Azteca/Mexican Lobby Cards

Here’s the Mexican lobby card (El Capitan Vencedor) for Marvel’s (known as Timely comics back then) first superhero movie, Captain America. Bucking Republic’s usual serial plotline, this one had the villain known to the movie audience right off the bat. Republic also altered the character from the comics by making him use a gun and modifying the costume. They also didn’t call him Steve Rogers or connect him to the military, and left out the unique shield he slings around, though the lobby card includes it. In spite of these changes, the action is good and provides a better treatment than the one given to Batman (1943).

Here's a large-sized Mexican lobby card for El Juramento Del Zorror (1965). It consolidates the poster art into three areas of attraction: Zorro's horse rearing onto its hind legs, an violent action scene with the stagecoach, and the love interest along with movie title. This breaks down key elements for the story visually: that Zorro is a man fighting for justice against tough odds and that heroic guys dressed in black and wearing a mask invite romance by their mystery. 

The first live-action appearance of Superman on screen was with Kirk Alyn playing the lead role. This 15 chapter serial finally brought the Son of Krypton to movie audiences, but was hampered by that era's lack of the necessary technical effects to make the Man of Steel really fly, although Captain Marvel's flying proved better on screen. Flying was achieved with animation, which did not work well. However, the serial was a commercial success and gave us Noel Niell's Lois Lane, which she reprised in The Adventures of Superman with George Reeves. Interestingly, as noted in Wikipedia, animating him from live-action takeoff to animated flying was easier to do than animated flying to live-action landing. So they had animated Superman land behind something then he would pop out as live-action Superman.

Kirk Alyn was offered the starring role in The Adventures of Superman television series but refused it, not believing in the Superman Curse, in which anyone portraying the character would be typecast and not hired for any other role. Alyn eventually said "playing Superman ruined my acting career, and I was bitter for many years about the whole thing. I couldn't get another job in Hollywood." George Reeves, who did take on the role in Adventures died two years after that series ended, whether by his own hand or someone else's is still a mystery.

Back in the 1970s, to catch a martial arts movie, you had to find a theater running them. Those theaters were not your usual mainstream fare ones. This was also known as, oh yeah, go to Times Square in New York City and mind the theater seat you sit in, because you never know what they were playing before the Kung Fu movies hit the screen. Or you had to find a more offbeat theater running Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan (yup, a misspelling on the card) or some Chinese martial arts opus somewhere in the more interesting areas of the city. But boy were those movies worth it. Between the horror movies and martial arts movies, and the graffiti, it was certainly a colorful time for those seeking different cinema fare. This poster-like Mexican lobby card packs a nice punch with its illustration and inset action scene.

Here's an atmospheric larger Mexican lobby card (more like a small poster) for The Secret of Pancho Villa. The left and right skulls take the background as the dark-clothed mysterious masked figure, carrying the unconscious woman, takes the foreground. He is the hero, the Avenging Shadow. The layout is rough, but it has that cut and paste of highlights rush job aspect that is rather engaging because it is easy to take in. 

I cannot recall exactly when I first watched El Baron del Terror, but I was of that impressionable young age to be pretty mesmerized and chilled by watching the Baron suck out those brains and dip into his big, chafing dish styled, serving bowl for seconds. While the makeup is well underdone and the story in need of a rewrite–and lord knows that English dubbing was awful–The Brainiac is justifiably a cult classic, recreating the style of a Universal Horror for Mexican audiences. This Azteca lobby card captures the movie's vibe quite well. And you can never go wrong with Abel Salazar in a movie.

Another in-your-face illustration from Spanish artist Aguirre. This one is for The Invisible Ghost (El Asesino Invisible) with Bela Lugosi. While it may be a Monogram cheapie, it has an oddity to it, mostly due to Lugosi's presence and his character's psychological menace and ambiguity. The story is more involved than the usual Poverty Row pictures Lugosi starred in, and has a nice level of creepiness to it that makes this worth watching. Notice the illustration for this lobby card  draws from Lugosi's Dracula persona, with blood dripping hands, fangs, and bats flittering about (even with his bat-like wings in the background). Not sure why he's sporting a goatee, but it does make this visage especially menacing to pique interest in seeing the movie.

Here's a large (16.5 x 24) Mexican lobby for a Bomba marathon. The classic pulp style illustration shows Tarzan and no Bomba, but fear not; Bomba appears in the inset photo. Even the title says "son of Tarzan." Bomba isn't even top banana in his own movie promotion. At least the card, although cobbling previous illustrations together to save money, shows some style with the lettering and colors, and the layout all bad either, though they did chop into the background without a care.  

I admit I'm stumped with this one. The inset photo reminds me of a scene in Frankenstein 1970, but the rather wild, contemporary-ish, illustration doesn't quite click with any movie I can think of that remotely matches the title. With the little Frankie in the bottom left corner, I'm also thinking Amicus' Asylum, especially with the "color" mention. What do you think?

Update! Many thanks to Eustáquio Nardini for naming the movie, Frankenstein on Campus (aka Flick, 1970). IMDb's rating is pretty low for this Canadian entry. One user review states "A largely forgotten little Canadian film, and definitely a product of its era, FLICK/DR. FRANKENSTEIN ON CAMPUS is a 'turned-on' sexploitation/horror/counterculture oddity which is often referred to as "one of the worst ever" by people who most likely haven't seen it. Truth is, it's not nearly as bad as legend illustrates, but it does have a frustrating self-composure uncommon to the praxis of sex-infused horror cinema, and therefor comes off feeling somewhat like a chaperoned date."

Well, I'll bite. It is on YouTube so I will take a look. You never know. At least the lobby card is colorful. Thanks again, Eustáquio.

There was definitely a fascination with white people (especially sexy men or women in skimpy clothes) fighting the perils of the jungle during the cinema of the 1930s through 1950s. On the one hand, there is the notion of city-dwelling people learning to surmount the raw, alien nature in the foliage; on the other, there's the inescapable air of superiority from the white interlopers looking to exploit anything and everything they could get their hands on. Especially over the more "primitive" people native to the landscape, who are only good for carrying the baggage or running around scared or flinging spears at every opportunity. I find the movies still entertaining, but within the context of their time and a few grains of salt.

This Mexican lobby card for White Huntress pretty much follows the original poster art, but with more action and color. Who doesn't like watching blond-haired women fighting pythons?

Evil scientist. Weird-looking robot. Annoyed mummy. I'm all in. the Azteca lobby cards are simply beautiful, with vivid colors (though usually by accident, I think), an actual photo pasted to the card, and a nifty awkward balance between illustration, font, and scene to sell the movie to theater audiences. These smaller (11 inches by 14 inches) cards were distributed by Azteca Film Inc. for Spanish-language theaters in the United States. Typical Mexican lobby cards varied in sizes, with 12.5 inches by 16 inches a common one. See more cards at this Dangerous Minds article, and at Collectors Weekly.