Showbiz History: The biggest Oscar nomination shock ever + the "Before" trilogy begins

5 random things that happened on this day, January 27th, in showbiz history

1939 Idiots Delight starring Norma Shearer and Clark Gable opens in theaters. It was their final picture together but Mr Gable had in fact become a star IN a Norma Shearer picture: A Free Soul (1931). Jesse James starring Tyrone Power was also released on this day during "Hollywood's Greatest Year"...

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What does this tagline even mean?

While searching for showbiz anniversaries on this day, I came across the Tony Randall / Janet Leigh movie Hello, Down There which was released 50 years ago on this very day. But the tagline threw off the rest of my research so it's the only "today in showbiz history" factoid you get this morning. 

A combo of scuba dupes rock up a storm in a mad pad under the surf!

WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN? Is it in English? I recognize the individual words but can't comprehend their meaning as a sentence. Was it a mad-libs of  common late '60s vernacular?

If you've seen this movie or even if you haven't and would like to try, please decipher for us. 

Exclamatory Titles

We're celebrating the 1968 film year sporadically as countdown to the Smackdown! 

The first time I consciously remember obsessing over exact typography in a film title was in 1995 when David Fincher's Se7en emerged and then again when Moulin Rouge! hit in 2001. With the latter I got angry every time I saw someone type that title without the exclamation point. Bazmark movies require their specific punctuation. (See also: Romeo + Juliet. It's just not the same at all with an ampersand!) 

Surveying 1968's film releases recently I couldn't help but wonder if that era, a seminal time for the world and the cinema, and that year specifically was the peak of exclamatory film titles? No less than four major films released that year asked you to shout their titles rather than politely sound them out.

BOOM! with Liz & Dick. Which also wins our Best Tagline of '68 for "together they devour life"
OLIVER! the only exclamation point film title to ever win the Best Picture prize (though not the only nominee obviously)
BANDOLERO! with Jimmy Stewart, Dean Martin & Raquel Welch. The exclamation point wasn't exclamatory enough so they had to add all caps in the tagline "a NEW kind of western"
STAR! with Julie Andrews ! as Gertrud Lawrence

Are you fussy about people using exactly correct titles? I am. I mean if you say Moulin Rouge without the exclamation point it's just a dusty Jose Ferrer biopic, don'cha know.

The only excuse for ditching the exclamation point is when you're just not feeling it.

♪ ...or by a comma when the feeling's not as strong... ♫

(Geraldine is such a cocktease.)

Posterpalooza Pt 1: Hitchcock, On the Road, The Wolverine

Not all posters inspire multiple thoughts like Django Unchained or The Guilt Trip so let's do a wee collection of new objects du marketing.

To quote Heidi Klum "it looks cheap, no?" I really can't fathom why they can never take photos of stars together during any of the months in which they film to make posters. Why are they always pieced together later by photoshop? Imagine how great movie posters would be if they did them like the promotional photoshoots you'll sometimes see movies do for magazines like Vanity Fair. But enough of that rant. Let's talk about the tagline.

Behind every Psycho is a great woman."

That clearly positions this as a comedy and, perhaps surprisingly, announces Helen Mirren as the MVP. Best Actress here she comes. Given the comic slant its path to Golden Globe Glory and thus Academy eyeballs is secured. I'm seeing the film tomorrow morning. Can't wait.

Three more posters after the jump...

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