Above, an alternate Japanese poster for Stanley Donen’s 1967 man-sells-soul-to-devil comedy Bedazzled, starring Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, and Eleanor Bron, with Raquel Welch rather appropriately cast as the character Lust. Bedazzled premiered in the U.S. today in 1967. 

As long as we’re on the subject of Stanley Donen movies, here are two one-sheets painted by Robert McGinnis for the 1966 caper Arabesque, starring Gregory Peck and the great Sophia Loren. Donen was trying to capture the mod magic of his earlier feature Charade, which had starred Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. We can’t say he fully succeeded there, but he did make an adventure romance full of joie de vivre that’s well worth seeing. The two posters differ in one fascinating aspect—Gregory Peck’s lower body has been transplanted in the bottom version. We know the dancing pose at top was the original, but we think the upright stance in the re-do is an improvement, as is the cool magenta background. It’s killer art for a killer flick, and we recommend you check it out.

Director Stanley Donen’s third collaboration with Audrey Hepburn after the hits Funny Face and Charade is not quite as breezy as those previous efforts, but it’s still a stellar effort. Basically, Two for the Road is an elliptical recounting of a difficult marriage, with the action set during different road trips across France taken at different times of life. Here you get a more mature Hepburn, playing a meatier role, derived from an excellent script by Frederic Raphael, aided by the great direction of Donen and a memorable musical score from Henry Mancini. You also get très groovy Japanese promo art printed for the premiere in Tokyo forty-two years ago today. Available on dvd only since late 2005, Two for the Road is lesser known Hepburn, but we think in time it will be considered her best work. Highly recommended.