Written By: Ken Hulsey
Movie Info From Wikipedia
You wouldn't believe the amount of positive feedback I have received since I started this series of features on classic movie posters last summer. Everyone seems to be in love with the articles so I have no intention of stopping them any time in the future.
You seem to love them and I love doing them so there you go.
Today I'm featuring six, because this is the sixth installment, posters from six of my favorite all-time movies. Why am I being so selfish this close to Christmas when everyone should be in a giving mood? Well, Friday is my birthday (thank you) so I'm going to make this one about me. I think I deserve it.
No, I'm not going to tell you how old I am. You don't need to know that. I'm old ... okay ... not prehistoric but not a young man anymore either...and don't say six because that's today's theme number. Granted sometimes my maturity level is that of a six-year-old but I am working on that.
Anyway enough about me, on with the show!
Verigo (Above)Maybe not a monster or scifi movie but one of my favorites, if not my favorite, movies of all-time. Hitchcock was in love with San Francisco and quite honestly so am I. Jimmy Stewart is one of my favorite actors and Kim Novak is as an amazing an actress as she is stunning to look at.
To be very honest I'm not a big fan of the movie posters produced for this movie but this Japanese one is very cool and probably the best ever produced for this film!
Vertigo is a 1958 psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes. The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A. Taylor, based on the 1954 novel D'entre les morts by Boileau-Narcejac.
It is the story of a retired police detective suffering from acrophobia who is hired as a private investigator to follow the wife of an acquaintance to uncover the mystery of her peculiar behavior.
The Land That Time ForgotI am a child of the seventies and dinosaurs were huge during that decade. The Land That Time Forgot was easily the best of the dinosaur related movies produced during that time period. I can watch this one over and over.
The poster is just amazing, dinosaurs, a German U-boat, a volcano, great stuff!
I have always wondered why they put a T-Rex underwater for this add? Didn't we learn from "Land of the Lost" that they hated water? Grumpy never swam!
The Land That Time Forgot is a 1975 fantasy/adventure film based upon the 1924 novel The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The screenplay was written by Michael Moorcock. The film was produced by Britain's Amicus Productions and directed by Kevin Connor. The cast included Doug McClure, John McEnery, Keith Barron, Susan Penhaligon, Anthony Ainley and character actor Declan Mulholland.
The Day The Earth Stood StillGod, I could really ramble on and on about this movie. Is it the greatest scifi movie of all-time? I really feel that it is because of it's simple and mature approach to the genre.
I know you could throw "Forbidden Planet" or "Star Wars" out there and you would have a valid argument. For me though it's all about "The Day The Earth Stood Still"!
This poster is rather unique looking, it's a French release and the vivid colors and composition really speak to me.
The Day the Earth Stood Still is a 1951 American science fiction film directed by Robert Wise and written by Edmund H. North based on the short story "Farewell to the Master" (1940) by Harry Bates. The film stars Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Sam Jaffe, and Hugh Marlowe. In the film, a humanoid alien visitor comes to Earth with a warning, accompanied by the powerful robot, "Gort".
Creature From The Black LagoonMy affinity for the Creature (or Gill-Man) has been been documented at length here on this site so I really don't think that I need to go into it very much.
The Creature and Godzilla are the two monsters that I feel in love with way back in my youth.
I have been very blessed as an adult to have known the late Ben Chapman (The Creature on land), talked at some length with Julie Adams and recently met Ricou Browning (The Creature under water). All wonderful people!
This poster is rather unique as in the fact that it is rendered in black and white. Thank God they didn't add those horrible red lips to this image like all the rest!
Creature from the Black Lagoon is a 1954 monster horror film directed by Jack Arnold, and starring Richard Carlson, Julia Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, and Whit Bissell. The eponymous creature was played by Ben Chapman on land and Ricou Browning in underwater scenes. The film was released in the United States on March 5, 1954.
Creature from the Black Lagoon was filmed and originally released in 3-D requiring polarized 3-D glasses, and subsequently reissued in the 1970s in the inferior anaglyph format (this version was released on home video by MCA Videocassette, Inc. in 1980). It was one of the first Universal films filmed in 3-D (the first was It Came from Outer Space, which was released a year before). It is considered a classic of the 1950s, and generated two sequels, Revenge of the Creature and The Creature Walks Among Us. Revenge of the Creature was also filmed and released in 3-D, in hopes of reviving the format.
Big Trouble From Little ChinaIf you haven't done so already you should base your life on the teachings of Jack Burton:
"When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, and he looks you crooked in the eye and he asks you if ya paid your dues, you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that: "Have ya paid your dues, Jack?" "Yessir, the check is in the mail."
Words to live by!
A fun poster for a fun film!
Big Trouble in Little China (also known as John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China) is a 1986 American martial arts comedy film directed by John Carpenter. It stars Kurt Russell as truck driver Jack Burton, who helps his friend Wang Chi (Dennis Dun) rescue Wang's green-eyed fiancee (Suzee Pai) from bandits in San Francisco's Chinatown. They go into the mysterious underworld beneath Chinatown, where they face an ancient sorcerer named Lo Pan (James Hong).
Although the film was originally envisioned as a Western set in the 1880s, screenwriter W. D. Richter was hired to rewrite the script extensively and modernize everything. The studio hired Carpenter to direct the film and rushed Big Trouble in Little China into production so that it would be released before a similarly themed Eddie Murphy film, The Golden Child, which was slated to come out around the same time. The project fulfilled Carpenter's long-standing desire to make a martial arts film.
Planet Of The ApesBefore there was "Star Wars" there was "Planet of the Apes" and this young lad had the tree house playset with all the action figures Mego.
Many fans don't remember just how big "Apes" was just before George Lucas' pop-culture Juggernaut took over everything entertainment related.
This baby is Italian a combines almost all of the key elements from many of the other "Apes" posters created around the globe.
Planet of the Apes is a 1968 American science fiction film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, based on the 1963 French novel La Planète des singes by Pierre Boulle. The film stars Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore, James Daly and Linda Harrison. It was the first in a series of five films made between 1968 and 1973, all produced by Arthur P. Jacobs and released by 20th Century Fox. The series was followed by a remake in 2001 and a reboot in 2011.
The film tells the story of an astronaut crew who crash-land on a strange planet in the distant future. Although the planet appears desolate at first, the surviving crew members stumble upon a society in which apes have evolved into creatures with human-like intelligence and speech. The apes have assumed the role of the dominant species and humans are mute creatures wearing animal skins.
The script was originally written by Rod Serling but had many rewrites before eventually being made. Directors J. Lee Thompson and Blake Edwards were approached, but the film's producer Arthur P. Jacobs, upon the advice of Charlton Heston, chose Franklin J. Schaffner to direct the film. Schaffner's changes included creating a more primitive ape society, instead of the more expensive idea of having futuristic buildings and advanced technology. Filming took place between May–August 1967, mostly in California and Arizona, with the opening scene shot at Lake Powell, Utah. The film's budget was approximately $5,800,000.
