# Movies with intermissions
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 2, 2014, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673 "2014-03-02T14:54:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2014, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/41 "2014-03-03T07:05:17Z")
I didn’t know intermissions were a part of the movie. Over here, the movie theater will throw in an intermission even in short movies, to sell more snacks and soda’s. The intermissions always start at an haphazard badly chosen moment in the middle of the movie.
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### Author:  [@Stealth\_Bragg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Bragg)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2014, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/42 "2014-03-03T17:00:50Z")
Dial M for Murder had one, odd for such a short film.
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### Author:  [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2014, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/43 "2014-03-03T17:08:00Z")
> [@Eutychus](#):
>
> 2001: A Space Odyssey had an intermission in its original run.
> It’s a Mad Mad mad Mad World also.
FWIW, some friends and I watched \*2001 \*last night; the overture and intermission were intact.
The print of _It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World_ that I’ve seen retains its intermission, too.
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2014, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/44 "2014-03-03T17:40:21Z")
> [@randwill](#):
>
> . . . Now that I’m older, I wish that ALL movies had an intermission halfway through, for the needed bathroom break.
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#):
>
> That wouldn’t do any good, because everybody would want to use the bathrooms at the same time.
I don’t think it would be a problem in our area. Most of the kids (under 35) will hurry to the snack bar, trying to beat the line there. And our local theater has more than two dozen stalls.
I could sure use the break. Others might enjoy not having me stand up in front of them during the movie.
> [@Musicat](#):
>
> The original Cinerama movies had an overture before each half. It was just soundtrack carried on the main film, just black film, then the curtain opened when the overture was over. At least this was true in the first-run, specialty Cinerama theaters.
Man, it’s been years since I saw curtains opening. I think it adds something, but instead we have ads and trivia running before the trailers start.
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### Author:  [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2014, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/45 "2014-03-03T17:56:22Z")
The masterpiece [Fanny and Alexander](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083922/?ref_=nv_sr_1) had an intermission when I saw it in theater twenty years ago.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2014, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/46 "2014-03-03T19:52:17Z")
> [@randwill](#):
>
> I’ll bet several of the films with intermissions had musical prologues. I know **2001** did.
In fact the DVD I have has both the prologue and the intermission.
The prologue was used during the original road show run - not when it went into continuous showing theaters. I don’t recall if those used the intermission or not.
The intermission, btw, is right when HAL lip reads Dave and Frank.
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### Author:  [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2014, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/47 "2014-03-03T20:40:58Z")
Does **Planet Terror/Death Proof** count?
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### Author:  [@mcgato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcgato)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2014, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/48 "2014-03-03T22:21:15Z")
I saw “Berlin Alexanderplatz” in the theater in the US and it had a bunch of intermissions, as you would expect for a 15+ hour film. Day 1 break for dinner. Break after day 1 for sleep at home. Day 2 break for dinner. There may have been short breaks every couple of hours, too, but I don’t remember.
I think that Bertolucci’s “1900” had an intermission. At least when I saw it in college, it did. I think it was about 4 hours total length.
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### Author:  [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2014, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/49 "2014-03-03T23:43:58Z")
Not listed by Wikipedia, but the Cecil DeMille (1957) THE TEN COMMANDMENTS has an intermission, with a full orchestral score to be played during the intermish.
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### Author:  [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2014, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/50 "2014-03-03T23:54:13Z")
_Strange Brew_. 🙂
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### Author:  [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2014, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/51 "2014-03-04T00:12:05Z")
> [@Maastricht](#):
>
> I didn’t know intermissions were a part of the movie. Over here, the movie theater will throw in an intermission even in short movies, to sell more snacks and soda’s. The intermissions always start at an haphazard badly chosen moment in the middle of the movie.
That was my experience in Zurich many years ago, as I noted upthread. I think they just create an intermission at the end of a reel, which can indeed be in the middle of an action scene (as was the case when I saw “Batman Returns”) or in the middle of a conversation, as the end of a reel doesn’t necessarily coincide with a change of scene.
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### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2014, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/52 "2014-03-04T02:48:33Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#):
>
> Not listed by Wikipedia, but the Cecil DeMille (1957) THE TEN COMMANDMENTS has an intermission, with a full orchestral score to be played during the intermish.
How could I have forgotten that one?
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2014, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/53 "2014-03-04T03:29:05Z")
When I saw _ **The Great Escape** _ back in the '60s, it had an intermission right after Ives was killed on the barbed wire (or maybe after “Tom” was discovered; I’m not sure). So did _ **Around the World in 80 Days** _, _ **El Cid** _, _ **The Guns of Navarone** _, _ **Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines** _, and (I think) _ **Taras Bulba** _, _ **Battle of the Bulge** _, _ **The Blue Max** _, _ **True Grit** _, and _ **Where Eagles Dare** _.
I’m also thinking that a lot of movies I saw in theaters well into the '70s had intermissions, though they were filmed earlier, e.g., _ **The Lion in Winter** _ and _ **A Man for All Seasons** _.
I don’t know what TV Tropes means when it says “attention spans were shorter” in those days. Back then, it was perfectly normal to spend an entire evening sitting in a cinema watching movies that were more than two hours long, or even double features of two or more hours each. Or repeat showings of the same movie, which you can’t do in today’s cineplexes (I think the last time I got away with it was in '77, with _ **Star Wars** _).
Also, intermissions were usually around ten minutes long, not two or three. If music was played, it was briefly at the start and end of the break (for _ **The Great Race** _, it was “The Sweetheart Tree”).
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### Author:  [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2014, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/54 "2014-03-04T07:38:42Z")
> [@JKilez](#):
>
> On a related note, I just discovered that the 1933 version of King Kong had a four minute long overture before the movie began. How many movies have had those? I am guessing that there is a definite overlap with the intermission list.
As noted before, _It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad Mad World_ had an intermission. It also had an overture. During the intermission the story actually continued, with police radio calls about the shenanigans going on in the film being played on speakers in the lobby.
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### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2014, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/55 "2014-03-04T09:31:57Z")
Funny story: I bought Star Trek The Motion Picture on dvd.
I stick the damn thing in the dvd player and all I’m getting is stars and background music. I sat there for 5 damn minutes and all I’m getting is stars and background music.
At this point, I’m thinking, it’s scuffed, so I take out the dvd, clean it, put it back in the player and I’m still getting nothing but stars and background music. I did this about 4 or 5 times. On my last attempt, I’m frick’n livid, I threw the remote down in disgust and just sat there stewing in my own anger. 10 frick’n minutes later the damn movie starts to play. What I didn’t realize is, the dvd I bought had the original 10 minute overture on it. (I don’t recall that prolonged intro when I went to see it in the theaters)
Boy I felt dumb.
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### Author:  [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2014, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/56 "2014-03-04T12:59:49Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#):
>
> Dances with Wolves absolutely did. It was the first and only movie I’ve seen in the theater with an intermission. My dad had to explain to me what it was.
Hmmm… I saw Dances With Wolves in the theater (it’s the only time I’ve gone to see a movie in a theater on Thanksgiving day) and I don’t remember it having an intermission. Then again that was over 20 years ago so the memory might be a little hazy.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2014, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/57 "2014-03-04T13:22:14Z")
> [@lawoot](#):
>
> During the intermission the story actually continued, with police radio calls about the shenanigans going on in the film being played on speakers in the lobby.
Wow! I saw that movie no fewer than five times when it first came out, and I don’t remember that. We must never have ventured out into the lobby (gone to the toilet, yes; the concession stand, no). I do remember the overture though, and I can tell you exactly where the intermission fell (when William Demarest was bringing Spencer Tracy up to date on what was happening in the race; I think that was the sequence where the Lockheed flew through the billboard and Phil Silvers’ car sank in the river).
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### Author:  [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2014, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/58 "2014-03-04T15:55:12Z")
> [@randwill](#):
>
> During my only trip abroad, in Switzerland, I went to see “Batman Returns”. Halfway through it, the movie stopped, the lights went up and everybody went out for a smoke. Even though this movie doesn’t have an intermission, I was told that this was common around there.
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#):
>
> The same when I was in Israel. I was with an American group in a multiplex watching an Israeli film, and halfway through it just stopped and the lights came on. We were all really confused thinking maybe the film broke, but apparently all films have intermissions there.
Ditto the Netherlands. I saw _Sophie’s Choice_ in Amsterdam, and they just stopped the movie in the middle of a scene (I presume it was the end of a reel) to sell refreshments. My Dutch friends tell me the practice is universal there. If I were a filmmaker, I’d be pretty annoyed.
> [@Maastricht](#):
>
> I didn’t know intermissions were a part of the movie. Over here, the movie theater will throw in an intermission even in short movies, to sell more snacks and soda’s. The intermissions always start at an haphazard badly chosen moment in the middle of the movie.
[Another one! I wonder where “here” is. \ Oh. OK. Forget what I said. :smack:]
The last time I encountered an intermission in a US theater was _Reds_. I seem to remember discussing it with the manager, who told me it was optional — some theaters took an intermission, some didn’t. Not sure of the logistics of that, though.
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### Author:  [@mortia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mortia)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2014, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/59 "2014-04-28T18:21:11Z")
Until about 1985, most movies over 150 mins were shown with a preset intermission break in the action. Most over that length also had an overture as well as an entr’acte before the second half and exit music. Many are now available on disk with these elements restored. Those were the days when a curtain was in front of the cinema screen and, as the overture finished, the auditorium lights faded to black as the curtain parted. Often, the timing was determined by the studio and the information was sent to the cinemas for their information. Bertolucci’s “1900” ran for 316 min with an intermission about midway. (5h16m)
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2014, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-intermissions/682673/60 "2014-04-28T18:32:28Z")
> [@terentii](#):
>
> When I saw _ **The Great Escape** _ back in the '60s, it had an intermission right after Ives was killed on the barbed wire (or maybe after “Tom” was discovered; I’m not sure).
Huh! I was just re-reading this for the first time in months and realized that Ives was killed immediately after the Ferrets discovered “Tom.” The last line of dialogue before the intermission was Steve McQueen telling Bartlett and MacDonald he’d break out and get the information they wanted.\*
Wonder what I was drinking the night I wrote that…? :smack:
\*I also wonder why the hell Hilts wasn’t thrown into the cooler immediately after assaulting the guards? :dubious:
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