Las Lobas (1957) Mexican Lobby Card
This Mexican lobby card for Las Lobas (Les Louves 1957) is striking in its layout. The illustration, the inset scene, and the text is beautifully presented.
Darkest Africa (1936) Pressbook
Norma Desmond got it wrong. It wasn’t the pictures that got smaller, the pressbooks did. Clyde Beatty’s Darkest Africa serial pressbook measures 12 inches by 24 inches, with stiff cardstock for the covers that are in gorgeous color. At 16 pages it isn’t the longest pressbook out there page-wise, but boy, it does pack a wallop to promote the serial to the theater managers. Clyde Beatty liked getting lost in the jungle and this was Republic Pictures first serial. The Bat-Men were the first to use the special flying effects that Republic would continue to improve in future serials, notably 1941’s The Adventures of Captain Marvel. Stock footage of Clyde Beatty’s Lost in the Jungle made it into this serial. Beatty’s name was sellable enough that he, along with Crash Corrigan (Undersea Kingdom) and Ray Mala (Robinson Crusoe of Clipper Island) played under his own name. One of six jungle pics for Republic, an envisioned sequence would have had our hero dealing with giant centipedes and arachnids in the Cavern of the Scaly Ones, in episode two (cited from Valley of the Cliffhangers by Jack Mathis). Also from the Mathis book, see the rundown on Beatty’s animal bits for the serial, below. Download larger images: Darkest Africa Pressbook
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Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)
Movie Radio Spots
Hello, lovers of old movie radio spots…
The Witchwood Cemetery had a rummage sale the other day to raise money to purchase additional land (people are just dying to get in there!). Anyways, I was just browsing the tables when I came across an old Dell movie comic for a film I hadn’t thought of in a long time. It was December, 1959, when 20th Century Fox offered something different to movie goers. Up until then, science fiction movies had been concentrating on things “out there” in the vastness of space: where we could go, or who – or what – could come to visit or invade us. So, it was a nice change to turn our vision inward as Fox released Jules Verne’s 1864 epic thriller, Journey to the Center of the Earth.
As I remember it was quite a cinematic adventure, with great special effects, grand sets and vistas, and what many call the most realistic use of fin-backed lizards representing dinosaurs to be pictured on the screen. The music, by famed composer Bernard Herrmann, was awesome, too. Featuring a great cast, including James Mason, Arlene Dahl, teen heartthrob Pat Boone (minus his white bucks), Diane Baker, Peter Ronson, Thayer David (who can forget him in Dark Shadows?), and Gertrude the duck, moviegoers were believably transported to an underground world where sights hitherto unseen by man were presented. It was pure escapist adventure.
I went digging through my musty boxes and found the old record that was sent to theaters to promote the movie on the radio. The ten spots included here are excellent and capture the excitement of the film.
Are you ready…to don your spelunking gear and begin your Journey to the Center of the Earth?
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Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)
Movie Radio SpotsRead More »
Bride of Frankenstein
Mexican Lobby Card
This Mexican lobby card for Bride of Frankenstein (La Novia de Frankenstein) was issued in recent years for a film festival in Mexico. The artwork is very reminiscent of carnival sideshow canvas paintings that hung outside of exhibits along the midway.
Hollywood Thrill-Makers (1954) Pressbook
Robert L. Lippert went for the cheaper productions and at a good time too. Hollywood was producing fewer movies overall due to television’s growing downward pull on box office receipts, as well as the population shifting to the suburbs, which left city theaters with more unfilled seats. Lippert’s movies played the drive-ins and lesser theaters and were cheap enough to turn a good profit. In 1951, Lippert released Superman and the Mole Men, the first feature film (there were the Kirk Allen serials) to star George Reeves, kicked off the successful television series. Allen regretted turning down the role for the tv series that made Reeves America’s Superman of the 1950s and 60s. Lippert became the U.S. distributor for Exclusive Films, which later became Hammer Films. He had a lucrative run up until Hammer moved the distribution to major studios. Lippert’s pressbooks were usually not many pages and contained poster art and some promotional information. Thanks to It Came From Hollywood for this copy.
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Dante’s Inferno (1935) Pressbook
TCM, in their notes section for Dante’s Inferno (1935), states that Spencer Tracy “agreed to have his name eliminated from advertising and publicity regarding the film and from the opening screen credits.” He said it was the worst picture made anywhere, anytime. Variety did like the ten minutes of Hell, though. I haven’t seen the movie so can’t say either way, but this pressbook is awesome and cost a lot of money to print. It is 15.5 inches by 21.5 inches and lots of pages crammed with promotional information. There’s also a translucent red plastic sheet that was inserted into the pressbook, but not sure what that was for. (You will need a large screen to view this beauty online.) One other note from TCM citing the Hollywood Reporter: the movie was delayed due to the need to manufacture small articles of clothing for thousands of devils so the “purity squad’ wouldn’t be offended. Download the pressbook images here: Dante’s Inferno 1935 Pressbook
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La Jungle en Feu (1945) Pressbook
I recently picked this pressbook (more like two-sided large sheet) for La Jungle en Feu. The poster art is gorgeous and has that propaganda-style of idealized imagery. Luciano (Arturo de Córdova) has a strong dislike of women. Guess where that goes when Estrella (Dolores del Rio) enters the part of the jungle the guys hang out in. Click the images to enlarge or download.
Dorian Gray (1970) Pressbook
Oscar Wilde’s novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, has been made into many movies. The earliest surviving version, according to IMDb, is one from 1915, where the sins of Dorian center mostly on cocaine use. This updated 1970 version by AIP amps up the sexual aspects of Wilde’s novel, with Dorian’s descent reflecting the more daring social and cinematic atmosphere of the 1970s as influenced by the sexual revolution that began in the 1960s. AIP’s pressbooks tended to focus on ad mats for newspapers, posters and lobbies for theaters, then maybe a page or two devoted to exploitation and movie and actor details. They also printed on one side of the sheet, so contained blank pages. The teaser ads are especially psychedelic even without color. (courtesy of It Came From Hollywood)
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Ulysses (1954)
Mexican Lobby Card
Here’s a wonderfully evocative Mexican lobby card for 1954’s Ulysses with Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Rossana Podesta, and Silvana Mangano (Dune, 1984). I like the menacing cyclops at the lower right: that would be the must-see enticement for me for sure. Also cool is the way Princess Nausicaa’s hair falls across the inset scene. Lots of action and romance showing in the lobby for the movie.
Special Delivery (1976) Pressbook
Here’s a blast from the 1970s with Bo Svenson and Cybill Shepherd, courtesy of It Came From Hollywood. The decade of slinky women and bulky men onscreen gave us some cool matchups, even if the movies weren’t all that svelte. In Special Delivery, the pair run afoul of thieves, or rather, one thief (Bo Svenson) has to deal with one woman (Cybill Shepherd) looking for some adventure and another guy (Michael C. Gwynne) looking to get the cash he stashed in a mailbox. Familiar faces pop up along the way: Jeff Goldblum, Vic Tayback, Sorrell Booke, and others you may find familiar from your movie-watching. If you ask me, no movie with either Bo or Cybill, or both of them, can do any wrong. This pressbook is unusual in that its pretty loaded with promotional goodies and solid poster art. It also has a coloring contest page! Both Paul at It Came From Hollywood and myself love coloring pages in pressbooks. They are so cool and retro but timely at the same time, and kids and adults could enjoy coloring them. So, bottom line, they made great advertising for movies in the local papers. In the pressbook you will also find promotional offerings with Special Delivery imprinted balloons and t-shirts. I wonder if Granny Creech has the radio spots? Music by Lalo Schifrin (Mission: Impossible tv series for starters, need I say more?) (Click each image to enlarge and read or right-click to download after you enlarge it.)
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This Island Earth Radio Spots
“Two-and-a-half years in the making!” No, that is not how long it took me to come up with the recipe for my witch’s brew: it was a selling point for one of Universal International’s best-loved movies, This Island Earth. Completed in 1955, it was a science-fiction fan’s dream. It had everything: spaceships, strange-looking aliens, lots of scientific talk, an interplanetary communications device, a war-torn planet, “demolition rays”, spectacular special effects, and…a mu-TANT! I bat-mailed my nephew, Crazy Gary (he works in the dead letter office over at the local post office), and asked if he had any thoughts on the movie. This is what I received back: …
AIP News Clips Galley Packet
Vincent Price, Dunwich Horrors, and Dali in De Sade
Here’s another news clips roundup courtesy of It Came From Hollywood. In this packet: famous Fondas star in film together, blurbs on The Dunwich Horror with Dean Stockwell and Sandra Dee, Vincent Price’s Scream and Scream Again, and AIP does Wuthering Heights (yeah, probably with bikers, though, Heathcliff, fill my arms with leather!)
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AIP News Clips Galley Packet
Vincent Price, Dunwich Horrors, and Dali in De SadeRead More »