Spanish title: Moral Y Deseo (Moral and Desire)
Stars: Rosanna Schiaffino, Jacques Perrin, Alain Cuny, Isa Miranda
Directed by: Mauro Bolognini
Distributor: Cinematografica Anahuac

"…and it was dragged out by human passion!"

Originally called La Zorruzione in its native Italian, this film involves a young man who wants to be a Priest, only for his controlling father to disapprove and set his son up with a woman whose job it is to corrupt him. Only the Italians (well, and maybe the French) could figure out a way to turn a film about paternal influence and religion into an erotic drama. And well done, sirs.

Though we can’t say the design of this lobby card takes graphic art to a whole new level (it’s far too symmetrical, it lacks a background, the colors are dire, and it relies too much on skin to draw you in)… it’s still pretty darn hard to look away, isn’t it?

The film starred Jacques Perrin, who would eventually receive world renown as the older Toto in Cinema Paradiso, and Rosanna Schiaffino who… well… looks REALLY good.

Worth a look, even if only to pay respect to the fine paintwork of the artist, as he did his best to recreate the female form, and as one of the few samples in our collection of a Cinematografica Anahuac, S.A. release. For the record, their office address was listed in the fine print of the card as being Monterrey 10 – Mexico, D.F. – stop in, say hi.

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: 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: Deliciosa Pecadora (Delicious Woman)
Stars: Ann Margret, Tony Franciosa, Robert Coote, Yvonne Romain, Horace McMahon
Directed by: George Sidney
Distributor: Paramount Pictures

"A woman who is fascinating to the end; see her dance as never before"

If you can’t enjoy Ann Margret strutting her strutter about in this campy exploitation flick of the ’60’s, you’re either not male, or you don’t have a pulse.

The story follows a hard-working, clean-living female journalist who, in an attempt to get a steamy sex story published in Girl-Lure Magazine, poses as a ’swinger’. That entails doing a little striptease, being generally slutty, having orgies while covered in paint, and demonstrating what so often is now erroneously called ‘girl power’.

Let’s be clear; there’s nothing much to this film other than the chance to ogle Ann Margret, and the lobby card used for its Mexican release reflects that pretty solidly.

This particular lobby card is a little beaten up – the corners have been knocked about, and there’s a pair of pinholes on the sides, but none of it impedes the most important parts of the card design… those belonging to ‘The Swinger’.

Spanish title: El Hijo de Simbad
Stars: Dale Robertson, Sally Forrest, Lili StCir, Vincent Price, Mari Blanchard
Directed by: Ted Tetzlaff
Distributor: Continental Films

Also known as Nights in a Harem, this Howard Hughes-produced ogle-fest is notable for two things: 1) It stars Vincent Price (who is totally slumming it), and 2) it features more scantily-clad women than you could poke a camel at, including noted striptease artist, Lili StCir.

That’d be StCir in the still image on this lobby card, taking it easy on a floor cushion as Vincent Price empties a sheep bladder or something.

But what I love about this card is how its completely unashamed of the fact that the film is only about half naked women; counting the still, there’s ten different shots of women wearing next to nothing, all of them painted for maximum attention from film-goers.

This actual lobby card isn’t in the greatest shape, with tears on the bottom left corner, another on the bottom middle, and yet another on the top left corner. Numerous pin-holes don’t help matters, and there’s a water smudge down the bottom left hand corner, but you expect those after sixty years in an attic.

There was a Hindi film with the same title as this one released three years later, but you’ll struggle to find a post for that one.

For pure camp value, this is one heck of a lobby card, and that’s why it stays in the collection.