Bring the proud publishers of Ted Lewis’ cult novel Get Carter (about a ruthless gangster who was immortalised on screen by Michael Caine), today we must pay tribute to the great illustrator Arnaldo Putzu, renowned for painting book and magazine covers and, most famously, film posters, including the one for the 1970s Get Carter movie (pictured below).

Originally from Rome, Putzu’s talent in the 50s and 60s creating (now famous) posters for Italian realist cinema, soon caught the attention of Britain’s then largest film company, Rank, who commissioned him to work on British film posters and he later became the most in-demand poster artist in this country, ‘ecapsulating the whole look of popular illustration in the 1960s and 70s’.

He died earlier this month and in his obituary in the Guardian this weekend they highlight his Get Carter illustration and how his choice to feature Michael Caine in ‘an unlikely floral jacket, demonstrat[es] the whimsical humour that makes his best posters unforgettable.’

Click here to read the full obituary…

Chiara Priorelli, Publicity & Online Marketing Manager