An Incomplete and Semi-Objective List of Great Film Titles

Article posted Sat Mar 1 14:34:28 2003

Great films often need at least good titles, though of course bad films can have good titles as well. Some film titles are great. They may perfectly describe an important theme in the film, or just be a clever turn of phrase. Here, in no particular order, are some of my favorite, great film titles:

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

(Classic with Bette Davis)

To Live and Die in L.A.

(Not a great Wang Chung song, but a great film title)

Stalker

(Very long, very slow Russian feature with metaphoric stalker)

The Sinful Dwarf

(Creepy dwarf with a cane captures naked girls… no Oscar?)

The Wages of Fear

(From the French great Clouzot; has the distinction of having been remade—excellently, in my opinion— in 1977 by William Friedkin, with one of the worst film names: Sorcerer)

The Year of Living Dangerously

(Another Mel Gibson serious turn)

Aguirre, the Wrath of God

(Werner Herzog lets Klaus Kinski rage in the Andean jungles)

Play Misty For Me

(Clint’s ex comes calling)

F/X

(Great f/x work, spawned a sequel)

Lord of the Flies

(Adaptation of the classic novel)

Killer Klowns from Outer Space

(Shameless and silly gory fun)

Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle

(Porn star um, exposes herself)

Logan’s Run

(Michael York’s big hit, cheesy now but cool then, despite Farrah Fawcett)

Even Dwarfs Started Small

(Weird early cult film by Werner Herzog)

A Fistful of Dollars

(Eastwood’s motivation is in the title)

Something Wicked This Way Comes

(Flawed but fun version of Ray Bradbury’s great novel)

Sirens

(Sexy supermodels strip to question censorship)

Things To Do in Denver When You’re Dead

(Roger Ebert said he didn’t really like the film but loved the title and wondered where it came from. It’s from a song title by Warren Zevon, off his 1991 CD Mr. Bad Example.)

Monkey Shines

(Overlooked George Romero flick about a paralyzed man and his monkey)

The City of Lost Children

(Visually lush and strange French film)

Dr. Strangelove: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

(Kubrick and Sellers; what a pair)

Unforgiven

(Clint Eastwood’s revamped Western)

The Remains of the Day

(Love in the English countryside, where a servant’s life is fit into the remains of the day)

Damage

(Louis Malle’s erotic, obsessive thriller)

Dog Day Afternoon

(Al Pacino at his worst)

Night of the Hunter

(Robert Mitchum at his best)

Zardoz

(Sean Connery and giant flying stone heads—what more do you need?)

Prick Up Your Ears

(Uneven but brash 1987 British film)

Citizen Kane

(Not just a great film but a great title)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

(Based on the same story as Psycho, the title says it all, like it or not)

Ordinary People

(A reason to make films about ordinary people)

And the all-time greatest film title:

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

(Seminal, terribly dated Black exploitation flick with the audacity to keep its title)