A stupid title, but I see it was on the poster of the original release.
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" Why do people always laugh in the wrong places?"
--Jean-Louis Kerouac
That's a line from the movie, said during the dinner following the cut-line incident. I think it's a great alternate title, matching the family's view of things~most of them at least: "Never give an inch!"
I saw it in the theater with the original title.
~~MystMoonstruck~~
"Never Give A Inch" was the Stamper family philosophy and motto.
You can see it carved into a cross-section of a tree stump in the Stamper house in the film, I believe when Lee addresses Hank and Viv after drinking a few beers and relating the story of his mother's decline and suicide.
If John Holmes was in this movie it would be called "Never Give An Inch (If you can give nine)".
shareI think the movie went to theaters as "Never Give A Inch" before it was shown on TV that way.
This happened with a few movies back then. Julie Andrews had a movie called "Star" that went back out again as "Those Were the Happy Times." Doris Day had a movie finally called "It Happened to Jane" after going out with a least one other title.
The reason with Sometimes a Great Notion is that Universal decided that title didn't sell the mood or action of the picture. Though you would think it helped sell the source novel's title.
It seems like sending these movies out with different titles always ends up making them seem like "damaged goods" -- folks can't remember which title was which, years later.