Heart-Wrenching: The Cluny Brown Cover Story

[domino harvey]

I was curious what the original poster from 1946 looked like. It actually has a similar alien, robotic touch.

Looks more like Paulette Goddard than Jennifer Jones or her robot buddy

[black&huge]

I was curious what the original poster from 1946 looked like. It actually has a similar alien, robotic touch.

Looks more like Paulette Goddard than Jennifer Jones or her robot buddy

Jennifer Jones as The Cluny in the Radiator and Charles Boyer as Jimmy Stewart as Jude Law as Gigolo Joe in Ernst Lubistch's "Whatever this movie is titled, it's gonna have an awfully troubled promotional artwork history"

[TwoTecs]

Why doesn't Criterion use original posters for the cover art like Indicator? Posters that came before the photographed floating heads era of poster design would all look great for covers.

[Lemdog]

Ok Criterion, just change it back. I am happy to see that the artwork is so bad that it deserves its own thread.

[movielocke]

I think it’s an improvement, and if they can’t rework the key commissioned art, this is acceptable.

[FrauBlucher]

Why doesn't Criterion use original posters for the cover art like Indicator? Posters that came before the photographed floating heads era of poster design would all look great for covers.

Oh I don't know. I do like the old posters but I also very much like the commissioned art work Criterion uses for many of the classic hollywood titles. Granted Cluny Brown is at the bottom of list, but my three favorites are Mildred Pierce, Stagecoach and His Girl Friday which to me are all exceptional

[Glowingwabbit]

Why doesn't Criterion use original posters for the cover art like Indicator? Posters that came before the photographed floating heads era of poster design would all look great for covers.

Oh I don't know. I do like the old posters but I also very much like the commissioned art work Criterion uses for many of the classic hollywood titles. Granted Cluny Brown is at the bottom of list, but my three favorites are Mildred Pierce, Stagecoach and His Girl Friday which to me are all exceptional

It's a shame Criterion never adopted the reversible cover like other labels so we could have the best (or maybe worst) of both worlds.

[Gregory]

It's incredibly weird the way her torso is so boxy, almost a perfect rectangle. Not being able to see a right arm in the new version makes it even stranger than it was. It looks like her blouse is stuck to the wrench and being pulled to create those unnatural lines.

These geometric and robotic qualities remind me of someone else...

[criterionsnob]

All they have to do now is make the Looney Tunes circle the 'O' in BROWN. Then the ugly artwork will be so small we'll just forget it's there.

[Gregory]

And just look at how poorly the circle fits the elbow at the bottom. The circle overlaps the elbow on one side and there's a gap on the other.
Personal aesthetic tastes about the cover on the whole naturally vary, but that part of it is just sloppy design, plain and simple.

[Graphist]

Don’t see much of an improvement here, honestly. I don’t know but maybe I would’ve tried a composition where the film title is taking pretty much all the available space on the cover and a female hand with a wrench is tinkering one of the letters. And maybe brought back the wallpaper from cover #1 to warm up the look.

I haven’t seen it, so is her character left-handed in the film?

[HinkyDinkyTruesmith]

I just realized the pun in this thread's title (a bit oblivious, me) and want to say kudos.

But, no, Cluny does not seem to be left-handed in the film.

[cdnchris]

Cluny Brown

[domino harvey]

Oh no, the interior Charles Boyer is also awful. What happened here to so deeply disrupt this artist’s abilities?

[KJones77]

The interior Boyer is somehow more horrifying than Jennifer Jones on the cover.

[NWRdr4]

Cluny Brown

I cackled so loudly at that Charles Boyer art. It just keeps getting worse and worse, doesn’t it? At this point, I’m afraid to see what horrors await inside the booklet...

[FrauBlucher]

You know how there are always a few people who say they like an overwhelmingly questionable artwork. Good luck finding those few for this.

[Fred Holywell]

Cluny Brown

The Boyer "artwork" got flipped somewhere along the line. That breast pocket should be on his left side, not the right. Nobody knew -- or cared -- enough to fix it?

[Reverend Drewcifer]

You rang?

[HinkyDinkyTruesmith]

It pains me that I will be buying this ASAP despite the lackluster transfer and what might be the absolute worst art Criterion's ever done––hell, it's worse than the majority of studio releases.

[cdnchris]

I thought the cover was ugly but I didn't hate it. I now blame that on the fact I had yet to see the film. After seeing it... Jesus. I get it... but it just feels so off the mark on top of everything else. I think I also preferred the brown cover.

[domino harvey]

In yet another indignity for this title, I received a very odd copy of this movie from the Criterion sale-- the plant missed shrinkwrapping the Blu-ray, so the Blu-ray sticker and the "Made in Mexico" ink print-out ended up being affixed to the case itself rather than the MIA plastic wrap. Take that, people complaining about smooth versus bunched-up shrinkwrap. In conclusion, this release is just cursed

[FrauBlucher]

Well, if anything the sticker hides a bit of the hideousness of the cover

[CSM126]

I stick the director-approved stickers right on the box, but a generic blue one would bug me.

#firstworldproblems

[aox]

In yet another indignity for this title, I received a very odd copy of this movie from the Criterion sale-- the plant missed shrinkwrapping the Blu-ray, so the Blu-ray sticker and the "Made in Mexico" ink print-out ended up being affixed to the case itself rather than the MIA plastic wrap. Take that, people complaining about smooth versus bunched-up shrinkwrap. In conclusion, this release is just cursed

I won't even allow it in my home.

Not worth the risk.