MICHELE NORRIS, Host:
Inflation for 2008 was lower than it's been in 50 years. The Labor Department said today that consumer prices only went up one-tenth of one percent. But the average price of a movie ticket went up approximately four percent. That got our film critic Bob Mondello thinking. Bob says the amount of money in the wallets of movie audiences is often reflected in movie titles.
BOB MONDELLO: It started with a dumb joke. I was looking at my 401k and seeing desolation, emptiness, a parched landscape and mumbling to myself about how my fistful of dollars was becoming a fistful of dimes.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE "A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS")
RAF BALDASSARRE: (As Juan De Dios) You can't get rich like that. At most, you will only succeed in being killed.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
MONDELLO: Truer words never spoken. Maybe I should have invested overseas so I'd at least have a fistful of euros, which led me to wonder what Clint Eastwood's fistful of 1964 dollars would be worth now. So, I checked with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Each 1964 dollar would now have the buying power of almost $7. Well, you know where that took me. 1974's "Six Million Dollar Man" would cost 25 million to build now. Those romance-starved secretaries who threw three coins in the fountain? They'd have to throw two dozen coins today. And while diamonds are still the girls' best friend, about the only other commodity holding its value is that precious metal that 007 worked so hard to protect from - what was his name again?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG "GOLDFINGER")
SHIRLEY BASSEY: (Singing) Goldfinger...
MONDELLO: Right. "Platinum finger" just doesn't sing. But as I kept looking at movie titles, I stopped turning pennies into nickels from Heaven and started thinking about what the titles meant to audiences back then. The first money title I could find was from the days of storefront nickelodeons, an 1897 half-minute short called "Scrambling for Pennies," a title perfect for audiences who'd recently survived the Panic of 1893. And for a couple of decades after that, silent films often had titles like "His Last Dollar" and "The Five Dollar Baby."
But in the 1920s, the stock market zoomed and Hollywood sent titles zooming, too. "Million Dollar Mystery," for instance, though there were was also "Her Fatal Millions," "Vanishing Millions," "Melting Millions," as if screenwriters could see the stock-market crash coming. And sure enough, after 1929, you start getting titles like "Dollar Dizzy," "Too Many Millions" and "Million Dollar Swindle." Also, a whole set of down-and-out titles like "The Nickel Nurser" and "A Dime a Dance."
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONDELLO: Now, let's note that what I'm doing here is the world's least scientific survey. I haven't gone back to watch these pictures to see what they're about, but their titles do say something about the public's moody relationship with money. There are about 100 titles containing the words "million dollar," for instance. And while there are a few from every decade, they tend to cluster when times are good, as do other phrases. Take the title "Money Talks." In 1997, it was attached to a flick starring Chris Tucker as a small-time conman.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE "MONEY TALKS")
CHRIS TUCKER: (As Franklin Hatchett) Oh, oh, wait a minute. You're talking about the money, the money that I owe you. I'm going to pay you, man. Look at me, man. You know, I'm going to pay you.
MONDELLO: That's 1997. But "Money Talks" had long been a popular title. There had been films called "Money Talks" in the '20s, '30s, '40s, '50s. But intriguingly, the title fell out of fashion during the mid-1970s, when the U.S. was experiencing high interest rates and inflation. In other words, when people thought money kind of didn't talk, "Money Talks" didn't strike producers as a good title. Those same inflationary years instead brought titles like "Take the Money and Run" and "Billion Dollar Bubble." Also, "Tango and Cash," but I don't think that means much. So, what's the trend going to be from here? Well, Hollywood seems optimistic. Nicole Kidman recently bought the rights to 1953's "How to Marry a Millionaire," apparently, because she wants to play the Marilyn Monroe part.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE "HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE")
MARILYN MONROE: (As Pola Debevoise) Do you know who I'd like to marry?
BETTY GRABLE: (As Loco Dempsey) Who?
MONROE: (As Pola Debevoise) Rockefeller.
GRABLE: (As Loco Dempsey) Which one?
MONROE: (As Pola Debevoise) I don't care.
MONDELLO: For the record, to match Marilyn's catch from 1953, Nicole Kidman will need to marry a millionaire worth at least $8 million. I'm Bob Mondello.