This month’s movies are particularly important for me, and I don’t want to half-ass any of them. That’s why this particular installment (along with the rest of the month, obviously) is now running a bit late.

I can’t think of a better way to kick things off than our first movie today, so let’s dive right in…

DECEMBER 12

Popeye
Robin Williams, Shelley Duvall, Ray Walston, Paul Dooley, Paul L. Smith, Richard Libertini, Donald Moffat, MacIntyre Dixon, Roberta Maxwell, Donovan Scott, Allan F. Nicholls, Wesley Ivan Hurt, Bill Irwin, Robert Fortier, David McCharen, Sharon Kinney, Peter Bray, Linda Hunt, Geoff Hoyle, Wayne Robson, Larry Pisoni, Carlo Pellegrini, Susan Kingsley, Michael Christensen, Ray Cooper, Noel Parenti, Karen McCormick, John E. Bristol, Julie Janney, Patty Katz, Diane Shaffer, Nathalie Blossom, Bennis Franz, Alan Autry, Ned Dowd, Hovey Burgess, Roberto Messina, Pietro Torrisi, Margery Bond, Judy Burgess, Saundra MacDonald, Eve Knoller, Peggy Pisoni, Barbara Zegler, Paul Zegler, Pamela Burrell, David Arkin, Klaus Voormann, Doug Dillard, Van Dyke Parks, Stan Wilson, Roberto Dell’Acqua, Valerie Velardi, Jack Mercer
cinematography by Giuseppe Rotunno
songs by Harry Nilsson
music by Van Dyke Parks and Tom Pierson
screenplay by Jules Feiffer
based on characters by E.C. Segar
produced by Robert Evans
directed by Robert Altman
Rated PG
1 hr 54 mins

A mysterious sailor man looks for his long-lost father but finds a new family instead.

Robert Evans is one of those Hollywood figures who was almost too good to be true. I’ve got mixed feelings about the current making-of-The-Godfather series The Offer, but Matthew Goode’s take on Evans is fantastic. There’s a reason Patton Oswalt used to do long runs as Evans onstage… he’s delightfully oily. He is every gross Hollywood exec stereotype wrapped up into one person, but sincere, and we love him for it. His books, and in particular, his audiobook versions of his books, are high art. Find them. Absorb them. Be changed by them.

Evans went to go see Annie when it opened on Broadway, and he had a “come to Jesus” moment afterwards. He went Annie-crazy, which is hilarious to me as an image. I can’t imagine it, but he decided that he had to make the movie. He felt like he was high after he saw the play, and he wanted to make something GOOD! and INNOCENT! and YOUNG! So they went after the rights to the play…

… and the auction went up to $10 million, at which point, Evans tapped out. He didn’t think that made any sense. Columbia ended up making Annie, which left Evans high and dry. That’s when someone at Paramount mentioned to him that they owned the rights to Segar’s beloved comic-strip icon, Popeye The Sailor Man. King Features was having a real moment between this and Flash Gordon, and Evans was convinced he had his Annie-killer.

The Last '80s Newsletter (You'll Ever Need)

Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall bring icons…

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial