The poster of the day is for the 1933 film The Sin of Nora Moran, a low budget programmer (aka Voice from the Grave) starring Zita Johann of The Mummy fame. Although Orson Welles was said to have been influenced by this when developing Citizen Kane, this remains that oddest of films in that it is more well known for its poster than it is on its own merits. When Premiere listed their 25 best movie posters in history, this finished second, while IndependentCritics.com said this was the greatest poster of all time. What do you think?
I’m not so sure — certainly it’s dripping with pathos, has a nice simplicity, as well as a sensational amount of sex appeal (even for pre-code 1933) — but as provocative as the image is, the pose is lifted from ancient Greeks, and the design is too top-heavy (ouch, sorry) for me. My five-minute Photoshop tune-up is included below. In this case I like mine a little better. I tweaked the scaling, alignment, and spacing of the disparate elements, and moved the title to the bottom of the design. I also reduced the size of The and Of in the title so that it would center a little more easily. Nora’s figure and the shape of the title type are both rather triangular, and I like her resting on the title much more than when it hangs over her head — although one could argue that conceptually the weight of her “sin” should be bearing down on her! These are more hi-res than usual, in case you’d like to download.
I've always loved this poster. One of my favorites though I have never seen the film. The image has, as you say, an overabundance of sex appeal. And I have no problem with your tweaking of the title. But I much prefer it above her head- or on her shoulders- than her sitting on it.
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