Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs 1937

Practically nobody in the entertainment business thought Disney's first feature length project would be a success. It was generally known as “Disney’s folly”. Disney proved everyone wrong. It was a tremendous hit. And as usual it took some advertising to make it a hit.

Several posters were designed to promote the movie. And, as usual the quality varied. From quite awful or really boring, to nearly fantastic art.

Movie posters come in different styles, classified as Style A, B, C, and so on. One version is sometime classified as “international”. Not entirely uncommon is the fact, that the Style A poster often is the one least interesting as art. These are first and foremost considered as pure marketing devices. The Style A poster for Snow White, is no exception. Straight and very forward in it’s message, but oh, so dull.

In 1936, Disney recognized an illustrator by the name of Gustaf Tenggren. Having seen his illustrations for different fairy tales, Disney thought Tenggren could be useful for the over all look of Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs. And Disney was right.

But Tenggren not only designed the look of the movie. He also produced art for posters. The B and C style posters are Tenggrens unmistakeable artwork. They are both fine works of art, but the really outstanding poster is the B style, presented here.

Frankenstein 1931

This is how the Swedish audiences were presented the movie Frankenstein back in 1932. The Swedish censors banned the film in 1931, as did many other countries back then. In February 1932, it was passed by the censors, after cutting seven seconds from a version only 52 minutes in length. It would take until November that same year before the movie premiered in Stockholm.

When promoting the film, the Swedish audiences were presented a poster looking like no other movie poster at that time. No monster. No mad Doctor. Not even a glimpse of the laboratory. Just a lonely man, with a lantern, walking through what might be a forest. The poster even lacked credits. Not one single person had his or her name on the poster.

This is a classic example of “less is more”. Instead of an overloaded “in your face” artwork, we find an expressionistic artwork that triggers the imagination. Who is the man with the lantern? Where is he going? Can the monster be lurking behind that black tree? Or is the figure with the lantern the monster?

It’s a fantastic poster. One of a kind. I would really want to know who the artist was.

The Name of the Rose

One classical way to illustrate a comedy, is to have a center design, surronded with portraits of the main, and supporting actors. The center design can vary. It can consist of the movies title and credits, a scene from the film, or a portrait of the main charachter.
Here’s an example of an artwork in that vein.



But something is very wrong here. The movie is not a comedy. It’s a drama and a murder mystery. So why does it look the way it does? Did the artist go nuts? Or did the people from the movie company have a meltdown?

Drew Struzan was engaged to make the artwork. Not getting a chance to see the film before working, he was told by the company that the poster should look like a comedy. So that’s exactly what Struzan did. Being an artist who always tries to be true to the films, Struzan became very disapointed when he found out what kind of film The Name of the Rose really was. How the company was thinking? If the idea was to attract an wider audience, it probably backfired since it hardly attracted the intended audience and made the comedy audience disapointed.

However, Drew Struzan is a great artist, and this artwork is just one of his many great ones. It just don’t fit with the film. You can’t blame Drew Struzan for that.

As a matter of fact, most posters for The name of the Rose are either dull or actually bad. The only fitting, and at the same time great artwork, is the Czech poster.

What's New, Pussycat?

Most people know Frank Frazetta as an artist in the fantasy vein. But hea has also created some magnificent artwork for comedies. It's not quite as crazy as it might sound. Keeping in mind that he assisted Al Capp with his comic Li'l Abner, the comedy posters are not that far fetched.

It started when someone at United Artists noticed his work in a magazine. This led to a proposal to make the poster for What's New, Pussycat? in 1965.

Frazetta made two different artworks for the poster. The one presented here, was the most used. The poster designs varied. The artwork was even reversed on some of them. But here it is on a 6-sheet version.

And speaking of Li'l Abner, look at the body of Ursula Andress in the artwork. Daisy Mae, anyone?

Lost Horizon

It took years to finish, and in 1937 the time had come. Frank Capra's Lost Horizon was viewed by an audience for the first time. The film was shortened so many times, and so close to it's world premiere, that poster artwork had to be scrapped, since the motifs no longer was in the finished film. James Montgomery Flagg, once the highest paid illistrator in USA, was one of the artists involved.

However, Flagg kept working and came up with new artwork that fitted the finished film, and this is the most known.

Flagg made other artwork as well. You've seen the one with Uncle Sam, haven't you? The "I want you" poster? Yes, that one. That's James Montgomery Flagg.

The 1989 Re-release

In 1989 The Adventures of Robin Hood was restored. For that re-release, Robert Rodriguez was comissioned to create a new poster. The result was a poster, similar in style to the old ones of 1938, but still with a distinct modern touch.

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) continues

Another Robin Hood poster. This one is the real 1938 item. A Six-Sheet poster from 1938.

This is huge, so be patient.

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

My favourite move when I was a kid, was The Adventures of Robin Hood. It still is one of my favourite movies, by the way. And Errol Flynn was my hero. Tyrone Power made a good try in stuff like The Mark of Zorro and The Black Swan. But he didn't stand a chance against Errol Flynn with Captain Blood or The Sea Hawk.



Here's the Style A One Sheet, originally used in 1938, but this is a facsimile used at a re-release in 1976. The United Artists logo was not on the original poster.