41 The Kiss 1896 Film Uproar
In 1896, one of the first films ever shown, The Kiss, depicted a couple kissing on screen for 18 seconds. Early audiences and moral guardians reacted with outrage, and critics described the brief scene as “absolutely disgusting.” At a time when motion pictures were just emerging, this simple on-screen kiss became one of the first cinema scandals.
42 Woman In The Moon Countdown
In 1929, Fritz Lang’s German silent film “Woman in the Moon” (Frau im Mond) introduced what is often cited as the first use of a countdown to zero before a rocket launch in movie history. Lang showed scientists and engineers counting down step by step before ignition. Rocket designers later adopted the same ritual in real-life launches because it helped coordinate complex technical procedures. The film proved so influential that the first successfully launched V-2 rocket at Peenemünde carried the Frau im Mond logo painted on its base.
43 Police Academy 7 Moscow Filming
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Police Academy 7: Mission to Moscow became one of the first American movies to film on location in Russia. The Hollywood comedy took its cast and crew into post-Soviet Moscow to shoot in the newly opened country. In 1993, production had to pause when the Russian Constitutional Crisis.
44 Santa Claus Conquers The Martians
In 1964, the low-budget sci-fi oddity “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” made film history by giving Mrs. Claus her first documented motion picture role. The movie, produced for American audiences, put a live-action Mrs. Claus on screen three weeks before she appeared in the better-known TV special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
45 George Segal Keeps Jewish Surname
George Segal became one of the first American film actors in Hollywood to rise to full leading man status without changing his clearly Jewish surname. At a time when many Jewish performers altered their names to sound less ethnic, he kept “Segal” on the marquee and still built a mainstream star career. That shift helped pave the way for later Jewish artists like Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand to keep their own names while becoming major Hollywood stars.
46 William Talman Cancer Anti-Smoking PSA
William Talman became the first Hollywood actor to film an anti-smoking public service announcement, using his own diagnosis to warn others. He had lung cancer when he shot the short film and chose to address viewers directly instead of playing a fictional character. The PSA opened with his stark words: “Before I die, I want to do what I can to leave a world free of cancer for my six children.”
47 Blues Brothers Car Destruction Record
During the filming of The Blues Brothers, the production destroyed 103 cars, turning the movie into a Hollywood landmark for on-screen automotive carnage. At the time of its release, that total set a world record for the most cars wrecked in a single film. The record stood until Blues Brothers 2000 deliberately topped it by smashing 104 cars during its own production.
Latest FactRepublic Video:
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
48 Emil Jannings Lost Oscar Performance
In 1929, Emil Jannings won the first Academy Award for Best Actor for his work in the 1927 film “The Way of All Flesh.” That silent drama, produced in the early Hollywood studio era, later became one of the great missing pieces of film history. No known complete copies of The Way of All Flesh survive, which makes Jannings’s Oscar-winning performance the only Academy Award-winning turn that audiences can no longer see in full.
49 Stephen Stucker Airplane AIDS Disclosure
Stephen Stucker, best known for his manic turn as the air traffic controller Johnny in the 1980 comedy Airplane, died in 1986 at the age of 38 from AIDS-related complications. In 1985, he publicly revealed his diagnosis during a televised Christian talk show appearance, making him one of the first popular Hollywood entertainers to openly acknowledge having the then-recently identified disease. His decision to speak out came at a time when AIDS carried intense stigma and misinformation, and many in the industry stayed silent.
50 Sony Pictures Buys Alamo Drafthouse
After the 1948 Paramount Decree forced Hollywood studios to divest their theater chains, no major studio owned cinemas for decades. That changed in 2024, when Sony Pictures became the first studio to get back into the exhibition business by acquiring the Alamo Drafthouse theater chain. The move came after the decree was effectively lifted in 2020, clearing the way for vertical integration to return to Hollywood.
RE: Fact #4 (Tom And Jerry First Speaking) – I remember that scene—one person asks, “Could you talk the whole time?” and the other replies, “Yeah, I just never knew what to say.”
I remember Tom asking Jerry why he never talked, and Jerry said, “Because I had nothing to say. And I still don’t!” That’s literally the only thing I recall about that movie.
I recall their house being completely blown apart, and they were rescuing a girl from a helicopter or something.
Both of them say it at the exact same moment.
RE: Fact #33 (John Williams First AFI Composer) – John Williams is a living legend. No one in the 20th century wrote more wildly known, widely recognized, and especially beloved film scores than he did. That says a lot, considering everything that came out of Broadway in the same era. It’s impossible to ignore the huge impact of the movies he scored.
RE: Fact #35 (Demi Moore Striptease 12.5-Million Deal) – I watched Striptease and it felt like everyone except Demi was doing comedy, while she was stuck in drama.
RE: Fact #8 (Al Jolson Jazz Singer Talkie) – The scene in question. Later, Jolson is playing piano for his mother when his rabbi father arrives. He shouts “STOP!” and the movie snaps back to a normal silent film—pretty meta for 1927.
RE: Fact #18 (Perfect Strangers Most-Remade Film Record) – The Italian movie is super entertaining. It feels a bit like 12 Angry Men—just a group of people talking all day—but it holds your attention like an action flick. The core idea is solid: friends at a dinner party put their phones on the table and share any messages or calls they receive with everyone.
I just saw an off‑Broadway play called sh*t. MEET. FAN. It hasn’t been adapted into English for film yet, but it made it to the stage!
RE: Fact #22 (Sandra Bullock Razzie And Oscar) – The movies were All About Steve and The Blind Side.
RE: Fact #10 (Audrey Hepburn Roman Holiday Breakthrough) – I just learned that Gregory Peck was seen as a class act by today’s standards and practically a saint in 1950s Hollywood.
I’ve always been a fan of Gregory Peck.
I feel the same—his Atticus Finch performance is amazing, and hearing things like this makes me appreciate him even more.
RE: Fact #38 (Shrek Cannes Animated Competition Return) – After that, the animators went out and got totally caught up in pussy.
RE: Fact #6 (Sigourney Weaver Aliens Oscar Breakthrough) – She’s obviously fantastic in the film, but something people don’t talk about enough—and I’ve just noticed again on a rewatch—is how much the first half works as an ensemble piece. Getting to know each crew member, their little disputes over money and authority, and the humor really sets up the second half, where it’s all about Ripley surviving them, to be so great.
The first time I watched Alien, it took me a while to figure out who the main character was. For almost half the movie there’s no real focus on Ridley, which is pretty cool. It not only builds suspense but also tells the story from lots of different perspectives.
Many people don’t realize it now, but back then John Hurt was a major star and the most recognizable cast member. The filmmakers deliberately put him in that role as a trick, expecting audiences to assume he’d be the main focus. So when the infamous dinner scene finally arrives, everyone is shocked, making the aftermath on the Nostromo feel way more intense and scary because nobody knew who would die or when.
The whole “get to know the characters first” thing feels old‑school, and it’s missing from a lot of modern sci‑fi. It’s surprising how many directors and writers don’t seem to get that. If the audience doesn’t care about the characters, then no amount of special effects will make the story matter.
It feels like Independence Day. Did we really need to learn that Will Smith’s character is going to propose to a wife who works as a stripper? There’s only one other scene where she mentions being a stripper, and not much else. Still, knowing her job adds depth to her character—we see her past, her present, and maybe some foreshadowing that hints at a hopeful future.
RE: Fact #29 (Heath Ledger Joker Oscar First) – The whole movie felt like a real step up for the genre—its humanity, style, and execution were top‑notch. I’m honestly still upset about Heath’s death. For years I’ve kept a wish for Heath Ledger to appear in a Dark Knight Rises remake and for all four Beatles to reunite in the 21st century.
RE: Fact #28 (Brendan Fraser Canada’s Walk Honoree) – No sh*t, I thought the man was Canadian.
I feel the same, just learned Brendan Fraser wasn’t Canadian lol
His parents are Canadian, moved to the US, and Brendan was born here. He has dual citizenship, so I’d say he’s still Canadian, lol
RE: Fact #49 (Stephen Stucker Airplane AIDS Disclosure) – Even now, whenever someone asks, “What do you think of this?” he instantly pops into my head and I start looking for something to turn into a brooch.
I really like how he types in that scene.
RE: Fact #2 (Jim Carrey 1994 Comedy Sweep) – What a fantastic year to turn ten!
RE: Fact #40 (Trader Horn Africa Shoot Tragedies) – According to the wiki, someone was killed by a charging rhinoceros, and the footage was used in the final print. So I guess you watched a snuff film too.
RE: Fact #32 (George C. Scott Rejects Oscar) – Two years later, at the 1973 Oscars, Marlon Brando had Sacheen Littlefeather decline the award for him, and she was booed during parts of her speech.
RE: Fact #50 (Sony Pictures Buys Alamo Drafthouse) – That explains why Alamo isn’t as big as it used to be.
Alamo was sh*tting the bed beforehand and Sony swooped in to save it. It’s definitely not a good thing but I don’t know if we’d have Alamo at all without them.
RE: Fact #20 (A Clockwork Orange X-Rated First) – The movie got an R rating after Kubrick trimmed about 30 seconds, and he pulled it from UK theaters in 1974 because of threats and accusations that it inspired copycat crimes. It didn’t play publicly in the UK again until after Kubrick died in 1999.
Whatever he cut was probably pretty intense—I saw the R version in the theater, and it was really pushing the envelope for an R back then.
The UK actually banned The Monster Mash from the radio for decades because they thought it was too morbid, so maybe it wasn’t that terrible after all.
RE: Fact #50 (Sony Pictures Buys Alamo Drafthouse) – Why did we scrap the decree? Having vertical control over theaters just seems wrong.
Those problems aren’t really an issue anymore. Back then theaters usually only had one screen, so a studio could show its own film and keep others out. Nowadays most theaters have multiple screens, and it wouldn’t make financial sense for a studio to block that many just for a monopoly. Plus the rise of streaming and independent chains makes the monopoly argument far weaker.
RE: Fact #19 (Home Alone Record-Breaking Holiday Hit) – Since Pesci is best known for playing the heavy in movies like Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and Casino, it makes sense he wasn’t used to the family‑friendly vibe on the Home Alone set and let a few f‑bombs slip. Columbus tried to curb his swearing by suggesting he say “fridge” instead.
He used gibberish because it was the only way he could avoid swearing
Just a heads‑up: Joe Pesci actually put out a gangster rap song called “Wise Guy,” and it’s as great as you’d expect.
RE: Fact #3 (Eadweard Muybridge First Onscreen Kiss) – They were really close friends and maybe even lived together.
RE: Fact #27 (Jim Carrey Cable Guy 20-Million) – I think Cable Guy is seriously underrated.
RE: Fact #14 (Louis Le Prince Vanished Cinema Pioneer) – Whenever I read about Edison online, it’s always about how much of a jerk he is.
It’s a stretch to blame Edison. The “patent war assassination” story gets repeated, but there’s zero evidence. Actually, a relative of Le Prince told police that he had talked about planning his own suicide and set up a way not to be found. Police brushed it off because his businesses were doing well. The son mentioned in the title was shot while duck hunting, which usually means other hunters are nearby and ducks are flying low. In the end, it’s just bad luck and opportunism—not a weird coincidence. Of course Edison would want the patent.
The main point is he was a successful dick. The internet loves successful dicks—some admire them, some mock the admirers. Without them, there’d be far less to talk about.
RE: Fact #29 (Heath Ledger Joker Oscar First) – Ledger was only the second person ever to win a posthumous Oscar.
RE: Fact #1 (Jane Russell Cleavage The Outlaw) – Yeah, that’s pretty interesting.
Yep, definitely. I love hearing about a censor ending up making the thing they’re trying to ban more popular. It’s a tasty bit of irony, especially when it’s about boobs.
RE: Fact #20 (A Clockwork Orange X-Rated First) – I think Midnight Cowboy is the only X‑rated movie that ever won an Oscar.
Right, and I don’t think it’s actually rated X anymore since it was re‑rated to R at one point. The X rating was discouraged because it got tied to porn, so most studios tried to avoid it by trimming the film or releasing it unrated.
RE: Fact #48 (Emil Jannings Lost Oscar Performance) – Reading the plot, it seems like the best outcome. The guy loves his job and family, gets asked to haul a large sum of money by train from Milwaukee to Chicago. A blonde temptress spots him and lures him into a saloon. He wakes up without the cash, ends up fighting the crook on the train tracks and kills him with the train. Everyone thinks he died, and he just says “guess I’m homeless now.” Twenty years later he watches his old family from a distance, sees his son succeed, the son hands him a dollar and he walks off like a tramp, never telling his son he’s alive. I get that he broke his marriage vows and lost his employer’s money, but that’s just dumb. No positivity or perseverance—he just rolls with fate as soon as something inconvenient happens.
Hard to say without seeing it. Obviously the character isn’t a hero, but if the actor was good it could’ve been interesting. He won best actor for it, so who knows.
Also, times were different back in 1927. That’s literally a century ago. Trying to betray your wife, accidentally killing someone and failing your duties might have been enough reason to disappear. I could see someone doing that today despite all the fake machismo people portray.
RE: Fact #48 (Emil Jannings Lost Oscar Performance) – He got the award for this movie and The Last Command too—it’s the only time an actor has won it for two films.
It took me a moment to get it—nine people have won the award twice, but he got a single Best Actor award for his work in two different movies.
RE: Fact #37 (A Daughter Of The Gods) – There’s a naked woman in it, so someone most probably has it.
RE: Fact #44 (Santa Claus Conquers The Martians) – Just learned there’s a movie titled “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.”
RE: Fact #1 (Jane Russell Cleavage The Outlaw) – Cleave actually means both to join together and to split apart. It’s weird when a word is its own opposite, but here both meanings fit.
RE: Fact #47 (Blues Brothers Car Destruction Record) – The Blues Brothers 2000 never existed; there was no such movie.
RE: Fact #23 (Memento First 2000s Film Preserved) – What am I doing? I thought I was chasing him, but actually he’s the one chasing me.
I saw it 20 years ago and have been quoting it every week since, because I’m constantly confused.
RE: Fact #50 (Sony Pictures Buys Alamo Drafthouse) – Things have just kept getting worse since COVID.
Arclight being gone is a fu*king nightmare
RE: Fact #15 (Three Stooges You Nazty Spy) – It’s not just Hitler. They also take a jab at Stalin and his notorious habit of “inviting” Russian ballerinas for private dances. Curly nails a great Mussolini impression while they’re on the balcony. They also mock concentration camps, but they did that before realizing those camps would become death camps—the Stooges were Jewish, after all.
The film came out two years before the Final Solution, and at that point the camps weren’t yet carrying out mass executions.
Exactly, they wouldn’t have joked about the Holocaust.
They also targeted the Japanese multiple times.
RE: Fact #7 (Star Wars Navajo Language Dub) – Greedo’s lines are actually just meaningless phrases in Quechua. LucasArts supposedly hired a linguistic anthropologist to record them, but he thought it was exploitative when they told him the lines would be played backward to sound more alien.
Indigenous communities are working hard to keep their languages alive, especially with younger people, so dubs like this are both awesome and really important.
Aside from my LCE graduate course, it was cool to see how Spanish gets rarer the farther you go from the cities in South America, and you start meeting native speakers of Aymara, Quechua, Shipibo, and others. In some places neither Spanish nor English are widely understood, which I thought was neat.
I also think using media to revive and protect languages is a great idea. I’ve been looking into video games for second‑language learning, and the research looks really promising.
Playing video games has seriously boosted my Russian. They keep me active, force me to interact with the language, and help me pick up vocab and grammar until I get a decent grasp of what’s happening.
I completely agree—being a linguist right now is pretty exciting. Language preservation and re‑education are both fascinating and crucial for a lot of communities today.
I’m just curious—are you sure it’s really the indigenous community that’s putting in all that energy and interest? From what I’ve seen, the folks who get really excited about “saving” languages tend to be white, upper‑middle‑class, liberal‑to‑left academics. I lived in New Mexico for a while, and the young Native American people I talked to didn’t seem that enthusiastic about it.
Man, everyone wants to keep their culture alive. I’m white and not exactly middle class, but I support any effort to preserve indigenous languages. My own indigenous language was almost wiped out and barely survived, and that experience makes me want to help other languages like Cornish or Manx make a comeback.
In Wisconsin, I heard the former Ho Chunk Nation president say they’re one of the few U.S. native tribes that never stopped speaking their language. I’m not sure how accurate that is, but everyone from the tribe at the event seemed fluent.
RE: Fact #35 (Demi Moore Striptease 12.5-Million Deal) – Striptease, Showgirls, The Full Monty, and Magic Mike—looks like there’s a demand for movies about taking off your clothes.
RE: Fact #31 (Sessue Hayakawa Silent-Era Heartthrob) – That escalated pretty quickly.
RE: Fact #27 (Jim Carrey Cable Guy 20-Million) – He was totally the go‑to guy for comedy movies back then. I loved those days—he was in some real classics.
It was probably one of the best breakout years ever for an actor. By 2000 he’d added Batman Forever, Ace Ventura 2, The Cable Guy, Liar Liar, The Truman Show, Man on the Moon, Me, Myself & Irene, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas to his résumé.
Just think about how those movies would’ve turned out if someone else had been the lead.
Yeah, there’s a good chance we wouldn’t be talking about them today.
RE: Fact #10 (Audrey Hepburn Roman Holiday Breakthrough) – Yeah, Atticus definitely knew what he was doing.
RE: Fact #9 (Prey First Full Comanche Dub) – Prey is an awesome movie. I’d love to see the Predator placed in more historical settings.
A Predator movie set during World War I would be insanely awesome.
I’ve always wanted movies made from two comic storylines—one from the Alien comics and one from the Predator comics.
One Alien comic has a Xenomorph rampaging through a Viking settlement, and the villagers team up to hunt it down.
The Predator story is even more interesting. In an alternate timeline, a peasant in feudal Japan discovers a crashed Predator ship. He replaces his own heart with the Predator’s, gaining longer life, grabs the alien weapons, and starts hunting other Predators, taking their hearts too. The tale jumps to modern day where he’s built a massive corporation and runs strike teams equipped with human‑Predator hybrid tech to hunt the creatures.
After a couple of hours searching, I found the comics: the Viking story is “Aliens: Stalker,” and the Japan‑to‑modern saga is “Aliens vs Predator: Eternal.” Turns out the main character isn’t actually Yutani in that series, but someone else.
Nice, you’ve definitely piqued my interest—especially the Predator/Samurai/Blade story.
RE: Fact #23 (Memento First 2000s Film Preserved) – I love that movie—it’s one of my all-time favorites. I saw it at a theater in Uptown, Minneapolis, and I still remember feeling disoriented as I walked out. It totally warped my sense of reality for a moment.
RE: Fact #27 (Jim Carrey Cable Guy 20-Million) – Ace Ventura, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber made 1994 an awesome summer for us teens.
Kids were stuck in detention for hours all over the country just for talking nonsense.
RE: Fact #44 (Santa Claus Conquers The Martians) – It’s also one of the better MST3K episodes
RE: Fact #30 (Eyes Wide Shut 400-Day Shoot) – One of the wildest conspiracy theories I’ve heard is that Kubrick called Tom Cruise back for extra reshoots, and Scientology had Kubrick killed because they didn’t want Cruise to do the movie at all. Supposedly his contract also barred Cruise from any other films until *EWS* was done. I’m not claiming I buy it, but I wouldn’t be shocked if it were true.
RE: Fact #4 (Tom And Jerry First Speaking) – Can’t believe I’ve never seen that. It must be super weird hearing them have full‑blown conversations.
I saw it when it first came out—really weird. I remember disliking it right away. I have no idea how they choose the voices for those icons.
It felt odd that they gave it such a long story. I’d love to see all the cartoons shown back‑to‑back on the big screen, but they don’t really work as a single movie, especially without the nonstop violence.
RE: Fact #9 (Prey First Full Comanche Dub) – The language director for my tribe has been dubbing public‑domain movies, and I love it. It’s not the best voice acting ever, but he’s giving it his all, and it’s a blast to watch old films dubbed in Potawatomi.
He also runs the tribe’s YouTube channel, where he posts a bunch of skits—some with English subtitles—including a dub of Rudolph the Red‑Nosed Reindeer.
Usually they hire one person for translation and another for voice acting, since it’s rare to find someone who can do both. It’s a big ask because there aren’t many people who speak the language, even fewer who can translate well, and even fewer who have the dramatic voice‑acting talent.
That reminds me of the documentary “Chuck Norris vs Communism,” which covers how communist Romania had a huge underground market for Western movies and a tiny group of people who dubbed them. The dubbers became well‑known across the country even though they stayed anonymous. The film says those bootlegged dubbed VHS tapes helped spark political unrest because the movies showed people a much better way of life they were missing under the corrupt communist regime.
RE: Fact #13 (Penny Marshall Big Tom Hanks) – I’m a guy who loves BIG, but I love League of Their Own to death.
RE: Fact #4 (Tom And Jerry First Speaking) – I was 7 when it came out, and it was the only Tom and Jerry I knew. I loved it and watched it over and over. A few years later we got cable, saw the show for the first time, and wondered why the characters never talked. I liked it less because they didn’t talk. Funny how my perspective was the opposite of everyone else.
Here’s the other side: I’d always just watched the cartoon, and when the characters finally spoke, I was thrilled. It was such a shocking moment that I still remember it clearly.
RE: Fact #13 (Penny Marshall Big Tom Hanks) – We’re pouring out milk and Pepsi for our fallen sister. schlemeil schlemozzle.
I started mixing Coke and milk as a kid because she liked it. It actually tasted pretty good, kind of like a melted float.
RE: Fact #32 (George C. Scott Rejects Oscar) – Maynard from Tool skipped the Grammys and didn’t accept his award. He says the Grammys are just a huge promotional machine for the music industry, aimed at a low intellect and feeding the masses. They don’t honor the art or the creator—it’s the business celebrating itself.
RE: Fact #42 (Woman In The Moon Countdown) – Turns out the countdown was just one of the things the film influenced, according to Wikipedia:
– The rocket ship Friede is built inside a tall building and then moved to the launch pad.
– As launch approaches, intertitles count down from six to “now,” and Woman in the Moon is often called the first movie to show a countdown to zero before a rocket launch.
– The rocket blasts off from a pool of water; today launch pads use water to absorb heat and mute the rocket’s roar.
– In space, the rocket drops its first stage and fires a second stage, anticipating modern multistage orbital rockets.
– The crew lies on horizontal beds to cope with the G‑forces during lift‑off and early acceleration.
– Foot straps on the floor keep the crew restrained during weightlessness.
RE: Fact #3 (Eadweard Muybridge First Onscreen Kiss) – He’s the guy who killed his wife’s lover, and the jury found him not guilty, saying they’d have done the same thing.
RE: Fact #21 (Different From The Others 1919) – Hope someone thought to digitize it before some nutball finishes the job. Once a digital copy spreads, it’s a lot harder to erase.
RE: Fact #18 (Perfect Strangers Most-Remade Film Record) – That’s why it hasn’t been remade in English—Weinstein bought the rights right before his downfall.
RE: Fact #26 (Scorsese De Niro DiCaprio Audition) – With $70 million, he could’ve made a full feature and actually earned them some money back.
I bet a big chunk of the $70 million went to Scorsese, DiCaprio and De Niro just to appear in what’s basically a 16‑minute ad. They’d probably charge way more for a two‑hour‑plus spot.
RE: Fact #20 (A Clockwork Orange X-Rated First) – I just learned A Clockwork Orange was once rated X.
RE: Fact #24 (Emoji Movie Ends Saudi Ban) – I’m guessing folks hoped the ban would come back after seeing that.
I’d riot in the streets to get the ban reinstated because they showed that garbage movie.
RE: Fact #6 (Sigourney Weaver Aliens Oscar Breakthrough) – Stay away from her, you bitch.
I might be dating myself, but I’ll never forget watching this movie as a kid. The whole theater was totally into it—we all actually cheered when Ripley showed up in the power loader and delivered that line. The sense of relief and seeing Ripley finally on equal footing with the queen was just amazing.
So jealous you got to have that experience. My mom is about the same age as Sigourney Weaver and usually avoids scary, violent movies, but she sat me down to watch Alien and Aliens on VHS and said it’s the best sci‑fi hero ever. I bet that moment felt like Cap wielding Mjolnir—totally epic theater excitement.
RE: Fact #10 (Audrey Hepburn Roman Holiday Breakthrough) – Audrey Hepburn was a top actress and beauty of the 20th century. Her first starring role was in Roman Holiday as Princess Ann, a European princess who runs away from royalty and spends a wild night with an American newsman. Initially the poster only featured Gregory Peck’s name with a small “Introducing Audrey Hepburn” underneath. Peck asked director Wyler to give her equal billing, putting her name before the title and as large as his, saying “You’ve got to change that because she’ll be a big star, and I’ll look like a jerk.” The movie was a box‑office hit, and Hepburn earned critical praise, winning an Oscar for Best Actress, a BAFTA for Best British Actress in a Leading Role, and a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama in 1953. The movies she did over the next 15 years before essentially retiring are amazing: Sabrina with Bogart, War and Peace, Funny Face with Astaire, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Charade with Cary Grant, My Fair Lady, How to Steal a Million, and Wait Until Dark.
The movies she made in the 15 years after that debut, before she pretty much retired, are incredible. She’s the reason those films work. Sabrina and Funny Face only succeed because Audrey Hepburn is amazing. Breakfast at Tiffany’s has its moments, but her charming performance is what makes it a classic.
No, I still think Breakfast at Tiffany’s is timeless. I spent a few years in the club scene when I was younger, then watched the movie and was surprised it felt just like those old days. I knew girls just like the main character—it feels surreal.
RE: Fact #30 (Eyes Wide Shut 400-Day Shoot) – Eyes Wide Shut is Kubrick’s biggest work. He starts with what most people expect, but if you weren’t after the obvious “money shot,” you end up with a night that sticks with you. Picture a young married couple in 1999 seeing the trailer—my parents were buzzing, and I knew they’d be the ones staying home while they watched it. Everyone thought it would be a steamy thriller, and they were let down when it wasn’t. Instead you get a heavy dose of guilt and inner conflict as Kubrick pulls back the layers of the social world we usually ignore. Try watching it with your partner and see how many topics you start avoiding afterward. The film is brilliant and often misread, but if you dig into Kubrick’s layers you’ll learn a lot about yourself.
What about 2001? A Clockwork Orange? The Shining?
RE: Fact #19 (Home Alone Record-Breaking Holiday Hit) – I remember when it first came out on VHS. Scoring a copy at the neighborhood video store felt like hitting the lottery. It’s one of the few movies I watched as a kid and got really excited about.
RE: Fact #25 (Hardcore Henry First POV Action) – Porn has driven a lot of video entertainment innovation; just think about how common POV porn was before this movie.
RE: Fact #13 (Penny Marshall Big Tom Hanks) – That movie was just on a whole different level.
RE: Fact #15 (Three Stooges You Nazty Spy) – If the characters look like real people, that’s a miracle.
RE: Fact #12 (Hitchcock Psycho First Strict Showtimes) – Almost nobody gets the twist in Psycho the way it was meant to be. The shower scene is supposed to be a total surprise, but whenever Psycho shows up in media, that shower scene is the first—and often only—thing people see.
The same goes for Planet of the Apes: the big surprise ending loses its impact when they put it on the DVD cover.
RE: Fact #7 (Star Wars Navajo Language Dub) – Here’s a fun fact about the Navajo language: after World War I, Germany and Japan sent students to the United States to study Native American languages like Cherokee, Choctaw, and Comanche. Because of that, many U.S. military people were hesitant to keep using Code Talkers in World II, fearing the code could be cracked—until they learned how complex Navajo is. Navajo was a perfect choice because it isn’t written and almost nobody outside the tribe can speak it. The Marine Corps even made it tougher by adding word substitution, making the code practically unbreakable. About 400 Navajo served as code talkers during the war.
RE: Fact #32 (George C. Scott Rejects Oscar) – Peter Sellers replied, “You can’t act in here—this is the Academy Awards.”
RE: Fact #5 (O Brother First Digital Color) – What a great movie—really love the soundtrack, especially the Soggy Bottom Boys.
Dan Tyminski, the legendary bluegrass vocalist nicknamed Clooney, is the singer on Avicii’s hit “Hey Brother.”
RE: Fact #40 (Trader Horn Africa Shoot Tragedies) – I’m watching it now but I wouldn’t recommend it; it’s extremely racist and they abuse real animals, kind of like fu*ing Cannibal Holocaust, so I don’t enjoy this film. I should mention I watched every Best Picture winner as a weird project last year, so I started watching the nominees now, but I wish I hadn’t found this one. Yeah, the movie was fu*ing horrible, but the African tribal music was pretty intense. Still wouldn’t recommend it.
RE: Fact #21 (Different From The Others 1919) – Berlin was a real stronghold for gay rights and culture before the Nazis came to power.
From what I remember, that ended up messing with the queer scene. A lot of those clubs kept member lists, which made it easier for the Nazis to track people.
RE: Fact #42 (Woman In The Moon Countdown) – The film was solid hard sci‑fi, even by today’s standards, and it actually helped shape real spaceflight. It had real experts consulting, and the kids who later headed up NASA were inspired by it. But they were way too optimistic about women astronauts—still no woman has walked on the moon, even a hundred years later.
RE: Fact #11 (Attack Of The Clones All-Digital) – It was the first big‑budget movie shot digitally, even though a bunch of films had been using digital since the mid‑to‑late ’90s.
RE: Fact #16 (Midnight Club 21 Jump Scares) – I liked episode 2 more—it had 22 jump scares and Channing Tatum did the “My name Jeff” line.
RE: Fact #12 (Hitchcock Psycho First Strict Showtimes) – Before Psycho, many theaters used to run movies on a nonstop loop, with people constantly walking in and then leaving as soon as they reached the part where they arrived.
RE: Fact #7 (Star Wars Navajo Language Dub) – The good news: we finally got Star Wars in your language. The bad news? We only managed to translate Attack of the Clones. Enjoy!
I just don’t see any bad news.
If they missed the amazing Episode I: The Phantom Menace, how are they supposed to enjoy the masterpiece that is Episode II: Attack of the Clones without any context?
RE: Fact #12 (Hitchcock Psycho First Strict Showtimes) – I always thought Psycho gave the industry a lot of firsts, but not this one. I’ve read that Clouzot already did something similar in France with *Diabolique*.
RE: Fact #9 (Prey First Full Comanche Dub) – I got to catch a special screening of Prey at a theater. The cast stayed for a Q&A, and they showed the Comanche version later that night. I’d never seen a Predator film before, so I had no idea what to expect. I absolutely loved it, and my friend who invited me—who’s a huge fan—felt the same. It was an amazing night; the movie really belongs on the big screen.