The Harry Palmer Files — 031 — Anatomy of a Poster
Through July, or at least until I run out of things about which to talk, we’ll be looking at the Harry Palmer series of novels (in which the character doesn’t actually have a name), their author — Len Deighton, the films based on them, the star of those films — Michael Caine, and the television movies that followed. I will be re-reading the whole series of novels, re-watching the films, and giving my thoughts on all I encounter. I’ll inevitably be drawing heavily on the collection of Kees Stam, author of The Harry Palmer Movie Site, and Rob Mallows, creator of the Deighton Dossier, and other odds and ends that I’ve turned up over the years.
In our round-up of IPCRESS File posters, I posted two that, until today, I thought were the same with elements rearranged and glasses drawn afterward:
As you can see, I was mistaken. They’re clearly not the same — the faces hold different expressions, the hand pulling the jacket is present in one, but not the other, and the color pallette is different. The two posters, drawn by different unknown (does anyone have credit information for these posters?) artists used the following publicity photo as reference:
I asked Kees Stam of the Harry Palmer Movie Site if he knew the origin of the pic, but his best guess is that it was a promotional still made before the film was shot (he even has a promotional postcard featuring the image, which I think can be seen on this page of rare IPCRESS File stills).
So the thought that this still was shot early in the planning of the film might solve the mystery of why Harry isn’t wearing his specs in this pic. In any case, he’s not going to hit anything with that gun. I’ve seen how bad his vision is.
