Original Film Posters Online

Original Film Posters Online

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 142. KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949) POSTER, BRITISH.

KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949) POSTER, BRITISH

Lot Closed

March 24, 04:22 PM GMT

Estimate

7,000 - 10,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949) POSTER, BRITISH

Art by James Fitton (1899-1982)


unframed: 60 x 20 in. (152 x 51 cm)

framed: 66½ x 25⅞in. (169 x 65.6 cm)


Time Magazine called it an 'impudent, witty British comedy', and seventy years later this epithet still stands. This film remains Ealing's most celebrated comedy, and its irreverent and wry black humour is timeless. Alec Guiness plays the part of eight different victims of Dennis Price's serial killer. In the late 1940s, having a killer as hero of the piece was a touch too overwhelming for American audiences, and on its Stateside release, the censors added footage to leave no ambiguity as to whether Price's crimes would go unpunished. James Fitton blended painting with photomontage to striking and humorous effect on this poster, which is considered one of the most beautiful Ealing posters ever created. Fitton was known as 'one of the three James', alongside James Boswell and James Holland, who were credited with the revival of satirical illustration within Britain in the 1930s. The main artwork was used on all the different size British posters. The print colours on this incredibly rare piece were intensified, resulting in the most vivid poster in the British campaign. Exceptionally rare British poster. No other example this size is known to have surfaced.


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