New Titles Give Films New Lease on Life on Video

“Gentlemen Don’t Eat Poets” and “Mad Dog Time” are the types of little-seen films that sometimes find an audience on video. Both received limited theatrical distribution and barely registered on the box-office charts. They received mixed reviews. But they share a quirky sensibility and boast star-powered ensemble casts that might entice curious renters.

But you won’t find these black comedies on video, at least not under their theatrical release titles. “Poets,” a Live Entertainment release that arrived in video stores Tuesday, has been re-dubbed “Grave Indiscretions.” “Mad Dog Time,” on the MGM/UA Home Video label, is now called “Trigger Happy.”

Movies are frequently repositioned for their video release. Sometimes, the video box art will deviate from a film’s theatrical campaign (the introduction of the exploding White House for “Independence Day,” for example, or the prominent display of Kurt Russell and James Spader on “Stargate”).

Other times, a title change is deemed the most effective way of introducing a film with perceived niche appeal to a wider audience on video. The Southern gothic drama “The Beans of Egypt, Maine” became “Forbidden Choices.” The French costume drama “Tous les Matins du Monde” was released under its English translation, “All the Mornings of the World.” “It Runs in My Family,” Bob Clark’s follow-up to “A Christmas Story,” was changed to “My Summer Story” to better tie into that holiday video perennial.

Retitling a movie can be risky. It scuttles any awareness the film’s theatrical campaign may have generated and can cause confusion between customers and retailers looking for the same film under different titles. “People who look for more obscure, art-house films are completely lost when the titles are changed,” said Cynthia De Ruscio, manager of Vid-E Olympix in Huntington Beach.

In the case of “The Beans of Egypt, Maine,” she said, the “sleazy, sexy name” was a turn-off to those who read the book, but missed the film in theaters and were asking for it by its original title. “I thought the film was really great, but I had the hardest time getting people to rent it [with the new title]. I had to put a tag on the box stating the film’s original title. Customers would have never picked it up.”

“Gentlemen Don’t Eat Poets,” which stars Alan Bates, Theresa Russell and Sting, is a title that appeals to the art-house audience, said Jeff Fink, Live’s senior vice president of sales and marketing. “Grave Indiscretions” was deemed to have broader appeal.

“The video market is different in the sense that you’re basically trying to appeal to a different demographic than a theatrical release,” he said. “Art-house films are targeted to that audience. In a video store, there is a lot more to choose from. The customer is willing to experiment, as opposed to going to a theater looking for a specific movie.

“Since [the film] is a dark comedy with horrific overtones, you look for a title that conveys that message, something that the consumer can relate to. ‘Gentlemen Don’t Eat Poets’ doesn’t necessarily reflect what the movie is about. Because it didn’t generate a lot of box office or awareness, we feel the name change will actually create its own awareness on video.”

For those familiar with the film’s original title, Fink noted, the title treatment on the video box will contain the film’s original title as a tag line.

“Trigger Happy” reversed the process. The video release allowed writer and director Larry Bishop to reclaim the title he originally intended for his outrageous riff on hard-boiled gangster films. He was forced to substitute “Mad Dog Time” for the film’s theatrical release, he said in a phone interview, to avoid confusion with “The Trigger Effect,” which Universal had released several weeks before.

The video box capitalizes on the the film’s marquee-boggling ensemble that includes Richard Dreyfuss, Gabriel Byrne, Jeff Goldblum, Ellen Barkin and Diane Lane. Even though “Mad Dog Time” generated passionate reviews, pro and con (“They were either four stars or I owed somebody a star,” Bishop joked), he said that the title change was in keeping with the film’s subversive spirit.

“I always viewed the movie as a secret jazz club that you have to go underground to find,” he said. “Someone will have to dig a little further to find it, but that is the personality who would appreciate the movie anyway.”

Director Taylor Hackford was not as blithe when discussing “Bound by Honor,” his epic anti-gang drama about life in the barrio, which was released on video as “Blood In Blood Out.” Like “Trigger Happy,” this was the film’s original title. Released in the wake of the L.A. riots, it was changed because of studio concerns about gang violence in theaters. Its distribution, too, was curtailed, he said.

“On the one hand, it’s very frustrating,” he said. “I will always be grateful that a major studio would let me make a three-hour movie with no stars and in three languages with no interference. But we did not go into the marketplace with a fair shot.”

He credited Fox studio Chairman Bill Mechanic, then head of Buena Vista Home Video, with restoring the original title for the video release. “ ‘Blood In Blood Out’ reflects the movie and the nature of that prison gang the way I wanted,” Hackford said. “At least on videocassette, it is being seen by audiences and being responded to in a positive way.”