Question: When did directors start getting credits like “Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho," where their names are given as "owners" of their films?
Answer: That’s called a possessory credit, and popular belief is that it’s a product of the '50s, when directors began thinking of themselves as solo auteurs rather than parts of a collaborative team. This struck many other behind-the-scenes personnel, especially screenwriters, as a world-class case of too-big-for-their-britches syndrome. Otto Preminger lobbied hard for and got the especially lofty “A film by Otto Preminger” credit, which prompted a legendary exchange between director Billy Wilder and screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond. “That’s Otto Preminger’s house,” Wilder is supposed to have observed as they were driving, to which Diamond replied, “No, that’s ‘A House by Ot
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Question: What was the first Christmas movie?
Answer: Oh, how I love a "first" question! While I know better than to definitively declare any film the first of anything, there have been Christmas-themed movies for almost as long as there have been movies. Early films on a holiday theme include the shorts Christmas Eve, Christmas Morning and The Christmas Tree Party (all 1897). Jolly old St. Nick takes center stage in Santa Claus and Visit of St. Nicholas (both 1897); Santa Claus (1899); Georges Melies' Le Rêve de Noël (The Christmas Dream, 1900); Edwin S. Porter's 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (1905); D.W. Griffith's A Trap for Santa (1909); the comic myste
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