Spanish title: Rasputin y la Zarina (Rasputin and the Czarina)
Stars: Lionel Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore, John Barrymore, Ralph Morgan, Diana Wynara
Directed by: Richard Boleslavsky
Distributor: MGM

"King of crime, hatred and evil… bringing about the fall of an empire"

You know how, when you watch the end credits on a film, it’ll say "the characters and story in this film are fictional, any resemblance with any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental"? This film is why that happens.

The story goes that, after MGM made this film, the real life Czarina of Russia, Princess Irina Romanoff Youssoupoff, sued MGM for libel and invasion of privacy in both London and New York, extracting settlements of $125,000 and $250,000 respectively from the studio. At the heart of her complaint was that the film portrayed her as having had an affair with Rasputin, which she claimed was a lie. As a result, every studio inserted the fiction disclaimer in their productions, and we see them to this day.

That wasn’t the only lawsuit the film had to deal with – Prince Feliks Yusupov spotted a character in the film that, despite her name being changed, was clearly supposed to be his wife. As the character was shown to have been raped by Rasputin, he too sued for libel, and won. MGM duly cut the scene, thereby rendering the character’s shift from pro to anti-Rasputin decidedly weird to the viewer.

Off-set foibles aside, this is the first and only film in which all three of the famed Barrymore acting clan – Lionel, John and Ethel – appeared together on screen. The three had long been the darlings of the theater world, cementing a reputation as the greatest actors of their time (John’s son John Drew Barrymore, and his granddaughter Drew would carve career success of their own), so a shift to film was inevitable.

What’s a little odd is that John and Ethel’s characters in the film are portrayed as having an affair… creepy.

The lobby card celebrating this release featured original art from an unknown artist, and was printed by Litoarte S. de R.L. The version in our collection features a black and white still image featuring all the Barrymore’s, along with a series of Rasputin’s gal pals.  It’s got a little bent out of shape over the years, likely as a result of moisture, but for a promo card that is 75 years old, it’s in surprisingly good shape, regardless.

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: La Guerra Y La Paz
Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Mel Ferrer, Vittorio Gassman, Herbert Lom, Oscar Homolka, Anita Ekberg, John Mills, Helmut Dantine, Barry Jones, Anna Maria Ferrero, Milly Vitale, Jeremy Brett
Directed by: King Vidor
Distributor: Paramount Pictures

"Based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy"

This Dino DeLaurentis epic features a lobby card that’s a bit of a rarity: the portrait design. Unlike the usual ‘landscape’ design, in which the lobby card is wider than it is high, this one is turned 90 degrees clockwise, like a mini-movie poster. It’s also printed on much thinner stock (in fact, it’s paper rather than cardboard), which gives the colors a much brighter tinge. The copy in our collection is in surprisingly good shape, considering how easy it would be to damage.

The artwork in the design is all original, but it’s not as well done as many other lobby cards, with Audrey Hepburn coming off looking like she’s seven feet tall, with a giraffe’s neck and cleavage that would make Isaac Newton throw away his notepad.

Apparently, the first draft of this screenplay came out at over 500 pages – five times what a normal screenplay would run to. The film was so epic in nature that 65 doctors were hired to play soldiers in the battle scenes, just in case any extras were injured and needed immediate care. Audrey Hepburn was paid $350,000 for her role – the highest fee for any actress to the point in history.

I thought it was a little overplayed… but that’s me. 

Spanish title: Orgullo y Pasion
Stars: Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Sophia Loren
Directed by: Stanley Kramer
Distributor: United Artists of Mexico

Okay, so the depiction of Frank Sinatra looks more like Ronald Reagan than Ol’ Blue Eyes – at least nobody could deny that Sophia Loren looks like Sophia Loren, and that makes up for just about anything else the artist could throw at you.

A great still image of Loren and Grant sets this fiery design off, with Grant’s navel-high pants and cumberbund practically announcing to the world, "Behold my thunder" while Sophia Loren matches him with her gravity-defying shirt potatoes.

Yes, there was a movie at the center of all this – a movie that revovles around a giant cannon, that is abandoned by the Spanish Army as it retreats from the French, only for Spanish peasants to snare the big gun and drag it across the country to help defeat the bad guys – if they can steer clear of Cary Grant’s English Army, who want the weapon for themselves. Sophia Loren’s hips ensue.

This particular lobby card is not in A-1 shape, with tears on every corner from being ripped of the original theater wall. If that’s not enough, it looks like it was hung a second time by the sides, top and bottom of the card, and a pair of 2cm rips on the top and left hand side of the card don’t add to its value. Alas.