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The History of American Cinema: 1981

August - December

28/8 -

Former screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan’s directorial debut, Body Heat, is released.   The noirish crime thriller stars William Hurt as a second-rate lawyer lured into a murder plot by sultry Kathleen Turner.   Ted Danson also stars as a tap-dancing attorney. [ADD]

11/9 -

Argentinean-born Hector Babenco's acclaimed Brazilian film, Pixote, receives a limited release in the States.   Fernando Ramos da Silva plays the title role, an abandoned street urchin who sinks into a sordid world of drugs and prostitution. [ADD]

18/9 -

Karel Reisz's The French Lieutenant's Woman, adapted from John Fowles’ novel for the screen by Harold Pinter, is released.      Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons star. [ADD]

18/9 -

Frank Perry’s Mommie Dearest is released.   Based on the autobiography of Christina Crawford, the daughter of 40s movie queen Joan Crawford, Faye Dunaway plays the actress in a film that paints a less than flattering portrait. [ADD]

11/10 -

Louis Malle’s film, My Dinner with André, in which Wallace Shawn and André Gregory share a meal and conversation in a restaurant, is released.   The film was written by Shawn and Gregory and based on a number of conversations they held over a number of years. [ADD]

24/10 -

Costume designer Edith Head dies of bone marrow disease in Hollywood at the age of 83. [ADD]

Oct -

MGM-UA, Paramount and Universal form the UIP International distribution organisation. [ADD]

20/11 -

Milos Forman’s Ragtime sees veteran tough guy James Cagney return to the big screen for the first time in 20 years.   He stars opposite Howard Rollins, Jr., Elizabeth McGovern, Mandy Patinkin, Mary Steenburgen and Brad Dourif in an adaptation of E. L. Doctorow’s novel. [ADD]

29/11 -

After a night of drinking with her husband Robert Wagner and the co-star of her latest picture, Christopher Walken, aboard their yacht moored at Santa Catalina Island, Natalie Wood retires to her cabin.   Her body is found in the water beside the boat at 7.45am the following morning. [ADD]

4/12 -

Jane Fonda and her father Henry appear to mend their differences both on and off the screen when they appear together in Mark Rydell’s On Golden Pond.   Katharine Hepburn, Doug McKeon and Dabney Coleman also star. [ADD]

4/12 -

Reds, Warren Beatty’s biopic of journalist John Reed, the founder member of the American Communist Party, is released.   Reaction to the film, which co-stars Diane Keaton and features cameo appearances from Jack Nicholson and Maureen Stapleton, is lukewarm. [ADD]

– The current average cost for a feature film produced by a major studio is estimated at around $9.75 million.   The highest budgets for 1981 were Reds ($35 million) and Ragtime ($32 million). [ADD]

– Sales of video recorders exceed the million mark for the first time this year. [ADD]

Other Key American Films of 1981

Absence of Malice (Sydney Pollack) [ADD]

Excalibur (John Boorman) [ADD]

Fort Apache, The Bronx (Daniel Petrie) [ADD]

The Howling (Joe Dante) [ADD]

The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (Connie Field) [ADD]

Prince of the City (Sidney Lumet) [ADD]

Rich and Famous (George Cukor) [ADD]

S. O. B. (Blake Edwards) [ADD]

Thief (Michael Mann) [ADD]

The History of Cinema: 1981