
I definitely would've gone for Scream but One Fine Day is an amazing film that needs more love.
It's a Wonderful Life is OVERRATED. The fact that Mr. Potter never got his comeuppance is proof of that. Thank goodness for SNL to give us that ending of George Bailey and his family/friends beating the shit out of Potter.