To be specific, I’d like to talk about my favorite movie poster for a movie I’ve never seen, based upon a novel I’ve never read.

In 1959 the well-known and popular author of Western novels Louis L’Amour wrote one called Taggart (hey, catchy title). I must confess I’ve never read a L’Amour novel, not being a huge fan of Westerns, but I have been wanting to read this one. Here’s the summary from the flap:

“His name was Taggart and he rode with a price on his head through the blood-red canyons of Apache country. Behind him was a ruthless bounty hunter — he deadliest lawman in the West. In front of him was a fortune in gold — and a pretty young woman hell-bent on carrying that fortune to safety. Suddenly Taggart was faced with a choice. He could either keep riding and leave the stubborn lady to fate and the Apaches. Or he could stay and help her make it out alive. But for a man like Taggart the answer was simple. He would stay. Even if it meant cutting off his own escape — even if it meant doubling his chance of death.”

Hm, he sounds tougher than I am.

The first time I ever heard of this novel was way back when I was in school, when I found out that Universal Studios had made it into a film. I found that out when, as a wonderfully surprising birthday present, my friend Bill Mitchell (who had stumbled across the poster at random while shopping at Hollywood Book and Poster) gave it to me. It’s still one of the coolest birthday presents I ever got, and I immediately called HB&P to see if they had another one. I did, and got one for my dad for Christmas. He had it framed, and it hung in the waiting room of his dental office for about 25 years. Dad recently retired after 49 years of dentistry, and he told me that one of his longtime patients brought a camera to his last appointment and took a picture of the poster.

I’ve been collecting some of my favorite movie posters since I was in high school (sadly, with very little room to hang them these days, and I have to rotate the ones I have). Just recently, I decided to Google “taggart movie poster” to see if I could find an online image of it, and I came across quite the bounty. First off, I found a great scan of the original poster that Dad and I have, in all its glory:

Dad and I both thought the tag line, “They’re all waiting for you!” was particularly appropriate for display in a dental waiting room. (Incidentally, Dad’s sense of humor was tempered by his professional propriety — I tried suggesting that he hang a movie poster from “Marathon Man,” but he wouldn’t go for it. That said, on one occasion when he had a patient in the chair who was a close friend and who had seen the movie, Dad held the drill over his face, tapped the pedal to make it go “ZZZZ! ZZZZZZZ!!” and said, “… Is it safe?” The reaction was priceless. But I digress …)

To my squeals of delight, the Googling I did in the past couple of weeks yielded not only the original “Taggart” poster Dad and I had had for so many years, but some new ones too. This one’s even more turgid:

“…AND A GIRL WITH A GUN IN HIS GUTS!” That poster, my friends, is made of awesome.

I’m getting that one, and another one for Dad. Ssshhh, don’t tell him. He hates computers and is unlikely to read this, so I think our secret is safe. (Then again, now that it’s out on the internets, someone will probably tell him tomorrow. Sigh.)

I really should read the novel. I can get it into the Kindle app on my iPhone in about ten seconds, for about four bucks. ‘Bout time.