Poster Galore

There are few, if any, films in the history of cinema where subject and artwork were brought together as perfectly as in the James Bond series.  In its heyday a handful of artists transferred the films' unique mix of danger, sex, gadgetry and exotic settings to the printed poster so successfully that by the early 70's the poster art unquestionably had become as much a part of the public's perception of the series as the films themselves.

Although executed simply, the artwork for Dr. No (1962) set the basic template from the off. Mitchell Hooks drew a sly, knowing and impeccably stylish Sean Connery (and it is definitely Connery tipping a wink to the audience as much as Bond) while Joseph Caroff designed the soon-to-be famous "007" logo.  And there are the girls, all too much for the Irish censor of the time, hence posters surviving from Ireland with clothes hand painted over them!

Renato Fratini's British artwork for From Russia With Love (1963) continues in the same attractive but relatively simple vein, but with Robert Brownjohn's Goldfinger (1964) ambitions are clearly raised, the magical sensuousness of Brownjohn's title sequence perfectly transferred onto the poster.  Though stylistically a one-off (as was high-living jazz and drug afficcionado Brownjohn), Goldfinger is the point at which the American and British designs converge.  Despite most of the graphic input coming from America, the U.S. posters had hitherto been largely inferior.

With Thunderball (1965) we arrive at the birth of the classic Bond 'house style', the creation of two artists, both former colleagues at New York's important Chaite Agency studio from 1953, Frank McCarthy and Robert McGinnis.  Like Mitchell Hooks, they were successful commercial artists whose experience in detective and western paperback covers made them perfectly qualified for the explosive impact the ever more over-the-top productions demanded.  But all this extravagance was still contained within a fine design sensibility, the overall layout remaining sharp and clean, the typography stylish and completely integrated.  Highpoints of this period include the outrageous 'volcano' artwork from You Only Live Twice (1967) and a skiing George Lazenby flying out of the frame in a rare touch of trompe d'oeil on the quad for On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969).  With the discipline of the commercial field, McCarthy and McGinnis were able to subsume their individual styles into one; their contributions are nigh-impossible to tell apart.

Interestingly, on some posters for On Her Majesty's Secret Service the new Bond's identity is kept ambiguous, for example on the brilliant Japanese 'B2' poster where his face is partially hidden by his gun.

McGinnis worked solo on Diamonds Are Forever (1971), The Man With the Golden Gun (1974) and lastly Live and Let Die (1973) (McCarthy moved to Arizona in 1974 to concentrate on Western paintings).  Their departure saw a marked decline in the series' artwork.  Bob Peak (another stellar Chaite alumni) contributed a characteristic design for The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Dan Gouzee's U.S. teaser poster design for Moonraker (1979) harkens back successfully to McCarthy/McGinnis, but the remainder of the Roger Moore years are a graphic embarrassment.  Amazingly, an anonymous U.S. design for Octopussy (1983) and Vic Fair's UK 1-sheet for A View to a Kill (1985) would have been amongst the best ever in the series, but both were withdrawn.  1987's The Living Daylights saw the final use of traditional poster artwork and, though no masterpiece, Brian Bysouth's A-style quad was a more than adequate tip of the hat to the old days.  The 90s were an era of sterile generic photographic imagery, uplifted in one sole instance by the wonderful gold-toned gun barrel design on the teaser 1-sheet for GoldenEye (1995).

Tim Maddison, Movie Poster Art Gallery

• Gallery's Glossary of film poster related terminology
• Updated 16+ guide on James Bond
• BFI Stills Posters & Designs

The best original posters from the series have always been highly collectible, especially the original British quad posters for the first three films: Dr. No, From Russia With Love and Goldfinger.

Non-US and UK posters are generally inferior, but there are exceptions, a good example being Japan's photomontage designs.