Harvard Film Archive Collections

Processing the Just Collection has been a lot of fun.   Today’s find was hand-colored film stills from Jack Hill’s COFFY (1973), starring the inimitable Pam Grier.  It’s generally surprising to find hand-colored stills of this vintage, but it appears to have been fairly common in the German film promotion industry.

COFFY, Jack Hill, 1973, USA hand colored film still

COFFY, Jack Hill, 1973, USA hand colored film still

COFFY, Jack Hill, 1973, USA hand colored film still

This poster is in our collection, but we don’t know much about it.  It’s 27×41 and has no text nor writing on it.  A woman sits on a chair.  Behind her, through windows, we see a woman running arms outstretched, and a man falling off a cliff.

Can you identify it?

thank you Vernica!

Some of the collections at the HFA are acquired from private collectors.  You’ve heard a lot about Howard Burr, one of our personal favorite film collectors, on this blog.  In 2010 we acquired a small yet significant collection from another passionate collector, Tony Pugliese.  Mr. Pugliese was perhaps more precise and concise in his collecting than Mr. Burr — his collection consists of twenty-two 16mm film prints (in contrast to the over 2,500 acquired by Mr. Burr), and all were tied to his interest in one screen star.  This seemingly eclectic group of classical Hollywood films ranging from 1932 to 1965 is threaded together by the recurring presence of actor Paul Muni.  Some of the films also star other Hollywood screen legends like Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson and Bette Davis.  However, Pugliese’s interest in Muni’s films is truly the highlight of the collection.

Paul Muni in the 1932 film "Scarface."

Titles include the 1932 classic Scarface, 1945′s Chopin biopic A Song to Remember, and the 1932 crime drama I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, just to name a few.  

This collection not only makes available a number of great 16mm prints of classic Hollywood titles for viewing and study, but also provides more insight into the collecting cultures surrounding motion picture film in the 20th century.  The full finding aid with a complete inventory of the collection is available here.