INVASION OF THE SAUCERMEN ORIGINAL MOVIE POSTER ART

The current bid at auction for this original gouache painting by Albert Kallis of the INVASION OF THE SAUCER-MEN one-sheet movie poster is $18,000. It is expected to sell for up to $40,000 by the time the gavel drops.

The Edward L. Cahn-directed 1957 space invasion movie was popular at the drive-ins and provided plenty of creeps and jump-scares to give teenagers an excuse for grabbing each other. Included here is the lobby card set.

Invasion of the Saucer-Men (American International, 1957). Original Albert Kallis Gouache Poster Artwork (20" X 24").
Albert Kallis, an American born artist was American International Pictures' art director for 17 years beginning in 1956 when a young Roger Corman spotted the 29 year old artist's work. Prior to his work in film, Kallis worked with famed advertising artist Saul Bass and Capitol Records designing album covers. When the artist Kallis joined Corman he became acquainted with Samuel Arkoff and James Nicholson, co-founders of AIP. With that studio he would create some of the most eye catching and lurid artwork ever to grace a poster. Legend has it that Nicholson and Kallis would work up a title and ad campaign and send artwork from the campaign to exhibitors and see how quickly they booked the film. The film would then be written and put into production. This fabulous and iconic piece of artwork is done on a Whatman cold pressed illustration board, the surface that Kallis most liked to apply his work, and has printing notations in the lower border of the board. The piece is done is a combination of watercolor and opaques, referred to as gouache. This artwork was definitely used for the half sheet format (22" X 28") and was most likely photographed and manipulated for other formats due to slight changes we see in the image that were applied to the other formats. We are unaware of other Kallis artwork from his major AIP poster designs coming to market but we believe this to to be one of very few. The image is in excellent condition and has minor soiling on the illustration board around the artwork. As an aside, Kallis is also one of the founding Partners of International House of Pancakes in 1958.