From Zombos' Closet

Pressbook: Jungle Heat (1957)

The late 1950s to early 1960s had a certain style of scripting and visual direction for female leads, which often promoted through tight, and skimpy, clothing with slip on shoes. Guys held the guns, of course, and seemed to always roll up their sleeves and slick back their hair. Lex Barker made a wonderful Tarzan, by the way.

A Study in Terror (1965) Pressbook

I already posted the herald for this movie, so here's the pressbook. Notice anything odd about it? What's a reference to Batman doing here? The first air date for the popular and influential Batman television series, starring Adam West and Burt Ward, was in 1966. American distributors for A Study in Terror must have thought linking Sherlock Holmes with the more campy Batman would be a good butts in seats gimmick. Wow. Great way to sell a horror movie starring two iconic figures, one fictionally good, one all too real evil.

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Movie Herald: A Study in Terror (1965)

Here's the theater giveaway to help promote the showing of  A Study in Terror with John Neville as Sherlock Holmes. While Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had engaged in speculation as to who Jack the Ripper really was, his fictional creation never did. 

The Monster Times Issue 38 January 1975

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad gets the filmbook treatment in issue 38 of The Monster Times. At least it adds a few pre-production sketches of Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion effects for the models. Marvel's handling of Conan the Barbarian is examined (thank the lord for those black and white magazines that escaped the dreaded comics code, especially here), and Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr. blabs about The Blob in a great interview. Interestingly, he relates how the blob's color was dyed deeper shades of red as the film progressed. "Since the creature devours some fifty people by the end of the film, it was a logical thing to do." Yeaworth also confirms the multiple titles for the movie before release: The Molten Meteor, The Glob, and Night of the Creeping Dread. He notes Steve McQueen suggest using "The Blob" one day during shooting. Bless you, Steve. Last but not least for this issue, TMT praises The Mad Ghoul for B-ing a movie above the rest.

Mexican Lobby Card: Santo Contra Los Secuestradores

I found this Mexican lobby card for Santo Contra Los Secuestradores (1973) primitive in its layout, but still effective. Hints of action, villains, and women with and without guns.  Looks like fun to me.

More Stuff in the Closet

Mexican Lobby Card: El Pantano Siniestro

Mexican Lobby Card: Bandoleros De Texas (1941)

Mexican Lobby Card: Gigantes Planetarios (1965)

Mexican Lobby Card: El Gorila Blanco (1945)

A fantastic Mexican lobby card for White Pongo (1945). Could this be the missing link between man and ape?! Nah. Just a man in a gorilla suit. But I'll keep searching for you. Ray "Crash" Corrigan plays the ape. Naturally. Aguirre Tinoco drew the ape in his distinctive artistic style. 

Conquistador De La Luna (1960) Mexican Lobby Card

How can you not love this goofy Mexican lobby card for Conquistador De La Luna (1960). Here's a variation of it that's not as colorful.

Psycho Issue 15, November 1973 All Ghoul Horror Issue

The cover art by Vincent Segrelles is fantastic, but doesn't seem to have much to do with this special all ghoul issue of Skywald's Psycho, issue 15. The stories are ghoulish enough, though. My favorite is The 13 Dead Things. The editor, Al Hewetson, is quoted as saying the glut of Marvel black and white magazines forced Skywald off the newsstands, otherwise their horror-mood brand of illustrated terror was selling well. (I came across this complete checklist of Skywald magazines on the Wayback Machine website. I converted the information to PDF, so you can Download Complete-Skywald-Checklist.)

Mexican Lobby Card: El Complice De Las Sombras

Here's the Mexican lobby card for The Prowler (1951).

Mexican Lobby Card: Bandoleros De Texas (1941)

Here's an action-packed Mexican lobby card for Texas (1941).

The Monster Times Issue 7 April 26, 1972

In this issue 7 of The Monster Times, Gary Gerani's Hot Prints Anyone? explains "how you  too can own and show your favorite monster movie in your own home!" Imagine that. Viewing a complete feature film in the privacy of your own home, with or without buttered popcorn, any time you like. Wild. At the end of the article, Gerani peers into the future: "We of The Monster Times see a day when the studios change the law, allowing distribution of their product to private homes..." Quite a blast from the past for monster kids, right? How many of you remember scouting around at conventions and other places for illegal full-length prints of your favorite horror films? If it wasn't for VHS, we'd all be in jail by now. Oh, wait, some of us did go to jail over VHS. Nevermind that. Anyway, other notable articles in this issue include the Would you buy a used car from this Gorilla?, which wonders why the monster-sized Volkswagen 411 car model television spot featuring King Kong came and went in the blink of an eye, and The Monster Market's Godzilla Aurora Kit review (costing a whopping $1.94 in U.S. currency). The reviewer wasn't too happy with its glow in the dark parts, the King of Monsters claws looking like Mickey Mouse gloves, and the weak stickiness of the model glue used for assembly because of too many snifflers getting cheap highs back then. Now, of course, you can just go to Colorado. 

Return of Chandu (1934) Publicity Pressbook

Here's a very special pressbook from the closet vault. It's the 12 x 17 inches Publicity Book for The Return of Chandu. This, the Advertising Book, and a theater giveaway Chandu Mask were presented in a large, eye-grabbing folder. Quite an impressive promotional presentation for this serial starring Bela Lugosi.

Comic book reader version: Download Return of Chandu

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