Azteca/Mexican Lobby Cards
Mexican Lobby Card: Reptilicus
Before trolls started roaming Norway in TrollHunter, Reptilicus was chomping on Denmark. Although this giant behemoth looks more like a Chinese dragon in the illustration than a reptile.
Mexican Lobby Card: Brain of Blood
The determination on the doctor’s face, the weird device he’s holding shooting out an energy beam, the savage determination on the ghoul’s face, and its strategic grappling around a bosomy chest; what more can you ask for in a lurid Mexican lobby card for Brain of Blood?
Mexican Lobby Card:
Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter
The lobby card is colorful, especially with an emotive Boris Karloff Frankenstein's Monster face staring at you.
Mexican Lobby Card:
Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster
When me and my mom showed up at the Benson Theater (in Brooklyn) one afternoon to catch Thunderball, we got zapped with this turkey instead. Bad makeup, bad acting, bad scripting, bad direction, bad, and overall cheesy fun. This lobby card is way better than the movie.
The Amazing Colossal Man (1957)
Mexican Lobby Card
One of my favorite B movies from the 1950s. Does this illustration remind you of King Kong and Fay Wray? And boy do I wish I had that hypodermic needle prop!
Mexican Lobby Card: Voodoo Woman
It's confusing: this lobby card is for Voodoo Woman (1957), but the title on the card reads The Gold Idol. Go figure. Speaking of figures, the usual scared female victim scantilly dressed and spear-waving natives, framed with that frightful monster face lighting up the background, tones this lobby card perfectly. Not tastefully, mind you, but in that B-movie-trashy-bad-it's-good way. Paul Blaisdell created, and played, the monster.
Mexican Lobby Card: War of the Planets
This lively Mexican lobby card depicts the male astronaut with mucho machismo while the cringing female astronaut clings to him for protection. The English language lobby cards are not as blatantly sexist. Pay close attention to their faces: she's looking at something that's making her fearful, but he's looking at her and firing his gun without aiming at what's scaring her. I'll leave it up to you more Freudian-centric readers to figure this one out.
Mexican Lobby Card:
La Maldicion De La Llorona
La Maldicion De La Llorona (The Curse of the Crying Woman) lobby cards are unusually subdued in their illustration (for a Mexican horror movie lobby card, that is), and imply a Gothic tone and romantic mood for this story of evil witches, dark spirits, and spooky mansion surprises. These two action-filled picture inserts, on the other hand, cry supernatural terror and woman in peril.
(lobby card courtesy of Professor Kinema)