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The Film-Lover's Check List Mxg77
  • Titles in black are seen.
  • Titles in amber are seen but should be seen again.
  • Titles in red are not seen.
Total: 69  
Seen: 61 (88.4%)
See Again: 0 (0.0%)
Unseen: 8 (11.6%)

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Movies whose titles are first heard (usually sung) at the same time they are first displayed onscreen as the title. Usually this is in a title sequence accompanied by a song, but that's not always the case, and some exceptions are fun.

Organized by theme, dated, and annotated for judgment calls.

 

Bond (early September 2019)

 
Goldfinger (1964)
Thunderball (1965)
You Only Live Twice (1967)
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Live and Let Die (1973)
The Man With the Golden Gun (1974)
Moonraker (1979)  (Feb 2023: must downgrade/asterisk after realizing shuttle is seen and mentioned in pretitle)
For Your Eyes Only (1981)
A View To a Kill (1985)

Classic Disney

 
Saludos Amigos (1942)  9/15/19
Song of the South (1946)  4/24/20
Make Mine Music (1946)  9/16/19
Fun and Fancy Free (1947)  9/15/19
Melody Time (1948)  9/16/19 (title jumps out of background in sync)
Cinderella (1950)  c. 9/13/19
Alice In Wonderland (1951)  9/15/19

1980s

 
The Meaning of Life (1983)  c. 9/13/19 (short title, as "Monty Python's" is not sung)
Footloose (1984)  11/23-24/19 (technically on "loose, footloose" but intent is clear)
Weird Science (1985)  9/25/19
Ruthless People (1986)  9/30/19
Little Shop of Horrors (1986)  9/15/19 (title appearance notably delayed to sync)
Howard the Duck (1986)  1/14/20 (spoken, after most other credits, therefore the small based-on credit puts the name onscreen earlier, but considering that a technicality)
Earth Girls Are Easy (1988)  9/19/19
Hairspray (1988)  1/6/24

Other

 
My Darling Clementine (1946)  1/3/21
People Are Funny (1946)  6/25/23 (shouted out, possibly continued from radio style)
Deep In My Heart (1954)  3/17/24
My Sister Eileen (1955)  7/31/20 (odd case: title appears as it's spoken as the end of an introductory monologue, then it's sung as the start of a title song, then vanishes)
Rock Rock Rock! (1956)  8/20/23
Horrors of Spider Island (1960)  6/16/21 (English version, as on MST3K, narration)
Voyage To the Bottom of the Sea (1961)  1/21/23
Days of Wine and Roses (1962)  3/30/21 ("the" sung at appearance, though not part of title, and title fades by "roses", but timed purposefully)
What's New, Pussycat? (1965)  10/5/21
Alfie (1966)  10/3/19 (exclaimed)
Georgy Girl (1966)  4/8/23
Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows (1968)  9/16/19 (reasonably close, title appears at comma)
If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969)  1/1/24
The Big Bus (1976)  4/6/21 (narration)
I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978)  7/9/21 (great sync, matched to each syllable!)
The Glove (1979)  2/6/22
Next Friday (2000)  10/1/19 (credits read aloud, found by Jordan D.)
D.E.B.S. (2003)  1/27/23 (narration)
The Simpsons Movie (2007)  9/15/19
The Creep Behind the Camera (2014)  5/28/21 (narration)
A Better You (2014)  5/21/22 (narration)
Little (2019)  1/12/21 (technically, but perhaps not intentionally; spoken)
 
 

NOTABLE CLOSE MISSES (and unfair judgment calls, if you prefer)

 

 

 

Bond (early September 2019)

 

The impetus for this list was an observation that most of the first 14 Bond movies timed the title just right, including dallying quite a bit for Thunderball.

Apart from Dr. No, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and Octopussy, which have no lyrics or no title in the lyrics, there are two exceptions:

 
From Russia With Love (1963)  (title music is instrumental, but if a vocal version had been used, it would fit!)
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)  (the first, and only classic, to have the title appear much later in the song; from The Living Daylights through No Time to Die, title drops come too far in!)

Honorable mention to one more, whose title parodies the classic Maurice Binder efforts:

 
Spy Hard (1996)  (as closely modeled after Thunderball as this was, it missed the chance to delay the title a little bit more; whether this was Weird Al's oversight or not I couldn't say)

Stage musicals

 

Films of stage musicals especially seem to make up a category I am not fleshing out of movies whose title sequences are instrumentals but would otherwise fit (see also From Russia with Love).

Just as a few examples, to illustrate, though:

 
Oklahoma! (1955)  9/15/19
Hello, Dolly! (1969)  9/15/19

A real example of a close miss:

 
Paint Your Wagon (1969)  9/18/19 (very close, but title appears several measures too early and fades as it's sung, so clearly this was not the intent)

Classic Disney

 
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)  9/16/19 (strip "The Adventures of" and you'd have it!)

1980s

 
Nine To Five (1980)  9/16/19 (the title IS sung as it appears, but it's the second occurrence in the title song)
The Dark Crystal (1982)  5/2/20 (title seen just after the ominous opening narration ends in it)
Joy Sticks (1983)  11/15/19 (sung in the singular, which was to be the title before it was revised)
Ghostbusters (1984)  9/21/19 (sung a few measures too late for me to count)
Amazon Women On the Moon (1987)  4/16/21 (one "version" of the movie-in-a-movie does it, but it was also intended to be the real opening scene and would have counted then; spoken)
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)  12/4/20 (would work with short version of title, but sung too late)

Other

 
Lady Be Good (1941)  11/24/23 (sung a bit late)
Hi-De-Ho (1947)  2/18/23 (title is onscreen for about 5 seconds before it's sung)
The Bellboy (1960)  9/18/19 (title spoken by narrator, but too far off from title card)
Help! (1965)  6/11/12 (title appears at a later use of the word, volunteered by Sam Stoddard)
Catalina Caper (1967)  6/6/20 (if title hadn't changed from "Never Steal Anything Wet", it would likely have counted)
The Way We Were (1973)  3/30/21 (maddeningly close, similar case to Paint Your Wagon)
Harper Valley P.T.A. (1978)  3/17/23 (almost deliberate mistiming)
Blankman (1994)  8/4/23 (sung a bit late as if not trying)
Love Actually (2003)  9/25/19 (words appear in time, but they're not presented as the title till later)
Down With Love (2003)  9/21/19