The Dunwich Horror
This is an interesting one. The Dunwich horror ( 1970 ) appears in the Australian trade publication The Film Weekly Motion Picture Directory of 1971 listed as Dunwich Horror when released in Sydney in 1970. The 1971 newspaper advertisement above confirms this so why did the Australian daybill produced for the 1970 release have Dunwich - A Story Of The Occult printed on it instead of The Dunwich Horror? By the way the Australian artwork is completely different from the U.S. artwork and compared to it the Australian artwork is rather lame.
0
Get In Touch
Comments
Interesting question Lawrence. Title on the daybill on the right is Dunwich Horror but it looks like a second printing. The one sheet title is Dunwich A Story of the Occult .....
Thanks john for posting the alternative daybill image.
Dunwich horror was released in Sydney on the 24th of July, 1970. On the 15th of November, 1971 the old Not Suitable For Children classification was changed to NRC. The image John posted would have to be a second printing as he suggests and the printing would have had to taken place between mid 1970 to no later than very late 1971.
An interesting question is why was the second printing done? To replace an error perhaps in the leaving out of the word Horror or was it for some other reason? As with a lot of other questions relating to daybills we most likely will never know the answer.
I have a couple of daybills where their age and their rating don't seem to match.
In around 1970 and 1971 just prior to the R certificate and other rating changes happening in late 1971 the official advertising that was in place at that time under guidelines from the Censorship Acts And Regulations was for advertising to be - A, signifying Not Suitable For Children. This is what appears on the above newspaper advertisement for The Dunwich Horror showing ( A ). What we need to keep in mind poster ratings and newspaper ratings were completely different in wording and display. The two daybills were released in the times as shown above.
In reply to your second query Pancho post some examples and I will see if I can be of some assistance to you.
If anyone wants to see an expanded explanation of the cinema newspaper advertising censorship ratings seek out an earlier thread started by Pancho in September, 2015 titled Odd Ratings and you will see my information about this subject posted there on the first page.
Respectfully disagree! I think the Aussie poster is awesome, and never liked the "Medusa" USA posters.
I have that Aussie one sheet that John posted framed and hanging in my office, and love it! Much truer to the original story AND the film IMHO. The colors are a lot more vivid than they appear in the photos. I will admit that the US poster is a little more "interesting" visually, but the design/colors of the Australian poster wins for me.
Cheers-
RN
To set the record straight my comment in full was actually as follows - ''By the way the Australian artwork is completely different from the U.S. artwork and compared to it the Australian artwork is rather lame''.
To this point of time I had never sighted the Australian one sheet that John posted following my remarks. I was solely talking about the daybill and the posted image I had downloaded. Had I seen the one sheet earlier, perhaps I wouldn't have made the comment as the one sheet colours, comparing it to the daybill, are far superior and I agree the Australian one sheet is superior to the overdone U.S. artwork.