What's the deal with "a.k.a. titles"

[BestEra]

I don't understand why so many of the older movies (1930's & 1940's mostly) have alternate titles. For example, a movie showing tomorrow is MERRILY WE LIVE, but it has three a.k.a. titles. I could understand it if it was also known as something such as "Merrily We Live Together," but none of the a.k.a. titles are even remotely similar to "Merrily We Live": Dark Chapter, Love Without Reason, and Take It Easy.

[lzcutter]

BestEra,

 

Often what happened, especially back in the 1930s and 1940s, was that a film might be retitled for overseas distribution. Sometimes, the American title did not translate well into a foreign language or the American title would changed too avoid confusion with a similarly titled film from another country.

 

Sometimes the movies were retitled when they had run their course and were used as filler as the second film on a double bill.

[decotodd]

Another frequent cause of title changes occurred when the original was sold to television back in the 50s or 60s. There had usually been a more recent remake and so the original older title was renamed in order to avoid confusion with the more recent remake.