A striking use of Japanese characters on this poster for Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 take on the true story of lawman versus outlaw, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. The film starred James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson and featured American musician Bob Dylan in his first film role. Dylan also composed several songs for the soundtrack and released an album of the same name that year, which featured the classic song ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’.

This was Peckinpah’s third western and it’s said that he wanted the film to be the definitive statement on the genre. Sadly, multiple problems beset the production, including budgetary and time constraints, malfunctioning equipment and sick cast and crew members. This led to a falling out between the director and the studio (MGM) and ultimately saw the film being removed from Peckinpah’s control. The footage was roughly edited and cut down before being dumped into cinemas, with an unsurprisingly poor critical and commercial outcome.

In 1988 a director’s cut of the film was released and led to it being given a favourable reappraisal from critics and many now hail the film as one of Peckinpah’s best. In 2005 a third version was released onto DVD, which combines the two cuts and adds in some new material whilst still running shorter than the director’s cut.

The original trailer is on YouTube.

Yes, this is the film where Vincent Gallo drives a motorbike around looking glum, crying occasionally and meeting random women before receiving an un-simulated blowjob from Chloë Sevigny. Gallo plays racer Bud Clay who is on a cross country trip to a track in California and is trying to repress memories of his one true love, Daisy (Sevigny), by meeting different women along the way. The actor was also the film’s director, screenwriter, editor and took care of almost all of the other technical details.

The film’s first cut was roughly 25 minutes longer than the one that was eventually released worldwide. Its re-editing was as a result of the savaging it received at the Cannes Film Festival. Legendary critic Roger Ebert declared the film to be the worst in the history of the festival, which saw him and Gallo enter into a war of words, with the director calling Ebert a ‘fat pig with the physique of a slave trader.’ The critic responded by paraphrasing a statement attributed to Winston Churchill, saying that ‘one day I will be thin, but Vincent Gallo will always be the director of The Brown Bunny.’ When the new cut was released in the US Ebert surprised many by giving it his signature thumbs up.

For a cool $1,000,000 you can actually purchase the main man’s little swimmers, should you want to birth the next generation Gallo, whilst $50,000 will net you a night with him (ladies only).

This is the American one sheet for the original 2004 release of the film into a limited number of smaller cinemas. There’s also a one sheet that features a similar image but is mostly white (no yellow) and is often referred to as the teaser.

Yes, this is the film where Vincent Gallo drives a motorbike around looking glum, crying occasionally and meeting random women before receiving an un-simulated blowjob from Chloë Sevigny. Gallo plays racer Bud Clay who is on a cross country trip to a track in California and is trying to repress memories of his one true love, Daisy (Sevigny), by meeting different women along the way. The actor was also the film’s director, screenwriter, editor and took care of almost all of the other technical details.

The film’s first cut was roughly 25 minutes longer than the one that was eventually released worldwide. Its re-editing was as a result of the savaging it received at the Cannes Film Festival. Legendary critic Roger Ebert declared the film to be the worst in the history of the festival, which saw him and Gallo enter into a war of words, with the director calling Ebert a ‘fat pig with the physique of a slave trader.’ The critic responded by paraphrasing a statement attributed to Winston Churchill, saying that ‘one day I will be thin, but Vincent Gallo will always be the director of The Brown Bunny.’ When the new cut was released in the US Ebert surprised many by giving it his signature thumbs up.

For a cool $1,000,000 you can actually purchase the main man’s little swimmers, should you want to birth the next generation Gallo, whilst $50,000 will net you a night with him (ladies only).

This Japanese poster features a still from the infamous sex scene and the yellowing around the edge is part of the design.

You only have to look through my poster archive to know that I love schlocky horror films as much as the next person, but I really struggled to make it through The Stuff when I rewatched it again recently. Sadly, that wasn’t because it was too gory or scary but because it’s such a terrible mess of a film, with clunky pacing, a complete lack of suspense and painfully bad acting across the board. Lead Michael Moriarty gives one of the strangest performances I’ve ever seen featuring baffling line deliveries and the general air of someone who thinks he’s acting in another film entirely.

The premise is okay with a mysterious white goo being discovered in the desert by a miner who then samples it, declares it to be tasty, and before long it’s the nation’s favourite dessert and is being marketed as an alternative to ice cream. The only downside is that it turns people into brain-washed zombies who infect anyone else they come into contact with. The leaders of several ice cream companies hire Mo Rutherford (Moriarty), a former FBI agent, to investigate what the secret of The Stuff really is.

I’m unsure who painted the artwork on this US one sheet so please get in touch if you have any ideas.

The original trailer is on YouTube.

This is the Japanese poster for the release of The Anderson Tapes, a 1971 crime film from director Sidney Lumet. It stars Sean Connery and was released the same year as Diamonds are Forever, the film that marked the final time he would officially play James Bond (for Eon Productions). It’s based on a novel of the same name by Lawrence Sanders and had a screenplay written by Frank Pierson who was a producer as well as a screenwriter. Lumet and Pierson would later collaborate on the classic Dog Day Afternoon in 1975.

Connery plays the role of John “Duke” Anderson, a serial burglar who has just been released from prison and reunites with his girlfriend Ingrid (Dyan Cannon) who lives in a high-class apartment block in Manhattan. Far from being reformed, Duke decides he will target all of the flats in the block in one big heist with the help of his mafia connections and a crew of assorted criminals. Things have changed since he was put away and Duke must contend with the electronic surveillance throughout the building as well as various forms of snooping that are covering his entire crew. The film was one of several released at the start of the 1970s that dealt with the issue of surveillance, including the brilliant The Conversation.

This Japanese poster features artwork originally found on the US one sheet, although it appears to have been colour-tinted somewhat, particularly the masked men at the top. If anyone has any ideas who the artist is please get in touch.

This is a screen print for the 2013 Coen brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis that was created for an art exhibition held in early 2014, around the release of the film in the UK. Written, directed, produced and edited by the celebrated filmmakers, the film is a black comedy-drama based around the New York folk music revival scene of the early 1960s. Although largely fictional, the eponymous singer-songwriter is based on Dave Van Ronk, a now deceased folk singer who was an important character at the time and had the nickname ‘The Mayor of MacDougal Street’. The Coens found inspiration in his autobiography and certain elements of the film are based on it.

Oscar Isaac plays Davis and the film takes place over a week in February 1961. We follow the singer as he struggles to make a name for himself in the music scene and travels around with his guitar in tow. Due to a lack of money, Davis is forced to sleep on friends’ couches, including that of his long term friends the Gorfeins. In an early scene in the film, Davis accidentally allows their cat Ulysees to be locked out from their flat. He grabs the animal and heads to the house of  Jim (Justin Timberlake) and Jean (Carey Mulligan) Berkey, a couple who are also singers, asking if he can stay the night. During the stay, Jean tells Davis that she’s pregnant and believes the child to be his, asking him to pay for the abortion. The rest of the film see Davis trying to track down the funds to pay to Jean, wrangle with the constantly escaping cat, and try to kick start his struggling career.

The UK-based magazine Little White Lies created an event to celebrate the film’s release which saw it commission seven artists to create fake gig posters for seven different Coen brothers films, including The Big Lebowski and O’ Brother Where Art Thou? The event was called ‘One Night Only: A Coen Brothers Gig Poster Extravaganza’ and all of the other posters can be seen on the website of the UK Poster Association, who was responsible for the actual screen printing, here. Each poster was printed in a limited run of 50.

This poster for Inside Llewyn Davis, featuring Ulysees the cat, was designed and illustrated by a studio called Telegramme, which is run by Bobby and Kate and is based in Margate on the south coast. Their official website is here and features lots of items for sale. The about page details their work for other companies. They also have a page on Cargo Collective which can be viewed here and includes other examples of their work. Telegramme’s Instagram page is here.

Great art by John Solie features on this over-sized one sheet for the little-seen blaxploitation actioner The Slams, released in 1973. The film was produced by the brother of infamous b-movie legend Roger Corman, Gene Corman, who was behind a few other blaxploitation features like Hit Man and Darktown Strutters. Corman hired Jonathan Kaplan to direct after he’d worked with his sister-in-law on a couple of exploitation features, and genre-regular and ex-NFL player Jim Brown took the lead role.

Brown plays Curtis Hook, a heist-man who is caught soon after completing a successful robbery that netted him $1.5m (once he’d killed his partners) and is sent to jail. Once there he is assailed by several interested parties, including the corrupt head of the prison guards Captain Stambell (Roland Bob Harris), who all want to know where he stashed the loot. Hook discovers that the locations he left the cash are due to be demolished so he hatches a plan to escape from prison and collect the loot before it’s lost forever.

The artwork on this poster is by the American artist John Solie who has been working as an illustrator for over 40 years. Film posters are just one aspect of his output, which also includes book and magazine covers, sculptures, portraits and work for NASA. He continues to paint today in Tucson, Arizona. Another gallery of his work can be viewed on Wrong Side of the Art.

Here are the posters by John Solie I have collected to date.

I’m unsure why this poster is so over-sized as it’s definitely not a cardstock 30×40″ poster but has all the hallmarks of one, including the text down the side with the NSS information. It’s on standard thin paper and measures 45″ in the vertical so it’s a bit of a mystery. Note that the NSS info has an ‘R’ in front of it, which would typically indicate a re-release poster, but since the film was released in 1973, it’s likely that this was actually meant to indicate that the poster was revised in some way (as noted on this emovieposter.com auction page for a 30×40 of the film).

This is one of three B2 posters printed for the Japanese release of the cult fantasy Highlander. The film started life as a story by Gregory Widen which he penned whilst studying screenwriting at UCLA and it was sold to the film’s producers for $200k before undergoing several re-writes. Directed by Australian Russell Mulcahy, who had made a name with a series of music videos, the film is set in two time periods and tells the story of a Connor Macleod (a career-making turn from Christopher Lambert) who is born in Scotland in 1518 and discovers he is immortal when he is seemingly killed in a battle with a rival clan, later waking with no injuries. Believing him to be cursed, he is banished by his fellow clans people and is forced to live in a remote castle.

Eventually, after marrying a woman called Heather (Beatie Edney), he is visited by another immortal called Ramirez (Sean Connery) who teaches him how to sword fight and explains that the only way to kill another immortal is to remove his head. Ramirez also urges Connor to leave Heather, explaining that immortals are sterile and always end up causing hurt to any mortals that they fall in love with. In present day, Connor is shown to be living and working as an antique dealer in New York City and dealing with attacks from other immortals who are taking part in ‘The Gathering’ in which the remaining immortals from around the world fight to be the last one alive (“There can be only one!”). The psychotic Kurgan (Clancy Brown in a memorable turn), who first met Connor on the battlefield in Scotland, is determined to win the prize and will stop at nothing to do so.

Mulcahy injects great energy into the film, clearly using many of the tricks he learned making music videos and the performances of the three main actors all help to elevate the film beyond what could have been a very schlocky fantasy. Some of the scenes involving Connor and Heather are genuinely touching and force the viewer to imagine the downsides of living as an immortal. Michael Kamen’s orchestral score is excellent and is embellished by several memorable songs by the British band Queen, including ‘A Kind of Magic‘. Although not initially a box-office success in the US, the film was an international hit and would gain a cult following, which later saw the release a series of iffy film sequels and a popular TV series that lasted for six seasons. The franchise also includes comic books, novels and animated shows.

This is the style B Japanese B2 but I also have the style C one too. The British quad, painted by Brian Bysouth is by far the best of the international Highlander posters.

The trailer for the film can be seen on YouTube.

This is one of three B2 posters printed for the Japanese release of the cult fantasy Highlander. The film started life as a story by Gregory Widen which he penned whilst studying screenwriting at UCLA and it was sold to the film’s producers for $200k before undergoing several re-writes. Directed by Australian Russell Mulcahy, who had made a name with a series of music videos, the film is set in two time periods and tells the story of a Connor Macleod (a career-making turn from Christopher Lambert) who is born in Scotland in 1518 and discovers he is immortal when he is seemingly killed in a battle with a rival clan, later waking with no injuries. Believing him to be cursed, he is banished by his fellow clans people and is forced to live in a remote castle.

Eventually, after marrying a woman called Heather (Beatie Edney), he is visited by another immortal called Ramirez (Sean Connery) who teaches him how to sword fight and explains that the only way to kill another immortal is to remove his head. Ramirez also urges Connor to leave Heather, explaining that immortals are sterile and always end up causing hurt to any mortals that they fall in love with. In present day, Connor is shown to be living and working as an antique dealer in New York City and dealing with attacks from other immortals who are taking part in ‘The Gathering’ in which the remaining immortals from around the world fight to be the last one alive (“There can be only one!”). The psychotic Kurgan (Clancy Brown in a memorable turn), who first met Connor on the battlefield in Scotland, is determined to win the prize and will stop at nothing to do so.

Mulcahy injects great energy into the film, clearly using many of the tricks he learned making music videos and the performances of the three main actors all help to elevate the film beyond what could have been a very schlocky fantasy. Some of the scenes involving Connor and Heather are genuinely touching and force the viewer to imagine the downsides of living as an immortal. Michael Kamen’s orchestral score is excellent and is embellished by several memorable songs by the British band Queen, including ‘A Kind of Magic‘. Although not initially a box-office success in the US, the film was an international hit and would gain a cult following, which later saw the release a series of iffy film sequels and a popular TV series that lasted for six seasons. The franchise also includes comic books, novels and animated shows.

This is the style C Japanese B2 but I also have the style B one too. The British quad, painted by Brian Bysouth is by far the best of the international Highlander posters.

The trailer for the film can be seen on YouTube.

Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski’s Deep End is one of those films that leaves a lasting impression on anyone who sees it, but it was sadly considered to be a ‘lost’ film for many years and was practically impossible to see after its initial cinema opening in a handful of countries. The film was briefly available on VHS in the UK but was never released on DVD. In 2011 the BFI restored and re-released it at the cinema and also issued a blu-ray version complete with several extras, which is utterly superb and well worth picking up.

The film focuses on Mike (John Moulder-Brown) a teenager who leaves school and gets his first job working at a local swimming baths. There he meets Susan (Jane Asher) an older woman with whom he quickly becomes infatuated. Without spoiling things too much, the film builds to a fairly shocking climax which has been known to polarize viewers. Jane Asher looks absolutely stunning and really plays the seductive, care-free Susan perfectly – it’s not hard to understand the reasons behind Mike’s infatuation!

Skolimowski was a contemporary of Roman Polanski and was mentored by the great Polish director Andrzej Wajda. He completed several films in Poland throughout the 1960s before moving to the UK where he made Deep End and a couple of other features. He then left to Los Angeles where he took up painting and occasionally acted in films, notably in White Knights and more recently in David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises. His 17 year hiatus from directing ended in 2008 with the release of Four Nights with Anna and he made the spartan thriller Essential Killing with Vincent Gallo in 2010.

This poster by an unknown graphic designer is the quad that was printed when the film was given a wider UK release. The premiere showing had actually been at the Academy Cinema One on London’s Oxford Street and the poster for this was done by the legendary designer Peter Strausfeld (his Seven Samurai poster is on this site here).

The original trailer is on YouTube.

Filmed by prolific Italian B-movie director Antonio Margheriti, the bizarre caveman-sci-fi hybrid Yor the Hunter From the Future actually started out as a four part TV series shown on Italian TV called ‘Il Mondo di Yor’ (The World of Yor), which itself was based on a comic book series of the same name. Margheriti, who shot the entire thing in Turkey, cut the four-hour series down to this 90-minute version that was distributed internationally and is now regularly cited as one of the worst films ever released.

Reb Brown plays the bronzen, muscled and poodle-haired Yor, a mysterious warrior who travels through an prehistoric world besieged by cavemen tribes and dinosaurs in search of his origins. Along the way he meets Ka-Laa (played by the gorgeous Corinne Cléry) and Pak (Luciano Pigozzi) two primitives who help Yor on his journey to discover the secret of the golden medallion he wears around his neck.

This poster for the US release of the short version features a brilliantly pompous and full-stop heavy tagline.

The original trailer is on YouTube.

British artist Brian Bysouth is responsible for this great design for the classic fantasy film Highlander that spawned several sequels and TV series. It’s significantly more interesting than the dull US poster. This Bysouth design can also be found in a one sheet format.

During my interview with Brian this poster was discussed:

I like it because of the amount of detail you can see, much like your painting for Highlander.
Thank you, I was pleased with that one. It was an enjoyable job and, fortunately, when asked to do a design for that type of film I was usually quick to identify what the key image should be. Phil Howard-Jones, the advertising director at EMI, who I did the work for, liked it very much and eventually he kindly returned it to me.

The trailer for the film can be seen on YouTube.