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Auction History Result f002 RIFFRAFF original movie three-sheet artwork 1936 Jean Harlow Date Sold 2/7/2006Sold For: Login or Register to see sold price. The Original 1936 Artwork Created for the Style A Three-Sheet Movie Poster for "Riffraff" (measures 20" x 40") (Learn More) Riffraff, the 1936 J. Walter Ruben romantic crime melodrama ("When red-headed woman meets a red-headed man!"; about a fisherman who ruins his life and career due to his egomania, but his loving wife goes to extreme measures to keep their relationship alive; she goes to jail for stealing money to support her broken husband; the man regains his dignity by foiling a sabotage to a fishing vessel so that he could be reunited with his wife, but she had tried breaking out of jail to see him sooner and it only increased her jail sentence!) starring Jean Harlow (billed as "The New Jean Harlow", because she changed her hair color), Spencer Tracy, Una Merkel, Joseph Calleia, Victor Kilian, Mickey Rooney, Juanita Quigley (billed as "Baby Jane Quigley"), J. Farrell MacDonald, and George Givot 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 offered here is the original artwork from the style A three-sheet from "Riffraff". VERY FEW ORIGINALS FROM ANY 1930s MOVIES ARE KNOWN TO HAVE SURVIVED! Over the years, I have seen a number of pieces of original artwork that are supposedly THE original artwork from a 1930s movie poster, but most often they are exact replicas of the finished poster, and are often the same exact size as the printed poster. I highly doubt that many (if any) such pieces of artwork are genuinely the artwork created PRIOR to the poster, because movie posters in the 1930s were created in an assembly line fashion. One artist would create the central image, and other artists would later add the title and credits (of course, there are exceptions, but not many). Often the titles and credits would be created separately and glued on to the central image artwork, and (as often happens with original artwork) the glued on areas would often fall off over the years, and is lost (especially because few, if any, people valued these as works of art!). In addition, the artwork was almost always smaller than the printed size (sometimes far smaller), because it made no sense for an artist to have to create a large piece of art, when he could create a smaller one that could later on be enlarged (which is why I very much doubt those exact size "originals" that occasionally surface). In the case of the original artwork offered here, it appears likely that the original artist "roughed in" the areas for the credits, and that later on a box with an inset photographic image was glued on to the artwork in the bottom left. This original was purchased decades ago by a man in the motion picture industry, and it hung on his walls for many years. Unfortunately, we do not know the name of the MGM artist who created it, but if anyone e-mails us that information, we will post it here. There may be other genuine original artworks from movie posters of Jean Harlow movies surviving, but if there are, we are unaware of them! Condition: very good to fine. This artwork is an oil painting, and it is mounted on a stretcher, and it was framed on a wall for many years. It does not appear that the artwork has suffered any damage during the years in which it was displayed. There is a written-in "A" in the bottom center of the artwork, which no doubt indicates "style A", and there is a written-in 7227A in the top left corner, which is likely the litho number of the finished poster. There are the traces of the credits at the top, and it is unclear as to why they are half finished, but it is quite possible the artist was just roughing them in for the person who would later supply them. There is glue residue in the bottom left corner from where the inset photographic image was once glued and later removed (or lost). The artwork image of the stars has no defects that I can see, and likely looks just as it did when it was created 70 years ago! Learn More about condition grades 
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