World-Northal Corporation

Background

World-Northal Corporation, formerly known as Northal Films, was a film company by Albert Schwartz. They primarily focused on martial arts titles exported from Hong Kong and Japan, but also distributed some titles in other genres. The company went out of business in the mid-1980s.

1st and Only Logo (1976-1986)

Nickname: "The AT&T Logo"

Logo: On a black background, we see a series of yellow lines, which are thick on the left side, and get thinner on the right side. The lines zoom out to the left, revealing they are in a circle shape, looking like a yellow version of the AT&T logo. Once it finishes, "W RLD-NORTHAL CORPORATION PRESENTS" appears. The circle takes place of the "O" in "WORLD". "CORPORATION" is in a much smaller font, and is under the "THAL" part of "NORTHAL". "PRESENTS" is under the circle.

FX/SFX: The circle zooming, the text appearing.

Music/Sounds: A synthesized flute version of Modest Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition". On Quadrophenia, the logo is silent.

Music/Sounds Trivia: The music for this logo was sampled on various Wu-Tang Clan songs.

Availability: Extremely rare. Was common on English-dubbed versions of various Shaw Brothers productions until they were withdrawn from distribution in 1986. Seen on older prints of The Children before Troma Entertainment acquired distribution rights. Can be seen on the Prism VHS of Sweet William, and the Rhino VHS release of The Last Wave. It also appears on a Hulu stream of the 114 minute U.S version of Quadrophenia, and on the Bonzai Media DVD release of The Hong Kong Connection (titled The Tattoo Connection). This logo may have been plastered by the WW Entertainment logo on some prints of the studio's films.

Editor's Note: It may be very simple for the time, but this logo nevertheless has a good amount of charm, and is favored among kung-fu movie fans.