Wednesday, August 12, 2015

James Bond U.S. Poster Rankings: No. 12

Today's entry in the domestic one-sheet poster list is partly the reason I started this series.  While the marketing artwork for Dr. No used in the U.S.A. in 1963, which was a year after its initial release in the United Kingdom where superspy James Bond hails from, isn't my favorite of the series, its French counterpart is.
 
 
12. Dr. No
As you've probably noticed by now, I find the hand-drawn posters more appealing than Photoshopped works.  So it is no surprise that breaking into the top half of the rankings is a poster with imagery completely created by hand and no still photos from the feature film are used.  Sean Connery, as our hero 007, is lazily holding his gun pointed at the ground and featured next to him are the women seen throughout the movie, dressed in the sexiest outfits they are found in at whatever point in the film, and in one case only a towel is covering her naughty parts.  The use of different colors for each girl also gives the poster a little pop that matches the title sequence of Dr. No.
 
However, like I said earlier, the above image is not my favorite for the debut film of the series.  That honor goes to the French Grande poster.  The artists used the same design for a few of the French posters, but changed the color on the right side of the frame where the title of the film is found.  My preferred of the three that exist is the pink stripped version.
 
 
The image of Bond doesn't change much from the one found in the U.S. poster, but I really like the more obscure drawings of the female faces on this poster and the way the colors are drawn on like they were done in a rush to add color.  The entire thing comes together very nicely and, like the U.S. poster, the variance in colors really makes the poster stand out.

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