Watch Out, Watch Out! There Are Fakes About #2...
Wherever there are items of value, there will be people trying to take advantage. The world of movie posters is no different.
From Star Wars to Pulp Fiction, from Back To The Future to Apocalypse Now, reproductions, bootlegs and fakes have surfaced for many collectible titles.
In an earlier blog post we examined a fake one sheet for Brian De Palma's fantastic Scarface. It was an attractive poster in its own right, but look closely and there were a few tell tale signs that it was not the real deal.
What is worse, a good fake or a bad one? They are both just fakes and perhaps an obvious fake is better as it is easier to spot, but, the sheer 'lack of effort' on this one has really made me mad…
The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night, 50th Anniversary UK Quad
A while back we received a poster that the seller insisted was an original UK quad for the 50th Anniversary release of The Beatles' first film, A Hard Day's Night.
Even posters for the re-release are incredibly hard to come by, so we were excited to track another one down.
But, on opening the tube, that excitement quickly disappeared...
The original quad is a beautiful poster, with high-quality 'sepia like' printing of the fab four escaping from their fans.
But, on first unrolling, it is clear that this poster is not the same...
The immediate give away is the unprinted area on the right and left. The original poster is printed 'full-bleed', that is, the image takes up the entire poster, with no margins.
Secondly, the beautiful 'sepia like' printing of the original is replaced with a poor quality black and white image.
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For the avoidance of doubt, the poster on the left is the original.
The fake poster has also been rescaled. This is most easily seen by measuring the lines above and below '50TH ANNIVERSARY RESTORATION'.
On the original they measure 31 cm.
On the fake, it is only 29.5cm.
Oh, and the original is double-sided and the fake single sided, and the original is on lovely paper and the fake is not.
I could go on. As you tell, this one has made me really mad!
This particular fake will not be going back in to circulation. We clearly mark any that we find and keep them for comparison with future examples of the poster that we receive.
So, be careful out there. Buy from a source you can trust (I know, we would say that wouldn't we, but it is true) and remember that if it appears too good to be true, it probably is.
You can find all of the Beatles related posters that we have here.
Adam and the Art of the Movies team.
