“Stuttering Bishop”/”Massacre” Photo Mash-up
Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 196
The last few days, we have been taking a look at advertising art issued for the 1937 Perry Mason feature The Case of the Stuttering Bishop. For this film there were the materials produced by Warner Bros., along with those created by the Other Company, who had permission to manufacture items for markets where the official materials were less likely to be distributed.
The one restriction that was placed on the Other Company posters was that the name of the studio could not appear on the artwork. When it came to still photographs, the Other Company was at more of a disadvantage because Warner Bros. was not about to share their production stills. That did not stop the Other Company from fulfilling their mission of providing advertising items to needy theaters. Instead, they found a photo of Stuttering Bishop star Donald Woods from another movie and superimposed a photo of Ann Dvorak from Massacre to make it look like they are sharing a courtroom scene together.
I have over 1,200 photos of Ann Dvorak, and this one stands out as one of the more bizarre of the bunch.
I looked at the picture for a few seconds before reading your comments. It didn’t initially register that Ann’s face was superimposed; I’m still not sure it’s that obvious unless someone would point it out. Could you tell right away when you got ahold of the photo?
When I first saw it, I knew it didn’t look right but did not instantly know why. But, the way Ann looks is distinctly “Massacre,” so I figured it out pretty quick.