Exciting illustration and inset scene makes this Mexican lobby card for Tarzan en El Silencio De La Muerte, an eye-grabber. Interestingly, there's archive footage of Jock Mahoney, who also played Tarzan, to help lessen the budget, even though this movie was already edited from two episodes of Ron Ely's 1960s Tarzan television series. Is it me, or does that lion look a bit like the ID Beast from Forbidden Planet?
With an amazingly low budget of anywhere from 200,000 to 500,000 dollars, of course they would come up with some gimmick to help cut corners. Enter cinemagic, a way to tint scenes of Mars a strong saturated red, thereby hiding the cheap budget by lessening details you would not see anyway. The rat-bat creature stalking the astronauts (well, more or less, given the budget), was a pretty good and effective design; enough so that Cloverfield‘s (2008) New York invading alien would have similar attributes. Carnivorous plants, a one-eyed amoeba (I always smile, because it makes me think of Zacherle the Cool Ghoul) , the rat-bat creature, and an unfriendly three-eyed Martian (just pops up now and then), provide the action as cinemagic does its best to provide the red colorization (though the process was more involved because it used solarization).
Here is the pressbook. It focuses on poster art to sell the movie as well as TV and radio ads. And, of course, it touts the CineMagic gimmick.
You don’t need to travel to Mars to see more pressbooks from Zombos’ Closet.
ComicRack reader version: Download Angry Red Planet Pressbook
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Here's a rather large, 15.5 x 22.5 inches, Mexican lobby card for Tarzan's Desert Mystery movie (Tarzan el Temerario). What differentiates this from being a small poster instead of a lobby card is the inset movie scene. Interestingly, the inset scene is about the only thing from the movie on this lobby. The other scenes appear to be illustrations taken from various sources, but not ones based on the movie. These types of lobbies were printed on slick, thinner paper, and are for later runs of the movie in theaters.
As a kid watching this on my black and white television, I admit I was both fascinated and bored at the same time. Abbott and Costello had more fun with the concept in their Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953). I will quickly sum up this baby by saying it’s Zsa Zsa Ga-Boring. But a saving grace is seeing costumes and props used from other more exciting movies, like Forbidden Planet. Interestingly, Wikipedia mentions the Queen’s guard costumes’ colors may have influenced Star Trek. The pressbook is not too shabby. Note the radio AND television promotions. TV was starting to become less astronomical, so it warranted attention to help sell seats.
Luckily, YOU do not need to be a queen to see more pressbooks from Zombos’ Closet.
Download the ComicRack reader version: Download Queen of Outer Space Pressbook
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