L'AFFAIR DREYFUS (HUGE 1958 MOVIE POSTER)
France: 1958. Poster. Boldly colored linen-backed HUGE movie poster, 66 in. x 50 in., backed on linen, advertising the 1958 French MGM film "L'Affair Dreyfus," directed by Jose Ferrer, and starring Ferrer, Anton Walbrook, Viveca Lindfors, Leo Genn, Emlyn Williams, David Farrar, Donald Wolfit, and Herbert Lom. Screenplay by Gore Vidal and Nicholas Halasz. Touch of rubbing to Dreyfus's front jacket. Very Good Plus. Item #88219
"The movie tells the story of a Jewish staff officer who in 1894 was unjustly accused, convicted and sentenced to Devil’s Island. The event hangs heavy over French history. It was filmed three times in the 1930s alone (including Paul Muni’s “Zola” biopic). His name is invoked in “Papillon,” and his fate the object of much French soul-searching over Antisemitism and blind obedience of and trust in French institutions, most particularly the army, which railroaded this scapegoat and covered up the fact that they did.
"Ferrer’s 1958 film, somewhat fictionalized, captures the baying of the mob at Dreyfus’ public stripping of his rank. So it wasn’t just the army that had it in for Jews. But everybody around Dreyfus, in history and in the film, is more colorful — colorfully corrupt, like the real traitor/officer who sold French military secrets to the Germans in the 1890s, Major Ferdinand Esterhazy, given a Devil-may-care narcissism by the great Anton Walbrook (“The Red Shoes,” The 48th Parellel”) , colorfully Antisemitic, like the Army officer (George Coulouris of “Citizen Kane”) who fingers Dreyfus as a spy, colorfully dogmatic like Major DuPaty de Clam, a handwriting “expert” played by Inspector Clouseau’s future nemesis — Herbert Lom. Against this, Ferrer’s Dreyfus is mere martyr, ramrod straight, defending his “honor” but broken by the tropical hell and isolation of Devil’s Island." (from a movie review by Roger Moore).
Price: $600.00