Movie Poster Spotlight: Dragoon Wells Massacre (1957)

Following up on last week‘s post I want to show another ‘perfect’ movie poster today, the original 1958 release German poster for DRAGOON WELLS MASSACRE:

Graphic designer Will Williams was born as Willi Haseneier in Germany in 1922. After the end of World War II he changed his name to Will Williams and migrated to Rome for a few years. He supposedly met directors like Roberto Rosselini and Federico Fellini who introduced him to the great Italian poster artists. His own work is strongly influenced by these Italian masters.
Especially his faces often show a gritty, life-like realism that is hard to match.

The movie itself is basically a run-of-the-mill B-western and tells the story of a wagon train of prisoners that is attacked by Indians. The US campaign was perfectly dull and the posters are generally considered non-collectible.

As outlined in last week‘s post, the sole purpose of a movie poster was to lure the viewer into the movie house. Shortening the title to MASSAKER (which does not need translation) was another smart move by the distributors. In the top right hand we see Dennis O‘Keefe in a US Army uniform, crying out in anguish. The left hand of the poster shows a band of dead soldiers and a dying cowboy. The image is cut up by a stylised Indian arrow and completed by a fire in the background. The necessary credits are shown on a grey background.

There‘s a lot of grey background, which allows the viewer to focus on the three key elements of the poster. Add the striking title and it only takes a single glance to know what we can expect here: An action-packed Indian western with lots of dead white men.

An ordinary western. An extraordinary poster.

The poster is available for purchase and will be added to the website with my next update.