BB17-073 — THE BANK BREAKER
Shop Now YEAR: 1966
ORIGINAL TITLE: Kaleidoscope
FILM STUDIO / PRODUCTION: Winkast Film Productions / Gershwin-Kastner Production
DISTRIBUTOR: Warner Bros.
TAGLINE: “The ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ team hits again!” / “That ‘Clyde’ man exploding into 1968’s big-time rackets.” / “The switched-on thriller!!!”
DIRECTOR: Jack Smight
CAST: Warren Beatty, Susannah York, Clive Revill, Eric Porter, Murray Melvin, George Sewell, Jane Birkin
SCREENPLAY: Robert Carrington and Jane-Howard Hammerstein
PRODUCERS: Elliott Kastner and Jerry Gershwin
MUSIC: Stanley Myers
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Christopher Challis
GENRE: Crime Comedy / Caper / Romantic Comedy
POSTER PRINTER: Robert Burton Pty. Ltd., Sydney
FORMAT: Australian Daybill
Released internationally as Kaleidoscope, The Bank Breaker is a stylish 1966 Swinging Sixties crime caper starring Warren Beatty and Susannah York. Beatty plays gambler Barney Lincoln, who secretly marks the printing plates used to manufacture playing cards and then uses his knowledge to win at Europe's casinos.
POSTER DESIGN FEATURES: This is a particularly interesting Australian campaign design. Rather than simply advertising Kaleidoscope, it retitles the film THE BANK BREAKER and heavily exploits Warren Beatty's subsequent success in Bonnie and Clyde. The upper typography announces “THE ‘BONNIE AND CLYDE’ TEAM HITS AGAIN!” and sells Beatty as “THAT ‘CLYDE’ MAN”, clearly identifying this as a later Australian release campaign. The lower artwork features a wonderfully colourful psychedelic montage of guns, playing cards, casino imagery, faces and abstract figures, strongly reflecting the late-1960s pop-art aesthetic.
COLLECTOR'S NOTE: An especially interesting Warren Beatty poster because the film itself predates Bonnie and Clyde: Kaleidoscope was released in 1966, while Bonnie and Clyde followed in 1967. The Australian distributor subsequently repositioned the earlier film around Beatty's new fame as Clyde Barrow, making the advertising itself part of the poster's story. The psychedelic original Kaleidoscope campaign artwork is associated with celebrated poster artist Bob Peak, adding further design interest to this Australian adaptation.
