Movie Poster- "Sergeant Rutledge," 1960, Racist Advertising.

Description

Movie Poster- "Sergeant Rutledge," 1960, Racist Advertising.
First let me say, I have always liked this movie; being of the western-cavalry genre that I grew up with. Hollywood seldom gets it totally accurate historically, but this one was ok.
The story takes place in the American Southwest, in the later part of the 19th century where troops from the 10th U.S. Cavalry (Black) are fighting the Apache.  In this movie, the Indian Wars/western aspect takes a back seat to a military court martial drama, were a black first sergeant is caught up in a trial for raping and murdering a young white girl, and her father, the commanding officer. The evidence against the sergeant, played by Woody Strode, is all circumstantial, and through the use of flash backs and witness testimonies, Rutledge's legal council, played by Jeffery Hunter fights that skewed evidence and racial prejudice, but finally discovers the real killer, a much older white post trader.
I don't have a problem with the movie, and how the racially motivated plot plays out for good; my problem is how the studio uses the obvious black male, white female racially charged images and verbiage on the poster to incite movie goers into seeing what they probably expected to view based on purely stereotypical views. In my initial search for information on the poster itself, I found that a good deal of the other posters for this movie, are blatantly hurling the racism to promote this film.
The condition of the poster is very good with light soiling and wear, fold lines are visible close up, but will display nicely. The color seem to fade going from left to right, and that is due to your poor and humble photographer taking the picture in not so optimal lighting. The color is even across the poster, and the color going more orange toward the top is correct.
This came from a collection in Rhode Island where the collector mainly purchased posters directly from the theaters in his area, and were actually used to advertise this film to local movie goers.  A great poster for all the wrong reasons, yet important for what it represents to history.
Size: 22 x 28"