Vintage movie posters

hellis.jpg

An example from this Flickr set.

Hell is a City is a Hammer melodrama from 1960 directed by Val Guest, mentioned here recently for his earlier The Day the Earth Caught Fire. This one doesn’t succeed quite as well, being a misguided attempt to do a film noir in Manchester. The poster tries to disguise the mundane reality by showing a city which looks more like New York than our small northern metropolis. But it’s worth watching for the great Stanley Baker and, like A Taste of Honey and other films with Manchester settings, you can have fun spotting familiar places in the background. If it’s Brit film noir you want, there’s only one place to go: Jules Dassin’s marvellous Night and the City.

Previously on { feuilleton }
Edward Judd, 1932–2009
Franciszek Starowieyski, 1930–2009
Czech film posters
The poster art of Richard Amsel
Bollywood posters
Lussuria, Invidia, Superbia
The poster art of Bob Peak
A premonition of Premonition
Perfume: the art of scent
Metropolis posters
Film noir posters

6 thoughts on “Vintage movie posters”

  1. If you like great British horror film posters you should look at the UK Quad sized posters for Dead of Night, Night of the Demon, Dracula (1958 Christopher Lee). Those are considered by most movie poster collectors to be the best. Keep up the good site!

    Regards

    Ralph DeLuca
    Madison, NJ

  2. Hi Ralph. Some of those old Hammer posters were featured recently on UK stamps. I collected quad posters for a while, mainly stuff from the Seventies. Still have a few which aren’t too damaged from smoke and other hazards of house-sharing.

  3. Hi to all HAMMER film production material collectors.
    I’m a private poster/foh stills collector, all original.
    I’m now, in old age, disposing of my collection of HAMMER foh stills.
    I have many titles, I’ve been collecting since the 1960s. Some of the material is very rare.
    Please feel free to contact me.
    kind regards

    mark gardiner

  4. Totally disagree on comments about “Hell Is A City”. This is probably one of the most realistic crime films made in England. Mostly shot on authentic Manchester locations. Not really “film noir”,but well worth viewing. Check out the “Hell Is A City” pages on my website.

  5. John,

    If you still have the posters you referred to and are interested in selling them, please let me know and we’ll find a way to get in contact.

    Aaron Davey

  6. Hi Mike
    I’m intrested in Hammer F.O.H sets and U.k posters for all titles for my collection,as well as British new wavw Look back in anger,Room at the Top,Saturday Nigh and Sunday Morning—if….Please contact me if you have Hammer material or U.K paper for sale…PLEASE!!!
    Michael Stemmer
    ukfilmlover@gmail.com

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