Posted March 12, 2020 by Jeffrey Totey This Day in Pop Culture

This Day in Pop Culture for March 8

2019: Captain Marvel Makes History

Marvel Comics’ Captain Mar-Vell was created by Stan Lee and drawn by Gene Colan and appeared on the pages of the comic book Marvel Super-Heroes #12 in 1967. However, years later, the character’s gender was changed to female. A Marvel movie based on this superhero, opened in theaters on this day in 2019. Brie Larson played the title role of Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel. Written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (with some help by Geneva Robertson-Dworet), the movie was set in 1995 following Danvers as she discovers that she has amazing powers. Ultimately, she ends up saving Earth which was falling into a conflict of two different alien civilizations. Captain Marvel also starred Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan, Annette Bening, Clark Gregg, and Jude Law. The movie became the first female-led superhero movie to gross over $1 billion. A sequel to the movie, The Marvels, is planned to be released in February 2023.

1960: Psycho Scares People Silly

Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is considered one of the director’s greatest works and perhaps the most controversial. It was filmed on a low budget in black and white, was nominated for four Academy Award nominations and raised up a new “acceptability” for violence, deviant behavior and sexuality in American movies (oh boy!). Known for pushing cinematic boundaries, the film, which premiered on this day in 1960, was one of the first to show an unmarried couple in the same bed and a toilet flushing. At the time, Hitchcock instituted a “no late admission” policy for the movie. Since the movie’s main star is killed off early in the film, he was afraid that latecomers wouldn’t know what was happening. Anthony Perkin’s portrayal of Norman Bates was so good, that he had a hard time getting other roles to play then on out.