Chatting with Craig Stevens and others recently, we discussed how Star Wars was the first film to have no opening credits - beyond a simple "Twentieth Century Fox/Lucasfilm presents" intro followed by the explosion of the title onto the screen.
George Lucas got into some trouble 3 years later with the Directors' Guild when he reprised this technique with The Empire Strikes Back (they weren't so bothered back in 1977 because Star Wars wasn't expected to be anything big), and as a result he pulled out.
I pointed out however that there had been some exceptions to this rule, before 1977. Steven Spielberg tried the trick that same year with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and another of that group of filmmakers (often referred to as "the Brat Pack"), Francis Ford Coppola, introduced The Godfather with no opening credits.
There were certain individual examples throughout the years of other notable films with no opening titles: Fantasia, Citizen Kane, Around the World in Eighty Days, West Side Story, and in later years The Godfather Part II, Apocalypse Now (with not even a title), Gandhi, The Abyss, and quite a few others.
My personal preference has always been for credits to be left for the end of the film, to transport the audience straight into the story, without unnecessarily reminding them that it's actually all been made with certain actors and technicians. But having said that, there are some great credit sequences to set the mood for films over the years, so here are some of my favourites:
Around the World in Eighty Days
End credits actually, but they're still great fun, by the legendary Saul Bass (see below).
Casino Royale (2006)
Although I thought this one slightly antiquated at the time, on reflection it's pretty punchy and gives the most accurate impression of the film of all the Bond title sequences I've ever seen.
Fahrenheit 451
Monty Python's Life of Brian
Naked Lunch
Psycho (and other Hitchcock/Saul Bass sequences such as North by Northwest and The Birds)
THX-1138 (scrolling downwards)
Walk on the Wild Side
The credits had very little to do with the film, if anything they upstaged it.
See also this.
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How about Disney's "Tron" from 1982 - it has very simple opening credits: The Buena Vista distribution and Disney presents titles, then the word 'Tron' builds up in animation ZAM! straight into the movie. Can't wait for "TR2N" coming our in 2010. Also, what about "Ghostbusters"? Wasn't that just the logo?
I love the "Superman The Movie" credits, with the 3D style animated titles. I also like "The Black Hole" credits, with the titles over the 'space grid' which forms a wirefram black hole at the end of the title sequence.
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