March 2022

This is the rare and quite fragile pressbook for Song of the Thin Man, an enjoyable detective movie from an enjoyable MGM series of Thin Man movies). Unfortunately, MGM, around this time period, liked to print their pressbooks on cheap newsprint pulpy paper, which doesn’t hold up well over time. I had to be extremely careful while scanning this beauty, but even then I added more rips in the browning paper. But there’s a wealth of creative promotion and style here, so it was worth it. I hope you think so too. This movie was the sixth and last one in the series.

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Song of the Thin Man (1947) PressbookRead More »

Along with the pressbook, many times there were advertising or promotion supplements. These were printed inserts that included promotional articles and ideas, merchandising tie-ins, poster advertising, theater lobby displays, and additional newspaper adverts. Here are the two supplements (2 pages and 4 pages) for Tarzan the Ape Man. Johnny Weissmuller had a contract to promote BVD underwear. When the movie rolled around, a given tie-in for BVD was a no-brainer. 

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Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)
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At 18.75 x 12.5 inches, this 8 page pressbook is large and packed with promotion for the ape man. Unfortunately it was printed on thin, acid-prone paper, so handling had to be kept to a minimum for scanning. Also, I think the paper was tan originally, not white, so I refrained from doing any color correction. This is the sexiest (thank you pre-code!) of the Tarzan movies with Maureen O’Sullivan and Johnny Weissmuller swinging through the trees and audiences wishing they could too. Angelo Rossitto plays an evil native dwarf. (His team-ups with Bela Lugosi were fun to watch.)  I wish they had done more of them. Johnny Eck (Freaks) plays the bird creature. The ape costume during the climactic battle scene must have been pretty scary-looking back then, but now is somewhat lacking. Overall, still a fun, romantic action movie.

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Another lost city reluctantly found, another treasure stolen by dastardly white hunters. Brenda Joyce takes over the role of Jane (but without the chemistry of Maureen O’Sullivan) and Tarzan’s home atop the Great Escarpment changes into a next door over from the trading hut location. So, both chemistry and mystery start leaving the series at this point. But still a fun watch as they bring on the Amazons (or “forest maidens” as the pressbook promotes). Coming at the end of World War II, storylines with empowered women made the circuit, but still with feminine frills on, so to speak. Best not to scare the male audience too much.

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I caught Meet Nero Wolfe on a double bill with a Margaret Rutherford Agatha Christie movie back in the 1980s. I forget exactly where in New York City the event took place, but I recall the cramped theater was rather hot after a while and also that both movies were a far cry from the novels they purportedly were scripted from. I can definitely say the Nero Wolfe movie was awfully cast and added cheap humor instead of notable characterization. Even though I was in my teens at the time, I had read most of the Wolfe novels as well as Christie’s and really felt let down by the onscreen shambles. On television, Rex Stout’s creation has faired a little better. Timothy Hutton was quite presentable as Archie Goodwin and even William Shatner, who played Archie  in a Nero Wolfe unsold pilot in 1959, was not shabby at all. The Wolfe role has been a challenge taken on by others including Joseph Conrad, Thayer David, Maury Chaykin, Walter Connolly, and Kurt Kasznar. I have a fondness for Thayer David’s take, but I’m biased because I’m a Dark Shadows fan (he played Ben Stokes).

The pressbook is as large as Nero Wolfe, coming in at 17.5 x 12 inches and 16 pages. On the exploitation page it mentions a tie-up with selling Monopoly. “Monopoly, the parlor-game that has swept the country in sensational fashion, to seriously threaten the status of bridge as an evening pastime, is shown on the screen for the first time…” Wow. We can thank Monopoly for saving us all from playing Bridge. Who knew?

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Meet Nero Wolfe (1936) PressbookRead More »