LUCKY JIM

Original British 11 inch x 8 1/2 inch Trade Advertisement from Kinematograph Weekly for the 1957 John Boulting Comedy LUCKY JIM, based on the novel by Kingsley Amis and starring Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas, Hugh Griffith, Maureen Connell and Kenneth Griffith.

A junior lecturer at a provincial university decides to shake up the old guard with a campaign of deliberate disruption. The junior history tutor is appalled and disillusioned by the pomposity that surrounds him and begins to challenge his situation.

The advert 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 Advertisement is in very good condition.