Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2017 November 18

= November 18 =

17 Moments of Spring
Would it be accurate to refer to the Russian miniseries 17 Moments of Spring as being part of the Eurospy genre? 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:5917:3E80:D859:DF69 (talk) 10:59, 18 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Based solely on the information from the links you provided, it seems the answer is "no". —2606:A000:4C0C:E200:C9A:4B44:2E28:1611 (talk) 08:32, 19 November 2017 (UTC)

Actors' names misspelled in film credits
I just sat down to watch Murder on the Orient Express (1974 film) on TV. I did see it at the movies at the time, but never since then. (I saw the 2017 remake last weekend and thought it would be good to compare notes.)

In the opening credits was the name "Colin Blankey" [sic]. That sounded suspiciously like Colin Blakely, and sure enough, it was the latter actor who played a role. In the closing credits, he was correctly named as Colin Blakely. This led me to wonder whether I'd misread the opening credits. Then I found this from IMdB, which confirmed I'd read it correctly, and it was definitely misspelled.

It also told me that Wendy Hiller's name was correctly spelled in the opening credits, but misspelled as "Wendy Miller" in the closing credits.

How often do film makers get the names of their actors wrong? --  Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  11:25, 18 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Fairly often, apparently. Here's some instances that people at a Straight Dope message board came up with (many by searching for the word "misspelled" or "misspelt" in the category "goofs" on IMDb). Deor (talk) 19:27, 18 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Stunning. --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  22:53, 18 November 2017 (UTC)

The credits of a film are not particularly reliable sources. Besides errors, omissions, and misspellings, there are times when pseudonyms were used for the crew of the film, or someone else received the credit. In The Evil Dead most of the actors used aliases when credited. Cowboy (1958 film) credited Edmund H. North as the screenwriter, as a cover for the filmmakers. The actual screenwriter of the film was the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo, and his identity was revealed a few years later. Dimadick (talk) 15:44, 19 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Deliberately obscuring someone's true identity is not an error. Spelling errors are very common in these days of "progressive" education, but within living memory (= pre-internet and pre-spell checkers) they were considered unacceptable in any kind of professional output, including books, letters, journals, signage, and film credits.  That was certainly the standard back in 1974. People used to rigorously check these things for accuracy, despite the fact that everything was typed on a typewriter and each page had to be retyped in its entirety if there was even one error (whiteout was sometimes used, but was inappropriate in many contexts).  But obviously, some errors still crept through.  I can only sympathise with Colin Blakeley's anguish when he saw his name as "Colin Blankey" in the film, which was a major blockbuster and targeted at the Oscars and BAFTAs from the outset.  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  19:25, 19 November 2017 (UTC)
 * I loved Christopher Wlaken in Annie Hall. ---Sluzzelin talk  21:03, 19 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Do we have a citation for the idea that spelling errors are less common in pre-spell-check media? I know more effort was put into preventing them, but this doesn't line up with my personal observations of old media.  (Original anecdotal research : In older books, spelling errors seem more common, but in modern books, word-choice errors seem more common, presumably because they don't trigger red-squiggles?) ApLundell (talk) 16:55, 22 November 2017 (UTC)
 * It's a misleading claim, because until relatively recently, closing credits tended to be minimal. Now they seem to be a list of everyone who had any connection to the movie, maybe even including the pizza delivery guy. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:56, 22 November 2017 (UTC)

"they were considered unacceptable in any kind of professional output, including books, letters, journals, signage, and film credits. That was certainly the standard back in 1974."

Blame it on our favorite demon, Titivillus: "He has been called the "patron demon of scribes," as Titivillus provides an easy excuse for the errors that are bound to creep into manuscripts as they are copied."

In Greece whenever a newspaper or magazine makes a major error due to typos, they humorously blame it on the "daimon tou typographeiou" (δαίμων του τυπογραφείου): the demon of the type printing machine. Dimadick (talk) 17:35, 20 November 2017 (UTC)


 * Pleased to make Titivillus's acquintance. Thanks --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  21:06, 20 November 2017 (UTC)

Exhibition matches in cricket
Cricket pitch says the following: "Artificial pitches are rare in professional cricket, being used only when exhibition matches are played in regions where cricket is not a common sport." Is exhibition matches common in cricket? It strikes me as sounding American (e.g. exhibition games are played in American football, while association football plays friendly matches or friendlies), but I didn't want to change it myself, lest I change the right term to a wrong one. Nyttend (talk) 13:55, 18 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Yes - see, for example, this site. I can't immediately find a reference for this, but I would say there's a difference between a friendly and an exhibition match in cricket - a friendly is mainly for the benefit of the players (in terms of practice, etc), while an exhibition match is mainly for the benefit of the audience (to introduce otherwise-unfamilar spectators to the game). Tevildo (talk) 19:17, 18 November 2017 (UTC)
 * A Dictionary of Cricket (p. 27) by M.A. Pervez: "Exhibition match: A match which is not part of any tournament or series, but played solely for the purposes of promoting cricket in the area or raising funds".
 * See for example Cricket Exhibition at Citi Field Gets a Boost From Sachin Tendulkar (Citi Field is a baseball park in New York).  Alansplodge (talk) 01:34, 19 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Yes, one of the MLB parks (not the Yankees). I saw bus shelter ads for that. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 19:24, 19 November 2017 (UTC)