While the original title of Stephen King’s novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption doesn’t do any better job telling you anything about what the movie actually is, Morgan Freeman has a point that at least that version has the name of a famous movie actress included, which is something people will recognize.
‘Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.’ Now, don’t choose ‘Shawshank Redemption’ when you’ve got Rita Hayworth!
As of this writing, The Shawshank Redemption is sitting atop the IMDB rankings of the most popular movies of all-time.
Morgan Freeman thinks that a large part of the reason the movie did so badly at first is because the title is awful.