Titles By Ronald Searle

I've been meaning to make this for a while: here's a supercut of all the film title sequences designed by Ronald Searle!

The Wildcats of St.Trinians

Ronald Searle tried to distance himself from the film adaptations of his St. Trinians, but remained appreciative for the extra income it brought. The last two films made by the modern incarnation of Ealing Films saw Searle benefit with a hefty check that kept him in champagne he said!

'The Wildcats of St. Trinians' was released in 1979 and even then bore little resemblance to Searle's creation, geared towards kids and Dads as Frank 'one take' Launder admits in the video below.   Searle isn't mentioned once either, perhaps thankfully?

I think everyone may have been doing this for the money, including the aging Launder and some of Britain's best known actors of the era. Searle agreed to do the poster art but it looks like it was massacred by an art director with other ideas.

Searle himself appeares in The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954) as a visiting parent

Update

I've updated the Film Titles & Posters section here.

I also added artwork from the title sequences & promotional campaigns for the original St Trinians films over on Uli Meyer's 'Animated St. Trinians' blog here.

Also added new images to the TV Guide section

Film Titles & Posters

'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