Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2022 April 20

Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

April 20

True Russian composition?

In the Two Ronnies piece entilited "St Petersburg Choir" They sing a number of songs, im wondering if the second song in this clip, beginning at around the 2nd minute of this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZRHaBA7WIE) is an actual piece, obviously the lyrics are silly but is the music a actual Russian composition or based on something of that sort. If so what is the name, thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1700:7830:DE40:F5E0:BADE:CC62:93B3 (talk) 18:41, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

The Song of the Volga Boatmen. You can also hear Kalinka (1860 song) and Dark Eyes (Russian song). --Amble (talk) 19:18, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

thank you dearie 2600:1700:7830:DE40:F5E0:BADE:CC62:93B3 (talk) 20:07, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

I recall singing what we called "The Vulgar Boat Song" at primary school in the 1960s. Perhaps we overestimated our comic ability. Alansplodge (talk) 18:23, 21 April 2022 (UTC)

Title search

The film Emperor of the North Pole has gone through a couple name changes over the years. The change to Emperor of the North is documented in the article. I have a distinct memory that - for a brief period of time during its theatrical release - the title was changed to Shack. I remember both newspaper listings and a TV commercial using this title. AFAIK the title changed back fairly quickly. It was always an odd situation since the original title had some wondering why a movie about Santa's home was so violent (yes I'm being facetious) and switch to the characters name didn't make things any better. I know that Borgnine had played villains earlier in his career but in 1973 many people had McHale firmly impressed in their memories. I have done a couple searches to try and find any info about this before and come up with zilch so I'm curious if any of you ace researchers can find anything. If my memory turns out to be faulty then my apologies for wasting your time. MarnetteD|Talk 19:45, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

So far I've discovered that Emperor of the North Pole is another name for A Chinese god called Heidi. Outlook for finding useful information in support of your very definite memory, not so good.  Card Zero  (talk) 22:23, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

I'm not seeing anything in the newspapers for Shack. It seems like an unlikely movie title, much less intriguing than Emperor of the North Pole. Clarityfiend (talk) 00:06, 21 April 2022 (UTC)

Maybe some confusion with Shaft (1971 film), also from the surname of the protagonist. Alansplodge (talk) 22:20, 21 April 2022 (UTC)

Thanks to everyone. I'm not confusing it with the other film. This was an attempt by the studio to get people to the film since they were staying away in droves from the first title. They stayed away in more droves with trying to make the villain the reason to go see it which is why the title switched back within a couple weeks. I guess my only hope would be to go to the library and comb through microfilm of the newspaper listings for the films in town at the time. Does anyone here remember that the papers used to have big ads for films with the times they were showing ? :-) Thanks again to everyone for your time. MarnetteD|Talk 23:01, 21 April 2022 (UTC)

Just for grins I went on a hunt for posters of the film. Still no Shack but there are a number of posters and press kits from the time period that show that the "North Pole" being dropped from the title. This points out that this happened on the films re-relase sometime in the 70s. As this was long before home media was available we might want to alter the article by a word or two. OTOH since my link is to a wiki I know it can't be used as a source. If anyone can find a better source please feel free to alter the lede of the article. MarnetteD|Talk 01:54, 22 April 2022 (UTC)

IMDb says: Originally premiered as "Emperor of the North Pole": the film was pulled from release because people thought the film was about the Arctic. It was re-released as "Emperor of the North" and given two different advertising campaigns: one with a poster playing up the comedy, another with a poster playing up the violence. [1] I'm aware this is not a reliable source, but has plenty of eyes on it.

Lee Marvin: His Films and Career (Page 138) states that Marvin preferred the original title, but the explanation of the renaming is frustratingly lost in a break in the preview.

Alansplodge (talk) 18:13, 22 April 2022 (UTC)

They say this cat Shack is a bad mother ... Shut your mouth! But I'm talkin' 'bout Shack! Clarityfiend (talk) 10:37, 23 April 2022 (UTC)