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Variety (1958) - Pictures: Title Needn't Fit

Details

  • article: Pictures: Title Needn't Fit
  • journal: Variety (22/Jan/1958)
  • issue: volume 209, issue 8, page 20
  • journal ISSN: 0042-2738
  • publisher: Penske Business Media

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Article

Title Needn't Fit

Hollywood, Jan. 21.

Originality in film titles is of paramount importance, according to Alfred Hitchcock, "and it really doesn't make too much difference whether the title has anything to do with the story."

Key to a good title, Hitchcock believes is that it be so original audiences won't feel they've seen the picture before. One word titles are best because they are "easier to remember and easier for the marquee."

Another plus factor is a title tune, so Hitchcock is looking for a tune to go with "Vertigo," new title for his James Stewart-Kim Novak starrer at Paramount, previously called "From Among the Dead." Hitchcock isn't worried that the word "Vertigo" may not be understood by too many people. "It doesn't hurt that people won't understand the title," he maintains. "Look at 'Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,' People still don't know what that means."