This poster is both a rarity and an oddity. It also illustrates the challenges one finds sometimes when trying to authenticate rare posters. Usually, if I am looking to buy a poster I can find a reference for it online from previous sales (for example, the eMovie and Heritage Auctions databases are both great resources)….
The Blues Brothers
I must admit I never I quite “got” the appeal of this cult movie. It grew out of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live featuring comedians John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd and the movie’s plot (such as it is) – “a mission from God” to save an orphanage – is basically a loose…
Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte
In the 60s, melodramatic horror movies provided a late career fillip for a number of ageing Hollywood actresses. 1964’s Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte was originally conceived as a follow up to the hit Whatever Happened To Baby Jane. The plan was to again pair Bette Davis with Joan Crawford, to capitalise on their legendary real-life…
Dracula Prince Of Darkness
This is another French ‘grande’ poster, this time for the direct sequel to Hammer’s original Dracula. I remember liking this film a lot when I first saw it on one of the late night horror double bills that the BBC used to run (typically a genteel black and white Universal monster movie followed…
Where Eagles Dare
“Broadsword calling Danny Boy…” If those words jump out at you then, like me, you’ve probably sat through Where Eagles Dare multiple times. It remains one of the very best WWII “men on a mission’ movies – terrific action sequence, a twisty (and admittedly somewhat ridiculous) plot, plus great chemistry between Richard Burton’s verbose British…
Rust Never Sleeps
This is a movie that I have never seen, although I have listened to the soundtrack album many times. Rust Never Sleeps was a concert film made in 1979 as a showcase for Neil Young and Crazy Horse. I saw Neil Young once years ago (on the “Trans” tour, super-fans) and frankly I found it…
Marathon Man
Marathon Man is one of my all-time favourite thrillers. It was directed by John Schlesinger and written by William Goldman, who also wrote Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, amongst other classics, as well as authoring the classic Hollywood memoir Adventures in the Screen Trade (a must-read for any movie fan). He initially wrote Marathon…
Ben Hur / King of Kings
‘Sword and sandal’ movies are probably one of my least favourite genres. But they do make for spectacular posters! I will make exceptions for Gladiator and Spartacus, but in general these lengthy quasi-historical Roman/Biblical epics bore me to tears. They were however hugely popular in the 60s (and hugely expensive too – the excesses involved…
La nuit du loup-garou
I thought I was done with buying movie posters, but this one I just could not resist. This is a French ‘moyenne’ (ie ‘medium size’) poster for the 1961 Hammer film The Curse of the Werewolf. I have already blogged about my Belgian poster for the same film here, which has now been supplanted as…
Dracula AD72
No, that’s not a typo above. This is a memorable (albeit late) poster for a not so memorable addition to the Hammer Dracula saga. Dracula AD72 retains a certain kitsch charm, has a very good opening sequence, set in 1872, and brings back Peter Cushing to the Dracula franchise alongside Christopher Lee, but after…