Fantastic Foreign Film Titles
Something odd can happen when movies are re-titled for foreign markets. Often, if a film is successful, some part of its title is retained for future work by the same director. This copycat phenomenon is markedly bizarre in Sweden. After Mel Brooks’ original version of The Producers became a hit under the title Springtime for Hitler (Det VÃ¥ras för Hitler in the original Swedish), every single Mel Brooks film for the next 23 years got the prefix Springtime for. That includes Springtime for the Sheriff (Blazing Saddles), Springtime for Space (Spaceballs),and Springtime for History of the World Part I (History of the World: Part I). What? No Springtime for Young Frankenstein? (Which, in its Broadway incarnation, could have been called: Bleak Winter for Young Frankenstein.)
