Pressbooks (Horror, Sci Fi, Fantasy)

Tarzan contributes to the war effort in Tarzan Triumphs, but fights Nazis only with the help of Cheetah and Boy (Johnny Sheffield), but not Jane (Maureen O’Sullivan). She is tending to her sick mom back in England. But really, O’Sullivan was under contract with MGM, not RKO, Tarzan’s new studio-jungle home, so enter Francis Gifford playing the princess Zandra of Palandrya, another Hollywoody idyllic land of white in the dark jungle (and lots of pretty women), taken over by the Nazis. For a guy who has no job, has a very limited vocabulary, and has only one piece of clothing, he sure attracts women an awful lot. His “jungle people fight to live, civilized people live to fight” sure hit the nail on the head for his time, and any other time for that matter. My favorites from the Exploitation department: Design a costume for Zandra (at least she knows how to dress for company) and the costume contest for the best dressed woman as Zandra. The poster art is pretty good too. Click each image to expand it–you will need a BIG screen–or right-click the expanded image to download it.) And you don’t have to read the signs to find more pressbooks, just rummage through our categories.

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Tarzan Triumphs (1943) PressbookRead More »

A lot of very good horror movies came out in 1936: Dracula’s Daughter, Fahrmann Maria, Devil Doll, The Walking Dead, to name a few. Revolt of the Zombies didn’t make the list. In this follow-up to cash in on the success of White Zombie, not much happens with a great premise: raising an army of the dead. Christopher Workman and Troy Howarth, in their wonderful book, Tome of Terror, Horror Films of the 1930s, point out Dean Jagger’s nuanced performance and two striking scenes, but also the dearth of atmosphere, budget-creativity, and good plotting to generate anything remotely as effective as the poster art for this movie. The pressbook is a big meh, also. To make things worse, Revolt of the Zombies was sued to stop its screen play time, being released during a re-release of White Zombie, out of fear having two zombie movies running at the same time was unfair competition for the re-release. Later horror movies like Overlord would capitalize on the military zombie theme. Victor Halperin directed both White Zombie and this movie, and Bela Lugosi’s hypnotic eye close-ups from White Zombie were clipped and used here too. To really make this a bad call all around, the zombies aren’t even zombies: they’re just people drugged into a zombie state of invincibility. Bummer.

Download the zipped images: Revolt of the Zombies pressbook

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Revolt of the Zombies (1936) PressbookRead More »

Almost a fun movie, but the special effects, which included a guy in a really ill-designed dinosaur suit, take away the being-there aspect quite a bit. The set itself is beautiful and, were this in color, may not have been as effective; but the matte paintings and whole diorama effect is foreboding and filled with danger in black and white. Bill Warren, in his Keep Watching the Skies!, lambasted this one pretty good. Not one of Universal's best from the 1950s, but they all couldn't be winners like Creature From the Black Lagoon. There was a real fascination, at least where cinema was concerned, with ancient or alien landscapes, ancient or alien cultures, and dinosaurs, when it came to jungle and horror movies of the 50s and 60s. And often there was always a man-eating plant stuffed in there, somewhere. You won't see newspapers running Antarctica Geography Quizzes for a movie anymore, either. 

Comic Reader version: Download The Land Unknown

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The Land Unknown (1957) PressbookRead More »

Here's the large format theater herald to hawk Frankenstein 1970. Baron Frankenstein, desperate for money to complete his experiments, allows a film crew to follow him for a documentary. Running out of spare parts, he puts the arm on the film crew, so to speak. In this iteration of monster creation, Frankenstein uses an atomic reactor to power the creature. The story is good and with a bit more pizazz, money, and color, this could have been more of a Hammerlike endeavor.

From Professor Kinema's archives comes this ominous copy of the Mr. Sardonicus pressbook. Lots of promotional material here, all laid out on one large sheet of glossy paper that folds to a nice petite mailing size for sending to theaters. The Punishment Poll was another gimmick William Castle used to get those butts in seats. We know there weren't two different endings shot for this movie, right? Mr. Sardonicus wasn't going to get off that easy now was he? Thanks to the Professor, here are some scene stills to entice you even more to see this one.

Comic Reader version: Download Mr Sardonicus

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Mr. Sardonicus (1961) PressbookRead More »

Jack Armstrong, The All-American Boy, had been on the radio for 14 years by the time Sam Katzman brought him to the screen in this 15 chapter serial. Once again, an evil mastermind is determined to use his death ray on the innocent. If nothing else, the serials taught us that it takes just one person to make a lot of trouble for the rest of us. And that death rays were cool weapons as long as you were not in the line of fire. Oh, and pretty easy to make, apparently. This pressbook has one of my favorite promotional gimmicks: the coloring page! One important note, too: Jack Armstrong may be rather silly, now that times have changed, but the character promoted a healthy wonder for science and cultures as part of being a well-rounded individual. An animated pilot for Jack Armstrong was done by Hanna-Barbera, but due to rights issues, that project eventually turned into Johnny Quest. (Check out the Johnny Quest FAQ at http://www.classicjq.com/info/JQFAQ.aspx.)

Download the comic reader version: Download Jack Armstrong The All American Boy

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Jack Armstrong (1947) PressbookRead More »

From the deep archives of Professor Kinema comes this Mr. Sardonicus Punishment Poll card. While the images are large, the card is small. Really small. You can easily fit it in the palm of your hand with room to spare. But size has nothing to do with coolness, and this card is cool. The thumbs up or down, depending on how you hold up the card, glows in the dark. Another one of William Castle’s clever audience participation gimmicks, movie goers would choose which way the thumb pointed–mercy or no mercy–during Mr. Castle’s prompting at the film’s end. Which would you have chosen?

Cat People is the movie that proves B movies can be awesome. "It all takes place in a wickedly enchanted 1942 New York City, where a leopard screams at night in the Central Park Zoo (“like a woman,” says Irena). Seventy-two years after its shoot, Cat People still seems chillingly alive, a dark, sleek feline of a film, purring with Lewton’s two pet fetish fears—cats, and being touched" from The Very Witching Time of Night: Dark Alleys of Classic Horror Cinema by Gregory William Mank. 

Comics Reader version: Download Cat People

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Cat People (1942) PressbookRead More »

This is the original release pressbook for Cinderella (1950).  It is noted as Campaign Book A because it was accompanied by Campaign Book B, which contained a record-making amount of merchandizing. I will post Book B, shortly. This one, with 20 pages of promotional goodness, is pretty amazing all by itself. Disney was incredible at tie-ins merchandising for all of their animated movies. After Pinocchio (too dark), Bambi (too real), and Fantasia (too cerebral) didn't do well at the box office, putting Disney in the red, Cinderella (just right with its struggling local girl makes good story) saved the day. 

Version for your comics reader: Download Cinderella Pressbook

There are more pressbooks to try on for size, From Zombos' Closet!

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Cinderella (1950) PressbookRead More »