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One-sheet poster for the film “Open Secret” (1948)

Object | Accession Number: 2018.590.144

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    One-sheet poster for the film “Open Secret” (1948)

    Overview

    Brief Narrative
    One-sheet poster for the film, “Open Secret,” released on February 14, 1948. The film follows a newlywed couple as they work to figure out what happened to their friend, who goes missing just before they arrive for a visit. They discover that he attempted to infiltrate an antisemitic ring of thugs, and become embroiled themselves trying to bring the gang to justice. The low budget B-film, “Open Secret,” was poorly received, and panned as a subpar knockoff to films like “Crossfire” and “Gentleman’s Agreement.” Unlike the other films, however, “Open Secret” depicts post-war antisemitism from a working-class perspective. It was also the first to show a Jewish character physically fighting back against his aggressors. This object is one of more than 1,200 objects in the Cinema Judaica Collection of materials related to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical themes.
    Date
    Cinematic Release:  1948 February 14
    Geography
    creation: United States
    distribution: United States
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Ken Sutak and Sherri Venokur
    Markings
    front, top left corner, printed, yellow ink : THE / Pull-No-Punch / DRAMA OF MEN CHAINED TOGETHER / BY Hate!
    front, center, printed, white and red ink : OPEN / SECRET
    front, bottom right corner, printed, yellow ink : with / JOHN IRELAND • JANE RANDOLPH / ROMAN BOHNEN • SHELDON LEONARD / George Tyne • Morgan Farley / Directed by JOHN REINHARDT / Produced by FRANK SATENSTEIN / Associate Producer • Robert L. Joseph / Screenplay by Henry Blankfort and Max Wilk • Additional dialogue / by John Bright • Original Story by Max Wilk and Ted Murkland / A MARATHON PICTURE
    front, bottom left margin, printed, black ink : Country of Origin U.S.A.
    front, bottom right margin, printed, black ink : 48/738 34434
    Contributor
    Compiler: Ken Sutak
    Production Company: Marathon Pictures Corp.
    Distributor: Eagle-Lion Films, Inc.
    Biography
    The Cinema Judaica Collection consists of more than 1,200 objects relating to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical subjects, from 1923 to 2000, from the United States, Europe, Israel, Canada, Mexico, and Argentina. The collection was amassed by film memorabilia collector Ken Sutak, to document Holocaust-and Jewish-themed movies of the World War II era and the postwar years. The collection includes posters, lobby and photo cards, scene stills, pressbooks, trade ads, programs, magazines, books, VHS tapes, DVDS, and 78 rpm records.

    Sutak organized these materials into two groups, “Cinema Judaica: The War Years, 1939–1949” and “Cinema Judaica: The Epic Cycle, 1950–1972” and, in conjunction with the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum (now the Dr. Bernard Heller Museum in New York), organized exhibitions on these two themes in 2007 and 2008. Sutak subsequently authored companion books with the same titles.

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Classification
    Posters
    Genre/Form
    Posters.
    Physical Description
    Poster printed on a rectangular sheet of off-white paper, with white margins on all four sides and a dark blue background. Advertising copy is printed in yellow in the top left corner, directly above three assorted images. The image on the left is a red-haired woman in a dark green dress with a plunging neckline, depicted from the torso up. In the center is an illustration of a newspaper clipping, containing a column of three, square headshots of men in hats. On the right is a larger-scale image of a dark-haired man, depicted from the shoulders up, holding up a small, silver-colored revolver. In the center of the poster is the film title, printed in large, canted, red-and-white text over black rectangles. In the bottom left corner is an illustration of a man in a tan-colored suit and hat, grabbing the collar of another man in a blue suit with one hand. His other hand is raised, ready to strike the blue-suited man with the butt of a pistol. The blue-suited man’s arms are spread in a questioning manner. In the bottom center is a continuation of the newspaper illustration, bearing photos of two additional men. Cast and film credits are printed in yellow text in the bottom right corner. The bottom margin contains printing information in black and blue ink and an embossed stamp with the copyright information. The poster has a vertical center crease and three evenly-spaced horizontal creases, large tears, and some tape residue along the crease and edges. There are multiple pinholes in the corners and several losses along the left and right edges. The upper right side is folded at an angle and there is a small hole at the edn of a tear in the lower right corner. There are several distribution stamps on the back.

    Depicted:
    Jane Randolph as Nancy Lester, John Ireland as Paul Lester
    Dimensions
    Overall: Height: 40.750 inches (103.505 cm) | Width: 27.125 inches (68.898 cm)
    Materials
    overall : paper, ink
    Inscription
    front, bottom right margin, stamped, blue ink : 4
    front, bottom margin, embossed : PROPERTY OF N.S.S. CORP. / MAY BE DISTRIBUTED ONLY BY / POSTER [?]RIES / DULY LICENSED BY N.S.S. CORP.
    back, bottom right, stamped, black ink : [illegible] OPEN SECRET 48/738
    back bottom right, handwritten, black ink : 4127
    back, bottom right, stamped sideways, red ink : PLEASE RETURN MATERIAL / AFTER PLAYDATE TO / THEATER ADVERTISING CO. / &)$ NEW JERSEY AVE., N. W. / WASHINGTON, D. C.

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    No restrictions on access
    Conditions on Use
    Restrictions on use. Copyright status is unknown.

    Keywords & Subjects

    Geographic Name
    United States.

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    The poster was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by Ken Sutak and Sherri Venokur.
    Record last modified:
    2023-05-24 08:37:43
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn692963

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