post movie posters done in a busy/claustrophobic caricature style from the 70s and 80s

I'll just drop this here. Did I mention that a trailer is coming tomorrow? #TheSuicideSquad pic.twitter.com/VmB9n0rFSZ

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) March 25, 2021

THE Suicide Squad Film Follies, 2021

less cluttered than it should be tbh

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZDg4NGY3NzktMWEzOS00YzI3LTg1YzItODMzN2NjMWZlZjU4XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMDU2NjgyMg@@._V1_FMjpg_UX1280_.jpg

Who's Minding the Mint? (1967)

so it looks like Corman's commission to Stout to rip off Animal House led to a mini-wave of other busy/claustrophobic caricature commissions for him.

we've already seen Foolin' Around itt (hueg), and The American Success Company (hueg) itt, but the same year also had him do

https://i.imgur.com/9RHqxLN.jpg

The Hollywood Knights (1980) (hueg)

and he kept going the next year on Caveman (clearer version)

and he brought back the busy in 1987 for Amazon Women On The Moon

https://i.imgur.com/yIPl5Ij.jpg

(alternate (foreign?) version with different caricatures upthread / shamelessly hueg)

but in 1979 he'd also gestured toward the style with The Lady In Red, and at least the first of these very busy posters for

https://i.imgur.com/inKJCdS.jpg

The Life Of Brian (hueg)


https://i.imgur.com/t6lHlOF.jpg

(hueg)


Stout's own site has this alternate version, which might be one of his well-paid intermediate versions that never got used?

https://i.imgur.com/NCfmOmb.jpg



nb also the 1991 Italian new release film Brian Di Nazareth, with a Wanda-famous John Cleese added at the top.

THE Suicide Squad Film Follies, 2021

less cluttered than it should be tbh

this is dogshit btw

completely unrelatedly,

https://i.imgur.com/E8X0rlK.jpg

Cotton Comes To Harlem (1970)

less cluttered than it should be tbh
this is dogshit btw

?

the poster is a really bad hack attempt at '70s styling generally, and on that McGinnis poster especially. it should indeed be more cluttered, and not dumb photoshop

although McGinnis might be inventing half of Pen & Pixel's aesthetic right there, Gunn's style would probably fit well with that approach to photoshop

oh, i thought you were saying my comment was dogshit

sorry!

s'okay

https://i.imgur.com/U3RrGRV.jpg

Drive-In (1976)

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51eT9xIq8nL._AC_.jpg

Tank, 1984

the poster is a really bad hack attempt at '70s styling generally, and on that McGinnis poster especially. it should indeed be more cluttered, and not dumb photoshop

the photoshop illustration is far from the worst part of this btw - having to cram a load of incongruous logos and stuff in does as much damage as anything, picking one consistent 60s/70s-ish style would have enabled a more coherent layout, and the heninous kerning on the very top line starts things off on a bad foot it's hard to recover from.

turns out this was Gunn's brief to "the marketing guys," before he shot the film.

https://i.imgur.com/IP3hdV9.jpg

Good catch

look at how much better those credits read!

https://i.imgur.com/17BtbhG.jpg

That's The Way Of The World (1975)

also available in busier but less caricaturey flavour:

https://i.imgur.com/S7fNHJj.jpg

woah, hadn't seen the second version of that before. makes it look like a very different (and older) movie.

btw that movie sucks, EWF are *barely* in it. only part i really enjoyed was the long montage of record producer Keitel in the studio, gradually gussying up the Carpenters analog act's dinky, cloying little tune into an overproduced slab of easy listening cheese.

Man, Harvey Keitel has been making movies for like fifty years.

54!

Co-sign on the greatness of that recording studio sequence in TTWOTW, although I will say the film's cynically silly view of the music business is a wonder to behold.

For a movie about the group played by EWF being screwed and marginalised by idiot white executives in favour of anodyne whitebread pap, it sure goes out of its way to make that point.

The recording studio scene is great, the EWF opening is great, the roller disco scene is great, the NYC street cinematography is great, and nearly every scene is well-drawn, and making a relevant narrative point. It's just that none of it coheres - you wonder if the script was more focused, and the first-time producer-turned-director fumbled it. Some top-notch shirts on Keitel and others, though.

the way it settles on Keitel's relationship with the singer in the group as the main narrative thread, and the mean-spirited way it resolves that, is soooooo half-assed and clumsy, really doesn't feel at all set up by what came before. like they had a whole other movie planned and something fell through.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMzgzNjAzMjctMGY5NC00NWM2LTg0MzMtMTliODExZTIyZmY4XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzc5MjA3OA@@._V1_.jpg
White House Madness, 1975

Keitel's character consistently abandons his interests, principles, and motivations from one scene to the next, but is never written as doing so. He just shows up going along with whatever situation he was opposed to before. until that last-30-seconds double cross

looks like the poster's Nixon is more convincing than the film's on White House Madness

why is that so terrifying?

https://i.imgur.com/enA4JgG.jpg

Booksmart (2019)

man, some of these retro ones get *so* close in important ways...

yeah, that booksmart one is right on the line

RIP George Segal

https://i.imgur.com/p8QJuna.jpg

The Black Bird (1975)

https://i.imgur.com/Fdmcz4o.jpg

California Split (1974)

(Split was posted unlabelled and way smaller/murkier by Grisso seven years ago. Turns out Drive-In was also driven in by gr80 seven years ago.)

Both of these can be seen hueg in https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/movie-poster-of-the-week-the-70s-comedies-of-george-segal

lol at the Yawnsomely Literal-ness of the Black Bird art and tagline.

I think "after his bird" is meant to imply "wants his dick," but then turn out to be a trick single entendre. Unexpectedly Literal.

https://i.imgur.com/MaBeK7R.jpg

Strange Brew (1983)

(large / hueg)

woah, never seen that version. very nice.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZTU5OTg0YmYtNWVkMy00MGZhLTg1YzItZDc1ZGI0MWU4MmM5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzc5MjA3OA@@._V1_FMjpg_UY842_.jpg

The Billion Dollar Hobo (1977)

Bo and Hobo? In this economy?

Grand Theft Auto, 1977

― A White, White Gay (cryptosicko), Monday, August 17, 2020 1:29 PM (seven months ago)

Corman traded Ron Howard the permission to write and direct this for his acting in

https://i.imgur.com/oxFftld.jpg

Eat My Dust! (1976)

used in various tinted versions for daybills and trade mags

https://i.imgur.com/pMlNMGk.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Oj8JdOV.jpg

bring back lobby cards and ban trailers imo

aka

https://i.imgur.com/QPFwOTI.jpg

Gib Gas

et

https://i.imgur.com/Ht6oVS5.jpg

Mords Ma Poussière / Vreet Mijn Stof

(en gros)

and just because it's cool, here's GTA's appearance on that distributor's trade mag:

https://i.imgur.com/2b96Gvs.jpg

(sorry, juggling too many BBcodes: "Gib Gas... und laßt euch nicht erwischen" is Grand Theft Auto, obv)

6400 in corpus christi you say, sign me up

in three days from two theatres with rooves!

"A Very Funny Car"

TIL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funny_Car

presumably the top-billed ex-Bond players all do a single day's work in one room each, like modern DTV Bruce Willis and Steven Seagal

― erratic wolf angular guitarist (sic), Monday, September 14, 2020 7:19 AM (six months ago)

BTW here's a fantastic deep dive into how these films are the brainchild of the IRL Turtle from Entourage, Mark Wahlberg's former assistant who apparently stays barely ahead of various quantities of Russian drug money he's laundering, by giving out bit parts when his body parts come under threat.

I never knew that's where the MST3K frequent line "...pops the clutch and tells the world to eat his dust!" was from...

Elaine May's A New Leaf had two excellent posters.

The German poster is also pretty good.

The German VHS label knew that a movie is not funny unless it has a busy / caricature image on the front.

("No-one murders as badly as I!")

such a wonderful and weird film. was listening to the Blank Check ep on it this week and daydreaming about the original 3-hour cut being someday found and released, and who i would try to cajole into going with me.

and all great posters. the one that's claustrophobic with words was, iirc, also basically the script for one of the trailers....which consequently had basically no room to say or show anything of the movie they were actually promoting.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMzg0MWNlYWQtNzFlOS00NmIyLThkNTMtNDE5OTBkMTA3ZDM0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMzQwNDk2ODM@._V1_UY1200_CR80,0,630,1200_AL_.jpg
Viva Max!