International Poster Tour: ANATOMY OF A MURDER (dir. Otto Preminger) 1959
there are graphic designers, and then there are graphic designers. oh, and then there’s saul bass, the dude who — among many other things — was able to take a routine courtroom drama and mine from it an image that is now as iconic to film fans as anything from Star Wars or Red State (note to self: rethink comparisons in future posts). In fact, Premiere Magazine (it was a real thing, i promise) ranked bass’ original one sheet as the greatest movie poster ever made. Anatomy of a Murder is a rather exceptional film, but it’s because of saul bass that it’s something of a mythic one, as well.
naturally, most of the marketing teams responsible for introducing Anatomy of a Murder to their national markets had the good sense not to mess with greatness, and made sure to inclue the broken man design in their posters… and for their upcoming DVD & Blu-ray release, Criterion just slapped the original one-sheet on the box and called it a day. but what a day.
Otto Preminger’s ANATOMY OF A MURDER hits Criterion DVD & Blu on 2/21/2012.
