Advertising poster for the film "Professor Mamlock". USA, [1938].
At the center of the poster is an illustration of the film’s most well-known scene – the Jewish doctor, Professor Mamlock, being dragged by two Nazi SA officers, with the word "Jude" (Jew) inscribed on his coat. The margins list the film’s creators: directors Herbert Rappaport and Adolf Minkin, playwright Friedrich Wolf, and the Lenfilm (Ленфильм) Studios in Saint Petersburg.
The film "Professor Mamlock" was produced in the Soviet Union in 1938, based on a play by the Jewish physician Friedrich Wolf, and was among the first cinematic works to portray the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany. Upon its release, it achieved unprecedented success in Russia, and within the same year was distributed worldwide, screening before millions of viewers. Due to pressure from Nazi Germany, the film was banned in several countries – including Britain, France, and China – but not in the USA, where it was screened in over 100 theaters (its premiere took place on November 7, 1938, two days before the Kristallnacht pogroms in Germany).
The poster was designed by Hugo Gellert (1892-1985), a Jewish-American painter, anti-fascist political artist, and member of the Communist Party in the USA. During World War II, he led the "Artists for Victory" organization – comprising some 10,000 American artists who contributed their skills to the fight against Nazi Germany. Gellert created this poster in preparation for the film’s premiere.
Approx. 100X68 cm. Fair-good condition. Fold marks. Some stains and creases. Tears along margins and fold lines (professionally restored, with minor color touch-ups). Small adhesive tape pieces on verso.
