DISCOVER--the weirdest WTF?? title changes on the IMDB
by jonabbott56 | created - 20 Jan 2013 | updated - 26 Jun 2018 | PublicOkay, this is just a bit of fun to celebrate my fiftieth list on the IMDB. During the course of compiling them, I've been struck by just how many really well known and established titles are listed under something else that's completely ridiculous. I can't imagine why I would ever need to, but I sometimes think that if I typed in The Sound of Music and Gone With the Wind, they would come up as Running Across the Hills and Fire in the Sky.
I know the IMDB have their way of doing things, and will say with some justification that these titles are technically correct, having been given them for two milliseconds when originally released in Belgium or whatever, but some are just pedantry gone mad (I'm not referring to foreign films being listed under their foreign titles, which is perfectly acceptable, if not always consistent).
So, hoping that this light-hearted listing will be taken with the good humour it's been put together in, here are the wildest and wackiest alternate titles I've stumbled across as I utilise the IMDB. And if you guys want to insist that the 1964 pilot for Star Trek absolutely has to be dated 1986 just because that's when it got it's official release, that's fine with me... In the same way that some guys like to be spanked with table tennis bats while dressed as Little Miss Muffet, that's fine with me too. Weird... but live and let live... (which is not the alternate title for You Only Live Twice, by the way)...
Jon Abbott has been writing professionally for over thirty years about film and television for around two dozen different publications, trade, specialist, and populist, and has had two books published by McFarland. See his Amazon authors' page and his other lists on the IMDB promoting the popular culture of the 1960s and surrounding decades. They all begin with the pre-fix DISCOVER...
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1. The Hideous Sun Demon (1958)
Unrated | 74 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
After exposure to radiation, an atomic research scientist finds himself changing into a murderous, lizard-like creature every time he is exposed to sunlight.
Directors: Robert Clarke, Tom Boutross | Stars: Robert Clarke, Patricia Manning, Nan Peterson, Patrick Whyte
Votes: 1,575
Punch in The Hideous Sun Demon, and you'll get all the p*ss-takes, parodies and rip-offs listed under the known title, but this curious title for the original.
2. Satan's Blood (1978)
82 min | Horror
A young couple are tricked into going into a sinister house where a coven of devil-worshipers waits for them.
Directors: Carlos Puerto, Juan Piquer Simón | Stars: Ángel Aranda, Sandra Alberti, Mariana Karr, José María Guillén
Votes: 1,269
Don't panic, this is actually Satan's Blood... As the image on the left suggests...
3. Butterfly (1975)
X | 112 min | Adult, Drama
A beautiful young country girl tires of life on the farm and her handsome but boring boyfriend. She dreams of a glamorous life as a fashion model in the big city, so one day she leaves the ... See full summary »
Director: Joseph W. Sarno | Stars: Marie Forså, Harry Reems, Eric Edwards, Heidi Kappler
Votes: 427
Known both as Butterflies or by its foreign title of Blafferen, but not here, where it's broken...
4. Fanny Hill (1983)
R | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Frances is a naive young woman who arrives in London from the countryside. There she works in a brothel. Her charm and beauty make her highly coveted, but she falls in love with Charles, who loves her not only for her body.
Director: Gerry O'Hara | Stars: Lisa Foster, Oliver Reed, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Shelley Winters
Votes: 1,051
There are over a dozen different Fanny Hill films, but the best one (lads), comes up under this transitory and very temporary pathetic cash-in title it had for about two minutes. Once again, the image on the left errs on the side of sanity...
5. Barbed Wire Dolls (1976)
Not Rated | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
Women's prison tale, with Lina Romay as Maria who is jailed after killing her father, played by director Jess Franco, who tries to rape her. Lesbian wardens, torture, nudity, sex, insanity and conspiracy round out the formula.
Director: Jesús Franco | Stars: Lina Romay, Paul Muller, Monica Swinn, Roger Darton
Votes: 1,505
When someone comes up with with a kick-ass wonderful trash title like Barbed Wire Dolls, you don't give it a bland title to blend in with all the other WIP films...!
6. Black Caesar (1973)
R | 87 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Raised in Harlem, Tommy Gibbs becomes a successful mob boss but he clashes with the rival Mafia and his old enemy, dirty cop McKinney.
Director: Larry Cohen | Stars: Fred Williamson, Gloria Hendry, Art Lund, D'Urville Martin
Votes: 3,892
But listed in every reference book as Black Caesar.
7. Burke's Law (1963–1966)
50 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
The millionaire captain of the LAPD homicide division is driven to the crime scenes in his 1962 Rolls-Royce by his loyal chauffeur.
Stars: Gene Barry, Gary Conway, Regis Toomey, Leon Lontoc
Votes: 993
The third season of the magnifcently camp cop show Burke's Law was ill-advisedly reformatted as the dour, Bond-ish Amos Burke--Secret Agent during the great spy craze of the mid-'60s, and a very popular detective show that had rated well for two years was gone by Christmas. In fact, the Secret Agent format wasn't that bad, but it wasn't as good as the original, and it was certainly a completely different show, and should be listed as such. In the event that the two shows remain merged on the IMDB, be advised that all the episodes of Burke's Law are titled with the pre-fix "Who Killed...?"; all those that aren't are episodes of Amos Burke--Secret Agent.
8. The Cheerleaders (1973)
R | 84 min | Comedy, Sport
A group of cheerleaders from the local high school decide to show their school spirit for their football team by sleeping with the opponents the night before the game so that they can be so worn out the opposition won't be able to play.
Director: Paul Glickler | Stars: Stephanie Fondue, Denise Dillaway, Jovita Bush, Brandy Woods
Votes: 1,495
This creepy drive-in fare goes under this even creepier title on the IMDB. It is, of course, that infamous sleaze-fest The Cheerleaders...
9. I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957)
Unrated | 74 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Professor Frankenstein creates a hulking teenager from the body of an accident victim; his "creation" awakens and goes on a killing spree.
Director: Herbert L. Strock | Stars: Whit Bissell, Phyllis Coates, Robert Burton, Gary Conway
Votes: 1,037
Known by all for over sixty years as I Was a Teenage Frankenstein...
10. Revenge of the Cheerleaders (1976)
R | 87 min | Comedy, Sport
Aloha High cheerleaders, who wield considerable power in their ineptly run school, struggle against real estate developers aiming to merge their school with a rival one in order to turn the location into a shopping mall.
Director: Richard Lerner | Stars: Jerii Woods, Cheryl Smith, Helen Lang, Patrice Rohmer
Votes: 963
And if you thought The Cheerleaders had a bad deal, get a load of what the lighter, brighter, sequel is listed under. What's wrong with a great title like Revenge of the Cheerleaders...?
11. Get Yourself a College Girl (1964)
Approved | 87 min | Comedy, Music
A college co-ed tries to balance her time writing songs and dealing with her publisher who tries to pursue her.
Director: Sidney Miller | Stars: Mary Ann Mobley, Joan O'Brien, Nancy Sinatra, Chris Noel
Votes: 531
But all the reference books list it as Get Yourself a College Girl...
12. Attack of the Puppet People (1958)
Approved | 79 min | Sci-Fi, Horror
Lonely, deranged puppet-master designs a machine that shrinks people.
Director: Bert I. Gordon | Stars: John Agar, John Hoyt, June Kenney, Michael Mark
Votes: 2,890
It's true, it was briefly known under this title... But ever since, it's been called Attack of the Puppet People.
13. Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957)
Passed | 69 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Aliens equipped with venomous claws invade a small town but the town's teenage population is mobilized to fight the menace.
Director: Edward L. Cahn | Stars: Steven Terrell, Gloria Castillo, Frank Gorshin, Raymond Hatton
Votes: 2,165
Once again, the second best title takes pride of place... This is Invasion of the Saucer Men.
14. Teenagers from Outer Space (1959)
Not Rated | 86 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A young alien and a teenage earthling fall in love, and plot to stop the alien's race from using Earth as a food-breeding ground for giant lobsters from their planet.
Director: Tom Graeff | Stars: David Love, Dawn Bender, Bryan Grant, Harvey B. Dunn
Votes: 3,857
Or, as it has more commonly been known for six decades, Teenagers From Outer Space... All participants now pensioners from outer space...
15. Valley of the Dragons (1961)
Approved | 82 min | Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
In 1881, in Algeria, Michael Denning and Hector Servadac are fighting a duel when a comet brushing Earth takes the two men to the Moon where they discover a prehistoric civilization.
Director: Edward Bernds | Stars: Cesare Danova, Sean McClory, Joan Staley, Danielle De Metz
Votes: 762
They gave it a better title--Valley of the Dragons--let's use it...
16. The Human Vapor (1960)
Not Rated | 81 min | Crime, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A librarian is subject to a scientific experiment which goes wrong and transforms him into 'The Human Vapour'. He uses his new ability to rob banks to fund the career of his girlfriend, a ... See full summary »
Director: Ishirô Honda | Stars: Tatsuya Mihashi, Kaoru Yachigusa, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Keiko Sata
Votes: 506
Yeah, but The Vapour Man has a much better ring to it...
17. The Vigilantes Are Coming (1936)
Approved | 229 min | Western
A masked hero called "The Eagle" leads California ranchers in a struggle against Russian Cossacks who are plotting to take over California and turn it into a Russian colony.
Directors: Ray Taylor, Mack V. Wright | Stars: Robert Livingston, Kay Hughes, Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams, Raymond Hatton
Votes: 102
This vintage Republic serial might well have involved Mounties at one stage, but by the time it was called The Vigilantes Are Coming, the Mounties were long gone. As the story now concerns Russian Cossacks fighting ranchers in California, don't count on seeing too many snow-flecked stunt men...
18. Black Snake (1973)
R | 82 min | Thriller
Story of a slave revolt on a 19th-century Caribbean island.
Director: Russ Meyer | Stars: Anouska Hempel, David Warbeck, Percy Herbert, Thomas Baptiste
Votes: 684
Originally called Blacksnake, and still called Blacksnake.
19. Mr. Tease and His Playthings (1959)
R | 68 min | Comedy
A door to door salesman of dentist's appliances encounters beautiful well-endowed nude women everywhere he goes.
Director: Russ Meyer | Stars: Bill Teas, Ann Peters, Enrico Banducci, Marilyn Wesley
Votes: 1,047
One of the most (in)famous sex films of all time, groundbreaking and pioneering, the first from Russ Meyer, this has always been known, then and now, as The Immoral Mr. Teas.
20. Top Cat (1961–1962)
TV-G | 30 min | Animation, Comedy, Crime
Top Cat is the leader of a group of alley cats, always trying to cheat someone.
Stars: Arnold Stang, Maurice Gosfield, Marvin Kaplan, Allen Jenkins
Votes: 8,046
About forty years before the IMDB even existed, the BBC bought Hanna-Barbera's series Top Cat and renamed it. Nobody took any notice, public or merchandisers. Ten years later, even the BBC were calling the show by its proper name. It's probably time the IMDB joined the rest of us. Top cat! Close friends get to call him T.C.--pro-vi-ding it's with dignity...
21. Good Morning... and Goodbye! (1967)
R | 80 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Tales of eleven losers are told and interwoven. Burt can't satisfy Angel, so she seeks the arms of another man, who is caught by Angel in the arms of another woman. Angel ends up with ... See full summary »
Director: Russ Meyer | Stars: Alaina Capri, Stuart Lancaster, Patrick Wright, Haji
Votes: 605
Fortunately, the original and vastly superior title of Good Morning and Goodbye has been restored to this Russ Meyer film... everywhere but on the IMDB...
Update, December 2014: Happy to remove Demoniacs, Lorna the Exorcist, and Piranha 3D from this list, all now listed under their "correct" better-known titles. Three down, 25 to go...!
Update, July 2015: I can't remember the weird English language title they gave Destroy All Monsters, but I note that it is now listed under a Japanese title, so that's progress. 24 left...!
Update: I see the Doctor Goldfoot films now have their correct titles, and The Magic Sword has magically become The Magic Sword, so 21 to go!
Jon is not on Facebook, but can reply to comments here, at the base of this list.
Obsessed with the popular culture of the 1960s and surrounding decades, Jon Abbott has been writing about film and TV for over thirty years in around two dozen different publications, trade, populist, and specialist. He is the author of several books, including
Irwin Allen Television Productions 1964-1970,
Stephen J. Cannell Television Productions: A History of All Series and Pilots,
The Elvis Films,
Cool TV of the 1960s: Three Shows That Changed the World,
and Strange New World: Sex Films of the 1970s.
See his Amazon author's page, and his other lists on the IMDB, all under the pre-fix DISCOVER.
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