Terry Doyle's Galleries! :: 1a. MOVIE POSTER paintings

A SCENT OF NEW-MOWN HAY (circa 1969) - Hammer Films campaign artwork

Artist: Tom Chantrell (Painter)

3,630 Views - 5 Comments - 5 Likes

A SCENT OF NEW-MOWN HAY (circa 1969) - Hammer Films campaign artwork Comic Art

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Artwork Details

Title:	A SCENT OF NEW-MOWN HAY (circa 1969) - Hammer Films campaign artwork
Artist:	Tom Chantrell (Painter)
Media Type:	Paint - Acrylic
Art Type:	Other
For Sale Status:	Permanent Collection - NFS
Views:	3,630
Likes on CAF:	5 6
Comments:	5
Added to Site:	10/17/2017
Comic Art Archive:

Description

An original movie campaign painting by Tom Chantrell for the unmade Hammer film, A SCENT OF NEW-MOWN HAY, circa 1969. Based on a book by John Blackburn, the story featured a Cold War setting and a deadly virus that transforms females into mutant beings. Chantrell's visualisation shows the mutation in process and in typical fashion (for both Chantrell & Hammer), the campaign artwork features some over-the-top nudity (that would never have been allowed on any kind of General Release material).

To help secure financial backing for proposed Hammer Films projects, artist Tom Chantrell would frequently be called-upon to create artworks that would best visualize the kind of movies they were looking to produce.

With a plot featuring Cold War intrigue, Nazi mad scientists, and a pandemic that threatens to destroy humanity by mutating people into fungoid monsters, it is not hard to see why A SCENT OF NEW-MOWN HAY (1958) became a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic and an instant science-fiction classic.

"After a British ship�s crew and a remote Russian village are wiped out in mysterious and horrible fashion, General Charles Kirk of British Foreign Intelligence sets out to investigate. As the plague spreads to England, Kirk�s frantic search leads him from the desolate tundra of Russia to the ruins of a Nazi camp, the site of unthinkable wartime atrocities. But who is responsible? Is it a Soviet experiment gone horribly wrong, the work of a depraved madman, or something else entirely? And can it be stopped?"

In this, his first and still best-known novel, the prolific John Blackburn (1923-1993) introduced the formula he was to employ so successfully in his career, seamlessly blending mystery, horror, and science fiction to create a thrilling bestseller that readers found impossible to put down.

John Fenwick Blackburn (born Northumberland, 26 June 1923; died 1993) was a British novelist who wrote thrillers, horror novels, and The Flame and the Wind (1967), an unusual historical novel set in Roman times, in which a nephew of Pontius Pilate tries to discover the facts about the crucifixion of Jesus.

His horror novels are often structured as thrillers, with detective story plots involving international espionage, but leading to a supernatural resolution. This means that, as with some of the books of James Herbert, many of Blackburn's horror novels are notable for pace and plotting rather than for atmospheric effects. Blackburn specialised in mixing modern concerns such as germ warfare and international conspiracies with ancient traditions and curses, often to ingenious effect.

Many of his books feature stock characters, including General Charles Kirk of British Intelligence and his friends, the scientist Sir Marcus Levin and his Russian wife Tania.

Blackburn's novels Nothing But the Night and The Gaunt Woman were the basis for screenplays. The Gaunt Woman appeared as a made-for-TV movie in 1969 as Destiny of a Spy and Nothing But the Night was released to theaters in 1972.

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	Terry Doyle
Joined:	August 2004
Last Login:	January 2026
Country:	UNITED KINGDOM
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Comments on this Artwork

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Chris K.
Member Since 2008

Posted on 10/17/2017

'For Sale Status = Keeper', for sure. The next Guinness I have with you is going to have to incorporate the tales of how you are tracking these things down!

Terry Doyle
Member Since 2004

Posted on 10/17/2017

Chris K. wrote:

'For Sale Status = Keeper', for sure. The next Guinness I have with you is going to have to incorporate the tales of how you are tracking these things down!

Guinness always loosens my tongue, Chris!

Shelton Bryant
Member Since 2005

Posted on 10/19/2017

Half Naked Women. Groteque Mutants, Evil Nazis. . . .I would have loved to see that sorta Hammer film!! ( too bad never made) Luv the Flesh Tones, Shadows and Chains!!

Red Raven
Member Since 2012

Posted on 10/21/2017

fantastic piece !!!

Ben Heywood
Member Since 2009

Posted on 12/2/2017

Wow! That's an amazing piece!

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