Here’s a film poster from 1948. It’s by Manfred Reiss. I found out about him when I was researching accident prevention posters by RoSPA and GPO posters. He was one of a group of emigre artists and designers who came to Britain before WW2.
Looking at the poster, it’s a bit like a poster by FHK Henrion for the GPO.
FHK Henrion is better known than Manfred Reiss and is considered one of the significant personalities of post-war British design. Looking at these posters, I imagine that Henrion and Reiss were friends and colleagues in the 1940s.
Ealing Film Studios are famous for the post-WW2 comedy films. The advertising art-director of Ealing was St John Woods, who was a friend of the artist John Piper. He commissioned film poster designs by many well known British artists of the 1940s – John Piper, Edward Bawden and John Minton amongst them.
Today, this film has more-or-less disappeared without trace. You can probably guess that the film is about undercover resistance in occupied Belgium. The plot involves the blowing up of railway lines and so forth.
The poster is lovely.
I’ve posted about Ealing film posters before. Here, and for The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/aug/04/1