BIG MONEY + HEART OF A CHILD

Original British 11 inch x 17 inch Double-Bill Trade Advertisement from Kinematograph Weekly for the 1956 John Paddy Carstairs Comedy BIG MONEY starring Ian Carmichael, Belinda Lee, Kathleen Harrison, Robert Helpmann, James Hayter, George Coulouris, Renee Houston, Jill Ireland and Leslie Phillips.

Ian Carmichael plays the fumbling son of an eccentric family of criminals trying to disperse counterfeit banknotes.

Advert art by Eric Pulford (1915 – 2005). Having taken life classes at Leeds College of Art for 5 years Pulford was apprenticed as a commercial artist in 1931 to Gilchrist Bros a process house of 24 staff. Leslie Whitchurch, a partner in a Leicester based agency and also a part-time publicity manager for Rank, became aware of Pulford’s work and asked him to do some freelance work for him. Then in 1943 Rank invited Pulford to start a publicity department for them in London resulting in posters for “Henry V”, “Odd Man Out” and “Oliver Twist”. When the head of Downtons advertising agency, Charles Collins, died, Pulford was asked to take over. He became chairman and managing director but still spent most of his time designing posters. He retired in 1986. Pulford is responsible, either through his own artwork or design, for several hundred posters, some for classic films such as the ones already mentioned plus “Edge of the World”, “The Importance of Being Earnest”, “Genevieve”, “Reach for the Sky” and “A Night to Remember”. He is, without doubt, the most important force in British film poster design from the mid-1940s to the early 1980s.

Design by Cliff Hirstle..

PLUS the 1958 Clive Donner Adventure HEART OF A CHILD, based on the novel by Phyllis Bottome and starring Jean Anderson, Donald Pleasence, Richard Williams, John Glyn-Jones, Willoughby Goddard, Andrew Keir, John Boxer, Charles Gray and Lee Montague.

During wartime rationing, Karl, a young Austrian boy, is beaten by his father, Spiel, who threatens to sell the boy’s St. Bernard dog to the butcher to pay for food for the family. However, much to the father’s fury, Karl sells the dog himself to a kindly veterinarian. The dog, with the help of Maria, a spinster, then rescues Karl after he is trapped in a snowstorm. Maria ends up marrying the vet, and Karl’s father ends up letting Karl keep the dog.

The Advertisement is in very good condition with a vertical centre fold.