Pressbooks (Non-Horror)

It’s unusual for a noir film to toss in humor and a light touch along with the criminal goings-on, but Borderline does that. Not all that well either: with Raymond Burr as the heavy and Claire Trevor and Fred MacMurry as agents not realizing they are on the same side, this story never quite finds its footing. So Borderline may be the film’s title, but it could also mean the way it doesn’t quite decide what’s serious and what’s funny, leaving the viewer precariously watching along that borderline to figure it out.

ComicRack reader version: Download Borderline Pressbook

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Borderline (1950) PressbookRead More »

This, The Pearl of Death, pressbook comes courtesy of director Joe Dante (Trailers from Hell, Gremlins, The ‘Burbs, The Howling, and more). Interesting story: I received an email from Charlie Largent asking if I’d like a bunch of pressbooks from Mr. Dante. Me, I’m thinking I’m being punked or scammed, but it turned out to be true. We worked out the logistics and, well, here we are. I’m always happy to hear from anyone who likes what I post, but when it comes from people like Joe Dante and Charlie Largent, it makes it especially pleasant. And I could never turn down an offer of pressbooks. Never.

Rondo Hatton is especially effective as the Hoxton Creeper, looming large and menacing, and Evelyn Ankers is always wonderful: a solid entry in the series.

ComicRack reader version: Download The Pearl of Death Pressbook

It’s elementary. You don’t need a detective to see more thrilling pressbooks From Zombos’ Closet.

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The Pearl of Death (1944) PressbookRead More »

The Wikipedia article for this movie states it was the first Hollywood feature film to be shot on location in Chicago. One of the main reasons I like watching old movies is the glimpse of town and city life, the buildings, the streets, the storefronts, the old cars; that glimpse of a lifetime ago is always fascinating. Call Northside 777 used the documentary-style crime drama approach and was based on a true story. With James Stewart playing the reporter, how could you go wrong?

ComicRack reader version: Download Call Northside 777 Pressbook

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Call Northside 777 (1948) PressbookRead More »

Alfalfa (Carl Switzer) and Butch the bully (Tommy Bond) from Our Gang are all grown up (mostly) in Gas House Kids in Hollywood. This is the third and last movie in the franchise. They mix it up with a mad scientist and a haunted house and cute “goils.”

ComicRack reader version: Download Gas House Kids in Hollywood Pressbook

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Gas House Kids in Hollywood (1947) PressbookRead More »

Monogram pulls down the noir shades with jumeuax identiques, in this crime whodunit based on a Cornell Woolrich story. (His book, Black Alibi, became The Leopard Man, directed by Jacques Tourneur.) For a budget movie, the pressbook is in color and well presented. I’m not sure the twin sundae idea is a good promotion, but crime and pretty dames times two sells seats anyway.

CBR version: Download The Guilty Pressbook

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The Guilty (1947) PressbookRead More »

Mickey Spillane wasn’t too happy with how Richard Aldrich’s movie version of his book turned out. Mike Hammer wasn’t nice at all, the dangerous and deadly something in the car trunk proved too hot to handle, and the downbeat storyline spiralling into worse makes Kiss Me Deadly quite an unnerving, unsavory, and brutal experience, permeated with existential fear. Perfect! You want film noir? This is the darkest you’ll come across. Ralph Meeker is brutal. The pressbook may play up the dames angle for all it’s worth, but the movie’s not about dames. It’s about death, violence, and more death. The deadly macguffin in the car trunk would be purloined by Repo Man (1984) with a less violent and fatal wind up.

ComicRack reader version: Download Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

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Ah, the good old days, when promotion contests were all about the beautiful dames in movies. Well, maybe not so good with all that objectification of women in the movies of the time. They were either angels or devils, and the men on screen always had trouble telling the difference. At least in film noir the women usually gave as good (or bad) as they got. Are women more dangerous? You be the judge. As film noir goes, this one may be too much for you to handle. Are you hardboiled enough to take it?

ComicRack reader version: Download Decoy (1946) Pressbook

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Decoy (1947) PressbookRead More »

Having just watched Murder is My Beat with Barbara Payton, I couldn’t resist posting this pressbook for Trapped, with her and Lloyd Bridges. As soon as I can find the Murder is My Beat pressbook I’ll post that one too. Film noir, like horror, requires a refined taste for classy and deadly dames, hardboiled stamina and worn-shoes detectives, and star-crossed victims. Horror, of course, abounds with star-crossed victims. Trapped helped her into the spotlight, followed by an ample contract after her performance in Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye. Sadly, her presence in Bride of the Gorilla didn’t boost her career, although her co-star, Raymond Burr, fared much better. A lot of bad relationships, drinking, and drugs trapped her into a downward spiral.

ComicRack reader version: Download Trapped (1949) Pressbook

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Trapped (1949) PressbookRead More »

There are horror films and then there are horrors films. Taxi Driver is a horrors film. The horrors of a Travis Bickle, a walking wounded lifer, looking for meaning in all the meaningless places. Is he pushed or does he push himself to become a knight in shining armor, to channel his frustration against helplessness? Vigilantism was a cinematic peg hole for 1970s New York City. Between the crime, grime, and gaffiti, knights are hard to come by but often hoped for. Here’s the 20-page pressbook for the movie, with many pages devoted to newspaper poster ads. By the 1970s, most pressbooks focused on the newspapers to sell the movie with poster ads; when people actually read newspapers.

ComicRack reader version: Download Taxi Driver Pressbook

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Taxi Driver (1976) PressbookRead More »

First filmed in 1925, Zane Grey's novel, Code of the West, was again filmed in 1947. Here's the two-fisted pressbook.  

ComicRack version: Download Code of the West Pressbook

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Code of the West Pressbook (1947)Read More »

Here’s a pressbook for the pre-code serial, King of the Wild (for a re-release in 1945) with Boris Karloff.  I added some lobby cards too.

Comic book reader version: Download King of the Wild 1931 Pressbook

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King of the Wild (1931) PressbookRead More »