Last night I watched To Catch a Thief starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. I had no idea that the Peter Sellers’ Pink Panther movies were a spin off of To Catch a Thief! Did you?

The Peter Sellers’ movies began in 1963 and ended in 1978. More information can be found on Wikipedia. After Peter Sellers died, three more movies were made about the Pink Panther or Peter Sellers’ character.

In 1996, Steve Martin starred in The Pink Panther, which were spin offs to the old Peter Sellers’ movies. In 2008, Steve Martin may be starring in a Pink Panther sequel.

Look at how many movies were spin offs of To Catch a Thief!

If you were born in 1978, you would be 29 years old now. You could conceivably never have seen any of the Peter Sellers’ movies.

However, if you’re a Baby Boomer or older, you know those crazy Peter Sellers’ movies. We all loved them. I was thrilled and so surprised to find that old Cary Grant and Grace Kelly movie.

Did you know that the 1986 film Little Shop of Horrors starring Steve Martin and Rick Moranis is a remake of the 1960 version starring Jack Nicholson as the masochistic dental patient? Can you imagine Nicholson as the dental patient, playing the same role that Bill Murray played in the more current version?

The Internet Movie Database has this to say about the 1960 version:

“As an added curio, this features Jack Nicholson in his first ever appearance in a feature film (he was in one short film before it), as the nerdy, masochistic patient who squeals with delight when the dentist is drilling holes in his mouth and pulling teeth. Though its only a five minute part, it’s a great part.”

I would buy the film just to see Jack Nicholson in that part. Can you imagine?

If you have a movie site, what can you do with information like this?

This is one way that you can compete with the Amazons of the world!

When someone wants to buy a movie that is a remake of an old movie, why not pull from your database a list of those movies with good information about each?

If I knew that Jack Nicholson starred in the original Little Shop of Horrors, a movie that I really like, I would be interested in buying it because he’s one of my favorite actors. This would be an impulse buy.

This would be interesting to me, rather than the “Other people who bought this film also buy . . .” which I’m not inclined to listen to too frequently.

However, since I love Pink Panther movies, I would have bought To Catch a Thief in a heart beat if I knew that it started the whole ring of Pink Panther movies.

Hook popular actors up with their earlier films. If someone is buying a movie starring Denzel Washington, suggest other Denzel Washington movies. I would be more interested in those movies than what “Other people who bought this film . . .” would be interested in.

Think of other ways to be different . . . to set yourself apart. These two ways would be fascinating and very appealing to Baby Boomers.

And hey–there are a LOT of us!

Robin