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.
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)
A motif found in the majority of horror movie poster and lobby card artwork for any country: the female victim. The strategic dappling of blood across her ample bosom accentuates the terror of helplessness. I doubt Dungeons of Harrow (1962) brings, as the lobby card states, all the suspense as the major productions of Alfred Hitchcock. I don't think suspense is the key audience attractor here.
(lobby card courtesy of Professor Kinema)
In this lobby card for El Monstruo Del Rayo Gamma (The Gamma People, 1956), Paul Douglas's bulldog face is more menacing than the lumbering creatures in the foreground.
(lobby card courtesy of Professor Kinema)
The Bowery Boys, (East Side Kids), meet Bela Lugosi in this spirited and low budget Monogram romp through spook show style shenanigans. Angelo Rossitto (Freaks) helps bolster the sinister tone as the mysterious Nardo's (Bela Lugosi) assistant.
Based on Amelia Long's The Thought Monster, 1958's British production, Fiend Without a Face, sported some gruesome gore for its time, creepy stop-motion brain-monsters climbing and flying all over the place.
This Monstruo En La Noche lobby card for Universal's Monster On the Campus (also called Monster in the Night) is from the Professor Kinema archives.
A simple combination of red and black inks combine to create a striking image that's more exciting than the actual movie. Note the interesting contrast between the King Kong grip on the heroine by an over-sized monster in the illustration compared to the insert picture. The small picture of the scientist acting scientifically and the hypodermic needle outline cue the science-horror aspect of the movie.
I'm not feeling the zombie terror with this one. The lobby card art is atmospheric, but the photograph doesn't jive with the screaming mimi about to be grabbed by giant gnarly hands with their raking talons of doom. Maybe it's me? What do you think?
Sadly, there are no monsters in this movie version of the Republic serial, Flying Disc Man From Mars. At least the Mexican lobby card design is cool. You have to love that alien outfit. It's so functional, yet casual. I'd say that's one big missile that man has, wouldn't you?
"In 1953, Mexico mounted its first-ever serious treatment of the Frankenstein myth, El monstruo resucitado. Directed by Chano Urueta, El monstruo resucitado presents Spanish actor José María Linares-Rivas as a deranged plastic surgeon who keeps an ape-monster in his basement and successfully reanimates a corpse, albeit as a mindless zombie. El monstruo resucitado was a success in Mexico. Suddenly, the Western was taking second place on screen to the Horror genre films." (Wikipedia, Horror Films of Mexico )
And this lobby card art is to die for. Oddly though, for a movie that contains gory medical scenes, these photographs are tepid.
The Terror of the Tongs (El Terror De La Mafia China) lobby cards from Professor Kinema. That big bald guy looks mean, doesn't he? Note the use of different photographs within the repeating graphics to provide variety. Click each lobby card to view the Yellow Peril in all its lurid detail.
