Mining the Hot 100

Ever since director John Hughes struck gold by using such pop songs as “Pretty in Pink” and “Some Kind of Wonderful” as titles for his teen pics, Hollywood has been cruising the Hot 100 searching for movie monikers. The latest? A&M; Films’ once-titled “Finding Maubee,” a comedy drama about a Carribean cop (Denzel Washington) whose boyhood pal (Robert Townsend) is a murder suspect. The film, due from MGM, is now called . . . “The Mighty Quinn,” from the Bob Dylan song that was a big hit for Manfred Mann in 1968.

“Screening the film to test audiences, we found that with the old title and the credit--’Robert Townsend as Maubee’--most audiences thought he was the star of the film,” said exec producer Dale Pollock. “While he has a prominent role, his character is very elusive and moviegoers were frustrated that he kept disappearing. We got back comments saying, ‘Why’d you cut Robert Townsend out of the film?’ ”

A&M; was “contractually prevented” from changing Townsend’s credit: “Using ‘Mighty Quinn’ was a natural, especially since we already had the song in the film,” Pollock said.