At an astounding 32 pages, this T-Men pressbook is a novel's worth of promotion. Striking use of red ink, thriller poster art, and enough publicity articles to choke a theater manager. The tie-ups are plentiful too, from Albolene Face Cream, Ritz Electric Broiler, Emerson Radio, and a T-Men kiddie button kutout. I mean, who uses the word kiddie anymore?
Comic book reader version: Download T-Men Pressbook
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From the pressbook: ""In my picture," Jones says, "the right-thinking, right-acting, clean-living man always wins out. This man is not a prude. He is not a painfully righteous person. He has plenty of faults, as well as virtues."
Comic book reader version: Download Rocky Rhodes Pressbook
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Dramatic poster art for Outcast of the Islands drew my attention to this pressbook. Looking at it, I find it interesting how some movies played up the exotic woman (here it's Kerima) in the tropical/jungle milieu, until the 1950s, in the horror and adventure genres; one of all image, no substance. Now, of course, there were the femme fatales in noir, and the standout movie starlets, but they stood apart from the pretty-cardboard women with an air of tropical mystery and vexing perfection like Kerima, Acquanetta, and Kathleen Burke (Panther Woman in Island of Lost Souls). Noteworthy in this pressbook is the use of the "MASS audiences and CLASS audiences are flocking to see…" promotion line. I don't recall seeing another blatant (although, let's face it, an inherent presumption for any movie) spelling-out of the makeup of the audience theaters should have expected to get for Outcast.
Comic book reader version: Download Outcast of the Islands Pressbook
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When I think of movie serials, Spy Smasher, Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers come to mind. Swashbuckling pirates, not so much. I wouldn’t mind having a club card, though.
Comic reader version: Download Great Adventures of Captain Kidd Pressbook
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Great Adventures of Captain Kidd (1953) PressbookRead More »
Yes, the only reason I like this pressbook is the Cajun beauty poster art and tagline. How can anyone pass up on “born to take love and make trouble?” Sounds like a perfectly good trashy drive-in movie to me. You can catch it on YouTube if you have some time to kill.
Comic reader version: Download Louisiana Hussy Pressbook
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This pressbook for Johnny “Mack” Brown’s Valley of the Lawless is red, white, and blue all over. Brown appeared in Dell comics and on Wheaties boxes as well as making over a hundred cowboy movies.
Comic reader version: Download Valley of the Lawless Pressbook
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SOS Submarine, the American title for the Italian movie, Men on the Sea Floor (1941), had a surprisingly interesting pressbook created for it. While only four pages, plus a one-page supplement for double-billing with Harpoon, its cover is more sophisticated in design and execution than most foreign movies pressbooks. The American-dubbed version hit theaters in 1948.
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An Edward D. Wood Jr. movie; need I say more? This pressbook is pretty nifty, though, for an exploitation movie with an atom-sized budget. The die-cut cover opens to reveal poster art and photos, but no synopsis and an emphasis on newspaper advertising.
Comic reader version: Download The Sinister Urge Pressbook
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It’s not often you see pinball used as the construct for a world view, but Ralph Bakshi liked to push the animation envelope in the 1970s. Possibly his biggest success was Heavy Traffic (which followed Fritz the Cat), but my favorite was his Lord of the Rings adaptation.
Comic reader version: Download Heavy Traffic Pressbook
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Here's the British pressbook for I'll Get You for This. I was never a big George Raft fan, but you can tell by the poster art how they played off his onscreen persona as a tough guy with a nasty temper. Wikipedia says that Peter Lorre was supposed to appear in the movie but his role was played by someone else. That's a shame. I'm a big fan of Peter Lorre. I'll watch Peter Lorre in anything.
Comic reader version: Download I'll Get You Pressbook
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Gene Autry sets his mind to tame a wild horse after it throws a boy and paralyzes him. Autry sings inbetween the taming and the Western drama. This is Pat Buttram’s first movie, although he’s probably more remembered for the Green Acres sitcom with Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor.
Comic reader version: Download The Strawberry Roan Pressbook
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In this Austrian movie, a cab driver dreams of going to America and steals the identity of a murdered man. Love triangle motivations complicate things.
Comic reader version: Download Stolen Identity Pressbook
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