What drew me to this card is the primitive spook house ride illustration. I believe this Mexican lobby card is for Fritz Lang's The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, also known as The Last Will of Dr. Mabuse (1933).
This Mexican lobby card for La Cripta Del Terror has it all: bats, skeleton, crypt, death, victim (suitably undressed), would be rescuer, moonlight, and a dollop of seedy exploitation guaranteed to bring in the audience every time. The colors are vivid, the promise of horror palpable. Oh, and having Christopher Lee in the movie doesn’t hurt, either.
Don’t laugh, this 1970 “first sex-horror” movie (La Rose Ecorchee) has a 6 rating on IMDb. So there. The pressbook is a 6 page foldout, 9 x 12 inches in size. Pretty much the same size as that furry dwarf with the menacing spear.
Here's the 6 page foldout, 12 x 18 inches, pressbook for Universal's double bill, Curucu, Beast of the Amazon, and The Mole People. Sweet.
Here's the movie pressbook for Weird Woman (1944)). A less than stellar remake in 1980, Witches' Brew, starring Teri Garr and the tall man himself, Angus Scrimm, doesn't conjure up as much deviltry. How could it without Lon Chaney, Jr?
A few small ad mat cuts, but otherwise all here. Blood Bath‘s poster artwork condemnable with its sadistic victimization. Tagline’s no walk in the park, either. Hostel seems mild in comparison.
Here's a wonderful pressbook for a good movie that was lost in the shuffle from classic monster to classic sci fi in the 1950s. For me, John Agar epitomized the 1950s sci-horror everyman who showed equal measures of tupperware party simplicity and cool smarts.
With permission from Arena Publishing and Dr. Vollin, MD (aka Freddie Poe), here's How to Collect a Monster: The Birth of a Magician and the Tragedy of the Spook Show, from Movie Collector's World, issue 689, November 2005.
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How to Collect a Monster:
Harry Wise and the Lost Art
Of Spook ShowsRead More »
With permission from Arena Publishing and Dr. Vollin, MD (aka Freddie Poe), here’s How to Collect a Monster from issue # 711, September 2007, of Movie Collector’s World. Wherein the good Dr. V pays a visit to the metaphysically inspiring Monster Bash Convention.
Funny, but we must have brushed shoulders without realizing it because I was at the Bash that year, too. On top of that, it was the first time I met up with the zany Drunken Severed Head (aka Max). Max spent a good amount of time at the convention carrying around Bela Lugosi’s pants. But that’s another story.