Tweet DVD box cover goofs

The cover of the new WB Archive release of THE SQUALL lists Zasu Pitts as "Zazu" Pitts.

This isn't exactly paper-related, but for a short time in my youth, WCPO-TV, channel 9 in Cincinnati, tried eliminating the opening credits and simply superimposing the title and three stars over the first scene. Needless to say, this was NOT well-received by viewers and soon ended, but what made it worse were the misspellings. I still recall one night in particular when they performed the hat trick by botching all three names, thusly:

LON CHANNEY
ILONA MASSES
BALA LUGOSI

I trust you know which film it was.

Mike S.

This isn't exactly paper-related, but for a short time in my youth, WCPO-TV, channel 9 in Cincinnati, tried eliminating the opening credits and simply superimposing the title and three stars over the first scene. Needless to say, this was NOT well-received by viewers and soon ended, but what made it worse were the misspellings. I still recall one night in particular when they performed the hat trick by botching all three names, thusly:

LON CHANNEY
ILONA MASSES
BALA LUGOSI

I trust you know which film it was.

Mike S.

"Frankensteen Meats the Wolfe Mann"?

Another DVD box cover goof I just noticed:
On the front of the Fox "Studio Classics" DVD of the 1942 Glenn Miller movie ORCHESTRA WIVES the first name of the starring bandleader is spelled "Glen", not Glenn.

The Roan DVD of the 1930 Paramount western THE LIGHT OF WESTERN STARS has a picture on the front of Victor Jory and Jo Ann Sayers. But they're not in this version, they're in the 1940 version.

The cover of the new WB Archive release of THE SQUALL lists Zasu Pitts as "Zazu" Pitts.

How about the screen credits? Some films had her as "Zazu," including in "What Happened to Jones."

The notes on Kino's MUNCHHAUSEN say that it's scriptwriter Erich Kastner was Jewish. He wasn't.

Just bought Universal's DVD of DeMille's THE PLAINSMAN. The box credits read "ADOLF Zukor presents."

Nothing Sacred. Countryslicker missed another one. Sig appears as Rumann on the official credits of this film, not Ruman which he adopted later.

Erich Kästner. The confusion of the statement of Erich being Jewish or part thereof is because of a rumor, never alluded to by Erich in his autobiog, is that he was the illegitimate child of the family doctor, Emil Zimmermann, who was Jewish and died in 1953. He was an only child for reasons not known. Having the name Emil as is Erich's character name of the boy in one of his most famous books, Emil & the Detective gives people food for thought. Rightly or wrongly. He himself never married but had son, Thomas, in 1957 to whom he wrote two books for before he died in 1974 in Munich. He was born in Dresden and it is from that Kingdom, Saxony that one of my great grandfathers took off from around 1870 for Australia to escape the Bismark era. Disney filmed at least two of Erich's books, one twice. Disney's version of Emil is the only one I don't have in my archive in any form.

The cover of the new WB Archive release of THE SQUALL lists Zasu Pitts as "Zazu" Pitts.

How about the screen credits?

Goof in screen credits: a good idea for a new thread. Or has there been one already?

The bottom line is that MANY who work for these various distributors are probably "kids" (under 40) or semi-literate, as so many are in our society today. The quality of being thorough and detail-sensitive is also rare as a result of modern sloppy education.

A good example is online world news as posted on various email sites, like Yahoo. I find mis-spellings quite often--and even on our local newspaper's website!

Speaking to the above point, some years ago I was working at a TV station where a list of the top ten comedians was being assembled for a news bumper. I was watching them type these names, and one of them was "Rowland Atchison". It took me a few minutes to realise that the chyron operator, just a kid, had never heard of Rowan Atkinson. Fortunately, I was able to correct him before it aired, but I wasn't his boss or anything; I was working in another department. Somehow that list got through the proper channels, and it was good to go. Kids! With their Beatles and their hula-hoops, and their shamrock shakes.

Though not a DVD box cover, I once bought a Jerome Kern vocal selections folio that had stills from various stage and screen productions. There was a photo from the James Whale "Showboat" that featured, among others, Queenie Smith. The caption identified her as Miriam Hopkins--interesting casting!!

This isn't exactly paper-related, but for a short time in my youth, WCPO-TV, channel 9 in Cincinnati, tried eliminating the opening credits and simply superimposing the title and three stars over the first scene. Needless to say, this was NOT well-received by viewers and soon ended, but what made it worse were the misspellings. I still recall one night in particular when they performed the hat trick by botching all three names, thusly:

LON CHANNEY
ILONA MASSES
BALA LUGOSI

I trust you know which film it was.

Mike S.

Good lord. I'd almost forgotten about that atrocious practice. First time I saw FRANKENSTEIN it was like that. They even snipped Van Sloan's friendly warning. WKRC, Ch 12 had an annoying practice around the same time. They had the pre 48 Paramount package and would routinely edit out the post main title credits and splice them into the last reel after the end title and cast list.

This isn't exactly paper-related, but for a short time in my youth, WCPO-TV, channel 9 in Cincinnati, tried eliminating the opening credits and simply superimposing the title and three stars over the first scene. Needless to say, this was NOT well-received by viewers and soon ended, but what made it worse were the misspellings. I still recall one night in particular when they performed the hat trick by botching all three names, thusly:

LON CHANNEY
ILONA MASSES
BALA LUGOSI

I trust you know which film it was.

Mike S.

Good lord. I'd almost forgotten about that atrocious practice. First time I saw FRANKENSTEIN it was like that. They even snipped Van Sloan's friendly warning. WKRC, Ch 12 had an annoying practice around the same time. They had the pre 48 Paramount package and would routinely edit out the post main title credits and splice them into the last reel after the end title and cast list.

Yup, and not just the Paramounts. I especially remember THE TINGLER. The condemned man is marching toward the death house, then there's a snip and we're in the next scene, And then at the end of the film, they're back to Dead Man Walking. Whatta buncha maroons.

Mike S.

Not a DVD cover goof yet, but it could be if it's carried on to the DVD cover or other material such as an insert or whatever:
Just got new Kino catalogue and on the back cover in their ad for the upcoming DVD release of Buster Keaton's GO WEST and THE BATTLING BUTLER it says that as an extra the 1923 short GO WEST is included. But they say it is a Mack Sennett short. No, if it's the 1923 GO WEST with an all-animal cast, that is a Hal Roach short in the Dippy Doo Dads series, NOT a Mack Sennett production.

I borrowed "Night of the Hunter" (1955) (Region 4 PAL MGM/United Artists) from my local library a few days ago. Despite the box cover stating "Feature Run Time : 93 minutes approx - Colour", all I got in colour was the opening MGM lion . I don't think it's the fault of my new Panasonic 50 inch plasma - anyway it was a great movie to finally see, and the blacks were really fantastic

The Jean Arthur Comedy Collection lists "Douglas" Dumbrille, omitting the very important second "S" in Douglass

The Jean Arthur Comedy Collection lists "Douglas" Dumbrille, omitting the very important second "S" in Douglass

This is what happens when they don't let me write the box copy!

Mike S.