Friday 21 February 2025 was a special evening for Flicks Film Posters. Before our usual Flicks Film Club at Patch, Twickenham, we hosted an exclusive event to raise funds for The Princess Alice Hospice.
When Madeline Smith walked into our recently opened gallery/shop last autumn we immediately recognised her as the star of film and television. Perhaps best known for her role as "Miss Caruso' in the 1973 James Bond 007 movie Live and Let Die, Madeline also starred in the Hammer Horror films Taste the Blood of Dracula and The Vampire Lovers (both 1970), Lionel Jeffries' delightful film The Amazing Mr Blunden (1972), and appeared in many other films and television series, notably The Two Ronnies., Crown Court, and Steptoe and Son.
We were delighted to meet Madeline and it soon became apparent that aside from a mutual love of cinema, we had a more unusual shared experience: Madeline's husband and my father had both passed away peacefully having had great care at The Princess Alice Hospice.
The original idea was simply for Flicks to do what we do best - source an original release 1973 poster for Live and Let Die and then apply our skills and experience to restore, linen-back and frame the poster, in order to sell it to raise funds for the hospice. However, this fairly quickly evolved into hosting a Q&A with Madeline to support the sale. So we invited people to come along and ask Madeline about her experience of making the film with Roger Moore (his first James Bond film), and her long and varied career in general.
Although we always do brief introductions to our regular film club screenings, we had never before attempted a Q&A, so the prospect of trying to appear moderately competent as a Q&A host in front of an audience was a daunting one! In the end Madeline's magnetic personality, clarity of thought in response to the questions, and her innate professionalism, helped me overcome the nerves. Everyone seemed to enjoy the evening and Madeline stayed to enjoy our screening of Howard Hawks's classic 1940 screwball comedy His Girl Friday, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell.
Of course, the key purpose of the evening - to promote the sale of the Live and Let Die poster - might only be considered a total success if we actually managed to sell the poster! We had no doubt it would sell eventually as it's a very collectible item, with brilliant poster artwork by the great Robert McGinnis. We just needed visitors to the gallery to see it framed on the wall to see if interested someone enough to buy it as it's a prime example of original, vintage movie poster art.
In fact, the poster was on display for less than 24 hours before it sold to a very nice couple who also had a love for the film. As with many of the posters we source and sell, (and perhaps this is true of art in general), it is often the subjective personal connection or shared experience that helps to sell a particular poster. It's always a special thing to display something original and collectible on the wall at home..
Comments