Some of the Bond books and films have great titles, and my favourites are

You Only Live Twice
Moonraker
Dr No (one of the shortes titles on record?)

Note all these titles are from Ian Fleming himself, and not the later Bond films not based on any of the original Bond books.

In the humour genre, how about

Catch 22
School For Scoundrels
Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines
Guide For The Married Man
My Favourite Wife
When Harry Met Sally

And here are a few classics in their own right

All Quiet On The Western Front
West Side Story
The Secret Agent
A Streetcar Named Desire
A Night To Remember
Enter The Dragon
North By North West
A Bridge Too Far
Too Late The Hero
The Ship That Died Of Shame
Look Back In Anger
The Long Goodbye
Parallax View
Dawn Of The Dead
When A Stranger Calls
Apocalypse Now
Day Of The Jackal
The Number Of The Beast

I’ll return to this topic when I’ve recalled a few more fantastic titles.

Philip Gegan

One recent film that has bucked this trend is I, Robot, the Isaac Asimov classic, and that is a title easily worthy of mention here, even though it’s almost certainly borrowed from the classic title of I, Claudius.

Another great title from Isaac Asimov is Nightfall, a single word which opens up a whole world of possibilities and touches a nerve with its primeaval connotations of danger and the need to find shelter and safety from the creatures of the night. The Stars, Like Dust is another great title from Asimov, though I wasn’t particularly impressed with the actual story. That title’s similar to A Fall Of Stardust, by Neil Gaiman.

Journey Into Space is a fabulous title from the 1950s, and one of my boyhood memories is listening to the radio series of that name on winter nights with my parents and being scared stiff by it. Later I had the thrill of seeing the paperback book on sale, with its cover showing a mighty spaceship on its launchpad at night, aimed at the stars above.

The 1960s produced the inimitable film, 2001 – A Space Oddessy, based on the book by Arthur C Clarke, who wrote many other books with great titles, such as Rendevous With Rama, The Other Side Of The Sky, Earthlight, A Fall Of Moondust and The Songs Of Distant Earth.

Other great SF titles that I must include are Blade Runner, The Matrix, and Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger In A Strange Land.

Philip Gegan

Dawn Of The Dead

Four Past Midnight

This last title you’ll probably recognise as a Stephen King title. Stephen King must be one of the most successful writers of all time, and anyone who’s read any of his books will know why – you simply can’t put them down. His style of writing is so engaging and magnetic, and you just never know what’s going to happen next.

And he has great titles for most of his books. My favourites are Needful Things, and Night Shift. Another is The Running Man, but I mentioned that in an earlier post.

That last title is one of comparatively few really good titles that start with the word “The”. Most fantastic titles, in my view, avoid that.

Another great horror fiction writer is Ray Bradbury, who has two great titles in Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes. And those titles don’t disappoint – the books are fabulous reading. As is The Martian Chronicles, though that title doesn’t quite have the magic of the others in my view.

In short, the title is everything. Writers working on their craft, whether they’re writing sales copy, or an article, or a book, or anything else, will spend as much time on the title as on the body of what they’re writing.

If any of the books I’ve mentioned in this series had been given an ordinary, nondescript title, would they have been the runaway successes that they are? I doubt it. But it’s only a comparatively recent phenomenon.

In Shakespeare’s time, for example, the title was treated as purely a description of what the play, or book, was about. The title, “Henry V” doesn’t do much to inspire you, even though it’s one of Shakespeare’s great plays that covers the historic battle of Agincourt. And as for “Henry VI Part III”, well . . .

More soon.

I’ve already mentioned Dennis Wheatley, probably one of the most famous horror writers of all time, and his books, The Devil Rides Out and To The Devil A Daughter. Other writers have produced equally fantastic titles, such as

Night Of The Demon (a fantasy poem by Phil Garland, published in 1972).

This may have been taken from a 1958 film starring Dana Andrews and Peggy Cummins called “Curse of the Demon“, which sometimes bears the title of Phil Garland’s story. Or it may have been adapted from the title of a story published in the early 20th century called “Demons Of The Night: And Other Early Tales“, by Seabury Quinn (what a distinctive name!).

The idea has been taken up several times in more recent times, e.g. “Night Of Demons“, by Tony Richards.

In The Heat Of The Night, by John Dudley Ball, is another favourite of mine. He also wrote a novel called “Miss One Thousand Spring Blossoms” – quite a contrast in title.

And what about

Hell Is A City

described as a Timothy Dane mystery on Amazon. I haven’t been able to find out much about it. The only reason I mention it is that I saw the title many years ago when I was a boy, possibly in a newspaper advertising the book or film, and the title intrigued me so much I’ve never forgotton it.

More soon . . .

Philip Gegan

A Warning To The Curious

and

Whistle And I’ll Come To You, My Lad

Another English author that I believe came up with some great titles
was H G Wells, and the following titles relate to three of his best
known works:

The Shape Of Things To Come
War Of The Worlds
The Time Machine

The first is, to me, the most ominous title you could think of. Just
six words convey a feeling of fear of the unknown, a kind of
helplessness, and at the same time a kind of compulsion to find out
more. The word “shape” plays on the human subconscious fear of shapes
that cannot quite be made out. “Things” is equally vague, yet
threatening by way of its very vagueness (e.g. “The Thing From The
Black Lagoon”), and “To Come” plays on our instinctive fear of the
future – of things that may come to pass.

The other two titles are brilliant and simple at the same time. They
sum up in three words and four words exactly what the story is about,
but also create enough curiosity to compel the casual browser to reach
out and pick up the book (or film).

Other titles that I think are brilliant are:

The Running Man
The Fourth Protocol
The French Connection
The Italian Job
Midnight Cowboy
On The Waterfront

More soon . . .

The Devil Rides Out
and
To The Devil A Daughter

Perhaps that’s because I have a kind of fascination for anything to do
with the devil, and the dark side of life. But Dennis Wheatley (or his
publisher) does have a talent for picking great titles of his works,
because here are a few more of them:

Curtain of Fear
Dangerous Inheritance
Desperate Measures
Forbidden Territory
Gateway To Hell
The Island Where Time Stands Still
The Prisoner In The Mask
The Rising Storm
Strange Conflict
Such Power Is Dangerous

Another favourite title of mine is

Night Of The Demon

This is the title of a book by Phil Garland, published in 1972.

In The Heat Of The Night is a mystery story written by John Ball and
first published, I believe, in the 1960s, and was later made into a
film.

How about this for an ominous title?

Hell Is A City

This was written by Maurice Procter and published by the UK’s Mystery
Book Guild in the 1950s. What a title!

More soon . . .

The answer must be that it is so important it is the single most vital part of the whole thing. It’s what makes people decide whether or not to buy the book or a ticket to see the film. And that ultimately determines whether it will be a success or not, and whether further books will be published by the same author or films made from the same producer.

What makes you pick up a book in a book store, one from hundreds of others? What is it that makes you pick up that particular book?

What first kindles your interest in a certain film? It could be the reviews you read, but what makes you read a review in the first place? It might be knowing the stars of the film, but just as likely it’s the title of the film.

And you have just one shot at getting the title right. So that’s why titles are so important, whether you’re talking about a web site, an article, a blog post . . . anything.

I think I’ll frequently post here about titles. They fascinate me. But I’m inviting all my visitors to make their own contributions on this topic as well. What do YOU think is a fantastic title? Which books and films do you think have fantastic titles?

Of course books and films aren’t the only things, but I’ll start with them and add further categories soon. Please suggest any categories you feel strongly about. More tomorrow . . .