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‘Who Will Dare’ to Buy the Rarest Movie Poster in the World?

The only known “The Bride of Frankenstein” teaser one-sheet Style E movie poster, from the renowned Collection of Todd Feiertag, will come up for auction as part of Heritage Auction Galleries’ Beverly Hills Signature Movie Poster Auction, slated for Nov. 11, 2010. It is estimated to bring in an estimated $700,000-plus.

BEVERLY HILLS, Ca. – The tantalizing combination of rarity, quality and sheer artistry could all merge to create a world record price at public auction when the only known “The Bride of Frankenstein” teaser one-sheet Style E movie poster, from the renowned Collection of Todd Feiertag, comes up for auction as part of Heritage Auction Galleries’ Beverly Hills Signature Movie Poster Auction, slated for Nov. 11, 2010. It is estimated to bring in an estimated $700,000-plus.

The poster is currently on display at Heritage Auctions Beverly Hills, 9478 West Olympic Boulevard, and can be seen on a walk-in basis.

“Early Universal Horror movie posters are the blue chips of the collecting hobby,” said Grey Smith, Director of Movie Poster Auctions at Heritage, “and this incredible Universal Horror one-sheet from “The Bride” is easily the most dramatic poster I’ve ever seen, from any genre. It’s reasonable to say that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This is the only example of this poster to ever surface and, after all these years, it’s very likely there will never be another. It represents the rarest of the rare for a most desirable movie title and pop-culture icon.”

Heritage previously sold a poster that is tied for the second-highest price realized for a movie poster, a Style B one sheet from “The Black Cat,” which sold for $334,600 in November 2009, which only ranks behind the auction sale of “The Mummy” in March 1997 ($453,500) at a different auction house. The present poster comes from the same collection as “The Mummy” and “The Black Cat”— that of Todd Feiertag, who for nearly 50 years has amassed probably the single greatest collection of vintage horror posters in the world and who has decided that the time has come to put another one of his most treasured poster to the market.

“I’ve had the distinct pleasure of enjoying this poster in my private collection for the last 30-plus years,” said Feiertag, “and, while I still own several others from this title, I feel like this is the right time to give this treasure back to the world and to let another collector know the thrill of looking at it every day.”

“To a new world of gods and monsters,” says Dr. Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) to Doctor Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger), toasting the beginning of the thrilling adventure of creating the mate for The Monster (Boris Karloff) in James Whale’s critically acclaimed “The Bride of Frankenstein” (Universal, 1935), the sequel to the smash hit original “Frankenstein”(1931). Of the three one-sheet designs originally produced for in-theatre promotion for “The Bride of Frankenstein,” this only known Teaser (Advance) poster boasts the most powerful image of all, with brilliant cherry red printing and the shocking image of The Monster, shackled and chained to a heavy chair with rays of energy bursting behind. It simply does not get any better for the top collectors of vintage movie posters.

“The compelling tagline ‘I DEMAND A MATE!’ is arguably provocative given the time,” said Smith. “It is further enhanced by challenging the reader with ‘WHO will be THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN’ and ‘WHO will dare?’”

The poster is unrestored with some border and interior pinholes, a few minor border chips and two clean tears that extend into the image, one at the top left and the other in the lower right. Paper tape supports both tears on verso, as well as a tiny piece at each cross fold. The poster displays beautifully as is, or with the most minor restoration, would present itself as virtually mint. The poster has been graded by MP Grading and the Certificate of Authenticity and Grading Document is included.


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