I should add the Summerisle release is technically the first "general release", as I seem to remember the Warner release was a selective trial run that flopped. Does that make the Summerisle poster a re-release poster or not?! Paul _www.movieposterstudio.com_ (http://www.movieposterstudio.com/)
In a message dated 27/06/2015 16:49:55 GMT Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: The issue of authenticating and dating movie posters having recently been shown to be problematic in some (possibly many) cases I would like to invite discussion on another British film, The Wicker Man, 1973. I am indebted for much of the information on this to the excellent book, Inside The Wicker Man : How Not To Make A Cult Classic by Allan Brown. The original British one sheet with the Lion International imprint seems to be above reproach, but that is not the case with the USA one sheets. There appear to be three different one sheet posters, 1 from Warner Bros depicting the wicker man and 2 showing the Nuada sun god image, both the latter having different taglines. One is a Summerisle imprint and one an Abraxas imprint. Auction houses have treated and dated the posters differently, and often there is no consistency even within the same company. Heritage, for example, over the years have sometimes listed the Warner poster as National General, though they went bankrupt before they could release the movie, with a 1973 and a 1974 dating, and dated the Abraxas one as both 1979 and 1980. More interestingly, emovieposter have listed the Summerisle one as an original 1974 release. (I have been in touch with them and they have promised to research the matter and communicate their findings with previous purchasers.) I bought a Summerisle one from MoviePosterBid where it was listed as being a 1975 release (not complaining, Rich, I’m happy with the poster). Having consulted Brown’s extensively researched book the following are my best calculations of the various posters’ actual dates. Original U.S. release – Warner Bros., image of wicker man, ‘Flesh to touch . . .Flesh to burn!’ – 1974. Summerisle re-release – Nuada sun god image, ‘The residents of Summerisle invited Sergeant Howie to their traditional May Day festival. He didn’t expect to meet . . .’ - film due to open in November, 1978, but postponed until January, 1979. However, Brown states that prior to scheduled original release date ‘Summerisle Films had collaborated with Craig Millar . . . on a publicity campaign involving posters, badges and a lavish press kit’, so poster seems to actually date from 1978. Abraxas re-release – Nuada sun god, ‘Pure, brilliant, spine-tingling fun’ – opened 26th March, 1980, so poster date of 1980 seems reasonable. By coincidence, both HA and EMP had Summerisle posters listed in the same week very recently. Heritage had a folded, fine- , dated 1980, which sold for $50, and EMP had a rolled, good to very good, dated 1974, which sold for $300. It is a fact that the Summerisle poster is the rarest, which brings me to a question I had asked previously in discussions about the Third Man poster, though I was not referring to that poster specifically but in general. It is this - is a rare re-release poster worth more than an original release poster which is fairly easily obtainable? Just something else for MOPOers to think about. Tommy Tommy Tommy ____________________________________ To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link: https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1 Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
