Sci-Fi/Monster Movie Posters II

Lloyd Bridges, father of Beau and Jeff, is the star of this 1950 sci-fi movie that, along with Destination Moon, helped kick off the sci-fi film craze of the 50s.

This was originally meant to be a 3D film in colour but due to technical problems, Warner Brothers went with wide-screen black and white; however, the titles were in colour on a black and white background to grab the audience from the start.

The crew of a spaceship are dispatched one by one by a mysterious creature that has boarded the craft. This is believed to be one of the films that inspired the plot of Alien.

The old 'nuclear testing disturbs monstrous creature' plot. Rare starring role for Kenneth Tobey who had also been the lead in The Thing from Another World(1951).

Robby the Robot's second film appearance.

A classic of the genre; however, director William Cameron Menzies had seen better days, including Things to Come , The Thief of Bagdad andDuel in the Sun, for which he was one of several uncredited directors.

Supposedly inspired by the successful rerelease of King Kong in 1952; in turn, the story featuring a creature unsettled by a nuclear blast allegedly inspired many other films like Them! and Godzilla. The dinosaur bones were the same set from Bringing Up Baby!

Star Tom Tryon went on to write science-fiction novels.

Ticks off most of the genre's conventions. Strange alien guys from outer space and a girl wearing a tight red sweater over a figure that looks like a relief map of the Andes... Look at those rouged lips and staring eyes that we're familiar with from countless other posters!

Stone cold classic. Beware of imitations, especially if they involve Keanu Reeves.

Classic poster that has many of the key points of the genre: Giant crab grabs sexy blonde girl who isn't wearing much. A real Corman B-movie!

This is the re-titled 1954 Toho Studio production Gojira with added footage of Raymond Burr as an American reporter. It was cobbled together by Jewell Enterprises in 1956, even though the original had been released in the US in 1955, though largely to cinemas that catered for Japanese-American audiences. To confuse matters further, the Burr version was released in Japan in 1958 and was a hit!

Made in 3D but rarely shown in that format because the craze was dying down. Herbert Marshall is a long way from The Enchanted Cottage and his work with Hitchcock...

Another stone cold classic. The first remake, directed by Philip Kaufman in 1978 is also good and features the director and star of the first version, Don Siegel and Kevin McCarthy, in small roles. Avoid the later Body Snatchers, loosely based on this one and directed by the man who brought the world Bad Lieutenant, one of the most unintentionally funny films I've seen.

Scantily dressed, young attractive woman lies in the arms of strange menacing creature from space. Again.

Steve Ditko

Self portrait

Born on 2 November in 1927, Steve Ditko was one of the key figures who revolutionised Marvel Comics in the early 1960s along with fellow artist Jack Kirby and writer Stan Lee. His major contributions were the co-creation of Spider-Man and Doctor Strangeand many of the villains that have also lasted close to 50 years. His realistic and occasionally low-key style has many fans among the artists and critics of today.

Prior to his work at Marvel in the 60s, he contributed comics in a variety of genres to a number of companies. He quit Marvel in 1966 over artistic differences, although, like Kirby, his contribution to the storylines was often overlooked and he was paid a pittance for creating characters that ultimately brought the company a lot of money. A devotee of the right-wing philospher and writer Ayn Rand, he was less in tune with 60s liberalism than Lee. One memorable disagreement took place when Lee wanted Spider-Man to take the side of protesting students, whereas Ditko thought he should be breaking up the unrest.

He continued comics work for a number of other companies, like Warren, Creepy and Charlton, and some of his work developed his own political views, which were becoming increasingly a case of seeing the world in terms of wrong or right, notably Mr A, who scolds a robbery victim who expresses pity for her attacker: "To have any sympathy for a killer is an insult to their victims." In the late 70s and the mid 90s, he worked briefly for Marvel and appeared to be reurning to public prominence when he had a falling out with Fantagraphics, the independent comics company that had agreed to publish a series of new work.

Reclusive at the best of times, he was the subject 'In Search of Steve Ditko', a Jonathan Ross documentary for BBC4 in 2007; he still maintains an office in New York and is believed to be producing new work.
Self portrait

For more, see:
http://www.ditko.comics.org/

For the complete Collector's Edition story (featured above), see:
http://johnnybacardi.blogspot.com/2008/02/heres-that-steve-ditko-story-i.html

Sci-Fi/Monster Movie Posters I

The George Pal-produced movie that kicked off the cycle of 50s sci-fi movies in 1950. Isn't this how space rockets were meant to look?

You'd assume any poster for this movie would take advantage of the special effects and use the Martian craft as a selling point, but I guess surprise/suspense was more important - though it's strange that they showed a Martian 'hand', which isn't revealed in the film until later!


Quite an inventive poster that doesn't give too much away. Interesting to see Price is only third in the cast list.

The classic sexually attractive female, limp in the 'creature's' arms.

Cheap movie: tacky poster!



Again, the sexually alluring, submissively prone female - red dress, lips parted! The monster stares down at her lasciviously and the heroes appear to be looking up her skirt. Was no woman safe from these creatures?

The woman gets her revenge. But at what cost? Whatever turns you on, I guess...

The Man Who Drew Bug-Eyed Monsters

A young woman with a wide-eyed stare; cleavage showing, or, at the very least, some naked flesh; the lips red and the mouth screaming; the square-jawed hero who will come to her rescue; the large creature that looms over them both or carries her helpless in his arms. You know the type of thing – sci-fi and horror posters from the 1950s and early 60s.

One artist stands out from all the others: William Ryan Reynold Brown (1917–1991), a prolific American realist. He attended Alhambra High School and refined his drawing under his teacher Lester Bonar. A talented artist, Brown met Hal Forrest, famous for his detailed work on Tailspin Tommy, the aviation strip that ran in Bell Syndicate newspapers and this led him to ‘ghost’ draw the strip himself from 1936-1937. One of his teachers at Alhambra had been Norman Rockwell's sister and Brown later met him and took his advice to leave cartooning for illustrationwas a teacher at Alhambra High, and Brown later met Rockwell who advised him to leave cartooning if he wanted to be an illustrator. He won a scholarship to the Otis Art Institute and during World War II worked as an artist for North American Aviation in California, where he devise ‘phantom’ drawings or cutaways that allow the viewer to see through the surface of the plane.

After the war he illustrated stories in several publications, such as Argosy, Popular Science, Saturday Evening Post, Boy's Life, Outdoor Life, and Popular Aviation.

He also taught at the Art Center College of Design where he met Misha Kallis, then an art director at Universal Pictures. Through Kallis, Brown began his film poster work starting with The World in His Arms. All told, he worked on over 250 promotional campaigns for movies in a variety of genres; for example, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Alamo, Al Capone, Man of a Thousand Faces, Spartacus, Mutiny on the Bounty and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. His monster movie posters were often better than the movies themselves!

Brown at work on the poster for Al Capone

After his retirement from commercial illustration, Brown found success as a fine artist, producing hundreds of oil paintings and drawings featuring the American West. He died in 1983 and his wife, Mary Louise Tejeda, whom he had met while working at North American Aviation, continues to paint.

See:
http://www.franzbrown.com/reynoldbrownart/ReynoldBrown/index.html
http://skyplayer.sky.com/vod/content/SKYCULTURE/Browse_by_Channel/A-Z/content/seriesId/a7eadd54dc21b110VgnVCM1000002c04170a________/content/default/promoPage.do

Year 13 Movie Promotional Material

Rachael Dinning

Rachael Dinning

Rachael Dinning

Natalie Martin

Natalie Martin

Rebecca Kemp

Rob Kelly

Kirsty Smith