Spanish title: Paris en Abril
Stars: Doris Day, Ray Bolger, Claude Dauphin
Directed by: David Butler
Distributor: Warner Bros

"Nights in Paris! Romantic encounters! Endless pleasures! You’ll cheer for this spring-time celebration!"

This lobby card is a great example of how cinema art designers often mixed original art with cut’n'paste images and illustration to create something that looks all hand-painted. On the left hand side of the card is a ‘from scratch’ watercolor portrait of Doris Day (spelled Dorys Day on the poster, oddly enough), with illustrations of Paris in the bottom right hand corner, and what looks like more paintwork on the right hand side, with the image of Day and co-star Ray Bolger. Only, if you look closer, you’ll see that those portraits on the right are actually a cut-out that has been painted over to give it a hand-painted appearance.

This technique was common back in the day, when saving a few days of painting was the difference between beating a deadline and missing it entirely. While high standard original art would stop people in the street, sometimes it just wasn’t possible to hand-paint an entire lobby card, so artists cut corners to achieve ‘the look’ they wanted, as quickly as possible.

The years haven’t been too kind to this particular lobby card, although the colors and artwork lend it to framing in a big way, but someone has had a scratch at Doris Day’s amply presented groin (if she once wore that strapless outfit in the film, I’d be surprised), and a few small tears on the sides and corners make it less than mint in value.

But heck, I like it enough to keep. After all… It’s Doris Day, reimagined by a leering Mexican cinema promo artist… what’s not to like?

Spanish title: La Novicia Rebelde (The Rebellious Novice)
Stars: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker, Richard Haydn, Peggy Wood, Charmian Carr, The Bil Baird Marionettes
Directed by: Robert Wise
Distributor: 20th Century Fox 

"Radiance that floods the screen and warms the heart"

This undeniable classic has introduced millions of people to the musical feature genre, over several generations, and the lobby card promoting its Mexican release certainly hits all the right notes.

The original art up top isn’t actually original art at all – it’s still images used to promote the film on the official poster, painted over so they appear hand-painted, but from a distance you’d never know. The black and white inset features a recognizable scene with Julie Andrews and her Von Trapp Family Singer co-stars, which is always a plus, and the colors are definitely vivid.

What’s not quite stellar about this card? Well, 20th Century Fox decided in the 60’s that they could save a little time (and money) by setting up a template design for their lobby cards; one that included those odd green columns down the sides, and an ugly, bright yellow background clearly designed to catch the eye more than sell the mood of a film.

There were hundreds of films promoted with lobby cards like this one, and though this is one of the better designs of that lot, when you see a few of them together, it’s nowhere near as impressive as fully original work. In fact, that much bright yellow ink in one place is liable to give you a headache.

Still, a spoon full of sugar…

Spanish title: La Bailarina (The Ballerina)
Stars: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Fred Astaire, Franchot Tone, May Robson, Winnie Lightner, Robert Benchley
Directed by Robert Z. Leonard
Distributor: MGM Mexico

"The case of a man who loved another… a huge musical romance… a splendid spectacle of wealth in the theater world, with
beautiful women shining in magnificent clothes. A worldwide smash"

Fred Astaire’s feature film debut is a Busby Berkeley-like musical about a burlesque dancer (Joan Crawford) who finds herself in trouble with the law when a patron removes an item of her clothing, just as the cops burst in for a raid. Saved from prison by a besotted playboy benefactor (Franchot Tone), he lines her up for an audition for a Broadway show, only for her to fall for the theater manager (Clark Gable) – love triangles (and song and dance numbers) ensue.

Interesting cameos come from Fred Astaire, singer Nelson Eddy, and a comedy group then known as Ted Healy and his Stooges (which would later become the more widely remembered Three Stooges).

The lobby card isn’t exactly a work of art, as MGM lobby cards of the 30’s tended to be one-color prints and almost entirely made up of still shots, but if only for the stills of Fred Astaire’s chicken legs in lederhosen, a dashing young Clark Gable, and a heavily-eye shadowed youth named Joan Crawford, this is a classic piece of promo art.

In regards to this particular lobby card, it’s in beautiful shape, with no pinholes, a tiny smudge of water staining on one corner, but otherwise it’s absolutely mint. Not bad considering it sat in the basement of a Mexican theater for 75 years before it got to us.