sippog

On the subject of difficult to track down British films - some of us have realised that many are living quietly under assumed names in the US. The Americans have a penchant for re-naming British films. Sometimes the film you're looking for is available in the US if only you knew what it was called.

I'll kick start this thread by naming a few I know about. Perhaps other people can unmask more?

"The Reckoning" is aka as a "A Matter of Honour"
"The System" is aka "The Girl Getters"
"Zee & Co" is aka "X,Y & Zee"
"Blade on The Feather" is aka "Deep Cover"
"The Hour of The Pig" aka "The Advocate"

If I had a swimming pool, it would probably burn down . . .

MrDrakesDuck

Ice Cold in Alex - Desert Attack [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif[/img]

Ill Met By Moonlight - Night Ambush no

"I thought I had to shoot Germans, not chew 'em"

DB7

The City of the Dead AKA: Horror Hotel.
The Triple Echo AKA: Soldier in Skirts.

Dreadfully unimaginative alternate titles.

Single-Handed or Sailor of The King, which one is the UK title?

Steve Crook

They did it a lot to Powell & Pressburger films, usually much to the annoyance of Mr Powell.

A Matter of Life and Death is sometimes still called Stairway to Heaven in the States. The reason given in 1946 was that "Americans won't go to see a film with 'Death' in the title, especially so soon after the war." Even though they now show the full length version (it was cut a bit on first release) they still call it Stairway to Heaven.

Red Ensign (1935) is aka Strike!
The Spy in Black (1939) is aka U-Boat 29
Contraband (1940) is aka Blackout
Forty-Ninth Parallel (1941) is aka The Invaders
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) is aka just Colonel Blimp even though the Blimp cartoons weren't known in the States.
The Small Back Room (1949) is aka Hour of Glory
The Elusive Pimpernel (1950) is aka The Fighting Pimpernel
The Battle of the River Plate (1956) is aka Pursuit of the Graf Spee - because "Most Americans don't know where the river Plate is and they'll think it's the river Platte and thus that it's a Western"
Ill Met by Moonlight (1957) is aka Night Ambush

The only one Powell though was quite a good alternate title was their renaming of Contraband as Blackout.

Steve

Steve Crook

PaPAS

dylan

Alan Bennett's play The Madness of George III became The Madness of King George in case the Americans wondered what had happened to parts 1 and 2.

DB7

Isn't that an urban myth? (although it was alleged to have been mooted in post production)

DAVID RAYNER

The Red Beret was changed to Paratrooper (although apparently, some American prints still bear the original British title.

Sammy Going South was changed to A Boy Ten Feet Tall (and cut by nearly 40 minutes), presumably because the distributors at the time thought that the Americans would think that any film with the word South in the title must be about the American Civil War.

Quatermass and the Pit was changed to Five Million Years to Earth, perhaps because the Americans might wonder who the hell Quatermass was.

I’ll have to think of a few more.

dylan

The Quatermass Experiment = The Creeping Unknown
Quatermass II = Enemy From Space
The Tunnel = Transatlantic Tunnel
The Man Who Changed His Mind = The Man Who Lived Again
Q Planes = Clouds Over Europe
The Trollenberg Terror = The Crawling Eye
The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll = House of Fright
The Night Caller = Blood Beast From Outer Space
Night of the Big Heat = Island of the Burning Damned
Horror Express = Panic on the Transiberian Express
Percy's Progress = It's Not the Size That Counts (LOL!)

DAVID RAYNER

Lady Hamilton was changed to That Hamilton Woman! It’s well known that all women in the U.S. are referred to as Ladies or Dames, not just the posh ones, so maybe that was the reason for it.

Northwest Frontier was changed to Flame over India, presumably so as not to confuse the location in the minds of American audiences with somewhere on the Canadian - American border.

Payroll was changed to the rather odd sounding I Promise to Pay.

Witchfinder General was changed to Edgar Allan Poe’s The Conqueror Worm, even though it had absolutely nothing to do with Edgar Allan Poe. Also, the wonderfully haunting music score by Paul Ferris was removed for the American release and replaced by another score composed by Les Baxter.

dylan

Yes, but a myth that won't go away. See Snopes:

http://www.playusa.com/playusa.asp?page=ti...&r=R1&title=870

However, it was necessary to have *King* in the title for the benefit of American audiences.

dylan

Opps...Snopes link is:

http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/george.htm

ollie

Juggernaut a.k.a terror on the brittanic.
havn't seen it since 76 when i blagged my way in to the Pic's under age :) (it was an AA you know!).On looking it up what a great cast!It's available on dvd,just worry i may have the rose tinted's on.

"Bullseye !!"

helldriver

Both my memory (of the quad poster) and reference books have JUGGERNAUT classified as an "A".

ollie

Thanks helldriver, maybe i wasn't as clever as i thought i was back then.
"I stand corrected said the man in the orthapedic shoes" :)

"Bullseye !!"

JOHN BRUNO

LIGHTHOUSE (2000) AKA Dead of Night