Louisiana Movie Poster Museum
Welcome to the the Louisiana Movie Poster Virtual Museum. Since 1895 more than 3,000 movies have been made in or about Louisiana. These posters advertised a few of them. We have hundreds to add, so check back with us as we grow.
Ed and Susan Poole, renowned movie poster experts and authorities on Louisiana film history, curated this initial exhibit. It is based on the Backdrop Louisiana! exhibit that premiered in Slidell, Louisiana in January, 2020 and we’re looking forward to a post-pandemic tour. A smidgen of their knowledge can be found at Learn About Movie Posters, known worldwide as LAMP. Visit Hollywood on the Bayou for a deeper dive into Louisiana film history.
This museum is funded in part by grants from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation and the New Orleans Entertainment Coalition.
Take a Tour – We love your stories!
Click on a poster to view larger image. Then click “i”. Post your story in Comments. We love to hear about films you remember and your experiences. It’s a highlight of our live exhibits that we hope to recreate in the virtual museum.
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The Buccaneer - I Bucanieri
In 1958, famed pirate Jean Lafitte once again came to life on the silver screen. The 1958 film The Buccaneer was a remake of Cecille B. DeMille's 1938 Paramount production of the same title, also about Lafitte. This DeMille version starred Yul Brynner as Lafitte and Charlton Heston as General Andrew Jackson. The cast also included Claire Bloom, Charles Boyer, Inger Stevens, Henry Hull, E. G. Marshall and Lorne Green. An ailing DeMille turned to his son-in-law, Anthony Quinn, for the directing duties.
The Buccaneer took place during the War of 1812 and deals with the attempt of the British to capture New Orleans. Location shooting was done around New Orleans as well as the Shadows-on-the-Teche Plantation in New Iberia which appeared as the governor’s mansion. For those scenes not shot on location, the studio went to great lengths to maintain authenticity. According to a Times Picayune article in December 24, 1957, more than 1000 tons of earth were trucked to the studio to form the American positions on the battlefield, and cypress trees were shipped to Hollywood from Louisiana swamps. More than 2000 Hollywood soldiers participated in the battle scene.
The world premiere of The Buccaneer was staged at the New Orleans Saenger Theatre on December 11, 1958. As reported in the Times Picayune dated October 13, 1958, noting the importance to the city of the world premiere, Mayor deLesseps Morrison issued a proclamation designating December 11 as “Jean Lafitte Day.” The 1958 Hollywood Reporter news items noted that the film's world premiere in New Orleans was a benefit for the Louisiana Landmark Society, which was seeking to purchase the approximately sixty acres where the Battle of New Orleans was fought and preserve it as a national monument.
Henri de Balther Claiborne, the great-grandson of former Louisiana governor William Claiborne, filed a lawsuit for damages against Paramount, claiming that the film was a "slanderous misrepresent-ation" because it depicted a romance between Lafitte and a daughter of Claiborne. In reality, Claiborne's first daughter had died years before the fictional romance could have taken place, while his younger daughter was born in the mid-1810s.
Poster: Italian Locandina