The selected advertisements for this week’s advertising post are a little different than usual. Instead of using magazine product ads, I went with some movie ads from the January 1949 issue of Movie Story. The cover image features Betty Grable from her 1948 movie When My Baby Smiles at Me co-starring Dan Dailey.
Based on a popular Broadway play called Burlesque, this film is set in the 1920’s. The main characters are vaudeville performers who face marital struggles when one is selected to perform on Broadway and the other remains on the road. My Baby Smiles at Me was 20th Century Fox’s highest grossing film of 1948.
We have several film related magazines in our shop at PFTP Antiques, but Movie Story is one of my favorite publications because of the full-page movie advertisements. Even if the exterior of a Movie Story magazine is destroyed, the movie ads inside make great little posters. Most people don’t have the space for a full-size poster, but these ads look fantastic in an apartment or movie room once framed and hung on the wall.
The Man from Colorado
The Man from Colorado is a 1948 American Western that stars Glenn Ford and Bill Holden. Their two characters return home with a group of soldiers after the Civil War, but Glenn Ford’s character has changed.
This movie was made shortly after the end of World War II and many of the returning soldiers would have been struggling with the psychological impacts of their experiences. The Man from Colorado parallels several of the issues that war veterans experienced after returning home.
Yellow Sky
Starring Gregory Peck, Richard Widmark, and Anne Baxter, Yellow Sky is another 1948 American Western. This movie is placed in 1867 and follows a gang that seeks refuge in the small Death Valley ghost town called Yellow Sky.
A TV Guide review stated, “The unlikely ending doesn’t injure this brilliantly filmed and directed Western, which qualifies as one of the best of the genre. The high-contrast black-and-white photography is stunning…Dialogue is all the more telling for being sparse, the story is carried visually. The music is fine, beginning the action of each scene, then fading as stark realism takes hold and natural sounds are heard.”
Blood on the Moon
It looks like Westerns were very popular in 1948. The last movie ad that we have is for the psychological western called Blood on the Moon starring Robert Mitchum, Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Preston and Walter Brennan. This movie was based on the novel Gunman’s Chance by Luke Short.
The New York Times provided the following review:
…Blood on the Moon still stands out from run-of-the-range action dramas. The reason is obvious enough. This picture has a sound, sensible story to tell and, besides, it is well acted. Robert Mitchum carries the burden of the film and his acting is superior all the way…Lillie Hayward’s screen play, taken from a novel by Luke Short, is solidly constructed and by not over-emphasizing Jim Garry’s inherent honesty, she has permitted Mr. Mitchum to illuminate a character that is reasonable and most always interesting. The same can be said of the rancher’s daughter, whom Miss Bel Geddes represents. Others who give worthy help include Walter Brennan, Mr. Preston, Phyllis Thaxter, Frank Faylen and Tom Tully. And a word should be said, too, for the direction by Robert Wise. A comparative newcomer to the directorial ranks, he has managed to keep the atmosphere of this leisurely paced film charged with impending violence
If you liked the advertisements in this January 1949 Movie Story, please let us know. Maybe take the time and watch a couple of the movies. We would like to read your own reviews of the movies and how you think they hold up to more modern movies.
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