Back at the movies, or at least the movie posters, with our answers to yesterday's Friday Fun & Games.
After the title of each film, i've listed the artist in parentheses where the identity has been confirmed, or from the (sometimes partially legible) signature from the image. Where unconfirmed, a ? remains until suspicions are substantiated or ignorance enlightened.
Feel free to help out on either front.
All right, let's get to the answers-
01 - A Man Called Dagger (Frank Frazetta)
02 - Crime Busters ()
03 - Inspector Clouseau (Jack Davis)
04 - It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Jack Davis)
05 - Viva Max! (Jack Davis)
06 - Mad Monster Party (Frank Frazetta)
07 - It Follows (?)
08 - The Gauntlet (Frank Frazetta)
09 - Stunt Rock (Rob---?)
10 - Danger Diabolik (Frank McCarthy)
11 - The Fastest Guitar Alive (Frank Frazetta)
12 - Busy Body (Frank Frazetta)
13 - Fearless Vampire Slayers (or Pardon Me, Your Teeth Are In My Neck) (Frank Frazetta)
14 - Yours, Mine, and Ours (Frank Frazetta)
15 - Man Of The East (?)
16 - Finders Keepers (Mort Drucker)
17 - The Secret Of My Success (Frank Frazetta)
18 - Hotel Paradiso (Frank Frazetta)
19 - Devil's Express (?)
20 - Cactus Jack AKA The Villain (Jack Davis)
21 - Bamboo Gods & Iron Men (G. Akimoto)
22 - My Name Is Nobody ()
23 - Crime Busters (Jack Davis)
24 - Fitzwilly (Frank Frazetta)
25 - 8 On The Lam (Jack Davis)
26 - The Night They Raided Minsky's (Frank Frazetta)
27 - My Son, The Hero AKA The Titans ()
Kudos to TC, who offered answers to 17 of the 27, and only missed twice. And when he missed, he still hit terrific targets. Sabata for #11? Okay - it's a guitar instead of banjo, but you pull in Lee Van Cleef in an odd film like that, and it was a right fair guess that would be something i'd use. The Fastest Gun Alive was 2 years before the first Sabata film - starring Roy Orbison! Pause and reflect on that... Frank Frazetta painting posters for a Roy Orbison musical western. With Roy playing a spy with a bullet shooting guitar...
However, TC - For The Villain, you listed the stars wrong. Move Paul Lynde up, because you should always finish the list with "...and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Wyle E. Coyote"
Obviously, despite my professed ignorance of Terence Hill and Bud Spencer in my reply to yesterday's comment from TC, I'm a fan of their films. Enough to include one of them twice. (Yeah - I cheated, which is probably why TC didn't have one more answer on his sheet.) Yet, oddly enough, none of them are the films folks in the USA are most likely to have seen, if they've seen the duo at all. Those would be Trinity films, of course. The "sequels" to My Name Is Nobody - They Call Me Trinity, Trinity Is Still My Name, and Boot Hill - in which we find even Nobody has a name. And a brother like Bluto from the Popeye cartoons, played by Bud Spencer. I 'air quoted' "sequels" because although marketed on video as such, all three movies were made prior to My Name Is Nobody. I rather suspect they're actually what led Sergio Leone & Tonino Valerii to cast him in the role. (As indicated by the blurb on the poster)
Hill & Spencer have made a bunch of fun comedies in Italy, both together and solo. As you can see by the blurb on #15 (The Magnificent One!), they were very popular on the international market. Seeing either of their names on a movie is like a blinking "Buy Me!" sign to me. International comics fans might recognize Terence Hill from his Lucky Luke movie and/or TV series. Oh - and here's one that might be a shocker for some modern viewers who don't realize there was a series of films a half century prior to the modern incarnation: He played Django back in '68. (He wasn't the original Django - that was Franco Nero, two years earllier)
He's still a big star, by the way. His TV show, Don Matteo, in which he plays the title role, has been on the air in Italy since the turn of the century, and he just finished filming his latest movie, La Chiamavano Maryam, which he also directed.
Sadly, Bud Spencer died last year. He continued to be a big star, in more ways than one, as well. He starred in movies like his Flatfoot series, video games and tv shows up until a few years before he died, the last being his role as Carlo Banci on Recipe For Crime.
Okay, it might seem Odd that this has turned into a post on Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. But, not really. After all - Terrence Hill is on four of the posters; more than anybody else, right? So that kind of makes him the de facto star of the feature, doesn't it?
So, there we go - not odd at all.
We must be in the wrong place.
After the title of each film, i've listed the artist in parentheses where the identity has been confirmed, or from the (sometimes partially legible) signature from the image. Where unconfirmed, a ? remains until suspicions are substantiated or ignorance enlightened.
Feel free to help out on either front.
All right, let's get to the answers-
01 - A Man Called Dagger (Frank Frazetta)
02 - Crime Busters ()
03 - Inspector Clouseau (Jack Davis)
04 - It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Jack Davis)
05 - Viva Max! (Jack Davis)
06 - Mad Monster Party (Frank Frazetta)
07 - It Follows (?)
08 - The Gauntlet (Frank Frazetta)
09 - Stunt Rock (Rob---?)
10 - Danger Diabolik (Frank McCarthy)
11 - The Fastest Guitar Alive (Frank Frazetta)
12 - Busy Body (Frank Frazetta)
13 - Fearless Vampire Slayers (or Pardon Me, Your Teeth Are In My Neck) (Frank Frazetta)
14 - Yours, Mine, and Ours (Frank Frazetta)
15 - Man Of The East (?)
16 - Finders Keepers (Mort Drucker)
17 - The Secret Of My Success (Frank Frazetta)
18 - Hotel Paradiso (Frank Frazetta)
19 - Devil's Express (?)
20 - Cactus Jack AKA The Villain (Jack Davis)
21 - Bamboo Gods & Iron Men (G. Akimoto)
22 - My Name Is Nobody ()
23 - Crime Busters (Jack Davis)
24 - Fitzwilly (Frank Frazetta)
25 - 8 On The Lam (Jack Davis)
26 - The Night They Raided Minsky's (Frank Frazetta)
27 - My Son, The Hero AKA The Titans ()
Kudos to TC, who offered answers to 17 of the 27, and only missed twice. And when he missed, he still hit terrific targets. Sabata for #11? Okay - it's a guitar instead of banjo, but you pull in Lee Van Cleef in an odd film like that, and it was a right fair guess that would be something i'd use. The Fastest Gun Alive was 2 years before the first Sabata film - starring Roy Orbison! Pause and reflect on that... Frank Frazetta painting posters for a Roy Orbison musical western. With Roy playing a spy with a bullet shooting guitar...
However, TC - For The Villain, you listed the stars wrong. Move Paul Lynde up, because you should always finish the list with "...and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Wyle E. Coyote"
Obviously, despite my professed ignorance of Terence Hill and Bud Spencer in my reply to yesterday's comment from TC, I'm a fan of their films. Enough to include one of them twice. (Yeah - I cheated, which is probably why TC didn't have one more answer on his sheet.) Yet, oddly enough, none of them are the films folks in the USA are most likely to have seen, if they've seen the duo at all. Those would be Trinity films, of course. The "sequels" to My Name Is Nobody - They Call Me Trinity, Trinity Is Still My Name, and Boot Hill - in which we find even Nobody has a name. And a brother like Bluto from the Popeye cartoons, played by Bud Spencer. I 'air quoted' "sequels" because although marketed on video as such, all three movies were made prior to My Name Is Nobody. I rather suspect they're actually what led Sergio Leone & Tonino Valerii to cast him in the role. (As indicated by the blurb on the poster)
Hill & Spencer have made a bunch of fun comedies in Italy, both together and solo. As you can see by the blurb on #15 (The Magnificent One!), they were very popular on the international market. Seeing either of their names on a movie is like a blinking "Buy Me!" sign to me. International comics fans might recognize Terence Hill from his Lucky Luke movie and/or TV series. Oh - and here's one that might be a shocker for some modern viewers who don't realize there was a series of films a half century prior to the modern incarnation: He played Django back in '68. (He wasn't the original Django - that was Franco Nero, two years earllier)
He's still a big star, by the way. His TV show, Don Matteo, in which he plays the title role, has been on the air in Italy since the turn of the century, and he just finished filming his latest movie, La Chiamavano Maryam, which he also directed.
Sadly, Bud Spencer died last year. He continued to be a big star, in more ways than one, as well. He starred in movies like his Flatfoot series, video games and tv shows up until a few years before he died, the last being his role as Carlo Banci on Recipe For Crime.
Okay, it might seem Odd that this has turned into a post on Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. But, not really. After all - Terrence Hill is on four of the posters; more than anybody else, right? So that kind of makes him the de facto star of the feature, doesn't it?
So, there we go - not odd at all.
We must be in the wrong place.
I'm glad to see that the ones I suspected were by Jack Davis but wasn't sure about (so I kept my suspicions to myself) turned out to be by him after all. The rest I hadn't a clue.
ReplyDeleteJack Davis can be one of the hardest poster artists to pin down for the simple reason that he was so good at what he did. So many others used him as The Look on which to model their own work. Even Frazetta's can be confused for Davis at times.
ReplyDeleteLike you, and Mr. Spock, i prefer to keep my suspicions to myself until i have some confirmation. Avoid that 'speak and remove all doubt' effect.
Several of the Frazetta ones, and "Finders Keepers" by Drucker, looked like Jack Davis to me.
ReplyDeleteThe artwork on Diabolik looked familiar, but I kept drawing a blank as to the artist's name until it was revealed.
Frank McCarthy did poster art for several Westerns and war movies. And, with Robert McGinnis, for two Bond movies in the official series. He also did covers for some James Bond paperbacks published by Bantam in the early 1970s.
I remember Hill and Spencer in the Trinity comedies, and in Boot Hill, which was not a comedy. Well, not intentionally.
Robert McGinnis is one we'll be seeing a feature on before too long. It's rather surprising nothing of his jumped into my path while putting the quiz together.
ReplyDeleteBoot Hill was actually the first movie made, though it was marketed as 3rd when released on video tape. Like you said, it was a very different movie from what followed. Spencer kept that trademark fist-slam-on-the-top-of-the-head in later movies, making his P.I. characters a lot of fun when they get frustrated or annoyed.
The Cactus Jack poster suggested Jack Davis to me at first, but Ann Margret's face made me uncertain as it doesn't look like his style. I therefore considered the possibility that it was another artist impersonating his style on the rest of it.
ReplyDeleteAs noted, a lot of artists do try to look like Jack, so it's tricky to be sure at times. Especially when i painted out his signature; but it's there in the full poster.
ReplyDeleteThat's a movie where all posters should definitely be cartoon art. It is, in essence, a live-action Warner Brothers cartoon.