Decades of Exploitation: The Art of the Movie Poster Part 3

DECADES OF EXPLOITATION: THE ART OF THE MOVIE POSTER PART 3

SMALL FISH SWIMMING WITH SHARKS

By the time the 1960s rolled around, the look of the posters and the films themselves were gradually changing brought on by tumultuous events happening in the real world. Alfred Hitchcock, a highly respected director of suspense thrillers, began dabbling in more horror-centric pictures. His PSYCHO (1960) became a massive success, but the poster was rather plain (outside of the risque image of Leigh in a bra) when compared to many others that peddled much the same product, but in a more exploitably outrageous fashion. Hitchcock's name value alone ensured instant notoriety as well as the curiosity value for this scary thriller was enough to attract moviegoers.


THE BIRDS (1963) was another from Hitchcock that, like PSYCHO to the slashers, was instrumental in spawning the 'Nature On A Rampage' subgenre--which was an offshoot of the 'Big Bug' movies of the 50s. Still, those movies wouldn't take hold till the 1970s when environmental issues became a hotbed topic in society and the media. The design for the BIRDS poster is simplistic, yet effective. If this had been an independent release, the horror aspects would be far more pronounced. Instead, the only exploitation here is that of Hitchcock himself including two statements from him and his signature!


Escapism was important and the drive in mavericks such as American International were only too eager to drum up candy coated entertainment such as the William Castle inspired hoopla surrounding the promotion of this gory Michael Gough terror tale from 1959. The bigger budgeted product from Hollywood generally had a less sensational look to its advertising reaching an almost experimental design for movies towards the end of the decade. That's not to say the majors didn't have both hands in the exploitation cookie jar at any given time, though.

USA & JAPAN--TWO SUPERPOWERS CLASH!

Take a look at the advertising for the MGM-Toei co-production of THE GREEN SLIME (1968). The poster has all the necessary ingredients required for an attractive publicity campaign. There's the imperiled female--this time in a tight fitting space suit with a large tentacle wrapped around her leg in a precarious position! Also, the monsters (there's no actual Green Slime in the movie) are drawn as these gigantic beings when in fact they're smaller than a man, but very destructive. This film, from a major studio, apes the sort of exaggerated ballyhoo typical of the movie mavericks at American International. The film itself does have some moments of horror, but overall the general tone is too childish to be earnest especially considering how science fiction was changing around this time with the release of Kubrick's 2001. THE GREEN SLIME did have a groovy theme song that was released on 45. I used to have one, but couldn't tell you what became of it.


Across the Pacific, the Japanese promotion for the film accentuated the children's demographic in a much more literal way than the American ads did. Compared to the meticulously painted poster of the North American release, this is a chintzy presentation, but is more successful at representing what ended up on screen.


The smaller companies like AIP continued to give their small budgeted pictures and their pick ups a big budget sheen in their publicity while maintaining the exploitation necessary to sell the product. The Danish monster movie REPTILICUS (1962) had two different versions produced and was awful in either one. The promotional materials cooked up by AIP's marketing department succeed admirably in creating an incredible poster design for what is ultimately one of the worst monster movies ever made despite frequent scenes of unintended hilarity.


American International were also the first to co-produce some Japanese giant monster movies such as the cult favorite FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD (1965). This striking poster is also deceptive in that Baragon, the other monster in the film, looks nothing like this Godzilla like saurian. The image of a towering Frankenstein monster tearing apart a bridge while holding a trawler in one hand and crushing a jet in the other is boisterously awe inspiring. Unfortunately, that portion of the poster is nowhere to be found in the film, but does more truthfully apply to the AIP-Toho co-pro WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS from 1966.


For whatever reason, the company that released the first and only US theatrically released Gamera movie decided to add an extra 'M' to the title monster. AIP released the bulk of the series straight to television. The more kid friendly drive in fare and exploitation productions continued to rule the roost till the close of the decade as genre fare began changing yet again moving away from fantasy horror into a more visceral arena which was likewise reflected in the publicity of those films. But till then, there was more than enough imagination in advertising to attract a potential patron towards the inherent child like wonder of spookshows and creature features.

MODIFYING A MOVIE'S CONTENT FOR THE SAKE OF ART REVISITED

The notion of expressing themes and ideas not in the actual movie, or even embellishing certain plot elements to seem more sensationally frightening than they actually were was a specialty of AIP and a tactic adopted by Corman during the wild and wooly New World Pictures days. For whatever reason, this was a popular choice of deception with a lot of foreign pick ups. Such is the case with Mario Bava's PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES (1965). The artist conception would have you believe that the film contained terrifying confrontations between space travelers and fanged skeletal creatures. Actually, the film features the skeletal remains of some huge beast, but it never attacks anyone.


Another Bava film, BLACK SABBATH (1963), had images on its advertising that wasn't in the movie. The promotional materials featured a headless horseman that was nowhere to be found anywhere in the film. It makes for a supremely macabre attention grabber just the same, though. Still, Bava's movie was cascading with goosebumper elements without the advertising adding anything at all. Horror in a period setting came back in a huge way in the 1960s and Bava was instrumental in its resurrection with his exemplary BLACK SUNDAY (1960), a movie whose promo artwork accurately depicted what you were going to see.


Then there's the Vincent Price spooker, THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (1964), a film based on a Richard Matheson story that's been adapted into a movie a few times over the years. Considering the box office bonanzas and good critical notices of the Poe adaptations with Price, it made sense that the movie moguls at AIP would attempt to capitalize on those Gothic themes with their advertising for this movie. The actors imposing visage aligned with an ominously creepy house that looks all the world like the home of THE MUNSTERS is ingeniously deceptive in its design. The movie is good, just the ad campaign vaguely alludes to something different.

GREAT POSTERS WITH A GREAT PRICE

Both Corman and AIP hit box office gold with a string of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations nearly all of them starring the company's golden goose, Vincent Price. The first of which was a massive success and possessed an indelibly memorable ad campaign. The poster sums up the movie exquisitely both capturing the gripping horror of the plot while providing breathtaking depth and making ingenious use of the blackened "wasted space". Corman's box office bonanza was a key film in reinvigorating the US produced Gothic horror feature that had previously been taken to new heights by Hammer Films of Great Britain and recent upstart Mario Bava from Italy.


While the posters for Price's Poe pictures frequently featured a spooky castle and an intended victim of some gruesome, torturous demise, they also would get a lot of mileage out of Price's visage, too. The culmination of this would have to be the artwork for THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (1964). The many tortures of hell populate a reddish hued image of Price as Prospero in what many consider the ultimate interpretation of Poe on film. This poster is also a monumental piece of artistic vision and one of the best ever promotional endeavors for a horror production.


For THE RAVEN (1963), this titanic, awe inspiring visual canvas is an example of creative clutter at its fright filled finest. You not only have Price, but the participation of Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre made for a formidable terror triumvirate. This poster conjures the playfully ghoulish spirit of Corman's delightful, madcap movie with just the right amount of horror. It's all of Corman's Poe ingredients perfectly realized and this poster is the embodiment of those elements.

PRICE & EDGAR ALLAN'S POE-MS

The posters for Price pictures usually always contained lurid imagery of horror promising lots of spook-worthy moments. Such is the case with THE HAUNTED PALACE (1963). The presence of Price isn't as prominent as on other AIP-Corman atmospheric horrors, but the element of terror and dread is in full abundance on this striking design. This poster, too, is yet another example of shrouding the truth within the painstaking details of an artists brush. The poster claims this is a Poe adaptation, but the film itself is taken from an H.P. Lovecraft story. The Poe connection comes from one of the Bard's poems. AIP apparently felt Lovecraft wasn't a known commodity on the level of Poe considering the moneymaking ventures the company had enjoyed from the authors work up to that point.


1968's WITCHFINDER GENERAL was a horror picture of the transitionary sort when horror was beginning to embrace a more serious, gore addled tone than in the years before. It being a co-production between Tigon and AIP, the ad campaign for the United States strangely downsized the prominence of Price that was seen on the British ads opting to ballyhoo a more frightening image of a rotting head while witches burn at the stake in the background. Note the 'M' rating which soon became GP than finally PG.


The British promotion links the film with its title character going for a more realistic approach inferring the savagery of the films contents. The US publicity, on the other hand, abandons the historical aspects of the UK design and attempts to link the film with Poe, this time in relation to his poem, 'The Conqueror Worm'. In its promotion, the exploitation of the subject matter is increased embracing the horror connotations that AIP had been barkering since the early part of the decade.

TO BE CONTINUED....

PART 4 SOON ON THIS SCREEN.....!!!

Decades of Exploitation: The Art of the Movie Poster Part 2

DECADES OF EXPLOITATION: THE ART OF THE MOVIE POSTER PART 2

ATTACK OF THE ATOMIC POSTER DESIGNS FROM OUTER SPACE

The movie poster artwork in the 50s was, like the movies themselves, larger than life. The artist design generally featured what was in the movie, but sometimes exaggerated to a more spectacular degree than what's actually shown. Take for instance the showstopping imagery for ATTACK OF THE 50FT WOMAN (1958). Here you have a towering, busty female scantily dressed (for the 50s, anyways) gripping a car in one hand and causing commotion and destruction in her path while standing over a freeway. This scene isn't in the film, but elements of this over the top image survive the end result. The poster is still an amazing design and the epitome of the exploitation of the female form presented here as the aggressor.

BAD MOVIE, GOOD POSTER

ROBOT MONSTER (1953), while most definitely one of the worst movies ever made, has an incredible poster design that belies the emaciated budget and bargain basement production values. This poster also commits the "cardinal sin" of using deceptive tactics to make the film seem far more bombastic and robust than it really is. The Ro-Man of the film is a guy in a shaggy gorilla costume with a plastic helmet on his head. The skull faced creature of the poster is non existant, too. One poster even goes so far as to feature the Rhedosaurus from THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953) as part of its ad campaign as well as other battling beasts of a prehistoric era. While most posters featured a single spectacular drawing of a major set piece in the film, ROBOT MONSTER's poster features an array of potential thrills that are nowhere near as extravagant in the film as what's shown in this artist's interpretation.

THE CREATURE WITH GENRE DEFINING POSTER ART

The numerous poster designs for THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954) is a classic example of the painted promo utilizing the maximum effect for enticing the curious public. It's a design that has cemented its classic status as well as influenced others over the years. The monster and the lovely Julie Adams are front and center with minor variance between the various versions and then there's the classic presentation of the title strategically splashed across the canvas. While it had been done many times before, the BLACK LAGOON marketing and the film itself personified the 'Monster & the Girl' motif in a way that hadn't garnered such staying power since the release of KING KONG (1933) some twenty years prior.


The BLACK LAGOON designs were hugely influential some twenty years later (reinforced by a particular scene in the '54 movie) for Spielberg's JAWS (1975). The image of a beautiful woman menaced by a terrifying creature has always been a memorable piece of visual iconography.


A remake of the film has been bandied about for years with everyone from John Landis to John Carpenter attached to direct. It would be intriguing to see what sort of publicity materials would arise. One can hope that, should the remake ever surface, that the poster will remain somewhat faithful to the mood of the original ads, but with a modernized touch.


The sequels advertising exploited that imagery to its maximum effect and its poster design echoed the 3D gimmick to a level surpassing the 3D marketing ploy of the first film. The gill man is drawn in such a way that he appears to be looming over the audience carrying an unconscious female, seemingly reaching out to grab the patrons ogling the poster.


The third film, THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US (1956), swaps out the misogynism of the helpless woman by having the now gill-less beast hoisting a MAN above his head. The poster also promises more "underwater thrills!" even though the films main attraction is the gill man being captured and having his capacity to breath underwater eliminated only to walk the Earth as a hulking monstrosity.

BAD MOVIE, BAD POSTER

The explosively colorful artwork on 50s science fiction and horror posters was often more enticing than the movies themselves. It was rare to find a barren space not filled with some ornately painted piece of action or calamity. Occasionally you'd get a poster that more than adequately reflected the inadequacies of the very film the ad campaign was promoting. THE GIANT GILA MONSTER (1959) is one such example. The sight of a real Gila Monster inside a tiny sandbox menacing offscreen teenagers is worthy of this kindergarten design for its poster. Incidentally, GUNSMOKE's own Festus, Ken Curtis was a producer on this barrel scraper as well as another bad movie, the much more entertaining THE KILLER SHREWS (1959). That films poster also hid its monsters--"big dogs draped with carpets and fake fangs" opting for a more grim ad campaign that definitely works even if the movie--an early example of the 'Siege Film' does not.

A MATCH MADE IN MOVIE POSTER HEAVEN

Beginning in the 1950s, Roger Corman and American International Pictures became synonomous with drive in exploitation features and the advertising was often many times better than the actual movies themselves. They covered the gamut from modestly budgeted action thrillers, teen delinquency pictures, sci fi, horror and sometimes an amalgamation of some, or all of the above. The AIP hucksters were well versed in the art of motion picture promotion and their team did an amazing job of making attractive posters that sported imagery that far exceeded the meager pennies spent on the actual movies.


You'll notice that many times little was left to the imagination for most of the genre movie posters of that time period. The exploitation of the product superceded whatever mystery the movie might have held; this being magnified to a greater degree by the 1970s. This also extended to trailers back then. The trailers often gave away important details. Possibly the promoters were banking that the audience would forget about plot points once they got into the theaters. In the coming decades as poster artwork changed, less and less was shown and designs became more and more vague as to what you were going to see, but for the time, rubbing the 'bread and butter' of a movies contents in the viewers faces was vital for success.

AT THE LATE NIGHT DOUBLE FEATURE PICTURE SHOW

With both Corman and American International being the Filet Mignon of the Drive In exploitation market, they brought the double feature back in a big way in an effort to combat the big studios. The double feature usually consisted of an 'A' film followed by a 'B' support feature; much like a 45 record with its A and B side songs. And like some of those B songs that eclipsed the intended single, the lower half of a double bill sometimes garnered more attention than the feature it was lending support to. The exploitation kings at AIP often brought together two B pictures for the price of one and made a great deal of money marketing two of their films or two pick ups whether it was Italian imports or Japanese monster pictures.


The double bill prospered throughout the 1950s and the early 1960s and eventually, that format was changed. On numerous occasions, two films with diametrically opposing storylines began cropping up such as this one above--FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER (1965) and CURSE OF THE VOODOO from the same year. One is a science fiction picture and the other is a horror movie. Both are bad movies and both films convey their contents in their titles without the aid of visuals. Still, the painted combo is terribly tempting and beguiling at the same time.


Here's a kooky co-feature of British chillers, one an atmospherically spooky movie about the occult that draws inspiration from superior horrors as BLACK SUNDAY and CITY OF THE DEAD (both 1960). The other an occasionally funny, but forgettable comical creeper starring singing sensation Pat Boone and directed by Terence Fisher. It's obvious from the imagery which is being ballyhoo'ed as the 'A' feature and which is the 'B' support. You'll notice the 'Witch Detector' at the top, a William Castle inspired bit of gimmickery; the sort of movie maverick hucksterism that was utilized well into the 1970s.


Here's another example of two vastly different movies. One is an oft ridiculed entry in the 'Big Bug' genre about gigantic rampaging wasps in Africa. Despite its reputation, MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL (1958) is an amazingly lurid and attractively titled picture even when saddled with a silly poster design. Paired with it is the still banned in Japan Ishiro Honda movie, HALF HUMAN (1955)--a film that had scenes with John Carradine shot for its US release and dealt with abominable snowmen and a subtext about deformed tribesmen that's taboo in Japan. Other small companies continued with the pairing of two movies (sometimes three) well into the 70s when the publicizing of a motion picture reached all new levels of depravity highlighting the sex and violence content regardless of how outrageous those elements really were in the finished product.

MR. B.I.G.'s AMAZING COLOSSAL AD CAMPAIGNS

Bert I. Gordon loved making movies even if the end product was seldom very good. Still, one can see a degree of passion in his films especially when he more or less acted as a 'One Man Show' whether writing, directing and even doing the special effects work. While his movies have garnered a stigma of unintentional comedy, the promotional artwork for his films generally reflected this as well. Arguably the best ballyhoo for one of his films would have to go to THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN (1957). Reminiscent of the gorgeously painted portrait of the ATTACK OF THE 50FT. WOMAN (1958), the poster for Gordon's movie encapsulates everything about the following years design for the giant gender swapped sci fi outing. The artwork, while exaggerated, captures the essence of what you're going to see when Glenn Manning grows wildly out of control eventually going on a macro enlarged rampage.


In a rare instance of hiding the title beast, Gordon's poster for his 1957 giant monster movie, THE CYCLOPS utilized a less than stellar approach to catching the 'eye' of its audience. Interestingly enough, the make up used for the films creature would sort of turn up in the following years sequel to COLOSSAL MAN, the WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST (see insert poster above). This time, our irradiated and now one eyed Glenn Manning is featured prominently on the films poster which refuses to hide what has become of our pitiable pseudo protagonist, now almost totally bereft of human thought and emotion.


Some of Gordon's other promotional designs for his films come off as noticeably silly, almost cartoonish in some instances. Still, these accurately depicted the less than serious attributes some of the films were saddled with. BEGINNING OF THE END (1957) is one such picture with its cartoonishly designed grasshoppers. On the poster, the bugs are blacked out save for the highlighting of the eyes and pronounced teeth the artist has bestowed upon the killer grasshoppers. Gordon's return to the giant creature genre in the 1970s resulted in two strikingly well made posters for two hilariously inept, but memorable cult movies--FOOD OF THE GODS (1976) and EMPIRE OF THE ANTS (1977).

THE MYSTERY BEAST FROM THE FAR EAST

Despite the smaller companies creating boisterous ads for films with little money behind them, alternate ploys were sometimes used to garner an audience. On occasion, AIP used secretive gimmicks to entice patrons into a theater to see just what hidden horror the poster refused to reveal. One of the most famous instances of playing with the paying customer's perceptions was 1964's MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA, retitled GODZILLA VS. THE THING for its American release. Whether down to fearing an altercation with Columbia (they owned the US rights to the original MOTHRA at that time) or just an example of movie showmanship to hide the fact that Godzilla was going to be battling a giant moth, the vagueness of the various ads were an ingenious bit of public deception. The most notorious of the fake hoopla was AIP's advertisment that Godzilla would be battling an enormous, multi tentacled monstrosity covered by a huge 'censored' card.


Another occasion of creating a mystique around a films monster was in Corman's CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA (1961), a no budget wonder he did for his Filmgroup company. The "creature" featured in the film is rather laughable and the artwork used for its ballyhoo is far better than anything the film offers. Again, there's the depiction of a woman in danger, this time preparing to become the meal for some gigantic monstrosity that doesn't correlate to the actual "monster" in the movie. Nowadays, something like this would go straight to DVD and you'd only have the DVD box art to contend with.

PART 3 NOW SHOWING...!!!