No idea what exactly happened here...

Pancho

Hi Team!

I'm an unashamed collector of variant daybills; if it was printed in another colour - I want it! So this was the case with the "classic" Sex Clinic '74 - I was able to find a red and blue version. But when I placed them side to side something interesting appeared. These aren't simply colour variants - there are actual differences between the posters. As you can see from the pictures, the rating is a different size, the printer details are in different fonts and the Blake Film credit is also a different font. I always assumed that colour variants were run at the same time, but these differences suggest that there was at least two distinct different print runs. Looking through my posters I also found the same situation (i.e differences) with a film called 'One On Top Of The Other'. So my question is simple: why would there have been two print runs of such obscure films? Have people seen it anywhere else?

Sven

Interesting one! Let's see what the seasoned players have to say

John

Au Pair Girls is another and quite a few more Sexploitation daybills. I will see if I can find photos of those. It is strange that there are variants because you would have thought that they would only print one poster for films that have a limited release.

HONDO

I haven't the faintest idea why there would have been two different printings for such an obscure film that was aimed mainly for small city cinemas that screened this type of material and the drive-in circuit. I'm sure bookings wouldn't have been in great numbers.

John

I just had a very quick look through my files and here are some others:


Little Miss Innocence - green and red versions, slightly different printings
The Sexy Dozen - red and blue versions, slightly different printings
The Au Pair Girls - red and blue versions
The Body Shop - two different styles
French Sexy Go Round - two different styles
The Language of Love - pink and blue versions

I'm sure there are more.....

Charlie

Could it be that one faded?  Reds always fade first...

John

No, the examples I have seen are not faded. They are different printings.

John

Another for the list:
Private Nurse - red and green versions with slightly different wording.

John

Just had a closer look at the differences between some of these posters. Apart from different colour versions some have slightly different printing eg one version has "A Blake Film" the other version has "A Blake Films release".

Pancho

Any chance it's to do with when M.A.P.S changed their logo? Perhaps all these films were released around that time and there was a need to do another run?

John

I don't think so but hard to know for sure. Other examples include:

Story of O (two different versions)
Bedroom Mazurka (three different versions)

HONDO

Pancho said:

Any chance it's to do with when M.A.P.S changed their logo? Perhaps all these films were released around that time and there was a need to do another run?

John said:

I don't think so but hard to know for sure.

I agree with John. The films from Blake appear to have been released over a period of time.

HONDO

Some of the titles John has mentioned are from some different distributors other than Blake such as Roadshow and Filmways. John mentions three different versions of Bedroom Mazurka. The film it appears was possibly released in the 1970s then again in the 1980s by two different distributors and these being Roadshow and Blake. I would be interested hearing which distributors are credited on each of the three daybills.

John

Sex Clinic '74 - two versions - both Blake
Little Miss Innocence - green and red versions, slightly different printings - noth Blake
The Sexy Dozen - red and blue versions, slightly different printings - both Blake
The Au Pair Girls - red and blue versions - both Blake
The Body Shop - two different styles - both Blake Films
French Sexy Go Round - two different styles - one Blake Films the other no distribution details
The Language of Love - pink and blue versions - both Filmways
Story of O - different colours - both Roadshow
Bedroom Mazurka - four different styles - one Blake three others no distribution details. One of these looks to be a reissue and another is a double feature.
Private Nurse - red and green versions with slightly different wording - both Blake

HONDO

John said:

French Sexy Go Round - two different styles - one Blake Films the other no distribution details

This one is interesting in that the only censorship submission was when the applicant was the distributor Robert Kapferer in 1973 when the film was passed for 35mm exhibition and given an R certificate on  01 / 11/ 1973. I would love to see the 2nd style without the distributors details?

John

HONDO

Thanks John for the images. Makes me think the image on the right without any distributor credited is from the Robert Kapferer original release and the image with Blake Films on it was from a later period. A possibility in my mind is that Robert Kapferer who was a prominent distributor of foreign language films in the 1950s may have ceased operations in the 1970s and this film was then picked up by Blake Films but only a \guess on my part.

John

That's what I was thinking. The second one looks like the original release.

HONDO

 Bedside Dentist ( 1971 ). The pink daybill is the  original printing. The two duotone versions are follow up printings which was a common practice with the distributor CIC in the 1970s. The two duotone daybills are different. The left leg of the bending over female is lower down on the dark colour on the last displayed image. Note the spelling of the word is color as on the other duotone it is spelt colour. The positioning of color/colour is different also along with the R rating positioning on the posters.

John

An interesting point to note here is that the one on the left is photographic. The other two are hand lithos ie they were produced by one of the artists which is a much more time consuming and possibly more expensive process that the one on the left.

HONDO

John said:

An interesting point to note here is that the one on the left is photographic. The other two are hand lithos ie they were produced by one of the artists which is a much more time consuming and possibly more expensive process that the one on the left.

Yes the mind boggles as to why this happened..

John

Printers moved away from the hand litho process because of the cost and emerging better technology and printing processes so I wonder why posters for the same title would be printed with different processes especially considering that there would have been no re release for Bedside Headmaster. I would say that we can only assume that all three are original release.

HONDO

                                                                      BEDROOM MAZURKA ( 1970 ).     

Bedroom Mazurka was originally submitted to the Australian film censors by Roadshow Distributors and passed for public exhibition on 35mm with a R certificate on the 1st of December. 1971 and for some reason passed again on the 1st of May, 1972 with everything being exactly the same. I have located numerous Australian daybills, a one sheet and newspaper classified advertisements  for this title and although not credited as being released by Roadshow on the paper I am certain they were released by Roadshow for the original run of the film in Australia. I know of a lot of  other Roadshow daybills that were printed minus their credits for whatever reason.

The daybill above released by Blake Films and often credited as first release is actually from the 1980s. Bedroom Mazurka was submitted again to the Australian film censor this time by Blake films and passed for public exhibition on 35mm with an R certificate on the 1st of June, 1982 and the above daybill would be from any re-release it had from Blake Films following the new classification. Out of interest the film was later passed for videopape exhibition on 1st February. 1984 with the applicant again being Blake Films.           

John

Speaking of variants, how about these two ....

Bruce

This may sound silly, but you are only talking about events that occurred 30 to 40 years ago. Is there not a chance of locating people who worked there at that time and asking THEM why this was done?

John

I would say that there would be very little chance of ever finding out why they did this.

HONDO

Agree with John and I have tried as he probably has to gather some information but very little information obtained to date but I am still searching. 

Bruce

Have either of you found ANYONE who worked at MAPS or the other printers in the 1970s or 1980s?

HONDO

Bruce said:

Have either of you found ANYONE who worked at MAPS or the other printers in the 1970s or 1980s?

Have a look at my previous thread titled ''When Was The Last Robert Burton Poster Printed? ''

Spoke to some other people that had previously worked at Robert Burton also and from M.A.P.S. who either weren't in the right area to supply any information that I was after, weren't around at the time in question or were but never got back to me.

John

I have spoken to people who worked at MAPS and Burton but they don't remember specifics and there was no documentation so it makes it very difficult.

David

Some insight, from the horses mouth, I asked the question about your two variables on the same poster of Mark's (I shared your image) of a senior person from back in the day at M.A.P.S.

Some editing took place to make sense in terms of this post and some private comments.

------------------

...1979 and we were printing for Blake Films then ... I can’t remember much of them after about 1980.... out of business??

Their titles were always obscure – R rated/ vampire/ murder/who watched these??

I can remember talking  to them about deliveries “we will have your posters for “I Spit on Your Grave”ready on Friday” and laughing about the titles with her (Sharon from Blake films).  As she would say they are only another film in the cinema to them.

With this print run I am assuming... because the rating classification was not the right size it was reprinted and maybe they just went with whatever colour was set on the press at the time . The print runs for Blake were only 80 to 120  - I still don’t know what they would have done  with that many posters any way but it was probably the most economical price for us to set up the press.

The artwork would have all come from overseas – except for the classification rating, Blake Films name and MAPS name – which our art department would have assembled – so that type would have been on file and maybe because of the new print run they went for  a different font?

Hey! and lithographers made mistakes! ... and maybe we made a mistake and the original were already in circulation before the error was detected  and  MAPS had to reprint at our cost!

These posters were printed on a One Colour Press ( two passes)  - so were often done in “special “colours – ie not Magenta, Cyan, Yellow, Black.

As far as the Censorship Board  was concerned  the rating classification had to be a specific size and very clearly visible ( much as it is today) and that probably triggered the reprint.

That’s all the thoughts  I can musters on this one!

------------------

So that's all there is, and with all the comments on this one, sometimes we just over guess it