From Zombos' Closet

20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) Pressbook

Not until Terry Michitsch sent along these wonderful scans of 20 Million Miles to Earth did I realize William Hopper was playing a lead role in it. Now an ardent Perry Mason fan (the television show with Raymond Burr), Hopper plays Paul Drake, the private detective Mason relies on; so now I need to watch 20 Million Miles again, just to see him in action. TCM's overview mentions how this movie started filming in Italy because Ray Harryhausen wanted to vacation there. Smart move, combining work and play at the same time, and getting paid for it to boot. Harryhausen's Ymir is one of his best creations, with a solid personality and superb body design. Given more budget money, and better scripting, this would be an all out classic.

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The Royal Mounted Rides Again (1945) Pressbook

Courtesy of Joe Dante and Charlie Largent (Trailers From Hell) comes this file copy for The Royal Mounted Rides Again serial. Always interesting are the costs associated with any movie (or serial) promotion. According to the onion skin typewritten page glued (see those annoying brown spots) to page 2, the cost for 6,000 pressbooks came to .233 cents per book; with art work taking 659 dollars for advertising. 

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I Killed Geronimo (1950) Mexican Lobby Card

A particularly anger-laden illustration for I Killed Geronimo makes this Mexican lobby card intense. Being this movie was filmed in 1950, the story makes the Indians the bad guys for buying rifles to protect themselves from the encroaching land grabbers, and the cavalry rides to the rescue eventually. Many of the action scenes were lifted from Stagecoach.

My World Dies Screaming (1958) Pressbook

Terror in the Haunted House, also known as My World Dies Screaming, was the first movie lensed using Psychorama. If you've seen The Exorcist, you know what psychorama is: think of those brief flashes of the demon face popping up. In this movie, flashes of a skull were used to subliminally convey terror to the audience, along with other images to convey other emotions. Or so they hoped. 

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Walk Into Hell (1956) Pressbook

What's a jungle without a witch doctor? At least that's the theme in most jungle movies from the 1950s. See the movie herald. Of course it's all about oil found in the jungle, which brings out the human wild beasts. The poster art focuses on a victimized white woman, scantily dressed of course, to sell butts in theater seats.

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I Was an American Spy (1951) Pressbook

The good old days, when we were focused on enemies from without and Reader's Digest sensations that shocked the nation instead of dodging the rocks we're throwing at each other now. This one's a dramatization of a true hero, Claire Phillips. She spied on the Japanese during World War II and survived a lot of hardship and torture. This pressbook pushes the patriotism and zippo lighters, along with a song, Because of You. The poster art does a good job of exploitation without excess.

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Walk Into Hell (1956) Herald

Here's the theater herald for Walk Into Hell, formerly titled Walk Into Paradise. The movie didn't make any money when it was called Walk Into Paradise, so switching over to Hell did the trick. Americans are like that.

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Night Gallery Art Prints Advertisement

I picked up this advertisement, from 1971, for full color reproductions of some of The Night Gallery portraits. Would love to have these prints instead. Some monster magazines at the time carried advertisements for these prints too. Looking forward to receiving my copy of Rod Serling's Night Gallery: The Art of Darkness, which will show all of the paintings along with commentary and other tidbits of information. One thing you must absolutely do is NOT watch The Night Gallery eps on cable channels like MeTv. Avoid them like the plague. MeTV picked up rights to the 30-minute edited versions that went into syndication. Aside from being butchered to run in a shortened timeframe, they added episodes from The Sixth Sense (also butchered) with Gary Collins and Catherine Ferrar. Rod Serling did new introductions for those episodes, but they aren't Night Gallery. The 30-minute syndicated episodes border on incoherent as editing tricks left them sliced and diced.

H.P. Lovecraft by Dave Carson (1990)

I was rummaging through the closet today and I found this signed print by Dave Carson. I can't believe it was so long ago that I picked it up. I don't know what's worse: collecting or forgetting what I've collected. I will say it's both depressing that I forgot about it, but exhilirating that I now remember it. While fans and detractors continue to argue over H.P. Lovecraft's influence and racism, his artistic sway over horror fiction and artists remains steadfast. 

Fantoma versus Scotland Yard () Mexican Lobby Card

The Fantomas movies are pretty wild and fun to watch. This Mexican lobby card captures the mystery and, through its use of cartoonish illustration, keeps the mood light.

Los Vampiros de Coyoacan (1974) Mexican Lobby Card

Here are three of the giant lobby cards (larger than the usual jumbo-sized 12.5 x 16.5 inches) for Los Vampiros de Coyoacan. Wonderful hodge-podge of horror elements comprises this layout.

Raiders of Ghost City (1944) Pressbook

Here's another great pressbook courtesy of Joe Dante and Charlie Largent (Trailers From Hell).  This file copy of Raiders of Ghost City pressbook contains a typed, on onion paper, breakdown of the cost for 6000 pressbooks. It rounds to 20 cents per book, with printing and artwork costing the most. Presumably the cost of producing the pressbooks was offset by the sales of promotional material (see the ad mats and showmanship pages) for the theaters promoting the serial.

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