# Movies/books/plays whose title character wasn't the main character **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 20, 2005, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-books-plays-whose-title-character-wasnt-the-main-character/313375 "2005-07-20T23:35:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2005, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-books-plays-whose-title-character-wasnt-the-main-character/313375/41 "2005-07-21T15:01:06Z")
\*\*Blake’s 7 \*\* seasons 3 & 4.- ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2005, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-books-plays-whose-title-character-wasnt-the-main-character/313375/42 "2005-07-21T15:33:24Z")
James Joyce’s **Ulysses**. Ulysses is not a character in the book at all: the connection is that the structure of the book is based on Homer’s **Odyssey**. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2005, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-books-plays-whose-title-character-wasnt-the-main-character/313375/43 "2005-07-21T15:36:18Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > Hijacking for a moment, what good JC song except for GESTHEMANE (and part of EVERYTHING’S ALRIGHT)? Every other song by JC (What’s the Buzz, Poor Jerusalem, The Last Supper) is pretty whiny. Why waste your breath moaning at the crowd? Nothing can be done to stop the shouting. If every tongue were still the noise would still continue. The rocks & stones themselves would start to sing. And I think the Last Supper is one of the best male duets in a musical. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2005, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-books-plays-whose-title-character-wasnt-the-main-character/313375/44 "2005-07-21T15:56:05Z")
Dean Koontz’s “Frankenstein.” It’s…well…I read the book, and the main character is either the two detectives, or the original Fankenstein’s monster, not the good Dr. himself. Having not read the original (not that this is a remake, more of a sequel) I cannot say how much it focuses on the Dr, but I bet it’s more than Koontz’s version. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2005, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-books-plays-whose-title-character-wasnt-the-main-character/313375/45 "2005-07-21T16:33:38Z")
**Remington Steele** isn’t even a real person. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2005, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-books-plays-whose-title-character-wasnt-the-main-character/313375/46 "2005-07-21T17:11:58Z")
_The Black Stallion_ _The Lorax_ _The Mikado_ _Shogun_ Any James Bond movie named after the villain (_Dr. No_, _Goldfinger_) or after a character who is not Bond (_Octopussy_). _Zorba the Greek_ _Hidalgo_ ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2005, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-books-plays-whose-title-character-wasnt-the-main-character/313375/47 "2005-07-21T17:22:18Z")
**Heathers** ---
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2005, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-books-plays-whose-title-character-wasnt-the-main-character/313375/48 "2005-07-21T17:49:18Z")
Mark Twain’s _Pudd’nhead Wilson_. The title character’s in the background for most of the book, and only plays a supporting role at the very end. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2005, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-books-plays-whose-title-character-wasnt-the-main-character/313375/49 "2005-07-21T18:01:39Z")
> [@](#): > > Any James Bond movie named after the villain (Dr. No, Goldfinger) or after a character who is not Bond (Octopussy). Except, oddly enough, the only Fleming book actually named after Bond, **The Spy Who Loved Me**. In this one case, the story revolves around (and is told from the point of view of) the heroine. Bond doesn’t even show up until more than halfway into the book. The movie has nothing to do with the book. In this one case, that was Fleming’s doing – he sold the rights to the title, but not the story. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2005, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-books-plays-whose-title-character-wasnt-the-main-character/313375/50 "2005-07-21T19:24:22Z")
**Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean** ---
**Author:** ![Amaranta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Amaranta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amaranta)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-books-plays-whose-title-character-wasnt-the-main-character/313375/51 "2005-07-22T02:02:08Z")
How about **Waking Ned Devine?** ---
**Author:** ![Tenar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@Tenar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenar)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-books-plays-whose-title-character-wasnt-the-main-character/313375/52 "2005-07-22T02:38:56Z")
> [@marque elf](#): > > The movie \*\* Laura\*\* is actually an investigation into her supposed murder. A faceless corpse is discovered and presumed by everyone, including the police to be her. A great movie, but I always wondered didn’t anybody ever fingerprint the corpse. Perhaps babies were not routinely printed at birth back then, so there would be no record of the “real” Laura’s prints. Carry on, troops. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-books-plays-whose-title-character-wasnt-the-main-character/313375/53 "2005-07-22T12:15:16Z")
“Jeeves” is more about Bertrum Wooster and his gang. ---
**Author:** ![Amok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f17d59/32.png) [@Amok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amok)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-books-plays-whose-title-character-wasnt-the-main-character/313375/54 "2005-07-22T16:08:50Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I’m having a mental debate about whether this applies to **The Great Gatsby**. I don’t know, in my opinion Gatsby is the main character. Nick doesn’t really do much more than recount the events and be peripherally effected by them. ---
**Author:** ![furthur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@furthur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furthur)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-books-plays-whose-title-character-wasnt-the-main-character/313375/55 "2005-07-22T16:15:26Z")
Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett. Clinker’s a servant who happens along about a third of the way into the book, and is definitely a background character. At least for most of it. Mrs. Furthur ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-books-plays-whose-title-character-wasnt-the-main-character/313375/56 "2005-07-22T19:03:52Z")
Long running British police drama [Taggart.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088621/) The show has been running for more than 10 years after the actor playing Taggart died. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2005, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-books-plays-whose-title-character-wasnt-the-main-character/313375/57 "2005-07-26T00:49:42Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > It’s going to become an extremely long and easily-added-to list if we say that DGHDA counts. After all Dirk appears in or is mentioned in pretty much every scene in that book from the first to the last… I’ll concede most of your points, except for that one. (runs to get his copy.) Dirk does not ‘appear in or be mentioned in pretty much every scene in that book from first to last.’ I will go chapter by chapter instead of scene by scene, to make my point quicker. No mention at all in chapters 1-3. Brief reference in 4. nothing in 5. Chapter 6 is about halfway composed of an extended flashback about Dirk. No mention in 7-12 that I can see, though I will concede I might have missed something in 8, since it’s a logical place for the professor to mention him a second time. Chapter 13 is from Dirk’s POV, possibly the only passage in the book that is, although we don’t find that out until later. 14 has his phone conversation with richard. 15 is dirk-less again, being back to gordon’s storyline. 16 has quite a lot of him, as do 18, 20, 21, 23-25, and 27-36, which is the last fifth, approximately, of the book. 17 is all monk 19 and 26, essentially, are all michael. No reference to him in any of those three that I could see. 22 does have a brief mention of him, and it’s a short chapter anyway. So yes, he’s a little more prevalent than I thought at first, and it’s a pretty impressive percentage of the book that that makes up. But I would not call it “pretty much every scene from first to last.” Sorry, not even close. And yes, I know I’m a huge nitpicker. I love it! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2005, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-books-plays-whose-title-character-wasnt-the-main-character/313375/58 "2005-07-26T01:42:44Z")
I moninate _ **Star Wars** _. Sure, there were lots of stars visible in the movie – including two that were shown relatively close-up through Tatooine’s atmosphere – but none of them came **close** to being a “main character” in any sense of that term. ---
**Author:** ![lhovis73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecd19e/32.png) [@lhovis73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lhovis73)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2005, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-books-plays-whose-title-character-wasnt-the-main-character/313375/59 "2005-07-26T02:25:14Z")
This might be a stretch, but I’m going to propose: Fargo. The film’s first scene is said to happen in Fargo, ND, but 99% of the subsequent action happens in places (specified in the film) outside of Fargo (Minneapolis and Brainerd, MN). If that’s too cutesy…how 'bout Rosemary’s Baby? ---
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2005, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-books-plays-whose-title-character-wasnt-the-main-character/313375/60 "2005-07-26T13:13:44Z")
_Les Miserables_ is about Valjean and Javert, set against the background of the title underclass. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-books-plays-whose-title-character-wasnt-the-main-character/313375.md?page=2)