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Auction History Result 1h1167 KISS OF DEATH linen 1sh 1947 wonderful intentional black & white classic film noir image, rare! Date Sold 12/26/2021 Sold For: Login or Register to see sold price. An Original Vintage Theatrical Linenbacked One-Sheet Movie Poster (1sh; measures 26" x 39 3/4" [66 x 101 cm]) (Learn More) Kiss of Death, the classic 1947 Henry Hathaway crime film noir ("20th Century-Fox Sensation!"; "It will mark you for life as it marked him for... Betrayal!"; "Based on a Story by Eleazer Lipsky"; "Screen Play by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer") starring Victor Mature, Brian Donlevy, Coleen Gray (billed as "Introducing Coleen Gray"), Richard Widmark (nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for this film; as the psychopathic killer, Tommy Udo, who, in one of the cinema's most memorable scenes, laughs as he pushes a woman in a wheelchair down a flight of stairs!), Patricia Morison (while she was billed on the poster and listed in the credits, her scenes were cut from the film for being too shocking), Taylor Holmes, Robert Keith, Howard Smith, and Karl Malden (in his third credited movie role!). Note that when this movie was first released, 20th Century-Fox knew they had a very "special" movie, and they created a one-sheet that was intentionally black and white, with no white borders, which is very striking. They did NOT realize that Richard Widmark would become a star off of his portrayal of a psychopath, so he was not pictured on the one-sheet or the other advertising, and even when they re-released the movie in 1953, they simply reused the image from the 1947 one-sheet (oddly, adding color), and still, Widmark was not pictured. NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography. If you know who did the art (if any), please let us know. Important Added Info: Note that this one-sheet originally measured 25 3/4" x 39 1/2", but it was NOT TRIMMED (during the linenbacking process, it slightly "stretched", which is not unusual, and it now measures 26" x 39 3/4")! All known first release one-sheets from this movie are this size. It is well known within the hobby that this poster measures smaller (the people in the hobby think the likely reason for this is that the studio wanted to have a really striking poster which was intentionally black and white (in keeping with the "noir" theme of the movie), and they purposely had it made with no borders (but all the normal small writing that is usually found in the bottom blank white border is printed in the bottom of the actual image, further proof that this was done intentionally). PLEASE DO NOT BID ON THIS POSTER THINKING THAT IT IS TRIMMED, AS IT ABSOLUTELY IS NOT! Also note that this is one of the best remembered one-sheet images of the 1940s! 20th Century Fox chose to intentionally use a solely black & white image, which perfectly conveys the feel of this downbeat film noir! Note that we have previously auctioned five examples of this poster, but the last one was 6 years ago! What IS linenbacking? Learn More Overall Condition and Pre-Restoration Defects with Quality of Restoration: very good. The poster had tiny paper loss at the crossfolds and some tiny tears and tiny bits of paper loss on small parts of some folds. It had tiny pairs of staple holes in the borders and a few scattered in the image. Overall, the poster was in very good condition prior to linenbacking. The poster was nicely backed, and displays well! Learn More about condition grades 
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