I just watched “The Naked City” (1948). Aside from the Universal logo, there are no written credits, no words of any kind that appear on the screen until the end of the movie. The major credits are spoken in voice-over by the film’s producer. The only other two films I can remember seeing, that had this distinction, are Truffaut’s “Fahrenheit 451” (which also had spoken opening credits) and “The Angry Red Planet”. Are there any others?
Doesn’t 2001 open with nothing but maybe the studio logo?
As for more modern movies, one thing I love about Raising Arizona is the Opening Title and theme song doesn’t kick in for about 20 minutes.
The Magnificent Ambersons has no written credits at the end (I don’t recall what they had at the beginning) – Orson Welles reads them over images associated with each specialty.
No – they use an extremely stylized lion (only for that movie, I think), but after the big chord in Also Sprach Zarathustra, the lettering reading 2001: a Space Odyssey comes up.
surrounded, I might add, by all the annoying legalistic studff that I hate in title cards. If Lucas did one thing right, it was putting up the unadorned Star Wars title with NO other lettering on the screen.
Children of Men has only the title after the opening scene before diving right back into the movie.
The road show version of Fantasia had the title card halfway into the film.
Se7en put all the credits at the end of the movie, and they scrolled backwards. Very weird.
That’s a relatively recent trend that a lot of films have adopted. I like it.
Yeah, “2001” has a handful of other credits, other than the title, which pop on the screen over the sunrise above the moon as seen from Earth orbit. And, boy howdy, talk about a nit-picky annoyance, that legal jargon under the title! But now that you mention it, I hate it too.
I don’t remember seeing that stylized MGM lion logo at the beginning of any subsequent MGM film. I think it was designed exclusively for “2001”. Probably as a prediction of what the logo might look like in the far-off, futuristic world of 2001.
Perhaps I should have added that Fantasia (road-show version only) had no studio or distributor logo at the beginning and no closing credits either - just the title card (which included a copyright notice) shown during intermission.
It’s not actually all that rare for modern films not to credit performers or crew at the beginning, but heaven forfend corporations forgo their precious logos (see Batman Begins, [Batman Begins](And had no studio or distributor logo at the beginning. It’s not actually all that rare for films not to credit performers or crew at the beginning, but heaven forfend corporations forgo their precious logos (see [URL=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6prDFbjn_Q)).”]Van Helsing).
Interesting info about “Fantasia”.
The really annoying thing about a lot of current films’ openings, especially if more than one studio is involved, is that we’ll see several logos, f’rinstance…
Warner Brothers
Paramount Pictures
Icon Films
Straight Dope Pictures
Then, on separate screens, we get typography…
A Warner Brothers Picture, in association with…
Paramount Pictures, presents…
An Icon Films release, of…
A Straight Dope Pictures film
Yeah, yeah, we got that. Just get on with it!
The American version of The Ring started with the Dreamworks studio logo. The image of the ring flickered briefly over the “D” in “Dreamworks”, but there were no other titles.
If you want to search for more of these, the industry term is a “cold open”.
Apocalypse Now
Around the World in 80 Days
Memento maybe? I can’t remember for certain.
I don’t recall Inglourious Basterds having any.
Opening credits almost always annoy me, especially when they are excessive, so I always appreciate a cold open. I wish every movie would do that and just save all credits until the end.
The Star Wars films had no opening credits, just the opening text crawl.
I’m not a fan of the “cold open,” and I have definitely noticed, with disapproval, that it is becoming more and more popular these days. Sure, I generally know the stars and the director before I buy a ticket, but I still like seeing all the “also starring” credits at the opening, so I know which of my favorite character actors to look for.
If I recall correctly, Lucas had to pay a fine to one of the Hollywood unions/guilds over that.
As an audience member, I appreciate theoretically the aesthetics of a cold opening. However, it almost never happens. As I mentioned earlier, the studio and distributor almost always slap their logos on the beginning, so they might as well credit the stars, writer, and director as far as I’m concerned. The caterer, insurance compancy, and personal assistant to Mr. Kutcher can wait until the end credits.
As a wannabe member of the entertainment industry, I’d be willing to wait an extra two or three minutes to see everyone involved (at least on the artistic side of things) get credit. It’s a little depressing to me to see 95 percent of the audience walk out shortly after the beginning of the end credits. (That’s why I’m always glad when filmmakers include a zinger at the end. If you don’t stay through the credits, you might miss the pirate monkey!)
Of course, people don’t like waiting for the pirate monkey because end credits have gotten so freaking long. Partly this is because they list dozens of people who really don’t contribute to the art and craft of filmmaking, but it doesn’t help that many times they list the principal cast twice to make up for omitting them at the beginning.
In recent times, movies have moved the entirety of the movie to what used to be the pre-credits sequence. Friday the 13th part 2 was somewhat infamous in having the credits around 15 minutes into the film. And in the past, at least in the case of The Wizard of Oz but I have a vague recollection about it being true in general, credit sequences in the beginning were far longer and there may have been no ending credits. It’s also the case for Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but that’s due to them wanting an abrupt ending and gave them plenty of opportunity to throw jokes into the credits that people would actually see.
About the only things you see at the beginning of movies these days is the notice of all the production companies involved in its creation.
No, Se7en had an opening credits sequence. It was done to the music of the Nine Inch Nails song “Closer” as images from John Doe’s notebooks flashed on the screen.
I’ve certainly seen several modern movies that have had no opening credits, although I only notice it at the time and completely forget by the time the film is over, so no examples come to mind.
The first *Pirates Of The Caribbean *movie.
I believe Jesus Christ Superstar had only the title at the open.