Fake Superior

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The Great Texas Dynamite Chase (1976). The (alternate) title appears in Publicity Gothic, a distressed face from way back in 1916. It was one of the last faces designed by Sidney Gaunt for Chicago’s Barnhardt Brothers & Spindler Type Foundry before he left to open his own shop in New York. With Helvetica Extra Bold.

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Le Mans (1971). Billing block aside it's Futura Bold with Kabel Black, a lazy combination of two type families that draw frequent comparison, having been released in the same year (1927) and each among the most influential geometric sans serifs; Kabel’s often idiosyncratic letterforms prevented the comprehensive embrace that Futura’s more precise minimalism allowed, yet its overall vibrancy endures. Here, an uninspired layout and some careless kerning reciprocate a relatively slapdash Tom Jung illustration.

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Cleopatra Jones (1973). The typeface Bust (also found labeled as Chesty) of unknown origins, from Dan X. Solo’s Solotype collection. It’s slightly modified for this poster; the round lowercase c is blown up and used in place of the more oblong cap C, and they’ve added some dimensional shading. Cool car. Up top is Folio Bold Extended (Folio-Grotesk Breitfett), a popular 70s television typeface, with the tagline in Helvetica Light. 

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Once Upon a Time in America (1984). For the title, a typeface not American but rather distinctly German, albeit one well suited to the film’s time period. Edel Grotesque Bold Condensed and Wotan Bold Condensed are the two names the Jaspert/Berry/Johnson Encyclopedia of Typefaces ascribe to it; elsewhere the name is often some iteration of Aurora Grotesk. A number of European (and, subsequently, American) foundries had their own version, but the original is generally credited to Johannes Wagner around 1914. The distinctive capital A, M, and N are exclusive to the bold condensed (German: schmalfett) weight. Wagner Grotesk Pro from Canada Type appears to be the best modern digital version available. The typeface at the top of the poster is Garamond Ultra, the heaviest of all the weights of the many interpretations of Garamond. Poster art by Tom Jung.

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Network (1976). ITC Grouch, a slightly modified Doric Black Italic for the title and City Bold for the names at the bottom. The expressive Grouch was one of several Tom Carnase / Ronne Bonder collaborations from the 1970s; Carnase revisited Caslon throughout his career. Maybe a bit cartoonish for this particular film? Georg Trump’s City Bold, commonly used in sports, is an unusual choice as well. Doric Black Italic descended from a nineteenth century advertising face and this particular weight appeared in the early 1970s. Linotype’s revival of Doric is credited to Walter Tracy, longtime Type Director at Linotype and author of the type design classic Letters of Credit.

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Dead Poets Society (1989). The title in Classic Roman with Albertus for the names and tagline; they’re both lapidary typefaces, i.e. they exhibit characteristics of engraving. The history of Classic Roman (possibly synonymous with Sackers Classic Roman?) is somewhat unclear, but apparently it’s derived from a 19th century copperplate style. Albertus, with its similarly short, chiseled serifs, was created in the 1930s by Berthold Wolpe, a student of Rudolf Koch who went on to enjoy a long career as a book jacket designer.

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Bonnie and Clyde (1967). At first glance this is Wadsworth Parker’s 1928 art deco face Gallia. However it’s actually a fatter version than exists, with wider stems, thicker serifs, and other significant modifications. In some respects it shares characteristics of Morris Fuller Benton’s 1928 typeface Chic - e.g. a flat-topped, slab-serif cap A - and Parker’s earlier effort Modernistic - e.g. the middle serif on the cap W - but it seems clear this is custom. With Twentieth Century Ultra Bold Italic.

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Gator (1976). Dynamo Bold, with Antique Olive and Antique Olive Bold. An art deco face from 1930 (K. Sommer for Ludwig & Mayer), Dynamo witnessed a revival in the 1970s via Letraset; furthermore, senior type designer Alan Meeks, working alongside fellow senior type designer and future type director Colin Brignall, created a shaded version called Dynamo Shadow for a 1977 release. Antique Olive, by renowned French designer Roger Excoffon and named for the Fonderie Olive in Marseilles, dates from the 1960s. The character Gator McKlusky, it bears mentioning, dates from 1973; he first appeared in the movie White Lightning and Gator is actually a sequel, as any Archer fan can relate. 

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Gator Bait (1973). Title appears in Plymouth, a distressed display face by Iowan type designer Rick Mueller, who went on to create a large number of novelty fonts, including ITC Buckeroo. Franklin Gothic Condensed for the tagline and Franklin Gothic Extra Condensed up top. 

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Hit! (1973). Gill Kayo, aka the Ultra Bold weight of Gill Sans, for the title and lead actors. From a 1937 review, a year after it was released: “Kayo is a dismal type…The type was originally named Double Elefans, which had a very pleasant touch of the lampoon about it.” Gill himself had previously disparaged such typefaces; at least there’s a nice slot for the target symbol. With Helvetica Black for the tagline.

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The Hateful Eight (2015). Rockwell Extra Bold, all caps. Apparently this appears in the next issue of Empire Magazine. Nothing special about the poster - Rockwell is extremely common - but I'd like to point out this typeface was released...wait for it...exactly eight decades ago (1934).

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Ghostbusters (1984). Both posters employ Columna, an all-caps roman by Swiss graphic designer Max Caflisch. A one-time student of Jan Tschichold and Imre Reiner, Caflisch enjoyed a distinguished career as designer, teacher and consultant. Columna originated in the early 1950s during his time as art director at Swiss publisher Benteli (source: Luc Devroye). The cap R has a more narrow alternate with the tail originating at the stem; here the wider cap R is used. The title itself, however, is custom, based on Columna but incorporating elements from other contemporary typefaces, like ITC Quorum Bold (1977), Les Usherwood’s Flange (1981) and, especially, ITC Novarese Bold (1978).

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Save the Tiger (1973). ITC Souvenir and ITC Souvenir Light. An offbeat Morris Benton Fuller creation from 1914 (with an original working title of Round Roman), it was only designed in a single weight and didn’t achieve popularity until almost sixty years later. However, after Ed Benguiat and ITC's 1972 revival it became so popular - a testament to the influence of ITC in its heyday - that it's now associated exclusively with the 1970s. Still would've seemed fresh when this one came out.

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The Passage (1979). Names and title appear in Matthew Carter’s Swiss 911 Extra Compressed. Flanked by Compressed and Ultra Compressed weights, it’s one of several bold condensed grots from the mid-1960s (Fred Lambert’s Compacta and Geoffrey Lee’s Impact are two others) that drew on older advertising faces. The Swiss 911 series was released in 1965, right at the beginning of Carter’s sixteen year stint as house designer at Mergenthaler - it’s also similar to Carter’s mid-1970s design for Helvetica Compressed, due in large part to the shared Swiss heritage of the two.

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The Serpent’s Egg (1977, German poster). Marvin! According to Fonts in Use it was first produced by the London photo-era foundry Face Photosetting; later became a popular Letraset typeface, and still used in logos as varied as auto parts giant CarQuest and marijuana advocacy outfit NORML. With Helvetica Light.

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Tales from the Crypt (1972). Bernhard Antique - also sold as Bernhard Heavy Bold. Vienna-born and Munich-educated Lucian Bernhard was an acclaimed poster designer and a pioneer of the Sachplakat (“object poster”) style at the beginning of the 20th century. Appearing in the early 1910s, Bernhard Antique was one of his earliest complete typefaces. Bernhard moved to New York in the early 1920s, and in addition to teaching and continuing to design posters he began a partnership with ATF that resulted in his most well-known typefaces, Bernhard Modern and Bernhard Fashion.

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The Werewolf vs. Vampire Woman (1971). The typeface Macbeth, created by Monotype and descended from an ornamental Victorian display style especially popular in the 1880s and 1890s. Strongly resembles the Boston Type Foundry faces Rubens and Teniers, each from the 1880s, and a cousin to the better-known Othello, an 1886 Gustav Schroeder design revived in the 1930s by Morris Fuller Benton. Pretty rad. With Futura Bold Condensed.