A striking portrait of actor Tom Conti on the British quad for this little seen film based on the play Spofford by Herman Shumlin, which was itself adapting the book Reuben, Reuben by Peter De Vries. Conti plays Gowan McGland, a character clearly based on the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, a compulsive womaniser and lifelong alcoholic who died from liver poisoning whilst on tour in the US in 1953.

The film follows Gowan, who is coping with writer’s block and depression, as he tours his poetry around various clubs and societies, seducing married women and drinking himself into oblivion. A chance encounter sees him meeting and falling in love with student Geneva Spofford (Kelly McGillis in her first film role), but can Geneva save him from himself before it’s too late? The film is notable for its sharp script and strong performance by Conti who was nominated for an Academy Award for the role. Frustratingly, it has never been released on DVD and there is no legal way of watching it currently.

I’ve struggled to discover who is the artist behind this UK poster but the US one sheet has practically identical art, so it’s either an adaptation of that or the same art was simply re-used. If you have any ideas who was responsible please get in touch.

Filmed in Canada by an Italian director (Alberto De Martino under the pseudonym Martin Herbert), Blazing Magnum has multiple alternative titles, including Shadows in an Empty Room, and is an entry into the poliziottesco genre of cinema. The story sees tough Ottawan police captain Tony Saitta (Stuart Whitman) travel to Montreal to investigate the untimely death of his sister at a party. Before long more bodies start to appear, the list of suspects grows and Saitta teams up with Sergeant Ned Matthews (genre stalwart John Saxon) to crack the case.

The film is perhaps best known for it’s insane, nine minute car chase around the streets of Montreal, which was filmed without permits and staged by legendary stunt performer Rémy Julienne, whose work includes six James Bond films and the original Italian Job. The chase can be watched in all its glory on YouTube – it definitely rivals other legendary cinematic car pursuits! It also features a giallo-esque scene in which a murder is committed in the same room as a blind girl, Saitta fighting a bunch of drag queens and a dwarf gangster.

Check out this Motion Picture Purgatory entry on DreadCentral.com.

The artwork on this Japanese poster is by one of my favourite artists, the mysterious Seito. It appears on the Italian poster (image taken from emovieposter.com), as well as others, so it’s likely that Seito may have adapted another illustrator’s work for this B2, unless the other countries used his illustration? The American one sheet is markedly different and plays up the murder mystery side of the plot.

The trailer can be viewed on YouTube.

British director Gareth Edwards’ excellent Monsters was one of the best films released in 2010 and transcended a micro-budget to become one of the freshest entries in the sci-fi genre for several years. The film is set slightly in the future and several years after a NASA probe crashed back to earth infected with alien life. Half of Mexico had to be quarantined off as the creatures grew and took over the area, and the US military patrols the borders. Andrew Kaulder (Scoot McNairy) is a US photojournalist who is hired by his boss to escort his daughter Samantha Wynden (Whitney Able) from the safe part of Mexico back to the States. The pair are forced to head through the quarantined zone despite the threat of the creatures who are moving across the country on their yearly ‘migration’.

The film was shot entirely on location by a tiny crew, using prosumer cameras and, aside from the two leads, the majority of the characters were played by non-actors. The dialogue was improvised around a loose scene outline and the results were edited whilst the crew was on the road. Gareth Edwards had previously worked as a special effects editor and spent four months designing and creating all of the effects himself, once again using off the shelf equipment and software. It’s a superb achievement and well worth a watch, but don’t go in expecting some kind of fast-paced, gory creature-feature as some cinema-goers were, back in 2010.

This striking US one sheet teaser was designed by Gravillis Inc. and features Whitney Able in a gas mask with a reflection of one of the creatures in the visor. Because the poster is so dark it’s hard to photograph without losing some of the details so check out the original digital file here.

The original trailer is on YouTube.

Jim Henson and Frank Oz co-directed this 1982 fantasy, which is notable as being the first full-length, live-action film to feature no human characters at all; puppets play all major roles. It’s notably darker than anything the pair had worked on previously and apparently ended up suffering at the box office; parents were unsure about its suitability as a family film and it was also up against the mega-hit E.T.

The film features puppets and other creatures designed by the renowned English illustrator Brian Froud, whose fantasy artwork has brought him international acclaim. He worked directly with Jim Henson to concept, design and even help to build the complex puppets seen throughout the film. Froud would go on to collaborate with Henson on Labyrinth (1986) and his son Toby even played the baby of the same name who is kidnapped at the start of the film.

This particular poster is the advance US one sheet and the artwork is often wrongly credited to other artists, including Bob Peak and Richard Amsel. Bob Peak did do a poster featuring the titular crystal, but this wasn’t used in the US and can be seen on the Japanese B2. Richard Amsel did the final US one sheet and the artwork features on the UK quad (as well as posters from other countries).

After a bit of research I was able to determine that the designers of this poster were Jeff Kerns and Lili Lakich at the agency Calko, Kerns and Lakich. The latter is well known for her work as a sculptor of neon and has worked in various fields of design for over three decades. Lakich started her professional career designing for the entertainment industry at Seiniger Advertising in Los Angeles. In 1981 she left to form her own studio with two partners and continued to work on film posters and other marketing material until 1987. Her official site’s about page lists an impressive range of work, including logos, identity, brochures and annual reports, signage, packaging, websites and fundraising campaigns for corporations, nonprofits and individuals. Her neon artwork can be seen on the Lakich studio website.

I emailed Lili to ask her if she could recall who was responsible for the artwork on this poster and the following is an excerpt from one of her replies:

I’m afraid I can’t remember who the illustrator was for The Dark Crystal. Somewhere I have a framed poster which may have his name on it, but I can’t access it easily. It was not Bob Peak or Richard Amsel but a young guy that we hired to do comps and then the finished artwork. It was done for Calko, Kerns and Lakich which was my advertising agency from about 1980 to 1987.

UPDATE 05/06/2012
A reader of the site got in touch to confirm that the artist is Bob Lee Hickson and the Dark Crystal image can be seen on his website here.

The film’s original trailer can be seen on YouTube.

Another non-poster entry, this is the original Japanese program for James Cameron‘s sci-fi masterpiece Aliens. It would have been available to purchase in the cinema when the film was screening back in 1986.

There are some great stills in there as well as a handful of concept illustrations (check the Smart Gun sketch and alien queen image). It’s also great to see the head shots of the actors as well as some of the crew in the last few pages.

Aliens will always be firmly in my top five films of all time. To see the other items I’ve collected for the film click here.

Italian writer/director Sergio Martino is responsible for several notable Giallo films including Torso and The Case of the Scorpion Tail. His output also includes several exploitation and genre films that directly ‘homage’ the work of American directors, including After the Fall of New York (see Carpenter’s Escape From NY) and Hands of Steel, which shamelessly apes James Cameron’s classic Terminator (1984).

The plot sees Daniel Greene‘s cyborg Paco Querak (great name!) sent to kill a blind environmentalist who is interfering with the plans of industrialist Frank Turner (genre legend John Saxon). During the assassination attempt Querak’s human conscience somehow stops him carrying out the deed and he escapes into the Arizona desert. He ends up at a bar in a small town and before long he’s using his strength to arm wrestle truckers and partake in bar brawls, however a team of hitmen has been sent after him and it’s not long before he is tracked down.

Tragically, Claudio Cassinelli, who played one of the hitmen, was killed in a helicopter crash during filming of an action sequence.

I’m crediting the artwork to the great Renato Casaro because the main figure is clearly his illustration as can be seen on this Japanese B2 for the film, which features his signature. The rest of the art is likely to have been done by another artist, but I’m not certain to whom it can be credited. The typeface used for the tagline could not be more 80s if it tried.

Note that Hands of Steel, like many Italian exploitation films, has multiple alternative names and had a different moniker in most major markets.

The full film is available to watch on YouTube. The trailer is also YouTube.