BB17-067 — THE BIG HUNT
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YEAR: 1959
FILM STUDIO / PRODUCTION: Sherwood-Dungan Productions / An Ellis Dungan Production
DISTRIBUTOR: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
DIRECTOR: George Sherwood
FEATURED: Ellis Dungan; narration/commentary by Sidney Hertzberg
SCREENPLAY: George Sherwood
GENRE: Documentary / Adventure / Wildlife
POSTER PRINTER: Chromo Print — this particular design is documented by Australian poster collectors as a Chromo Print Daybill.
FORMAT: Australian Daybill

The Big Hunt is a feature-length documentary filmed in India and Pakistan, following American filmmaker and adventurer Ellis Dungan as wild elephants and a rhinoceros are captured and trained. The film also documents a Hindu festival and a tiger hunt with the Maharaja of Cooch Behar. Although subsequently released in the US in 1969 by Crown International, AFI records the production as having been filmed in 1958, while contemporary material and MGM releases identify it as a 1959 film.

POSTER DESIGN FEATURES: An unusually minimalist Australian Daybill printed almost entirely in vivid blue against white. The upper artwork depicts a dramatic Indian hunting scene with a turbaned hunter confronting large cats amid jungle vegetation. The lower half leaves substantial negative space around the strongly angled THE BIG HUNT title, MGM branding and large Australian “FOR GENERAL EXHIBITION” classification triangle. Its limited-colour graphic treatment is distinctly different from the photographic and full-colour advertising commonly associated with wildlife documentaries.

COLLECTOR'S NOTE: A fascinating piece of both Australian cinema advertising and documentary history. Filmmaker Ellis Dungan spent many years working in India and became particularly important in the development of Tamil-language cinema. His surviving archive specifically contains correspondence, promotional material, photographs, contracts and scripts relating to The Big Hunt, which was also known as Jangal. Contemporary promotion could be spectacular: in Britain, the Hyde Park Picture House famously brought in a real circus elephant to promote the film in 1959. For Australian poster collectors, this title is also specifically documented among known Chromo Print Daybills, adding another layer of local poster-history interest.