Tarzan and Jungle Jim were viewing staples for me every Sunday when they aired on the local New York City television channels. This Mexican lobby card for Jungle Jim exudes action, danger, romance, and manliness (an open shirt will do it every time). The colors and illustration style lead me to believe this card is not based on American poster art.
The three illustrated tableaus shown on this Mexican lobby card for 800 Leguas Por El Amazonas caught my eye; there's the crocodile-hugging man, a Diver Dan type casually holding onto the electric eel, and the poor fellow on the bottom right being hugged to death by a very large snake. Each is more cartoony than dramatic, but the style is noteworthy because it makes me want to see this adventure movie.
Sophisticated illustration combines with an eerie scene to make this Un Mundo Nuevo (1957) lobby card a stunning example of skillful movie promotion: reading counter-clockwise from the skull, the use of blue as it bleeds into the blue-tinted skeleton implies these people are swimming toward death. (Note: due to a scanning error, the photo's border appears slightly broken at the top (to the right of center. I'll try and correct this in the future).
Devil Doll Men, also known as Curse of the Doll People (1961); Mirek Lipinski on his Mexican Horror Film website, Vampiros and Monstruos, sums it up best: "It is a splendid example of the outre nature of the fantastique emerging from Mexico at this time--wild and nearly ridiculous, but hypnotic and chilling at the same time." This lobby card captures that air of fantastique and terror.
Land of the Monsters (1962), Mexican lobby card style. Big clubs, furry loincloths, and ample cleavage (and I don't mean in mineralogy). I miss the stone age.
This is the Mexican lobby card for Bloodsuckers, also known as Incense for the Damned, (1970). The usual women being terrorized and leering skull motifs works well here.
An Amicus production directed by Freddie Francis, here's the Mexican lobby card for The Psychopath (1966). This is what happens when grown men play with dolls. For sure.
Here's the Mexican lobby card for the 1985 movie, Creature.
