eMoviePoster.comAuction History Result 1m239 DEVIL DOLL pressbook 1936 Tod Browning, Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan, with herald! Date Sold 11/4/2018Sold For: Login or Register to see sold price. An Original Vintage Theatrical Movie Pressbook (pb; measures 14" x 20" [36 x 51 cm]; 14 pages). Also included is a supplement that has 4 pages and a herald that has 4 pages. (Learn More) Devil Doll (released in England as "The Witch of Timbuktu"), the 1936 Tod Browning France fantasy science fiction (sci-fi) revenge horror thriller ("Greater than 'The Unholy Three'!"; about a once respected banker who spent 17 years in jail, and when he escapes, disguised as an old woman, he meets his old friend, who is a mad scientist who has found a way to shrink people to just a few inches tall, and he steals the method, and uses the tiny people, who he can telepathically control, to get revenge on those he feels wronged him!) starring Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan, Frank Lawton, Rafaela Ottiano, and Robert Greig. Note that after the failure of "Freaks" for MGM in 1932, Tod Browning's career, once so promising, was on the downswing. He directed "Fast Workers" the following year, and then was given another horror movie, "Mark of the Vampire" in 1935. That, too, was not a big success, and he followed that with this movie, which most viewers highly praise, although certainly it has the most implausible plot imaginable! He directed one more movie three years later, "Miracles For Sale", and that was the end of a wonderful career! NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography. Important Added Info: Note that MGM, being the foremost studio of the 1930s felt they did not need to create wonderful posters for their movies, because they had so many top stars, so often their 1930s posters have simple artwork against a white background with a duotone photo of the top stars! However, they knew that they needed theater owners to book their movies, so they spent quite a bit more money on their pressbooks, often making them close to window card size, with an exact color recreation of the window card image on the cover of the pressbook, and the posters on the back cover in full color, and often a full-color sample herald, "tipped in" to the inside of one of the covers! However, they economized on the interior on these large pressbooks and used newsprint for the interior pages, which in almost every case has aged greatly and is fragile, if not brittle (see below for the exact condition of this pressbook). Note that when studios would prepare pressbooks they would often include a sample of the herald. Most often, the herald is no longer still with the pressbook. Sometimes, the herald by itself will sell for almost as much as the rest of the entire pressbook! This pressbook contains the original herald which is pictured next to the pressbook below. Also note that pressbooks were prepared prior to a movie being released. Often, changes would be made in a movie advertising campaign (billing of actors, different images, etc.), and the theaters would print up special supplements that they would send out with the pressbooks that had already been printed. These supplements are very rare, far more rare than the pressbooks themselves! Some pressbooks would have no supplements, some would have one, and some would have several. Almost every Academy Award winning movie would have a special "Academy Award winner" supplement. Also note that we have provided an image of the front and back covers of this pressbook, and of course, the winner of this auction will receive the entire single pressbook we are auctioning (plus any supplements or heralds described above)! Also note that this pressbook is complete and uncut! Given that theater owners received pressbooks partly in order to create their newspaper advertising, and quite frequently cut them up for that purpose, it is rare to find a pressbook that IS complete and uncut! Condition: good, NO CUTS. The pressbook is complete and uncut. However, the interiors of MGM pressbooks from this period were printed on a newsprint that was exactly like what was used in newspapers at that time, and it almost always ages terribly, resulting in incredibly brittle insides. The color covers were printed on a better paper, but they tend to chip around the edges. This particular pressbook has fragile interiors, and all the interior pages have tiny paper loss in the bottom right corner. The covers are in pretty nice condition, with two light diagonal creases in the bottom right. The supplement, which is printed on newsprint, has tears and paper loss around the edges. The full-color herald, which was once "tipped-in" to the inside front cover, is no longer attached, but is otherwise in nice condition. Learn More about condition grades
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