Picture above: Highly finished prototype artwork (17 3/4″x 22 1/2″) – by Tom Chantrell – for the Quad poster for This Is My Street (1964)

Every so now and then, I am contacted by someone who makes the running of this website so worthwhile. I received an email from Terry Doyle, a self-confessed admirer of the work of artist and illustrator Tom Chantrell – probably the most famous of all 20th Century British cinema poster artists.

Terry had acquired the original finished prototype artwork for the film, This Is My Street (1964), which starred Ian Hendry alongside June Ritchie – the second time that the two had worked together, following on from Live Now, Pay Later released in 1962.

Terry kindly offered to share this artwork with us and has given permission to re-publish it here.

The Tom Chantrell website describe this artwork as:

“A really sumptuous piece, this being highly finished prototype artwork (17 3/4″x 22 1/2”) for the Quad poster for the 1964 “kitchen-sink” drama, “This Is My Street” (the prototype nature of the piece revealed by the scribbled cast & credits notations on the bottom rim – the artwork otherwise looking completely finished). The artwork is on artboard & set in a mount with a protective overlay. For the purpose of comparison, we also show the finished Quad.”

 

 

Picture above: Final artwork for Quad poster, including slight changes to background artwork, font size of ‘ Peter Rogers’, typed credits replacing the handwritten ones at the bottom of poster and a slight change to June Ritchie’s eyes!

To visit the Tom Chantrell website and see a side by side comparison of this artwork with the finished poster click here.

Ian Hendry – The Humphrey Bogart Influence?

This poster has always been one of my favourites and I’ve always thought that there was a certain ‘Humphrey Bogart feel’ to the way that Ian was depicted. The following may help to perhaps explain why. Whilst researching his biography on Ian Hendry, Gabriel Hershman uncovered a quote from a review in the Daily Express in 1963, which may add credence to this idea:

“….the brilliant young actor whose versatility has already had him compared with both Chaplin and tough-guy Humphrey Bogart.”

– The Daily Express on Ian Hendry

 

Picture: Humphrey Bogart (undated) – a possible influence on the This Is My Street artwork?

It’s interesting to learn about the way Tom worked:

“Chantrell did not see the films he drew for; he would receive a plot line and a handful of stills and use friends and family for poses. Examples of this were taking photographs of himself trying to look like a vampire for Dracula Has Risen from the Grave and his wife Shirley held a plastic sword in the back garden to pose for Princess Leia on the original Star Wars poster. Chantrell’s posters were often produced prior to the film being made in order to raise money from investors.”

Source: Tom Chantrell in Wikipedia

So there is a distinct possibility that the marketing team prepared a brief for Tom Chantrell, with press reviews including the one written for the Daily Express in the previous year. We will, perhaps, never know for certain but it adds to the story and I do like to think that there is a Humphrey Bogart connection somewhere in all of this!

Tom Chantrell – Film Poster Artist and Illustrator

Tom Chantrell – born Thomas William Chantrell in Manchester on December 20, 1916 – July 15, 2001.

The son of a trapeze artist, Chantrell was the youngest of nine children. He left Manchester Art College and went into advertising, eventually starting in 1933 at Allardyce Palmer who had accounts with Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox. In 1938 he designed his first film poster The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse.

He continued with posters until World War II service with the Royal Engineers bomb disposal units. After demobilisation he returned to Allardyce Palmer eventually doing over 7,000 film posters.

Picture above: Tom Chantrell

The Tom Chantrell website has a great online biography about him, written by Sim Branaghan, which is well worth a read.

Sim Branaghan sets the scene at the beginning of his in-depth piece on Tom Chantrell:

“What links the films Brighton Rock, Summer Holiday, One Million Years BC, Gonks Go Beat, East of Eden, Carry On Screaming, Bonnie and Clyde, Let’s Make Love, Star Wars, Housewives On the Job, Far From the Madding Crowdand Hellcat Mud Wrestlers? I’ll give you a clue, it isn’t Thomas Hardy. In fact it is the unassuming Manchester artist Tom Chantrell, who painted these and many hundreds of other classic film posters in a stunning career that spanned half a century, and took in what most would consider the great post-war Golden Age of popular cinema.”

The biography provides some great insights into Tom Chantrell’s life and his work within a fascinating industry. Rather than rewrite or ‘borrow’ from this text, I suggest that if you are interested, that you take a few minutes to read the biography in full by clicking here.

Selected Works – Tom Chantrell

 

Picture above: Star Wars (1977) – poster artwork by Tom Chantrell

Picture above: One Million Years BC (1965) – poster artwork by Tom Chantrell

Picture above: Bad Man’s River (1971) – poster artwork by Tom Chantrell

Picture above: Guns at Batasi (1964) – poster artwork by Tom Chantrell

Picture above: Death in the Sun (1976) – poster artwork by Tom Chantrell

British Film Posters: An Illustrated History

For those of you interested in exploring the wonderful world of the British film poster, there is a great book by Sim Branaghan called ‘British Film Posters: An Illustrated History’.

It’s described as:

“The first complete history of illustrated film posters in the UK covers every aspect of design, printing and display from the Victorian era to the arrival of DeskTop Publishing in the 1980s. British Film Posters examins the contribution ‘vintage’ film posters have made to British popular art of the 20th century. “

The book is available to purchase on Amazon and from the Tom Chantrell site as well.

And if you are interested in purchaing some of Tom Chantrell’s artwork yourself, then check out their latest listings here.

And finally, a big thank you to Terry for sharing his artwork with us and for giving us permission to publish it on the site.

Until next time,

Neil Hendry
Editor, Official Website of Ian Hendry

Further Reading

A detailed account of the life and work of Ian Hendry in the new biography:

Read:  ‘Send in the Clowns – The Yo Yo Life Of Ian Hendry’ by Gabriel Hershman