A DATE WITH DESTINY

Original British 17 inch x 11 inch Trade Advertisement from Kinematograph Weekly for the 1940 Tim Whelan Thriller A DATE WITH DESTINY (THE MAD DOCTOR) starring Basil Rathbone, Ellen Drew, John Howard, Barbara Jo Allen (Vera Vague), Ralph Morgan, Martin Kosleck and Sheila Ryan.

A sophisticated but murderous physician (Rathbone) woos, weds, and murders several of his wealthy women patients for their fortunes. The women appear to have died prematurely, with their above-suspicion doctor husband diagnosing their deaths as coming as a result of disease. The doctor’s loyal male assistant (Kosleck) tampers with the victims buried bodies in order to hide the incriminating evidence. The ex-fiancé of the doctor’s latest bride (Drew) is able to save her from suffering the same fate of her predecessors, while also informing the authorities of just how the women died. With the police coming for him, the doctor has no recourse but suicide, in the form of a fatal plunge from a skyscraper.

The Advertisement is in very good condition with a nick a minor creasing at the bottom.

Trade advertisements are colourful posters aimed at cinema managers, which were either slipped in, or part of, the weekly film trade journals which were available to them by subscription but were not sold to the general public. Most were designed to be pulled out, and some were attached by staples. Most have the date in tiny letters in one of the top corners.