Spanish title: Aventuras del Capitan Kid
Stars: Richard Crane, David Bruce, John Crawford, George Wallace
Directed by: Derwin Abbe, Charles S. Gould
Distributor: Columbia Pictures

"The king of the pirates! 15 sensational episodes!"

The age of the serials was well and truly over by the time this pedestrian matinee ‘thriller’ series hit the screens, and it has all the hallmarks of a thrown-together-at-the-last-minute outing.

A chubby Richard Crane sleepwalks through the production as a (strangely non-villainous) Captain Kidd, as he stumbles from one lame cliffhanger to the next, battling supposed bad guys and wooing supposed women.

The lobby card promoting the series upon it’s Spanish release is reflective of the lack of care demonstrated by the filmmakers, as it’s basically illustrated art mixed in with some cut’n'paste photo imagery, surrounding the requisite still shot.

Certainly it’s far from ugly, but at the same time, it sure as heck ain’t Spy Smasher or Flash Gordon.

Interesting sidenote: This series was co-written by George H. Plympton and Arthur Hoerl, who between them had a part in writing just about half the films that came out of Hollywood from 1912 on up. In 1929 alone, Plympton had a part in the writing of 13 different films and series, and a year before that, the number was an astonishing 35. In 1930, he was only involved in one film, so we’re guessing he took a well deserved holiday that year.

That said, Plympton wasn’t away from the typewriter for long, and was still cranking out scripts as late as 1966!

Arthur Hoerl wasn’t far behind, in terms of productivity, but while he took part in 152 films and series over his career, Plympton amassed a whopping 288 productions… can you imagine the royalty checks?

Spanish title: Jose Vendido en Egipto (Joseph Sold in Egypt)
Stars: Geoffrey Horne, Belinda Lee, Robert Morley, Carlo Giustini, Arturo Dominici, Finlay Currie, Mario Girotti
Directed by: Irving Rapper, Luciano Ricci
Distributor: Colorama Features (US)

"Extraordinary! Spectacular! Grandiose!" 

The tagline doesn’t quite describe the film correctly, but we can let that slide for now; this was one of the ongoing swords and sandals flicks that poured out of Italy like fine wine in the 50’s and 60’s, few of which were anything more than an excuse to flex muscles and shake hips around cardboard sets.

This particular flick was shot partly in Yugoslavia, where making movies was cheap as hell, with the Italian scenes taking place at Titanus Studios. The story followed the biblical tale of Joseph, and was quickly followed by another about Pontius Pilate, which was a tactic often used by producers who wanted to make stories that they didn’t need to pay any rights fees for.

The artwork in the lobby card design looks to have been acrylic paint, diluted to give a washed appearance, and if one looks really closely, they can spot the occasional pencil mark left in after the paint went down. What’s interesting, from a purely trivial point of view, is the long black stripe along the bottom of the card; that would indicate that, rather than being original Mexican art, this was likely the art taken from the Italian release, retitled, with the distributor’s name blacked out on the bottom.

Now, in order to put a new title on the lobby card, an artist would need to paint over the old title, make it blend with the background, and then cut’n'paste in the new title. They’d also likely have to get rid of the old taglines… which in this case wouldn’t be too hard, because two of the three tagline words are the same in Spanish as they are in Italian.

In fact, upon further investigation, we found the word ‘Eastmancolor’ painted over right above where the ‘Totalscope’ logo has been added – very sneaky!

Anyway, there you have it – a perfect example of a reworked lobby card.

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: Cleopatra la Serpiente Del Nilo
Stars: Rhonda Fleming, William Lundigan, Raymond Burr, Julie Newmar
Directed by: William Castle
Distributor: Columbia Pictures

"From my bed of silk, I dominate the world with my burning lips… Sin and savagery in matchless spectacle!"

This low-budget version of the Cleopatra story, which is often considered to be as good as the big budget Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton opus that followed, used sets from the 1953 Rita Hayworth/Stewart Granger film, Salome, to tell the tale of the infamous Queen of the Nile and her Roman pal, Mark Anthony.

New Westminster, British Columbia’s own Raymond Burr is Rhonda Fleming’s co-star, which led the designers of this piece of cinema promo art to add a "Perry Mason" in brackets under his name, celebrating the actor’s renowned TV character. Julie Newmar also appears in the film (as Julie Newmeyer) in the role of The Gilded Girl – her first credited screen appearance.

The lobby card is attractive enough, but it’s very square and the original artwork is decidedly quick and cheap. For a movie character that relies so heavily on her sexuality to get what she wants, this is a lobby card that you would really expect to ’sex it up’, and yet it really doesn’t.

Our version has one staple hole in the top left corner (which is odd), a small tear on the bottom edge, and some roughing up of the right-side edge. It also features a small piece of handwriting over Cleopatra’s name that seems to say "Cartelera de Ludo" – which translates to ‘billboard of the Ludo’, which was presumably a theater it showed in.

Why do those words appear there? Well, figuring it out is half the fun. 

Spanish title: El Hijo de Ali Baba
Stars: Tony Curtis, Piper Laurie, Susan Cabot, William Reynolds, Hugh O’Brian, Victor Jory
Directed by: Kurt Neumann
Distributor: Universal Pictures

"Soul of a Prince, heart of a poet… with steel in his hand and a kiss on the lips, the sensational stars of "The Prince Who Was a Thief", together again! And… in love!"

If you’re one of the few people on the planet who think Ali Baba (or his son) would have had a 50’s greaser hairstyle, then Son of Ali Baba might be just for movie for you. 

Fortunately, I doubt many people fall into that category, and thus Son of Ali Baba is generally considered to be an ‘Elvis film’ that doesn’t actually have Elvis in it. 

The Spanish lobby card promoting the release is a good design, albeit very text-boxy (such being Universal’s way in the 50’s), with some painted over cut’n'paste pics of Tony Curtis and Piper Laurie in a romantic embrace, as well as plenty of illustrations of dancing harem girls (which I’ll never complain about – ever).

Our version features a good ensemble sill photo, no pinholes and decidedly little abuse collected over the last 50+ years, which is nice. 

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: Jesse James vs la Hija de Frankenstein
Stars: John Lupton, Cal Bolder, Nada Onyx
Directed by: William Beaudine
Distributor: Cinematografica Azteca (for Embassy Pictures Corporation)

"Shocking assassins… a gunman and the daughter of a monster…!"

Shot in just eight days, back to back with the also cheap-and-nasty Billy The Kid vs Dracula, this film is a long way from the best represented in our collection, but the lobby card art for this Mexican release is just incredible regardless – in that totally schlocky kind of way that makes it perfect as wall art.

Directed by William Beaudine, who made quite the living churning out cheap horror rubbish, the title of this film is an utter misnomer, as it involves not Frankenstein’s daughter, but his granddaughter, as she seeks to turn Jesse James’ best buddy into a monster just like dear old granddad. Jesse James, of course, isn’t down with her plans.

What we love about this lobby card, aside from the deep colors, impressive original art, and decidedly gravity-free cleavage of Frankenstein’s Daughter/Granddaughter (who for some reason has vampire teeth) is the awesome black and white still image inserted into the design, featuring a couple of ‘wild west’ lads duking it out with bare knuckles. If you can’t love the early 60’s greaser hairstyles on those gunslingers, you just have no sense of the absurd.

Joe Bob Briggs loved this film enough to re-release it as part of a bad horror movies package, but I’ll never understand how Jesse James gets to Frankenstein’s Castle… I mean, it’s not like if you took a left at Boot Hill, you’d find yourself in Transylvania. Was Frankenstein’s Castle actually located in Cincinnati? Actually, having spent time in Cincinnati, that might make sense…

Spanish title: Moby Dick
Stars: Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, Leo Genn, Orson Welles, Herman Melville
Directed by: John Huston
Distributor: Warner Bros (for 20th Century Fox and United Artists)

"The White Whale had almost destroyed him…"

The second of our two lobby cards for John Huston’s Moby Dick, this design is by far the superior of the two.

The first relies on photo art and cheap reproductions of the original artwork shown here, whereas this one is just an A-1 design, beautifully put together, with an amazing recreation of Gregory Peck in action, as well as a breaching whale crushing a whaling fleet.

The colors are vivid, the title is well worked into the design, and even the black and white still image is framed with color, so as to work it into the overall design more fully.

The pity of this particular card is that, by the time we got it, someone in a Mexican theater somewhere had used it for a little doodling – there’s ink smudging in the white title font, as a result, along with the hand-written words, "La Panzona" (or "The Fat One"). Why? It’s all a bit of a mystery.

Oh well. With a design this busy, you barely notice a little biro here and there, especially in a frame (which is where we keep it).

Spanish title: Beso de Fuego
Stars: Jack Palance, Barbara Rush, Rex Reason, Martha Hyer, Alan Reed, Leslie Bradley
Directed by: Joseph M. Newman
Distributor: Universal Pictures

"It was the kiss that changed the course of an empire!"

You’ve gotta love the supreme tackiness that was Jack Palance in the 40’s and 50’s. Whenever you needed a bad guy with a heart of gold – a Roman Emperor you loved to hate, or a gunslinger who gets the girl in the end, or a Robin Hood-like rogue in dark green tights – Palance was your man.

This film focused on the story of a Spanish Princess, mourning her recently deceased father, who must get back to Europe from… uh… Santa Fe, New Mexico? …so that she can claim her rightful crown before a contender takes her place. To get there, she needs the help of El Tigre (Palance), a rough and ready guide who can navigate the perils of the assorted bad guys out to stop her from getting home.

And of course, she hates him. And of course, she learns to love him.

Universal lobby cards of this time often followed a similar design template as this one, with a large fonted title up top, a small white box listing cast members off to the side, and several cut’n'paste still images scattered about, that were then painted over to appear like original art.

Despite the unimpressive nature of the film, this is one of the most beautiful lobby cards in our collection, featuring Palance in several dramatic poses; one romantically embracing his co-star, and another on the attack with a pair of knives at hand. And you’ve gotta love the shot of Babs Rush up top, showing a little regal thigh – she puts the ‘rush’ in ‘rush of blood’, don’t you think?

The copy in our collection features three smudges of green ink, likely a result of an awry print run, but because of the dramatic, deep color that abounds in the design, you barely notice them.

One interesting thing to note is a tiny inscription that says "Contreras" on the bottom left hand corner, right by Palance’s tightly-clad behind. We assume that’s the name of the designer of the lobby card, but as they were so rarely signed by the artist in this era (especially when the original art was based on stills and not hand-painted), it could also be the name of the printing company. Any info from readers in the know would be much appreciated.

UPDATE: We were just looking through our collection and noticed something on the back of this lobby card – a hand-scrawled ad for a 1954 film called El Rapto (translated: The Kidnapping), starring Jorge Negrete and Maria Felix.

This was a Mexican western comedy/drama, directed by Emilio ‘El Indio’ Fernández, who served as the model for the Oscar statuette of the Academy Awards… seriously!

"Además" means ‘in addition’, so this was likely some theater manager’s effort at alerting customers that there was a second feature attached to the main bill. Funny what you sometimes find on these lobby cards…

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?