WAGES OF FEAR

Original British 20 inch x 30 inch Double Crown Poster for the 1953 Henri-Georges Clouzot Thriller WAGES OF FEAR (LE SALAIRE DE LA PEUR), based on the novel by Georges Arnaud, with original music by Georges Auric and starring Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Peter van Eyck, Vera Clouzot, Folco Lulli, Antonio Centa and William Tubbs.

Clouzot’s legendary thriller made his international reputation, and made world names of Montand and Vanel too as members of the desperate quartet driving 2 trucks packed with nitro-glycerine over hair-raising terrain. Clouzot turns a hard-hearted script into a real emotional rollercoaster with a formidable display of technical skill..

Poster 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.

Poster printed by Charles & Read Ltd., London & Harlow

The poster is in good to very good condition. It has 5 horizontal folds and 3 vertical folds. There are a few more creases in the bottom third of the poster.