The Legend of Frenchie King movie posters
Canadian One Sheet (27″×39.5″)
The West ain’t no place for a man
English-language posters for The Legend of Frenchie King (original French title: Les Pétroleuses), a satirical western comedy set in the Francophone town of Bougival Junction, Texas in 1888. The film was directed by Christian-Jaque and stars Claudia Cardinale and Brigitte Bardot.
The title at the top is set in a typeface with horizontally hatched Egyptian top and decorated Tuscan bottom halves, which were additionally given different colors in this application. According to Nicolete Gray, this design was shown in Britain by Figgins around 1870, but already much earlier by French foundries. Fonderie Typographique Française revived it in the 1950s as Romantiques No. 5.
In the bottom half, the title is shown in Quentin (c.1958), which I believe to be Filmotype’s copy of Carousel as drawn by Dave Davison for Photo-Lettering before 1950.
The names are set in Egyptian. This phototype adaptation of a battered French Clarendon was issued by VGC as part of their T.J. Lyons Antique Type Collection in 1967. The font included two to three alternates for most letters, with different “blemishes, for a more authentic look. What it didn’t offer were lowercase letters. That’s why the tagline was rendered in Playbill – the wear and tear of the glyphs here was added by hand.
All four dispay typefaces were available for VGC’s Photo Typositor at the time.
Claudia Cardinale died on 23 September 2025 at her home in Nemours, France. RIP.
British Quad (30″×40″) poster. Eat this, racist!
