Spanish title: Rayos Al Valante (Lightning to the Steering Wheel)
Stars: Harry Millard, Judy Lewis
Directed by:  William T. Naud
Distributor: Peliculas Agrasanchez

"The gamble of the race! The love of life! From the first second, you will be caught in a web of emotion, intrigue and suspense!"

William T. Naud had never directed a film before when the studio offered him a choice of two. One of those was a movie called The Great Escape. The other a movie called Thunder in Dixie.

Guess which one Naud chose? 

"Why do I drive? It’s the only thing I have to live for, thats why."

Typical of the 60’s genre of motor racing films, this one follows Mickey Arnold (Harry Millard), a race car driver who is devastated when an accident kills his best friend’s wife. Having hit rock bottom, and with his former best bud now his sworn enemy, he has to win the big race to get the girl and reestablish himself as a racer.

Both Millard and Judy Lewis play their roles exceptionally well, with Lewis not doing any shame to her thespianic bloodlines of Clark Gable and Loretta Young, and Millard emoting up a storm, despite his lack of A-list status. A host of racing figures of the time show up (Bob Wills, Berk Motley, Barry Darvel), and though the budget weren’t much, the action on screen isn’t too shabby.

But all that aside, the lobby card is a freakin’ treat. Despite it being for a low budget, low box office, 60’s film, Peliculas Agrasanchez did right by this one with some great car crack-up art, complete with one going off a cliff, and the prerequisite damsel in peril. Speedsploitation flicks were great fodder for cinema promo art around this era, but few cards of the time had as much original art as this one.

Looks great in a frame, and even better on the wall – and who could ask for more than that of a lobby card? 

Spanish title: El Satiro de la Playa (The Satyr of the Beach)
Stars: Dwan (or is it Dawn?) Marlow, Anton van Stralen, Doug Leith
Directed by: Bethel Buckalew
Distributor: Peliculas Agrasanchez

"Hours of ecstasy…! And hours of terror that you’ll never forget…!"

Bethel Buckalew (AKA Peter Porter, AKA Peter Perry, AKA A.P. Stootsberry, AKA Seymour Tuchus) made a lot of really bad, really sex-obsessed films from 1959 to 1980, and his second cinematic outing was this mostly forgotten sexploitation failure that reads like a novel titled "How To Get Your Wife Killed".

The story goes that a honeymoon couple go to a place called Thunder Island to, like, hump a lot. And when hubby decides to go back for some supplies, he leaves the missus behind… only to discover that someone else – someone dangerous – is on the island as well. Torn shirts ensue.

Then again, could you expect anything less from the man who brought you Midnight Plowboy, The Secret Sex Lives of Romeo and Juliet, and Knockers Up?

Anton van Stralen was the only one in the cast who had ever acted before, and even that was in films like high School Caesar, and Naked Youth, so it’s not like anyone here was in it for the craft. 

I can’t speak to the quality of the film itself, but I can say that I love this lobby card. From the original/remake situation going on with the black and white still image and the repainted version of same right above it, to the misspelled "Dwan Marlow" credit (which lives on to this day, being as the actress never worked again and thus received no other credits), to the ever-so-common Mexican ploy of having a nice big closeup of a screaming woman getting her shirt torn off, this is just schlock exploitation promo art done to perfection.

Seriously – if you’d shown up to the theater and seen this poster, wouldn’t you have thrown down a buck? Just for the heck of it?

Spanish title: Sanson Contra Los Piratas (Samson Against The Pirates)
Stars: Kirk Morris, Margaret Lee, Daniele Vargas
Directed by: Amerigo Anton
Distributor: Peliculas Agrasanchez

"The Fury of the Seven Seas, dominated by one man – the greatest conquest of the screen!"

Eh, not quite. This is a terrible film, typical of the cardboard sets/spaghetti action genre of Italian filmmaking of the 1960’s, in which you could take a character from Greek legend, stick him in the Caribbean, and have him battle pirates that appeared on the scene some one or two thousand years after he was said to exist.

And crocodiles.

Directed by Amerigo Anton (AKA Tanio Boccia), this is one of the many sword-and-sandal films he helmed that involved Saturday morning matinee spectacles in which characters are transplanted to unlikely locales and times, including such epics as Hercules of the Desert, Atlas Against the Czar, and Conquistador of the Orient – most of which also featured leading man, Kirk Morris (AKA Adriano Bellini).

It’s pablum, but its also original artwork, looks great framed, and  wouldn’t part with it for less than a thousand bucks.

Okay, maybe a hundred.

Do I hear $40?

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: La Venganza de la Selva (Vengeance of the Forest)
Stars: Rod Cameron, Cesar Romero
Director: William A. Berke
Distributor: Peliculas Agrasanches, S.A. (for Lippert Pictures)

"Two men and a woman fight to survive the fury of the jungle… from which nobody escapes." 

Lippert Pictures were in the business of low budget, big thrill Saturday morning matinee pictures designed to provide inexpensive fare for Robert L. Lippert’s California-based cinema chain, and this was very much one of those. Over time, the company would create over 160 feature films and re-release hundreds more. Lippert went on to join 20th Century Fox in the 60’s, dissolving his company and, eventually, inventing the Multiplex Cinema at his other job as theater mogul.

The artwork on this lobby card is not so impressive, being as it’s primarily a crayon/chalk sketch, or so it seems, which would be par for the course for a cheap film released in Mexico through a local company.

My copy is in surprisingly good shape, with a tiny graze on the bottom and a few pinholes, but otherwise no damage – which is rare for what would have ben a throwaway release.