THE SCI-FI AND MONSTER MOVIE POSTERS OF REYNOLD BROWN (1955 - 1960)

 

In 1994 they made a movie called "The Man Who Drew The Bug-Eyed Monsters." It was a documentary about a truly astounding artiste named Reynold Brown, who was responsible for creating many of the everlasting movie posters from Science Fiction and Monster Movies of the 1950's and 60's.

 

 

This Saturday Night Special is dedicated to that man! Prepare to be amazed!

Let's get started with the classic "Creature From The Black Lagoon" from 1955.

We've shown you many of these posters before, mostly because of the studio, but not the artist, who for the most part, always stayed sinfully uncredited!

 

Just keep reminding yourself that this is all the work of one man, because it really is a little bit hard to believe! Again in 1955, here's the poster from "Revenge Of The Creature."

 

Another from 1955, here's Reynold's poster for "Tarantula!" I like the weird double spacing on the stars names they did to get the composition right. Reynold paid great attention to the expressions on all the little people in the background, but the posters were printed so cheaply, a lot of his detail was lost!

 

 

Still from 1955, here's "This Island Earth," a color film that deserved an even more colorful poster. Reynold's compositions are starting to also get busier.

Probably one of the reasons that Reynold could paint such good flying saucers was because "during World War II he worked as a technical artist at North American Aviation."

 

In more than one instance Reynold's poster art was more exciting that the actual movie. "Curucu, Beast Of The Amazon" from 1956 is a perfect example!

 

This is how cool Curucu could have really looked!
 

 1957 was a big year for Reynold like this killer poster from "The Deadly Mantis."

Reynold did not only paint posters for the monster movies, he did over three hundred, and many of them were for mainstream films like "The Alamo."

 

 

Small or tall, Reynold got the call, and every one of these films is a classic! Again in 1957, he did the poster for "The Incredible Shrinking Man." And never forget this was long before the internet or Photoshop, and this all had to come out of the mind of one man!

What a great poster for the 1957 film "The Land Unknown." Actually a whole lot of kids were pretty disappointed seeing movies like this after seeing a dynamic poster like this one.

Now this is one of my favorites from 1957, "The Monolith Monsters." The movie is wack, and this poster of Reynold's explodes with excitement. It's almost three dimensional! I need to take a break, I think I'll go watch it for a while right now!

This poster for the 1957 adventure film "The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent," aka "Viking Women And The Sea Serpent," is ten times more exciting than the movie. 

 

You'd think that would probably be enough for most people, but Reynold was just getting started, and 1958 was really a banter year for him!

Is there a more classic poster than "Attack Of The 50 Ft. Woman?" Maybe, but it's debatable!
 

From attacks by giant women to puppet people, there was no stopping Reynold!

Again in 1958, this was the poster from "Attack Of The Puppet People."
 

 

This "I Was A Teenage Werewolf" poster also from 1958 was a beaut!

Believe it or not, Reynold didn't really like making these monster movie posters that much. It was just a job to him, that considering everything, didn't even pay that well, but that didn't stop him from putting his all into each and every one of them, many times to find his artwork chopped up by some art director.

 

 

What kid in 1958 wouldn't want to go see "Monster On The Campus" after viewing this poster?

Reynold developed this style where the images popped out at you, almost in 3D. This 1959 "Atomic Submarine" poster is a good example of that.

 

Some of Reynold's early work was drawing cartoons, then he turned to illustrating magazines with artwork like this, and his work also appears on the covers of a score of paperback books!
 

This 1959 poster from William Castle's "House On Haunted Hill" is way beyond classic!
 

By 1960, the face of horror was changing, and the films based on the tales of Edgar Allan Poe became a popular subject. This "House Of Usher" poster is as equally amazing as the monster posters were.

Also in 1960, the Italian horror films like "Black Sunday" were becoming very popular, and Reynold came up with this incredible imagery.

By 1970, the movies were becoming too sexy and violent, and Reynold decided after creating the poster for "The Dunwich Horror," that he had just had enough, and he went back to doing the art that he loved, painting cowboys, and enjoying life as best he could.

To find out everything they never taught you in school or history class, go to

The Reynold Brown Website

where you can find out so much more about this great man and gifted artist!

SETTE ORCHIDEE MACCHIATE DI ROSSO - "Seven Blood-Stained Orchids" (1972)

This Edgar Wallace Saturday Night Special is a little bit different than most, starting with it's Italian, and not German!

 

Wanna watch a one minute version of "Seven Blood-Stained Orchids," well, here you go!!

 

Everybody else gets their credits superimposed on them from one of their scenes, but not big shot Antonio, he gets a full shot of just his name!

Antonio (When Men Carried Clubs And Women Played Ding Dong" Sabato just passed away this last January at the age of 77.

Being German, gooshy Uschi Glas, billed here as Uschi Glass, was in quite a few other Edgar Wallace films like "The Gorilla Gang," and "The Sinister Monk." She also graced the screen in classics like "Suck Me Shakespeer," and "Schmucklos!"

I think this was the only Edgar Wallace film that Pier Paolo Capponi was in, but he was in Argento's "The Cat o' Nine Tails."

I don't think Marina Malfatti was in any other Edgar Wallace films either, but she was in another bloodstained feature in 1973, "The Bloodstained Lawn!"

As far as I can tell, Rosella (Black Belly Of The Tarantula) Falk was in no other Edgar Wallace films either.

I don't see any other Edgar Wallace films in his portfolio, but talk about versatile, Claudio was in everything from "Gidget Goes To Rome," to "The Death Ray Of Dr. Mabuse."

But not for long!!

Marisa Mell was also in EW's "Secret Of The Red Orchid," and along with Cladio Gora was also in "Danger: Diabolik!"

I think I could have passed for that guy holding the bottle in 1972!

"Seven Blood-Stained Orchids" is a movie about a serial killer in Italy!

Now this is a formidable looking police car if I ever saw one!

They call him The Half-Moon Killer for good reason! He leaves one of these at the scene of the murder!

Pretty cool record if you're into straight razors!

"Sette Orchidee Macchiate di Rosso" was directed by Umberto (Eaten Alive!) Lenzi, and the great soundtrack was composed by Riz Ortonlani.

Here's a fantastic version of the theme song performed by Ozarks!

THE FALCON TAKES OVER - "The Moose & Velma Show Part 04" (1942)

Tonight's Wednesday Weirdness is the fourth and what should be the final segment of shows based on Raymond Chandler's novel, "Farewell, My Lovely." I guess if I ever planned anything I would have done them in chronological order, but that's a different story!

Proving to be a very versatile story, "Farewell, My Lovely" is able to change lead characters at will. "The Falcon Takes Over" from 1942 was actually the first film version. Like the other three versions I've shown you, they take the basic story and cherry pick what details they choose to use!

I guess when you consider Raymond Chandler's methodology, it all makes great sense, since according to Wikipedia, Mr. Chandler liked to  cannibalize his own stories and "Farewell, My Lovely" was actually a combination of three of his other stories, "Try The Girl," "Mandarin's Jade", and "The Man Who Liked Dogs". 

 

It kind of all makes sense to me now how the filmmakers were able to pick and choose what parts of the story seemed pertinent to them in each case.

In the book, the story takes place is Los Angeles, but this version is set in New York instead!

It's a little ritzy for my tastes, but this looks like my kind of place!

Big mean Moose Malloy is played by Ward (Wagon Train) Bond in this version! 

Moose looks even bigger when you shoot from the ground up

The character of Moose is one of the few things that is a constant in all these films, but completely different in Chandler's novel. In the movies, Moose is a fairly dapper dresser, but in the book, he's described thusly!

"He wore a shaggy borsalino hat, a rough gray sports coat with white golf balls on it for buttons, a brown shirt, a yellow tie, pleated gray flannel slacks and alligator shoes with white explosions on the toes. From his outer breast pocket cascaded a show handkerchief of the same brilliant yellow as his tie. There were a couple of colored feathers tucked into the band of his hat, but
he didn’t really need them."

"Even on Central Avenue, not the quietest dressed street in the world, he
looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food." - Raymond Chandler

And even though this Moose isn't dressed as flamboyantly as that description, he's still not dressed well enough to fit in with the crowd in this upper-crust club!

Moose picks The Falcon's unwilling buddy Goldy Locke to be his getaway driver!

Goldy is played by Allen (Singin' In The Corn) Jenkins. Allen was also Officer Dibble's voice in the "Top Cat" cartoon TV series!

First I read that Ward Bond was 6'6", but Google has him at 6'1" and IMDB says he was 6'2".

George Sanders was almost 6'3" himself!

The "lady with a face like a bucket of mud" is played this time by Anne (The Devil Commands) Revere.

A very young Ringo Starr makes an appearance as Marriot. Actually, of course, this is everybody's favorite piano teacher, Hans (Fractured Flickers) Conried!

Looks like you could expect Dracula to show up any second!

Lovely Lynn (The Amazing Mr. X) Bari has the role of Ann Riordan.

At least being a ravishing blonde was an accurate portray from the book for the role by Helen (Girls In Prison) Gilbert! Being beautiful wasn't enough for Helen, she was also a performing cellist!

The always mysterious Turhan Bey is the phony psychic Jule Amthor.

I couldn't find Allen Jenkins' height anywhere, but he looks like he was at least a foot shorter than Ward Bond!

Velma, Velma, Velma!

This gal has caused more problems lately!

George Sanders is always great as The Falcon Gay Lawrence, but he's not so good as filling Philip Marlowe's shoes. George Sanders is so proper and debonair, I don't think they were able to use even one line of Philip Marlowe's. Forgetting all that, and adding the fact that it's a comedy of sorts, it's still a fun movie to watch on it's own. Just don't try comparing it to the other versions!