Madonna’s leading role debut is still for me the high-point of her acting career. Given she essentially plays herself in this movie, the role perhaps wasn’t too much of a stretch for her. She is out-acted anyway by Rosanna Arquette (one of those 80s stars who burned brightly for awhile then pretty much disappeared) in…
The House Of Hammer
This was one of my favourite magazines back in the 1970s. The House of Hammer was a UK magazine, which originally ran from 1976 to 1978. It went through a few name changes along the way, becoming Hammer’s House of Horror, then Hammer’s Halls of Horror. Its unique selling point was that it featured black…
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Here’s one for ski season – a German poster for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. OHMSS is one of my favourite James Bond films and the only one to star George Lazenby as 007. When it came out it did not do well – mainly because it didn’t star Sean Connery. Its reputation has grown…
Godzilla
Christmas is coming, but sorry I do not have any festive-themed movie memorabilia to post, so this red and green Godzilla poster will just have to do! I’ve seen various Godzilla movies over the years (including the rather mediocre recent reboots), but frankly I do not remember if I have ever seen the original 1954…
Coogan’s Bluff / House Of Cards
Spot the difference? This is an interesting example of movie poster artists copying each other… Both Coogan’s Bluff and House of Cards were released in 1968. I’m unsure which one went to market first, but you can bet that one of these artists got lazy and simply copied the design of the other poster. The…
The Dead Zone
The Dead Zone is my favourite of David’ Cronenberg’s movies. At university, I once wrote a dissertation on Cronenberg’s earlier ‘body horror’ movies – including Shivers, Rabid and Scanners. These were all typically set in a Canadian winter and are fundamentally very cold, dour and disturbing movies, with little known casts. They had a pretence…
Rasputin The Mad Monk
This is an interesting example of how different artists can approach the same material. These are both the French ‘grande’ and ‘petit’ posters produced for this Hammer Films melodrama. This 1966 movie isn’t a horror movie per se, but a very loose and sensationalised retelling of historical events at the Russian court. It was shot…
Dune
David Lynch’s 1984 version of Dune is widely recognised to be something of a disaster. The producers probably thought they were investing in the new Star Wars. What they got was weird and incomprehensible beyond belief. Lynch himself subsequently disowned the movie and whilst it has become something of a cult, campy favourite, my memory…
Gunfight In Abilene / Incident At Phantom Hill
Sometimes a movie poster should simply be appreciated as a work of art, irrespective of the qualities of the movie itself. I have never seen either Gunfight in Abilene nor Incident At Phantom Hill and am highly unlikely to ever do so. They are both obscure Westerns from the mid-60s. But I am writing about…
Horror movie books
Denis Gifford’s A Pictorial History Of Horror Movies was the first movie-related book I ever bought. This would have been back in the 70s. It was quite instrumental, in retrospect, in me developing a love of movies in general, and horror movies in particular. I still have my copy! Author Gifford shows great affection for…