Celebrating Halloween with some Mexican lobby cards
About a dozen or so years ago, there was a guy on eBay who had bought a massive collection of Mexican lobby cards and was systematically selling them off via auctions and also through his storefront.
I didn't have a lot of play money back then, but I still managed to acquire around fifty of them over a two-year period, with close to half being of horror variety. After having been packed up for almost the last three years, I have recently un-boxed them in the hopes of finally figuring out the cheapest way to frame them (which will probably be to make them myself). With their recent unearthing coming so close to Halloween, I figured I might as well celebrate the holiday by tossing all these south of the border scaries in to one post and call it good.
I have a terrible habit of assuming that everyone always knows what I'm talking about, so in case anyone out there isn't familiar with what a lobby card is, the simplest way to explain them is that they were used in theatres to advertise whatever was currently playing.
Most lobby cards from around the world usually measure 11" x 14", while in Mexico they were usually at least 13" x 17", with it being not uncommon for them to be a little bigger than that.
The biggest difference between the cards produced in Mexico, and those that were used everywhere else, is the colorful and often lurid original artwork (created by some of Mexico's top graphic artists) that was used to attract moviegoers.
There are some lobby card/poster collectors out there who don't particularly care for the offerings from Mexico, some of their reasons seem valid, while others just seem asinine. Personally speaking, I prefer Mexican lobby cards to everywhere else's, simply because of the wonderful artwork. I also like that even though they are more scarce (less theatres) than, say their U.S. counterparts, they can still be had for much cheaper prices thanks to the lack of collectability.
In an effort to save some time, most of the cards shown in this post will be done so with very little to no commentary, otherwise this one would have taken me forever to put together. Also, a quick note regarding the pictures -- being the size that they are, they obviously can not be scanned, so I did the best I could with a cell phone camera (my only option). Unfortunately some of the colors came out a bit muted, and there is some occasional blurring, but overall the images did turn out a little bit better than I had expected.
Alas de Noche aka Nightwing
El Germen de las Bestias aka Children of the Damned
La Isla del Gran Caiman aka The Great Alligator
La Maldicion del Monasterio aka The Bloody Monks
Piraña aka Piranha
When I bought this card, the seller neglected to mention that this...
... was on the back. So after I sent him a message about it, he ended up sending me another one...
... which worked out alright, as the still contained on this card was much more to my liking anyway.
La Pavorosa Casa de Usher aka House of Usher
Cocodrilo Asesino aka Killer Crocodile
La Novia del Gorila aka Bride of the Gorilla
El Mundo de los Vampiros
To my knowledge, this is the only card in the bunch from a film that was actually made in Mexico.
El Lobo Ataca
Since it's been a while since I had seen these, I forgot that I had two which were, and apparently still are, a mystery to me. This is one of them, as I have no idea what movie this is. I suspect that the "Rex Leason" mentioned on the card is actually Rex Lease, but it doesn't appear that he ever made any such picture, so I just don't know. If anyone happens to know of the film, please let me know in the comment section.
Exorcista de Almas aka Doctor Death: Seeker of Souls
El Monstruo de la Laguna Negra
This card has continually stymied me for over a decade now. Every attempt to figure out what picture this is from, has failed miserably. The title of this card is for The Creature from the Black Lagoon, when it was shown in Spanish speaking countries. The problem is, the artwork, even if sensationalized, wouldn't have been used for The Creature. And even more glaring, the still that was used, doesn't come from The Creature. If there were any actors listed on the card, this wouldn't be hard to look up, but there aren't... so at this point I don't really know what else can be done to try and find out what this mystery movie is.
La Noche del Asesino aka El Retorno de Walpurgis aka Curse of the Devil
El Regreso del Conde Yorga aka The Return of Count Yorga
La Estatua Viviente aka It!
La Maldicion del Vampiro aka El Vampiro de la Autopista aka The Horrible Sexy Vampire
El Reino de las Aranas aka Kingdom of the Spiders
El Exterminio de los Dracula aka The Dracula Saga
La Momia aka The Mummy
Since this was kind of a fun post for me to do, I will probably show off all the rest of my non-horror Mexican lobby cards at some point, as well as my still packed-up considerably smaller collection of U.S. cards.
Oh wow, these are a riot. Way back when I was visiting my (then future) in-laws I'd watch plenty of these cheesy things with them on the Spanish language stations.
Oh wow, these are a riot. Way back when I was visiting my (then future) in-laws I'd watch plenty of these cheesy things with them on the Spanish language stations.
ReplyDeleteYou should consider yourself fortunate to have been able to do so. I am muy envidioso!
DeleteThese are cool. The ones with a lot of artwork are fantastic!
ReplyDeleteI really can't comprehend how someone couldn't like the artwork, but of course I don't understand a lot of things that people do and don't do.
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