BROTHERS IN LAW

Original British 11 inch x 8 1/2 inch Trade Advertisement from Kinematograph Weekly for the 1958 Roy Boulting Comedy BROTHERS IN LAW, based on the novel by Henry Cecil and starring Ian Carmichael, Richard Attenborough, Jill Adams, John Le Mesurier, Raymond Huntley, Nicholas Parsons, Terry-Thomas, Leslie Phillips, Eric Barker, Miles Malleson, Irene Handl, Kynaston Reeves, Bob McNaughton, John Welsh, Kenneth Griffith, John Schlesinger, Henry B. Longhurst, Edith Sharpe, Llewellyn Rees, Olive Sloane, John Boxer, Wyndham Goldie, Basil Dignam, Arthur Mullard and Marianne Stone.

Newly qualified barrister Roger Thursby joins his flatmate as a trainee at a London law firm. Thrown in at the deep end by the absent-minded senior partner, his first few appearances in court border on the disastrous as he encounters a succession of cantankerous judges.

The poster art is by Michael ffolkes (1925 – 1988). A British illustrator and cartoonist. Born as Brian Davis in London, he studied art at Saint Martin’s School of Art, and in 1942 sold his first drawing to Punch, signing it “brian”. He went on to study painting at the Chelsea School of Art and later adopted “Michael Ffolkes” as his artistic name, becoming a professional cartoonist in 1949. He typically signed his cartoons as “ffolkes” in an all-lowercase printed style.

In 1961 he began illustrating the film reviews in Punch, and once admitted that “my whole life has been influenced by the cinema”: “I still often draw classic film situations – the mad scientist, Pancho Villa, Beau Geste and the Hunchback of Notre Dame.” In 1965 he admitted that “some of my opinions are outrageously right-wing”, and was described as “a Boulting Brothers impersonation of a Conservative”. Not surprisingly then that he illustrated 5 of the posters for the Boulting Brothers’ classic 1950s satires “Private’s Progress, “Brothers in Law” “Lucky Jim”, I”m All Right Jack” and “Happy is the Bride”

An exhibition of his cinema caricatures was held at the National Film Theatre, London in 1982.

The Trade Advert is in very good condition.