One Million Years BC She Quad (Hammer) Poster

Artist: Thomas William Chantrell
Format: UK Quad (30"x 40")
Condition: Excellent
Year: 1968

Description

One of the most collectable of all double-bill Quad posters. The combination of Hammer Studios, Chantrell artwork & the presence of two leading sex sirens of the 1960's-70's in the well defined form of Raquel Welch & Ursula Andress, ensures that this poster has a strong following. Double-bill features were common in the 1960's-70's & often paired either 2 B-movie films or, as in this case, put mainstream movies side-by-side for a subsequent re-release. "She" was originally released in 1965 & "One Million Years BC" came out in 1966, so this poster dates from the period 1967-68.

Often re-release Quads would feature reduced artwork &/or only 3 or 4 colour tones (the budget for re-releases not stretching for full colour re-prints). However, in this case, Hammer clearly believed that this double-bill release justified full colour artwork & the result is stunning. Another reason for Hammer's budgetry largesse was that the studio produced this poster not only for conventional cinema advertising but also to supply to Hammer's growing fanbase (fans could write to Hammer for a free poster). The Quad for "Dracula Has Risen From The Grave" (1968) was also printed in larger quantities for the same reason.

 

Both the original Quads for "One Million Years BC" & "She" were illustrated by Chantrell (please refer to www,chantrellposter.com for more information). Chantrell acted as Hammer's virtual in-house poster illustrator during the period 1965-70 & for some years subsequently, Chantrell contributed prototype artwork for Hammer to help in financing pitches. Chantrell was commissioned to handle the double-bill & he simply returned to his original designs & compressed & adapted the two. Unfortunately, Chantrell was perfectly happy to re-cycle, cutting up old artwork & pasting together new creations & thus the original artwork for "One Million Years BC" has been destroyed. Though this seems sacrilegious in today's terms, for Chantrell it was simply a logical & efficient step. Once he had been paid for his artwork, it thereafter had little residual value (there being no collectors market as now), hence the utilitarian approach.

 

For the purpose of comparison, we show both the original Quad poster for "One Million Years BC" & the original Quad for "She".