Poll: Greatest Opening Narrations of the 1950s and 1960s

Results of 403 votes:

1. 1.
   

   To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

    

   "Maycomb was a tired old town, even in 1932 when I first knew it. Somehow, it was hotter then. Men's stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning."
2. 2.
   

   Sunset Boulevard (1950)

    

   "Yes, this is Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California. It's about five o'clock in the morning. That's the Homicide Squad - complete with detectives and newspapermen."
3. 3.
   

   Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

    

   "For more than a year, ominous rumors had been privately circulating among high-level western leaders that the Soviet Union had been at work on what was darkly hinted to be the Ultimate Weapon, a…
4. 4.
   

   The Apartment (1960)

    

   "On November 1st, 1959, the population of New York City was 8,042,783. If you laid all these people end to end, figuring an average height of five feet six and a half inches, they would reach fro…
5. 5.
   

   Moby Dick (1956)

    

   "Call me Ishmael. Some years ago, having little or no money, I thought I would sail about and see the oceans of the world.
6. 6.
   

   Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

    

   "It started - for me, it started last Thursday, in response to an urgent message from my nurse. I'd hurried home from a medical convention I'd been attending. At first glance, everything looked t…
7. 7.
   

   Some Like It Hot (1959)

    

   (title card) "Chicago, 1929"
8. 8.
   

   The Haunting (1963)

    

   "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted, is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more."
9. 9.
   

   Stalag 17 (1953)

    

   "I don't know about you, but it always makes me sore when I see those war pictures. All about flying leathernecks and submarine patrols and frogmen and guerrillas in the Philippines. What gets me…
10. 10.
    

    Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)

     

    "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to violence, the word and the act. While violence cloaks itself in a plethora of disguises, its favorite mantle still remains: sex."
11. 11.
    

    The Pink Panther (1963)

     

    (title card) "Once upon a time"
12. 12.
    

    The Seven Year Itch (1955)

     

    "The island of Manhattan derives its name from its earliest inhabitants - the Manhattan Indians. They were a peaceful tribe........................... Actually, our story has nothing whatsoever t…
13. 13.
    

    The Three Faces of Eve (1957)

     

    "Well, this is a true story, about a sweet, rather baffled young housewife who, in 1951 in her hometown in Georgia, suddenly frightened her husband by behaving very unlike herself. Well, there's …
14. 14.
    

    Quo Vadis (1951)

     

    "This is the Appian Way. The most famous road that leads to Rome, as all roads lead to Rome. On this road march her conquering legions." Suggested by MAthePA
15. 15.
    

    Gigi (1958)

     

    "Bonjour, monsieur. Bonjour, madame and company. Good afternoon. As you see, this lovely city all around us is Paris. And this lovely park is, of course, the Bois de Boulogne. Pardon me. Who am l…
16. 16.
    

    One, Two, Three (1961)

     

    "On Sunday, August 13th, 1961, the eyes of America were on the nation's capital, where Roger Maris was hitting home runs # 44 and 45 against the Senators. On that same day, without any warning, t…
17. 17.
    

    What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

     

    "Want to see it again, little girl? It shouldn't frighten you."
18. 18.
    

    20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)

     

    "Great scientific advances are oftentimes sudden accomplished facts before most of us are even dimly aware of them. Breathtakingly unexpected, for example, was the searing flash that announced th…
19. 19.
    

    One Million Years B.C. (1966)

     

    "This is a story of long, long ago, when the world was just beginning... A young world, a world early in the morning of time. A hard, unfriendly world."
20. 20.
    

    Broken Arrow (1950)

     

    "This is the story of a land, of the people who lived on it in the year 1870, and of a man whose name was Cochise."
21. 21.
    

    Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957)

     

    (opening scrolling text) "You are about to land in a lonely zone of terror.. on an uncharted atoll in the Pacific! You are part of The Second Scientific Expedition dispatched to this mysterious b…