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We want it scary...but not TOO scary!

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  • Went back and found the other thread you mentioned.  I am quite liking that fugly NZ daybill for the big circus.
  • FRENZY?
    Went back and found the other thread you mentioned.  I am quite liking that fugly NZ daybill for the big circus.

    Yes & one of their better efforts.
  • HONDO said:
    CSM said:
    Those Kiwis are a dastardly lot!


    HONDO said:

    There is a lot more history about this one sheet than probably some people think. I would be curious for a detailed run down on this poster and what has taken place here. My question is why was it used in New Zealand in the first place? I have what I believe to be the reason why but am keen to hear what other people think before I comment.

    This is an extreme case of censorship in New Zealand that didn't happen often to this extent but has clear explanation to explain as to why it happened.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Very quiet regarding this poster so I may as well have my say about it.

    The majority of Australian film  distributors around the time this film was released had branches in New Zealand and their product was released in both countries using the same poster designs that were printed in Australia for both countries with the New Zealand printed material on a whole having the Australian censorship ratings left off to allow for the N.Z. rating to be applied.

    The exceptions were for Allied Artists and British Lion whose product was released in New Zealand through the Robert James Kerridge group who controlled the Kerridge Odeon Cinema chain as well as International Film Distributors and Lion Film Distributors.

    Regarding the Allied Artists product, apart from sighting one Australian printed Paramount daybill King Of The Roaring 20's with the New Zealand Y censorship rating on it Allied Artists product had their own daybills printed most likely in N.Z. for International Film Distributors. Titles I have seen are The George Raft Story, Taffy and The Jungle Hunter ( released in Australia by Blake Films ), Operation Eichmann!, The Big Circus ( if you would like to revisit my earlier thread ''Certain Designs Of Different Daybills Could Have Been Different''  you will see the Australian and N.Z. daybill designs & Riot In Cell Block 11. I have never sighted a N.Z. one sheet printed for International Film Distributors which would lead me to believe they used imported U.S. and possibly U.K. one sheets for distribution in New Zealand.

    By using Australian designed daybills and one sheets in the majority of New Zealand releases major problems in censorship didn't appear to occur to the extent of the case of using the U.S. one sheet of House On Haunted Hill where three images were censored.




    Appreciate your thoughts Lawrence.  Interestingly, if my recollection is correct, the seller also had a US three sheet for HOHH censored in much the same way
  • edited September 2015
                                                                                                                                                                                         The original U.S. insert and the much toned down Australian daybill artwork with the original U. K. title appearing on it.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Appears the Australian censors around this time objected to strangling scenes appearing on posters as I have another example of a strangling scene being dropped which is still to come plus a lot more.
  •                                                                                                                                                                                             Another case of the missing knife.
  • I always thought he was delivering a holiday postcard on the US poster ;)
  • It appears to me on the bottom of the Australian daybill which is the same scene that appears on the U,S, title lobby card that the killer is inserting the knife into the woman victim's back.
  • edited September 2015
                                                                             Strait-Jacket ( 1965 )                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Isn't censorship odd. The Australian censor in 1965 graciously allows an axe wielding image on our posters but the New Zealand censors take offence and proceed to ruin the poster. Axes allowed in Australia in 1965 but knives being used were not and  still detested and not allowed up into the 1970s.
  • That's just weird!
  • They really loved their black textas/paint over there!
  •                                                                                                                                                                                                                          13 Ghosts ( 1960 )

    Top is U.S. one sheet of 13 Ghosts featuring 13 ghost images.

    The above Australian daybill has only 9 ghost images.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       The four images in black and white that appear between the two posters were apparently rejected by the Australian censor so were left off the Australian daybill explaining why there are only 9 ghosts.

  • They really loved their black textas/paint over there!

    I am sure it kept a whole bunch of people gainfully employed!
  •                                                                                                                                                                                         Another case of the Australian film censor disliking strangling scenes. Hey Mr. censor the film is about stranglers after all.
  • edited September 2015

    The Australian censor seemed to dislike knives, strangling and other methods used for killing. Many more examples to come.

  •                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               The Maniac ( 1963 ).  The U.S. poster is a great advertisement for a horror film and the Australian artwork is a poor version of a horror film poster.                               












                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

  • Whoops! Better remove the blood stain! Wouldn't want the ticket buying public to think it was a horror movie:

    5m478 BLOOD  ROSES insert 61 Et mourir de plaisir Roger Vadim sexiest vampire Annette Vadim  5a604 BLOOD  ROSES Aust daybill 61 Et mourir de plaisir Vadim sexiest vampire Annette Vadim 
  • She's been Omo'd!
  • Ha!  That one is too funny!  The film is titled BLOOD and roses...sheesh!
  • Another stabbing removal:

    3t036 HOMICIDAL insert 61 William Castle fright break money back guarantee for cowards only   p497 HOMICIDAL Australian daybill movie poster 61 William Castle horror

    BTW the main image for the daybill is from the 1/2 sheet:

    2z519 HOMICIDAL 12sh 61 William Castles psychotic female killer picture with a fright break
  • But the non threatning knife with the blood on it is fine though.
  • It's ok, BLOOD is not in the title so it's ok on the knife...who knows what they were thinking...maybe they were drunk most of the time.
  • Check out the NZ version of 'The Psychopath'!

    2o220 PSYCHOPATH insert movie poster 66 Robert Bloch wild image Mother may I go out to kill 8c323 PSYCHOPATH Aust daybill 66 written by Robert Bloch bizarre horror artwork p809 PSYCHOPATH Australian daybill movie poster 66 great horror image

    "Don't cross the path of the Psychopath...unless you're looking for a man who likes his dolly!"

    At least in Australia we only deleted the knife and the hanging image (bottom left)!
  • And the tagline...
  • I like to think due to the timezone it was night...
  • David said:
    I like to think due to the timezone it was night...

    That actually made me laugh...good one :)
  • Another strangling omission - was there a spate of stranglings in Australia during the 1960s?

    2f869 YOUNG THE EVIL  THE SAVAGE 3sh 68 Michael Rennie The Miniskirt Murders 8010 YOUNG THE EVIL  THE SAVAGE Australian daybill movie poster 68
  •                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Fanatic ( 1965 ) ( aka Die! Die! My Darling! in the U.S.A. )                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Originally banned in Australia in 1965 on horror & blasphemy grounds the film was passed ,for exhibition on the 1st of June, 1972.  The original U.K. and U.S. posters showing threatening scissors in a hand. There apparently was a dislike to the scissors being used in a threatening manner in Australia even in 1972 hence the lame Australian one sheet poster that was produced.
  • Another careful moving of borders:

    GIRLY 1sheet 
  • edited September 2015
                              Macabre ( 1958 )                                                                                         Isn't the Australian daybill scary ?
  • The art from the US insert obviously left an impression as it was used later:

    8t708 NIGHTMARE Aust daybill R72 David Knight  Moira Redmond in English Hammer horror

    but oddly with an extra face in the top corner!
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