'The Happiest Days of Your Life' 1950
An original 1953 trade advertisement poster for the fantasy comedy 'The Oracle' starring Robert Beatty, Joseph Tomelty, Mervyn Johns, Michael Medwin, Virginia McKenna, Gillian Lind, Ursula Howells & Arthur MaCrae. An amusing yarn telling the tale of an Irish 'oracle' who fortells the next day's horeseracing results to a newspaperman, resulting in a national uproar.
The poster art here is quite famous for a quote by the famed film critic C.A. Lajeune. He remarked "The most interesting contribution to the week's cinema has been not a picture, but a picture about a picture: Ronald Searle's delightful poster for The Oracle."
'CASTLE IN THE AIR' 1952 MARGARET RUTHERFORD, HELEN CHERRY, DAVID TOMLINSON, SCREENPLAY BY ALAN MELVILLE , DIRECTED BY HENRY CASS.
Original British 27 inch x 40 inch 1-Sheet Poster for the 1952 Henry Cass Comedy CASTLE IN THE AIR starring David Tomlinson, Margaret Rutherford, Helen Cherry and A.E. Matthews.
French version
Lobby Card
PREPARATORY DRAWING FOR THE FILM TITLES, 1964
PEN INK, WATERCOLOUR AND PENCIL 20 1/2 X 15 3/4 INCHES
(SIMILAR TO THE ILLUSTRATION IN RONALD SEARLE, BILL RICHARDSON AND ALLEN ANDREWS, THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES, LONDON: DENNIS DOBSON, 1965, PAGE 40)
Theatre Programme
Italian poster for 'Monte Carlo or Bust' or 'Those daring Young Men In Their Jaunty Jalopies'.
Titles for 'Scrooge'.
Scrooge by Elaine Donaldson adapted from Leslie Bricusse screen play drawings by Ronald Searle and photographs from the movie based on A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens published by Cinema Center Films. 1971
Titles for 'The Belles of St. Trinians'.
Proposed art for 'An Alligator Named Daisy' 1955 - unused as far as I know
3 comments:
Just a thought but did you ever feel totally connected with this stuff as a child? You're english right? I remember a (seemingly) ages old book in the shop my mum made me get my haircut and the rain persisting down and feeling english looking at these types of illustrations. This was before i even knew what english really was... that is some skill old ronald had wouldn't you say?
I'm Welsh actually but consider myself British.
Searle has actually lived in France for 40 years so may have lost touch with British culture but certainly his drawings from the 40s & 50s reflect a distinct 'Britishness' peculiar to that era.
He was born in Cambridge, served in WW11, found a career in London & mixed with the Punch set so his work is profoundly 'English' & in turn influenced our notions of 'Englishness'. Perhaps this is why Disney turned to his example when styling '101 Dalmations' & just look at Milt Kahl's design of Edgar the butler in 'The Aristocats' - pure Searle.
I've been a great fan of 'Those Magnificent Men...' and 'Scrooge' since first seeing them as a lad. I always felt doubly blessed when I first saw that Ronald Searle was involved too. I really must get out those DVDs...
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