movie poster love, part 3

TCM's Summer Under the Stars festival may be over for 2009, but I still have one more installment of movie poster art appreciation to post.

First up is this lovely redesigned post for The Pirate, a (in my opinion) criminally underappreciated musical from 1948 starring Gene Kelly and Judy Garland. I love the way this poster showcases both of Kelly's roles in the film - as the circus performer Serafin on the left, and the dread pirate Macoco on the right. The whole image has a kind of fun, whimsical feel - reminds me just a tad of some of the poster art I remember seeing for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.


Next up is this freaking fantastic poster for The Big Heat from 1953 starring Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame. I'd never seen this movie before it aired last month, but thanks to this poster I had to make a point of recording and watching it, and I'm so glad I did. It's great, classic film noir. And if you love coffee as I do, you'll never look at a steaming pot of it in the same way again. ;-)

Only Angels Have Wings is one of my favorite Cary Grant films, from earlier in his career, and it stands out from his better known films in that it's a straight dramatic role. If you like old melodramas, this is a classic definitely worth checking out. This poster primarily features the image of one of my favorite actresses, the inimitable Jean Arthur. It's a rather old-fashioned design, I suppose, but classy - it really gives Jean Arthur an air of mystery and allure. She had a great knack for balancing friendliness, approachability, and class in her film appearances. I've been working my way through a good chunk of her 1930s and 1940s filmography, and it's been an absolute blast.

Mogambo is just a wonderful, fun adventure flick starring Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, and Grace Kelly. It's actually a remake of an earlier Gable flick - Red Dust - and in my opinion it's one of the times where the remake proves to be better than the original (though I have a feeling that the TCM hosts would disagree with me, LOL!). This movie poster immediately reminded me of the artwork for Australia, which I absolutely loved & adored. Mogambo is a thoroughly enjoyable, old-fashioned technicolor adventuring at its best. And the screen chemistry between Gable and his leading ladies positively sizzles, even today.

And finally, I'll end with this fantastic poster for one of my favorite westerns, The Magnificent Seven, featuring star Yul Brynner. I don't think he's ever looked more menacing, no? This poster is extremely well done, I could definitely see this type of design being used today.

Since it's been a while, here are the links to part 1 and part 2 of this little series of mine. Perhaps this fabulous artwork will inspire you to check out some of these classics as well. :)

movie poster love, part 2

Since it's Thursday already, and I can't seem to find the opportunity to get back into some sort of blogging routine, I give you movie poster love, part 2. :) I love TCM, but there's something extra special about their Summer Under the Stars tradition, don't you agree?

First up tonight is this fabulous new poster for one of my favorite films, North by Northwest, starring Cary Grant and James Mason - and prominently featuring the latter, since this poster was designed to celebrate his film marathon earlier this month. I blogged rather extensively about this movie a couple of weeks ago, you can read my thoughts here. I just have to say that I love how they abbreviated the title to NXNW, it cracks me up because that would so happen today. I also love the map overlay, it's a nice touch given the territory this movie covers.


I absolutely love and adore Elvis, yes, even a good number of his movies in all of their cheesy glory. Considering my love affair with the "King" started when I was six or seven, I don't understand how I've lived my life to this point without seeing perhaps his most famous film, Jailhouse Rock. This was only his third movie, but I've got to rate it as one of his better flicks. Sure, he's a bit wooden, but the movie hints at some acting potential that was sadly generally not developed later on (the follow up to this film, King Creole, is a notable exception). Anyways, I love how this poster just focues on the very iconic, black and white images of Elvis's jailhouse performance. After all - that image pretty much tells you all you need to know, doesn't it? ;-)

Roman Holiday is a wonderful little movie, but goodness the ending tears me up every time I see it (yummy Gregory Peck...forget all that duty nonsense, Audrey, I'm just sayin'...I would totally understand). I simply adore the bright pink background, and the way it provides such great contrast for the colorized image from the film - it really makes it pop. I love the fun and whimsical feel. My friend Lori & I were discussing the design of some of these posters, and we came to the conclusion that if Roman Holiday was made today, it would be an indie/art house type flick, probably only coming out in "limited release," distributed by Pathe! or Miramax. LOL! It's been ages since I've seen this movie, I need to rewatch it sometime soon - after I gear myself up to have my heart wrenched by the ending. ;-)

The next few days are going to be a little crazy...so I'll go ahead and say have a marvelous weekend everyone!

Summer of Hitchcock: North by Northwest

Spoilers...

North by Northwest was the first film up for viewing as part of My Friend Amy's Summer of Hitchcock. I have no idea what I was thinking in yesterday's post on Dial M for Murder, when I stated that film was in my top five Hitchcock favorites - top ten, certainly, but not top five. That honor belongs to the likes of North by Northwest. It's one of those films that feels very nearly perfect to me - perfect cast, perfect direction, perfect script. Hitchcock caught lightning in a bottle back in 1959 with this jewel of a film that's held up remarkably well in the ensuing decades.

A bit about the story...

Cary Grant plays successful advertising executive Roger Thornhill in this his fourth and final Hitchcock film (following Suspicion, Notorious, and To Catch a Thief). He's plunged into the world of international espionage when foreign agents mistake him for government agent George Kaplan. Soon he's being kidnapped, framed for murder, chased, crop-dusted, and forced on the run, taking on a job he never sought out trying to outwit and outlast the bad guys.

Cary Grant is at his most debonair as the embattled Roger Thornhill. Grant just oozes class, even when his life is on the line. I love it when he first meets Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), the undercover spy "forced" to seduce him when they meet on the train to Chicago. Their exchange about his "nice face" - like Grant's looks are anything but extraordinary, LOL - makes me smile every time I watch the scene. And yes, the seduction/kissing scene is unbelievably long - but you've got to give Hitchcock credit for the rather inventive ways he implies passion in his films rather than showing a lot of skin (which he couldn't have done due to the production code, anyway). A while back I read somewhere that Grace Kelly was one of Hitchcock's favorite leading ladies, and if she hadn't married Prince Rainer of Monaco in 1956 I have no doubt she would've been a strong contender, if not the 1st choice, to play the Eve Kendall role.

James Mason and Martin Landau both turn in excellent performances as the villains of the piece - Mason as the coldly calculating mastermind Philip Vandamm (sounds like a James Bond villian IMO) and Landau as his stooge in Leonard. I've never had a problem buying Mason as a creepy bad guy, but Landau's performance is always a bit jarring for me to view. I tend to view him as a kindly grandfather-type, like his turn in The Majestic. I also love Jessie Royce Landis's performance as Cary Grant's mother - though in real life she was too young to play Grant's mother, the two play off each other so well their scenes never fail to crack me up. And though he's only in one scene, I love the fact that Edward Platt as a small role as Grant's lawyer. There's a Get Smart episode, if memory serves, that echoes how Roger Thornhill gets sucked into the world of espionage. It's a tenuous connection, I know, but hey that's how my mind works - randomly! ;-)

For me North by Northwest is the perfect balance of suspense, action, humor, and romance. There's something incredibly scary about the idea of being lost in a life-threatening plot where your whole identity means absolutely nothing because everyone else is convinced you're someone you're not. Roger Thornhill's journey is an interesting one. As an advertising exec he's the king of fakes and sleight-of-hand, and he is sent on this journey quite unwillingly where he must shed self-absorption and put his life on the line for others. A far cry from the posh executive's life he's been used to leading!

Three other points - one, this movie sort of makes me wish train travel was still the norm, and two, I wish the Mt. Rushmore set piece didn't look so horribly fake. Oh well, can't have everything, can we? *sigh* Which leads me to point three - I think the crop-duster scene totally makes up for the cheesiness of Mt. Rushmore being all styro-foamy. ;-)

Currently North by Northwest is only available as part of the Alfred Hitchcock Signature Collection. However, if you can track down a DVD copy it's so worth adding to your collection IMO! One of the special features is a featurette hosted by Eva Marie Saint entitled "The Making of North by Northwest" which is a nice, informative look at the making of the film.