OTHELLO 1965 Laurence Olivier, Frank Finlay, Maggie Smith UK 1-SHEET POSTER

Original British 27 inch by 40 inch 1-Sheet Poster for the 1965 Stuart Burge Drama OTHELLO, based on the play by William Shakespeare and starring Laurence Olivier, Frank Finlay, Joyce Redman, Maggie Smith and Derek Jacobi.

In 1965, Shakespeare's original text finally merited a full-length British feature, albeit essentially a filmed record of Laurence Olivier's legendary 1964 National Theatre production. Controversy over Olivier's overtly Negroid make-up, quasi-Jamaican accent and deliberately unsympathetic interpretation overshadowed the fact that this was also one of the century's most radical and original Othellos, and Frank Finlay's Iago and Maggie Smith's Desdemona provided ample support.

Poster art by Renato Fratini (1932 - 1973). An Italian commercial artist who specialised in cinema posters. In Italy he worked in Augusto Favalli’s studio, a major producer of Italian posters. He then moved to London at the behest of Eric Pulford, who ran the Downton agency, which had accounts with Rank and several other film companies. There Fratini enjoyed a successful career throughout the 1960s.

“Othello was one of Fratini’s beauties. I was with Fratini when he was doing that. You know he did most of the head, he started off with red on this side then green on that and they changed it all around, as Eric Pulford cried “I don’t bloody like that!”. He was in Eric’s office and he redid the whole head in about two hours. I was there because I had to wait - I was waiting to photograph the bllody thing. It all had to be photographed three times before they went off to the printer. I stood and watched him do it.” (John Warren - photographer and designer at Downtons).

Printed by Stafford & Co. Ltd., Netherfield, Nottingham and London

The poster is in very good folded condition with 2 extra vertical folds.