Movies With Inaccurate Billing

Angie Dickinson is second billed in "Dressed to Kill."

I can understand it, because they were huge A-Listers, but Christopher Reeve was billed third behind Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman in Superman.

That's Miss Angie Dickinson, R1.

Christopher Reeves

Sally Fields

If the true star of the movie is an unknown, sometimes he or she will be billed last, but get an "and introducing" credit.

[quote] Then I realized that Loy's name was a big draw at the time the film was released, so that's probably the reason she appears first in the credits.

Partly, although she was kind of a has been by mid 40's. But most of the time the credit placement is spelled out in the actor's contract.

Vivien Leigh got 4th billing in GWTW

Schwarzenegger got top billing in George Clooney's Batman movie.

R7 Because she was making her Hollywood debut. Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, and Olivia De Haviland were already Hollywood stars.

I've always felt the two true stars of "Close Encounters" were Richard Dreyfuss and Melinda Dillon but Dillon was not a big name, so she got pushed to 4th billing behind Dreyfus, Francois Truffaut and Teri Garr.

R9 which is why I should have been nominated for Leafing Actress!

Leading

[quote]Angie Dickinson is second billed in "Dressed to Kill."

Well, that was taking a page from Psycho's book. Janet Leigh and Angie were given star billing so that it would really startle people when they are both killed off relatively early in their films.

No. Janet Leigh got the "and" credit, which signalled a big star in a featured/cameo role.

Inaccurate? Are you pretending these aren't determined by their contracts and agents and managers, or something?

Helen Lawson got top billing in the 1975 disaster movie BLIMP, even though she was one of the first passengers to die.

Myrna Loy was a HUGE star. In the 30s she had been named "The Queen of Hollywood" in the same poll that christened Clark Gable "The King of Hollywood." Her biggest fan was FDR, who was absolutely gaga over her and arranged specially to meet her.

She was a bigger star at the time than Fredric March or Teresa Wright or Dana Andrews, the other major stars of the film. And Harold Russell was a nobody until the film premiered.

I wonder if Myna did some deal behind the scenes.

She gets top billing for the indignity of playing a matron. She's 41 years old playing a mother to 28 year old Teresa Wright.

William Wyler's last proper movie, Mrs MIniver, had 38 year old Greer Garson playing a mother to 24 year old Teresa Wright. And Garson was rewarded with an Oscar for the indignity of playing a matron.

There was also Claudette Colbert two years later than Garson, at 41 playing Mom to 26 year old Jennifer Jones (+ 16 year old Shirley Temple, a better fit).

[quote]Janet Leigh got the "and" credit, which signalled a big star in a featured/cameo role.

No. Hitchcock was quite vocal in later interviews about the fact that he wanted people to assume Leigh was the star, so that they would be shocked by her death so early in the film. Note her prominence on the poster (and the complete lack of representation of Vera Miles, the real female star of the film). Miles, as the real female lead, had top billing after Perkins. The only way to present Leigh in such a case was to place her at the end with "and" status. It wasn't just to signify cameos at the time.

R18 wyler’s last proper movie was M.M.? Hardly. The Best Years of Our Lives and Detective Story were superb. Ben-Hur was hardly typical of him, but very good in the sandals and swords epic tradition.

[quote] Helen Lawson got top billing in the 1975 disaster movie BLIMP, even though she was one of the first passengers to die.

Apparently you didn’t watch it all the way through. Turns out she was tangled in the mooring ropes and managed to drag herself back into the passenger compartment in time to get revenge on the bastard who threw her overboard, and his little dog, too.

Jack Nicholson got top billing in the first Batman movie.

Sophie's Choice.

Marilyn Monroe got top billing in Some Like It Hot, even though Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis did most of the work.

By the way that's a Marilyn stand-in on the movie poster. She was a no-show when the pic was taken.

R18 Garson didn’t play Wright’s mother, but rather mother-in-law. Garson later married the actor who played her onscreen son, 12 years her junior.

R21 I'm sorry. I used the word 'last' when I should have said 'previous'.

'Mrs Miniver' was Wyler's previous movie to 'Best years' (excepting those army instructional films)

R27 thanks for clarifying—I see what you mean now.

My billing was ALWAYS accurate!

Joan Crawford got billed to right of Norma Shearer in The Women. Joan should have been in first position with a single title card.

R30 No. Norma Shearer's character is the Lead and she was First Lady of MGM.

Maximilian Schell took home the Best Actor Oscar for "Judgment at Nuremberg," but on the poster, he's billed 5th (6th if you consider Judy Garland's creative unaligned billing as being ahead of his). I believe he has more screen time than his bigger-named co-stars Marlene Dietrich and Richard Widmark.

[quote]Movies With Inaccurate Billing

I blame that Ginny.

Nonsense. It’s the loss of Ginny that caused all the problems. Say what you will about her as a person, but that woman knew her billing.

Streisand should have given Nick Nolte top billing in The Prince of Tides.

regarding Close Encounters Melinda Dillon's name doesn't even appear in the opening credits (nor does Teri Garr) I wonder if that is a rare time that a non-front billed actor got a nomination.

Miss Dunaway writes in her book that she encouraged Sharon Stone to fight for above the title billing like she got in Bonnie and Clyde. (Faye says Warren generously gave it to her but someone on DL told me she had to take a pay cut to get it.) Michael Douglas wouldn't hear of it and Sharon got under the title billing. Odd now she is all that you really remember about the film.

[quote]she was First Lady of MGM

A title she got on her back.

In retrospect, Janet Leigh getting the "and" credit should have tipped people off that something was up. If they wanted to shock/fool people, it would've made more sense to give her top billing.