Using the list at http://members.chello.nl/~a.degreef/Filmnummers.html I collected the MPAA numbers that are the lowest for each year from 1928 to 2011. If you look at that list itself you’ll see that the MPAA numbers skip about over the years when films were assigned those numbers so that there’s no way to calculate one year’s range of numbers. More sophisticated methods will be needed for that purpose.
But as a first step to further explorations, here’s what I collected as the first instance each year of the MPAA numbers.
The list:
Year Number Title
1928 18412 Noah’s Ark (I)
1929 3109 Perfect Day
1930 605 Hell Harbor
1931 202 The Avenger
1932 208 South of the Rio Grande
1933 207 The California Trail
1934 1 The World Moves On
1935 189 One in a Million (I)
1936 097 The Last Journey
1937 0401 The Life of the Party
1938 01416 The Divorce of Lady X
1939 01050 Paradise in Harlem
1940 0357 Bulldog Sees It Through
1941 2335 Navy Blues
1942 279 So You Want to Give Up Smoking
1943 03398 Jungle Drums
1944 03202 Yankee Doodle Donkey
1945 03835 Scrappily Married
1946 03858 Cheese Burglar
1947 04059 Stupidstitious Cat
1948 04209 Little Brown Jug
1949 04302 Toys Will Be Toys
1950 04594 Quack-a-Doodle Do
1951 04958 Audrey the Rainmaker
1952 04957 The Awful Tooth
1953 05315 Hysterical History
1954 04834 Greek Mirthology
1955 5365 Gym College
1956 05695 The Clockmaker’s Dog
1957 05582 A Hare-Breadth Finish
1958 06034 Heir Restorer
1959 06108 Felineous Assault
1960 06204 The Boss Is Always Right
1961 06303 The Kid from Mars
1962 06177 Shotgun Shambles
1963 06392 Drum Up a Tenant
1964 06506 Whiz Quiz Kid
1965 06586 Reading, Writhing, and Rithmetic
1966 06661 Sick Transit
1967 06719 The Blacksheep Blacksmith
1968 06780 Keep the Cool, Baby
1969 21684 The Illustrated Man
1970 21911 Zabriskie Point
1971 21759 Bedknobs and Broomsticks
1972 22587 Necromancy
1973 23052 Bang the Drum Slowly
1974 23145 The Midnight Man
1975 23575 Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins
1976 24180 The End of the Game
1977 23077 Let’s Scare Jessica to Death
1978 24177 An Unmarried Woman
1979 25156 Norma Rae
1980 24438 A Change of Seasons
1981 25716 Clash of the Titans
1982 25927 Monsignor
1983 26225 The Being
1984 26721 Mike’s Murder
1985 27249 Volunteers
1986 27324 Ghost Warrior
1987 27852 Project X
1988 28094 Johnny Be Good
1989 27309 The Mighty Quinn
1990 28880 Don’t Tell Her It’s Me
1991 28656 Eyes of an Angel
1992 29632 Spellcaster
1993 18847 The Dead Talk Back
1994 30942 Blue Sky
1995 32387 Hellfire (I)
1996 32224 Mother Night
1997 33658 Quiet Days in Hollywood
1998 33083 Beach Babes 2: Cave Girl Island
1999 34724 Double Jeopardy
2000 33087 Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth
2001 35768 The Body
2002 34813 Extreme Ops
2003 32822 Billabong Odyssey
2004 38817 Dragon Storm
2005 39360 The Ice Harvest
2006 39360 Something New (I)
2007 39360 The Hitcher
2008 39360 Doubt (I)
2009 39360 Adventureland
2010 44792 She’s Out of My League
2011 45393 The Prodigy
Finding the IMDb Title number for each of these might reveal something. Might not.
Notice the major jump in numbers in 1968-1969. Also note that #1 in 1934 is not the oldest year with an MPAA number, and that those older years, 1928 and 1929 especially, may have been “retrofitted” at some point, possibly in the early 1940’s for 1929 and maybe as late as 1968 or 1969 for 1928.
My guess: All MPAA certificates issued for films originally made before 1934 were for reissues of those films in 1934 or later. Part of the MPAA revisions in 1934 were that all films released by MPAA members had to have certificates, even reissues.
That plot description looks like a hoax. I find it extremely unlikely that a legitimate studio like American Mutoscope would be involved in making porn in 1898 (the plot description says it goes way beyond tickling feet).
With nothing to go on but a title, I thought Tossing a Nigger in a Blanket (Short 1898) - IMDb seemed a little bizarre at least. I know PC has changed a lot of things, but this seems odd in spite of that. The high rating only adds to the funny feeling I got.
If you’ve seen it and have more to say about it than a title, maybe I won’t be as amazed.
That one is legit, believe it or not. The first volume of the AFI Catalog gets all flustered in the introduction, apologizing for the offensive titles or plots of some of the early films. I doubt that any of the 1,265 people rating the film at the IMDb have even seen it, though.
That in itself seems odd to me. I make no claims about my knowledge of early movie history. Except for old B Westerns made before I was born, I doubt if I’ve seen 20 features made before 1935, and if I’ve seen any silents they were very short ones. For me, movie history starts in the 40’s.
Then I’m sort of a mirror image. The great majority of the 6,000 or so films 1891–1903 in the IMDb were added by me. And the majority of the 5,190 U.S. features 1912–1920 were added by me.
I’ve probably seen ten times as many features from the 1920s as I have from the 2000s. If you want a must-see list of movies before 1935, well, here I am.
I must say that’s not all that big a surprise for me. I seem to recall (though not very clearly) other comments from you in other discussions about your interest in and knowledge of older movies. That’s great! How many titles (total) have you added to IMDb?
Aside from those 1904 films you mentioned upthread, are there other blocks of titles you provide at nearly the same time of entry? I would be surprised if there isn’t a lot of discontinuity and jumping around in the IMDb title numbers because of that very approach to adding titles.
Another thing: how much contact do you maintain with other IMDb contributors? Is there a “community” of sorts? Or do people operate more independently?
I’ve about convinced myself that further efforts to make these numbering systems “square up” in any meaningful way will require some historical details that others may be able to provide.
As evidence, I looked at the latest MPAA numbers for 2010. There are 158 such 2010 numbers and I selected just the latest of them. In MPAA number sequence and with IMDb Title URL’s provided, we have:
To the contrary, I think my submission method would cause some continuity, because I tend to submit films from the same year as a block, in alphabetical order. I don’t jump around randomly.
Independently. There is a message board for submitters, but it’s for business, not socializing.
Could you explain why you would think there would be any reason why these two systems would “square up”? They were created at different times, for different purposes, by different organizations. One system is only for American movies released or reissued after 1934, the other is for all movies of all time.
It was mostly a vain hope bordering on idle curiosity. Your explanation makes sense and I was mostly just exploring things to see if there was anything of trivia value going on. I’m convinced there’s no such thing there.
Thanks, Walloon, for helping me arrive at that conclusion. I could have floundered around much longer looking for things that just aren’t there, had it not been for your insights and knowledge of the two systems.
This is correct. I have seen an example of this on the Marx Brothers film Monkey Business- the opening credits themselves have an MPAA seal in them without a certificate number (as the film was made after the adoption of the Hays Code, but before the certificate system began), but tacked on to the front of the film was an MPAA card with a certificate number beginning or ending with the letter R, which I assume stands for “reissue” or “rerelease.”