 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Aug 17, 2017 - 10:33 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
IIRC, The Ace was retitled The Great Santini...
Well, actually, it seems like it was the other way around (and around). Here's the story:
According to the Washington Post, and articles in the 17 January 1981 Los Angeles Herald Examiner and the 11 March 1981 New York Times, when initially released in October 1979, THE GREAT SANTINI failed to capture an audience in several markets throughout the county, and filmmakers resorted to alternate titles including "Sons and Daughters," "Reaching Out," and "The Ace" to drum up business. Although the original title made audiences think of “an Italian juggling act,” and magicians, the new titles did little to excite audiences or generate revenue. A 10 July 1980 Daily Variety article stated that due to its poor performance in ten markets, and without playing in New York and Los Angeles, the film was withdrawn from distribution.
That Daily Variety article stated that a new advertising campaign was devised, and the film was reissued on 14 July 1980 under its original title (THE GREAT SANTINI) at New York City’s 450-seat Guild Theater. It was also made available two weeks later to Home Box Office subscribers by the title "The Ace." Writer-director Lewis John Carlino had pushed heavily to keep the original title, and explained that it captured the essence of the marine pilot, who “…in a way..[is] a performer. He’s a juggler, a clown, a daredevil, a bully, a rogue, a man who thrives on danger, who has incredible energy and drive." The Washington Post reported that through word of mouth and positive reviews, the film broke the “Guild Theater’s all-time house attendance record.”
For our purposes, even though the title was changed on the fly while the film was playing its initial engagements, we probably should include it in this category, rather than being too restrictive. I wonder if new title cards were sent out with these revised titles to be edited into prints. Possibly not. The new titles could have been for adverting only. In a similar case, when 1968's ISADORA (starring Vanessa Redgrave) was flopping in its initial roadshow engagement in L.A., it was re-advertised as THE LOVES OF ISADORA, even though the title on the print remained unchanged.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Aug 17, 2017 - 11:09 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
THE SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK was cut and reissued as MAD WEDNESDAY. Still a flop.
Harold Lloyd, who was one of the most popular silent film comics, returned to the screen with THE SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK after a nine-year absence. In July 1944, Lloyd and Preston Sturges closed a deal in which Lloyd would become a producer-director at California Studios, a company that Sturges had just formed with millionaire producer-businessman Howard Hughes. Lloyd's first project was announced at that time as "The Sin of Hilda Diddlebeck," a story by Sturges about the "escapades of a girl in Hollywood." Sturges tempted Lloyd, one of his movie idols, back to the screen by promising to allow him to direct a part of the picture. But by the time shooting began, Lloyd was functioning only as a performer. Released by United Artists, THE SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK had its world premiere in Miami, FL on 18 February 1947.
In May 1947, Howard Hughes ran a contest among his employees to find a shorter title for the picture, offering $250 to the winner. In June 1947, after it had played in only three cities, United Artists pulled the film from distribution and retitled it "Mad Wednesday." According to Daily Variety, the title was changed because of concerns that the word "sin" would be damaging to the "family trade." Intending to put the picture back in circulation by October 1947, United Artists then sent a special effects crew to San Francisco to film process shots. However, United Artists backed out of its distribution deal with producer Howard Hughes, and the film was not shown again theatrically until 1950. On 28 October 1950, after Hughes had acquired RKO Studios, RKO released the film nationally as MAD WEDNESDAY. At that time, the picture was cut from approximately 90 to 77 minutes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Aug 17, 2017 - 11:28 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
In 1970, after producer Philip A. Waxman had purchased the film rights to John B. Sanford’s 1935 novel “The Old Man's Place,” it was announced that writer Abraham Polonsky, who had worked with Waxman on Universal's 1969 production TELL THEM WILLIE BOY IS HERE, would write the script and direct. It was also announced that the film would be shot in Spain, that Robert Blake would star, and that the film would be titled after the novel. In the end, none of that happened.
Although the film’s working title was “The Old Man's Place,” the release title had to be changed because Columbia Pictures had already registered that title back in 1962. Even before Polonsky’s name was mentioned in connection with the project, Waxman had signed Stanford Whitmore (YOUR CHEATIN’ HEART, 1964) to write a script, and so Polonsky dropped out. Directing chores were taken over by Edwin Sherin, his second film after VALDEZ IS COMING. In a concession to the Hollywood unions, Waxman agreed to skip Spain and film entirely in northern California. And Robert Blake was also no longer associated with the project. Instead, the film offered early roles for William Devane and Michael Moriarity, who made his feature film debut in the picture. (Arthur Kennedy starred.) Charles Gross, who had scored Sherin’s VALDEZ IS COMING, provided the music.
Updating the 1935 novel to the present, the film concerned two disillusioned Army buddies returning home from war, in this case Vietnam. Under the title GLORY BOY, Cinerama Releasing opened the film in New York on 29 June 1971, to poor reviews.
Following the generally negative critical reception, the film was withdrawn from distribution. It was re-released in 1972 as MY OLD MAN’S PLACE, with a new advertising campaign. But viewing the unchanged film in early 1972, the Los Angeles Times’ Kevin Thomas found it to be “Awkward and devoid of any discernable style” and termed it “a fine opportunity largely missed.” Edwin Sherin would never direct a feature film again, and spent the next 35 years in television and the theater.
While revised newspaper ads and some new one-sheet posters were prepared for the new release, you can see how the pre-printed GLORY BOY theatrical posters were re-used and re-titled by pasting stickers over the old title.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Aug 17, 2017 - 11:56 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
WILD IN THE SKY is another one of those films that, for various reasons, has fallen into obscurity. Sometime in the late 1960s, William T. Naud, Dick Gautier, and Peter Marshall came up with a story about a group of anti-war, anti-establishment guerrillas, who scheme to hijack a B-52 and destroy Fort Knox with an atom bomb. It was a comedy.
It’s unclear when filming began. Various news items suggest the film began production in late 1969 or early 1970, under the titles “God Bless the Bomb” and “God Bless You, Uncle Sam.” The film was reportedly completed in late 1971. American International acquired distribution rights for the film, and it was copyrighted on 15 March 1972 under the title WILD IN THE SKY. Shortly thereafter, the film was trade-screened, and an advertising campaign was prepared under that title. Boxoffice magazine reviewed the film on 27 March 1972. Boxoffice reported that the film “is a bit preachy in spots, but for the most part, it’s entertaining and has some interesting side plots.” But the review also noted that “Action lags badly during the last third of the movie, and the laugh lines are rather slow in coming.”
Although it was expected that the film would be released in March 1972, there are no confirmed showings of the film in major cities. I’m sure, however, that it played in some smaller markets under the WILD IN THE SKY title, because I have an ad for the film from a small-town newspaper.
But fate was to intervene in the film’s fortunes. On 6 July 1972, the film's star, Brandon De Wilde, died in a Colorado hospital from injuries suffered in a traffic accident. The 30-year-old actor had been in Denver to appear in a theater production of “Butterflies are Free.” Perhaps because of this unfortunate circumstance, WILD IN THE SKY was withdrawn from distribution and quietly put on the shelf.
More than a year later, in late 1973, American International changed the title of the film once again, to BLACK JACK. AIP also changed the film’s ending, and created a revised advertising campaign for the picture. The 1972 ads for the film, when it was titled WILD IN THE SKY, show the MPAA rating as GP, but the 1973 ads and reviews for the film as BLACK JACK list the rating as PG, reflecting the MPAA ratings name change from GP to PG that had been made in late 1972. More importantly, the new ads changed the cast billing to emphasize the role of actor Georg Stanford Brown, who was by then one of the stars of the popular television series “The Rookies,” which had premiered in September 1972. The new ads showed Brown as the star, and positioned the picture as a blaxploitation film, using the tagline "Meet Jivin' Jack Lynch. He's got The Man on the pan...and he's gonna fry him good!"
Even with the new title and ad campaign, the film didn’t get much traction. It opened in New York the week of 6 December 1973, but was all but ignored by the critics. Variety’s “Sege” called it a “sporadically funny comedy” whose “central problem is the absurdity of the plot line” and “the creators’ apparent inability to decide whether the picture is a spoof of the military or basically a thriller with laugh elements as fillip.” “Sege” concluded that the film was “a fumbling hybrid that fails to score on either count.” And Cue’s Donald J. Mayerson, the only major New York critic to review the film, felt that “this idiotic effort” had a “screwy plot,” and he declared that “the results are asinine.”
The public didn’t take to the film under its new guise either, and it quickly dropped out of sight, seemingly for good. WILD IN THE SKY / BLACK JACK has never been issued on video, and no print of the film is known to exist.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bob, I might suggest JIMMY REARDON, aka A NIGHT IN THE LIFE OF JIMMY REARDON, a sad tale all round (and, like THE GREAT SANTINI above, with a nice Elmer Bernstein score - except in the United States...)
A good piece of film-making, the director deserved better (IMHO).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Aug 17, 2017 - 1:29 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
riotengine
(Member)
|
Here's an interesting one, though not quite a flop.
The recent theatrically-released shark movie 47 Meters Down, was actually released on DVD, earlier, under a different title, In The Deep. A buddy posted an image of a sealed DVD on his facebook page.
(From Wikipedia) "Original distributor Dimension Films had initially set a North American DVD and VOD release date for August 2, 2016. However, on July 25, 2016, Variety reported that Dimension had sold the rights to Entertainment Studios. Entertainment Studios cancelled the August 2 home release and instead released the film theatrically in the United States on June 16, 2017.[5] Dimension had already sent out screeners and pressed DVDs of the film to retailers before the deal. The DVDs, under the re-title In the Deep, were recalled; however, several retailers broke the street date, and a handful of physical copies were sold and have since turned up on eBay as collector's items.[6] After the purchase, Entertainment Studios reverted to the original title 47 Meters Down."
Greg Espinoza
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Aug 17, 2017 - 1:48 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
Bob, I might suggest JIMMY REARDON, aka A NIGHT IN THE LIFE OF JIMMY REARDON, a sad tale all round (and, like THE GREAT SANTINI above, with a nice Elmer Bernstein score - except in the United States...)
An interesting story, but it doesn't quite fit here. The film was re-edited by the studio and had its score replaced before its U.S. release. It grossed $6.3 million in the U.S. in 1988. I don't know whether that was a flop or not. But it wasn't withdrawn and re-issued under a different title after release. The director, William Richert, has created a director's cut which he is supposedly making available on his website, under its source material's original title: "Aren't You Even Going To Kiss Me Goodbye?" But this hardly constitutes a theatrical re-issue under a different title.
|
|
|
|
|
|
DUCK, YOU SUCKER
reissued as FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Aug 17, 2017 - 11:45 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
Liman's Edge of Tomorrow aka Live Die Repeat
That one is somewhat of a canard. After the film's box-office failure in the U.S., (it still managed to turn a profit worldwide), its marketing strategy was changed slightly for its DVD release. In this case, on the front of the video box, the film's tagline was emphasized heavily, with the title "Edge of Tomorrow" in small text at the very bottom of the case. This packaging gives the illusion that the film's title is "Live Die Repeat." Warner Bros. maintained that the title of the film had not been changed and that "Live Die Repeat" was only a tagline, yet this appears in front of "Edge of Tomorrow" not just on the cover, but on the spine of the packaging and even on the discs. The rental company Red Box has the film listed under the letter "L" in its kiosks, and all online retailers have the digital streaming version titled "Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow." Nevertheless, the film only played in theaters as EDGE OF TOMORROW, and the title card on the video print reads, as it did in the theater, EDGE OF TOMORROW.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Aug 18, 2017 - 12:52 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
"March Of The Wooden Soldiers" was reissued as "Babes In Toyland".
Actually, it was the other way around. MGM and Hal Roach Studios co-produced BABES IN TOYLAND, which MGM released in 1934. The film was popular with audiences, but because of its cost, failed to turn a profit.
Although MGM held the sole copyright on the film, when Hal Roach ended his distribution arrangement with MGM in 1938, as part of the breakup, among other things, Roach gave up the rights to the "Our Gang" comedies but ended up with BABES IN TOYLAND.
Hal Roach sold BABES IN TOYLAND to Federal Films, which in turn leased it to Lippert Pictures for a theatrical re-release in 1950 under the title MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS. Lippert cut about 6 minutes from the 78 minute film for the re-issue.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
