Showbiz History: The Children's Hour, Little Shop, and a Gyllenhalic holiday

6 random things that happened on this day, December 19th, in showbiz history...

1915 Edith Giovanna Gassion born in Paris and immediately abandoned by her mother. She would be raised by prostitutes and would become the famous songbird Edith Piaf, her last name slang for "sparrow", and eventually an international icon. Her life was dramatized (in excruciatingly non-linear fashion as was the fad in the mid Aughts) in 2007's La Vie En Rose which won Marion Cotillard the Best Actress Oscar. Like her contemporary Judy Garland she would struggle with addiction and die at age 47 years in the 1960s. 

1961 The now infamous drama The Children's Hour opens in theaters on its way to 5 Oscar nominations...

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"Bad Boys for Life" and audiences check out those BP nominees

The box office report comes real late this week since it takes a while for the coins to settle after holiday weekends. But here we go with the long weekend estimates (which probably aren't all in).

Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are both in their 50s but there's no aging out of action franchises (as we saw with Hamilton & Schwarzenegger last summer in Terminator Dark Fate). The first Bad Boys arrived in 1995 as an instant smash and its sequel waited until 2003 but audiences haven't fallen out of love in the long gaps. They came back in droves 17 years later for round three.

Since this was the first weekend after the Oscar nominations and most of the Best Picture nominees (re) expanded their screen counts, let's check in with EVERYTHING in wide release... and their counterparts in platforming.

Weekend Box Office January 17th-20th (ESTIMATES) 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = recommended
WIDE RELEASE (800+ screens)	PLATFORM TITLES
1 🔺  BAD BOYS FOR LIFE  $73.4 *NEW*	1 🔺   WEATHERING WITH YOU $1.7 on 486 screens *NEW* REVIEW  ★

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"Dolittle"... again?

by Cláudio Alves

Doctor Dolittle's many literary adventures represent Hugh Lofting's biggest claim to fame. From 1920 to 1952, the English author published around children's books focusing on that eccentric Victorian veterinarian whose studies allowed him to speak to animals. The character is something of an iconic IP, so it's no wonder Hollywood has repeatedly tried to capitalize on its popularity. However, considering all the horrible stories and behind the scenes nightmares associated with these productions, it's a wonder any studio executive even considers putting on another Dolittle extravaganza.

The first of these misbegotten adaptations is a 1967 movie musical that's a good candidate to claim the title of "worst Best Picture Oscar nominee ever"…

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The Furniture: Matte Paintings at the End of an Era

"The Furniture," by Daniel Walber, is our weekly series on Production Design. You can click on the images to see them in magnified detail.

Over the course of the past year, I’ve done an informal retrospective series on the Best Production Design nominees of 1967. It isn’t an especially “New Hollywood” lineup, despite being the year of “Pictures at a Revolution.” Four of the nominees are lush period pieces, three of them lengthy musicals. They often feel like extravagantly-designed chaos, whirlwinds of sets and props that spin out of control. This is true of both the hilarious brawls of The Taming of the Shrew and the dated, stereotype-laden adventures of Thoroughly Modern Millie. Camelot, the winner, manages to split the difference between Old Hollywood excess and New Hollywood sexuality.

The final two films, both Best Picture nominees, are a bit less of a thrill. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and Doctor Dolittle are, respectively, the most realistic and most fantastical of the five nominees. However, despite their differences, they both underline the inadequate end-point of old-school studio design.

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