Room of Fear!

This week I got a nice email from "Marisa Mell" fan James West. James has send me this nice picture of a room in his house containing a framed Italian locadina from the 1966 movie "City of Fear" also known in the latin countries as "La Diabolica Spia". This movie poster is for a lot of Marisa Mell fans one of the best, if not the best, painted picture of her. The framed movie poster is huge, measuring 140 cm in length x 200 cm in height, so you need a big wall to hang this little baby! By the look of it, the poster is in very good condition which is quite rare because copies of the posters where often glued to the movie marquee with wall paper glue above the entrance of the cinema being confronted during several weeks with the elements of nature like burning sun, heavy wind or rain, dirt.... When the movie had run its course the movie poster was torn down or overglued with a new movie poster for next weeks programme. In the end not many posters survived in prestine folded never used condition or better known as "mint" condition.
How did James West became involved with Marisa Mell and Italian cinema bis in general?

" I used to just be into mainstream films but a couple of years back I got interested in B-movies after watching "Nightmare Castle" with Barbara Steele and Helga Line. I became smitten with Helga Line and that started to peak my interest into Italian cinema which led me to Barbara Bouchet and...Marisa Mell...who are now two of my favorite international actresses of the 60's & 70's. I came across that poster and it just blew me away, not only the artistic beauty of Marisa Mell and the fact it's probably the best rendering of her on any poster, but as a whole it's simply a classic looking piece of Italian cinema art that I can imagine being out in the small Italian cinemas of the late 1960's! " And so can I, James!

As James West mentions he has a great movie site called:You can visit his site at: http://www.commonsensemoviereviews.com/

Thanks James for the contribution to this entry!

La Diabolica Spia

Sometimes other Marisa Mell-fans ask me what my favorite movie poster is of a Marisa Mell movie. Well there are several movie posters that are in my top 10 like the mega posters for "Una Sull'Altra", both versions, the black one and the green one, where Marisa Mell and co-star Elza Martinelli are both depicted in stunning art work and very life like or the giallo version of the movie poster for the excellent "La Encadenada" with another beautiful rendition of Marisa Mell in a vortex of fear. But when you ask me what is in my opinion the best set of movie posters and lobby cards then it has to be the Italian locadine of the 1966 cold war spy movie "City of Fear". This set of movie posters and lobby cards has it all. Stunning art work of Marisa Mell on two of the three movie posters, vibrant colors, action scenes, vintage cars and in the vein of the James Bond craze from that moment a mega gun with a silencer. Can you ask for more? Although the movie was shot in black and white the lobby cards are all re-colored in lively colors almost all depicting a beautiful Marisa Mell as she appeared in the movie! Simply the best set!