To Be Continued...: 1930'S & 1940's Serial Movie Posters (Illustrated History of Movies Through Posters, Volume 16)

Rating:
Summary: The Art of the Serial...
Review: There is surprisingly little overlap between this book's contents
and the contents of the previous (and sold out) SERIAL MOVIE
POSTERS. One reason is that this new book is based on an
incredible collection assembled by Frank Gutierrez.
What we have are posters from sound serials dating from about 1931 to about 1954, the end of the serial era.
The best of the serial posters are reminiscent of the best pulp magazine covers from the 1920s to the 1950s, and often
are rendered in somewhat the same style. My favorites in the
present volume tend to use a subdued palette, such as
5, for THE GALLOPING GHOST, which is a striking study in
grey, orange and red, or 28, for the orginal FLASH GORDON,
chapter 4, which uses shades of grey, orange, and a few touches
of red. Also lovely is the poster for TIM TYLER'S LUCK, which
uses reds, flesh tones, olive grey and cream shades.
As the 30s wear into the 40s the painted artwork becomes increasingly crude
and amateurish. An exception is 107,
for BRENDA STARR, REPORTER. Artwork tends to become a frame
for a tinted still from the film, and the frames get thinner
and thinner. Still, there are points of interest. The poster
for BRICK BRADFORD (112) is almost as wild as this wildest of
all movie serials.
Serial posters are far rarer than movie posters in general, and
this is a very worthy compilation of images most of us have
never seen, and will never see any other way!