Spanish title: Aventuras del Capitan Kid
Stars: Richard Crane, David Bruce, John Crawford, George Wallace
Directed by: Derwin Abbe, Charles S. Gould
Distributor: Columbia Pictures

"The king of the pirates! 15 sensational episodes!"

The age of the serials was well and truly over by the time this pedestrian matinee ‘thriller’ series hit the screens, and it has all the hallmarks of a thrown-together-at-the-last-minute outing.

A chubby Richard Crane sleepwalks through the production as a (strangely non-villainous) Captain Kidd, as he stumbles from one lame cliffhanger to the next, battling supposed bad guys and wooing supposed women.

The lobby card promoting the series upon it’s Spanish release is reflective of the lack of care demonstrated by the filmmakers, as it’s basically illustrated art mixed in with some cut’n'paste photo imagery, surrounding the requisite still shot.

Certainly it’s far from ugly, but at the same time, it sure as heck ain’t Spy Smasher or Flash Gordon.

Interesting sidenote: This series was co-written by George H. Plympton and Arthur Hoerl, who between them had a part in writing just about half the films that came out of Hollywood from 1912 on up. In 1929 alone, Plympton had a part in the writing of 13 different films and series, and a year before that, the number was an astonishing 35. In 1930, he was only involved in one film, so we’re guessing he took a well deserved holiday that year.

That said, Plympton wasn’t away from the typewriter for long, and was still cranking out scripts as late as 1966!

Arthur Hoerl wasn’t far behind, in terms of productivity, but while he took part in 152 films and series over his career, Plympton amassed a whopping 288 productions… can you imagine the royalty checks?

Spanish title: Cleopatra la Serpiente Del Nilo
Stars: Rhonda Fleming, William Lundigan, Raymond Burr, Julie Newmar
Directed by: William Castle
Distributor: Columbia Pictures

"From my bed of silk, I dominate the world with my burning lips… Sin and savagery in matchless spectacle!"

This low-budget version of the Cleopatra story, which is often considered to be as good as the big budget Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton opus that followed, used sets from the 1953 Rita Hayworth/Stewart Granger film, Salome, to tell the tale of the infamous Queen of the Nile and her Roman pal, Mark Anthony.

New Westminster, British Columbia’s own Raymond Burr is Rhonda Fleming’s co-star, which led the designers of this piece of cinema promo art to add a "Perry Mason" in brackets under his name, celebrating the actor’s renowned TV character. Julie Newmar also appears in the film (as Julie Newmeyer) in the role of The Gilded Girl – her first credited screen appearance.

The lobby card is attractive enough, but it’s very square and the original artwork is decidedly quick and cheap. For a movie character that relies so heavily on her sexuality to get what she wants, this is a lobby card that you would really expect to ’sex it up’, and yet it really doesn’t.

Our version has one staple hole in the top left corner (which is odd), a small tear on the bottom edge, and some roughing up of the right-side edge. It also features a small piece of handwriting over Cleopatra’s name that seems to say "Cartelera de Ludo" – which translates to ‘billboard of the Ludo’, which was presumably a theater it showed in.

Why do those words appear there? Well, figuring it out is half the fun. 

Spanish title: Tenías que ser tú
Stars: Ginger Rogers, Cornel Wilde, Percy Waram, Spring Byington, Ron Randell
Directed by: Don Hartman and Rudolph Mate
Distributor: Columbia Pictures

"I love you, I love you much… very, very much." 

If you ever needed an example that demonstrated the importance of using proper accents in written Spanish text, this film title does the trick. The film is called Tenías que ser tú, which translates to ‘It Had To Be You’. Take the accents out and it becomes Tenias que ser tu, or ‘It Had To Be Tapeworms’. 

Not sure what Ginger Rogers thought of tapewoms, but her character in this film runs away from potential husbands as if they had a bad case of them. Think of it as an earlier (better) Runaway Bride, with the equine appearance of Julia Roberts replaced by Ginger’s fabulous gams. Can’t beat that.

This lobby card seems to be a two-color print job, with most of it coming out all orange, with just a hint of blue gray – a trick often used to lower the price of a printing run. Fortunately, on this design that doesn’t detract too heavily from the finished product, unlike some one-color print jobs in our collection.

The lobby card was printed by Litoarte S. de R. L., and though it features little in the way of original art, the stills used for the cut’n'paste job are top quality stuff.

Spanish title: La Laguna Azul
Stars: Brooke Shields, Christopher Atkins, Leo McKern, William Daniels
Directed by: Randal Kleiser
Distributor: Columbia Pictures

"The sensational story of a natural romance."

We really don’t have much to add here. It’s a cheap, cheesy lobby card that illustrates perfectly what was lost when the distributors switched from original art to photo art.

In all honesty, we wouldn’t have put this in the collection normally, but we just think the picture is hilarious.

Write your own caption.

Spanish title: Lawrence de Arabia
Stars: Alec Guiness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins, Jose Ferrer, Anthony Quayle, Claude Rains, Arthur Kennedy, Omar Sharif, Peter O’Toole
Directed by: David Lean
Distributor: Columbia Pictures 

"The biggest film of the year! 7 Academy Awards!" 

There are few films in existence that have the pedigree of this one, and though the lobby card promoting the Mexican release was a smaller than usual size (such being the habit of Columbia Pictures of Mexico at the time), it’s of a high enough standard to be worthy of the film itself.

A striking portrait of shadows of Lawrence is the centerpiece of the design, with some recreated still imagery bookending that, and a dramatic line sketch of the hero of the piece swinging a mighty sword brings it all together beneath a black and white still of Peter O’Toole in character… glorious.

Our copy of this lobby card is in amazing condition. There are no pinholes, no tears and no signs of abuse at all, and the still image selected shows O’Toole’s Lawrence in all his blue-eyed, blond-haired, fey glory.

One of the highlights of our collection. 

Spanish title: Jim de la Selva vs Hombres Gorillas (Jim of the Jungle vs the Gorilla People)
Stars: Johnny Weissmuller, Trudy Marshall, Chita
Directed by: William A. Berke
Distributor: Columbia Pictures, via Peliculas Agrasanches

"Ferocious gorilla men seed terror in the African forest!"

Nazis dress up as monkeys so they can steal African treasure, and only Jungle Jim (AKA Tarzan without the necessary rights clearances) can stop them!

What I love about this lobby card is that Peliculas Agrasanches didn’t give a damn about whether they were allowed to use the name Tarzan or not, they just went ahead and threw it right in there, giving a co-star credit to Cheetah (or Chita as it’s spelled here) into the bargain.

All the art with the exception of the still image is original, and the old fallback of the wild beast wrestling a half naked woman is the centerpiece of the design, such as is often the case with Mexican lobby cards of the era.

All told, this is a nice design, especially for a movie that’s basically a throwaway B-feature.

Spanish title: El Barco mas Loco del Ejercito
Stars: Jack Lemmon, Ricky Nelson, John Lund, Chips Rafferty, Tom Tully, Joby Baker, Warren Berlinger, Patricia Driscoll
Directed by: Richard Muprhy
Distributor: Columbia Pictures

Another of the 1960’s Columbia Mexico lobby cards, which are notable due to their slightly smaller size, slightly thicker cardboard, and lack of original art (see Requiem for a Heavyweight), this version of El Barco Mas Loco del Ejercito features a still of a big gun and several cast members, but none of them are particularly distinct – certainly not enough to add value to the card, anyway. But Ricky Nelson and Jack Lemmon fans will be happy with a set of close-ups of the actors, and a pair of caricatures below them.

This particular card has a set of four corner pinholes, as most cards of the era do, but otherwise it’s in spectacular condition.

Spanish title: Nido de Ratas (Nest of Rats)
Stars: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger
Directed by: Elia Kazan
Distributor: Columbia Pictures

"Winner of eight prizes of the Academy!"

Of all the lobby cards in the Cineartista collection, few are printed on card as thick as this one, and few feature less colors.

Designed to promote the release of On The Waterfront with the new title Nest of Rats, this is just one of several renamings for a film you’d think would have had plenty of name recognition after eight Oscar nods (while it was called Nest of Rats in the Mexican, Venezuelan and Argentinian release, the Spanish version was called The Law of Silence, the Italian release was known as Fist in the Neck, and the Brazilians saw Union of Thieves).

Of course, the film is an absolute classic, which should make this pinhole-free lobby card worth some serious coin… but my own suspicions are that this was printed for a re-release, not an original theater run, mostly because of the cheap nature of the design, the lack of distributor credits, and the thicker cardboard, which was more prevalent in the 60’s than the 50’s.

That said, it’s Brando, so… you know… sweet.

Spanish title: Requiem para um Luchador
Stars: Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason, Mickey Rooney, Julie Harris
Directed by: Ralph Nelson
Distributor: Columbia Pictures

"The violent, loveless world of ‘Mountain Rivera’!"

Call it serendipity if you will, but over all my years of tracking down Mexican lobby cards of American feature film releases, I usually take my pick of what I can find; finding the exact film I want is usually next to impossible… until one morning when I got the idea in my head to visit eBay and see if there was a lobby card around for Requiem for a Heavyweight.

I mean, the chances that there would be that exact lobby card were ridiculously small, and even if there was one, you’d assume that a card for such a film would probably run a high price… right?

Wrong. I picked this up for $2.75 plus postage – an incredible deal, made even better by the fact that the card is in amazing shape. Sure, there are four pinholes on the corners, but that’s it – otherwise, this is an A-1 lobby card for an A-1 classic film.

Like most lobby cards from the ’60’s, there’s no hand-painted art on this one, but there are several great shots from the film, and as a huge fan of screenwriter Rod Serling (of Twilight Zone fame), this is one of my all-time favorite cards.