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The Angel Levine movie poster

Contributed by Florian Hardwig on Apr 25th, 2023. Artwork published in .
One Sheet poster (27″×41″): “If he’s an angel, imagine what God is like.”
Source: movieposters.ha.com Heritage Auctions. License: All Rights Reserved.

One Sheet poster (27″×41″): “If he’s an angel, imagine what God is like.”

From Wikipedia:

The Angel Levine is a 1970 American drama film directed by Ján Kadár and starring Zero Mostel, Harry Belafonte, Ida Kamińska, Milo O’Shea, and Gloria Foster. It is based on a short story by Bernard Malamud about Morris Mishkin, an elderly, impoverished New York City tailor who becomes unable to work due to health problems. His wife has also been seriously ill for two years, and their situation is now desperate. The tailor’s Jewish faith, or lack of it, is challenged when a man calling himself Alexander Levine enters his life, claiming to be his guardian angel. Levine says that he must make the tailor believe in his mission, or fail to earn his angelic wings.

On these posters, the title and the names of the two main actors are set in Oring Title. This phototypeface is an adaptation of an unnamed alphabet (caps plus numerals) shown by Paul Carlyle and Guy Oring in their Letters and Lettering from 1938. I don’t know who turned the piece of lettering into a typeface, and how it was originally named. It was used already in 1969. In 1999, Dan X. Solo showed it in his book Moderne Alphabets under the name Oring Title.

Fifty-three years after playing an angel in training, Harry Belafonte joined the angels for good: the singer, actor, and activist died today at the age of 96. Rest in peace.

Half Sheet poster (22″×28″): “Harry Belafonte is the Angel Levine / Zero Mostel is something else”
Source: movieposters.ha.com Heritage Auctions. License: All Rights Reserved.

Half Sheet poster (22″×28″): “Harry Belafonte is the Angel Levine / Zero Mostel is something else”

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  • Oring Title
  • Futura Extra Bold Condensed
  • News Gothic

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