I have loved movies for as long as I can remember. Growing up, there was something about the experience of going to the cinema that I found magical. Watching movies at home on my parents’ old, small, black and white TV was all well and good, but it couldn’t compete with the immersive experience of sitting…
King Kong
The original 1933 King Kong has always been one of my favourite movies. I love everything about it, from concept to execution, and IMHO it still holds up nearly 90 years later. It was – and remains – a technical marvel of stop-motion animation. Animator Willis O’Brien managed to bring real pathos to an…
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…
Crimes of Passion
This film is cinematic Marmite – you either love it or hate it. I am in the former camp, although quite what that says about me I don’t know. I remember going to see this while at university, with my friend John. We both really enjoyed it, to the point that he recommended it highly…
The Two Jakes
This poster is the US one-sheet for the largely forgotten sequel to Chinatown. Chinatown is one of my all-time favourite movies. It is a fabulous evocation of a place and era, with a terrific twisty storyline, wonderful performances all round and a real sting in the tail. Chinatown wasn’t exactly crying out for a…
Moonraker / A View to a Kill
Here are a couple of original posters for two of the lesser Roger Moore Bonds. Moonraker IMHO is a low point in the franchise – honestly, what the hell is James Bond doing in space? It seemed then and still does a rather pathetic attempt to cash in on the success of contemporary sci-fi…
The Deer Hunter
I’ve posted elsewhere about lousy films that were promoted with great posters. This is the other way around – great film, really awful (IMHO) poster! This is the UK quad original release poster. I’m not a huge fan of photographic posters in any case, but what really bugs me about this poster is that the…
Dance With A Stranger
I have written elsewhere about how I am not normally a fan of photographic posters, but for this one I will make an exception. I really like the bold tinting and the minimalist, dramatic use of black space between the two main characters. I also remember the film (about Ruth Ellis, the last woman to…
Marnie
This is another poster I thought I had sold at auction and was glad to discover I hadn’t. Marnie isn’t the greatest Hitchcock by a long way. There’s been a great deal of debate about whether TIppi Hedren’s performance in the title role is deliberately mannered or just plain bad, and there have been…
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Here’s an original UK quad and a US re-release poster for this Steven Spielberg classic. I still have these, but neither are in the greatest condition, unfortunately. The UK quad is in the condition I bought it in – some tears and missing paper at the edges, which would be repairable if I were…