MR. TOPAZE 1961 Peter Sellers, Nadia Gray - Tom Chantrell TRADE ADVERT

Original British 17 inch x 11 inch Trade Advertisement from Kinematograph Weekly for the 1961 Peter Sellers Comedy MR. TOPAZE, based on the play by Marcel Pagnol and starring Peter Sellers, Nadia Gray, Herbert Lom, Leo McKern, Martita Hunt, Michael Gough, Billie Whitelaw, Joan Sims, John Neville, John le Mesurier and Michael Sellers.

Sellers directs himself in an old John Barrymore role (Topaze of 1933) as an upright French teacher fired when he won’t make a pupil’s marks look better. But Sellers soon takes to a life of crime when he’s hired by Crooked Lom.

Poster art by Tom William Chantrell (1916 - 2001). One of two giants of British film poster art from the 1950s to mid-1980s the other being the prolific Eric Pulford. Chantrell was born in Ardwick, Manchester, the last of nine children born to James and Emily. After a brief stint at Manchester Art College he secured a job at a local advertising agency, Rydales. In 1933 he moved to London and eventually began work with Bateman Artists who at some time in the 1930s acquired accounts with Warner Bros and 20th Century Fox. After his wartime spell with the Royal Engineers he returned to Batemans who in 1950 were bought out by one of their major clients Allardyce Palmer Ltd., eventually moving to Screen House in Wardour Street. Most of Chantrell’s work at this time was for Warners and Fox. In 1972 he went freelance working with many other smaller and independent film companies until his retirement in 1985 having produced a vast array of film posters and campaigns.

The Advertisement is in very good condition with a vertical centre fold.