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Dante's Inferno, the 1935 Harry Lachman carnival sideshow rags-to-riches romantic family relationship melodrama ("It will burn itself in your memory forever!"; "All other experiences shrink into insignificance as you witness this greatest of all motion pictures."; based on the classic poem by Dante Alighieri about a man's journey to the gates of Hell; William Fox had made an earlier version of this movie in 1924, and both versions of the movie are about unscrupulous businessmen who become massively successful, but have second thoughts when their behavior cause a man's suicide, and in both films, there is a long fantasy sequence depicting Dante's Hell, with writhing naked bodies!; in this version, Tracy runs a massive carnival attraction called "Dante's Inferno", where people are led on a tour of a replica!) starring Spencer Tracy, Claire Trevor, Henry B. Walthall, Scotty Beckett, Alan Dinehart, and Robert Gleckler. Note that Fox chose to focus the entire poster campaign on the fantasy sequence in the movie that depicts an actual Hell (probably because it involved showing semi-nude bodies!). Note that Fox really went all out in creating the fantasy sequence! According to a New York Times article, "there were 4,950 technicians, architects, artists, carpenters, stone masons and laborers, 250 electricians and 3,000 extras in the Inferno scene. A total of 300,00 feet of film was shot, which was whittled down to a manageable 8000 feet by editor Alfred DeGaetano. A total of 14,000 people worked on the film". Also note that this movie was made exactly when "Fox Film" became "20th Century-Fox", and it was released with the Fox logo, but the copyrighted owner is 20th Century-Fox! Finally, note that Spencer Tracy was one of Fox's biggest stars at this time, but his alcoholism got out of control at this time. He disappeared from filming for long periods due to drunken binges, and at one point, he fell asleep on the set and was accidentally locked in, and he woke up and started destroying the set, causing thousands of dollars of damage, which the studio billed him for. Shortly after this movie, he and Fox parted ways, and of course, he soon became one of MGM's top stars. Tracy later said the movie was "one of the worst pictures ever made anywhere, anytime." He had his name removed from the opening credits, and insisted that his name not appear in any of the publicity for the film, so obviously, there was much bad blood between him and the studio!
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Important Added Info: Note that the interior of this pressbook includes a really cool clear red plastic sheet that is bound in the pressbook and goes over the first interior page (no doubt to symbolize the red fires of Hell). We have auctioned two other examples of this pressbook and we don't think those had that sheet, so it might have been made in two different versions, or it might have been removed from either of those, or both. Also note that we have provided an image of the front and back covers of this pressbook (if the back cover is not the poster page, we photographed the interior poster page), 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!

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