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: 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: 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?

Spanish title: El Zorro y Los Tres Mosqueteros
Stars: Gordon Scott, Jose Greci, Maria Grazia Spina, Gianni Rizzo, Giacomo Rossi
Directed by: Luigi Capuano
Distributor: United Producers de Mexico

"Thousands of emotions in this great adventure film! Athos, Portos,
Aramis, D’Artagnan, and Zorro fighting for their honor – and a lady!"

Luigi Capuano wasn’t exactly the king of serious drama; a look at his career filmography shows a veritable smorgasbord of classic B-list Saturday morning matinee franchises, with Sandokan, Zorro and Hercules being the three most prominent.

Like Capuano, Gordon Scott made his name in B-grade character films, having been discovered working as a Las Vegas lifeguard on his way to an acting career that took him across Europe as Goliath, Buffalo Bill, Julius Caesar and Tarzan, before donning the mask here as Zorro.

While "Zorro e i Tres Moschietteri" (as it as originally known in Italy) will never be offered as the pinnacle of the genre, nor of Capuano’s or Scott’s career, the lobby card for its Mexican release is nothing short of a thing of beauty. In fact, it looks so good framed, hanging on a wall, that we’ve been offered money for this card more times than just about any other three cards in the collection combined.

This particular film was released in Mexico by United Producers de Mexico, a company that doesn’t show up anywhere in Google searches, but then, if they were relying on low budget Italian films featuring Spanish and French characters for release in Mexico to make a living, chances are they wouldn’t have lasted long.