A gallery that should bring comfort to any struggling young graphic artist is revealed; the movie posters that missed the final cut. We have curated a collection of the ones that got away, the rejected original draft versions of movie posters for some of the most famous film titles of recent decades, including Batman, Pulp Fiction, A Clockwork Orange, The Exorcist and Cool Hand Luke.
The last three were the work of the unmistakable movie poster artist, Bill Gold, who over a 70-year career created movie poster images that helped to sell more than 1,000 movies. As a 21-year-old working in the advertising department of Warner Bros, Gold created his first poster for the James Cagney musical feature film Yankee Doodle Dandy in 1942. Soon after he was asked to come up with a poster for one of its stars, Humphrey Bogart. The poster he created for Casablanca became as classic as the film itself: black and white, the other characters in a misty background, Ingrid Bergman looking yearningly towards Bogart, and Bogart in the foreground, hat brim down, looking towards nothing but a bleak future.
In an interview with AFI in February 2016, Gold explained the vision for the Casablanca poster, “My initial thoughts were to put together a montage showing all the characters depicted in the film. I wanted to have Humphrey Bogart in the foreground and Ingrid Bergman behind him looking on. I didn’t want to give away their romance”.
I just stuck Bogey’s hand in the front and put a gun in it – and they liked that, they thought the gun was just fine.”
Gold no longer has the first draft of the artwork, which was rejected, giving him a useful early lesson into studio politics. “I thought it was quite good, quite strong, but they thought it was too static, they wanted more action. I didn’t have time to change it much, so I just stuck Bogey’s hand in the front and put a gun in it – and they liked that, they thought the gun was just fine”, the gun was taken from the film High Sierra.
Some of his posters went through 20 or 30 versions before the studio bosses were happy. “The design would go round a committee, and one would want one thing changed, another something else, so you’d end up with something quite different.”
Often the originals, are starker and more graphic, more striking than the fussier final versions. Gold’s design for The Exorcist in 1973 originally had a snapshot of a laughing child on a plain background, a layout rejected again two years later for Sidney Lumet’s thriller starring Al Pacino, Dog Day Afternoon.
Occasionally movie poster design goes the other way: Brian D Fox’s final version (below right) for the 1989 Batman film is plain but bold with the batman logo filling the majority of the poster, by contrast his original design (below left) was a complex but classy piece of art deco design and in my humble opinion was far more visually pleasing that the final version.
Of the hundreds of directors and actors he has worked with, Gold’s favourite is Clint Eastwood, with whom he worked for more than 30 years. “We liked each other, that’s all,” he said, as laconically as his hero.
He respected the film, he respected the story, and he always respected what we were trying to accomplish.”
In the foreword for the Bill Gold: Posterworks book, Clint Eastwood said of his relationship with Bill Gold, ‘With Bill I knew he would bring great ideas, and the poster he created would be one less thing we had to think about. He respected the film, he respected the story, and he always respected what we were trying to accomplish.”
He retired in 2004, aged 83, after completing the work for Eastwood’s Mystic River. Six years later his phone rang: “Hi, this is Clint – would you have one more poster in you?” So he un-retired to create a powerful poster for J Edgar, a dramatic close-up of Leonardo di Caprio as J Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI for nearly half a century. Gold thinks he is now finally retired – “but if the right offer came along …”
Gold is forgiving of the studio bosses who turned down some of his favourite ideas – “each to their own” he said kindly – but his wife, Susan, adds: “I think his first ideas were usually the right ones”. What do you think do you agree with his wife, Susan? Let us know in the comments below.
The One’s That Didn’t Get Away
For everyone that got away and missed the final cut, there are countless that made it through to be iconic classics. In celebration of the revolutionary movie poster artist, who died on 20th May 2018 at the age of 97, we have compiled a greatest hit collection.
Photograph by Pam Einarsen
Image courtesy of Susan Gold
Having a career stretching over seven decades and having worked with some of the best directors in film history; Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Sidney Lumet, François Truffaut, Elia Kazan, Robert Altman, Alan Pakula, Michael Curtiz, Jan Tomáš Forman, Howard Hawks, Clint Eastwood, and Ridley Scott, to name just a few, it would be near on impossible to pick a definitive collection of his best pieces of art so we settled for a greatest hits collection.
My style is and has always been less is more, I don’t like a cluttered look. Clean, simple and to the point.”
In the AFI interview, when asked to describe his own style, Bill Gold said “I know what movie posters should look like, instinctively. My style is and has always been “less is more” I don’t like a cluttered look. Clean, simple and to the point. I guess you could say black, red, grey and white are usually my trademark colours”. He said, “Years ago, I looked at everything that MGM and Paramount” and felt “I never liked anything that I saw. I always found fault with the fact that they showed three heads of the actors, and that’s about all the concept they would use”. So he thought about his own style and decided that “I don’t want to just do a concept with three heads in it. I want a story”.
Although Bill Gold’s style wasn’t as distinctive or well defined as other movie poster artists such as Saul Bass, what he did every so well was adapt. He adapted his style to the film, the director and the time which is indicative through what I believe to be his movie poster greatest hits. Throughout he maintains an excellent understanding of composition, illustration, and photography.
Bill Gold: Posterworks
This book is currently unavailable to order. The limited slipcased edition includes a hand-signed letter from Bill Gold as well as an art folio of six, numbered, limited edition prints of unseen poster designs for A Clockwork Orange, Catch-22, High Plains Drifter, All the President’s Men, The Way We Were, and Get Carter.
Bill Gold’s life’s work spans six decades and over two thousand films. He is the man behind campaigns for the greatest movies the world has ever seen.
Bill Gold: PosterWorks is a celebration of his extraordinary and prolific talent. With a foreword from long-time collaborator and friend, Clint Eastwood, Bill Gold is a unique collector’s opus detailing the artist’s creative process, his army days, early career, posters for Elia Kazan, Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Francois Truffaut through to his final work in 2003 on Eastwood’s Mystic River. Archivist of his own work, with a personal collection of unseen designs, alternative versions, sketches, drafts, notes and photographs, Bill Gold’s incredible history has never been accessible to the public until now.
A notoriously cut-throat industry, Hollywood evolves with few constants yet Bill Gold’s talent endures. At 89 years old, this is the first time that the world is invited to see the full scope of his life’s work in one breathtaking book.
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