ON THIS DAY at the movies -Leo

March 22 1961 ALL IN A NIGHT’S WORK opens. Dir. Joseph Anthony. After inheriting his late uncle’s media empire, a playboy-ish exec leans that a company employee may have been having an affair with the mogul. Dean Martin & Shirley MacLaine carry a sunny, feather-light confection.

March 22 1996 FLIRTING WITH DISASTER opens. Dir. David O. Russell. Ben Stiller in neurotic overdrive as young man whose cross country road trip in search of his biological parents gets periodically, hilariously hijacked by an evermore wacky collection of screwballs & eccentrics.

March 22 1996 DIABOLIQUE opens. Dir. Jeremiah Chechik. Colorless, scare-free remake of Henri-Georges Clouzot's classic 1955 Hitchcockian thriller eschews psychological nuance & dread in favor of a procession of mildewed horror tropes straight out of the slasher movie playbook.

March 22 1991 MISTER JOHNSON opens. Dir. Bruce Beresford. In Brit, W. Africa 1923, ambitous black man's misplaced, obsequious infatuation with his colonial masters engenders tragic consequences. Pierce Brosnan & newcomer Maynard Eziashi anchor rueful cross cultural allegory.

March 21 1997 CRASH opens. Dir. David Cronenberg. After surviving a car crash, a young man is drawn into a cult of car-crash fetishists sexually aroused by broken bodies & twisted metal. James Spader stars in creepy, hugely controversial adapt. of JG Ballard’s cult cause celebre.

March 21 2014 DIVERGENT opens. Dir. Neil Berger. Shailene Woodley is a secret non-conforming teen "divergent" in first entry of the enervating YA trilogy set in a post-apocalyptic Chicago whose population has been divided into 5 rigid factions. With Theo James & Kate Winslet.

March 21 1997 LIAR LIAR opens. Dir. Tom Shadyac. Reaching deep into his arsenal of contorted physical slapstick, Jim Carrey turns a slender one joke premise - snarky lawyer is magically rendered unable to tell a lie for 24H - into inspired, manic, box office busting laugh-riot.

March 21 1971 GUMSHOE opens. Stephen Frears' dir. debut. A young Liverpudlian's dreams of becoming a Brit version of Sam Spade get answered when his fake "PI for hire" ad plunges him into a real life murder mystery. Albert Finney enlivens playfull, little seen noir pastiche.

March 21 1967 HOMBRE opens. Dir.Martin Ritt. Notable revisionist Western feat. Paul Newman as taciturn, marginalised Apache-raised white man pressed into rescuing group of stagecoach passengers waylaid by Richard Boone's avaricious bushwacker. With Diane Cilento & Frederic March.

March 20 1992 SHADOWS AND FOG opens. Woody Allen's affectionate Kafka-esque homage to German Expressionism set in '20s Europe where nerdy, book-keeper looks to join a band of vigilantes roaming the city's nocturnal, chiaroscuro rendered streets searching for a serial killer.

March 20 2009 DUPLICITY opens. Tony Gilroy writes & directs a breezy, smartly constructed, maddeningly convoluted & time-jumping romantic caper with Julia Roberts & Clive Owen as former rival CIA/MI5 operatives now working the private sector as counter corporate espionage spies.

March 20 1992 BASIC INSTINCT opens. Dir. Paul Verhoeven. Michael Douglas as investigating cop with troubled past & Sharon Stone as lubricious, ice cool murder suspect steam up the lens in sleek, stylish, provocatively erotic neo noir thriller. Film becomes year's biggest BO hit.

March 20 1981 THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE opens. Dir. Bob Rafelson. Jack Nicholson & Jessica Lange sizzle in 4th screen adapt. of James M. Cain's classic Depression era tale of a carnally compromised drifter inveigled by a lascivious diner waitress to murder her husband.

March 20 1981 CUTTER'S WAY (a.k.a Cutter & Bone) opens. Dir.Ivan Passer. Pivotal, criminally neglected indie gem lost in the backwash of H'wood's late '70s new wave. Jeff Bridges as indolent slacker & a superb John Heard as bitter, disabled Viet vet. seek to redress a murder.

March 20 1976 APOCALYPSE NOW commences principal photography in Manila, Philippines. Creative differences force Harvey Keitel to quit the lead role some 3 weeks later, requiring Coppola to do 4 days of reshoots with newly cast Martin Sheen.

@N0vemberL Where did the years go?? I recall attending the premiere on Hollywood Blvd.

33 years ago .

March 19 2004 DAWN OF THE DEAD opens. Debuting dir. Zack Snyder shifts the action of his kinetic, gory remake of George Romero’s low budget 1978 cult classic to a suburban shopping mall where cop Ving Rhames & his ragtag survivors struggle to hold off the invading zombie horde.

March 19 2004 ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND opens. Dir. Michel Gondry. After undergoing a sci-fi-ish erasure of all memories of their relationship, lovers Kate Winslett & Jim Carrey reaquaint as strangers. Funny, surreal journey into memory & the subconscious.

March 19 1993 POINT OF NO RETURN (a.k.a The Assassin) opens. Dir. John Badham. Slick, slam bang US remake of Luc Besson's hit La Femme Nikita from 1990 with Bridget Fonda gamely stepping into Annie Parillaud's shoes as junkie death row cop killer turned covert govt. assassin.

March 19 1964 THE WORLD OF HENRY ORIENT opens in NY. Dir. George Roy Hill. A knavish, philandering NYC concert pianist finds himself the object of 2 young girl's infatuation. Fanciful, warmly exuberant coming of age comedy with Peter Sellers, Angela Lansbury & Paula Prentiss.