Spanish title: Maciste Contra Los Monstruos (Maciste vs the Monsters)
Stars: Reg Lewis, Margaret Lee
Directed by: Guido Malestesta
Distributor: Embassy Pictures Corporation (US), Telexport (Italy)

"A mysterious world in the prehistoric apocalyptic era, millon of years before Christ!"

In the world of Italian swords and sandals pulp film ‘epics’, Maciste is a fairly regularly-seen character.  In fact, he first appeared on film in Italy in the 1914 silent flick, Cabiria. He’s usually a sort of Hercules, who has incredible strength and gets in all manner of peril trying to help people against injustice.

In this film, despite the title, the story actually focuses on two warring tribes, with Maciste stuck in the middle. Not many monsters to be seen, but when you look at the variety of titles this film has had over the years, it has been clearly named not with story in mind, but box office.

In the US, it was Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules, while in the UK it was Collossus of the Stone Age. In Germany, it was Germanicus in the Underworld. And in the original Italian, Maciste contro i mostri (Maciste vs the Monsters).

The lobby card design is all original artwork, though none of it is particularly impressive. There’s a real focus on the monsters, obviously, but the character portrayed looks nothing at all like Reg Lewis, so there’s a good chance this was actually stock art being reused from other films.

Looks good, framed, hanging in a den, though! 

Spanish title: Tarzan en la Sela Encantada (Tarzan and the Enchanted Jungle)
Stars: Unknown
Directed by: Unknown
Distributor: Operadora de Peliculas

"The exciting adventure of the brave king of the jungle"

Can’t tell you much about this lobby card, mostly because it’s completely devoid of anything that relates to the actual film. No stars are mentioned, no director either, and even the black and white still shot fails to help, since it’s actually a reproduction of a sketch, rather than a photo.

Complete mystery. If you know when this came out, or who was in it, give us a shout and be forever imortalized.

Spanish title: Tarzan el Indomable (Tarzan the Indomitable One)
Stars: Herman Brix (AKA Bruce Bennett)
Directed by: Edward A. Krull
Distributor: Guaranted Pictures de Mexico

"Dangers and adventures in the tropical forest"

Herman Brix could have been Johnny Weismuller, but for a shoulder injury he suffered in his first film – Touchdown. he was due to play Tarzan, the studio wanted him in the role, and his public profile was strong after he won the Olympic shot put gold medal in 1928, but with a bad wing, the role went to The Weis instead, and the rest is history.

That said, Herman Brix (who would eventually rename himself Bruce Bennett to shed the action star/tough guy persona) had a much longer career by ensuring that, whenever things weren’t to his liking, he’d go away, take some acting classes, and reinvent himself – even if it meant several years of uncredited acting and extra parts in the meantime. In fact, Brix was so sure of himself and so open to new things that, even at the age of 96, he decided to go skydiving. He would ultimately appear on 150 films before retiring to run a vending machine company in the 60’s.

Edgar Rice Burroughs had liked Brix and wanted him to play Tarzan, so when the studios went in another direction (and decided to make Tarzan a savage, rather than a displaced British aristocrat), Burroughs decided to start his own production company (Burroughs-Tarzan Enterprises Inc.) and make his own Tarzan series, in which he would give Brix the lead role.

Unfortunately, the studios don’t dig that kind of entrepreneurship, so they froze the series out of theaters in North America, but it did big business elsewhere, eventually being recut and turned into a pair of features – one of which was this one.

Tarzan the Indomitable One, as it translates to in English, is a collection of highlights from the first episode of the New Adventures of Tarzan serial, with a touch of episode two thrown in. The rest of episode two would eventually become Tarzan and the Green Goddess, several years later, and would still be circulating right through the 50’s and 60’s, wherever a theater needed a quick Saturday morning matinee fill-in.

The lobby card above is a good example of the way lobby cards used to frequently be back in the 30’s – original paintwork, some cheap screen printing (you can see a few errors from the print, most notably in the way the red color cuts out halfway through the ‘Herman Brix’ titling), and the usual action shot inset.

This card was created by the distributor of the film, Guaranted Pictures De Mexico, who are listed as being at Acapulco number 38, Mexico DF, with two telephone numbers of 14-46-42 and 14-46-48. We’re guessing those numbers don’t work today. GPdeM was the local office (as best as we can work out) of the US company, Guaranteed Pictures, who formed in 1918 and specialized in foreign films, reissues and B-grade fodder. They went out of business some time in the early 40’s.

Spanish title: Tarzan el Temerario (Tarzan the Reckless One)
Stars: Johnny Weismuller, Brenda Joyce
Directed by: William Thiele
Distributor: Distribuidora Sotomayor (for RKO Radio Pictures)

"Tarzan defies enemy agents… in a hot-bed of intrigue and danger!"

This story involves Tarzan having to get his ‘jungle fever’ remedy
(trust me, white boy, there ain’t no cure for jungle fever) from a lost
jungle, so that Jane, while working as a nurse, can save folks from
falling ill. Nazis and Sheiks intervene and Cheetah serves up the
giggles – you know the rest.

This has to be one of the most abused lobby cards in our collection, what with torn corners, a healthy rip up the middle, a pencil mark or two, a coffee stain, and to top it all off, the original printing run was off-center and was mis-cut along the top.

But dude… it’s freakin’ Tarzan giving heck to fake Sheiks! How can you not like that, pinholes or not?

The design itself is fairly dreadful, but that’s usually the case with Distribuidora Sotomayor releases of the WWII era. They’ve basically gone for black and white with one background color thrown on top. all the art is cut’n'pasted from photo publicity stills, and there’s a load of blank space that just kills any idea of flow.

Heck, they even left the file number inscription on the bottom right corner of the still image; Tarzan say, "Sloppy!"

Spanish title: Los Tambores de la Muerte (The Drums of Death)
Stars: Clay Moore, Phyllis Coates, Johnny Spencer, Roy Glenn
Directed by: Fred C. Bannon
Distributed by: Distribuidora Sotomayor, for Republic Pictures

"Jungle thrills and voodoo madness in the heart of the dark continent – a Republic super-series!"

We don’t see a whole lot of Distribuidora Sotomayor lobby cards around, but more’s the pity, as this is one high quality piece of promo art. Nice thick card stock, dramatic comic book-style art, stark colors (even if they only budgeted for one in this case)… you can just imagine kids lining up for hours to get their ‘jungle thrills’.

This series was directed by Fred C. Bannon, who enjoyed a lengthy career as a maker of pulp film. With titles such as Zombies of the Stratosphere, Radar Men from the Moon, Flying Disc Man from Mars, and Federal Agents vs Underworld Inc, you just know the guy was hired for his willingness to work on the cheap, rather than what skills he brought to the table.

The story in this series, which had a working title of Robin Hood of Darkest Africa, focuses on a group of nice upstanding people who go to an African territory looking to win a mining concession so they can pull uranium out of the ground. Only, they’re constantly foiled in their attempts by a trading post operator who just won’t leave well enough alone and seeks the uranium for an unnamed evil government. Cliffhangers ensue. 

The entire 12-part series was shot over three weeks for a budget of around $160,000, as was the way with Republic serials, and though the Saturday morning matinee fare usually featured copious amounts of stock footage and woeful cliffhangers, this one actually shows a little commitment to quality… at least compared to others of its ilk.

The card art is fantastic – it’s done in a comic book style with nothing more than black and white with a splash of red to fill out the design. As a result, it’s a real eye-catcher… though the ‘native’ in the still image seems to resemble a corn-fed Mississippi boy more than a Masai warrior.

For those interested in Distribuidora Sotomayor, their address is listed as Reforma 503, S.A. – that’s all I’ve got.

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: Mogambo
Stars: Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly
Directed by: John Ford
Distributor: MGM Mexico

"A battle of the sexes… and a battle against the gorillas!"

This lobby card for the Sam Zimbalist-produced multi-Oscar nominated jungle feature is in incredible shape. No pinholes, no tears, nice thick cardboard; in fact, if not for a couple of slightly dinged corners, you’d call this a mint condition antique lobby card.

The paintwork is incredible in parts, awful in others. For example, the image depicting Gable and Gardner in a deep embrace is done beautifully, but am I the only one who wonders why the fat gorilla is wearing bright red lipstick?

Either way, this is not a bad film. Mogambo was famous for the studio actually having filmed a large part of it in location, leading to get production values, incredible shots, and even a little controversy when Clark Gable took the role out from under Stewart Granger, and then started a romance with his co-star, leading to him walking off the set to protest her treatment by director John Ford.

One interesting piece of trivia – in the spanish language version, censors apparently felt that the Gable/Gardner affair on the screen was too racy, so they changed their dialogue to make them brother and sister… which led to confusion among movie audiences during the scene where they share a bed.

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.