Sunday Showdown: AFI vs. IMDb (#29 & #20)

It’s the Sunday Movie Showdown, The American Film Institute’s (AFI) Top 100 vs. the Internet Movie Databases’ (IMDb) Top 100. This week a little jumping around:

#29 – Double Indemnity vs. It’s a Wonderful Life

#20 – It’s a Wonderful Life vs. Rear Window

If I had this many kids, I'd throw myself off a bridge too

We’ve made it into the twenties. From here on out, many of the films are on both sides of the list somewhere, so I will try to cover both as I get to them.

This week was chock-full-o-Jimmy Stewart. I have to admit, it was the first time I’d ever watched It’s a Wonderful Life with my air-conditioning running full blast. And unfortunately, my air-conditioning didn’t make me like the movie any better.

That’s right, I said I don’t like It’s a Wonderful Life. (I also kick puppies when no one is looking and give my kids yogurt and tell them it’s exactly like ice cream.)

Honestly, I find the film ridiculously sentimental. I can barely watch it without rolling my eyes and wanting to tell George Bailey: “Co-dependent much? Enabler? Why don’t you help these people learn how to fix themselves rather than fix everything for them??”

What’s the old saying again? Build a man a fire and he’ll be warm for a night. Set a man on fire and he’ll be warm for the rest of life.

Double Indemnity - Great but not enough

Or something like that. :-)

But despite my dislike of Wonderful Life, I can understand and even respect its place as an American cinematic classic. The term Capraesque is in our vocabulary for a reason.

So I give It’s a Wonderful Life my vote over Double Indemnity, because, although it may be sappy, it’s still a better movie than Double Indemnity. (Although, don’t get me wrong, I love Indemnity, and gave it my vote over The Deer Hunterback at #53)

Rear Window - perhaps my favorite Hitchcock & Stewart film

But for #20, against Rear Window, there’s no way I’m giving my vote to Wonderful Life. But Jimmy Stewart shouldn’t be too sad, since he’s losing to himself.

So, two wins for IMDb this week, bringing the score to: AFI -42, IMDb -32.

	AFI’s Top 100	IMDb’s Top 100 (as of 1/1/12)
	42	32
#11	City Lights (1931)	LoTR: Return of the King (2003)
#19	On the Waterfront (1954)	LoTR: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
#20	It's a Wonderful Life (1946)	Rear Window (1954)
#29	Double Indemnity (1944)	It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
#30	Apocalypse Now (1979)	Memento (1990)
#31	The Maltese Falcon (1941)	LoTR: The Two Towers(2002)
#32	The Godfather Part II (1974)	Sunset Boulevard (1950)
#33	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)	Dr. Strangelove (1964)
#34	Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)	Forrest Gump (1994)
#35	Annie Hall (1977)	Leon: The Professional (1994)
#36	The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)	Citizen Kane (1941)
#37	The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)	Apocalypse Now (1979)
#38	The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)	North By Northwest (1959)
#39	Dr. Strangelove (1964)	American Beauty (1999)
#40	The Sound of Music (1965)	American History X (1998)
#41	King Kong (1933)	Taxi Driver (1976)
#42	Bonnie and Clyde (1967)	Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
#43	Midnight Cowboy (1969)	Saving Private Ryan (1998)
#44	The Philadelphia Story (1940)	Vertigo (1958)
#45	Shane (1953)	Amelie (2001)
#46	It Happened One Night (1934)	Alien (1979)
#47	A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)	Wall E (2008)
#48	Rear Window (1954)	Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
#49	Intolerance (1916)	The Shining (1980)
#50	LoTR: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)	Spirited Away (2001)
#51	West Side Story (1961)	Paths of Glory (1957)
#52	Taxi Driver (1976)	A Clockwork Orange (1971)
#53	The Deer Hunter (1978)	Double Indemnity (1944)
#54	M*A*S*H* (1970)	To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
#55	North by Northwest (1959)	The Pianist (2002)
#56	Jaws (1975)	The Lives of Others (2006)
#57	Rocky (1976)	The Departed (2006)
#58	The Gold Rush (1925)	Memento (2000)
#59	Nashville (1975)	City Lights (1931)
#60	Duck Soup (1933)	Aliens (1986)
#61	Sullivan's Travels (1941)	Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind (2004)
#62	American Graffiti (1973)	Requiem for a Dream (2000)
#63	Cabaret (1972)	Das Boot (1981)
#64	Network (1976)	The Third Man (1949)
#65	The African Queen (1951)	L.A. Confidential (1997)
#66	Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)	Reservoir Dogs (1992)
#67	Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)	Chinatown (1974)
#68	Unforgiven (1992)	The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948)
#69	Tootsie (1982)	Modern Times (1936)
#70	A Clockwork Orange (1971)	Life is Beautiful (1997)
#71	Saving Private Ryan (1998)	Monty Python & the Holy Grail (1975)
#72	The Shawshank Redemption (1994)	Back to the Future (1985)
#73	Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid (1969)	The Prestige (2006)
#74	Silence of the Lambs (1991)	Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
#75	In the Heat of the Night (1967)	Raging Bull (1980)
#76	Forrest Gump (1994)	Cinema Paradiso (1988)
#77	All the President’s Men  (1976)	Singing In the Rain (1952)
#78	Modern Times (1936)	Some Like it Hot (1959)
#79	The Wild Bunch (1969)	The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
#80	The Apartment (1960)	Rashomon (1950)
#81	Spartacus (1960)	All About Eve (1950)
#82	Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)	Amadeus (1984)
#83	Titanic (1997)	Once Upon A Time in America (1984)
#84	Easy Rider (1969)	The Green Mile (1999)
#85	A Night at the Opera (1935)	Full Metal Jacket (1987)
#86	Platoon (1986)	2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
#87	12 Angry Men (1957)	Inglorious Basterds (2009)
#88	Bringing Up Baby (1938)	The Great Dictator (1940)
#89	Sixth Sense (1999)	Braveheart (1995)
#90	Swing Time (1936)	The Bicycle Thief (1948)
#91	Sophie’s Choice (1982)	The Apartment (1960)
#92	Up (2009)	Goodfellas (1990)
#93	The French Connection (1971)	Downfall (2004)
#94	Pulp Fiction (1994)	Gran Torino (2008)
#95	The Last Picture Show (1971)	Metropolis (1927)
#96	Do The Right Thing (1989)	The Sting (1973)
#97	Blade Runner (1982)	Gladiator (2000)
#98	Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)	The Maltese Falcon (1941)
#99	Toy Story (1995)	Unforgiven (1992)
#100	Ben Hur (1959)	The Elephant Man (1980)

Next week should be All About Eve vs. Se7en and High Noon vs. Silence of the Lambs (but you never actually know). Classic classics vs. contemporary classics. I think we’re going to end up with one winner from each.  

Drum Roll please... My Harlequin Intrigue Debut Title

I found out this week that the title of my Harlequin Intrigue April 2014 release will be…  

Primal Instinct.   

Sorry to my smart aleck-y friends who voted for Murder Radar of Love as what they thought would be the title, or the even more pals who messaged me and told me they thought Throw Mama From the Train of Love was an awesome title. I’ll try to remember that for upcoming books.

Harlequin display at my local B&N - Intrigues are in the top right -sold out!

Of the other titles I mentioned last post, Dangerous Intent was never really under consideration by either my editors or myself. We liked it okay as a title, but it didn’t really work for this story.

Shielded, I must admit, was a favorite of mine. But the editors felt it gave off the wrong vibe for my book. It’s pretty vague and somewhat noncommittal to a plot. For an established author who already has a following of readers, that’s not a problem. But for a new author, it could scare away readers. (I tried to convince my editor that I DO have a following of readers, but evidently my mom and Cousin Sophie don’t count as a following.)

The last reason Shielded wouldn’t work is because there are evidently already a couple of one-word titles coming out the same month as mine.  As I stated last post, when editors are choosing titles, there’s much more coming into play than just any one book.

So Primal Instinct it is! I always thought the word Instinct was excellent for the title. My book is about an FBI profiler, after all.  

But I had concerns about the word Primal. I was afraid that it suggested savage in people’s mind – which really isn’t the tone of my book at all.  But my editor explained that when she thought of primal, she thought of:

 First. Original. Most important.

When I thought of it that way it all clicked for me. Everything about the heroine in my story is tied to her instincts – she can’t get away from them even when she wants to.  She has no choice but to go with her original instincts – when tracking a killer and when falling in love. Even though it almost gets her heart broken AND almost gets her killed.

Her instincts are the most important – primal – part of who she is.  Primal Instinct.

Explained that way, it seemed perfect.

Now I’ll admit, the title is a little bit, as a friend put it: saucy. And, because I’m such a movie buff and am

Primal Fear circa 1996  - what do you mean you don't remember it?

surrounded by movie geeks on every side, I did have a concern about a Basic Instinct/Primal Fear possible tie-in to my title. Both are movies that came out in the mid-90s with a "is this person psycho or not?" theme and mucho gratuitous sex and cigarette smoking. Not the image I wanted for my book either.

My editor basically, in the very nicest way possible, just scoffed at me and said no one but me and my movie-geek friends would make that connection. I have no doubt she’s right.

One very successful Intrigue author who has befriended me, told me not to worry about a Basic Instinct connection at all. If anything, she told me, I might gain some readers from that connection, but definitely wouldn’t lose any. You know what? I’ll take readers anyway I can get them.

All and all, choosing the title – finding one that works for everyone: me, the editors, the art department, the Intrigue Brand in general – has been an interesting next step in the publishing process. It was a learning experience, but definitely not an unpleasant one. Every step of the way I’m learning something new, and I’m loving all of it, even when it's a bit painful.

So now I can officially announce:  Primal Instinct, a Harlequin Intrigue novel by Janie Crouch, will be available in bookstores and online everywhere in April 2014.

And someday, someone (and by someone, I mean my mother or cousin) is going to ask me to sign their copy of Primal Instinct. And I’ll be able to write:

Always follow your instinct.

And it will tie-in perfectly to the title. Isn’t it great how that just works out?