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• Mary Mallory | December 3, 2012 5:10 PMReply

  I love old logos too, especially the great silent ones, from Universal's early globe to early Paramount and Essanay, Vitagraph, etc. Love the Selznick International logo with the glimpse of the old Ince studio and the grand music and the J. Arthur Rank and the man striking the gong.

• Jim Reinecke | December 1, 2012 10:15 AMReply

  And let's not forget the way the Columbia torch lady blossomed over the years, from the rather unattractively-sketched woman (who wasn't even shown in her entirety!) that we've all seen in early Capra films or the first short subjects of the 3 Stooges (all right, that torch really glowed in that original logo) to the more stylish and majestic figure that she eventually became.

• Dave Kirwan | November 30, 2012 4:42 PMReply

  Oh yeah! Love the old logos! The crystal Universal globe is my favorite also, with the earlier 1930's droning airplane version a whisker-close second place. But I've always loved that Gainsborough lady... especially when incongruously prefacing something like a corny Arthur Askey comedy! Oh, and don't forget the all-too-rare Monogram edition with the little streamlined train!

• mike schlesinger | November 30, 2012 3:56 PMReply

  Amen. I always love it when a new picture opens with a vintage logo, even if it's that blah Saul Bass "W" that appeared on '70s Warner films (currently used in ARGO). But my #1 will always be the fabulous "crystal" logo that Universal used from 1937-46, with that rousing Jimmy McHugh theme.

• Terry Bigham | November 29, 2012 12:09 PMReply

  I too love the classic movie logos. In fact I'm surprised you overlooked the Big Ben logo of Alexander Korda's London Films! It's doubly ironic to me because Big Ben was used by Powell for his first production company, Westminster Films. Then Korda stole the logo. The target logo (inspired by the archery scene in the 1940 remake of "Thief of Bagdad", as related by Powell in his autobiography) appeared after he teamed with Emeric Pressburger. Its last appearance was on Powell's 1960 cult shocker "Peeping Tom", after the Anglo-Amalgamated Atlas logo.

• Brian | December 3, 2012 10:19 PM

  One of the few times I'd disagree with you Leonard -- I like the fact that they have used the original lion footage from the late 1950s and kept the traditional MGM crest surrounding the lion. I suspect this new logo will be even more eyepopping if it is at the beginning of any 3D features produced by the studio as this whole new montage seems to be more visceral than any the studio has ever had.
  
  Believe me, when it comes to bad versions of the MGM logo, none can top the one they had for MGM Home Video from the mid 80s into the 1990s, and worse when they upgraded it in the early days of dvd in the late 90s. I'm afraid I sat through it seemingly thousands of times....and I still do occasionally to this day.
  
  One I loved and never gets any appreciation is the logo for United Artists in the 1990s (when it was referred to in small writing as 'An MGM Company') I'd see it in theatres ahead of the James Bond movies of the era and the studio would occasionally rebrand many of their classic UA titles with this new logo sequence, often in black and white, mono sound and 4:3 aspect ratio if the original movie was produced that way. Their current logo is merely the updated 80s version, but I welcome seeing it, usually in arthouse features these days.