howard 65

THAT HAMILTON WOMAN and THAT FORSYTE WOMAN are both American films.

dylan

The US musical DAMN YANKEES over here became the suggestive WHAT LOLA WANTS because of the censor's objection to the word "Damn".

D.

batman

Max's film Before I Wake became Shadow of Fear in the US.

Bats.

"Boom boom a baby .... Banham Zoo .... Banana pants! Hahahaha"

TimR

These name changes always make it difficult to find British films here in the US.

So many American titles emphasize action as opposed to character. However, it is interesting to note that these titles are more "action oriented" than the titles of Grade A American films of the period! I do know that there was some hesitation about selling films from outside the US to an American audience.

Also, I know from family members who are even older than I am () that marquees in small towns were quite narrow and that films with long titles would be shortened - American films included.

However, I do think that the question of genre determined the name changes in most cases.

For Americans, "Dangerous Moonlight", "Ill Met by Moonlight", "Fanny by Gaslight", "The Night of the Party" and "The Small Back Room" sound like what used to be called "weepers" - sentimental melodramas about sacrificial women. They would have a narrow, defined audience based on those titles, and poor word of mouth!

The title change represents a vulgarization - I think it almost always does - but no self-respecting man looking for a war-themed film will buy a ticket for a movie with the word "moonlight"..."Night Ambush" is much better.

JMS

These Dangerous Years ( 1958 Frankie Vaughan)
Dangerous Youth ( American Title )

earlb

Million Dollar Mermaid starring Esther Williams became One piece Bathing Suit over here.

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

earlb

There. Paratrooper with alan Ladd
Here. The Red Beret.

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

billy bentley

Dont know if anyone nabbed these two Yankee titles:
"Brighton Rock " - "Young Scarface"
"Witchfinder General - "The Conqueror Worm"

Brief Encounter

UK to US:
Medal For The General -> aka The Gay Intruders
Murder In Reverse -> aka Query
London Town -> aka My Heart Goes Crazy
The Romantic Age -> aka Naughty Arlette
Madame Louise -> aka The Madame Gambles
The Card -> aka The Promoter (this one makes sense)
That Woman Opposite -> aka City After Midnight (this one makes no sense)
6-5 Special -> aka Calling All Cats
all those feature Petula Clark!

And Margaret Lockwood films...
Owd Bob -> aka To The Victor
Bank Holiday -> aka Three on a Weekend (U.S.) (saucy)
Night Train to Munich -> aka Night Train (U.S.) / aka Gestapo (U.S.) (TWO?)
Love Story -> aka A Lady Surrenders (U.S.) I find this one odd
Bedelia -> aka The Black Pearl (U.S.) (interesting this one considering it's essential a British noir)
The White Unicorn -> aka Bad Sister (U.S.)

etc.

bhowells

An obscure film starring Raymond Burr was known as "P.J." over here but called."New Face In Hell in the states. (1968)

Recall seeing "The Mechanic." in the cinema with a different title "Killer Of killers."

Three Elvis flims were given title changes over here,"Viva Las Vegas." became "Love In Las Vegas.", "Harum Scarum" changed to "Harem Holiday." and "Spinout." became "Califonia Holiday"

ZZ_ PICK _ ZZ

"Pimpernell Smith" directed by and starrying Leslie Howard - in the U.S. it was called "Mr. V" (bizarre)
"Perfect Strangers" starring Robert Donat and Deborah Kerr - in the U.S. it was called "Vacation From Marriage" and contained a brief narration by Peter Lawford at the beginning.

Steve Crook

That's a reasonable change because the term "red beret" doesn't have the same meaning or history in the States

Steve

Steve Crook

A Canterbury Tale (1944) kept its title, but it was quite drastically cut and had an introduction (and a closing scene) added for the initial US distribution. It also had some additional narration in the film (by John Sweet) to explain what was going on, and to cover the breaks and jumps left by the cuts.


Gone to Earth (1950) was mucked about with quite drastically by Selznick. Some parts were cut (including some important plot points) and other scenes were added to turn it into The Wild Heart (1952). In his autobiographies, Powell claimed that Selznick only left about 35 mins of the original film. In fact there's a lot more than that. About 2/3 of the original remains.

But some of the additional scenes are a hoot. Lots of the additional scenes seem to have been added to explain things to the American audience, or to Selznick himself. Often by having a close up of a place or an object, and some of them do literally have a label or inscription on them to say what they are

The film's climax has the heroine (Jennifer Jones) running to her doom with Foxy, her pet fox cub, in her arms. Selznick appears to have wanted more close-ups of Jennifer in his version - but they couldn't find a tame fox cub back in the States, so she's carrying what is obviously a stuffed toy fox

Luckily, that version is hardly ever seen nowadays. Most of the time, even when it's shown under the title The Wild Heart, you're really seeing the original Gone to Earth.

Steve

m35541

I do remember being surprised by the high quality of some of the films, such as "Theatre of Blood", with its Grade A cast. That would only happen in the US if the actor was desperate for money.

Of course the actors did Theatre of Blood for the money - why else would they do it? British actors prostitute themselves just as much as Americans - why else did Oliver do Inchon or Gielgud/O'Toole/Mirren etc do Caligula !!

Back in the early 1970's old British theatrical actors were so desperate for money they would appear in anything. Amicus got Ralph Richardson to do Tales From the Crypt and hugely publicised this - they paid him for 2 days work of which one was publicity and the rest were shooting his one-set scenes.

charliekane

Selznick always was a bit of a meddler - witness how many directors walked off his movies - and totally obssessed with 'being faithful to the book'. His behaviour over Gone to Earth was particularly obssessive, even attempting a court order to prevent its release ! The Wild Heart is a significantly different picture, for which Selznick - apparently with no sense of his own incongruity - even asked Powell and his crew to come to Holloywood to film the 'extra' scenes ! Mickey declined, of course, but agreed that Christopher Challis should go because 'at least there'd be somebody there to make sure it looks the same if nothing else.'
The Wild Heart has been screened on UK television a couple of times - once before Gone to Earth had been restored, and again about seven or eight years ago by Carlton.