PERSONS UNKNOWN 1958 Vittorio Gassman, Toto PETER STRAUSFELD UK POSTER PROOF

Original British 30 inch x 40 inch Quad Poster Proof (a trial print of the poster before the lettering is added) for the 1958 Mario Monicelli Italian Comedy PERSONS UNKNOWN (I SOLITI IGNOTI), based on a story by Agenore Incrocci & Furio Scarpelli and starring Vittorio Gassman, Carla Gravina, Toto, Marcello Mastroianni, Memmo Carotenuto, Carla Gravina, Rossana Rory and Claudia Cardinale.

A motley quintet of inept small-time thieves bungle the burglary of a local pawnshop in this Italian farce.

The poster art is by Peter Strausfeld. Strausfeld was interned in the Isle of Man at the Onchan Internment Camp during the War where he met the Austrian producer George Hoellering. In 1947 Hoellering opened the Academy Cinema on Oxford Street and invited Strausfeld to produce some posters for the cinema which he did in wood and lino-cuts till his death in 1980.

The posters became a London landmark, in fact very few were used outside of London, resulting in very small print runs of 3-500. Most of these posters were printed at the prestigious Westminster Press and Ward & Foxlow.

The poster is in very good unfolded (rolled) condition.