Shaft’s Big Score is the second in a trilogy of films featuring blaxploitation hero Shaft (Richard Roundtree). This Japanese poster features a still from one of the big action sequences in the film. I’m a fan of the typography used for the title.

You can view the trailer on YouTube.

A wild design on this Polish poster for the 1983 American action film Blue Thunder. The late Roy Scheider stars as Frank Murphy, an LAPD pilot who’s given the chance to fly the world’s most advanced helicopter, nicknamed Blue Thunder, and use it in the war against crime. Following the death of a city councilwoman Frank begins a covert investigation and discovers that there are corrupt forces at work who plan to use the stealth helicopter for more than just crime prevention.

The artwork on the poster is by Wieslaw Walkuski who was born in 1956 and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Since 1981 Walkuski has worked as a graphic designer and artist for publishing houses and theaters, as well as for the Polish film organisations Polfilm and Film Polski. He’s worked freelance since 1987 and has painted over 200 film posters. He continues to live and work in Warsaw. Walkuski’s official website features galleries of many of his designs and images of his other work.

He’s responsible for some incredible designs and two of my favourites include those he painted for Lars Von Trier’s Breaking the Waves and the Dustin Hoffman comedy Tootsie.

The trailer for Blue Thunder is on YouTube.

Shaft’s Big Score is the second in the trilogy of films featuring Blaxploitation hero Shaft (Richard Roundtree) which sees the private-eye caught up in a war between two rival mobs after the death of one of his friends. The murder leaves the two gangs chasing a missing $200,000 and battling to take over a neighbourhood with Shaft battling to stop them. The film was directed by Gordon Parks who was also responsible for the first film and would later direct another blaxploitation caper, The Super Cops (1974). Although singer Isaac Hayes had provided the score for the first Shaft film, he wasn’t available for this sequel and Parks decided to work on the score himself since he was also a composer.

The all-action artwork on this 30×40 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.

You can view the trailer on YouTube.

An unusual illustration with a stylised half-finished look features on this US one sheet for the release of the 1973 film Shamus. It was directed by the late Buzz Kulik who spent the majority of his career directing TV shows and TV movies, including several episodes of The Twilight Zone. The film stars Burt Reynolds who had entered a golden period following his breakout performance in the 1972 film Deliverance. For the rest of the 1970s he would star in two or three films a year, cementing his reputation as a rugged action star and cheeky good ol’ boy, with films like Smokey and the Bandit, as well as an off-screen sex symbol (thanks to things like the infamous magazine centrefold image of him lying on a rug).

Set in New York, Reynolds stars as the titular Shamus McCoy, a hard-living private detective who enjoys drinking, gambling and womanising, but is in need of a new case to top up his bank account. One day he’s approached by an eccentric diamond dealer who’s had a stash of diamonds stolen and Shamus is offered $10k to track them down. What seems like a straightforward case turns out to be nothing of the sort and the PI is thwarted at every opportunity, with a beating by a gang of thugs making him realise he’s onto something big. Shamus teams up with his friend Springy as well as Alexis Montaigne (Dyan Cannon), the sister of a nightclub owner who’s involved in the plot. The gang uncover illegal arms dealing activities and are soon confronted by the deadly intentions of the improbably named, corrupt army Colonel Hardcore (John P. Ryan).

I’ve struggled to identify who is responsible for the artwork so if anyone has any ideas please get in touch. Unusually it features both a smaller illustration and a retouched photographic image. Typically posters from around this period might feature a main photographic image with supporting illustrations (see the Cleopatra Jones poster for example).