John Huston’s 1952 Moulin Rouge is, frankly, quite a boring movie.

I watched it on YouTube last year and was expecting something of the pizzazz of Baz Luhrmann’s jukebox musical version, but its a rather serious affair, centred around Toulouse Lautrec (Jose Ferrer). Yes, there is some can-can dancing, and it has some nice atmospheric scenes of Paris’ famous Montmartre district, but viewed today its distinctly creaky and at 2 hours way too long.

None of which distracts from the vibrancy of the poster design. I have bid and failed a few times at auction for the French poster, but in the end settled for this little Spanish herald, which features a similar design. I gave this to my wife, who is a big fan of all things Moulin Rouge.