Les Bolides de L'Enfer (Johnny Dark)

Artist: Guy Gerard Noel
Format: French (45"x 62")
Condition: Excellent
Year: 1954

Description

The French poster for the 1954 American film “Johnny Dark”, entitled “Les Bolides De L’Enfer”, is another fine example of the artistic brilliance often found on film posters for the popular car-racing dramas of the 1950s and 1960s. In a role written with him in mind, a pre-superstardom Tony Curtis plays a driver who designs his own car and enters it into a race across America. As always however, the real star-attraction is yet again the impressive array of vintage American sports cars on display including amongst others the Victress S1 Roadster, the Glasspar G2 Roadster, the Grantham Stardust and the Woodill Wildfire which was brand new when filming took place in the Summer of 1953.

The French poster retains the core elements of the film and displays them in a typically stylistic fashion. French artist Guy Gerard Noel liked to mix discordant colour schemes into his designs, apparent here through the use of pink, brown, red and black (see also Noel's poster for "The Killers" 1964 - image courtesy of meansheets.com). The approach works well, cleverly representing both the exciting racing scenes as well as the passionate personal struggle of Curtis’s character to succeed. The eye-catching simplicity of the design contrasts with that of the US 1-Sheet poster (image courtesy of www.moviepostermem.com) which plays it ‘safer’ through a more conventional layout and as such cannot match the bold & more memorable qualities of the French equivalent.

 

This poster has been linen-backed and measures 45"x 62".