Firefox or Foxfire? It’s time for another Movie Poster Smackdown! Of course, my favorite French poster of the 1955 Jane Russell-Jeff Chandler film easily blows away the USA one-sheets with Angelina Jolie and Jessica Tandy and is by none other than (yawn) Boris Grinsson.
Clement Hurel (1927-2008) was unquestionably one of the more witty French movie poster designers to decorate the industry. Mimicking Picasso’s range, he transitioned easily from Realism to a looser, humorous Cubist style. He could do silly. He could do sexy. He could do strong. As well any other feeling to express the themes of the inventive film posters he dreamed up.
And he was also an outspoken critic of the movie business when it did not recognize the intellectual copyrights of the artíste and fought to protect artists’ ownership interests right up until his dying day. (via Dominique Besson and Intemporel)
Last night, I checked out the new Syfy reality show, Hollywood Treasure, featuring Joe Maddalena, owner of the Profiles In History Hollywood auction house, as he and his crack team of memorabilia hunters track down valuable props from The Golden Age and beyond.
In one episode, Mr. Maddalena visits the house of Dawn Wells, aka Mary Ann from Gilligan’s Island, to get her to consign some of her famous outfits from the 1960s hit TV show. Personally, though, I was always more of a Ginger fan (played by Tina Louise) and these lovely movie posters from God’s Little Acre and Day of the Outlaw back me up on that…
Even though my pops loved ’em, I’m not really a super huge fan of Westerns. However, if you take that All-American genre and mix it up with the sometimes anti-American sentiments of the French, you get an artistically interesting movie poster art combination.
Jean Mascii is credited with The Dollars of Nebraska while Boris Grinsson did The Man From Laramie (style A) and Stage to Thunder Rock; She Wore A Yellow Ribbon and Cattle King are by Roger Soubie.
Here’s a Belgian movie poster and two Frenchies of The Last Sunset, a 1961 love triangle western starring Kirk Douglas and Rock Hudson.
The far one on the right is by famed French horror poster artist, Guy Gérard Noël, and the middle version might be as well, too, but I could not officially confirm as of press time.
I’ve actually never seen Persona, the 1966 Ingmar Bergman film starring Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson, but if it’s even half as cool as these posters than surely it can’t be that depressing.
The UK poster was designed by famed Academy Cinemas linocutter, Peter Strausfeld, and the Belgian version (middle) comes via the impressive MyPosterCollection, which also features a nice selection of Japanese posters.
WARNING: This post is not promoting domestic abuse — but merely just highlighting a few strange illustration quirks from the Let-Me-Slap-Some-Sense-Into-You-Mentality of the 1950s. Funny how they expressed relationship drama back then. Can you imagine how focus groups would react now if they put out a one sheet with Leonardo DiCaprio slugging his female co-star?
In any event, here’s another Movie Poster Smackdown Slapdown! (Le Tumulte is by Boris Grinsson and 99 River Street comes courtesy of Paul Waines at the All Poster Forum, which you should join immediately if you enjoy the wonderful world of movie posters.
Here’s my award for The Most Dissimilar Movies With The Most Similar Movie Titles…Les Touchables, a 1968 UK release, which appears to be a Valley of the Dolls-style ripoff (the French poster was drawn by Boris Grinsson that you can buy here) and, of course, the 1987 Brian DePalma gangster pic, The Untouchables, that made Kevin Costner a star…
And two more interior design movie posters…The tantalizing Love In The Afternoon (by Saul Bass) and the French version of The L-Shaped Room (Georges Kerfyser).
Movie Poster Museum 