One of over fifty film and TV adaptations of Robert Louis Stevenson‘s classic 19th century novel of the same name, this version of Treasure Island is only really notable for the fact that it starred Orson Welles. Apparently Welles contributed to the script under the pseudonym ‘O. W. Jeeves’ and also had his voice dubbed by another actor in post-production.

This poster features an excellent portrait of Welles by an unknown artist. There is what could possibly be a signature and date to the right of the open-mouthed boy (Jim Hawkins). If anyone has any ideas who may have illustrated it please get in touch.

The sans-serif typeface to announce Welles is an odd choice since it doesn’t match with the rest of the poster at all, although it’s quite clear what the producers felt was the main selling point of the film.

This is one of four great designs that were printed to be used as wildings (posters intended to be used out in the wild – billboard posting etc).

Filmed by prolific Italian B-movie director Antonio Margheriti, the bizarre caveman-sci-fi hybrid Yor the Hunter From the Future actually started out as a four part TV series shown on Italian TV called ‘Il Mondo di Yor’ (The World of Yor), which itself was based on a comic book series of the same name. Margheriti, who shot the entire thing in Turkey, cut the four-hour series down to this 90-minute version that was distributed internationally and is now regularly cited as one of the worst films ever released.

Reb Brown plays the bronzen, muscled and poodle-haired Yor, a mysterious warrior who travels through an prehistoric world besieged by cavemen tribes and dinosaurs in search of his origins. Along the way he meets Ka-Laa (played by the gorgeous Corinne Cléry) and Pak (Luciano Pigozzi) two primitives who help Yor on his journey to discover the secret of the golden medallion he wears around his neck.

This poster for the US release of the short version features a brilliantly pompous and full-stop heavy tagline.

The original trailer is on YouTube.

Unique artwork for the Polish release (in 1987) of David Cronenberg‘s body horror classic. The design is by an artist called Eugeniusz Skorwider. Here are some details about him (found on this site):

Eugeniusz Skorwider obtained his diploma in 1981 in the studio of professor Waldemar Swierzy. From 1983 to 1997 he was Swierzy’s assistant. Currently he is a professor at the Academy of Fine Art in Poznan, where he leads the poster studio. During that time he had a series of lectures and presentations at Dutch academies (Breda, Utrecht, Groningen, Den Bosch 1990, 1991) as well as outdoor classes with polish students in Paderborn (1997 Germany). He also conducted classes at the Summer University in Paderborn (1998, 2002). He deals with design graphics, mostly posters. Skorwider takes part in competitions and poster presentations worldwide.

A list of the other film posters he worked on is on this site.

Here’s the original trailer.

Legendary director David Lynch‘s surreal nightmare Eraserhead celebrates its 35th anniversary in 2012 and its fair to say cinema has seen nothing else quite like it in the years since it was released. Lynch’s first full-length feature was five years in the making and was begun whilst he worked at the American Film Institute school in Los Angeles. The initial grant of $10,000 given to the director quickly ran out and he was forced to spend the following years using money from odd jobs, as well as donations from friends and family to continue work on it.

Ben Barenholtz, the owner of Libra films saw the completed film at the Filmex Festival and, after declaring it was a ‘film of the future’, decided to help Lynch get the film into cinemas. The first screening took place at midnight on the 29th of September, 1977 and, like Jodorowsky’s El Topo before it, Eraserhead became a staple of Midnight Movie shows in Los Angeles, New York and London.

This Japanese poster is from the first release of the film, which took place in 1981, and features an image of the ‘baby’ with its head wrapped in bandages. This particular copy of the poster isn’t in the best of condition, as should be obvious from the pictures, but I think it quite suits the nature of the film.

Having just watched the recent UK blu-ray release of the film, which was apparently supervised by Lynch, I can highly recommend picking up a copy of it as the film has never looked or, perhaps more importantly, sounded as good.

The original trailer is on YouTube.