HENRY V

Original Re-Release British 30 inch x 40 inch Quad Poster for the Classic 1945 Laurence Olivier Shakespeare Adaptation HENRY V starring Laurence Olivier, Robert Newton, Leslie Banks, Esmond Knight, Renee Asherson, George Robey, Leo Genn, Ernest Thesiger, Ivy St. Helier, Ralph Truman, Harcourt Williams, Max Adrian, Valentine Dyall, Felix Aylmer, John Laurie, Roy Emerton, Robert Helpmann, Freda Jackson, George Cole, Russell Thorndike.

Based on the most popular of Shakespeare’s historical plays, “Henry V” was made to boost the morale of British troops during World War Two. Laurence Olivier was Oscar-nominated for his mesmerising performance as King Henry V, with an excellent supporting cast that includes theatre veterans Leslie Banks, Robert Newton, George Cole and Renee Ashershon. The film was also Oscar nominated for Best Picture and winner of an Honorary Award for Laurence Olivier for his outstanding achievement as Actor, Producer and Director.

The poster art is by Peter Strausfeld. Strausfeld was interned in the Isle of Man at the Onchan Internment Camp during the War where he met the Austrian producer George Hoellering. In 1947 Hoellering opened the Academy Cinema on Oxford Street and invited Strausfeld to produce some posters for the cinema which he did in wood and lino-cuts till his death in 1980.

The Academy Cinema, built in 1913, was saved from conversion to a shopping arcade in 1928 by Elsie Cohen of the original Film Society, who proceeded to run it as an arthouse which is how it was ran till it’s closure in 1986.

The posters became a London landmark, in fact very few were used outside of London, resulting in very small print runs of 3-500.

The poster, printed by the Westminster Press, is in very good unfolded (rolled) condition with minor bottom edge wear.