Need some advice on a poster I picked up.
in The Basics
Afternoon all,
I collect antiques and vintage things and came across this today and had to buy it and I wondered if you guys and girls could help me out.
I picked up a massive 2.2 meter x 1.8 meter Spanish version of To Hell and Back movie poster staring Audi Murphy. Although not in perfect condition, its an amazing piece, but not one my wife would allow me to hang at home. In fact you would have to have some pretty big walls for this one.
What is strange is that some if it is hand painted! It looks like it was an original poster for 'To Hell and Back' (I can see the original text through the paint), but then for the Spanish market the Regreso del infierno and the surrounding area has been hand painted over the top. Would this be a normal thing to do?
Also it has brown paper around the edges. I guess this would be to protect and then removed when being hung.
Any more info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in Advance,
Phil
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Hi Phil - cannot seem to access your image but yes it would be quite normal for an English title to be painted over for a different language market.
The brown paper tape is also quite common for posters that were actually displayed...
Haha!Phil - nice looking poster.
If you really, really love it you might even be able to get it restored to remove the paint - it does not appear to be all that thickly applied.
However, based on past sales results as noted by Charlie probably more fiscally responsible to buy another copy (if the English title is important to you)
You have to remember that this poster (and basically all posters) were not made to be collected - they were a disposable utility whose sole purpose was to attempt to get people to buy a ticket for the film.
It would be much cheaper for a local non-English theatre to simply paint over an existing English language poster than pay for a new print run with the proper Spanish title. Preservation or 'defacement' were of no concern...
These 2 have added borders:
And this one has a spanish title painted over the original -and added borders- :
"Big Hollywood stars that supported the Republican cause -James Cagney, Joan Crawford or Robert Montgomery— saw how their names dissapeared from spanish movie posters, while titles that could have unwanted double meanings were changed"
from LLOPIS, B.:La censura franquista en el cartel de cine, Ed. Notorius, 2013
A history of peasant's revenge, where love and reconciliation prevails. Was mistreated by Francoist censorship and even the title (was going to be called The Reapers) was changed because it did not praise the Catalan people. The time of the setup was also changed, advancing it to 1935, at the height of the Republic, when all evils were possible. It was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign language film and the Palme d'Or at Cannes.
"Some like it hot" became something like "With skirts and going crazy"
"The seven year itch" became "Temptation lives upstairs"
http://www.huffingtonpost.es/2014/09/30/traducciones-peliculas-curiosas_n_5907222.html