Here's the tabloid herald for Shock Corridor. Lots of exploitation-sell, such as "shocking world of psychos and sex-maddened women exposed!" and "the snake-pit world revealed in all its outrages!" Now, of course, it sounds like just another day in politics. Back then, though, it meant something!
I'll list Shock Corridor under non-horror but it terrified me when I first saw it on television in cathode ray tube black and white. So, yes, I was too young for it. But it still scares me. A journalist fakes insanity to go after a story. The story starts to go after him instead. Here's the pressbook to serve as a warning to you. But definitely see it. It just may scare and unsettle you as much as it did me.
Comic book reader version: Download Shock Corridor Pressbook
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Naming a giant elephant Bimbo just doesn't seem right. What's with the use of names beginning with "B" in circus vernacular anyway?
The Wikipedia article on the movie Mondo Cane states: "is a horror-documentary film written and directed by Italian filmmakers Paolo Cavara, Franco Prosperi and Gualtiero Jacopetti. The film consists of a series of travelogue vignettes that provide glimpses into cultural practices around the world with the intention to shock or surprise Western film audiences."
I don't understand the horror-documentary label–it may be shocking, but horror? I recall seeing the trailer for this movie while sitting in the theater waiting for the main attraction to start. I was maybe 7 or so. Boy, was I shocked. To this day I still see the bug-eating scene in my head. Of course, now you can go to YouTube and other points Internet to be shocked. But hey, this was back in the 1960s, baby. We had better values then. We kept all the shocking stuff in the movie theaters.
Comic book reader version: Download Mondo Cane Pressbook
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I recall seeing Woody Allen on the Dick Cavett Show promoting this one. When Cavett asked him about the unique approach to the movie and asked if it would really sell, Allen replied he had a unique way to make money: he'd charge people to get out of the theater instead of into it.
Here's the movie in a nutshell (excerpted from Wikipedia): "Allen took a Japanese spy film, International Secret Police: Key of Keys, and overdubbed it with completely original dialogue that had nothing to do with the plot of the original film. By putting in new scenes and rearranging the order of existing scenes, he completely changed the tone of the film from a James Bond clone into a comedy about the search for the world's best egg salad recipe
Comic book reader version: Download What's Up Tiger Lilly Pressbook
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Here's the theater herald for the shockumentary Mondo Cane. I see the entire movie is on YouTube now. When it first came out, the trailer for it made me squirm. Its success helped make this kind of mondo movie-making a good one for theaters to show.
Here's the comic book-styled theater giveaway for Black Belt Jones.
I admit I only picked this up because of the big ape (the hairy one, not Clark Gable). Apes in jungle movies are cool. The newspaper-styled heralds handed out to promote movies were (and still are) cool, too. They were made of paper. You remember paper, don't you? The Planet of the Apes heralds are some of the best.
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Here's the theater herald for The Sunset Legion westerner. The blank page is for the theater's printer to add the address and other coming attractions. The actual size is 9 x 4 inches when unfolded.
Time to saddle up with the Gangsters of the Frontier pressbook. Always note the good guys wear white hats that never get dirty, no matter how much they tussle with them black-hatted outlaws. White scarves complete the ensemble. Here's the comic reader version to stash in your saddle bag: Download Gangsters of the Frontier Pressbook.
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Need to see some exploitation cinema? Here you go, you counterculture Sicknik. LSD scenes are in color. Wow. (Comic reader version: Download Hallucination Generation Pressbook.)
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I love westerns, grew up with them on television and in the movies. Grew up with Buster Crabbe, too. He portrayed Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, in those serials that inspired Indiana Jones and breathtaking cinema. So…here you go, pardner.
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