Questionable IMDB credits

[Richard M Roberts]

but ... but ... but

where's MY IMDB listing? There are scores of films I've never made!

You're welcome to one of mine. I have three separate listings.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

[boblipton]

And not one of them your Shaw & Lee impersonation.

Bob

[todmichel]

Some of the IMDb's entries are simply hoaxes, like the 1967 PENANGGALAN, a supposedly Indian/Indonesian movie directed by Tulsi Ramsay and starring Indonesian superstar Suzzana, and WD Mochtar. Ramsay never directed a movie outside India, and the late Suzzana's first horror movie, "Birth in the Grave" was made years later...
"The Oval Portrait" is given as an alternate title for "One Minute Before Death", but in fact they are two different movies, "El retrato ovalado" and "Un minuto antes de morir", both directed by Rogelio A. Gonzalez and with the same cast playing the same characters! "Un minuto... " being the sequel of "El retrato". Both movies exist on VHS, incidentally.
For years, IMDb mixed the two versions (German and French) of Julien Duvivier's "Marianne of My Youth" into one. Finally I obtained an entry for each one, and carefully entered the (sometimes different) casting of each version, taken directly from the TV screen (French TV showed both versions). Then some idiot entered false credits and I stopped to contribute.
And finally, I have a lot of DVDs of Japanese movies made in the 30s, 40s and 50s which aren't listed on IMDb (even under alternate titles). The directors are generally listed, but for their other movies!

[Frederica]

but ... but ... but

where's MY IMDB listing? There are scores of films I've never made!

You're welcome to one of mine. I have three separate listings.

RICHARD M ROBERTS

Well, this is exciting! It seems I have a listing in the imdb, who knew? There's my one lone, teeny-weeny, more-minor-than-the-caterer credit...and a 2008 producer credit for a film entitled "Trombone Shorty." That must have happened during my "lost years" phase, because I sure don't remember it.

[Rob Farr]

Well, as we all know, Frederica has a life quite apart from Joan's.

but ... but ... but

where's MY IMDB listing? There are scores of films I've never made!

You're welcome to one of mine. I have three separate listings.

RICHARD M ROBERTS

Well, this is exciting! It seems I have a listing in the imdb, who knew? There's my one lone, teeny-weeny, more-minor-than-the-caterer credit...and a 2008 producer credit for a film entitled "Trombone Shorty." That must have happened during my "lost years" phase, because I sure don't remember it.

[Harlowgold]

IMDb has accepted almost all of my corrections, perhaps because I've submitted thousands of data bits over the years, mainly magazine covers and articles and television appearances on various talk and variety shows. It's pretty simple to submit and update and anyone can do it. I've also recently moved a lot of Buddy Rogers' later credits to his page where previously IMDb had them on a more contemporary Charles Rogers listing (the biggest whopper I corrected was when IMDb gave songwriter Hugh Martin's two Oscar nominations for Best Song to a minor British actor of the same name!) If you see a credit that you know does or does not belong to the person in question, go to the page of the film/program in question and at the bottom click update, then correct and "add one", and when that person's name comes up on the next page enter it as another person of the same name.

There's a lot about IMDb I can't explain though. I've had them put up half the credits I submitted for a television episode within days and not put the rest for over a week.

The biggest problem on IMDb IMO is the "rating" of movies that are lost or extremely elusive by members who have obviously not seen the film.

[missdupont]

Yes, I've updated records, and I know of a couple of very experienced people who regularly attend film festivals, and then update credits for stars from early silent cinema to the sound era, aided by people like the super knowledgeable Mike Hawks of Larry Edmunds bookshop and lobby card collecting fame, even for such roles as just an extra standing in the background. I know several authors who were able to add several credits to their bios because of these men.

[mndean]

Some of my credit corrections are accepted, others aren't. They still list Tom McGuire as uncredited in You'd Be Surprised, when he's in the cast list right in the opening credits. I sent them the correction with others, but it was never changed. I wonder if they've fixed all the Hugh Herbert/F. Hugh Herbert mistakes in the nonacting credits. At one time there were quite a few. I sent them a correction dealing with Danger Lights years ago and got a curt rejection. It's correct now.

[sepiatone]

Bessie Love is credited for a 1916 film called GEORGIA PEARCE which apparently was not a film but was the name Constance Talmadge was billed under in Griffith's INTOLERANCE or THE MOTHER AND THE LAW.

[drednm]

Constance Talmadge played the Mountain Girl in Intolerance, and Mae Marsh played the Dear One in the same film and The Mother and the Law. Neither character had a name, so far as I can remember.

Talmadge played Georgia Pearce in A Pair of Silk Stockings with Harrison Ford.

[sepiatone]

thanks Ed for that correction.

[drednm]

But that's interesting about the 1915 film Georgia Pearce (1915). Of the 3 stars mentioned, only Constance Talmadge had been in films before 1916. Don't know much about Carmel Myers, but as I remember Bessie Love entered films after graduating from high school in 1916 and she started with Griffith's Fine Arts Film Company. The only film Love and Griffith worked on together was Intolerance.

Several sources list Talmadge being billed as "Georgia Pearce" in Intolerance but she's billed as herself for both roles in that film ... at least in any version of the film I have. Since she had been in films since 1914 as Constance Talmadge, it seems quite unlikely she would have adopted a phony screen name for her first substantial role.

[Hal Erickson]

I have a feeling that even after my book on Hollywood military comedies is published, IMDB will perpetuate the myth of the "3 minute, 5 second" kiss between Jane Wyman and Regis Toomey in the 1941 military comedy YOU'RE IN THE ARMY NOW. I've seen the film twice, and no way is the kiss any longer than a minute (and even at that, it's interrupted with cutaways to Donald MacBride). A quick survey of Google News Archive indicates that this urban legend was manufactured at the time the movie was filmed, with the WB publicity flacks claiming that the kiss would last the 185-second length once it was edited (maybe it was filmed that way), with smirking commentary by the two actor involved. Sounds to me like the studio was just trying to put a unique PR slant on the film to deflect the fact that it was obviously inspired by A&C's BUCK PRIVATES. Whatever the case, the myth has been repeated over and over again in the past 7 decades (even Maltin's Movies on TV book buoys it up). Sorry, folks. Not even close to three minutes. But betcha IMDB will leave the comment as is, just as it keeps so many other dubious "facts" in its manifest.

[todmichel]

As many members of this forum noticed, IMDb often confuses a player with a homonymous other, but sometimes it's just the contrary. I sent them at least two times precise informations about Stella Rho (from "Maria Marten" in '34 and "Sweeney Todd" in '35) being the same actress who, later, made movies in Italy under her real name, Stella Vitelleschi (you can spot her as Teresa, the maid, in "Come September" with Gina Lollobrigida and Rock Hudson, and she is VERY recognizable). Moreover, the BFI's online catalog clearly identified her under her two names, and furthermore this is confirmed by her own 1937 autobiography, "Out of My Coffin". Well, to this date, and in spite of all these precisions, IMDb continues to consider her as two different players!!!

[Ray Faiola]

Bit players Jeffrey Sayre and Sayre Dearing are, apparently, the same person. But they have two completely different bios and birth/death info. Sayre is the point-eared guy who is often seen as a croupier or court reporter; sometimes with horn-rimmed glasses.

[Harlowgold]

As many members of this forum noticed, IMDb often confuses a player with a homonymous other, but sometimes it's just the contrary. I sent them at least two times precise informations about Stella Rho (from "Maria Marten" in '34 and "Sweeney Todd" in '35) being the same actress who, later, made movies in Italy under her real name, Stella Vitelleschi (you can spot her as Teresa, the maid, in "Come September" with Gina Lollobrigida and Rock Hudson, and she is VERY recognizable). Moreover, the BFI's online catalog clearly identified her under her two names, and furthermore this is confirmed by her own 1937 autobiography, "Out of My Coffin". Well, to this date, and in spite of all these precisions, IMDb continues to consider her as two different players!!!

Go to the Contributor's Help message board http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000042/threads/" target="_blank and write STAFF in your message title and explain the situation, somewhere there should fix it or give you details on how your update can be successfully done.

[todmichel]

Thank you very much, Harlowgold, I'll try to explain the situation to IMDb's staff.
About "Marianne of My Youth", it was almost comical. I explained that Pierre Vaneck and Gil Vidal (as well as some others in the cast) were replaced in the simultaneous German version by, respectively, Horst Buchholz and Udo Vioff, but that Vaneck & Vidal also appears (uncredited) in the German one, in one shot, among the students who hear the hero singing an old Argentinian song. Similarly, Buchholz and Viof appears in the French version, in the alternate shot - visibly a "gag" from Julien Duvivier. So, technically speaking, all four actors appeared as "extras" in "the other version". In spite of this, somebody corrected the entry and erased them as extras, just leaving them as stars of their own version... So, just because this guy was unable to spot them on screen (when they are quite visible), he just erased it from the cast-list...
IMDb also has an entry for an "Arsène Lupin" movie, supposedly a sequel to the one starring Jules Berry in the 1930s. This sequel was perhaps planned at the time, but a thing is certain, it was never made. Just like the 1967 "Penanggalan" supposedly directed by Tulsi Ramsay... (it could have been an artificial "two-in-one" movie, one of these patchworks made by Godfrey Ho and consorts, like "Crocodile Fury" which uses 72 minutes (!) of "Krai Thong 2" (1985), but I don't find anything on it in spite of multiple searches).
And, of course, IMDb is far from complete when Asian movies are concerned, even some made in Japan by famous Japanese directors...

[didi-5]

On adding details of extras to IMDb, they do accept screenshots as evidence. Have you tried that? You might need to add them to a web page which you can use as a reference URL.

[drednm]

One of the more annoying things IMDb does is to post a picture/poster for a film that has nothing to do with the film, especially if there are multiple films with the same name.

[mndean]

On adding details of extras to IMDb, they do accept screenshots as evidence. Have you tried that? You might need to add them to a web page which you can use as a reference URL.

To me, it's all I can do to point out their mistakes (the system to do so isn't the friendliest). They aren't paying me for even doing that, so why should I go the extra mile for them and clip video evidence? I'd thus add value to their site so they can collect more $$, and I won't get anything (not even a thank you) for doing so. I've seen errors I sat on for years because they amuse me. I was a heavy contributor to the site before they "monetized the content". Since then, I limit myself to one repair a year, and it has to be pretty annoying for me to even bother.