I love to create movie watch lists based on things other than normal filmography criteria (actors, directors, genre, quality). Some will remember my Doctor Who list, which forced me to watch movies that shared titles with Doctor Who episodes. While I'm not saying I'm jumping on the following right this minute, I think it's still a fun list so I'm starting to publish it now, starting with Vol.1. What am I talking about? It's simple, movies that share titles with Who's Who entries! Obviously, there are going to be superhero movies in there - there's a choice of four Batman films, for example - but for the most part, it's fun to see what movies the DC fan's eye might gravitate towards based on the comics' familiarity before letting out a whimper when they realize it's actually a DC movie. Some mild curating on my part when there's more than one film with that title. Spelling must be exact. So in Who's Who Vol. I, we would have...
Abel (1986)
Amethyst (2016)
Aquaman (2006 and 2018)
Arion (1986)
Atlantis (several possibilities: 1913, 1990, 1991, 2008)
Babe (1975 or 1995)
Batgirl (1972 Turkish film, 1967 pilot, or 2020's upcoming feature?)
Batman (is your favorite 1943, 1966, or 1989... 2021's?)
The Batwoman (1972)
Beautiful Dreamer (2016)
Big Bear (2017)
Black Hand (1950)
Blackhawk (1952 and Spielberg's upcoming film)
Black Lightning (is 1924 available? or go with the Russian superhero film from 2009?)
Black Orchid (1953, saw it for the Doctor Who project already of course)
The Black Pirate (1926)
Blackrock (1997)
The Black Spider (1983)
Blockbuster (2017)
Blok (short, 1982)
Blue Beetle (announced for 2020)
Bolt (2008)
The Brain (1988)
Brainiac (2004)
And that's from the first three issues. More to come. If I pull the trigger on this watching project, I think I'll have a little fun trying to imagine the movie is actually about the character(s) from the entry (and I guess that would work even when the movie is technically ABOUT them... after all, today's Aquaman isn't the one from the mid-80s comics. Who's with me?
Comments
As to Black Lightning, I'm afraid that the silent film isn't available anywhere. Since it is a public domain indie film with production companies and distributors long gone, no one can really force the UCLA to allow its print to be copied – they'd rather look after the condition of their reels than allow public domain peddlers make a quick, if small, buck.
While probably no masterpiece, the combination of Clara Bow and Thunder The Wonder Dog sounds entertaining enough for a 60-minute film, so here's hoping that the Gosfilmofond print appears online: for some reason – heh – Russian archive material has the habit of popping around the web. I've seen several of those, ancient Russian intertitles being a good telltale sign.