Tag Archives: movie posters

Posters for The Thief of Bagdad (1940)

November 4, 2021 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Detail from the Spanish 1978 re-release poster

This British Technicolor fantasy film was produced by Alexander Korda, boasts great production design and it stars Sabu!

The sequence I like most in this magical movie is Abu’s (Sabu) mission to steal the All-Seeing Eye jewel in the Temple of the Goddess of Light. He has to deal with arrow-firing green-skinned men, he has to scale a giant statue, fight a giant spider on its web and make sure he doesn’t fall into a pool of giant octopi. The design of the temple is wonderful.

Sabu on his quest to attain the All-Seeing Eye — Abu on his quest to attain the All-Seeing Eye

Watch out, Abu: there are octopi at the bottom of the pit!

The movie also has a great score by Miklós Rózsa (who also did the music for THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD), a memorable genie (Rex Ingram) and a fine villain: the cunning Jaffar, played by Conrad Veidt.

A massive genie's foot! — A massive genie’s foot!

Here are just some of the posters that have been produced for this film. Get ready for lots of renditions of Sabu astride a flying carpet and giant, laughing genies!

Enjoy…

Italian poster: love the mad look in Conrad Veidt's eyes! — Italian poster: I love the mad look in Conrad Veidt’s eyes!

US Kino International 1978 re-release one sheet poster

Danish poster: this one's a fun take on the subject matter — Danish poster: this one’s a fun take on the subject matter

Italian poster - art by Anselmo Ballester — Italian poster – art by Anselmo Ballester

Some lobby cards…

Some DVD and Blu-ray covers…

Finally, some assorted bits and pieces…

Movie ad. I really like the angle the illustrator chose to depict the genie from: dynamic! — Movie ad. I really like the angle the illustrator chose to depict the genie from: dynamic stuff!

Posters for Rodan (1956)

October 26, 2021 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya, this Toho classic features some fine supersonic destruction, two Rodans, some cool giant bugs and a rather touching monster ending set during a volcanic eruption triggered by missiles.

Here is a whole bunch of posters for the kaiju-pterosaur flick for you to enjoy…

Italian poster: I love this one, even though Rodan doesn't breath fire in the movie! — Italian poster: I love this one, even though Rodan doesn’t breath fire in the movie!

Italian poster: love this one too! The Italian poster artists were awesome!

Some lobby cards…

DVD and VHS covers…

Paramount VHS cover. This reminds me of the style of art seen on the Topps 'Dinosaurs Attack!' trading cards — Paramount VHS cover. This reminds me of the style of art seen on the Topps ‘Dinosaurs Attack!’ trading cards

Super 8mm home movie box art…

Here’s a niiiiiiice illustration depicting Rodan…

Finally, here’s a shot from the fiery, rather sad end of the movie…

Posters for The Fly (1986)

October 4, 2021 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Detail from Italian video cover art by Enzo Sciotti (for the whole series of Fly films)

George Langelaan’s short story The Fly was first adapted for the screen in 1958, starring Vincent Price and David Hedison. David Cronenberg directed the 1986 version, based on his own screenplay, which was a rewrite of an initial draft written by Charles Edward Pogue.

Released on August 15th, 1986, Cronenberg’s movie received much acclaim, with a lot of the praise focusing on the special effects and Jeff Goldblum’s performance. Chris Walas and Stephan Dupuis won the Academy Award for Best Makeup at the 1987 Oscars and Chris also won for Best Makeup at the Saturn Awards.

The Fly remains one of my favourite Cronenberg movies, with a well-handled relationship at its centre that ensures you really care about the main characters and, of course, it boasts some fine, gooey, grotesque body horror makeup effects as Goldblum undergoes his transformation, which is equal parts horrific and sad.

Here are some of the posters and other artwork that has been created for the film…

UK poster for the video release of The Fly

German A1 theatrical movie poster — German A1 movie poster

Italian video cover illustration (for The Fly Film Collection) by the great artist Enzo Sciotti

Scream Factory's Blu-ray 5-disc set — Scream Factory’s 5-disc set Blu-ray

A cool take on the poster by Chelsea Lowe

Poster art created for MondoCon by artist Johnny Dombrowski

Posters for One Million Years B.C. (1966)

September 29, 2021 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Detail from Pakistani poster for One Million Years B.C.

I love this movie.

I first saw it aged 5 in the cinema and again when it was rereleased in a double bill with Hammer’s SHE. I have vivid memories of being in the big Palace Cinema (now long gone) in Tamworth, being sucked into this prehistoric world via the intro sequence (created by Les Bowie.) As a dinosaur-mad kid this was (and remains) my favourite movie.

John Richardson and Raquel Welch are perfect for their roles – and Martine Beswick, Percy Herbert and Robert Brown are also good. The music by Mario Nascimbene is very memorable and distinctive, the location photography evokes a prehistoric vibe and, of course, Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion creatures add thrills and action to the proceedings.

Director Don Chaffey handles the film (which pretty much has no dialogue) well, adding nice little touches, such as holding on a shot of Beswick’s smile as she watches Welch, her love rival, being taken away by a Pteranodon.

I’ve already mentioned the music, but I’ll mention it again: it really adds immeasurably to this film.

This prehistoric fantasy adventure really cemented my love for dinosaurs, creature features, the work of Ray Harryhausen and movies in general.

There have been many posters produced for this wonderful movie. Here are just some of them – feast your eyes!

The iconic UK poster with art by Tom Chantrell

The glorious UK double bill quad poster. I used to have this on my bedroom wall!

Belgian poster - love this one! — Belgian poster – love this one!

insert poster — Insert (14″ X 36″) poster

A gorgeous-looking take on the poster by Daryl Joyce

DVD covers…

Some lobby cards…

Bronto attack! (Doesn't happen in the movie) — Bronto attack! (Doesn’t happen in the movie)

Here are some fotobustas (which are the Italian version of lobby cards)…

Some home movie box art…

A fun promo piece that was produced for the film…

A nice montage…

This montage (using illos from a previous poster) was created by Cyrus Rouhani

An amusing take from 2019, satirising the ‘This is the way it was’ slogan, by Jamie Chase

A fun take from 2019, satirising the 'This is the way it was' slogan, by Jamie Chase — “No one really knows what happened”

Here’s a bunch of interesting pre-production artwork that was produced by Tom Chantrell for materials used by Hammer to pre-sell the movie…

Prototype poster (before Raquel Welch was cast)

Concept art to help Hammer raise finance for the film

Concept art produced before Raquel Welch was cast in the lead role

Prototype artwork used by Hammer to create interest in the project (this was from before Raquel Welch was cast)

Preproduction Hammer marketing brochure cover

Finally, here’s a sketch that Ray Harryhausen produced, exploring what he thought the poster could’ve looked like…

Ray emphasises the dinosaur in his design!

Posters for Alligator (1980)

September 28, 2021 Ken Miller Leave a comment

ALLIGATOR was a fun entry in the cycle of nature-fights-back movies triggered by the success of JAWS. This humorous horror flick was directed by Lewis (CUJO) Teague, wittily written by John (PIRANHA) Sayles and starred Robert (DRAGON WARS) Forster, Henry Silva and Robin Riker.

There were a lot of different ALLIGATOR posters produced internationally, so I thought I’d post some of them here…

And, finally, here’s a B&W newspaper ad…

The Poster Art of Enzo Sciotti

April 13, 2021 Ken Miller Leave a comment

The Italian artist Enzo Sciotti, who passed away on 11th April 2021, was well known to genre movie fans for his many amazing movie posters.

Born in 1944 in Rome, Sciotti had a very long career, but his eye-catching style is most closely associated with the 1980s and early 90s, when he was the artist behind posters and VHS covers for horror, sword and sorcery, Mad Max knockoffs and assorted war & action movies.

He produced the movie poster art for famous Italian horror directors Dario Argento, Mario Bava, Lamberto Bava, Joe D’Amato and Lucio Fulci. He also illustrated the Italian posters for American movies like NEAR DARK, THE THING, CRITTERS, BEETLEJUICE, INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE and CUJO.

His in-your-face, detailed, colourful style almost compelled you to watch the movies, regardless of how good some of these films were, because his posters were so goddamn striking! He somehow managed to balance making the characters depicted in his posters resemble the actors involved in the movies whilst also retaining a very dynamic, painterly style.

Some of his work was more lurid than others, but it was all professionally crafted, impactful and hard to ignore: the perfect combination for a movie poster or VHS cover!