Over five decades Saul Bass designed opening title sequences that were sometimes better than the movies they introduced. His ambition he once said was to “make beautiful things even if nobody cares.”
 

 
Bass started out as a graphic designer and was asked by film director Otto Preminger to put together a poster for his movie Carmen Jones. Preminger was so impressed by the result that he asked Bass to design the opening titles. So began his 40-year career in movies. Bass went on to work with Preminger again on The Man with the Golden Arm and Anatomy of a Murder, he also designed titles for Alfred Hitchcock (Vertigo, Psycho), and Martin Scorsese (Cape Fear, The Age of Innocence and Casino).
 

 
Additionally, Bass designed the logos for a whole range of corporations and products and even had time to direct the cult science fiction movie Phase IV. As a designer he set a standard for other to follow, which is evident from this hour-long selection of his title work from 1955-1995.
 

 
Coming attraction for Otto Preminger’s sixties psychedelic misfire Skidoo. Credits sung by Harry Nilsson.
 

 
Skidoo is a mess, but it’s still fun in the way a car crash without serious injury is fun. And the soundtrack by Nilsson is totally groovy.

Watch the movie in its entirety after the jump…

After The Yardbirds in Blow-Up, my 2nd favorite band cameo has got to be from The Zombies in Skidoo-auteur Otto Preminger’s Bunny Lake Is Missing.  They’re seen only briefly (and on a pub TV at that), but their presence does wonders to anchor the film in a place and time.  And in a clear reaching out to, you know, “the kids,” they even cut a promo for Bunny—one that manages to mock, it seems, the very serious film they’re selling!