THEY KNEW MR. KNIGHT 1945 Mervyn Johns, Alfred Drayton UK QUAD POSTER

Original British 30 inch x 40 inch Quad Poster for the 1945 Norman Walker Drama THEY KNEW MR. KNIGHT, based on the novel by Dorothy Whipple and starring Mervyn Johns, Nora Swinburne, Alfred Drayton, Joyce Howard, Joan Greenwood, Peter Hammond, Marie Ault, Grace Arnold, Frederick Cooper, Alfred Drayton, Olive Sloane, Joan Maude, Kenneth Kove, Frederick Burtwell, Muriel Aked, Anthony Holles and Ian Fleming.

A random accident brings struggling businessman Thomas Blake into contact with Mr Knight, a successful financier. Knight encourages him to take risks with his money and his honour, and Blake discovers that all that glitters is not gold.

Poster art by Eric Pulford (1915 - 2005). Having taken life classes at Leeds College of Art for 5 years Pulford was apprenticed as a commercial artist in 1931 to Gilchrist Bros a process house of 24 staff. Leslie Whitchurch, a partner in a Leicester based agency and also a part-time publicity manager for Rank, became aware of Pulford’s work and asked him to do some freelance work for him. Then in 1943 Rank invited Pulford to start a publicity department for them in London resulting in posters for “Henry V”, “Odd Man Out” and “Oliver Twist”. When the head of Downtons advertising agency, Charles Collins, died, Pulford was asked to take over. He became chairman and managing director but still spent most of his time designing posters. He retired in 1986. Pulford is responsible, either through his own artwork or design, for several hundred posters, some for classic films such as the ones already mentioned plus “Edge of the World”, “The Importance of Being Earnest”, “Genevieve”, “Reach for the Sky” and “A Night to Remember”. He is, without doubt, the most important force in British film poster design from the mid-1940s to the early 1980s.

Poster printed by W.E. Berry Ltd., Nesfield Printing Works, Bradford

The poster is in very good folded condition with minor creasing.