Posters

A scarce original poster for the first Romanian release of the 1962 American film adaptation of Harper Lee's 1960 Pulitzer Prize winning novel To Kill A Mockingbird, which addressed themes of racism and injustice in the Deep South. Gregory Peck won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Alabama lawyer Atticus Finch, while his ten-year-old co-star Mary Badham was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for her role as daughter Scout. Robert Duvall made his big screen debut as the misunderstood recluse Boo Radley. Like Lee's novel, which has become a beloved classic of modern American literature, the film was an immediate success, earning more than six times its budget and garnering eight Oscar nominations including Best Picture. Screenwriter Horton Foote took home the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. The American Film Institute ranked the film 25th on their list of the greatest American movies of all time and named Atticus Finch the greatest movie hero of the 20th century. Peck's performance has become synonymous with the honourable character of Atticus - in liner notes for a 2005 DVD re-release, Harper Lee wrote: "When he played Atticus Finch, he had played himself, and time has told all of us something more: when he played himself, he touched the world."

Although Western films were shown during the Soviet era in the Communist Bloc, American publicity materials were banned, allowing the state-commissioned artists to operate with creative freedom from the demands of the big Hollywood studios, offering quirky interpretations which often had little reference to the film. Masterfully simple and striking, the design of this Romanian poster takes the titular mockingbird literally, depicting nine bullet holes blowing through a childlike drawing of a songbird in a symbolic illustration of loss of innocence - a key theme of the original novel.

Condition

Very Good to Excellent (B+/A-)

Conservation backed on linen with no restoration. Backing has smoothed one vertical and one horizontal fold, minor bumps to corners and negligible edge wear. Darkening to fold lines. Image and colours otherwise excellent.