The Outsider‘s Edge: Why Distance breeds Mastery

By on November 9, 2026

Following up on last week‘s post, I have been wondering about the role of the outsider in the advancement of traditional arts and crafts. Custom shoe- and bootmaker Korbinian Ludwig Hess was trained in the European tradition in Vienna, so when it comes to making cowboy boots, he‘s on the outside looking in. This outsider position allows him to be arguably more ‘objective’ than anyone who was raised in the tradition ever could be. Plus, nobody would expect him to design the ‘perfect traditional cowboy boot’, so at the end of the day, he can do whatever he pleases.

At this point, KLH boots carry on the tradition, but they also improve on it. Korbinian has a very unique, extremely elegant style. The trained eye will easily recognize a KLH boot. See last week’s post for a perfect example.

In this case, not being bound by tradition is a major advantage. While his boots pay respect to heritage, in some aspects they clearly improve on it. One example is the arch support: American bootmakers traditionally use a flattened nail for the shanking. It’s functional and fast, but not very elegant. Korbinian uses the traditional method that has been perfected in Europe for centuries. It requires a lot more work, but it results in a far more elegant structure. This is inside the boot, so nobody will ever see it, but in my book, it‘s little details like this that make the difference between a skilled craftsman and a true artisan. Don‘t get me wrong, both approaches are perfectly legitimate.

There is one major difference, though: A craftsman like Pablo Jass in Lampasas, Texas is carrying on a tradition. An artisan like Korbinian Hess will always strive to further improve on it and develop it.

This is A LOT harder than it may first seem, though. Successfully improving or forwarding a time-honored tradition has high requirements, including but not limited to:

  • Outstanding artistic skills
  • A true passion for your work
  • A perfectly open mind and the ability to think ‘outside the box’

Once you start thinking about it, quite a few other outstanding personalities come to mind:

Berlin-based custom tailor Alexander Amann (herrenschneider-amann.de) was trained by one of the world’s finest tailors in Cologne, Germany. Very much like Korbinian, he was schooled in the European tradition but never considered this a limitation. His basic credo is ‘Ich mache Anzüge für Menschen’ – I make suits for individuals.

The suits he makes for me are PERFECT Southwestern cowboy style, with one major difference: In every single aspect, his craftsmanship is several steps ahead compared to anything I could have had made in the US. In Texas or Arizona, they live the style, but, sorry to say, they can‘t master the craft like this anymore.

On London‘s Savile Row, they still master the craft. Unfortunately, most of them are unable to break out of their rigid tradition and would not understand my style.

Speaking of Savile Row: These days, the best English bespoke suits are actually made in Paris. Cifonelli is considered by absolute connoisseurs to be the ultimate benchmark when it comes to the perfect suit. The English on Savile Row invented the tradition, but the French and Italians developed the tailoring (especially the famous Cifonelli roped shoulder) so artistically and elegantly that many style icons today prefer to buy in Paris rather than in London.

The list goes on and on:

  • The Music: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down is widely considered the unofficial anthem of the American South. It was written by Robbie Robertson, a Canadian from Toronto. When he wrote this song, he had never even lived south of the Mason-Dixon line. Instead, he spent several weeks in the Woodstock library studying the history of the Civil War. The depth of profound historical knowledge contained in this song still baffles me today.
  • The Cuisine: The globally recognized gold standard reference book on Thai cuisine is Thai Cooking by David Thompson, an Australian.
  • The Denim: The world’s best, most authentic jeans in the style of the 1940s and 50s, woven on vintage shuttle looms and dyed with natural indigo, do not come from the USA today, but from Japan. The Japanese were so obsessed with classic Americana style that they perfected the craft when the Americans themselves had long since switched to cheap mass production.
  • The Spirits: Masataka Taketsuru, the founder of Nikka Whisky in Japan, traveled to Scotland in 1918 to learn the craft of distillation from scratch. Back in Japan, he built distilleries that copied the Scottish tradition so meticulously and perfectionistically that Japanese whiskies now regularly dethrone the Scottish originals. In 2008, his 1987 Yoichi Single Malt was named the world’s best single malt whisky at the World Whiskies Awards—the first of many such accolades.
  • The Pizza: Consider the reinvention of pizza by Chris Bianco in Phoenix, Arizona. If you ask for the best pizza in the US, you don’t end up in the Italian neighborhoods of New York or Chicago, but right in the middle of the Arizona desert at Pizzeria Bianco. Star food critic Ed Levine once called it the best pizza in the world. Bianco (a guy from the Bronx) took the Neapolitan tradition, stripped it of all kitsch, and elevated it through local, artisanal ingredients to a level that leaves even critics in Naples speechless.

Every single one of these outstanding personalities has several things in common: the skill, the passion, and the mindset of a true ‘Nerdier-than-Nerd’ contest winner.

In a way, this phenomenon is exactly what drives my own curation at Galerie filmposter.net. Since 1996, the gallery was never meant to be just another local archive for ‘the prettiest German posters of the 1950s’. Instead, it has always been fueled by this exact outsider’s perspective: An international, collective view of movie posters as a global art form, unfettered by purely domestic nostalgia.

By stepping slightly outside the traditional, rigid boundaries of local collecting, you stop looking at an object merely through the lens of history, and start seeing it for its pure, raw design and cultural impact. It turns out that sometimes, you have to leave the comfort zone of a culture just to remind it of what made its craft so magnificent in the first place.

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Down Memory Lane: Handmade Cowboy Boots

By on November 2, 2026

In a recent discussion with master bootmaker Korbinian Ludwig Hess (klh-massschuhe.com), the topic of the ‘original’ and truly ‘authentic’ cowboy boot came up. One thing I find quite amazing: In a time where everybody seems to wear sneakers with fast fashion, the art of the traditional cowboy boot is very much alive and kicking.

Back in the 1990s, I had my boots made by Pablo Jass in Lampasas, Texas. These are the sturdiest boots for working cowboys you will ever see. Pablo made three pairs for me, and it looks like I will NEVER wear them out. You can see them on my ABOUT ME page.

Pablo started working for bootmaker Ray Jones in 1970, became his foreman, and eventually took over the boot shop. Aside from the pullstraps, Pablo‘s boots are exactly like the ones Ray Jones made in the 1950s.

What I hear is that Pablo has become quite a celebrity and these days you have to wait years to have a pair of Jass boots made.

Back then, you would just give him a call, drive out to his workshop in Lampasas and have yourself measured. And it was a good idea to call upfront, otherwise you would run the risk of seeing a ‘Gone Fishing’ sign on his door. (For the record, Galerie filmposter.net shares that attitude. Over the day I’m usually at the shop, unless I’m not. So it’s always a good idea to give me a call or send me a message before you come by.)

At some point, Pablo also had his own website: One page, one photo, his address and phone number, and one sentence: All Orders are done at the Shop.

Those were the days, my friend…

My first custom-made dress boots were made by Little’s Boot Company in San Antonio, Texas, also in the 1990s. Owner Dave Little died in 2018, and now his daughter Sharon is running the business. Little Boots was founded in 1915, but it was Dave who moved the business from traditional cowboy footwear to the high-end custom-made dress boot manufacture that made them famous. For truly top-end dress boots deeply rooted in tradition, the Little Boot Company is still a top recommendation.

Lee Miller is still running Texas Traditions in Austin. With both Pablo Jass and Little Boots, I booked immediate appointments and received my boots in about three months. Even back in the 1990s, Lee Miller had a waitlist of three years. His prices would seem reasonable by today‘s standards, but they were nothing short of brutal back then. My first pair of Jass boots cost me $600, and my Little Boots with seven rows of stitching were priced at $750. From I what heard, Texas Traditions was starting out at $1,500.

Now young guns like Graham Ebner (grahamebner.com) carry on the tradition. A former apprentice at Texas Traditions, Graham has only been around for a few years, but has already made a very good name for himself with his artistically outstanding, yet extremely traditional work. Like the Postercowboy, Graham likes dark sunglasses. Always a good sign.

And of course, there is Korbinian Ludwig Hess in Berlin, who has been catering to my cowboy boot needs for a number of years now. Our first mutual project was a pair of roper boots. Which in fact were the first cowboy boots Korbinian ever made. I still wear them frequently and I absolutely love them, both for their style and comfort.

These days, Korbinian is my favorite bootmaker in the whole wide world. There, I said it.
Part of it has to do with the simple fact that he‘s in Berlin, of course. Another part is that he‘s incredibly talented, extremely passionate, and absolutely open-minded.

But perhaps the most important aspect is this: Unlike all the other master bootmakers I mentioned, Korbinian is NOT part of the cowboy boot tradition.

Being an outsider, nobody ever expected him to create a ‘perfect traditional cowboy boot’.

Let me give you an example: An integral part of the traditional cowboy boot anatomy is the spur ledge. This is a little rim that runs around the heel. Absolutely essential if you‘re riding a horse, definitely not necessary when your boots are made for walking.

When Korbinian started to make cowboy boots for me (and very soon after, for other clients as well), I have a feeling that he didn‘t have a clue what a spur ledge even is. He certainly did not know why you would want to have it on a walking boot.

Which in turn means he never even had to think about integrating a spur ledge or not. Instead, he could focus on what he does better than almost anybody else: Building some of the most elegant dress boots you will ever see.

Here’s the last pair Korbinian made for me:

This boot is based on a Charlie Dunn design from the 1950s, that was inspired by the West Texas Plains. (The 7“ single you see in the back was the first release on my short-lived Rockin‘ H Records label. More on that some other day. Maybe.)

Often called the ‘Michelangelo of Cowboy Boots’, Charlie Dunn was not only a legendary bootmaker, but also quite a character. His Wikipedia entry is very much worth reading.

Charlie’s work is now continued by Lee Miller of Texas Traditions in Austin, TX. Lee made a pair of these boots for Willie Nelson back in 1992 and was kind enough to forward us the original design drawing. We even used the exact same leather, from the same tannery, that Willie’s boots were made of.

These photos were taken at Texas Traditions back in 1992. Thanks again for sharing, Lee!

If you look closer, you will notice something else: While both boots show the exact same design, they also show the personal handwriting of their respective maker.

But that’s the point of being an Outsider: As a custom bootmaker from Germany, Korbinian is not bound by tradition. His boots absolutely honor and respect the tradition, but they are also very much KLH.

Next week, we will take a deeper look into the Outsider Nerd phenomenon.

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Cowboy Cooking: Grilled Bacon and Cheese Sandwich

By on October 26, 2026

In his dreams, the Postercowboy is roaming the wild prairie, killing buffalo with his bare hands and eating their hearts raw.

In real life, his most important kitchen gadgets are an electric rice cooker and a sandwich maker.

If you’re in need of a quick lunch, nothing beats a sandwich maker. A personal favorite is a grilled bacon and cheese sandwich with tomato.

What you need is:

  • two large slices of bread
  • butter
  • two slices of bacon
  • Cheddar cheese
  • tomato
  • salt and pepper

I also had some Old Gouda in the fridge, so I used that together with the Cheddar.

The preparation is extremely easy: Heat up your sandwich maker and fry the bacon. Spread the bread with butter, add a layer of cheese, bacon, tomato, salt and pepper. Add more cheese, finish with the second slice of bread.

Bake until nicely browned.

This sandwich is also the perfect companion for any kind of light soup. This time, I had some leftover potato soup from last night’s dinner.

Bon appétit!

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Heaven or Hell: A Tale of Two Tech Companies

By on October 25, 2026

This post is a follow-up on yesterday’s report about Brevo, a supposed Generation Z startup, and my soon-to-be-history newsletter service.

Generally speaking, cowboys tend to be somewhat simple-minded, and the Postercowboy is no exception.

Generally speaking, cowboys have a dualistic worldview: Black or White, Up or Down, In or Out, Heaven or Hell. All good enough for us.

Democrat or Republican, Hold Fast or Let Loose. Well, maybe we‘re not that dualistic… The first point is perhaps debatable, and the last one is, of course, a blatant lie. If it were true, we would all be listening to German Schlager instead of Country Music. But you get my point.

Today, I received a message from my Internet Service Provider, all-inkl.com. In both plain German and English, they explained how they had handled this week’s worldwide PHP security disaster. They stated that they had reacted even before the issue hit the news, shut down several internal services for security reasons, and already installed all the necessary patches.
In other words: “We’ve got your ass covered here.”

Many of you will have received similar corporate messages these days, but this is exactly what one should expect in a situation like this.

Which, of course, reminded me of the disaster I encountered with Brevo this week.

While working with all-inkl.com has been pretty much smooth sailing, there has been the occasional small disruption every now and then. Like me not being able to send emails, that kind of thing. Every time that happened, I either sent them a message through the webmailer or called their service hotline.

Now hold fast: EVERY SINGLE TIME I called their hotline, a REAL PERSON would answer.
And it gets even better: The person on the other end either SOLVED my problem while we were speaking or would give me DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS on how to solve it myself. AND they would do it in a way even a red-blooded internet moron like me could comprehend. Take that, Gen Z!

As stated initially, cowboys have a dualistic worldview. There is no purgatory in the cowboy world. For us, it’s either heaven or hell.

With this in mind, I will say it again, and I will say it loud: Bravo to all-inkl.com. Keep up the good work and you may well see the Pearly Gates at the end of your road.

To Brevo, I will say even louder: GO TO HELL. And as far as I’m concerned, go there as fast as you can.

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Brevo, Chatbots, and the Fine Art of Business Disruption

By on October 24, 2026

Those of you who are on my mailing list will have noticed that this week’s mailing was completely screwed up.

Both the English and the German links did not lead to my New Additions; instead, you ended up on a 404 error page that looked like this:

I am using Brevo, a Berlin-based start-up, to send out my newsletter. What happened was a classic server mistake: When they attempted to place THEIR tracking link over my information, they REPLACED it instead and routed everybody to a broken error page on their own website.

Brevo is a perfect example of what is wrong with the world in general, and so-called startups in particular. Once I noticed the mistake, I tried to limit the damage. Their website actually features a ‘repair link’ function, so I tried that first. Unfortunately, this is a Premium function, which means for me, it was hidden behind a paywall. No chance.

Next, I turned to their support: Max the Chatbot replied and explained to me what I had done wrong.

On the next day, I sent an email to the actual Brevo support: Minah, the human chatbot, replied and explained to me what I had done wrong. I will spare you the details, but she kept sending me stupid text blocks, asking things like “is it just you or everybody?”, “have you tried a different computer?”, and “what operating system do you use?”.

She was also unable or unwilling to open the links to the Brevo error page I had sent her and demanded to see screenshots. To add insult to injury, I had to copy the campaign name for her.

I REPEATEDLY explained to her that the cause was 100% on Brevo’s side, but she couldn’t care less and refused to even forward the problem unless I jumped through her hoops and answered her ridiculous questions.

To cut a long story short: At the end of the day, they refunded the cost of the mailing. They gave NO explanation as to what had actually happened (and it is fairly obvious they couldn’t care less). They also refused to take any responsibility or offer ANY kind of indemnification.

When I finally informed them that I would cancel my account, Minha thanked me for my cooperation.

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Cowboy Cooking: Chinese Style Belly Pork

By on October 19, 2026

Today I want to discuss a true staple food in cowboy cuisine, and the basis of every healthy nutrition: belly pork.

Should I ever publish a cookbook, it will most likely be something like ‘100 Variations of Belly Pork’.

Here’s a preview and a personal favorite: Chinese Style Belly Pork. The preparation is extremely simple, and the result is nothing short of amazing.

Here’s what you need for two people:

  • 1 1/3 pounds pork belly with skin attached
  • Dark soy sauce (I prefer the Pearl River Bridge brand)
  • Five-spice powder
  • Salt

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add the pork, and simmer for approx. 10 minutes. When cool enough to handle, rub the sides and the bottom with dark soy sauce. DO NOT cover the skin, as the soy sauce will burn in the oven. Rub the sides and bottom with a generous amount of five-spice and a good amount of salt. Rub the skin with salt only. After the initial cooking, the skin is very soft and can be scored into a grid pattern, if you so desire. Make sure to cut the skin only, not into the meat.

Place your pork in the fridge for several hours or overnight, uncovered, to let the skin dry out. Make sure there are no soy sauce drippings on your plate.

When you’re ready to go, preheat your oven to 125° to 160° C (260° to 320° F). Don’t go any higher, or your roast will burn. Put the pork on an oven rack in the center of your oven and be sure to place a baking pan underneath to catch the drippings.

Depending on the thickness, at 125° C this will take three to three and a half hours; at 160° C it should be well done in about two hours. In true cowboy style, I prefer the slower way.

When your roast is done, turn the heat up to 220° C (430° F) and use the grill/broil option, if your oven has it. Lightly brush the skin with some of the drippings from the pan beneath. This will help the skin to pop.

At this point, keep a close eye on your roast through the oven window. The time span between ‘perfectly popped and crispy’ and ‘totally burned’ is very, very narrow.

Remove it from the oven, wrap it in aluminum foil, and let it rest for about ten minutes.

In the meantime, cut up some bok choy and stir-fry it with a few spoonfuls of the bacon drippings. When you’re almost done, add salt to taste. Serve with steamed white rice.

Bon Appetit!

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Movie Poster Spotlight: Village of the Damned (1960)

By on October 12, 2026

As stated before, the main purpose of a movie poster always was to lure the viewer into the cinema. In the last few weeks, I have shown you a few perfectly ‘successful’ examples.

Today, I want to discuss the German poster for VILLAGE OF DAMNED. The movie opened in Germany on February 3, 1961:

Based on John Wyndham’s novel ‘The Midwich Cuckoos’, the film is a low-budget British supernatural horror movie and tells the story of a band of blond children with glowing eyes that take over an English village. The film is a personal favorite and rightfully considered a classic today.

Released in the UK in 1960, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED arrived at a time when science fiction was increasingly moving away from simple alien invasions and towards stories about social fears, conformity, and the unknown. The film’s children became one of the most memorable images of British science fiction cinema.

The best movie posters reflect the atmosphere of a film in a single image. As a work of graphic art and as a collectible piece of cinema memorabilia, Klaus Dill’s design is a glowing success.

Unfortunately, the original purpose of a movie poster is to sell tickets. Under this aspect, the design must be considered a failure.

Klaus Dill was an outstanding and highly talented graphic designer, with a strong feeling for creating atmosphere. Unfortunately, sometimes atmosphere is not enough. The title is a literal translation, but the image gives us almost no clue what kind of ‘village’ we are taken to. Is this a war drama? A sinister Heimatfilm? A tale of nature taking revenge? Only The Shadow knows…

Everybody loves a mystery, but when looking at this poster the mystery is not ‘What will happen in this village?’ The mystery is ‘Why should I buy a ticket?’

I once spoke to an elderly projectionist who was around when the movie first opened in 1961. He told me that it was only shown in a single cinema in Berlin and vanished again after only one week. So apparently not too many people found an answer to the question above…

Let’s take a look at the British Quad for comparison:

This one has it all: A simple, yet striking design. Concerned parents eyeing the weird kids. And a tagline that reads ‘HORROR IS BORN when their children become things of unspeakable evil!’

This poster makes a clear promise and leaves absolutely no doubt about what we’re going to expect.

The German poster makes us wonder what happened in the village. The British Quad makes us afraid enough to find out.

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Movie Poster Spotlight: Episode 8 – Der Tanz des Todes (1914)

By on October 5, 2026

As you all know by now, the Postercowboy is looking back at more than 40 years as a collector and 30+ years as a movie poster dealer.

I have said this before, and I will say it again: for me, one of the most wonderful things about this hobby is that I still find absolutely outstanding posters I have never seen before.

Here’s another recent addition to the filmposter.net collection:

This poster is for the 1914 Polish movie Niewolnica zmysłów, which literally translates as ‘Slave of the Senses’.

The movie was released in Germany as DER TANZ DES TODES (The Dance of Death). The poster was printed for the original release in German in 1921.

The film was directed by Ryszard Ordynski and Jan Pawlowski. More importantly, it was Pola Negri’s movie debut.

Pola Negri was an early Superstar of Silent Cinema. When she came to Berlin in 1917, German film companies announced her as a ‘New Discovery’, willfully ignoring that she had already been a fully established star in Poland at that point.

The vast majority of Polish silent movies are lost, from Pola Negri only Bestia from 1917 has survived.

Combined with the initial Saturn Film (and later, the UFA) marketing campaign, this had led to the wide belief that she only played minor roles in Poland. Which is simply not true, she was fully established before she came to Germany.

German critics were not impressed by her early movies, and critized both the ‘bumpy’ technical execution and the poor scripts. That said, they were immediately impressed by Pola Negri’s performance.

Until then, German audiences had been accustomed to the rather understated, theatrical style of Danish stars (such as Asta Nielsen) or the sweet demeanor of German ingenues.

Pola Negri broke away from this completely: reviewers raved about her ‘elementary passion,’ her almost animalistic, feline grace, and her ability to switch from fragile innocence to murderous seduction within a matter of seconds.

For a couple of years after the end of World War I in 1918, the German movie industry could operate without censorship. Apparently, things got out of hand (or at least the powers-that-be thought they did) and the Reichslichtspielgesetz re-introduced movie censorship in 1920. (Not to be confused with the Reichsfilmgesetz the Nazis implemented in 1934.)

To celebrate the film’s official release in May 1921, Lloyd commissioned artist and graphic designer Kurt Opitz. His design relates to Pola Negri’s ‘Apache Dance’, a key scene in the film.

The poster is also an expressionistic masterpiece.

Beyond its extreme rarity, it captivates through the masterly graphic sophistication of its design: very much in the spirit of early Weimar cinema, Opitz employs a subtle visual ambiguity.

A dramatic key element of the composition reveals itself only upon intense, educated inspection, disclosing the psychological depth of this magnificent work.

Most importantly, it looks absolutely amazing.

The poster is extremely rare, with less than a handful of copies known to exist.

It survived in wonderful condition, with only minimal paper loss in the bottom left border and a few unobtrusive tears. There is no restoration that I can see.

Due to the printing process, the white outer margins on both the right side and the bottom are narrower than on one other surviving copy I have seen; this is a result of the manual workshop trimming at the printing house back in the day. It is not a post-sale trim, but an original production variant that visually gives the bold motif even more space and dynamism.

This beauty will go up on my website with one of my future updates, but is already available for direct sale. Price on request.

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Movie Poster Spotlight: Episode 7 – Es liegt was in der Luft (1950)

By on September 28, 2026

ES LIEGT WAS IN DER LUFT (There’s Something in the Air) is a Swiss German language production from 1950s, it opened in both Germany and Austria early in 1951. Here’s the original release German movie poster:

The writing above the open doors says EXIT, and we are supposed to see people leaving a cinema, still laughing.

This poster was created by Friedrich Kollatz. Not a household name in movie posters, Kollatz was not a traditional poster artist who created realistic portraits of celebrities, but rather an accomplished press illustrator, caricaturist, and illustrator.

His trademark was an extremely simplified, garish comic-book style (often reminiscent of American newspaper strips or humor magazines from the prewar and postwar periods). His typical characters show circular, wide-open mouths while laughing or screaming, chubby, bulbous noses, tiny eye lines, and highly exaggerated proportions. Perfect for conveying the slapstick nature of a ‘Filmschwank’ or ‘comedy film’.

What truly irritates me about this poster is that it transports something SO stereotypical of postwar West Germany: less than six years after the end of the war, Germans are FAT and HAPPY again. And, if we can believe the message this poster is sending, they don’t seem particularly troubled by the fact that they’re showing it.

For all I know, the movie itself is perfectly harmless. But the poster is another matter. There is something almost aggressively carefree about it: the doors of the cinema are opening, and out comes a bunch of prosperous-looking, well-fed Germans laughing their heads off. No guilt, no reflection, no hint that the country had recently emerged from one of the greatest catastrophes in modern history. Just: Mensch, haben wir gelacht! (Man, did we laugh!)

Needless to say, I don’t think there was any bad intention behind the poster. This was not a statement about Germany’s recent past. This was a comedy, and the poster was simply meant to say: look how much fun people are having!

And perhaps that’s exactly what makes it so fascinating in retrospect. This type of comic book style was perfectly typical for the time and in 1951, this image of prosperous, well-fed Germans laughing their heads off most likely seemed completely unremarkable. Today, it looks almost absurdly stereotypical of the early postwar years.

A movie poster is not a historical document, of course. But sometimes, without intending to, it tells us quite a lot about the time in which it was made.

Like the film it advertises, the poster itself is perfectly harmless. It is the historical context, and the almost breathtaking ‘Who, me?‘ attitude that surrounds it, that makes it so fascinating today.

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Movie Poster Spotlight: Episode 6 – Die 3 Codonas – A fantastic Poster for a forgotten Film

By on September 21, 2026

The Codona family originated in Mexico and became an internationally renowned circus act in the 1920s and 30s. Among numerous other places, they also performed at Berlin’s legendary Wintergarten Varieté.

DIE 3 CODONAS is a 1940 German drama loosely based on actual events. With production costs of RM 1.206 million and a total gross of RM 2.556 million by January 1942, the film was a major commercial success.

The film was re-released by independent distributor Schorchtfilm in 1951. While the movie has survived, it is basically forgotten today. I had never heard of it either, until a recent purchase brought the poster into my collection:

The extraordinary quality of the poster is not entirely surprising once you look at who printed it. Kunst im Druck Obpacher was not a small post-war printer, but an established Munich printing company with a long tradition in high-quality lithography and poster production that went back to the early 1920s. Choosing a printer like this for a film‘s re-release strongly suggests that quality still mattered, even at a time when paper and other resources were scarce. It also shows a remarkable level of both care and craftsmanship. 75 years later, the film is long forgotten, but the poster has lost none of its impact.

This poster is SOLD. It now belongs to a member of the Codona family. I can’t think of a better place for this piece of cinema history to land.

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