A unique and detailed illustration on this B1 poster for the Japanese release of Disney’s live-action oddity, The Black Hole. The film focuses on the crew of a ship (the USS Palomino) returning from a deep-space exploration mission that discovers a black hole with an apparently derelict ship drifting nearby. After docking with the ship (The long-lost USS Cygnus) the crew meets the commander Doctor Hans Reinhardt (Maximilian Schell) and his team of robots, but there is no sign of the human crew. The Palomino’s crew, including Dr Alex Durant (Anthony Perkins) and Dr. Kate McCrae (Yvette Mimieux), must race against time to discover the mystery behind their disappearance and exactly what Dr Reinhardt’s intentions are.

Despite an extremely hokey script and some decidedly dodgy attempts to emulate the success of Star Wars, the film has several things that make it worth a watch, including some impressive special effects (certainly notable in 1979), well-realised space scenes, a great score by the late John Barry and an excellent robot design in the form of the sinister Maximilian (who stands in the centre of this poster). This poster illustrates the moment that the USS Cygnus begins to be torn apart as it enters the black hole – check out the detail of the Palomino’s crew zooming back towards the bridge on the monorail.

Director Edgar Wright is a fan of the film and talks about it on Trailers From Hell – video here.

The other posters I’ve collected for the film can be seen here. Check out this excellent special poster and the B2.

The original trailer is on YouTube.

Note: Although the poster has been on the site since launch I acquired a better condition copy of it recently, which is why I felt it deserved highlighting now.

A detailed and colourful illustration on this poster for the Japanese release of Disney’s live-action oddity, The Black Hole. It’s a fairly uncommon size but one that suits the illustration perfectly. Make sure you click the detail thumbnails to see it in its full glory.

The film focuses on the crew of a ship (the USS Palomino) returning from a deep-space exploration mission that discovers a black hole with an apparently derelict ship drifting nearby. After docking with the ship (The long-lost USS Cygnus – as featured on this poster) the crew meets the commander Doctor Hans Reinhardt (Maximilian Schell) and his team of robots, but there is no sign of the human crew. The Palomino’s crew, including Dr Alex Durant (Anthony Perkins) and Dr. Kate McCrae (Yvette Mimieux), must race against time to discover the mystery behind their disappearance and exactly what Dr Reinhardt’s intentions are.

Despite an extremely hokey script and some decidedly dodgy attempts to emulate the success of Star Wars, the film has several things that make it worth a watch, including some impressive special effects (certainly notable in 1979), well-realised space scenes, a great score by the late John Barry and an excellent robot design in the form of the sinister Maximilian.

Director Edgar Wright is a fan of the film and talks about it on Trailers From Hell – video here.

The other posters I’ve collected for the film can be seen here. Check out the excellent Japanese B1 and B2 posters.

The original trailer is on YouTube.

This image was considered too disturbing by the distributors of the film and the decision was made to go with another design for the English marketing campaign. It was replaced with a much less impressive photo montage quad and one sheet. Supposedly most of the Russian Roulette style were destroyed and very few remain.

The image was still used for the Italian posters.

Lurid, no-bullshit artwork by Japanese artist Seito for this 1975 schlockfest, The Giant Spider Invasion. From IMDb:

A black hole hits North Wisconsin and opens a door to other dimensions. Giant 15 meter spiders emerge from it, who have an appetite for human flesh! Dr. Jenny Langer and Dr. Vance from the NASA try to save the world.

As featured on Mystery Science Theatre 3000, the American TV series which lampoons bad movies, the film sounds absolutely legendary:

In a scene depicting the giant spiders attacking a little league baseball game, the spiders are obviously Volkswagen Beetles with puppet legs attached. Tread marks can be seen in several shots. 

Incredibly, the remains of these spider cars were recently found in the woods near where the scenes were shot.

“Pfantz’s steel framework was covered with black Fun Fur to make the spiders both hairy and scary. The mechanical nature of the beast required seven people to be stuffed within the cramped confines of the VW floorpan – a driver and six children to work the spider’s legs.”

Here’s the original trailer.

Roger Kastel artwork on this poster for the 1978 heist-caper starring Donald Sutherland and Sean Connery and directed by the late Michael Crichton. The film is based on his book of the same name, which is itself loosely based on an actual heist known as the Great Gold Robbery of 1855 in which a large quantity of gold was stolen from a train by a master thief and his accomplices. Pierce (Connery) works with Agar (Sutherland) to acquire the four keys that are required to break into the storage compartment on the moving train and must then attempt to escape with the loot.

The film is notable for the stunt-work, including walking on the roof of a moving train, that was apparently done by Connery himself. It’s also worth noting that the film was renamed to The First Great Train Robbery in the UK so it wouldn’t get confused with an infamous British train robbery in 1963 in which £2.6 million was stolen from a train in Buckinghamshire. The crime was dubbed The Great Train Robbery by the British press.

Roger Kastel’s website can be viewed here and it features plenty of great images of his brilliant work, including the iconic image that he originally drew for the paperback cover of Jaws, which was later used on movie posters for the film all over the world.. He’s also responsible for the excellent ‘Gone with the Wind’ style one sheet for The Empire Strikes Back.

The original trailer for the film is on YouTube.