The Italian Job

Artist: Other
Format: Italian (39"x 53")
Condition: Excellent
Year: 1969

Description

Fully deserving of its position as a British classic, “The Italian Job” is a quintessential 60’s film that comes with a collection of expressive and adventurous posters. The film has a whole lot going for it: Filmed in scenic locations across England, Ireland and Italy, featuring iconic cars like the fabulous Mini Coopers, a hip soundtrack by Quincy Jones and with a wonderfully wry and humorous script delivered with aplomb by talent like Michael Caine and Noel Coward, it is no surprise that the film has had such success. The Italian poster shown, re-formats the UK Quad poster design. The image of a marked up map adheres to the films’ heist genre in an experimental yet successful manner. The images used around the map also makes sure to show off the film’s array of cars and numerous car chase scenes, as well as featuring the emerging Michael Caine who was quickly becoming a worldwide star.

 

 Although still incorporating the map imagery, though in a much more suggestive manner, theUS1-Sheet, shown below (courtesy of emovieposter.com), contrasts quite strongly with its Italian equivalent. The image of the semi-naked woman & the anonymous gun-toting gangster suggest a more explicit and American style gangster movie. The painted lady imagery was an interesting device finding popularity in the ‘flower power’ era of the late 60’s, the most famous example being that of “Casino Royale” shown below for comparison (image courtesy of www.moviepostermem.com). Many, including Caine himself, felt that theUSposter design gave a very mis-leading impression of what was a very English, light-heated & humorous film & have pointed to this marketing failure as to the reason for the relative lack of success of "The Italian Job" in the American market. This situation does highlight the importance of clever, inventive yet appropriate poster advertising in supporting a films' success.

 

This poster has been linen-backed and is glazed and framed.