# "The End"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end/33818
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 20, 2000, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end/33818 "2000-09-20T03:18:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@djf750](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/djf750)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2000, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end/33818/1 "2000-09-20T03:18:23Z")
what was the first movie NOT to have “THE END” at the end and just went into the credits like they do today?
it must have been in the 60’s-bullitt?
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### Author:  [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2000, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end/33818/2 "2000-09-20T03:57:21Z")
I have no idea. But I do think the first and possibly only film to have ‘The End’ **playing** over the closing credits may have been ‘Apocalypse Now’
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2000, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end/33818/3 "2000-09-20T12:55:02Z")
“The Great Train Robbery” (1901) didn’t have an end title, but I doubt it was the first. I doubt it was used in “L’Arroseur arrosé” (1895) or “La Sortie des usines Lumière” (1895), for instance.
Most of the early silent films didn’t have any credits at all.
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### Author:  [@occ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/occ)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2000, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end/33818/4 "2000-09-20T13:36:08Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by RealityChuck \*
> \*\*“The Great Train Robbery” (1901) didn’t have an end title, but I doubt it was the first. I doubt it was used in “L’Arroseur arrosé” (1895) or “La Sortie des usines Lumière” (1895), for instance.
>
> Most of the early silent films didn’t have any credits at all. \*\*
But come on, what he/she was obviously asking was “What was the first film (or time period) when the classic ‘The End’ closing title went out of vogue?”. Yes, I’m sure many of the early films were made before the trend had started.
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### Author:  [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2000, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end/33818/5 "2000-09-20T14:21:20Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I have no idea. But I do think the first and possibly only film to have ‘The End’ playing over the closing credits may have been ‘Apocalypse Now’
Actually, I know that ‘The End’ played over the **opening** of _Apocalypse Now_, when Martin Sheen is on R&R. Did it play over the end as well? I seem to recall it didn’t . . .
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### Author:  [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2000, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end/33818/6 "2000-09-20T17:00:06Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by occ \*
> But come on, what he/she was obviously asking was “What was the first film (or time period) when the classic ‘The End’ closing title went out of vogue?”. Yes, I’m sure many of the early films were made before the trend had started.
occ, I agree with RealityChuck. The question as originally posed is so vague as to be almost meaningless. Does the question include made-for-tv movies? Independent features (made without collaboration with a Hollywood studio)? Home movies that were showed in a movie theatre? Documentaries? How about french films? chinese films? russian films? etc…
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2000, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end/33818/7 "2000-09-20T20:30:36Z")
I think what we are getting is when did credits move from the front of the film to the end of the film. It used to be that the stars and director and all of the credits were befor the picture so then when the story was over they would put up “The End” with the studio logo so it would be so abrupt.
But I don’t know when this went out of fashion. I do know that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (that always sounds vaguely pornographic to me) has about 20 mins. of credits at the beginning of the film but nothing at the end.
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### Author:  [@evilbeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilbeth)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2000, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end/33818/8 "2000-09-21T03:42:03Z")
Well, “The End” was specifically left off the end of Hitchcock’s _The Birds_ (1963) because it was scarier that way. It helped unsettle the audience by asking “Is it the end or isn’t it?”–unending terror.
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### Author:  [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2000, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end/33818/9 "2000-09-21T12:29:08Z")
Perhaps this film, made in 1894: [Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0000008), starring Fred Ott. It’s only 2 seconds long, so I don’t think it had any credits at all. :D:D