A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away movie posters were actually considered works of art. The artists who created them were allowed to let their imaginations run wild and even B movies often boasted posters with magnificent artwork. Today, however, that era is all but gone. Movie posters generally consist of bland head shots of the stars and look like they were created by a high school apprentice working on a scanner during lunch break. In this exclusive article for Cinema Retro, Sim Branaghan, author of the new book British Film Posters: An Illustrated History, celebrates a bygone era in which movie fans would salivate over posters of forthcoming films.
Where does any love-affair with the cinema really begin? Mine, unfortunately, appears to have begun with the Christmas 1970 reissue of Mary Poppins at Walsall’s ABC cinema – or at least, it did according to my mother. Being then just a few weeks short of my fourth birthday, I have no recollection of the trip. But things improved as the years passed – The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, Island At the Top of the World, At the Earth’s Core, Star Wars, Warlords of Atlantis, and many others were cheerfully enjoyed in the faded glamour of local Black Country fleapits like the Wolverhampton Odeon, Dudley Plaza, and West Bromwich Kings, all now sadly long-vanished.
One thing you couldn’t ignore about these films, while queuing patiently outside to get in (remember that?) were their posters – glorious full-colour paintings, often tending to depict Doug McClure being menaced by an irritable dinosaur. They were frequently more memorable than the films themselves.