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Movie names and details. Although many people are familiar with Brown's monster and sci-fi posters it was the western and classical type movies to which he devoted most of his energies.
1951 - Against All Flags
1953 -
The Black Shield of Falworth
1954 -
Sign of the Pagan
1954 -
Johnny Dark
1955 - Running Wild
1956 - Backlash
1957 -
Pillars of the Sky
1957 -
Monolith Monsters
1957 -
Deadly Mantis
1959 - Floods of Fear
1959 - The Violators
1960 -
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
| 1951 | |
| full poster | One of Brown's first posters this already shows the basic elements that Brown will incorporate in most of his posters. Beautiful star portraits and action montage. Surprisingly O'Hara has about the same prominence as Errol Flynn in this poster. Star sizes in a poster were determined by contract, not by the artist. |
| detail 1 | Stars Errol Flynn and Maureen O'Hara. In doing this painting Brown used his wife (Mary Louise) as a model for Maureen O'Hara. She got to dress up in O'Hara's costume. Mary Louise would also act as model for Elizabeth Taylor in Brown's poster for "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." |
| detail 3 | Action Scene close up |
| detail 4 | Pirate ship. Brown always loved to do maritime scenes. The ship shown here is only a few inches high in the original painting. |
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51-01 |
| 1953 | |
| full poster | |
| detail 1 | Tony Curtis in full armor |
| detail 2 | Tony Curtis close-up |
| detail 3 | Battle scene across poster bottom |
| detail 4 | Close-up, battle scene, left side. |
| detail 4a | armored knights charge |
| detail 4b | soldiers scaling wall in background. |
| detail 5 | Close-up, battle scene, right side. |
| detail 5a | Right side of painting, knights charging. |
| detail 5b | soldiers scaling wall in background. |
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53-04 |
Sign of the Pagan
The Story of Attila the Hun
Most of Reynold Brown's paintings for the movies were done in gouache. This is a type of watercolor that is opaque and dries fast. Brown generally had little time to complete a poster, sometimes he was expected to provide a completed poster over the weekend.
| 1954 | |
| full poster | This is one of my all time favorites. A highly complex scene, this painting was reproduced on billboards and had to be readable from a great distance. |
| detail 1 | Star Jeff Chandler |
| detail 1a | Jeff Chandler close-up. |
| detail 1b | Chandler shoulder armor. |
| detail 2 | Love moment, Chandler and ??, with dancing orgy. Women dressed in flimsy dance attire. The love interest scene with both an embrace plus a bit of sex implied in the orgy. |
| detail 2a | Stars kiss. Almost mandatory every movie. |
| detail 2b | Festive moment for Romans. This always gave the opportunity to show women scantily dressed and men generally making fools of themselves. Beautifully rendered details such as large lamp to left that lights the festivities. |
| detail 2c | Another lusty moment. But note the attention to such seemingly unimportant details as the bottle and cups on the table and the goblet in the man's hand. |
| detail 2d | More fun, slave musicians in the background. It seem sometimes slave musicians are still in the background at bars, restaurants and art openings.. |
| detail 3 | Another look at the kiss. Who is that woman? |
| detail 4 | Jack Palance as Attila, close-up of face. |
| detail 4a | Palance face close-up. |
| detail 5 | Jack Palance as Attila, close-up, full figure |
| detail 6 | skull ornamentation on barbarian standard. |
| detail 7 | Battle scene left. The woman here was painted separately and attached to the rest of the painting. |
| detail 7a | Battle scene left plus lusty barbaric woman. She was painted separately and then attached. |
| detail 7b | Roman archers and chariots. About three inches high. |
| detail 7c | To the right of the chariot. Note how distant soldiers rendered simply but still properly "read." Change of color to yellow gold to establish distance. |
| detail 8 | Battle Scene Center. The Romans and the barbarians come together. |
| detail 8a | Close in on above action. |
| detail 8b | Fighting just to the right. A chance to see the barbarians. Note skull standard to right of this portion. |
| detail 9 | Battle scene right. |
| detail 9a | Barbarian running in to attack. He swings a weapon with two spiked balls at the end of chains. |
| detail 9b | Please take a close look. How many horses and fighting soldiers in this area of about five square inches. The scene is full of action, horses twisting, swords cutting, an archer pulling his bow taut. Reynold Brown at his best!!! |
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54-05 |
| 1954 | |
| full poster | |
| detail 1 | Tony Curtis and Piper Laurie kiss mandatory |
| detail 2 | car crash |
| detail 3 | red race car |
| detail 4 | Star, Taylor |
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54-11 |
| 1955 | |
| full poster | An auto theft ring is targeted by a young rookie cop. |
| detail 1 | Mamie VanDoren, portrait. Is their any doubt that this woman is a juvenile delinquent. |
| detail 2 | A beautifully executed portrait of star in lower right, the head (about 2 inches) is nicely modeled with the right side of his face in shadow and his shiny forehead reflecting light. . |
| detail 3 | "wild youths riding in car", being wild was really different in those days. What outrageously dressed young adults, the driver is in a long-sleeved white shirt and tie and while the blond has a large earring, neither of the men sports anything in their ears. |
| detail 4 | Dance scene. About three inches high and eight long, clearly there is some wild partying going on here, maybe Rock and Roll, for shame, for shame. The girl at the juke box is on display. |
| detail 5 | Dance scene closeup. The girl in the tight green dress strikes a pose, her skin color is lighter than the men's, she even shows red cheeks, lipstick and earrings. The complete figure is about 3 inches high. |
| detail 6 | police chase. Only about 3 inches high, 6 inches wide, there is a rather amazing amount of detail in this beautifully rendered scene. The lamps are lit, the police car tilts to its right as it makes the turn and the policeman's gun is clearly held out the window. The walls reflect the colors of the night and on one window on the second floor the yellow lamp light comes out. The rooftops show the overhanging ornamentation and a tv antenna. |
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55-15 |
| 1956 | |
| full poster | |
| detail 1 | Richard Widmark |
| detail 2 | Widmark and Donna Reed kiss. |
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56-03 |
The highly detailed scene across the bottom of this painting was a hallmark of Brown's finest pieces. Star size and position was generally determined by contract.
| 1957 | |
| full poster | |
| detail 1 | Jeff Chandler |
| detail 2 | Brown achieved his effects with multiple touches of varying colors. Note the many colors of green, orange, yellow and so forth over the soldiers shoulder. |
| detail 3 | Dorothy Malone. A requirement that was almost consistent was the baring of a woman's shoulder implying that she had been subject to some violent act. |
| detail 4 | Indians attacking ambulance wagon, soldiers fighting them. |
| detail 5 | fighting on right bottom of painting. |
| detail 6 | Church in background. |
| detail 7 | Action scene to far right of painting. |
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57-06 |
| 1957 | |
| full poster | |
| detail 1 | Everyone run for their lives. The man and woman later appeared in a number of other posters, including some done by other artists,.. |
| detail 2 | Village closeup |
| detail 3 | Barn and tractor on left side. |
| detail 4 | Meticulous detail was required so that a painting could be enlarged substantially. Here a ruler shows just how detailed the work can be. |
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57-09 |
| 1957 | |
| full poster | This is actually a drawing with gouache accents. |
| detail 1 | A Great monster, at least in this drawing/painting. Monster about to do harm to man. In those days (1950s) the monsters harmed the men but took romantic interest in the women. In movies like "Creature from the Black Lagoon" series (also by Brown) monsters generally carried away the women. Today monsters generally will make a good meal of a woman as much as a man. Women's lib? |
| detail 2 | Men in hazard suits fighting bravely. |
| detail 3 | The destruction of aircraft and cars. |
| detail 4 | Radar station in background. |
| detail 5 | Of course the required romance interest, the man as protector. |
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| 1959 | |
| full poster #1 | "Floods of Fear" shows Brown's skill with rendering emotion in his stars. Posters often were done in horizontal, square and vertical versions. |
| detail 1 | Close-up of terrified woman. Fingers remind you of anything? Take a look at the "Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman." |
| detail 2 | Man yelling. |
| detail 3 | Flood scene in background. Use of blues and greens to create sense of wetness, water and bad weather. |
| Full Poster #2 | Vertical poster |
| detail 4 | What color is flesh? Brown uses many colors to create the color of skin and, importantly, all the reflected light. |
| detail 5 | Terrified woman. Note all the green in her face. |
| detail 6 | Simple color choices of blues and greens of various lightness develop this scene of men in a row boat. |
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59-07 |
| 1959 | |
| full poster | |
| detail 1 | activity across bottom |
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59-35 |
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
| 1960 | |
| poster | |
| detail 01 | War |
| detail 02 | Pestilence, the rider carries a torch representing the process of cleansing or burning the diseased. |
| detail 03 | Famine carries scales to represent the weighing of grain, measuring food. Death is the grim reaper. |
| detail 05 | The lovers with the Arc de Triomphe. |
| detail 06 | Skyline shows various famous architectural landmarks of the Parisian skyline. Left Notre Dam Cathedral, to the right behind lovers, Arc de Triomphe, Center, Eiffel Tower. |
| detail 07 | Eiffel Tower |
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60-06 |
Movie Name
| year | |
| full poster | |
| detail 1 | |
| detail 2 | |
| detail 3 | |
| detail 4 | |
| detail 5 | |
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movie number |
