SIROCCO / DAMASCO 25 (1951) POSTER, ITALIAN

Film noirs such as the Big Sleep (1946), Key Largo (1948) had cemented Humphrey Bogart's inimitable persona - the hard-boiled cynic who ultimately reveals his tender side. The radiant Casablanca (1942) and his films with Lauren Bacall meanwhile established that his surly charisma would translate compellingly into romantic roles as well. Critics have written that Sirocco was largely an attempt to recapture some of the magic of Casablanca: an exotic foreign setting embroiled in war, Bogart as a dispassionate outsider who looks out for his own interests until he falls for another foxy foreigner. Whatever the merits of the film itself, this Italian poster is strikingly lovely, and perceptively positions Bogart at the burning nexus of love and war.