Spanish title: Lawrence de Arabia
Stars: Alec Guiness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins, Jose Ferrer, Anthony Quayle, Claude Rains, Arthur Kennedy, Omar Sharif, Peter O’Toole
Directed by: David Lean
Distributor: Columbia Pictures 

"The biggest film of the year! 7 Academy Awards!" 

There are few films in existence that have the pedigree of this one, and though the lobby card promoting the Mexican release was a smaller than usual size (such being the habit of Columbia Pictures of Mexico at the time), it’s of a high enough standard to be worthy of the film itself.

A striking portrait of shadows of Lawrence is the centerpiece of the design, with some recreated still imagery bookending that, and a dramatic line sketch of the hero of the piece swinging a mighty sword brings it all together beneath a black and white still of Peter O’Toole in character… glorious.

Our copy of this lobby card is in amazing condition. There are no pinholes, no tears and no signs of abuse at all, and the still image selected shows O’Toole’s Lawrence in all his blue-eyed, blond-haired, fey glory.

One of the highlights of our collection. 

Spanish title: Hombres de Presa
Stars: John Wayne, Laraine Day, Anthony Quinn, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Judith Anderson, James Gleason
Directed by: Richard Wallace
Distributor: RKO Radio Pictures (US – Mexican distributor unknown)

"An iron man in a world of violence!"

Every time I look at this lobby card, the first thing that jumps into my head is, "Oooh! A rollercoaster movie!" Alas, that’s no rollercoaster in the background, being swept away by a raging flood – it’s a railway track depicted in slightly less than fine detail.

This card doesn’t actually mention any distributor, which is rare, but it does crow the enhancement of "Vision Panoramica", which I’m guessing was a reference to Panavision (or something like it).

The story followed engineer Johnny Munroe, as he was enlisted to build a railway tunnel through a mountain, but who of course naturally falls in love with the boss’s daughter and gets in all manner of strife… kind of like the film producers, who took a million dollar bath after splashing out three mill on this shoot for what was RKO’s most expensive film of the year, only to bring in just 2/3 of that back at the box office.

It was originally slated to co-star Maureen O’Hara, rather than Laraine Day, but the studio sent her to make Sinbad the Sailor instead. Lucky for her…

This card doesn’t have any pinholes, which is a nice change, but it has what looks like minor smoke or water damage on the bottom left  hand corner… too bad.

Spanish title: Requiem para um Luchador
Stars: Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason, Mickey Rooney, Julie Harris
Directed by: Ralph Nelson
Distributor: Columbia Pictures

"The violent, loveless world of ‘Mountain Rivera’!"

Call it serendipity if you will, but over all my years of tracking down Mexican lobby cards of American feature film releases, I usually take my pick of what I can find; finding the exact film I want is usually next to impossible… until one morning when I got the idea in my head to visit eBay and see if there was a lobby card around for Requiem for a Heavyweight.

I mean, the chances that there would be that exact lobby card were ridiculously small, and even if there was one, you’d assume that a card for such a film would probably run a high price… right?

Wrong. I picked this up for $2.75 plus postage – an incredible deal, made even better by the fact that the card is in amazing shape. Sure, there are four pinholes on the corners, but that’s it – otherwise, this is an A-1 lobby card for an A-1 classic film.

Like most lobby cards from the ’60’s, there’s no hand-painted art on this one, but there are several great shots from the film, and as a huge fan of screenwriter Rod Serling (of Twilight Zone fame), this is one of my all-time favorite cards.