This is a 13" x 28" Italian locandina poster for the 1968 Ted Post
film Hang 'Em High written by Mel Goldberg and Leonard Freeman
and starring Clint Eastwood as Marshal Jed Cooper. Plot summary: In
1889 in Oklahoma territory Jed Cooper has retired from law enforcement
and taken up cattle ranching. While moving his herd he is stopped and
lynched by a gang of vigilantes who wrongly suspect him of cattle
rustling; after the vigilantes have left him for dead he is cut down
and saved in the nick of time by Federal Marshal Dave Bliss [Ben
Johnson]. In Fort Grant Cooper takes a job as deputy marshal and goes
after the vigilanties.
Cast and crew: Ted Post, Leonard Freeman, Mel Goldberg, Clint
Eastwood, Inger Stevens, Pat Hingle, Ed Begley, Ben Johnson, Charles
McGraw, Ruth White, Bruce Dern, Alan Hale Jr., Arlene Golonka, James
Westerfield, Dennis Hopper, L. Q. Jones, Michael O'Sullivan, Joseph
Sirola
This is a 27" x 39" Egyptian poster designed by Ahmed Fouad for a 1998 rerelease of the 1949 Ernest B. Schoedsack film Mighty Joe Young AKA Son of King
Kong based on a story by Merian C. Cooper, screenplay by Ruth Rose and starring Terry Moore as Jill
Young. Plot summary: Since her childhood Jill Young [Lora Lee Michel/Terry Moore]
has raised a 15-foot gorilla from infancy. A
promoter persuades Jill to bring Joe to the USA for a series of public
appearances, which ultimately do not go well. Some unruly patrons
at one of Joe's nightclub appearances ply him with drink, causing the
beast to go on a destructive drunken rampage. This got him sentenced to
death by outraged authorities. This original version of Mighty Joe
Young really was the son of King King because of improvements in
monster animation, largely due to the work of newly hired Ray
Harryhausen.
Cast and crew: Ernest B. Schoedsack, Ruth Rose, Merian C. Cooper, Terry Moore, Ben Johnson, Robert Armstrong, Mr. Joseph Young, Frank McHugh, Douglas Fowley, Denis Green, Paul Guilfoyle, Nestor Paiva, Regis Toomey, Lora Lee Michel, James Flavin, Mary Gordon
This is a 27" x 39" Spanish one-sheet poster designed by Jano for the
1974 Steven Speiberg film The Sugarland Express based on a
story by Steven Spielberg, Matthew Robbins and Hal Barwood, screenplay
by Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins and starring Goldie Hawn as Lou
Jean Sparrow Poplin." This film was Spielberg's directorial debut and
the first of his many collaborations with composer John Williams.
Plot summary: Lou Jean Poplin and her husband Clovis Michael Poplin
[William Atherton] decide to recover their child from the care of
foster parents in Texas. To do this Clovis must first escape from
Beauford H. Jester Prison Farm. They are pursued by the police and
eventually take Patrolman Maxwell Slide hostage.
Cast and crew: Steven Spielberg, Jano, Hal Barwood, Matthew Robbins, Goldie Hawn, Ben Johnson, Michael Sacks, William Atherton, Gregory Walcott, Steve Kanaly, Louise Latham, Harrison Zanuck, A.L. Camp, John Williams, Jessie Lee Fulton, Dean Smith, Ted Grossman, Bill Thurman, Kenneth Hudgins, Buster Daniels
Pictured is a 22" x 32" Polish one-sheet designed by Elzbieta Procka
for the 1972 Sam Peckinpah film The Getaway based on the Jim
Thompson novel, screenplay by Walter Hill and starring Steve McQueen
as Doc McCoy. Plot summary: Jack Benyon [Ben Johnson], a corrupt San
Antonio businessman, arranges parole for Doc McCoy on the condition
that he rob a bank with two of Jack's cohorts. During the robbery Doc
shoots both of Jack's men. One of the cohorts named Rudy [Al
Lettieri] survives after being shot by Doc; after his injuries are
treated he pursues Doc and his wife Carol [Ali MacGraw], as does
Jack's brother Cully Benson [Roy Jenson]. As their flight continues
our bank robbers are pursued by more people.
Cast and crew: Sam Peckinpah, Elzbieta Procka, Walter Hill, Jim Thompson, Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, Ben Johnson, Sally Struthers, Al Lettieri, Slim Pickens, Richard Bright, Jack Dodson, Dub Taylor, Bo Hopkins, Roy Jenson, John Bryson, Bill Hart, Tom Runyon, Whitney Jones
Pictured above are a 27" x 41" US one-sheet poster and a 41" x 81"
three-piece Mexican three-sheet poster for the 1961 Marlon Brando film
One-Eyed Jacks based on the Charles Neider novel The
Authentic Death of Hendry Jones with screenplay by Guy Trosper and
Calder Willingham and starring Marlon Brando as Rio. Plot summary: In
Sonora Mexico in 1880 Rio and his partner Dad Longworth [Karl Malden]
rob a bank of two bags of gold, but during their attempted escape Dad
betrays Rio and leaves him to be captured and imprisoned. Rio spends
five years in a prison in Sonora. After his release he finds that his
former pal Longworth has become sheriff of Monterey; their conflicts
resume, initially behind a thin veneer of cordiality and then much
more openly. This is the only film directed by Marlon Brando; it is
considered a precursor for Sergio Leone's spaghetti Westerns a few
years later, where audiences learned for the first time to identify
with the "bad guys" in Western movies.
Cast and crew: Marlon Brando, Karl Malen, Pina Pellicer, Katy Jurado, Ben Johnson, Larry Duran, Sam Gilman, Timothy Carey, Miriam Colon, Elisha Cook Jr., Rudolfo Acosta, Joan Petrone, Tom Webb, Ray Teal, John Dierkes
Pictured is a US 40x60 poster designed to promote the 1974 Richard Brooks film Bite the Bullet starring Gene Hackman. Plot summary: In the early 20th Century an assortment of adventurers compete in a 700-mile desert horse race.
Cast and crew: Richard Brooks, Gene Hackman, Candice Bergen, James Coburn, Ben Johnson, Ian Bannen, Jan-Michael Vincent, Robert Donner, Jean Willes, Marlo Arteaga, Dabney Coleman, John McLiam, Robert F. Hoy, Jerry Gatlin, Sally Kirkland, Walter Scott
Simba 1955 Dirk Bogarde directed by Brian Desmond Hurst
Simba is Swahili for lion and was apparently a word left in blood by
the Mau Mau as a signature after they did crimes of murder and arson
against British settlers and their indigenous supporters in 1950s Kenya.
The film opens with a black man in shirt, slacks and sandals riding on
a bicycle to an injured white man lying on the ground, and hacking him
to death with a machete.
Then comes an airport scene with mixed races in business attire
followed by a romantic conversation between Alan Howard (Dirk Bogarde)
and Mary Crawford (Virginia McKenna) in a covertible sports car riding
in sunny weather on smooth roads across the African plain as they return
to Crawford's farm. When they reach the farm they find police on the
scene and learn that Alan Howard's brother David has been killed.
David was the one hacked to death in the opening scene.
This film is a dramatization of the early 1950s Kenya Mau Mau revolt
against the British settlers, based on a novel by Anthony Perry. The main
characters are slmost all white representatives of the British community
in khaki suits, berets and bush hats, with the obligatory subplot of the
Bogarde-McKenna love story; the Mau Mau revolt, a very nasty disturbance
with macabre overtones, was a rude and vicious intrusion into this quaint
colonial setting.
I have read that the images on these two posters are thought to be
racist and derogatory, and I believe that also applies to the film
itself. Another film from the same year, the 1955 Elwood Price
documentary (narrated by Chet Huntley) about the Mau Mau revolt in
Kenya, does not show Kenyans in this kind of scant attire running
around with skulls on stick ends, so it would probably be fair to say
both the images on the posters and in this Brian Desmond Hurst
film are sensationalist. However the kind of Kikiyu tribe behavior
documented in those years as Mau Mau activity might be seen by some
people as racist and derogatory even if described with clinical
accuracy: the outlaw Kikuyu were acting out a derogatory caricature of
themselves. A film dramatization with promotional material that
exaggerates primitive appearances is not nearly as bad as the original
crimes were, even if one believes it was a crime to make a
sensationalized commercial docudrama (nominated for four film awards)
about this.
