Arnaldo Putzu and His Fabulous Hand-Painted Covers for Look-In Magazine And Movie Posters

You might not know the name Arnaldo Putzu (1927 – 2012) but chances are that if you grew up in the 1960s and 1970s you’ve seen his work on movie posters and magazine covers.

Born in Rome, Putzu studied at the Rome Academy and discovered a love of portrait painting. After graduation, Putzu worked in Milan for Italian poster artist Enrico de Seta (17 February 1908 – 28 November 2008).

 

 

After four years with Seta, he returned to Rome and set up his own studio close to Italy’s booming film industry, working for Augusto Favalli (1905-1969), who managed a roster of artists employed by the Cinecittà film studios. There, Putzu created some of the most recognisable Italian film posters of the 50s and early 60s, painting the likes of Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida.

His depiction (above) of the female figure in Italian Comedy Poveri ma belli  (Poor But Handsome) in 1956 was condemned by the Pope.

 

 

Rank Organisation, the then leading British entertainment group, saw the captivating film artwork coming out of Rome in the 1950s and under the management of Eric Pulford, creative head of Rank’s UK agency Downton Advertising, brought artists like Putzu’s fellow native of Rome and friend Renato Fratini (1932 – 1973) to the UK to live and work.

Putzu began working for Rank in 1957 with a poster for The Secret Place, a crime melodrama starring Belinda Lee, Ronald Lewis, and David McCallum. In 1967, he moved to London and created the poster for The Magnificent Two, a comedy caper starring English double act Eric Morecambe (14 May 1926 – 28 May 1984) and Ernie Wise (27 November 1925 – 21 March 1999).

 

After a couple of years Putzu took a role at the studios of Feref Associates, who specialised in film work and had gained several major distributor accounts. He worked on posts for the Carry On series, Hammer Film’s horrors and Get Carter (above), featuring Michael Caine in a flowery jacket.

 

Look In Magazine

 

In 1972, Putzu was hired by art editor, and from 1975 the magazine’s editor, Colin Shelbourn to work on Look-In, a British TV magazine for children that had been founded in 1971. Keen to give the magazine a cinematic look, Shelbourne hied Putzu to paint the covers – a job he did from 1973 to 1981.

Look-In was a blend of cartoon strips based on shows broadcast on ITV, the UK’s third TV channel of three and the only alternative to BBC which ran the other two. The magazine tune in children to the likes of Benny Hill, On The Ball, Man About the House, Happy Days, Kung Fu, The Six Million Dollar Man, Sapphire and Steel, Freewheelers, and Catweazle. There was also sports, puzzles, crosswords and plenty of pictures and pullout posters of pop stars like Marc Bolan, Elton John, Debbie Harry, Cliff Rachard, David Cassidy, Donny Osmond, Roxy Music, Slade, David Bowie, Darts, Suzi Quatro and Roy Wood.

 

 

 

In September 1981 Look-in changed its look, adopting a new logo and with photo covers replacing the cover paintings. By the late 1980s, the comic was struggling to compete with glossier teen magazines and sales were dropping. By the early 1990s, Look-in was catering for a younger age group by featuring picture strip stories based on cartoons and short and choppy fact-file type articles. The final issue was published in 1994.