Crime Pays, Just Not Much
Mexican Lobby Cards
Here's a mix of it's-a-crime Mexican lobby cards to keep you on the straight and narrow.
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Azteca/Mexican Lobby Cards
Opio (1949) Mexican Lobby Card
The movie is listed as a crime drama, and the Opio, La Droga Maldita Mexican lobby cards hint at something sinister and unsavory.
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
Mexican Lobby Card
A thrilling lobby card to be sure. Peter Cushing makes an energetic Holmes, although they should have kept the glowing paint on the hound, instead of the mask.
Mark of the Gorilla (1950) Mexican Lobby Card
Apes menacing under-dressed women is a B-movie staple. Here's your example of the day courtesy of Mark of the Gorilla. Here's the pressbook.
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Jungle Stampede (1950)
Mexican Lobby Card
Released by Republic Pictures, Jungle Stampede was condemned by the National Legion of Decency; which, not to be confused with the Legion of Doom, was a more sinister legion. I also wonder if the NLoD was actually a bonafide legion or more like a bunch of let's-meet-on-Sunday-over-coffee and condemn some movies we don't want anyone to see people with little else to do.
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The Lodger (1944) Mexican Lobby Card
An atmospherically photographed take on Jack the Ripper, The Lodger's Laird Cregar, the star villain, gets second billing on this Mexican lobby card and the credits. A travesty given his mesmerizing performance. He died too soon. Vincent Price delivered his eulogy.
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The Green Slime (1968) Mexican Lobby Card
So bad it's fun. Here's the pressbook. I recall seeing this in the theater on its first run. I was a kid, but even then I realized how awful this was. Check my take on its silliness in Silly Monsters in Silly Movies.
The Lost Tribe (1949)
Mexican Lobby Card
Jungle Jim (Johnny Weissmuller) continues his adventures in this second entry in the movie series from Columbia Pictures. Once again, white natives living in a secret city in Africa need protection from exploiters (a plot premise reused in too many Jungle movies). The beautiful Elena Verdugo and Ray Corrigan, as the gorilla, make it worth watching.
Black Dragons (1942)
Mexican Lobby Card
Bela Lugosi plays a doctor who transforms Japanese agents to look like important Americans, who are then murdered and replaced by their Japanese impostors. Imprisoned, he escapes and takes his revenge. If you're an Outer Limits fan, this plot device should ring a bell: in the episode, The Hundred Days of the Dragon, a presidential candidate is replaced with an impostor by sinister Asian forces.
Earth vs the Spider (1958)
Mexican Lobby Card
I don't know about you, but every time I watch a bug movie I start itching a lot and constantly glance around me, imagining creepy crawlies eyeing me with longing. Earth vs the Spider has a preposterous premise–a large arachnid "killed" by DDT is then propped up in High School gymnasium (what, the local dump wasn't good enough?), then a rock band starts sock-hopping the thing back to life. It's pure hokum. But the kind that made drive-in fare so much fun to watch. Here's the pressbook.
Kuroneko (The Black Cat) 1968
Mexican Lobby Card
Yabu no Naka no Kuroneko (A Black Cat in a Bamboo Grove) is a ghostly horror story. This Mexican lobby card captures that atmosphere rather well.
Invisible Invaders (1959) Mexican Lobby Card
Okay, so the movie's scripting and editing are a bit stiffer than the zombies, but those zombies scared the heck out of me when I caught this on television, late at night, at that tender age when you love horror movies but get scared too easily. Of course I'm a pro now. No, really. George Romero may have watched this and got a few ideas. Just saying.