From Zombos Closet

Sleeping Beauty (1959) Pressbook

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Here's the 1970 re-distributed pressbook for Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty. When looking at a pressbook from the Disney studios, you first wonder at the amount of merchandising they line up; then you wonder at the care with which they treat their creations. I enjoyed the live-action Maleficent (2014) movie with Angelina Jolie, but not knowing her background makes her all the more sinister fun in this animated movie. She's simply evil. Malevolent beings lose a lot of their mystique and intensity once you start to provide a backstory, don't you think? For instance, for me, Pinhead loses something once we find out who he was. Evil is all the more effective in drama when it simply exists, without reasons for being.

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A Christmas Carol (Scrooge, 1951)
Mexican Lobby Card

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Still the best version of A Christmas Carol on film. At least for me. Eagle-eyed viewers will catch a camera goof: watch closely the mirror that Ebenezer Scrooge (Alastair Sim) looks into on Christmas morning. In the right corner of the mirror the camera catches a member of the crew. Oops. There are other goofs, but you'll not notice them. Alastair Sim's Scrooge is too entertaining to miss and the milieu of old London too depressing to ignore. 

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D.O.A (1950) Mexican Lobby Card

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One of the essential film noir movies of the 1950s, D.O.A's grim, deterministic, storyline is captured well in this Mexican lobby card. Film buffs will usually point out the opening tracking shot that follows Bigelow (Edmund O'Brien) as he makes his way to the police detectives who already know who he is, but need the background story to connect the dots. The movie kicks in from there and you feel for the guy. For his neglected gal. And for the crazy, one-in-a-million reason he's dying. The dialog's a bit literary at times, but the momentum from the opening to the ending is always on the mark. 

DOA lobby card

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961)
Pressbook

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There are lots of merchandising tie-ins for Irwin Allen's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea movie: a comic book, a novel, a board game, and Frankie Avalon singing so they could sell some records. Of course the movie version doesn't have space aliens; the television series had the space aliens, and lots of other cool fantasy stuff Irwin Allen tossed in (with lots of sparkly, silvery, and colorfully goofy props and makeup) to make the TV series a must see for kids after Lost in Space became a hit. 

Comic book reader version:  Download Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Pressbook

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Mad Monsters No. 6, 1963

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Charlton Publications joined in the monster magazine mash with Mad Monsters, providing lots of pictures, a little text, and fun monsterkid merchandise to covet. So much to be ordered! So little allowance money to stretch and stretch and stretch. In this issue Queen of Outer Space still looks awful, Boris Karloff is the Man of a Million Horrors, Coffin Capers provides a tidbit of humor, and a Black Zoo Party provides an historical glimpse at movie promotion back in the day.

Comic book reader version:  Download Mad Monsters Issue 6

 

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Mondo Cane (1962) Pressbook

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The Wikipedia article on the movie Mondo Cane states: "is a horror-documentary film written and directed by Italian filmmakers Paolo Cavara, Franco Prosperi and Gualtiero Jacopetti. The film consists of a series of travelogue vignettes that provide glimpses into cultural practices around the world with the intention to shock or surprise Western film audiences."

I don't understand the horror-documentary label–it may be shocking, but horror? I recall seeing the trailer for this movie while sitting in the theater waiting for the main attraction to start. I was maybe 7 or so. Boy, was I shocked. To this day I still see the bug-eating scene in my head. Of course, now you can go to YouTube and other points Internet to be shocked. But hey, this was back in the 1960s, baby. We had better values then. We kept all the shocking stuff in the movie theaters.

Comic book reader version:  Download Mondo Cane Pressbook

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What’s Up, Tiger Lily? (1966) Pressbook

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I recall seeing Woody Allen on the Dick Cavett Show promoting this one. When Cavett asked him about the unique approach to the movie and asked if it would really sell, Allen replied he had a unique way to make money: he'd charge people to get out of the theater instead of into it. 

Here's the movie in a nutshell (excerpted from Wikipedia): "Allen took a Japanese spy film, International Secret Police: Key of Keys, and overdubbed it with completely original dialogue that had nothing to do with the plot of the original film. By putting in new scenes and rearranging the order of existing scenes, he completely changed the tone of the film from a James Bond clone into a comedy about the search for the world's best egg salad recipe

Comic book reader version:  Download What's Up Tiger Lilly Pressbook

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The Fabulous World of Jules Verne
And Bimbo the Great
Double Bill Pressbook

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Not trusting in their own fabulous promotion for The Fabulous World of Jules Verne, I suppose they paired it with Bimbo the Great to bolster ticket sales. This double bill pressbook is almost as big as Bimbo. So, you got mystimation (a fabulous animation technique that's quite enjoyable to watch) paired with circuscope (basically European widescreen, I believe) for the single price to "excite and delight."

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The Fabulous World of Jules Verne
And Bimbo the Great
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