Karloff’s Monster — holding the son of the Son of
Frankenstein (1939) — strikes a commanding
pose on this fotobusta, a
large-format Italian lobby card. The photo insert shows The Monster mourning
his felled friend, Lugosi’s Igor.
The monochromatic art is by the Corsican-born Francesco
Giammari (1908-1973) who first came to prominence with his superb woodcuts
illustrating the history and ethnography of his homeland. Moving to Italy,
Giammari’s produced highly-charged symbolic art promoting the annexation of
Corsica, a fascist ideal of the time. Today, Giammari, is regarded as one of
the great Corsican artists for his early woodcuts as well as his fine art paintings and
atmospheric landscapes.
Giammari’s movie poster art, running from the Thirties into
the late Sixties, is quite traditional, generally featuring large portraits of
the film’s principals. The striking, expressionistic Figlio di Frankenstein art shown here is a bit of a departure. Some of
Giammari’s poster work is signed, simply, “Giam”. Note that he is sometimes
misidentified in listings as “Gian Mari”.
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