Credit Where It's Due: A Silly Title Card Showdown
Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 12:30PM by Nathaniel R
An intermittent off center obsession I miraculously don't believe we've discussed after years of blabbering at TFE: title cards, especially as they relate to actors. My personal favorite is when the name in question aligns with the actor's face on screen (quite rare all told since the order is contractual and title card placement feels like that rare piece of cinema construction that no director has ever bothered to worry about - "just put 'em wherever!".
Sometimes they're agonizingly placed (remember when several of the goddess actress names were superimposed over shots of tertiary character John C Reilly at the beginning of The Hours). Just for kicks with the Smackdown but 24 hours away, which Best Supporting Actress nominee wins the battle of 1984 title cards? Let's take them from worst to best after the jump...
5. Glenn Close in The Natural
(third billed of eight - i.e. The SAG Ensemble list had the SAG Awards existed and this film been nominated for Outstanding Ensemble which it probably would have been under Most Famous Cast reasons)
For the amount of overkill in The Natural's photographic mythologozing of itself, it's weirdly funny that the credits are so "here, whatever."
4. Peggy Ashcroft in A Passage to India
(1st billed of six... though the names are in alpha order but for the "and" credit)
Beautiful & golden like the Oscar bait movie. But for this exercize doing a Woody Allen style cast as one unit card takes the fun out of the comparison!
3. Lindsay Crouse in Places in the Heart
(second billed of six)
The credits are as understated as the actress. Her name appears over what looks like a stately old building. Seems fitting if uninspired. (Her screen hubby Ed Harris, third billed, gets a church which is also correct since gazing upon Ed Harris in the 1980s was proof of God's existence. Dayum.)
2. Christine Lahti in Swing Shift
(third billed of five)
Goldie & Kurt get their names supersized before the title but Christine gets a vintage 40s photograph to the tunes of an incongruously 80s Carly Simon original which is in its weird way aptly descriptive of the mix of years in the performance. (Trivia: Movies were once federally mandated to begin with Carly Simon originals but Hollywood gave up after Working Girl because who could top "Let the River Run" over images of the Staten Island ferry?)
AND THE WINNER BY A HUGE MARGIN...
1. Geraldine Page in The Pope of Greenwich Village
(fourth billed of eight despite very little screentime)
The credits appear over a montage of Mickey Rourke preening, as he dresses for work. I grinned from ear to ear, perhaps I even cackled when Geraldine Page's name appeared over an image of Mickey Rourke zipping up his pants and adjusting the family jewels. Priceless. This movie is filled with cocky thespians and Geraldine has the biggest dick.
Will this order be repeated in the results of the actual Smackdown? You'll see tomorrow at 2:30 PM EST!
Reader Comments (16)
Hope Ashcroft wins,can;'t wait to hear about Page's cameoish role.
This is great.
I love this too! There's not nearly enough discussion (anywhere) of credits, order of credits, styles of credits.
Glenn Close's credit looks exactly the same as her credit in Reversal of Fortune.
The opening credits sequence if A Passage to India is very old-school, but charming with it. I'm really excited to see what the Smackdown makes of Ashcroft's category placement; I always thought of her role as clearly supporting, until IMDb came along and I found out that she had won a few critics' awards - and the BAFTA - in a leading role.
Alas I still haven't seen the other three films - but I'm especially intrigued to hear about what Geraldine Page did in The Pope of Greenwich Village that got her a nomination. I hear her role is pretty small.
As hard as I try, the only film I can think of in which the names of the lead actors appear next to their faces in the opening credits is 'A Fish Called Wanda', which introduces its four human main characters as well as its piscine title character that way. Can you name any more examples from the top of your head?
Page has 2 scenes one before her sons death and when the police call to interview her after his funeral,it's the 2nd scene that won her the nomination IMO,maybe it was the "Rod of iron" bit,it's similar to Anne Bancroft in Malice.
MrW: Does The Grifters as well?
Love this. I thought I was the only the one who cared!
I am obsessed with titles. Now, most movies don't even have them. It's a damn shame, I tell ya!
The main title to The Towering Inferno set to John Williams' soaring music is a brilliant work of art.
Glenn Close doesn't need fancy arsed credit titles. just seeing those two words juxtaposed is enough for me....
Matt -- a truth.
brookesboy -- the stupid thing about some of today's movies opting to go without them is they are contractually obligated to have them so you end up with those stupid things where the end credits are twice as long and they have to do all the title cards after the fade to black and THEN the scrolling credit (with the same names again). Just put them in the front where they belong! :)
Love it! I sense a new TFE category!
I love HOWARDS END's title card where Emma Thompson who actually won the Oscar in lead is actually fourth billed under Hopkins, supporting nominee Redgrave and HBC.
@ Edward L.:
To the best of my memory, it does not.
This a good iving board. Streep and Hawn billing for Death Becomes Her (poster v. Film credits) were always fascinating, so maybe unusual film billing agreements? AOC used film faces at end so future people would know cast faces. Like old days.
LOL about Gerry's dick...at least that is the name Tab Hunter used when referring to Page in his autobiography.
OMG this is fun!! Please do this for every nominated actor or actress for every year starting last year and going back until you can't take it anymore.
THANKS for another fun and creative way to look at the movies!!