Very Rare DIRTY HARRY Chirashi

Very Rare DIRTY HARRY Chirashi

Japanese flyers are most commonly called Chirashi (チラシ), a term used for promotional leaflets and mini-posters that are often distributed in cinemas and other venues to advertise movies, products, or events. While "chirashi" can also refer to sushi, the context of "flyer" is indicated by the Japanese word for movie flyers, eiga chirashi (映画チラシ).

Inside the Cult World of Japan’s Mini Movie Flyers:

In the dim glow of a Japanese movie theater lobby, there’s a humble art form waiting by the ticket booth. It’s not on the screen. It’s stacked on a metal rack, maybe clipped behind a glass case. No flashing lights. No booming trailer. Just a flyer — about the size of a paperback book — with gorgeous, custom artwork printed on glossy paper.

They’re called chirashi, and for movie collectors, they’re a quietly obsessive treasure trove of cinematic ephemera. Part advertising, part miniature masterpiece, chirashi have become one of Japan’s most beloved — and affordable — forms of movie memorabilia.

In the most literal sense, chirashi (チラシ) just means “flyer.” But in the movie world, chirashi are Japan’s uniquely compact movie posters, typically printed in B5 size (roughly 7” x 10”), and only available from theatre’s while a film is actively showing. That limited-time-only nature is what makes them collectible — and increasingly rare.

Unlike oversized one-sheets or rolled wall posters, chirashi are designed to be taken home in your tote bag. They’re often double-sided or bi-fold (like a tiny program), printed on surprisingly high-quality paper, and made to feel more like a keepsake than a throwaway ad.

What is very special about this original Dirty Harry chirashi is its double size, roughly 14” x 10”. It contains some great artistic design and is fully printed on the inside. Prices are increasing on chirashi mini posters – but I w2as even stunned when I spotted this one, currently on sale on Ebay for a ball busting US $119.99 or approximately £89.03 (if that softens the blow). Now I like these little keepsakes – but I don’t think I will ever be splashing out that sort of cash for the pleasure of owning one of these.

Memorabilia collecting is becoming an expensive sport…

THE REGENT THEATRE Classic 1967 Advertisement

THE REGENT THEATRE Classic 1967 Advertisement 

The Regent Theatre is a beautiful one-screen, Art Deco theatre that first started showing movies in 1919. It is currently owned and operated by the City of Allegan and features first-run, new release films in state-of-the-art digital projection.

The Regent boasts a glittering neon marquee that has acted as a beacon in historic downtown Allegan since its installation in the 1930s. On the backside of the brick building, a beautiful art deco-inspired mural painted by celebrated West Michigan artist José Narezo adorns the wall to create a unique picture-taking opportunity.

To celebrate this beautiful Theatre, here is an original Advertisement from one of its original 1967 flyers. A Fistful of Dollars was showing on February 26th, 27th and 28th of 1967. Also showing that month (and featured on the cover) was the Michael Caine sequel to The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin. 

We do love old time cinema… 

Renato Casaro, Famed Italian Designer of Movie Posters, Dies at 89

Renato Casaro, Famed Italian Designer of Movie Posters, Dies at 89

He created artwork for ‘A Fistful of Dollars,’ ‘Conan the Barbarian’ and more, then made a comeback with ‘Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.’

Renato Casaro, the Italian designer of movie posters renowned for the hand-crafted art he created for films including A Fistful of Dollars, Conan the Barbarian and the Rambo features, has died. He was 89.

Casaro died Monday night in a hospital in his native Treviso, Italy, after being admitted days earlier with bronchopneumonia, the Italian news service RAI reported.

Casaro helped put bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger the map in Hollywood with his poster for the Dino De Laurentiis-produced Conan the Barbarian (1982), and he also designed posters for the actor’s Red Sonja (1985), The Running Man (1987), Total Recall (1990), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and True Lies (1994).

“Schwarzenegger was the perfect man to paint,” he told The Guardian in 2022. “He had a tough expression. His face was like a sculpture. It was a real pleasure for me — I have always had a weakness for heroes.”

Sylvester Stallone, another heroic figure in Hollywood, said Casaro “captured his soul” with posters for his films, which included the Rambo features of 1982, 1985 and 1988, plus Over the Top (1987), Lock Up (1989) and Cliffhanger (1993).

Casaro created posters for lots of spaghetti Westerns early in his career, and one for Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars (1964), starring Clint Eastwood, helped that movie become a worldwide sensation. He then reunited with the Italian filmmaker for My Name Is Nobody (1973) and Once Upon a Time in America (1984).

Casaro said the key to a successful poster is to “capture the essential: that moment, that glance, that attitude, that movement that says everything and condenses the entire story. That’s the hard part,” he told The New York Times in 2021. “You can’t cheat. You can’t promise something that isn’t there.”

Born on Oct. 26, 1935, Casaro became fascinated with billboards as a kid and tried to reproduce paintings by such artists as American Norman Rockwell and countryman Angelo Cesselon. When he was a teenager, he drew posters on the walls of the local Garibaldi Cinema in exchange for tickets.

Casaro landed a job as an apprentice lithographer at the Zoppelli printing house and worked for a year as an illustrator for the film ad agency Studio Favalli in Rome before opening his own studio at age 21.

Among his first professional movie posters were for the rerelease of Allan Dwan’s Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) and for the 1955 Italian films Romeo & Juliet and Zwei blaue Augen. With the rise of the spaghetti Western, he was drawing about a 100 posters a year.

In 1965, Casaro burst onto the international scene with his poster for John Huston’s epic The Bible in the Beginning … (1966), which ignited a long collaboration with De Laurentiis.

“It was a colossal film,” he told CBS News in a 2022 interview. “My posters were put on billboards on Sunset Boulevard. After that, my phone never stopped ringing.”

One of his favorite pieces was one for Luc Besson’s La Femme Nikita (1990), and he also worked with Bernardo Bertolucci on The Last Emperor (1987) and The Sheltering Sky (1990), with David Lynch on Dune (1984) and Wild at Heart (1990) and with Rob Reiner on The Princess Bride (1987) and Misery (1990).

His résumé also included artwork for Flash Gordon (1980), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), Blow Out (1981), Octopussy (1983), The NeverEnding Story (1984), Angel Heart (1987), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), Wild Orchid (1989) and Dances With Wolves (1990).

After a long period in Spain and Germany, he returned to live and work in his hometown about a decade ago. A documentary about his life, The Last Movie Painter, was released in 2020.

Casaro stopped designing posters in 1998 when studios turned away from hand-drawn artwork to use Photoshop and other digital tools. But then Quentin Tarantino called out of nowhere, looking for posters for a vintage spaghetti Western starring Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) for Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood (2019) (below).

Tarantino later sent him a signed photo of DiCaprio with one of the posters. “Thanks so much for your art gracing my picture,” he said in an accompanying message. “You’ve always been my favourite.”

We at the Archive share that sentiment, RIP Maestro

With kind thanks to Graham Rye

Rare Good, Bad and the Ugly poster (kinda)

Rare Good, Bad and the Ugly poster (kinda(

Here’s a little something you won’t see every day.  Yes, despite the use of varied artwork elements, this is actually a poster for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. If it looks a little unusual, that’s because it is a Trinidadian Poster (27" X 42").

I think this is the first time we have ever featured a poster from Trinidad here on the Archive.  It’s an unrestored poster with bright colour and a clean overall appearance. Despite that of course there are some glaringly obvious errors in the design. In fact, Eli Wallach’s Tuco is the only actual image from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The Lee Van Cleef image is in fact taken from The Big Gundown (1967) and the shot of Clint is actually from High Plains Drifter (1973)! This hints naturally that this particular poster comes from a 70’s release (at the earliest). 

Anyway, a rare treat. Thank you to Davy Triumph for finding this one. 

Photo Opportunity #66 Lunch in Madrid 1965

Photo Opportunity #66 Lunch in Madrid 1965

Our October Photo Opportunity features a very rare shot of Clint, Carles Bronson and Steve Rowland.

Clint is captured here (not very flatteringly) having lunch with Charles Bronson and Hollywood columnist Steve Rowland in Madrid, Spain in 1965. Clint was of course in Spain at this time filming the second of the Dollar trilogy, For a Few Dollars More. Charles Bronson was also filming in Madrid – for the epic Ken Annakin movie, Battle of the Bulge.

A great deal of Battle of the Bulge was shot on location in the Sierra de Guadarrama Mountain range and Madrid, Spain, which actually bore no resemblance to the rugged, heavily wooded Ardennes of Belgium, Luxembourg, and western Germany. 

Steve Rowland is an American singer, columnist, record producer and actor. He grew up in Beverly Hills and now lives in Palm Springs, California. His father is film director Roy Rowland, his mother Ruth was a writer, and Louis B. Mayer was his great-uncle. Rowland was also staring in Battle of the Bulge in the role of Courtland.

Above: Not the most flattering photo of Clint, but try finding another of Clint with Charlie Bronson!