Updating the IMDb

Instead of continuing to bitch about mistakes and omissions on the Internet Movie Database, we've decided to start a new column to collect research that can be used as confirmation when submitting corrections and additions to the IMDb. First up is a movie that's been an irritation to us for a few years now...

The IMDb entry for GIRLS ON THE ROAD (1973) should be changed to HOT SUMMER WEEK (1972). We understand that it opened on January 5th, 1973 in Bismarck, North Dakota under the title GIRLS ON THE ROAD, but it had already been in release since July '72 as HOT SUMMER WEEK and we have playdates in Arizona, Florida and Louisiana to back up this claim. As for GIRLS ON THE ROAD, that title's not even on file with the MPAA. The fact that the movie has only been on video and DVD as GIRLS ON THE ROAD doesn't matter -- the official title is HOT SUMMER WEEK, and the official release date is 1972.

THE LOSERS (1970) has never, to the best of our knowledge, been referred to as anything other than THE LOSERS in its country of origin (the United States of America). We have no idea how it came to be known as NAM'S ANGELS on the IMDb, but we're positive that no one who's seen the movie has ever called it by that name. We’ve read Alan Caillou’s first draft screenplay, and "The Losers" is on the title page. That's the name it had when it was announced in the trades. We’ve talked to at least 10 people who worked on the movie, and they know it only as THE LOSERS. It was THE LOSERS when it began production in Manila on Monday, January 19th, 1970. It was THE LOSERS when it had its simultaneous world premieres in Dallas, Kansas City, and Philadelphia on May 27th, 1970. It was THE LOSERS when it got reviewed in Variety, Boxoffice and newspapers across the country. It was THE LOSERS when it was still getting theatrical bookings at drive-ins 10 years later. It was THE LOSERS when it made its network premiere on The CBS Friday Night Movie on October 3rd, 1975. It was THE LOSERS a couple of years later when it was in TV syndication through Teleworld. It was THE LOSERS when it hit VHS in 1982 from Electric Video and again in 1988 from Academy Home Entertainment. The clips that were used in PULP FICTION are credited to THE LOSERS. When the DVD from Dark Sky came out in 2006, the title was still THE LOSERS -- yet with all of this and the Dark Sky DVD cover uploaded a tenth of an inch to the left, the IMDb insists on calling it NAM'S ANGELS. Oh, but click on the "Also Known As" link and you'll find THE LOSERS among a half dozen foreign language titles with the parenthetical note "undefined" next to it. Really? Undefined? How's this for a definition: It's the fucking title of the movie.

DEATH CURSE OF TARTU apparently opened in Sweden in 1968, but that's no reason to report 1968 as its primary release date. It's an American movie that began its theatrical roll-out in the U.S. in 1966, so the proper release date is 1966.

Every source we've ever seen for THE GLORY STOMPERS, from Variety to TV Guide to 25 years of Leonard Maltin's TV Movies, lists a 1967 date for this biker flick, yet one misinformed soul with an IMDb password has managed to lead an entire generation of online DVD reviewers down the garden path by typing "January 1968" as the release date. Yes, it was no doubt still playing drive-ins in January '68, but it began its theatrical life in Texas, Utah and a dozen or more states two months prior to that. Please change it back to 1967.

QUADROON may have opened in Chicago in March of 1972, but the ad above proves that its world premiere occurred eight months earlier. The IMDb entry should be QUADROON (1971).

GARDEN OF DEATH (a.k.a. SEEDS OF EVIL) carries a release date of October 1975 on the IMDb, but the ad above is from its Kansas City opening one year earlier, in October 1974. Also, the title THE GARDENER is "undefined" when it should be the primary title.

REDNECK MILLER carries a 1977 release date on the IMDb, but above is an advertisement for its world premiere in Florence, South Carolina on November 24th, 1976.

WELCOME HOME, SOLDIER BOYS sports a 1972 release date in every source we've ever checked, but it opened in San Antonio, Texas on December 10th, 1971.

The MPAA is to blame for this mistake. THE HEX MASSACRE is in their database as a re-release title for THE CHOSEN/HOLOCAUST 2000 and LUCIFER'S CURSE is supposedly another title for WHO CAN KILL A CHILD? (a.k.a. ISLAND OF THE DAMNED and TRAPPED), when the opposite is actually true according to this ad from Petersburg, VA (May 6th, 1979). LUCIFER’S CURSE is really the Alberto De Martino movie starring Kirk Douglas, while THE HEX MASSACRE is the Narciso Ibáñez Serrador shocker.