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…