Los Angeles Magazine
By Chris Nichols
July 12, 2019
History lover Quentin Tarantino is outdoing himself by
bringing the lost world of late 1960s Los Angeles back to life for his new film
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Weeks of location filming in Westwood, Burbank,
the Fairfax district, and at a rebuilt early Taco Bell in Orange County,
culminated with the epic transformation Hollywood Boulevard as dozens of
storefronts were returned to their former glory last summer.
The director spent five years working on a novel that
evolved into the film, so he had plenty of time to create backstory on
backstory and to flesh out the fictionalized world of his main character, Rick
Dalton, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. In a brilliant stroke of guerrilla
marketing, the studio has been rolling out fake vintage posters depicting the
arc of DiCaprio’s cowboy character.
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” promotional posters on
the former Aquarius theater in Hollywood
We asked movie poster expert Jeffrey Mantor, owner of the
81-year-old Larry Edmunds Bookshop in Hollywood (the 1960s version of his store
makes an appearance in the film), to walk us through the four posters we’ve
seen so far.
“I think he should have to go and make all these movies
now so we can see them,” Mantor says.
Tanner
“Tanner” poster from “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
Photo by Chris Nichols
“If I was doing Rick Dalton’s filmography, I’d say it was
one of his earliest films. They’re all genre films, which started with the
sword-and-sandal movies in the early ’60s. The Westerns took over after that
and there’s more of a character shift to the anti-hero. It went from Steve
Reeves as Hercules to Clint Eastwood in the Sergio Leone pictures. They’re much
more dark and mysterious and they kill people. You’re kinda rooting for him,
but he’s not necessarily wearing the white hat. I associate this style with
French and Italian posters of the late 1950s to mid 60s. They did them with
chalk and grease pencil and they had super vibrant colorizations and real heavy
shading. They all clearly have elements of real things. I had one like this for
Kitten with a Whip. It had a huge Ann-Margret face on it.”
Nebraska Jim
“Nebraska Jim” poster from “Once Upon a Time in
Hollywood”
Photo by Chris Nichols
“Sergio Corbucci is shown as the director of this one and
he was really famous in Italy for dirtier and grittier spaghetti westerns. His
films had desolate surroundings and lots of fun violence. He directed Django,
which Tarantino borrowed as the title of one of his films. Corbucci also
directed Navajo Joe starring Burt Reynolds. I’m curious if it’s an homage to
that. The new movie is loosely based on the relationship between Burt Reynolds
and stuntman Hal Needham. Corbucci also made a movie in 1965 called Minnesota
Clay. Could be a reference to that. This one is the closest to a real poster,
but would have more credits. But that’s really nitpicking. Who else has made
this many cool replica posters for nonexistent 50-year-old films?”
Uccidimi Subito
Ringo, Disse Il Gringo
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” promotional posters
Photo by Chris Nichols
“Another connection to Corbucci! He made a movie called
Johnny Oro, with the alternate title of Ringo and His Golden Pistol, and this
one translates to Kill me Now Ringo, Said the Gringo. It’s marked
Titanus—that’s a real Italian studio and a fun little touch. Seeing these
posters in the real world—and especially on the recreated Aquarius Theater is
pretty cool. I’m not old enough to remember the original, but anything that can
be done to give us back some of the magic of old Hollywood is great. Everybody
already knows about all the bad stuff. People wanted all this replica stuff to
stay.”
Operazione
Dyn-O-Mite
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” promotional posters
Photo by Chris Nichols
“These are a really clever mixture of reality and
fantasy. TotalScope was a real format used in Italy. They also billed the
actress Margaret Lee, who is a real British actress who made a lot of movies in
Italy in the ’60s. She was originally a Marilyn Monroe type, but got famous in
these Euro spy movies. I’m guessing it’s a spy movie. You’ve got a speedboat,
and that nice jump going on. Those started with Dr. No and Our Man Flint. There
were a lot of James Bond imitators at the time. Steve McQueen would be too big
a name for this film; it’s more like a Robert Vaughn or Jack Palance, or maybe
a Burt Reynolds. It’s still mid-60s, but definitely later than Tanner.
Remember, we’re purely speculating on the filmography of an actor that himself
is a work of fiction!”
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