VIRGIN SOLDIERS 1969 Lynn Redgrave, Nigel Davenport Hywel Bennett UK QUAD POSTER

Original British 30 inch x 40 inch Quad Poster for the 1969 John Dexter Black Comedy VIRGIN SOLDIERS, based on the novel by Leslie Thomas and starring Lynn Redgrave, Nigel Davenport, Hywel Bennett, Nigel Patrick, Rachel Kempson, Jack Shepherd, Michael Gwynn, Tsai Chin and Christopher Timothy.

A group of young British soldiers billeted in Singapore during the Malayan Emergency in 1950 dreaming about winning the love of the daughter of the Regimental Sergeant Major.

Poster art by John Stockle. Stockle was born in Stoke Newington in 1928 but moved to Enfield in 1934 where he spent the rest of his life. After leaving school he obtained a position as a junior at the Samson Clark advertising agency in Mortimer Street. In 1955 he joined the Arthur S. Dixon agency as a general artist and was eventually put in charge of the Columbia Pictures account who were releasing Hammer films. “I designed and did finished artwork for several Hammer films: “The Camp on Blood Island”, “The Snorkel”, “The Revenge of Frankenstein”, “Further Up the Creek”, “I Only Arsked” and “The Damned” (Stockle). His first film poster was for “Footsteps in the Fog”. “I painted Stewart Granger and Jean Simmons in poster colour, designed a logo and put it on some black paper. I was astonished that this, my first piece of work, was accepted” (Stockle). This set the pattern for the rest of his career, his last poster being “White Mischief” with Charles Dance and Greta Scacchi on a black background. Arthur S Dixon eventually merged with other agencies and then Stockle found himself working for, as with many other well known artists, Eric Pulford.

The poster is in very good folded condition with a pinhole in each corner.