Good Films with Bad Titles?

[Jim Roots]

I recall suggesting YOUNG MR LINCOLN to my local film society committee. One fellow (ex-CID!) said something on the lines of "What's that about?"...

(I wonder if he knew who was buried in Grant's Tomb?)

I know! I know! Hugh Grant!!!!

(Or maybe just his career...)

Jim

[wich2]

Sheesh!

What do some folks WANT in a title? Hyper-literalism?

"This Guy Goes To Chicago And Meets A Girl"

"A Scientist Mistakenly Creates A Dangerous Monster"

"Several European Countries Have A War"

[Dean Thompson]

Sheesh!

What do some folks WANT in a title? Hyper-literalism?

Some used to, apparently: umpteen years ago I got mad when I watched Fatty and Mabel Viewing the World's Fair at San Francisco. The dadburn title had given everything away!

[George O'Brien]

ODD MAN OUT always suggests to me a silly comedy along the lines of the "Carry On" films. Yes, i know it was the title of the original source material by J. B. Priestly, but to me, it still misrepresents one of the greatest films anyone ever made.

[2 Reel]

Phffft! (1954)
Blackenstein (1974)
The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down a Mountain (1995)
Existenz (1999)
Gigli (2003)

[Donald Binks]

Sheesh!

What do some folks WANT in a title? Hyper-literalism?

"This Guy Goes To Chicago And Meets A Girl"

"A Scientist Mistakenly Creates A Dangerous Monster"

"Several European Countries Have A War"

Terrific names for a film! You haven't got them under copyright at all have you?

[Dave Pitts]

So, as for titles we wish existed...I wish there had been a Jean Harlow/Lee Tracy pic in about '32 or '33 called Love Me or Scram.

[wich2]

Or the one with Robert Armstrong and Pat O'Brien -

WHY, I OUGHTA... AH, NEVER MIND!

[Donald Binks]

What do you do when your mind draws an absolute blank when thinking of a title? Come up with.....
"8 1/2"

[Butterworth]

Woody Allen's Sleeper (1973). It says nothing, unless you already know what the film's about, and then it says little. Just my opinion, but it's a terrible title.

[Dave Pitts]

I have to say I like Sleeper -- both as a comment on the plot and a comment on Woody as a maker of sleeper hits. I also like Breathless -- what a cool title for a new wave film.

[FrankFay]

The title that has always seemed the most box-office-self-defeating title in history to me...



Which part was supposed to be guaranteed box office magic, "earthworm" or "tractors"?

That one was aimed at fans of the Alexander Botts stories. he was the eternally optimistic high pressure salesman for the Earthworm Tractor Co. The stories ran in the Saturday Evening Post from 1927 through to the early 1960's. The movie was a one-shot though

[earlytalkiebuffRob]

ODD MAN OUT always suggests to me a silly comedy along the lines of the "Carry On" films. Yes, i know it was the title of the original source material by J. B. Priestly, but to me, it still misrepresents one of the greatest films anyone ever made.

'Odd Man Out' was written by F L [Frederick Laurence] Green* (who also wrote 'On the Night of the Fire'), not Mr Priestley.

*Just found out that like me, he was born in Portsmouth, England.

[Dean Thompson]

Robert Merrill had the most beautiful operatic baritones I have ever heard, and Dinah Shore's always been one of my favorites. Their one starring effort together, Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick (1952), failed miserably at the box office. I finally caught it a few years ago on the Late Late Show, and really, taken on its own cornball terms, it's a pretty entertaining effort, with at least one song ("Marshmallow Moon") that was a hit at the time. But oh, that dadburn film title....