Zowie! Welcome back. You are just in time for another edition of the Classic Collection here at the Shock-O-Rama poster Show. Yes, it's more of the posters I've had since BEFORE I started sharing online. I do have to apologize for the awful photos. I am no photographer---which is why I USUALLY use photos from the auctions I win. Oh well.
Now let's see what I have in store for you today:
THE CORPSE GRINDERS:
I do believe that this (or maybe either release of ASTRO ZOMBIES) is the best poster for a Ted V. Mikels movie. Golly, if this poster didn't make you want to rush out and see this schlock fest, nothing would. You've got to love the terrified girl being pushed, legs first, into a horrifying-looking machine with the promised of "Bone-Crushing Terror! Sine-Tingling Chills" and "turns bones and flesh into screaming, savage blood death!" So---it may be an exaggeration. The people put into the very cardboard-looking machine are already dead (So no terrified, screaming victims as depicted) and, instead of turning them into screaming, savage blood death, they are turned into... cat food. Really. Me-OWWW! But what a poster!
ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE ('80's re-release):
Of the early James Bond flicks, this is probably my favorite---even though it features (in my opinion) the weakest actor portraying Bond. Diana Rigg was absolutely enchanting in this. Blofeld's hideout in the Alps, with the aerial tram to and from, was interesting and made for great snow action---like the bobsled run.
VIVA JAMES BOND (Film Festival poster):
This is an unused (?) poster for a James Bond film festival that was held at some point. The empty square beneath "Bond" was where the title of whatever film(s) was/were playing would be filled in with a snipe or hand written in. I prefer my copy, which leaves the box unmarred. Very cool.
BLOOD AND LACE:
I've never seen this flick, but what a jaw-droppingly horrifying/gruesome poster for a film rated "GP" (the precursor to the "PG" rating). "Shock after shock after shock" as the giant, bloody hammer comes crashing down on the screaming girl's head. EEEK! I used to have this hanging in my bedroom once upon a time. Now it sits in my closet...
VALLEY OF THE DOLLS:
This is a guilty pleasure of mine. It's the unintentional camp classic VALLEY OF THE DOLLS. Sure, it's boring as hell, but I LOVE this movie. The poster could have been better (MUCH better), but it is what it is, and I am thrilled to have one. "Sure, I take dolls. Gotta get some sleep, don't I?, so I can get up in the morning and 'Sparkle, Neely. Sparkle!'" HA!
THE HINDENBURG:
During the 70's disaster era, I found it very difficult to get my mom to take me to see any of the disaster movies. For "THE TOWERING INFERNO," my babysitter took me and my little brother (one walked, two of us had bikes and we traded off) to see it---miles and MILES from the house. "EARTHQUAKE" I didn't get to see initially...but eventually caught it as a co-feature with "THE GREAT WALDO PEPPER". "The Poseidon Adventure" and most of the "Airport" movies I had to catch on TV. NOT fair when you are a movie-obsessed (specifically disaster movies) pre-teen. The one movie i did get my mother to take us to was THE HINDENBURG. SNORE! It was interesting to look at---getting a glimpse of what dirigible travel must have been like---but utterly boring, with the only excitement at the very end of the movie (Duh!). But the poster? WOW! It totally captures the tragedy.
STRAIT-JACKET:
William Castle was one of my movie heroes from the 50's and early 60's. He was the king of the gimmicks---and, as I've said numerous times, I am a sucker for a gimmick. STRAIT-JACKET was pretty much one of the few gimmick-free horror flicks he produced in this era---although the poster does shout that the film "vividly depicts ax murders" and I heard small cardboard axes were given to theater goers---but have never seen any to back that up. Joan Crawford stars and the results are a camp classic of 50s horror. This copy is framed, but is missing a bit o' paper at the crossfold on Joan's cheek. Somewhere I have another/better copy to replace this one with eventually.
FLESH GORDON:
Back in the day when I walked into a long-gone comic book store back in the 1970s and first saw movie posters for sale, I was hooked instantly. Of the posters on display (including LOGAN'S RUN and CARRIE---both purchased there and the original STAR WARS, which I bypassed....and could kick myself for now as it was only $25 back then), the poster for FLESH GORDON was also on display. I never got it back then (How does an 11-year-old explain to his mother that he wants the poster for an x-rated sci-fi porno parody?), but remember being so entranced by the cool artwork. YEARS later I scored this copy on eBay. I am still surprised at how cheap you can find this poster at times. In my opinion, it is just stunning and worth so much more than it seems to be. (And this photo does NOT do it justice).
DAWN OF THE DEAD:
I got this on eBay back in 2005 or so, not long after moving into my house and I started hanging movie posters on my walls for the first time since I had been in high school back in the 1980s. This was a "must have" poster that I remember battling it out for the night it closed. (I've since picked up another copy that went way too cheap.) I've told this story before, but when I was a kid, I loved the movies. Getting to see horror movies though was a rare occurrence. By the time I was 12 or 13, I would convince my grandmother to take me to see these horror flicks. That's how I got to see the original "Halloween" in theaters, among other things. My poor grandma---the horrors I put her through. Anyway, when I was in 8th grade in 1979 (all of 14 years old), DAWN OF THE DEAD came out. It was unrated, but the blurb on the poster reads that NO ONE UNDER 17 WILL BE ADMITTED. Fortunately, the theater showing it interpreted that to mean it was the same as an R rating (instead of what would be an NC 17 today). I got my grandmother to take me to see it (it was playing with another film called "THE DARK"). DAWN OF THE DEAD is a grisly, gross mess-terpiece. My grandmother couldn't take it and went out to sit in the lobby for the rest of the movie. But WOW! What a great experience seeing this as a kid. It is a classic after all. My grandmother was awesome taking me to this and so many others flicks like it.
SUSPIRIA:
I got this poster the same night I got my first copy of DAWN OF THE DEAD on eBay. As I recall, there were several posters being sold off from an obvious horor film collector. I do not recall what others were up for grabs, but I was eyeing several...and was preparing to pounce at the auction's end. There was another bidder after these titles as well. This was years ago, back in the day when you could look up and see who you were bidding against and contact them. The other bidder who was hot for the same titles I was struck up a deal. He was going to bid on two of the posters we both wanted without my bidding against him and I could bid on DAWN OF THE DEAD and SUSPIRIA without interference from him. It worked out for both of us (I wish I remembered what it was he was going for---and I wish I had stayed in contact with the guy), but I was THRILLED to have landed my DAWN poster...and especially this SUSPIRIA, which is a poster you almost NEVER see. And what a great film it is, too.
And that's all for this installment. Stay tuned. There are HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of "classic collection" posters left to go-go.
CHEERS!
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