Azteca/Mexican Lobby Cards

Even Godzilla had to deal with pollution. This Mexican lobby card for Godzilla contra Monstruos del Smog shows how big the problem was, even back then; today it would be more like Godzilla vs. plastics, global warming, and stupid people. Now that’s a smackdown I’d pay good money to see. Especially in IMAX.

The Girl Hunters. Here’s a good visual summary of the Mike Hammer detective method: dames, duking it out, and dirty job assignments. Oh, and Betsy, his gun, always ready to socialize loudly. Mickey Spillane plays his own trench-coated, rough and downbeat, and boozing detective pining after Velda after she goes missing. Stacy Keach played “the new” Mike Hammer in the 1984 to ’87 television series and a few TV movies. For Keach, he played Hammer with more heart and a soul, but Spillane made sure he still wore his .45 Colt.

Here’s an exciting example of luchador action with Santo vs. the Ghost of the Strangler (1966). You have Santo, a bloody handprint, an ominous silhouette, a show girl, and background illustration hinting of musical numbers to be seen. Somewhat of a sequel to Santo vs. El Estrangulador, the villain uses disguises fashioned from the skin of his victims (but no chainsaw, darn). El Santo (Rodolfo Guzman Huerta) got the idea for his silver mask after reading The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas. See CinemaBlend for 6 things to know about El Santo.

With Chief Dan George, Jan-Michael Vincent, and Marilyn Hassett, this is an effective supernatural Canadian entry of the 1970s. While it could use a bit more action and plot-twisting, the story of a Shaman enlisting the aid of his modernized grandson to fight black magic plays like a television movie, but there are some excellent moments where the effects and the action make it a worthwhile watch, especially if you like the 1970s film vibe.

This is the Mexican lobby card for The Ghastly Ones (1968). Or, as Stephen King states in his book Danse Macabre, “the work of morons with cameras.” I don’t think that would sell as a movie title, but oddly enough, it does fit quite a few horror movies quite well.  I imagine no one would go see The Work of Morons with Cameras unless it was a funny and compelling compilation movie, though, come to think of it, that’s one hell of a midnight movie title. The lobby card, however, does give enough sexy, ghastly, hey-that’s-a-big-knife, and-is-that-a-head-in-a-pot vibe to entice unwary patrons. Which, of course, is not to be confused with pothead, a term many of you, I’m sure, were familiar with back in the 60s.

Here’s the Mexican lobby card (El Capitan Vencedor) for Marvel’s (known as Timely comics back then) first superhero movie, Captain America. Bucking Republic’s usual serial plotline, this one had the villain known to the movie audience right off the bat. Republic also altered the character from the comics by making him use a gun and modifying the costume. They also didn’t call him Steve Rogers or connect him to the military, and left out the unique shield he slings around, though the lobby card includes it. In spite of these changes, the action is good and provides a better treatment than the one given to Batman (1943).

Here's a large-sized Mexican lobby card for El Juramento Del Zorror (1965). It consolidates the poster art into three areas of attraction: Zorro's horse rearing onto its hind legs, an violent action scene with the stagecoach, and the love interest along with movie title. This breaks down key elements for the story visually: that Zorro is a man fighting for justice against tough odds and that heroic guys dressed in black and wearing a mask invite romance by their mystery. 

The first live-action appearance of Superman on screen was with Kirk Alyn playing the lead role. This 15 chapter serial finally brought the Son of Krypton to movie audiences, but was hampered by that era's lack of the necessary technical effects to make the Man of Steel really fly, although Captain Marvel's flying proved better on screen. Flying was achieved with animation, which did not work well. However, the serial was a commercial success and gave us Noel Niell's Lois Lane, which she reprised in The Adventures of Superman with George Reeves. Interestingly, as noted in Wikipedia, animating him from live-action takeoff to animated flying was easier to do than animated flying to live-action landing. So they had animated Superman land behind something then he would pop out as live-action Superman.

Kirk Alyn was offered the starring role in The Adventures of Superman television series but refused it, not believing in the Superman Curse, in which anyone portraying the character would be typecast and not hired for any other role. Alyn eventually said "playing Superman ruined my acting career, and I was bitter for many years about the whole thing. I couldn't get another job in Hollywood." George Reeves, who did take on the role in Adventures died two years after that series ended, whether by his own hand or someone else's is still a mystery.

Back in the 1970s, to catch a martial arts movie, you had to find a theater running them. Those theaters were not your usual mainstream fare ones. This was also known as, oh yeah, go to Times Square in New York City and mind the theater seat you sit in, because you never know what they were playing before the Kung Fu movies hit the screen. Or you had to find a more offbeat theater running Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan (yup, a misspelling on the card) or some Chinese martial arts opus somewhere in the more interesting areas of the city. But boy were those movies worth it. Between the horror movies and martial arts movies, and the graffiti, it was certainly a colorful time for those seeking different cinema fare. This poster-like Mexican lobby card packs a nice punch with its illustration and inset action scene.

Here's an atmospheric larger Mexican lobby card (more like a small poster) for The Secret of Pancho Villa. The left and right skulls take the background as the dark-clothed mysterious masked figure, carrying the unconscious woman, takes the foreground. He is the hero, the Avenging Shadow. The layout is rough, but it has that cut and paste of highlights rush job aspect that is rather engaging because it is easy to take in. 

I cannot recall exactly when I first watched El Baron del Terror, but I was of that impressionable young age to be pretty mesmerized and chilled by watching the Baron suck out those brains and dip into his big, chafing dish styled, serving bowl for seconds. While the makeup is well underdone and the story in need of a rewrite–and lord knows that English dubbing was awful–The Brainiac is justifiably a cult classic, recreating the style of a Universal Horror for Mexican audiences. This Azteca lobby card captures the movie's vibe quite well. And you can never go wrong with Abel Salazar in a movie.