Ténèbres à la lumière...: Holding An Auction For February: "Spy Hunt," The Release Of "The Red Danube..." and This Month Selections Of Title Cards and New Lobby Cards...

Darkness To Light Translation: la lumière et l'obscurité...

Noirish City....the world of rain soaked streets, dark alleys and dead ends...The Home of Tough Guys, Femme-Fatale, and a cup of (Coffee) murder, gats,...The Maltese Falcon, Val Lewton, Black Angel, Sunset Blvd., dark, light, shadows, Cry of the City, Victor Mature, Robert Mitchum, Richard Widmark, Barbara Stanwyck, Richard Conte, Orson Welles, The Third Man,Touch of Evil, dark figures, Act of Violence, The Big Combo, Out of the Past, Paranoia, dark alleys, rain slick streets, Chiaroscuro......Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Sidney Green-street, Elisha Cook and that... "Bird." _____________________________________________________________ To read mini reviews of films that are considered...noirs...You can now follow Tony D'Ambra....on Twitter at... FilmnoirReviews _____________________________________________________________ "The City was dark with something more than night." - Raymond Chandler [Pre Code and Noir dwells here, in the shadows. Beginning next year, movie studios plan to begin phasing out renting 35mm prints of vintage movies to theaters, forcing revival theaters to show them in digital format only. This is not how these classic films were meant to be seen, at the push of a sterile button, in a non film format, and many classic films will also fall by the wayside and become lost films - there is an online petition to hopefully stop this by following the link to Fight For 35MM Films...] Thanks to Julia Marchese, New Beverly Cinema and Dark City.

Sunday, February 12

Holding An Auction For February: "Spy Hunt," The Release Of "The Red Danube..." and This Month Selections Of Title Cards and New Lobby Cards...

[editor's note: As always "Happy Bidding!..." This month Of February "Jewel in the Crown..." Is an unknown film [at-least to me it's unknown...lol]...Called "Spy Hunt..." Here Goes More Information about The Film:Original Universal 1950 NSS 50/392 Spy Hunt 11"x14" Title lobby card starring, Howard Duff, Marta Toren and Philip Friend. Lobby card is in mint condition. All items are authentic items used by theaters. NO REPRODUCTIONS.

I have also added new lobby cards to the slide-roll below and at the bottom Of the page...Thank-you,]

In Order To Take a [real UP-CLOSE and PERSONAL...] Look at the New Cards added To This Month Batch Of Lobby Cards Just Follow The link To:Taking a look at This Week Lobby Cards ] and here:TAKING A LOOK AT SIX NEW "JEWELS IN THE CROWN..." THE TITLE CARDS and ACTRESS JOAN CRAWFORD AND ACTOR GARY COOPER IN..."Today We Live."

IN OTHER NEWS: THE 1947 FILM "THE RED DANUBE..." WILL BE RELEASED ON DVD ON MARCH 27, 2012...Starring J.Leigh, P.Lawford, A. Lansbury, E.Barrymore and W.Pidgeon...
Here Goes a lobby card [THE JEWEL IN THE CROWN...THE MAIN TITLE CARDS....]

that I featured earlier this month and a current lobby card that I just added to the Slide-roll.

THE HISTORY Of THE LOBBY CARDS...

In the days before multiplexes, movie theaters generally only had one screen and one movie. To boost ticket sales, studios printed paper advertisements of their films to entice potential audience members.

One of the more collectible forms of these ads was the lobby card, a small piece of card stock that theaters posted in their lobbies to promote a featured film. In a sense, the lobby card was the small relative of the movie poster.

The first lobby cards, introduced around 1910, measured eight by 10 inches and were printed in black and white. Eventually, with advances in heliotype and photogelatin techniques, these cards had three colors (blue, yellow, and pink). Other cards were hand-colored using a stencil.

The eight- by 10-inch cards quickly gave way to 11- by 14-inch cards, which became known as the “standard” size. In the 1920s, a “jumbo” size was introduced which measured 14 by 17 inches. Finally, the “mini” size was introduced in the 1930s as a rebirth of the eight by 10 size (another version was printed on eight- by 14-inch stock).

Jumbo cards were printed on their own, not as part of a series, but mini and standard lobby cards generally came in sets of eight, though sets of nine, 12, and even 16 or more were not uncommon.
The first card in these sets was almost always the title card, which included an attention-grabbing image alongside the film’s title, slogan, and main acting credits. As a notable exception, Paramount never printed title cards.

[Pictured: The "Jewel in the Crown" the 1946 title card from the film "The Brasher Doubloon..."]
To Check-Out "The Brasher Doubloon" Lobby Cards Up Close and Personal Just Follow This Link to...
"The Brasher Doubloon"
Following the title card were several “scene” cards, which featured still shots from the film. The first two or three scene cards generally promoted the major stars; the two or three after that usually showed minor actors.

[editor's note: What makes the eight lobby cards from the 1946 film "The Brasher Doubloon" unique is the fact, that the main stars are featured in all 8 lobby cards...]
The last card or two in the set are known today as “dead cards,” a phrase coined by movie-art collectors because these cards are generally the least desirable in the set. These cards depict extras or scenery from the film.

All of these cards were numbered in the order they were supposed to appear in the series. Before the 1960s, a card’s identifying number could be found in the corner of the artwork. In the ’60s, the number was moved to the bottom border of the card.

Collectors generally prize lobby cards based on the order they appeared in a set—title cards are considered the most valuable, followed by those with major actors, those with minor actors, and finally the dead cards. Collectors generally only bother with dead cards when they are trying to complete a full set.