Classic Hollywood had about as many controversies, scandals, and seedy stories as it did guys in fedoras. And since the Academy Awards, or the Oscars to you and me, established themselves as the most prestigious and most coveted award ceremony in Tinseltown, it was natural that it would also garner a few of these controversies.  

10. A Coquettish Tea Party

It didn’t take long before the Oscars found themselves mired in controversy. In fact, it began with the second-ever ceremony thanks to an Academy Award of dubious distinction.

That year, Mary Pickford starred in Coquette. Known as “America’s Sweetheart,” Pickford had been one of the biggest stars of the silent era and this was her first talkie. Expectations were high, but the movie failed to make an impression on the critics or the public. Despite the flop, Pickford decided that she deserved an Oscar for her efforts and intended to convince the Academy of this, as well.

This was a lot easier back then. For starters, Pickford was a founding member of the Academy, as was her husband, fellow movie star Douglas Fairbanks. But more importantly, she only had to shmooze the five people who comprised the Board of Judges, since they were the ones who selected the winners. 

So one day, Pickford invited the judges over for a tea party at her lavish estate, Pickfair. Back then, this was probably one of the most glamorous locations in the country, described as “a gathering place only slightly less important than the White House… and much more fun.” An invitation there was one of Hollywood’s greatest honors so, unsurprisingly, the judges rewarded Pickford’s generosity with an Oscar.

Whether or not the judges were truly swayed by the tea party we cannot say with 100 percent certainty, but we do know one thing. Pickford’s Oscar win caused a big enough row that, the following year, voting was opened to all academy members.

9. The Two Franks

The Moonlight – La La Land mix-up for the Best Picture winner is one of the most noteworthy controversies in recent memory, but something similar happened all the way back in 1934. The ceremony was nowhere near as elaborate back then. The host of the show, Will Rogers, walked up to the podium and announced the winner for each category. When it came time to present the award for Best Director, Rogers simply proclaimed: “Come up and get it, Frank!” 

Just one problem – there were two Franks nominated for the award – Frank Lloyd and Frank Capra. Frank Lloyd was the actual winner but, as you might expect, both men got up and awkwardly made their way to the podium. But here’s how Capra himself described the experience:

“My table exploded into cheers and applause. It was a long way to the open dance floor, but I wedged through crowded tables…The spotlight searched around trying to find me. “Over here!” I waved. Then it suddenly swept away from me — and picked up a flustered man standing on the other side of the dance floor — Frank Lloyd! The applause was deafening as the spotlight escorted Frank Lloyd onto the dance floor and up to the dais, where Will Rogers greeted him with a big hug and a hearty handshake. I stood petrified in the dark, in utter disbelief, until an irate voice behind me shouted, “Down in the front!”

That walk back…was the longest, saddest, most shattering walk in my life. I wished I could have crawled under the rug like a miserable worm.”

8. The Write-In Winner

The Frank mix-up was not the only black eye of the 1934 ceremony. That year, the Academy was also heavily criticized for snubbing Bette Davis, who had received universal acclaim for her role as Mildred Rogers in the movie Of Human Bondage. Life Magazine even called it “probably the best performance ever recorded on the screen by a U.S. actress.” 

The Academy, however, did not feel like her efforts even merited a nomination. Many were angry, while others even suspected that Davis had been intentionally omitted because her role was that of a semi-villainous, selfish, and unsympathetic character, and the Academy did not want to encourage such roles for their biggest stars.

Anyway, in an attempt to quell the outrage, the Academy made an unexpected change to the following year’s awards – they allowed write-in votes. It’s pretty safe to say that they weren’t actually expecting any write-in to win, but Warner Bros. decided to take full advantage of this new rule and campaigned heavily for write-in nominations in every category where they didn’t already have a candidate. 

And they succeeded. Their guy, Hal Mohr, an industry veteran who previously worked on the iconic The Jazz Singer, won Best Cinematography for A Midsummer’s Night Dream. The Academy dropped the rule soon after, thus cementing Hal Mohr as the first and only write-in winner in Oscar history.

7. The First Refusal

Refusing an Oscar is a very rare occurrence, but it has happened. It’s not like the winners are legally obligated to receive the awards. The most famous example is Marlon Brando, who refused his Oscar for The Godfather in 1973 and, in one of the most infamous moments in the ceremony’s history, sent Sacheen Littlefeather in his place to highlight the protest organized by Native American activists at Wounded Knee. And not only was she almost universally booed but, according to her, John Wayne had to be restrained from rushing the stage to remove her.

The first-ever refusal, however, happened much earlier, back in 1935. Screenwriter Dudley Nichols won the Best Screenplay Oscar for The Informer but did not accept the award due to an ongoing writers’ strike. The Screen Writers Guild was boycotting the Oscars because, as you will find out shortly, the Academy was not a fan of unions. 

Ultimately, though, the matter got sorted and Nichols finally accepted his Oscar a few years later, during the 1938 ceremony.

6. The First Stolen Oscar

At the 1938 ceremony, Alice Brady won Best Supporting Actress for her role in In Old Chicago. The actress, however, was unable to attend the festivities and collect her prize because she was at home with a broken ankle. Instead, a mystery man walked on stage, accepted the award on her behalf, and promptly walked off. Neither he nor the award was ever seen again. That’s the story of the first stolen Oscar or, at least, that’s been the story for eight decades until one curious student decided to investigate it and get to the truth. 

The Academy is extremely tight-lipped when it comes to information regarding “mishaps” involving their awards, so they were no help. Alice Brady died of cancer the following year, so she had never given her version of events. But the intrepid student found an old newspaper photograph of Brady receiving the award post-engraving, so it did eventually make its way to her. 

And as far as the mystery man was concerned, there was no mystery about it – it was the director of In Old Chicago, Henry King. He accepted the award on Brady’s behalf, went out partying that night, and then returned it to the Academy to have it engraved. What exactly happened with it after Alice Brady died remains unclear, although it did make its way to auction in 2008. It was sold to an anonymous buyer so the only remaining mystery is the current location of the first stolen Oscar that was never actually stolen.

5. Marketing for Marty

Just a few years after the Academy Awards came into existence, studios learned that the tagline “Oscar winner” was a great way of promoting their movies and their stars, so they began actively campaigning for Oscar nods. The first film to get this treatment was 1936’s Ah, Wilderness! from Metro Goldwyn Mayer. The studio splashed out on an eight-page advertisement in the Hollywood Reporter, even depicting MGM mascot Leo the Lion in a tuxedo, getting ready to receive an Oscar. 

The campaign was a giant flop and the movie received zero nominations at that year’s ceremony. The failure put off other studios for a few years, but eventually, they came back in full force, and they probably culminated in 1955, with a little movie named Marty. Starring Ernest Borgnine, Marty had a modest budget of around $340,000. However, the studio then spent between $350,000 and $400,000 to promote the movie, thus turning it into the first film where the marketing costs outweighed the production costs. And their strategy panned out – Marty won four Oscars, including Best Picture.

4. Hattie Makes History

The 1940 edition of the Academy Awards featured a landmark moment in American history when Hattie McDaniel became the first Black person to win an Oscar for her supporting role in Gone with the Wind. However, the circumstances surrounding this momentous occasion served to remind everyone of the racist realities faced by the Black community, even those who were celebrated.

It started on December 15, 1939, when the film premiered in segregated Atlanta. McDaniel wasn’t there for a simple reason – she was not allowed inside the theater where her movie was playing. Then the same problem arose at the Oscars, which were taking place at the swanky Cocoanut Grove nightclub inside the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. The hotel had a “no-Black people” policy and it was necessary for MGM bigwig David O. Selznick to call in a few favors to even get McDaniel accepted inside the venue. And even when he did, McDaniel could not sit at the same table as her white co-stars. Since Gone with the Wind had garnered 13 nominations, it was the heavy favorite, and, unsurprisingly, the stars of the film and O. Selznick himself were seated at a place of honor, front and center. Hattie McDaniel, on the other hand, stood at a small table against the far wall, alongside her escort and her manager.  

McDaniel’s historic win didn’t even help her career. She got typecast in domestic roles and received heavy criticism from the Black community for perpetuating a negative stereotype. As a final insult, her wish to be buried in Hollywood Cemetery was also denied because they, too, had a whites-only policy.

3. The Blacklisted Winner

A unique situation arose at the 1956 Academy Awards ceremony when a writer named Robert Rich won the Oscar for Best Original Story for The Brave One, not to be confused with Best Screenplay. Robert Rich did not appear to accept the award for a simple reason – he did not exist.

The name was a pseudonym. On its own, this would not be too embarrassing. After all, artists use pseudonyms all the time, but this particular nom de guerre had been used by a man who had been blacklisted in Hollywood – Dalton Trumbo.

Trumbo was one of the most successful screenwriters from Classic Hollywood, responsible, among other things, for Roman Holiday and Spartacus. He was also the most prominent member of the Hollywood Ten, a group of writers and directors who had been blacklisted in 1947 for their Communist sympathies. 

Even so, someone of Trumbo’s talents could not simply be discarded, so studios continued using him under aliases or as a ghostwriter. This also meant they could pay him peanuts compared to what he was worth. But his win for The Brave One meant that the jig was up and, even though Trumbo started getting work as himself from 1960 on, it wasn’t until 1975 that the Academy officially recognized him as the winning screenwriter and presented him with his Oscar.

2. Hollywood’s Longest Feud

Some scandals are too big to be contained in a single awards ceremony. Case in point: the legendary feud between two of classic Hollywood’s biggest stars – Bette Davis and Joan Crawford – that lasted for over three decades and culminated at the 35th Academy Awards.

Supposedly, their rivalry started way back in 1933. Bette Davis had just starred in Ex-Lady, her first film where her name was prominently featured above the title. However, nobody in Hollywood cared because everyone was talking about Joan Crawford’s public divorce from Douglas Fairbanks Jr. This was enough to get the animosity started, but the two women officially became enemies in 1935, when Crawford married the man Davis had fallen in love with, her co-star in the movie Dangerous, Franchot Tone. 

Bette Davis ended up winning the Oscar for her role in that movie at the 1936 Awards, but Crawford still got the last laugh. She threw some vintage shade at Davis when they met following Bette’s big win. Instead of congratulating her, Crawford said “Dear Bette! What a lovely frock.”

The feud simmered for the next couple of decades, with occasional jabs and snipes in the press. In 1945, Joan Crawford won her only Oscar for Mildred Pierce, in a role which, to her delight, Bette Davis had turned down. Then, in 1962, the unthinkable happened – the two women signed on to star in the same movie – the seminal psychological horror What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

According to others involved in production, neither actress shied away from getting physical with the other when the occasion arose, but it was at the 1963 Oscars that their feud reached a climax. Davis had been nominated for her role in the movie. Crawford had not, but she still intended to steal her co-star’s thunder. She started calling up other nominees, offering to accept on their behalf should they not make it to the ceremony. According to Davis, Crawford also started campaigning against her.

Anne Bancroft took Crawford up on her offer. She was busy on Broadway and, as it happened, she was nominated in the same category as Bette Davis. And she won, thus forcing Davis to smile and clap while her arch-rival got on stage to accept the award.

1. No Unions in Hollywood

Nowadays, the Motion Picture Academy is chiefly known for the Oscars since that is its main responsibility, but that’s not why it was created almost 100 years ago. In fact, the Academy’s original goal was to stop actors, directors, and writers from unionizing. 

Officially, its stated goal was to act as a mediator and “help studios arbitrate contracts.” If any kind of dispute should arise between the talent and the studio, the Academy was supposed to intervene and find a reasonable solution so that there would never be a need for any of those pesky unions. They’ll even give the stars some shiny golden statues to make them feel validated.

Nobody bought it, though. Everyone in Hollywood knew that the Academy was the brainchild of MGM bigwig Louis B. Mayer and his executive cronies and that its true goal was to rubber-stamp whatever the studios wanted. That’s why actual unions in the form of the Screen Actors and Screen Writers Guilds appeared just a few years later, followed soon after by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, despite the best efforts of the Academy and the studios.

Today, some of the most bankable stars in Hollywood are African-American actors, such as Will Smith, Denzel Washington, or “the voice” Morgan Freeman, whose talent might have in all likelihood been denied in classic Hollywood. Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American actress to win a competitive Oscar. But sadly for her and many of her contemporaries, the best roles available were those that depicted black servants or slaves.

Nonetheless, the notion that African-Americans were denied roles as empowered characters of complexity and intellect during this period was occasionally challenged. Consider this cross-section of performances from 1929 until the 1960s by a talented sampling of African-American actors, of whom many are sadly forgotten.

Related: 10 Golden Hollywood Scandals That Were Covered Up

10 Everett Brown

Texas native Everett Brown (1902–1953) was cast in forty movies in a career that spanned from the silent era until the early 1950s. He was largely typecast in minor stereotypical roles, and often his screen appearances went uncredited. In the classic 1939 film Gone with the Wind, his performance as “Big Sam,” though memorable, was primarily that of a caricatured black servant, except for one scene.

In a suspenseful moment in which the film’s protagonist Scarlett O’Hara drives a buggy alone through a “shantytown,” she is stopped and attacked by a vagrant and his black partner. Hearing Scarlett scream, Big Sam runs to her rescue and knocks out her assailant. This scene probably goes unnoticed by most contemporary audiences.

However, just over two decades removed from the heavyweight championship reign of black fighter Jack Johnson, it was significant. For cameramen at that time were told not to film the titlist knocking a white contender out. Along with including the expletive “damn” in the film’s finale, this was perhaps another example of producer David O. Selznick circumventing censors and the Motion Picture Production Code.^[1]

9 Emmett Smith

Perhaps the least remembered of the black actors on this list, Emmett Smith never achieved the status of a star. However, if you look closely, you’ll find him portraying a bartender in the John Wayne action-adventure Hatari! (1962). Smith also played small parts in classic motion pictures ranging from Sunset Blvd. (1950) to Stanley and Livingstone (1939) and To Have and Have Not (1944).

But his most memorable screen moment was arguably a brief one in the 1945 holiday favorite Christmas in Connecticut. Playing what appears to be a stereotypical waiter named Sam in a Hungarian restaurant, Smith is consulted by his frazzled boss for the translation of an English word he doesn’t understand: “catastrophe.” In a rare moment depicting a black man of intellect and sophistication, Sam defines the word while breaking down its meaning and Greek origin. Perhaps, once again, this is a moment that flies over the heads of modern viewers. But clearly, director Peter Godfrey chose to include this scene to convey a subtle but clear point regarding stereotypes.^[2]

8 Esther Brown

Talk about making a lasting impact on the silver screen in spite of appearing in only one scene in only one movie with a mere 17 seconds of dialogue, but UCLA student Esther Brown did just that. Her fifteen minutes of fame came when Cecil B. De Mille cast her as the Ethiopian Princess Tharbis in his epic production of The Ten Commandments in 1956. Her memorable scene in which she placed a precious emerald in the hands of Charlton Heston’s Moses elicited a jealous response from Anne Baxter’s Princess Nefretiri, who refers to Brown’s character as “such a beautiful enemy.”

The implied romance between Moses and Princess Tharbis is perhaps in some ways more shocking than Heston’s interracial kiss he shared with African-American co-star Rosalind Cash in the 1971 film The Omega Man. The Ten Commandments was produced fifteen years earlier and over a decade before the Supreme Court struck down anti-miscegenation laws in the U.S. Sadly, this would be Brown’s only film role despite the beauty and charisma she is remembered for in a movie that is still broadcast on network television annually during the Easter and Passover seasons.^[3]

7 James Edwards

In many respects, Indiana native and Northwestern University alum James Edwards (1918–1970) was the precursor to Sidney Poitier, being one of the first black actors to earn critical acclaim. Edwards was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the United States Army during World War II. His combat experience served him well in an acting career in which he was typecast in numerous soldier roles. Notably, he played a blinded veteran in support of Arthur Kennedy in the latter’s Academy Award-nominated performance in Bright Victory (1951). Later, Edwards starred in Battle Hymn (1957) and Patton (1970), in which he portrayed the colorful general’s longtime personal valet.

But arguably, his best-known performance was in the 1949 production of Home of the Brave. Portraying a paralyzed war veteran battling emotional wounds from combat and a lifetime of racial prejudice, Edwards made a memorable impression on post-World War II audiences. The adapted screenplay by Carl Foreman would later receive the Writers Guild’s Robert Meltzer Award for the “Screenplay Dealing Most Ably with Problems of the American Scene.”^[4]

6 Fredi Washington

Stage actress and dancer Fredi Washington (1903–1994) was chosen by director John M. Stahl to play the conflicted Peola Johnson, the light-skinned daughter of a black mother who chooses to pass as white, in the 1934 original film version of Imitation of Life. In a movie that pushed many boundaries in the depiction of race and the societal role of women, Time magazine listed it as one of “The 25 Most Important Films on Race” in 2007.

The movie’s depiction of Washington’s character rejecting her loving African-American mother appalled many, particularly black audiences. Still, the authenticity of Washington’s performance resonated with many facing similar challenges in a country in which segregation was still legal and miscegenation banned. Although Washington was of African descent and self-identified as a black woman, the Douglas Sirk remake of Imitation of Life (1959) would later cast white actress Susan Kohner in the same role with a different name, Sarah Jane. Kohner’s performance would win her the 1959 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.^[5]

5 Canada Lee

One of the earliest African-American actors to secure leading roles in film and on stage, Canada Lee (1907–1952) was also a professional boxer and civil rights activist. His first big break occurred when Orson Welles cast Lee as Banquo in his 1936 production of Macbeth, which featured an all African-American cast. A box office sensation, it opened doors for Lee both on stage and in Hollywood.

Ultimately, he landed the role of ship’s steward Joe Spencer in the classic Alfred Hitchcock film Lifeboat (1944). Although contemporary critics criticized the part for being stereotypical and “tokenistic,” Lee’s character was notable for exhibiting heroism and compassion. When Nazi sailor Walter Slezak is rescued from drowning in the North Atlantic, only Lee’s character Joe is unwilling to join the mob in killing him. Later, it is Joe alone who disarms the villain. Lee would also give strong performances in the film noir boxing classic Body and Soul (1947) and the anti-apartheid drama Cry, the Beloved Country (1951), despite being blacklisted for alleged communist affiliations. One year after the latter film’s release, Lee died of a heart attack at the age of 45.^[6]

4 Nina Mae McKinney

Nina Mae McKinney (1912–1967) was not only one of the first African-American film stars in Hollywood, but she was also one of the first black international celebrities, later achieving fame appearing on early television programs in the UK. But what ignited McKinney’s career was her scene-stealing turn as the temptress Chick in King Vidor’s 1929 landmark musical Hallelujah! Not only was the movie groundbreaking as one of the first sound films shot almost entirely on location in Arkansas and Memphis, Tennessee, but also because of Vidor’s decision to shoot the first musical with an all-black cast.

McKinney’s striking beauty led the international press to nickname her “The Black Garbo.” Certainly, her performance in Hallelujah! was a departure from the typical typecasting of black actresses. So provocative was McKinney’s character that movie critic Donald Bogle credited her as the silver screen’s “first black love goddess.” At the very least, she set the standard for later femme fatales. In retrospect, maybe Jean Harlow was “The White Nina Mae McKinney.”^[7]

3 Woody Strode

If there was ever a classic Hollywood actor of African descent who projected the strong, silent “tough guy” persona, it was Woody Strode (1914–1994). Long before emerging as a Western sidekick to John Wayne in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and as the king of Ethiopia in The Ten Commandments (1956), Strode was a world-class decathlete and one of the first African Americans to play in the NFL.

With his imposing, muscular physique and striking screen presence, John Ford would cast him as the title character in his 1960 film Sergeant Rutledge (1960). But perhaps no Strode performance is more memorable than his portrayal of the gladiator Draba later that year opposite Kirk Douglas in Spartacus (1960). In a pivotal scene, Strode’s character defeats Douglas in a battle to the death. But rather than kill his opponent, Strode hurls his trident at the patrician military commander Crassus, played by Sir Laurence Olivier, who pays for the fight. When his defiant act results in his death, the other white gladiators are inspired to revolt against Rome. Despite limited dialogue, Strode was unforgettable in the film. And 35 years later, Sheriff Woody in Toy Story was named in his honor.^[8]

2 Juano Hernández

African-Latino and Puerto Rican native Juano Hernández’s (1896–1970) prolific acting career began during the silent era and lasted until 1970 when he was cast with another groundbreaking black actor, Sidney Poitier, in They Call Me Mr. Tibbs! Hernández starred in many supporting roles in A-list films, such as Sergeant Rutledge (1960), portraying a buffalo soldier cavalryman. A decade earlier, he portrayed the “father figure” to an aspiring trumpeter played by Kirk Douglas in Young Man with a Horn (1950). Without question, the depiction of a black man mentoring a white boy was a barrier-breaking moment for a classic Hollywood film.

But even more startling was Hernández’s performance as Lucas Beauchamp, a poor Mississippi farmer unjustly accused of the murder of a white man, in Clarence Brown’s Intruder in the Dust (1949) based on the William Faulkner novel. In a pivotal flashback scene, Hernandez proudly walks into a general store and fearlessly refuses to be intimidated by a white man who attempts to provoke him. Film historian Donald Bogle has written that Hernández’s “performance and extraordinary presence” in the film still ranks “above that of almost any other black actor to appear in an American movie.”^[9]

1 Sidney Poitier

Arguably the most accomplished black actor in the history of cinema, the American-born Bahamian actor Sidney Poitier (1927–2022) won the Academy Award for Best Actor in the acclaimed 1963 film Lilies of the Field. In a film career that has spanned over six decades, Poitier has been nominated for three Academy Awards and ten Golden Globes in a filmography that includes a string of classic movies, including The Defiant Ones (1958) and In the Heat of the Night (1967).

But this cinematic legend’s career would have never taken off had it not been for his breakout role as Dr. Luther Brooks in Joseph Mankiewicz’s 1950 film No Way Out. Boasting an Oscar-nominated screenplay, Poitier plays a young idealistic doctor forced to treat a wounded criminal who later dies under his care. His brother, played by a villainous Richard Widmark, blames the young doctor for the death. So controversial was it that in 1962, NBC deemed it “too risky” for broadcast on its weekly Sunday Night at the Movies. Nonetheless, for Poitier, it launched one of the great film careers for an actor who defined the black leading man in Hollywood.^[10]

For many people, the 1980s is their favorite film decade, and it’s easy to see why. The stories were full of adventure, and there were creative, practical effects. In addition, the ’80s saw the birth and/or continuation of many beloved classic franchises. You could travel back in time with Marty McFly or join Luke Skywalker in a galaxy far, far away to fight the Empire. Put simply, ’80s movies are fun.

This list reveals interesting behind-the-scenes facts about some of the best films from the 1980s, including childhood classics, teen flicks, and action movies.

Related: Top 10 Creepy Scenes In Movies

10 Real Tears in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Working with child actors is notoriously difficult, so Steven Spielberg had his hands full when directing E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), but he had a trick up his sleeve. Spielberg shot the film in chronological order, a rarity in Hollywood. He did this because it meant “the kids knew, emotionally, where they had been the day before, and they pretty much didn’t have any idea of where they were going the next day.” He goes on to say that when E.T. began to die, Drew Barrymore, Henry Thomas, and Robert MacNaughton “really believed that this was happening to their lives.” This emotional connection to the plot helped the kids to cry at the right moment.

Thomas, who played E.T.’s best friend Elliott, needed little help in summoning tears, though. In his audition, he was asked to do improv and was able to cry on command. His emotional performance prompted Spielberg to immediately declare that Thomas got the job.^[1]

9 A Military Advisor Was Brought in for Predator

Predator (1987) was filmed in Mexico, but a week before principal photography was due to start, the cast arrived to receive military training from Gary Goldman, who was an officer in Vietnam. Director John McTiernan had told Goldman that “these guys look like a bunch of ballerinas. They don’t look like soldiers.” Goldman was brought in to run the actors through military simulations and critique their performance.

Goldman started by taking the cast on a run because while most of them had muscles, he states that “in combat, if you can’t run, you’re f—ed. It doesn’t matter how many inches your neck is.” He also taught them how to use weapons properly. Bill Duke’s character Mac carries a machine gun, and Goldman explains that “in real life, they fire in bursts of six, and you fire another burst of six, and another, and that keeps the barrel from melting.” Goldman set up the practice, and the actor fired off about “200 rounds in one thing, and Bill is just cackling like a madman.”^[2]

8 Cary Elwes’s Injuries during The Princess Bride

Cary Elwes, who played Westley in The Princess Bride (1987), was first injured only a few weeks into filming. André the Giant, who played Fezzik, convinced Elwes to have a go on his ATV, but he caught his big toe between the clutch and a rock and broke it. He attempted to conceal the injury from director Rob Reiner for fear of being fired. He failed but kept his job. Elwes would put as little weight on his foot as possible when filming. It is particularly noticeable in the scene with Buttercup (Robin Wright) on top of the hill.

The second injury happened while shooting and made the final cut of the film. The scene where Count Rugen (Christopher Guest) knocks Westley out wasn’t working because Guest was being too gentle with his sword, which was a real weapon rather than a prop. Elwes convinced Guest to really go for it, but he accidentally hit him too hard. Elwes was knocked out and woke up in the hospital, still in costume, getting stitches. The doctor was the same one who treated his broken toe and remarked, “Well, Zorro! You seem to be a little accident prone, don’t you?”^[3]

7 Tension on the Set of Dirty Dancing

The onscreen chemistry between Baby (Jennifer Grey) and Johnny (Patrick Swayze) is partly what makes Dirty Dancing (1987) such a classic, but onset, there was tension between the pair. Swayze had been professionally trained as a dancer, while Grey came to the movie as a complete novice and was scared to try potentially dangerous stunts (like the iconic lift). Grey describes their relationship as “a marriage where you have two opposites. He’d do anything, and I’d be scared to do anything.”

In his autobiography, Swayze went into more detail, explaining that they “had a rough start” on their first movie together, Red Dawn (1984). While they got along better during the filming of Dirty Dancing, there were still moments of friction. Swayze writes that she “seemed particularly emotional, sometimes bursting into tears if someone criticized her. And other times, she slipped into silly moods, forcing us to do scenes over again when she’d start laughing.”^[4]

6 Toht’s Melting Face in Raiders of the Lost Ark

The scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) where Major Arnold Toht’s (Ronald Lacey) face melts off lives in the nightmares of many children, and they have special effects artist Chris Walas to thank for it. To achieve the effect, Walas began by sculpting Lacey’s head. He then created a gelatin that melted at a low temperature. Next, different colored layers of this gelatin were painted into the mold to act as skin, muscle, and blood. This gelatin face was then placed over a heat-resistant stone skull.

Two propane heaters were set up to melt the face while Walas “was underneath it with a heat gun with this hot gelatin dripping down on me” so that he could make “moment by moment adjustments.” The full melt took about 10 minutes but was sped up to just a few seconds for the movie. Director Steven Spielberg described it as “one of the most amazing effects I’d ever seen.”^[5]

5 The Pirate Ship in The Goonies

One of the best scenes in The Goonies (1985) is when the titular group finally finds One-Eyed Willy’s ship, the Inferno. Director Richard Donner explains that production designer J. Michael Riva was determined “no matter what, to build a full-scale pirate ship.” And that is exactly what he did. The scenes with the ship in the cave were shot on Stage 16, the biggest stage Warner Bros. Studios had.

The Inferno was 138 feet long, and the tank it was built in could hold almost 2.3 million gallons of water. The ship was hidden from the child actors so that their genuine reactions could be filmed for the shot in the movie. However, the Inferno was so impressive that Josh Brolin, who played Brand, the older brother of the Goonies leader Mikey (Sean Astin), yelled “F—k!” upon seeing it and the take had to be scrapped. In an Instagram post, Brolin admits that “F—k seems, even now, totally appropriate.” Sadly, no one wanted to buy the Inferno once the film wrapped and it was destroyed.^[6]

4 Martial Arts Training for The Karate Kid

The Karate Kid (1984) ends with the showdown between underdog Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and bully Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) at the All Valley Karate Tournament. Their match is presided over by a referee who is unfamiliar to most people but was crucial to the making of the film. That referee is Pat E. Johnson, the martial artist who served as the combat choreographer and trainer for the movie.

Johnson, who spent time training with Chuck Norris, taught Macchio and Pat Morita (Mr. Miyagi) separately from the Cobra Kais. He understood the importance of their mentor-student relationship, so he fostered that bond through his karate training. Johnson explains that “they would share their aches and pains like two little old men, and they built camaraderie through the training.” When training the Cobra Kai actors, he “would be harsh, very strict” to mirror the ruthless teachings of Sensei Kreese (Martin Cove).^[7]

3 Sound Design for The Empire Strikes Back

Ben Burtt was the sound designer for the majority of the Star Wars movies and created the sound of the lightsabers, R2-D2’s beeps, and Darth Vader’s heavy breathing. He is also responsible for popularizing the Wilhelm scream. George Lucas wanted The Empire Strikes Back (1980) to be grander in scale, which meant Burtt was tasked with creating many new sounds. While most sci-fi movies used electronic sounds for a futuristic feel, Burtt filled Star Wars with natural noises.

Tauntaun sounds come from slowed-down recordings of an Asian Sea Otter, which make high-pitched squawks that almost sound like talking. The wampa’s effects were created by combining the slurping of a lion eating a cow’s head with the roar of elephants. The noise of AT-AT’s walking is a mixture of a squeaky dumpster lid, a metal shearing machine, and artillery shells exploding. Burtt’s method ensures that audiences “don’t know what it is, but they realize it is real in some way, and that illusion is a key factor for all of the sound design in Star Wars.”^[8]

2 The Alien Queen in Aliens

When writing Aliens (1986), James Cameron knew that he had to bring in new elements to avoid simply rehashing the story of Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979). He thought that the adult alien form we see in the first movie “couldn’t possibly have laid the thousand or so eggs that filled the inside of the derelict ship.” This led to him creating and designing the alien queen, which was brought to life with the help of special effects artist Stan Winston.

Cameron came up with the idea of suspending a puppet from a crane and then having two puppeteers inside to operate it. Other elements of the puppet would be controlled through external wires and hydraulics. Winston created a prototype queen made of brooms and garbage bags to test the idea. The final puppet was made out of a lightweight polyfoam, stood 14 feet tall, and was hung on a variety of rigs depending on the shot. There were up to eight operators, and they had to work completely in sync to create an organic feeling performance.^[9]

1 Recasts in Back to the Future

It feels unimaginable that anyone other than Michael J. Fox could have been Marty McFly in Back to the Future (1985), but the role was originally played by Eric Stoltz. Writer and director Robert Zemeckis had his heart set on casting Fox, but at the time, the actor was filming Family Ties. Gary Goldberg, the series creator, told Zemecjis that Fox was too busy. So Stoltz was cast instead, but after a few weeks of filming, he was fired for not bringing enough humor to the character.

Zemeckis reached out to Fox again, and he agreed to take the role, resulting in a horrendous work schedule as he filmed for the movie and TV show simultaneously. Fox explains that he only slept about three or four hours each night for the three or four months required for filming. As a result, Fox noted that “I really, truly thought I was terrible.” Recasting McFly also meant recasting his girlfriend, Jennifer, who was played by Melora Hardin when Stoltz was involved. Hardin was let go before she even filmed any scenes because Zemeckis and his co-writer Bob Gale felt that she was too tall to star opposite Fox. The shorter Claudia Grace Wells was brought in to replace her.^[10]

It is time for us to probe the dark underbelly of Hollywood once again and see what forgotten scandals, murders, and tales of depravity and abuse lurk beneath. 

10. The Coogan Act

Child actors have a pretty rough time in Hollywood, but it used to be a lot worse. Not only did the studios control every aspect of their careers, but their parents controlled their finances and they didn’t always have the child’s best interest at heart, as Jackie Coogan found out to his own detriment.

Nowadays, Coogan might be most recognizable as Uncle Fester in the Addams Family TV series from the 60s, but way, way before that, Coogan was a child star in silent films. His most famous role was that of “the kid” in…The Kid, starring opposite Charlie Chaplin. 

Coogan made millions as a child actor and, when he turned 21, he thought he could finally start spending some of that cash. However, he discovered that his entire fortune was almost gone. For a decade-and-a-half, his mother and stepfather had been using young Jackie as an “open all hours” piggy bank. They had splurged on fast cars, expensive jewelry, and lavish vacations, and left almost nothing for Coogan. And what was worse was that, according to California law, they did nothing wrong. Back then, all money earned by a minor legally belonged to the parents.

In 1938, Coogan took them to court but only received $126,000 out of the approximately $4 million he earned as an actor. In response, California passed the Coogan Law the following year, which placed part of the child actor’s net earnings in a trust fund. However, the bill was rushed and flawed, and it basically allowed parents to hire themselves as managers or secretaries and pay themselves out of their children’s earnings. This happened to Judy Garland and Liz Taylor, and it wasn’t until 2000 that this loophole was closed, placing 15 percent of the gross wages into an untouchable trust fund called a Coogan Account.

9. The Death of Alfalfa

Speaking of child actors with tragic adult lives, we move on to Carl Switzer, best known for playing Alfalfa in The Little Rascals, a series of comedy shorts featuring a group of neighborhood kids getting into all sorts of wacky adventures. Switzer played the role from 1935 to 1940, appearing in over 60 shorts and becoming one of the show’s most popular characters. However, Switzer encountered the problem that all child actors face – he grew up. Once he became too old for The Little Rascals, the end of Alfalfa meant, more or less, the end of his career. Sure, Switzer still appeared in dozens of movies, but they were all bit parts, many even uncredited. 

By the late 1950s, Switzer was in financial trouble, and on January 21, 1959, the 31-year-old Switzer went to an acquaintance’s house to retrieve a $50 debt. A fight ensued and the other man, Moses “Bud” Stiltz, shot Switzer and hit an artery, causing him to bleed to death before the ambulance arrived.

In the trial that followed, the jury believed Stiltz’s version of events that Switzer was armed with a knife and threatened to kill him, and they ruled the case justifiable homicide. However, decades later, his stepson Tom Corrigan offered a different story. He saw the whole thing but was a minor and was never called to testify. According to Corrigan, Switzer never threatened Stiltz with a knife, and his stepfather shot him as he was leaving. He believed that Stiltz got away with the murder of Alfalfa.

8. The Dines Affair

Most movie careers are always just one scandal away from fading into obscurity. Mabel Normand was able to withstand two controversies, but the third one did her in. First, there was the Fatty Arbuckle trial for the manslaughter of Virginia Rappe. Normand had nothing to do with it, but Arbuckle had been her most frequent movie partner. The duo made over a dozen comedies together, so when Arbuckle’s movies were banned, so were some of her most successful features.

Then came the unsolved murder of director William Desmond Taylor. Again, Normand had no direct involvement, but she had been the last person to see him alive, and rumors sprang up that Taylor was killed while trying to help her kick her cocaine habit by threatening to expose her dealers to the police.

The straw that broke the camel’s back happened on New Year’s Day 1924. Normand was attending a party hosted by Denver oil tycoon Courtland Dines. At some point during the night, Normand’s chauffeur, Horace Greer, entered the apartment, walked up to Dines, and shot him. The businessman survived, but the whole ordeal made Mabel Normand have a nervous breakdown that required a stay in the hospital. Greer’s motive was never established clearly, although Normand herself shot down rumors that he did it out of jealousy because he was in love with her, and simply opined that he must be insane. One thing was certain – her career never recovered and Normand only made a handful of shorts and one feature in the years following the shooting.

7. The Love Triangle

Sex scandals are a dime a dozen in Hollywood, so much so that there are scores of controversies that have been almost forgotten, such as the love triangle that almost resulted in murder and ruined Joan Bennett’s career.

A successful actress since the silent era, during the early 1950s Bennett was on her third husband, movie producer Walter Wanger. At the same time, she was, presumably, having an affair with her agent, Jennings Lang, although she never admitted it publicly. But her husband suspected that something was off, so he hired a PI to follow her and he reported back that Bennett and Lang spent a lot of time together in New Orleans, the Caribbean, and Beverly Hills.

On December 13, 1951, Wanger decided to confront the cheating couple. He walked up to them in a parking lot in Beverly Hills armed with a gun and fired two shots. One bullet hit Lang in the thigh, the other in the groin, but he made a full recovery. Meanwhile, Wanger was promptly arrested, but his lawyer used the “temporary insanity” defense and got his client off with a light sentence.

For her part, Bennett stuck by her husband and the couple eventually reconciled and stayed married for another decade. But public opinion was decidedly against her and her career took a nosedive, only appearing in a handful of movies in the decades that followed the scandal.

6. The Campus Killer

The name Margaret Campbell is unlikely to elicit any recognition nowadays. She was a silent-era actress with a few dozen credits under her belt who decided to hang up her acting boots and switch to teaching when the sound era started. She then stayed out of the limelight completely until 1939 when her murder once again put her name in the headlines. 

Campbell had been bludgeoned to death and, initially, it was believed that she had been another victim of a killer who was stalking the Los Angeles City College campus. Dubbed simply the Campus Killer, that person was responsible for three attacks and rapes on women, as well as the murder of 32-year-old Russian dancer Anya Sosoyeva. Not only that, but police believed that the Campus Killer was none other than Campbell’s son, McDonald. He was found and arrested a few days after her death. He confessed to his mother’s murder but denied involvement in the other attacks. He was found mentally unfit to stand trial and was committed to a psychiatric hospital.

Meanwhile, the true Campus Killer was eventually caught and identified as DeWitt Clinton Cook, who confessed to all the crimes except the murder of Margaret Campbell and was executed in the gas chamber.

5. The Killer King of Western Swing

During the 1940s and 50s, fiddler and big band leader Spade Cooley was one of the biggest names in country music. Dubbed the “King of Western Swing,” Cooley had a hit music career, a popular television variety show, and over 50 movie credits, most of them in Westerns. However, that’s not what he’s remembered for. Nowadays, it is believed that Spade Cooley has the dubious distinction of being the only convicted killer with a star on the Walk of Fame.

In 1961, Cooley beat his second wife, Ella Mae Evans, to death. This was hardly the first time he abused her, and the couple had already filed for divorce. Cooley flew into a rage at the idea that Ella Mae might have cheated on him with actor Roy Rogers, and on April 3, he launched into a vicious attack that lasted for hours and, eventually, proved fatal for Ella Mae. And Cooley did all of this in front of their 14-year-old daughter, Melody, although, ultimately, it was her testimony that got him convicted of first-degree murder. 

4. Charlie Chaplin & Lita Grey

As we said, sex scandals were hardly a rare occurrence in Hollywood, but the affair, marriage, and eventual divorce between Charlie Chaplin and his second wife, Lita Grey, was outrageous even by those standards and fed the tabloid headlines for almost a year.

For starters, Chaplin first met Grey when she was a little kid. They worked together for the first time when she was 12 and began an affair when Grey was 15. Soon after that, Grey got pregnant and Chaplin tried to take her to Mexico to have a secret abortion. However, Grey’s mother threatened Chaplin that she would report him to the authorities if he didn’t marry her daughter, which he did in 1924, as soon as Lita Grey turned 16. The couple had two children together, Sydney and Charles Chaplin Jr., but divorced after only two years of marriage.

All of this came out during the divorce proceedings, which lasted for nine months. Besides the attempted abortion, Grey also revealed multiple other young actresses whom Chaplin slept with, as well as the “degrading” and “bestial” sexual demands he had, some of which were even illegal in 1920s California. The salaciousness of the scandal was like ambrosia for the newspapers, but it also paid off for Grey. She was awarded a settlement of $825,000, a record in America at the time.

3. The First Hollywood Murder

Pioneering director Francis Boggs probably holds the unfortunate distinction of being the first Hollywood figure to be murdered. This happened in 1911, way before Los Angeles turned into the Mecca of moviemaking. 

Starting out as a stage actor, Boggs made his way to Chicago where he found a job with the Selig Polyscope Company, one of the first motion picture companies in America. After impressing head honcho William Selig with his talents, Boggs was allowed to step behind the camera, and in 1909, he traveled to Los Angeles where he shot one of the first movies in the city, a short titled In the Sultan’s Power. Soon after that, the Selig Company opened a Los Angeles branch in Edendale, where Boggs acted as manager.

On October 27, 1911, Boggs was in his office in Edendale, having a meeting with William Selig and a few other men, when a janitor named Frank Minnimatsu burst through the door, brandishing a revolver, and opened fire. The first bullet pierced Boggs’s heart and killed him shortly. Minnimatsu fired off four more shots before the other men subdued him, managing to hit Selig in the right arm.

As to the janitor’s motive, some newspapers of the time speculated that he had been driven crazy by drink, while others reported that he harbored a grudge against Francis Boggs and went into that room with the specific intent of killing him.

2. The Deaths at Greystone Mansion

You might not recognize the Greystone Mansion by name, but it is almost certain that you’ve seen it at some point. Located in Beverly Hills, this estate is one of the most popular filming locations in the country. It’s been featured in over 100 movies, TV shows, music videos, and commercials, including The Prestige, The Muppets, Spider-Man, Ghostbusters, The Big Lebowski, House, ER, Knight Rider, Columbo, and many, many more. The house has a rich history that includes glitz and glamour, but also scandal and murder.

The Greystone Mansion was built in 1928 by oil tycoon Edward Doheny as a gift for his son, Edward “Ned” Doheny Jr. Ned and his family moved into the palatial estate towards the end of the year and, just four months later, he was lying dead in a guest bedroom in a pool of his own blood, next to the body of his secretary, Hugh Plunkett.

The official story labeled it a murder-suicide – Plunkett shot his employer and childhood friend before turning the gun on himself. As to why, there is only speculation. Plunkett might have been mentally unstable and angry at Doheny who wanted to commit him to an asylum. Or maybe Plunkett heard that the Dohenys wanted him to take the rap for a bribery charge in the infamous Teapot Dome scandal. Or maybe the two were in a secret relationship together. 

Or maybe Plunkett didn’t kill Doheny at all. Rumors appeared immediately that the story was nothing but a coverup orchestrated by Doheny Sr., and, in fact, Ned was the one who killed Plunkett and then himself. But Doheny was one of the most powerful men in the state, so his preferred version of events became the truth.

1. Death of a Stooge

Unless you’re a massive fan of slapstick comedy, you probably don’t know the name “Ted Healy.” He was a vaudeville performer, actor, and comedian, best remembered nowadays for creating The Three Stooges alongside his childhood friend Moe Howard. He was also known for dying suddenly and mysteriously, following what may have been an attack involving fellow movie star Wallace Beery and the Mafia.

All of this is Hollywood lore. Officially, Healy died of nephritis brought on by alcohol abuse, which was why the police never investigated the matter. However, his personal physician saw enough suspicious signs when he first inspected the body that he refused to sign the death certificate and ordered an autopsy. On the night of his death, December 21, 1937, the comedian staggered out of the Cafe Trocadero on the Sunset Strip all battered, bloody, and bruised, and managed to make his way to a taxi that took him to the hotel where he died.

Allegedly, Healy got into a fight with actor Wallace Beery, who was at the Trocadero with mobster Pat DiCicco and producer “Cubby” Broccoli of James Bond fame. Again, going strictly by rumors, the three beat Healy so badly that they caused his death, and MGM fixers later kept the whole thing hush-hush to protect Beery, who was one of their biggest stars.

Every spring, when the month of April arrives, pastel colors herald the arrival of a new holiday season. And whether you are a Christian commemorating the resurrection of Jesus for Easter or a Jew celebrating Passover and Moses leading the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage, there are many classic movies for believers that depict both seminal religious events as a well as a few other famous stories adapted from the pages of the Bible.

In the 1950s, Hollywood introduced the widescreen formats of Cinemascope and Cinerama. And the era of the sword-and-sandal biblical epic reached its zenith as one of the most popular genres in movie history. Here are ten of the greatest biblical epics ever produced during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Related: 10 Historical Adventures Worthy Of Hollywood

10 The Greatest Story Ever Told

Considering the talent involved, this should have been the “greatest movie ever made.” With screen credits like Shane, Giant, and A Place in the Sun, director George Stevens was one of the most acclaimed directors in Tinseltown in 1965. Cast as Jesus was acclaimed international star Max von Sydow, renowned for his collaborations with Swedish director Ingmar Berman. The supporting cast was a veritable Hollywood “who’s who,” including such acting dignitaries as Charlton Heston, Dorothy McGuire, Claude Rains, Sidney Poitier, and—dare I say—John Wayne, jarringly cast as a Roman centurion.

But for many, the barrage of cameos by major Hollywood players was distracting. That, coupled with an original run time of four hours and twenty minutes and Stevens’s direction of a film that many critics found overly slow-paced and solemn, led to the film earning back just $15.5 million. This was well short of its production budget of $20 million. Nonetheless, the movie did receive five Academy Award nominations. Today, critics and audiences remain divided in their opinion of a film that many blame for the demise of the biblical epic genre.^[1]

9 The Bible: In the Beginning

One year after Stevens’s epic of the life of Christ, legendary filmmaker and character actor John Huston tackled the Bible by going back to its beginning, literally, in an epic retelling of the book of Genesis. Known for directing such classic films as The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and The African Queen, The Bible: In the Beginning was a change of pace for Huston.

Starting with the creation of man, the movie also depicts Cain’s murder of Abel, the Tower of Babel, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as well as the story of Noah’s Ark. In one memorable scene, Huston is the narrator, portrays Noah, and is the voice of God. For his big-budgeted epic, he assembled an all-star cast that included George C. Scott as the prophet Abraham, Ava Gardner as his wife Sarah, and Peter O’Toole as the three visiting angels.

As with The Greatest Story Ever Told, Huston’s biblical epic was criticized for being overly long, slow-paced, and too reverent. However, unlike Stevens’s film, The Bible did well at the box office and was the top-grossing film in the U.S. and Canada in 1966. However, it remains another classic Hollywood biblical epic that continues to receive mixed reviews.^[2]

8 Samson and Delilah

Without question, no director has been more identified with the success of the biblical epic than the man who virtually made a career and millions of dollars producing them, Cecil B. DeMille. In 1949, just fifteen years removed from the production of his violent and sexually charged Roman epic, The Sign of the Cross, DeMille mined the fertile pages of the Book of Judges. He found the ultimate tale of temptation and judgment, the story of Samson and Delilah.

To play the Hebrew strongman, DeMille turned to film noir tough guy and future film gladiator Victor Mature. To play the temptress Delilah, DeMille sought an actress who would be “a combination of Vivien Leigh and Jean Simmons with a generous dash of Lana Turner.” He settled for brainy Austrian beauty (and future inventor) Hedy Lamarr. The results were memorable, with the spectacle of Samson breaking the pillars of the Temple of Dagon and killing the Philistines as a sample of groundbreaking special effects he would later employ to perfection in The Ten Commandments.

At the 23rd Academy Awards, Samson and Delilah would win two Oscars for Best Color Art Direction and Best Color Costume Design. But surprisingly, the film lost for Best Special Effects to the less-remembered Destination Moon.^[3]

7 Quo Vadis

Director Mervyn Leroy’s epic adaptation of the 1896 novel Quo Vadis was wildly popular with 1951 audiences and was the top-grossing film at the box office that year. Starring Robert Taylor (whose performance would be lampooned in 2016’s Hail, Caesar!), perennial Oscar nominee Deborah Kerr, and a memorable Peter Ustinov as Nero, the movie was nominated for eight Academy Awards. It failed to win a single one.

The film was almost made two years earlier with director John Huston at the helm, with Gregory Peck and Elizabeth Taylor cast as the two leads. Peck, however, contracted an eye infection, and the production delay led to all three being replaced. Audrey Hepburn was also considered for the role that ultimately went to Kerr, as was Clark Gable for the Taylor role. However, Gable rejected the part for fear he would look ridiculous wearing Roman costumes.

Ultimately, Leroy’s cast resonated with audiences who viewed the film in droves. Despite faring generally well with critics and viewers alike, the movie did have its detractors, which Leroy rejected by declaring Quo Vadis to be an “extraordinarily authentic film.” He further added, “The nonsense Nero was sometimes made to speak was very much like the nonsense Nero probably did speak.” ^[4]

6 The King of Kings (1927)

In an illustrious film career that spanned both the silent and sound eras, Cecil B. De Mille left an indelible mark on film history with Hollywood’s most ambitious attempt to depict the life of Christ in the 1927 film The King of Kings. Starring veteran character actor H.B. Warner (who is probably best known today as “Old Man Gower” from the Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life) in the title role, DeMille depicted Christ reverently. This portrayal would influence other filmmakers for decades in the difficult challenge of how to present Jesus as a character on screen.

Almost anticipating the controversy that would plague Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ almost 90 years later, The King of Kings clearly placed the blame for the crucifixion at the feet of the High Priest Caiaphas, not the Jewish people as a whole. But in keeping with the DeMille formula of sex and religion, Mary Magdalene is presented as a high-priced courtesan, who is not only scantily attired in a jewel-studded wardrobe, but whose chariot is drawn by four zebras.

As with other DeMille-directed epics, The King of Kings stays true to the central narrative presented in the Gospels while taking artistic license to provide thrills and titillation for audiences. A hit with crowds and critics, DeMille considered the film to be his finest work and, in a magnanimous gesture, donated the profits of the movie to charity.^[5]

5 King of Kings (1961)

Not to be confused with the silent film from 1927, 1961’s King of Kings was not a literal remake of the DeMille version. Originally titled Son of Man, this updated interpretation of the life of Christ is notable for many reasons. It was directed by auteur Nicholas Ray, one of the most unconventional and perhaps subversive directors of the 1950s. Instead of a respected actor of the stage, the role of Jesus is played by heartthrob and future commander of the USS Enterprise (before his untimely death in 1969) Jeffrey Hunter.

The Ray/Hunter combination led some to dub the movie “I Was a Teenage Jesus.” But more recently, critics view the film as being more about a “Rebel with a Cause” (a play on the title of the James Dean classic, also directed by Ray). It’s a unique and ambitious film that is enhanced by the narration of Orson Welles and Miklos Rozsa’s Golden Globe-nominated score while being slightly marred by Hunter’s somewhat stoic and stiff performance.

Had Hunter played Jesus with the zest and authenticity that he played as John Wayne’s sidekick Martin Pawley in The Searchers five years earlier and eschewed the henna rinse hair that Christ is often depicted with in 20th-century art, this might have been the masterpiece that all biblical epics would be judged by today.^[6]

4 The Robe

Based on the popular Lloyd C. Douglas novel, the 1953 production of The Robe is probably best known today for being the first Hollywood film shot in the widescreen format Cinemascope. The film was massively popular and made a fortune for 20th Century Fox, raking in over 36 million dollars in the United States alone. The Robe scored well with not only audiences but also critics who praised the technical innovation of Cinemascope.

New York Times film critic, Bosley Crowther, wrote that in its portrayal of Christ, “the picture has dignity and restraint.” Originally, Tyrone Power and Jean Peters were cast in the lead romantic roles. However, after Power pulled out of the project and Peters became pregnant, they were both replaced by newcomer Richard Burton (who reportedly hated his role) and Jean Simmons (who reportedly had an affair with Burton during production).

Today, modern critics are more negative in their assessment of the film. However, much praise continues to be lavished on the performance of Victor Mature, who would reprise his role as a Greek slave and Christian convert a year later in Demetrius and the Gladiators. The sequel was a huge box office success, and Mature continues to receive props for his acting despite his oft-quoted self-deprecating quip, “I’m not an actor—and I’ve got 64 films to prove it!”^[7]

3 Barabbas

Despite a filmography that included minor classics such as the film noir The Narrow Margin and the Disney sci-fi extravaganza 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, filmmaker Richard Fleischer has also earned the enmity of countless critics for his other movies such as 1975’s Mandingo which Roger Ebert called “racist trash” and 1980’s The Jazz Singer which Leonard Maltin labeled a “BOMB!” Despite such widely divergent views of Fleischer’s directorial efforts, in 1961, he quietly filmed one of the most moving and well-acted biblical epics that focused not on a major biblical figure but a minor one whose brief appearance is featured in all four Gospels, the title character Barabbas.

Anthony Quinn gives one of his more complex performances as the man freed in place of Christ. His future leads him to slavery in the sulfur mines of Sicily and ultimately to the burning Rome of Nero. Featuring a strong ensemble cast of Arthur Kennedy, Ernest Borgnine, and Jack Palance as a sadistic gladiator, the film has generally enjoyed more appreciation from critics than fans. Perhaps the overkill of the biblical epic genre and the reliance on dubbed dialogue from a largely Italian supporting cast hurt the movie’s appeal in the U.S. Despite earning just over $6 million domestically, one might argue that in a career lasting over four decades, this is Fleischer’s masterpiece.^[8]

2 The Ten Commandments

Forget that DeMille veers from Holy Scripture to cultivate a love triangle between Moses, Rameses II, and the Egyptian princess Nefretiri. And discard the occasional misstep in dialogue such as “Moses, Moses, you stubborn, splendid, adorable fool!” that seems plagiarized from a silent screen melodrama.
The bottom line is that the 1956 version of The Ten Commandments remains one of the most entertaining films ever created for the silver screen.

Employing a “cast of thousands,” groundbreaking special effects (such as the memorable “parting of the Red Sea”), a police lineup of great Hollywood villains (such as Edward G. Robinson and Vincent Price), and one of the most epic musical scores ever composed for a motion picture by Elmer Bernstein, DeMille orchestrated one of the most successful blockbusters in Hollywood history. Adjusted for inflation, the movie is still ranked #6 as the biggest movie moneymaker of all time.

And thanks to its eternal appeal, The Ten Commandments has been broadcast annually during the Easter and Passover seasons for 47 of the last 48 years on ABC. John Ford once stated, “I don’t think there is anyone who knows more about what the American public wants than Cecil B. DeMille—and he certainly knows how to give it to them.” Well over half a century since it was released, The Ten Commandments continues to prove that point every year.^[9]

1 Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

Based on General Lew Wallace’s novel of the same name, 1959’s Ben-Hur was a remake of the 1925 silent film starring Ramon Navarro and Francis X. Bushman. In a gamble to save the faltering MGM studios and to top the box-office success of The Ten Commandments, acclaimed director William Wyler was coaxed into taking on the project with the promise of a $10 million budget. Actually, the film would ultimately cost MGM over $15 million but, in the end, would make the studio a whopping $75 million.

Initially, Wyler hoped to cast Charlton Heston as the villain Messala, based on the actor’s earlier performance for him as a heavy in The Big Country. After failures to entice other big names to play the titular role of Ben-Hur, such as Marlon Brando and Burt Lancaster, Wyler decided to move Heston into the part and cast Northern Irish actor Stephen Boyd as the bad guy. For the romantic lead Esther, Wyler introduced beautiful Israeli actress Haya Harareet, a newcomer to American films.

Like The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur included some of the most spectacular special effects ever filmed to date, including the famed chariot race sequence. This scene was so dangerous that second-unit director Yakima Canutt nearly lost his son Joe (in a dangerous stunt mishap that was left in the final cut), who doubled for Heston as a charioteer. Even today, Ben-Hur is tied for the most Oscars of all time, eleven (with Titanic and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King). Despite some detractors, including Chinese dictator Mao Zedong (who infamously called the movie “propaganda of superstitious beliefs, namely Christianity”), Ben-Hur has rightfully earned its reputation as one of the greatest epics ever committed to celluloid.^[10]

We love to imbibe! The sound of a shaker tossing around chunks of ice as pristine spirits splash around inside. The condensation on a half-finished Old Fashioned. The glorious variety or colors, glassware and garnishes. Having a cocktail and feeling socially loose and lubricated is a pleasure many of us love dearly. However, most of us have no idea what we are drinking or where it came from. Why is called what it’s called. Plus, you know you want to be that person to impress your friends with this niche knowledge. Because at the end of the day, cocktail history is hazy, crazy, and down-right catty sometimes when it comes to claiming to have created a drink. Here are some of the best backgrounds to ten classic cocktails.

Top 10 Bizarre Alcoholic Drinks

10 Manhattan

Popular myth tells a grandiose tale of Winston Churchill’s mother ordering a “whiskey martini” at NYC’s Manhattan Club and then cheering the concoction upon tasting it to the crowd’s applause. This is false. Winston Churchill’s mother, Lady Randolph Churchill was pregnant with him during this “gathering” on another continent. It’s unlikely she was going around creating legendary cocktails. The true story states… “The Manhattan cocktail was invented by a man named Black, who kept a place ten doors below Houston street on Broadway in the 1860’s” which was written by William F. Mulhall who tended bar for three decades at New York’s legendary Hoffman House where the drink seems to have been truly conceived. And yes, the Manhattan Club still flaunts the lie about Churchill’s mom.^[1]

9 Margarita

This cocktail has over a half dozen origin stories spanning from 1936-1961. Some of the stories are more than just a bar claiming fame. A Dallas socialite claimed to have created it at a party which was attended by Tommy Hilton of Hilton Hotel’s where he later served in it his hotel’s bars. There is also a story of a bartender who whipped it up on the fly to impress a Ziegfeld dancer who was allergic to most spirits except tequila. All not true. The real story comes down to chronological plausibility. Margarita means “Daisy” in Spanish, and a daisy cocktail was around for quite some time, but made with brandy. As Americans flooded over the border during prohibition to wet their whistles’, brandy was substituted out with tequila and the margarita was born.^[2]

8 Pina Colada

This festive classic can trace its roots back to Puerto Rican pirate Roberto Cofresi, who reportedly gave his crew a concoction of coconut, pineapple and rum to boost morale. Unfortunately, hordes of places on the island claim to be the originator these days. The best answer is that Ramon “Monchito” Marrero created the recipe after months of alchemy as he worked behind the stick at the Caribbean Hilton Hotel. As this is the earliest conception of the cocktail and since it coincides with the birth of a key ingredient during that same time-frame, Coco Lopez, the government of Puerto Rico backs all of this and even celebrates Monchito and the bar as national treasures.^[3]

7 Aviation

This “Bartender’s Handshake”, in-the-know cocktail was originally shaken-up by Hugo Ensslin at the Hotel Warwick in New York in 1916. There is, however, a recipe feud amongst aficionados. Considered the “dean of cocktail shakers”, Harry Craddock omitted the hypnotically floral crème de violet when he published his masterful Savoy Cocktail Book, considered the quintessential cocktail manual, in 1930. The original recipe is what’s commonly served nowadays and the recipe has had a complete resurrection with younger generations as it is refreshing, different, and delicious.^[4]

6 Mint Julep

Hold your horses! It’s important to mention cocktails were initially considered medicinal elixirs. Nearly every alcoholic recipe from the 18th and 19th centuries was considered a remedy for some ailment. The mint julep falls into that category. Southern farmers would drink it instead of coffee in the morning believing it put more of a pep-in-their-step and its earliest literary mentions go back as far as the 1780’s. The drink gained worldwide fame when it became the official cocktail of the Kentucky Derby in 1938 and nowadays you can get one in a golden cup for $1000. Back in the day, they preferred a pewter or silver cup and it was strictly held by the very top or bottom to prevent the heat from one’s hand from melting the intended frost that would build around the metal from the chill of the crushed ice. The word “julep” is from the ancient Persian word “galub” which means “flavored rosewater”.^[5]

10 Quenching Legends, Myths, And Stories Involving Alcohol

5 Sidecar

This delicious classic, one of six essentials every bartender should master according to David Embury’s The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks (1948), has a vivid backstory. London and Paris both claim the rights to this bold cocktail, both are wrong. New Orleans, which is about to steal the show the next few drinks, is the hands-down “cocktail capital of the past” and gets to technically claim this one as its own too. The fact is London’s legendary Pat MacGarry brought it from Paris where the Ritz claims it along with Harry’s New York Bar (also in Paris). Legend goes, an American army captain after WW1 arrived at Harry’s in a motorcycle sidecar and specified the ingredients of the drink. I would bet good money the unknown army captain was from Louisiana and what he was actually ordering was a “Brandy Crusta” that goes as far back as 1862.^[6]

4 Vieux Carre

Pronounced “voo-ca-ray”, this absolute essential fell out of grace with bartenders in the 70’s and 80’s once mixers got into the game. This dangerous goblet of whiskey and brandy is New Orleans to the bone. The name literally means “French Quarter”. Although it can be a difficult drink to make at 6 steps to build, it has made a formidable resurgence and is currently a sign a bartender knows what they are doing by being able to mix it by memory. Invented in 1938 by Walter Bergeron while behind the stick at the historic Hotel Monteleone in the “Big Easy”, this drink and where it was born deserves a place on your bucket list as the bar itself in the hotel is unlike any other with a wooden custom-carved rotating carousel.^[7]

3 Gin & Tonic

This drink, literally, had a hand in why the sun never set on the British Empire. Gin itself was created as a medicinal elixir by Dr. Sylvius de Bouve in Holland during the 16th century. In 1640, utilizing the bark from the cinchona tree from South America, quinine syrup was extracted and proven to not only cure, but prevent malaria which was having a hell of a time on humans worldwide. When mixing quinine syrup with soda water, you get tonic. Gin and tonic then went global as soldiers and the British East India Company mixed the medicinal tonic with their gin rations (yes, the booze was also considered medicinal at the time).^[8]

2 Sazerac

These next two are a bit controversial in their order, but best to get back to New Orleans. Home to the Sazerac, French 75, Hurricane, Vieux Carre… need I say more? Named after a French cognac with the same namesake that was initially used in the recipe, it is said Aaron Bird created the cocktail at the Sazerac Coffee House smack in the middle of the Crescent City with the bitters (and apparently help) of the renowned alchemist himself, Antione Amedie Peychaud (inventor of Peychaud bitters) in the 1850’s. Considered the first cocktail by many, this concoction had two major improvements in the 1870’s… absinthe was added to the recipe and the base changed from cognac to rye whiskey after an insect plague wiped out Frances vineyards at the time, halting all cognac production. It should be noted that Peychaud is credited for the word “cocktail” as he used a double-sided egg cup to measure his ingredients for his experimental potions, which back then, the little egg cup (which was the precursor to what is the “jigger”), was called a “coquetier”.^[9]

1 Old Fashioned

During prohibition, booze was mostly stringent bootleg garbage. So, naturally, a lot of classics had their recipes tainted during that era by a ton of unnecessary sweeteners. That’s why, when I write about an Old Fashioned, I do not mean the drink with a fruit salad dumped under the ice. An Old Fashioned should simply have a large chunk of ice and a cherry as garnish. That’s it. The recipe first appears on paper in 1862, and then James E. Pepper gets credit for bringing it from Louisville, Kentucky to the Waldorf-Astoria in NYC. Why is this one number one? It’s bitters, sugar and booze… this is where I consider it all started in its purest form. Absinthe didn’t show up in the Sazerac until the 1870’s, so the Sazerac was still evolving while the Old Fashioned has always been what it is. It’s the “old fashioned way” to sweeten up your whiskey. Cheers!^[10]

Top 10 Drinking Games

About The Author: Former chef and bartender with 10 years of New York City restaurant experience.

We know that many classic American TV series were either adapted from recycled shows that originated in other countries, were spin-offs of existing series, or were based on films. However, the details surrounding the origins of some shows, especially situation comedies, are often surprising and can be insightful for fans. Here are the eye-opening stories of 10 classic sitcoms.

Related: Top 10 Things We’ve Learned From Watching Comedy Shows

10 Barney Miller (1975–1982)

In the 1970s, prime-time TV lineups were packed with police dramas. The creators of Barney Miller wanted to do a humorous cop show. Although it was a comedy, the show’s atmosphere and daily activity were much more authentic to a police station house than its dramatic counterparts, as noted by many real law enforcement officers. The pilot, called “The Life and Times of Captain Barney Miller,” was as much about Barney’s home life as his work life and bore little resemblance to the series, in part because the original cast was almost completely replaced.

Two exceptions were Hal Linden, who reluctantly gave up a part in a Broadway play to star as the title character in this risky new series, and Abe Vigoda, who played the popular Detective Fish. Veteran director/producer John Rich, who was brought in to fix the initially flawed project, thought Barney Miller should be centered at the station house, and the show quickly became a workplace comedy with very little about the personal lives of Miller or the other characters. The revamped program went from being a rejected pilot aired on ABC’s Just for Laughs summer anthology series to the iconic, long-running show we remember.^[1]

9 I Love Lucy (1951–1957)

Considering how important visuals were to I Love Lucy, from slapstick comedy to the exceptionally expressive faces of the leading actors, it’s difficult to imagine the show limited to radio. However, the original version of the series, titled My Favorite Husband, was a radio comedy based on the novel Mr. and Mrs. Cugat. The show, starring Lucille Ball, was so successful that producers were anxious to adapt it to the exciting new medium of television. Originally, it was planned to cast Richard Denning, the same actor who played Ball’s bank vice president husband on the radio, in the TV version.

While Denning did go on to play the part in another adaptation of the series, Ball, who wanted to find a way to spend more time with her frequently on-the-road bandleader husband, insisted Desi Arnaz play opposite her in this proposed incarnation. Executives were against the idea of hiring the Cuban-American Arnaz because of the perception that viewers wouldn’t accept an ethnically mixed couple on screen.

After demonstrating what a great team they were by doing a Vaudeville tour together, Ball eventually got her way, and instead of hurting the sitcom, the cultural contrasts between Ball and Arnaz only made the show more entertaining. Produced by the couple’s Desilu Productions with My Favorite Husband radio show writers Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll Jr. on board and newly cast supporting actors William Frawley and Vivian Vance, I Love Lucy became a true television classic.^[2]

8 The Nanny (1993–1999)

It may have been good luck that Fran Drescher found herself on a transatlantic flight with the then-president of CBS Entertainment, Jeff Sagansky, in 1991, but it was what she did with the opportunity that made all the difference. She had already worked for Sagansky on two unsuccessful projects, including the failed series Princesses. Drescher told the exec that “everyone kept trying to use her as a side dish but that she was the main course,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Not only insisting that she should star in the show but offering to write and produce the show with her husband at the time, Peter Marc Jacobson, it’s no wonder that Sagansky thought she was being “unbelievably brazen.” But she convinced Sagansky to set up a meeting to listen to their pitches. The problem was that the couple didn’t have any yet. However, fate once again lent a hand when she got the idea to do a humorous take-off of The Sound of Music with herself in the lead after going on a shopping trip with the teenage daughter of her model/actress friend Twiggy while in London. The end result was the hit sitcom The Nanny, starring Drescher as Fran Fine, a saucy, wise-cracking but lovable caregiver to the children of Broadway producer and would-be love interest Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy).^[3]

7 The Flintstones (1960–1966)

Animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, who had scored success with collaborations on the Tom and Jerry theatrical cartoons and animated TV programs like The Huckleberry Hound Show, made history with the first prime-time animated series—prehistoric sitcom The Flintstones.

A lot of ideas were tossed around by Hanna and Barbera when they were trying to find a theme for their next series, including shows about pilgrims, Native Americans, and hillbillies. The Stone Age was so appealing because, as Joseph Barbera said, “You were able to take anything that was current and convert it to the Stone Age.”

Many people take for granted that The Flintstones was a parody of The Honeymooners. While there are clear similarities, Barbera would never confirm that the hit Jackie Gleason sitcom inspired The Flintstones. However, William Hanna said, “The characters, I thought, were terrific. Now, that influenced greatly what we did with The Flintstones… The Honeymooners was there, and we used that as a kind of basis for the concept.”^[4]

6 Welcome Back, Kotter (1975–1979)

There’s a long-established tradition of building sitcoms around the stand-up acts of popular comedians, but this was not nearly as common in the early 1970s when the Gabriel Kaplan-starring show Welcome Back, Kotter was being developed. The series revolved around Gabe Kotter, a Brooklyn teacher who had his hands full with a zany, undisciplined group of remedial high school students dubbed “The Sweathogs.”

As hard as it may be to believe, the leading Sweathogs were based on real guys Kaplan went to school with when he was a student at Brooklyn’s New Utrecht High School. Before they were immortalized on TV, his pals were featured in Kaplan’s stand-up routine, “Holes and Mello-Rolls.”^[5]

5 The Golden Girls (1985–1991)

Aww, who doesn’t love The Golden Girls—Dorothy, Rose, Blanche, and Sofia. However, it was actually a spoof performed for potential advertisers to promote the upcoming TV drama Miami Vice that inspired executives to develop NBC’s irreverent hit sitcom. The Golden Girls was revolutionary for its fun, provocative depiction of mature women. Sassy character actresses Doris Roberts and Selma Diamond “ad-libbed a bit about the upcoming cop show Miami Vice, changing the concept to the idea of retirees playing cards together in a Florida retirement community in a show called, Miami Nice,” according to Biography.

Originally, Betty White, who had won two Emmys co-starring on The Mary Tyler Moore Show as the lusty Sue Ann, was tapped to play Blanche. And Rue McClanahan was going to be Rose, a character similar to her air-headed Vivian character in the Bea Arthur sitcom Maude. However, director Jay Sandrich was not buying McClanahan as the innocent Rose, so he got the bright idea for them to switch parts, which turned out to be ideal.^[6]

4 Mork & Mindy (1978–1982)

It might be surprising to hear that an eight-year-old kid came up with the idea for one of the biggest hit sitcoms of the 1970s until you find out the show is Mork & Mindy. Then it totally makes sense. Producer/writer/director Garry Marshall knew a good concept when he heard it, even coming from the mouths of babes like his small son Scotty who wanted him to put an alien on Happy Days. However, according to Looper, “The writers were not enthused by this idea, and they drew straws to see who’d have to write it.”

Of course, the biggest attraction of this series about an extraterrestrial who moves in with an ordinary young woman is the outrageous, frequently ad-libbed humor of the show’s star Robin Williams. He was discovered by another member of Garry Marshall’s family, his sister, who encouraged Marshall to cast Williams after seeing him play an alien in his stand-up routine.

Mork and Mindy ended up being a spin-off. There was no real pilot. When Marshall pitched the show to ABC, he re-edited the Happy Days episode, adding dialogue for Mork in which he talked about traveling to the future. He then spliced footage of Robin Williams with footage of Pam Dawber, who would play Mindy.^[7]

3 I Dream of Jeannie (1965–1970)

In the wake of Bewitched’s colossal success, the prolific writer/producer Sidney Sheldon created a similarly themed show about the pairing of a mortal man and a supernatural woman. Sheldon’s series I Dream of Jeannie revolved around the misadventures of astronaut Major Anthony Nelson (Larry Hagman) and Jeannie, a beautiful 2,000-year-old genie (Barbara Eden). However, the premise was actually rooted in a novel by F. Anstey published in 1900 titled The Brass Bottle.

The story is about an architect who discovers a genie in an antique bottle. The book spawned two silent film adaptations and a 1964 version starring Tony Randall and, coincidentally, Barbara Eden as his mortal fiancée. It was the third movie that gave Sheldon the idea for this new show. However, unlike in the book and films, Sheldon’s genie was female, and the romantic chemistry between Hagman and Eden was a vital part of the series.

To avoid comparisons to Bewitched, Sheldon was firmly set against casting a blonde actress for the TV series. But after an extensive talent search, he reconsidered and hired Barbara Eden, who was so popular in the role that it has become her legacy.^[8]

2 The Love Boat (1977–1987)

Hour-long cruise ship romance dramedy The Love Boat had a certain advantage over typical sitcoms. Although the basic setting and cast remained the same from week to week, it was more like a series of vignettes featuring a new batch of celebrity guest stars on each episode. This helped to keep the show fresh, and since many of the guest stars were or had been Hollywood royalty, they could draw an audience regardless of the merits of the series itself. Instead of a traditional pilot, there were actually two Love Boat TV movies in the early 1970s, with a completely different cast than the subsequent TV series.

One of the most surprising things about the frothy show is that it was based on a book. Prolific 1970s TV producer Wilford Lloyd Baumes developed The Love Boat franchise from The Love Boats, a 1974 memoir by Jeraldine Saunders, who wrote of her years working as a cruise director on some very large ships.^[9]

1 Everybody Loves Raymond (1996–2005)

The popular sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, which centered on a loving but humorously dysfunctional family, was to some extent another case of a comic basing a show on his stand-up act. But the family on this series was actually a composite between Ray Romano’s relatives and those of writer/producer Phil Rosenthal.

Ray Romano recalls that a week after doing a monologue on The Late Show with David Letterman, he got a call from Letterman’s producer Rob Burnett expressing “interest in trying to develop a show just based on what they saw, my stand-up, which was talking about my family. And we said fine.”

In the beginning, it wasn’t clear exactly what the premise of the show should be. Given Romano’s lack of acting experience, Rosenthal thought it best for him to play a role similar to himself. The two created a family-based sitcom that utilized material from Romano and Rosenthal’s real lives and sometimes events in the lives of other writers on the show. The sense of authenticity to family life resonated with audiences and largely contributed to the show’s success.^[10]

I would never want to live in a world without comedy. Whether intentionally idiotic or so snarky it goes over everyone’s head, a good laugh is medicine for the soul. This article is intended for readers who have seen these films. It is a pretty safe bet to assume that the majority of cinephile’s have seen these movies over and over again and could practically recite every line by heart, but these fun facts will add more depth to the viewing experience.

Top 10 British Comedy Series

10 The Jerk (1979)

The Jerk was Steve Martin’s firsts starring role of the 1970’s after his stand-up success. Directed by the brilliant Carl Reiner, the attitude on set was extremely laid-back which led to many wonderful unscripted scenes. Initially not knowing which direction to go with the film, Mr. Martin mentioned to the screenwriters that he had a great line from his act that always seemed to win the room. And that is where we get the famous opening line of the film “It wasn’t easy for me; I was born a poor black child in Mississippi…” which kicks off this absurdist comedy perfectly. The role of “Marie” was specifically written for Bernadette Peters, and Bill Murray surprisingly wound up on the cutting room floor as his scene was deleted in post-production. The coolest little gem about this film is that Stanley Kubrick was actually a huge fan and even invited Martin over to his house to play chess.^[1]

9 Dumb & Dumber (1994)

1994 was a huge year for television star Jim Carrey. That year he released The Mask, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and by far one of the funniest movies of all time, Dumb & Dumber. Directed by the Farrelly Brothers, it’s almost impossible to not think of Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels as the leads. Believe it or not, Nicolas Cage and Gary Oldman were originally offered the parts and the original draft of the script is known in the screenwriting world for how disorganized it was. After the Farrelly Brothers over it was named A Power Tool is Not a Toy. The movie was unapologetically rejected from every major studio until New Line jumped in and Carrey got on board. Daniels had just finished filming Speed and the studio hated the idea of him being in a silly comedy so they tried to cut him, but Carrey staunchly defended Daniels and threatened to leave the project unless Daniels was Harry. Carrey’s tooth is also cracked in real life, he had a dentist remove the cap for filming.^[2]

8 Coming to America (1988)

This comedy classic is fascinating because due to scheduling conflicts, the studio green-lit the film and set a release date before post-production even began. Directed by John Landis, who had worked with Eddie Murphy previously in Trading Places, the film got off to a very rocky start. Anybody with knowledge of the industry in the 1980s will tell you that this was the film where Murphy let his ego get to his head. Landis was used to a humbler Murphy, but on this production, with all the time constraints, Eddie decided that he was going to let everybody know he was a superstar and even once ordered a $235 McDonald’s breakfast. The stress level on set was also so intense that Murphy has publicly stated it was the first and last time he ever had an alcoholic beverage. Things were getting so heated between him and Landis that Arsenio Hall recommended that he have a little bit of Absolut vodka, which he chugged immediately and wound up hugging the toilet minutes later. Murphy and Landis would later resolve their issues and become friends again, with Landis directing Eddie in Beverly Hills Cop 3. On a lighter note, they had Paula Abdul choreograph the wedding dance scene.^[3]

7 Caddyshack (1980)

Harold Ramis’ first directorial debut is a product of a 250-page script and hours of improvisation from an extremely talented, but mostly inebriated cast. Ramis admitted that he didn’t know what he was doing during production. This was also the very first feature film for legendary stand-up comedian, Rodney Dangerfield. The lovable Mr. Dangerfield was so green on a set that he thought he was doing a terrible job because nobody was laughing at his jokes. He literally needed to be reminded that if a crew member did laugh at one of his jokes, it would’ve ruined the take. This was around the time that Bill Murray had just replaced Chevy Chase as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and Chase wasn’t thrilled. However, this tension was broken by the amount of alcohol and drug consumption on set. Murray, whose role of Carl was actually supposed to be completely silent, was said to conjure some of his improv genius with the help of booze and was regularly found passed-out in sand-pits on the golf course. The studio convinced a country club in South Florida to let them film the movie there. Multiple interviews with cast members detail the amount of cocaine on set. But between the late night golf-cart races and rampant drug abuse, Ramis was able to get the movie completed.^[4]

6 The Waterboy (1998)

This Adam Sandler essential, directed by Frank Coraci, was initially intended to be shot in black-and-white as a dark comedy in New England, but it was instead filmed in Florida. The character Bobby Boucher was inspired by Sandler‘s SNL character, Cajun Man. Despite all of the classics made about sports over decades, The Waterboy was actually the highest-grossing sports film of all time until The Blindside came out. Additionally, people think that Henry Winkler was doing Sandler a favor by being in the movie, but in reality it was actually a major boost for him. Winkler agreed to the role only because he was a fan of Sandler‘s Chanukah Song where he’s name-dropped. His performance as Coach Klein lead to plenty of exposure generationally and made him a household name with Happy Madison Productions. Then there’s Kathy Bates. Bates’ agent didn’t want her to even look at the script, but because the studio made an official offer she legally had to see the script and after 12 pages she threw it in the trash. It was actually her niece who dug the script out of the trash noticing Sandler’s name.^[5]

10 Comedy Acts That Went Horribly Wrong

5 Anchorman (2004)

Directed by Adam McKay, the idea for the film was spawned when both he and Will Ferrell saw a clip of a 1970s news anchor. The original draft for the script was bonkers. Ferrell and McKay originally wanted to have Ron fight ninja monkeys in the jungle in a spoof of the drama Alive. Famed director Paul Thomas Anderson was initially interested in helping, but once he took a look at the initial draft and saw a sequence where Ron had a musical number with a bunch of sharks, he politely cut his ties with the movie. The movie is also not shot in San Diego, it is actually shot in L.A. County. The initial cast aside from Ferrell as Burgundy was dramatically different. The lineup had Leslie Mann as Veronica Corningstone, Chris Parnell (who played Garth) was supposed to be Brick, Dan Aykroyd was supposed to be Garth, Ben Stiller as Brian Fontana, Ed Harris as Ed Harkin, and John C Reilly was supposed to be Champ. Ferrell was a huge fan of Reilly, but he had to step away as he signed with Scorsese for The Aviator. But Reilly made sure to team back up and Ferrell and McKay with Talladega Nights. Lastly, that was actually Ferrell playing the flute. He has been playing since elementary school.^[6]

4 Office Space (1999)

The original concept for the brilliant comedy was based off of a short animation series about an office worker named Milton. When asked what the inspiration was for the concept, Mike Judge cited his time in the 1980s, in the Bay Area, having his soul sucked-out working as an engineer in a corporate hell-scape. Judge finished the first draft of the script right after the completion of the first season of King of the Hill. With his connections to Fox, he was able to wrangle together a few executives and have a table reading and he asked Stephen Root (who voiced Bill) to read a few of the characters. Judge and the executives were so taken by Root’s Milton that the part was offered immediately. The film could’ve gone in a completely different direction, as Fox wanted Ben Affleck to play Peter. One of the few push backs that Judge got would have changed the entire mood of the film as the executives hated the gangster rap throughout the film. But it was positive reactions from the test audience that revealed people could appreciate the absurdity of this boring corporate landscape with white-collar-drones listening to gangster rap. The movie also made office supply history, as the infamous red stapler was actually a discontinued color by Swingline. The prop used in the movie was actually custom-made and after the premiere, Swingline had to re-introduce the red stapler due to high-demand.^[7]

3 Animal House (1978)

This John Landis gem was originally supposed to be a satirical dark comedy loosely based on Charles Manson’s youth. National Lampoon, which back in the day was a humor publication like MAD magazine, got involved when it’s editor-in-chief matched up with Landis. The cast was supposed to be star-studded with Bill Murray, Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd; but once the ball got rolling in post-production, both the producers and the stars themselves went different directions. The budget that Landis had was so minuscule there was no option to build expensive sets, so they would have to convince an actual college to let them film. The producers were rudely rejected by every single college in the USA except for one, the University of Oregon. With a new cast worked-out and a location to shoot, the young ensemble of actors decided to do a bit of research and attended a frat party. Karen Allen was apparently with the actors when a beer was spilled by mistake and the party crashers from Hollywood were chased out and beaten by the football team.^[8]

2 The Big Lebowski (1998)

This Coen Brothers directed hit was inspired by the Raymond Chandler novel The Big Sleep. The character of The Dude was based on a person named Jeff Dowd. Dowd helped them distribute their first film, was a member of The Seattle Seven, and referred to himself as “The Dude”. The Big Lebowski character was shopped around with some huge Hollywood names. The Coen’s wanted Marlon Brando for the role. The movie also has one of the highest F-bomb counts in film history at 260, but the film is also inducted with only 700 other films into the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry. It’s literally an American legend. The most interesting fact about the film is that the famous line “I hate the f*****g Eagles, man” led the Rolling Stones’ manager to waive the $150,000 licensing fee for Dead Flowers.^[9]

1 Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Stanley Kubrick‘s only comedy is based on a book by Peter George called Red Alert. This film is at the top of the list for many reasons, mainly the feat of being a still relevant and hysterical film over a half century later. Between the tone and subject matter, the film can best be described as pitch-black humor. The film wasn’t even intended to be a drama. While Kubrick was adapting the novel into a screenplay, he couldn’t help but notice all the sick jokes. Eventually he stopped trying to avoid all of the unintentional humor and just went all-in on a comedy. Apparently while shooting, since both George and Stanley were chess masters, any creative differences would be solved with a quick game. The movie had two alternative endings. The first in which all of the politicians and generals get into a giant pie fight. The other one (which was never shot) was apparently going to show aliens watching all of these events unfold from outer space like a reality show. The latter would make a formidable ending to 2020.^[10]

Top 10 Brilliant Black Comedies

Researchers forecast that the international market for video games will grow at nearly 13% a year until, by 2030, it will be worth around $580 billion. With such an incredible amount of money at stake, game developers are constantly trying to find a game that will capture the public’s imagination and be the next big thing.

Ever-developing technology means that games are more and more sophisticated. Companies are spending huge sums in the hunt for success. Games appear and quickly disappear without leaving much of a mark. Yet, despite technological progress, some older games persist and become popular again.

We have recently seen board games (Monopoly is an example) surge in popularity. And some of the reasons why this is true of board games also apply to old video games. Nostalgia is one reason. People remember playing something years ago and want to take another look at it. Often, they are interested in something other than the latest version of an old favorite—they want to play the same game they played way back when. Familiarity is comforting.

Another motive connected to nostalgia is that players know what to expect. They remember the game and know how to play it. They don’t have to study a manual or watch videos on YouTube to learn how to play. A third reason is that these games are often simple and straightforward. The task is clear, and a player doesn’t get bogged down in complexity.

Our list contains games of various types, from challenges to role-plays. Some have never entirely disappeared, and some have made comebacks that seem surprising. Here are ten classic video games making a comeback.

Related: 10 Bizarre Video Games That Actually Exist

10 Pac Man

First released in 1980, Pac-Man became the iconic game of that decade. Because video games were a novelty, almost any game would find players. But Pac-Man’s simple but attractive graphics, loveable characters, and simple game plan turned players into addicts.

It might have been easy to play, but it was tough to master. A player could always try to get a higher score next time. And players spent an endless amount of quarters trying to outscore themselves and their friends. You could never win at Pac-Man because there was no end-point.

So far, Pac-Man has raked in over $14 billion and sold around 48 million copies. In 2005, Guinness World Records named it the most successful coin-operated game of all time.

Its popularity waned as more sophisticated games appeared, but constant tweaks and its wide availability drew in new generations of fans.

9 World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft came onto the market in 2004 and was an immediate hit. Critics and players loved it, and it quickly became the most successful multiplayer online role-playing game ever, with an astonishing 12 million subscribers in 2010.

The developer, Blizzard Entertainment, released World of Warcraft to build on the Warcraft franchise that had started with the release of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994. This real-time strategy game reached a wide public, but the public turned away from these types of games in the early 2000s. World of Warcraft was the answer that reached a new audience and ensured that the world of Azeroth continued to draw people in.

Expansion packs keep the game fresh and ensure that having made one comeback, it won’t need another.

8 Doom

Doom is a phenomenon. Originally released in 1993, it’s had its ups and downs but remains popular. When Windows released the Windows 95 operating system, more computers had Doom loaded on them than Windows 95. Over the years, the creators have released new versions of the Doom franchise. But the original keeps coming back.

Other first-person shooter games came onto the market, but Doom was always the one they had to beat.

People still find the original Doom entertaining because it’s easy to navigate and not over-complicated.

7 Dragon Quest

It’s said that when a new edition of Dragon Quest appeared on the market in Japan, people would call in sick to get their hands on a copy before their friends. True or not, the tale shows how popular Dragon Quest was in its native country.

Dragon Quest first came out in 1986 and was very popular in Japan. This popularity didn’t spread to the United States, where sales were sluggish despite good reviews. In the States, the game was called Dragon Warrior until the release of Dragon Quest VIII in 2005. Then, Americans started looking at previous releases.

The developers claim that its popularity relies on the fact that anyone can play it at the level that suits them best. You don’t need to plow through a manual before you start playing; it’s intuitive and fun.

6 Myst

A game that gives a player little information, no clear reason to play, and no obvious enemies is destined for the scrap heap. But Myst was a surprise hit, and critics call it one of the best video games ever made.

Players must work out what they should do and explore Myst’s interactive world. There are puzzles that the player has to solve, but there is no shooting. Myst is a mind game that players love.

People loved its impressive graphics and the challenge, but other games came along and overshadowed Myst. But it keeps coming back. The original version is still a challenge and still fresh. Some people turn back to Myst for nostalgic reasons, and new generations of players have a look at it to see what all the fuss was about. But once in, they are hooked.

5 Chrono Trigger

Some reviewers have described Chrono Trigger as a masterpiece. Square, the developer, released the original in 1995 and clearly had invested a lot of time and love in creating what was an immediate success. This role-playing game has a team of adventurers traveling through time to prevent a catastrophe. Gamers loved it.

Despite its age, the graphics still look great today. The well-developed characters and the soundtrack keep the game fresh, and it still compares well with more modern games.

Chrono Trigger has remained popular through the years, but there are regular surges of new gamers discovering it for the first time.

4 EarthBound

Perhaps American gamers didn’t like being parodied in EarthBound. This Japanese role-playing game was set in Eagleland, a fictional parody of the United States. This 1994 game was a success in Japan—where it was known as Mother 2—but made little impact on American gamers. The developers changed the name in the United States because Mother 2 was the sequel to a game that never appeared on the American market.

The game was intentionally flaky and marketed in the U.S. under the slogan “This Game Stinks.” Americans took the creators at their word and didn’t buy it.

Or most Americans didn’t. It developed a small cult following and made its comeback largely through word of mouth. Critics, most of whom had originally panned the game, came to see it as interesting and different. Its popularity increased, and people are still playing it today.

3 Quake

Sinister and dark, Quake is a first-person shooter game developed by id Software. In the single-player mode, the gamer tries to stop an alien known as Quake. Quake has taken over a human-designed teleporter and is using the device to send kamikaze squads into our world to test our ability to fight back.

When it was originally released in 1996, critics praised Quake, which was immediately popular with gamers. Quake was the successor to Doom and did well for many years as new versions came out.

The original game looks dated, but people have been giving it another look even though it is unsophisticated by modern standards. Perhaps people turn back to it precisely because it’s dated and fairly simple. It’s video gaming’s answer to comfort food.

2 Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog has scuttled from video consoles to appear in books, comics, and films. Add merchandise to these media, and you have a cultural icon. First released in 1991 by Sega, Sonic and his battles with the evil Doctor Eggman were, for many, their introduction to online gaming.

When it came out, Sonic was the obvious competitor to Mario and became just as popular. Later versions of Sonic have yet to be as well-received as the original. But Sonic has remained a favorite since the beginning.

A recent boost in popularity is perhaps because the first Sonic fans now have children of their own and are introducing them to Sonic’s world.

1 Tetris

The Tetris website modestly claims:

“Tetris is the addictive puzzle that started it all, embracing our universal desire to create order out of chaos.”

Originally designed by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov, Tetris has been frustrating players since 1984. Like Pac-Man, Tetris is a game you can’t win; it will always beat you. The best that a player can do is to better their previous score.

Tetris never went away, but it faded into the background. It was a game that everyone knew, but few played. This has changed. Its availability on virtually all platforms means you can play it anywhere, anytime, when you have a few moments to fill.

It’s simple and addictive. And this is the reason why it’s coming back.