LonesomePolecat Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 There are so many great movies with generic titles. And many generic movies, too. And bad ones. Generic titles don't help us know what the movie is about or it it'll be any good or not. So help me fix some generic titles. What would be a better name for these movies?: *It Happened One Night* (Night Bus wasn't great either, but it's better to me) *Remember the Night* (what night? it's a week long relationship!) *A Night to Remember* (1958--not that it should just be called Titanic, but it needs something better--I know that's the title of the book it's based on, but I don't care, it's not a helpful title) What other movies have generic titles that need new titles? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 Just a note to young whippersnappers, about IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT. The term "it happened" was a 1930s code term for the audience, meaning a man and woman in the film finally "did it". Listen for the term and you'll hear it in several old films from the 1930s. So, "It Happened" one night, meant they "did it" one night, and they did, after the final fade out at the end of the film, after they got married, and after Gable blew the bugle, and down came Gabriel's wall (the curtain between them in the motel room). Everything else in the film is just a series of McGuffins, leading up to that final night. So, the film's title meant "They Did it One Night", and the entire film centers on the audience trying to figure out exactly when they were going to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinkeee Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 Maybe that's why IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT was so popular back then, given that the audience were at the edge of their seats waiting for "IT" to Happen! Remember, this was a low budget movie, everything was done in one take. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfpcc1 Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 Actually most Lifetime Movies seem have somewhat generic titles. For Example: Eight Days To Live Teenage Bank Heist Holiday Wishes Crazy For Christmas Look Again Stranger At The Door Ties That Bind Fatal Honeymoon Deadly Honeymoon Betrayred At 17 Stalked At 17 Fugitive At 17 (On this channel it must be hard to be 17) A Nanny's Revenge The Perfect Nanny And a lot more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misswonderly3 Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 I'm not sure exactly what you mean when you say "movies with generic titles". The only film with a "generic" title I can think of offhand is Mel Brooks' *Silent Movie*. Here's the Oxford Dictionary definition of the word "generic": "Definition of *generic* h3. adjective * * 1* characteristic of or relating to a class or group of things; not specific:* chèvre is a generic term for all goats' milk cheese * * (of goods, especially medicinal drugs) having no brand name; not protected by a registered trademark. * * 2 Biology* relating to a genus. h3. noun a consumer product having no brand name or registered trademark: substituting gener Going by the above definition, I'm not sure the word "generic" applies to what you're talking about. Do you mean kind of dull titles that don't have much to do with what the movie's about? Edited by: misswonderly on Dec 6, 2012 2:13 AM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpompper Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 LOL, sfp . . . there's a reason that I don't have Lifetime programmed into my "fave channel" lineup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SansFin Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 I believe *Nude Nuns with Big Guns* (2010) is not to be considered a generic title. I believe some of these may be considered generic: Adventure (1945) Alien (1979) Censored (1944) Crisis (1950) Divorce (1945) Dreams (1940) Earth (1930) Escape (1940) Female (1933) Flesh (1932) Gossip (1929) Gripes (1943) Hobbies (1941) Images (1972) It (1927) Jeopardy (1953) Libel (1959) Love Story (1970) Macabre (1958) It is sad to say I lack the wit to create fun alternative titles for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fedya Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 > Actually most Lifetime Movies seem have somewhat generic titles. May we point and laugh at you for watching Lifetime? :-) Actually, some of those titles aren't so bad: > Teenage Bank Heist Compare to the 1955 movie *Teenage Crime Wave* (which is a low-budget unintentional hoot). > Holiday Wishes Didn't Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh do one called *Holiday Affair* ? If memory serves, Wendell Corey played the drip. (Sorry, I've never seen why anybody would want Corey.) > A Nanny's Revenge > The Perfect Nanny How could you forget Bette Davis in *The Nanny* (another fun movie)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ginnyfan Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 > {quote:title=sfpcc1 wrote:}{quote}Actually most Lifetime Movies seem have somewhat generic titles. > > For Example: > Eight Days To Live > Teenage Bank Heist > Holiday Wishes > Crazy For Christmas > Look Again > Stranger At The Door > Ties That Bind > Fatal Honeymoon > Deadly Honeymoon > Betrayred At 17 > Stalked At 17 > Fugitive At 17 (On this channel it must be hard to be 17) > A Nanny's Revenge > The Perfect Nanny > > And a lot more OTOH, they do have MOTHER, MAY I SLEEP WITH DANGER? which may be the greatest bad title ever! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepiatone Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 Sans, you can add *Network* to your list! As far as *It Happened One Night* , I always took the "it" to mean when the Colbert/Gable characters quit fighting like cats in a bag and started having feelings for each other. Maybe my mind, to my wife's surprise, ISN'T that deep in the gutter?!? Sepiatone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LonesomePolecat Posted December 6, 2012 Author Share Posted December 6, 2012 These are all good examples of titles. Funny how Lifetime has an obsession with being 17. (I seem to recall a 1950s B movie on TCM called LIFE BEGINS AT 17, which didn't help with the description of the movie either). Sorry about the use of the word "generic"-- I thought it was a good word for what I was trying to say (since any movie could be called "Remember the Night" or, yeah, "It"), but apparently I was wrong. So I'm glad you guys caught on anyway. And being Italian I know what the "it" was supposed to be (though thanks for telling everyone else). So no suggestions on better titles for these films? That's what I was hoping for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMeingast Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 I hope this doesn't spoil any fun... The subject of how movie titles are chosen is an interesting one... This article explains "working titles" for films that are used when shooting a movie that doesn't even have a final title, yet: http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/17546/the-working-titles-of-hollywood-blockbuster-movies According to the author, "Alien" was known as "Star Beast" before the final title we all know was chosen ("Alien"). "2001: A Space Odyssey" had a bunch of different names before that one was finally chosen. An article here about how Hollywood film titles get translated into German ("What's German for G.I. Joe? How film titles travel") is here: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:i-vGWfX7qiAJ:www.steinsaltz.me.uk/papers/film.ps.gz%22howfilmtitlesarechosen%22&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca+ The article above could apply as well to the film titles for any foreign films shown in North America. How do you translate a foreign film title into English so it makes sense and hasn't already been used by somebody else to title a movie?? Many movies don't have final titles until much later after the movie itself has finished production? Trademark issues, length of the title, the audience aimed at, etc., are things a film studio considers when choosing a film title. "Title clearance" is very important to check for trademarks and make sure a studio can't get sued... An example used in the article below is where a person trademarked the title "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and then sued a movie studio for using that title on a film. There's also a Title Registration Bureau in Hollywood (operated by MPAA) where film studios register their film titles and where studios can't use a similar title to any that are registered... An article about trademarks and movie titles is here: http://www.waynecovell.com/documents/Titlesastrademarksv4.pdf So a movie title may actually have little to do with what the film is about, and more to do with what a studio can legally name the film, without getting sued by somebody... Add to that marketing desires, etc., and it can be a tough thing to actually pick a title for a movie. Some people actually make it their business to register trademarks for almost anything imaginable in the hope that a movie studio will want their trademarked title and will have to pay them to use it. Or at least pay them to avoid a court case. Anyway, you just can't name a movie anything you want and that's that, there are many legal and other issues studios consider. But in LonesomePolecat's make believe world, I guess you can and so go for it. Sorry for being so serious... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfpcc1 Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 Yeah laugh at me for watching Lifetime Movies I don't care. In the at 17 series there is also Accused At 17 and Dead At 17. As usual the seventeen year old in question is older, (Marie Avgeropolous from Fugitive At 17 was really a fugitive at 25.) I guess another title for a lot of Lifetime films could be Cute Actress Trying To Build Her Resume Is In Peril. Another one could be You See Her In A Bra And Panties About Fifteen Minutes Into It. Leaving Lifetime the Nicholas Cage / Bridget Fonda film It Could Happen To You was originally called Cop Gives Waitress One Million Bucks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpompper Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 <OTOH, they do have MOTHER, MAY I SLEEP WITH DANGER? which may be the greatest bad title ever!> That is, unless you make fair game of porn titles . . . which we probably shouldn't do if we want the thread to stay unlocked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vertigo2 Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 I like the title given to "Them!" in Japan - something like "The Monsters Are Coming to the City". Kinda says it all, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SansFin Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 The Yugoslavian/Serbian name for: *The Blob* (1958) translates to: "Bubble Killer". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 I think one of the best and longest Hollywood movie titles was I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG. I think that title came from the book. Also, another good title was: ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vertigo2 Posted December 7, 2012 Share Posted December 7, 2012 Longest titles and not very good movies: "Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?" "Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?" And then there's - "Oh, Dad, Poor Dad, Mama 's Hung You in the Closet And I 'm Feeling So Sad" I would love to have been at the meeting where all the execs agreed these were box office titles. At least "Oh, Dad...etc." was based on an off-broadway hit and maybe had some potential. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfpcc1 Posted December 7, 2012 Share Posted December 7, 2012 There's a 1983 movie called Romantic Comedy with Dudley Moore and Mary Steenburgen. Maybe you could have called it Not As Funny As Arthur. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slaytonf Posted December 7, 2012 Share Posted December 7, 2012 And the champion: {font:arial, sans-serif}The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade{font} Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfpcc1 Posted December 7, 2012 Share Posted December 7, 2012 Sans Fin Wrote "I believe *Nude Nuns With Big Guns* (2010) is not to be considered to be a generic title." I just put that film in my Netflix que. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfpcc1 Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 Actually *Mother, May I Sleep With Danger* was a NBC Movie Of The Week back in 1996, (remember those.) It was aired later by Lifetime and the Lifetime Movie Network.) I haven't seen it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ginnyfan Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 > {quote:title=sfpcc1 wrote:}{quote}Actually *Mother, May I Sleep With Danger* was a NBC Movie Of The Week back in 1996, (remember those.) It was aired later by Lifetime and the Lifetime Movie Network.) > > I haven't seen it. They show a lot of old NBC movies of the week, like the IN THE LINE OF FIRE films. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SansFin Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 > {quote:title=sfpcc1 wrote:}{quote} >> "I believe *Nude Nuns With Big Guns* (2010) is not to be considered to be a generic title." > I just put that film in my Netflix que. I hope you are not disappointed. It is very flashy with little substance. I believe it would have benefited greatly from even a little more attention to details and production values. It is not a movie which I recommend but it does serve its purpose and entertains its target audience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clore Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 I've never managed to catch this 1957 Roger Corman film, but I almost have to love anything with a title such as *The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent* . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts