What's in a movie name? Shakespeare quotes

In William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," the soothsayer warned the Roman emperor to "beware the Ides of March."

Yet George Clooney's "The Ides of March" is not some sort of contemporary reimagining of the Bard's work. A high-powered adaptation of the 2008 play "Farragut North," it is instead a star-studded drama about dirty politics on the modern campaign trail.

Still, the flick, opening Oct. 7, joins a long tradition of movies with titles derived from famous Shakespearean quotes. We've parsed some of the most notable films to determine which we think the Bard would have liked most:

To Be or Not to Be (1942)

INSPIRATION "Hamlet" ("To be or not to be.")

Ernst Lubitsch's classic World War II-set comedy is about a Polish acting troupe that helps subvert the German occupation. We bet Shakespeare would be most impressed with the filmmaker's satirical touch.

 North by Northwest (1959)

INSPIRATION "Hamlet"

("I am mad but north-northwest.")

Like "Hamlet," Alfred Hitchcock's thriller is the portrait of an everyman struggling as madness engulfs him. Sure, that madness takes the more mundane form of foreign spies chasing Cary Grant. But, in Hitch's hands, it's surreal and suspenseful.

Where Eagles Dare (1968)

INSPIRATION "Richard III" (". . . that wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch.")

We're sure Shakespeare would have been entertained by the star power and stark betrayals on display in this portrait of World War II-era espionage, headlined by Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood.

What Dreams May Come (1998)

INSPIRATION "Hamlet" ("For the sleep of death what dreams may come")

Robin Williams searches for his late wife through a painterly afterlife. Shakespeare might be moved by the themes of eternal love, but we suspect he'd find the journey as cumbersome as did most critics and audiences.

Band of Brothers (2001)

INSPIRATION "Henry V" ("We happy few, we band of brothers.")

It's an 11-hour HBO miniseries (whose producers include

Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg), not a movie, but the Bard loved his war epics and few recent enterprises have been produced on a grander scale than this portrait of the Army's Easy Company.