Posterwire.com is a movie poster weblog. From images of the latest Hollywood one-sheets to vintage movie posters, this film poster weblog hopes to offer a bit of insight into film key art.
It’s a Wonderful Life may be a cherished Christmas holiday classic, but Jimmy Stewart seems to have had one-too-many drinks of egg nog in one of the film’s promotional lobby cards. “America’s Favorite Feller” is looking a bit out of it in the It’s a Wonderful Life movie lobby card. (Character George Bailey also seems to be getting his flower pinned on by a pair of awkwardly placed arms.)
This lobby card is the first in a series, known as a title card. A lobby card set is a collection of 8 promotional images (usually measuring 11″x17″) printed on card stock. First seen in the early 1900s, lobby cards, like many other forms of printed film advertising, were no longer produced by the film studios by the 1980s.
Peter Jackson’s King Kong may be getting all of the attention of late, but a lot of 30somethings may remember the 1976 remake of King Kong — or at least it’s menacing looking movie poster. Courtesy of infamous producer Dino De Laurentiis, the 1970s Kong film wasn’t short on the hype and bombast, even in it’s tagline:
The most exciting original motion picture event of all time.
Interesting copyline considering the film is a remake.
Perhaps the most effective part of the film’s ad campaign was the 1976 King Kong movie poster, featuring a memorable depiction of the giant ape by illustrator John Berkey. A science fiction illustrator who was best known for his impressionist style paintings of spaceships, Berkey was commissioned to do a King Kong illustration by Paramount Pictures even before filming had begun. An interesting choice for the Kong poster key art — Berkey produced a poster far superior to the film itself — the savage looking Kong straddling the two towers of the World Trade Center looks even more arresting than it did in ‘76. Since this artwork was pre-production, it bears little resemblance to the De Laurentiis remake: Kong looks nothing like he does in the film, both in size and appearance, and the daytime scene depicted on the World Trade Center doesn’t reflect the nighttime of the WTC scene in the film. (Would that kind of disparity be tolerated by film fans in modern Hollywood film posters?)
This King Kong poster was also the subject of a “remake” when the U.S. distributer of Godzilla vs. Megalon hoped to ride the wave of King Kong publicity with a Godzilla vs. Megalon poster depicting similar artwork of the two Toho monsters battling atop the two World Trade Center towers. (Which doesn’t actually happen in the Godzilla film itself.) Of course, King Kong and Godzilla have battled each other before, but we’ll save that for another time.
Four new teaser posters for the upcoming film V for Vendetta have been released. The movie, based on the Alan Moore comic, follows a freedom fighter known only as “V” who uses terrorist tactics to fight against a totalitarian English society. What makes the teaser posters interesting is the key art in each one-sheet embraces the style of political propaganda posters from the past — most notably Soviet.
Our favorite V for Vendetta teaser poster of the four features a silk-screen style limited color palette. The fan-boy site Ain’t-It-Cool-News labeled this poster as “Spanish & Argentian” in style. Not sure about that one — the bottom line is it’s recreating a poster style common to political propaganda posters from the past. (Reader Martin S. identifies this teaser as more Russian Leninist than the idealized Stalinist style.) AICN also identifies this Vendetta teaser as “German Expressionistic”, but it seems more inspired by the Russian Photomontage style as seen in this Russian propaganda poster. Since art history was never our strong subject, it’s hard to classify the specific style of each of these four teaser one-sheets. We invite everyone to share opinions on this in the comments section.
The poster as a piece of political propaganda has a long history across different cultures and regimes, including Chinese, American, Soviet, and Nazi.
An original movie poster for Fritz Lang’s classic 1927 science fiction film Metropolis has sold for a world record price of $690,000. A US collector bought the art deco sepia colored poster by graphic artist Heinz Schulz-Neudamm — one of only four known copies — from London’s Reel Poster Gallery.
Forget about the horror team-up of Freddy vs Jason. The idea of exploiting a staple of famous characters by doing cross-over appearances has been around for a long time (yes, even before they started doing it in comic books).
The 1948 comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein actually features three legendary movie monsters from the Universal Pictures roster — Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula, and The Wolf Man. Universal had recycled their horror characters in countless movies, this being the final film to feature all three together.
This Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein poster is actually what is known as a movie poster insert. An insert is a 14″ and 36″ poster printed on card stock that was popular in the early days of film exhibition. (The insert size/format was discontinued in the mid 1980s — it remains as one of the most popular categories in movie poster collecting.) For our money, the painted faces of “Bud and Lou” look far more scary on this insert poster than the three monsters. (And some people think retouching is a modern invention.)
In honor of the upcoming Halloween holiday, it seems appropriate to post a few horror film posters this week. Our first horror one-sheet is what we like to consider The Scariest Movie Poster Ever.
The 1974 film Abby is the story of a female marriage counselor who marries and becomes possessed by an evil spirit — the Demon of Sexuality. The film, by exploitation producer Samuel Z. Arkoff and director Willam Gridler, was reportedly to be titled The Blackorcist. (Not surprisingly, the film was the subject of a lawsuit by the film studio Warner Bros. as being a rip-off of The Exorcist.)
As for the Abby movie poster itself, when you mix such a strange and scary image of actress Carol Speed with a few great low budget genres (Blaxplotation and Horror), it’s hard not to take notice. (This movie poster is also yet another example of the “Big Heads Floating in the Sky” movie poster layout cliche. Or in this case, a “Big Head Possessed by a Demon Floating in the Sky on Fire” film poster layout.)
As we are constantly reminding everyone, there is nothing we like more than “Exploitation” movie posters from past decades. Whether it’s 1950s drug panic films or blaxploitation from the 1970s, the exploitation genres rely on what serves low budget film advertising best: sensationalism. When you take that trait and apply it to a relatively cheap advertising medium (such as one-sheets), movie poster magic can result. More importantly, exploitation posters are a prime example of an advertising campaign overcoming the limitations and quality of the films they are selling. This “saved by advertising” approach is something that Hollywood still tries to replicate to this day.
The Reel Gallery is continuing their movie poster book series with the Exploitation Poster Art book by Tony Nourmand and Graham Marsh, along with an accompanying auction of vintage exploitation one-sheets at Christie’s. From the Exploitation Poster Art website:
Sex, drugs, delinquency, Black power, alternative culture and, of course, rock and roll: these are just some of the themes which have attracted the attention of the cinema’s bottom-feeders over the past eighty years. A few of the resulting films have become cult classics, but most were simply tacky — few would probably now want to sit through two hours of High School Hellcats or Prison Girls. The posters produced to promote them, on the other hand, are wonderful period pieces that vividly evoke the social fears, temptations and taboos of bygone eras.
A review of some notable traits of famous movie poster illustrators might go something like this: Bob Peak might be considered the master with his versatility. Drew Struzan the most popular via his accessible illustration style. John Alvin commanded layout and composition. Saul Bass was the pioneer with his graphic design.
One important factor is missing from this list: Sex.
(As Diddy might say, who is “bringing the sexy”? [cough])
The answer: Illustrator Robert McGinnis.
Since the 1950s, McGinnis has created over 1000 paperback book covers, in genres ranging from romance novels to detective mysteries. (Those interested in Robert McGinnis and his cover artwork should check out the phenomenal book: Paperback Covers of Robert McGinnis.) The closest to a true pin-up artist that key art illustration has seen, McGinnis became well-known for his ability to create alluring and striking images of women — so much so they received their own nickname — the “McGinnis Woman”.
Considering the mantra in Hollywood is “sex sells”, it was only natural to employ the premiere alluring paperback book cover artist for movie poster illustration. And what better film subject for this than the sexiest of super spys, James Bond?
McGinnis illustrated several of the Bond film one-sheets during the 1960s through the 1970s. As we see in his Diamonds Are Forever movie poster, McGinnis helped create the signature “pyramid” composition (007 standing on top of a well built foundation of “Bond girls” and an exaggerated perspective view of the surrounding mayhem) found in many James Bond film one-sheets from that era. This McGinnis style (along with his work with illustrator Frank McCarthy) helped create the alluring visual mystique around the Bond character and became a template for other posters in the spy/adventure genre.
Robert McGinnis and his movie poster key art weren’t limited to just Bond girls. From Barbarella to Breakfast at Tiffanys, the allure of the “McGinnis Women” in illustration is obvious.
Variety reported today that Steven Spielberg has stepped in to produce yet another 50s science fiction remake — When Worlds Collide. The original 1951 sci-fi film chronicles a group of scientists who discover a rogue planet set on a collision course with Earth.
We’ll use this bit of film production news as an excuse to post a big image of an original When Worlds Collide movie poster from 1951. Is there anything more entertaining the the ernest visual hysteria of 1950s sci-fi movie posters? If you enjoy those type of B-movie epics, you might also enjoy the books Science Fiction Poster Art by Tony Nourmand & Graham Marsh and Attack of the B Movie Posters by Bruce Hershenson.
If there’s anything that can make vintage 70s adult movie posters better, it’s seeing them in Spanish. This Flickr image gallery of Spanish Adult Movie Posters of the 1970s (NSFW) makes for an impressive array of vintage porn artwork. As we’ve mentioned in the past, vintage exploitation and adult film posters often demonstrate an interesting style and visual sense. After all, there’s nothing expensive about having good design in bad taste.
