OSCAR nominated Stuart WHITMAN LobbyCard THE MARK (1961)Maria SCHELL controversy

Description

(This looks MUCH better than the picture above.)
Maria SCHELL, Stuart WHITMAN (get signed!) Lobby Card THE MARK (1961) forbidden sex attraction drama
This 11 x 14 inch Lobby Card would look great framed on display in your home theater or to add to your portfolio or scrapbook! Some dealers buy my lots (see my other auctions) to break up and sell separately at classic film conventions at much higher prices than my low minimum. A worthy investment for gift giving too!
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This LOBBY CARD is an original release (vintage, from the original Hollywood studio release) and not a digital copy or reproduction printing.
DESCRIPTION:
Guy Green's social drama stars Stuart Whitman as the title character, a man whose unhealthy childhood has left him bewildered by sex. After an affair with a woman his own age ends badly, Mark finds himself increasingly drawn to young girls, who he feels do not pose the same threat of emasculation that adult women do. When he is charged with kidnapping a ten-year-old girl in order to molest her, his conviction results in a three-year prison sentence. With the help of Dr. Edmund McNally (Rod Steiger), a prison psychiatrist, Mark comes to terms with his urges and is released from prison a changed man. Soon after, he gets engaged to Ruth Leighton (Maria Schell), a widow with a ten-year-old daughter of her own. After Mark is seen in the vicinity of a recent molestation incident, a journalist digs into his background and his past is brought to light, destroying not only his relationship with Ruth but his fledgling career as well.
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CONDITION:
This quality vintage and original Lobby Card is in Near EXCELLENT condition (it looks fine with minor patina/hand dirt and 2 tiny pinholes in the border area), it is has sharp, crisp details and it is not a re-release, not digital or a repro. It came from the studio to the theater during the year of release and then went into storage where the collector I bought them from kept them for over 52 years!  I have recently acquired two huge collections from life long movie buffs who collected for decades… I need to offer these choice items for sale on a first come, first service basis to the highest bidder.
SHIPPING:
Domestic shipping would be FIRST CLASS and well packed in plastic, with several layers of cardboard support/protection and delivery tracking. International shipping depends on the location, and the package would weigh close to a pound (14-16 ounces) with even more extra ridge packing.
PAYMENTS:
Please pay PayPal! All of my items are unconditionally guaranteed. E-mail me with any questions you may have. This is Larry41, wishing you great movie memories and good luck…
BACKGROUND:
Quite controversial upon its release, The Mark is a now largely-forgotten social issues drama that deserves wider recognition among modern viewers. Mark is far from a perfect movie, or even from being one of the best of the social issues genre, but it is a very worthy film that features some exceptionally strong performances and generates thought provoking conversation. On one level, the film takes the easy way out: the main character is not an actual child molester (as he is in the novel upon which the film is based), but a man who stops himself just before acting upon his impulses and turns himself in to the police. This crucial difference makes it easier for the audience to sympathize with him, although the very fact that the character has these desires and must control them still causes considerable discomfort. Charles Israel and Stanley Mann's screenplay avoids sensationalism and tries to take an even-handed look at the situation it presents, even if it inevitably oversimplifies a very complex issue. Guy Green's direction is excellent, very subdued and willing to quietly delve; some may find it a bit too slow and lacking in drama, but Green's careful, precise work is exactly what the material demands. He benefits from his trio of leading characters, lead by Stuart Whitman's outstanding performance as the tormented and troubled protagonist. It's a wonderfully calibrated performance that doesn't make any wrong moves and that creates considerable sympathy without whitewashing. Maria Schell is also excellent as the woman Whitman comes to love, and Rod Steiger's turn as the psychiatrist, while a bit mannered, is also one of the film's finest assets. Those not afraid of squirming a bit at a film's subject matter should seek out The Mark.
The older sister of actor Maximillian Schell, Viennese-born leading lady Maria Schell was one of four children born to a Swiss author and Austrian actress. Billed as Gritli Schell, Maria Schell made her screen debut at 16 in the Swiss-filmed Steibruch; it would be six years before she'd appear before the cameras again, in 1948's Der Engel Mit der Posaune. This last-named Austro-German production was simultaneously filmed in an English-language version, Angel with a Trumpet, which brought Schell to the attention of international filmgoers. In 1954, she won a Cannes Film Festival award for her enigmatic portrayal of a German nurse imprisoned in wartime Yugoslavia in The Last Bridge; two years later, she claimed a Venice Film Festival prize for her work in Gervaise (1956). Schell's American film career consisted of starring roles in The Brothers Karamazov (1958, as Grushenka), the Gary Cooper vehicle The Hanging Tree (1959), and the remake of Edna Ferber's Cimarron (1961). Dissatisfied with the diminishing value of the characters she was called upon to play, Maria Schell retired in 1963, but made a comeback in character roles five years later; among these later assignments was her fleeting appearance as a Kryptonian judge in Superman: The Movie (1978) and her portrayal of Albert Speer's mother in the made-for-TV Inside the Third Reich.
Stuart Whitman, with a rugged build and sensitive face, rose from bit player to competent lead actor, but never did make it as a popular star in film. The San Francisco-born Whitman served three years with the Army Corps of Engineers where he was a light heavyweight boxer in his spare time. He next went on to study drama at the Los Angeles City College where he joined a Chekhov stage group. He began his film career in the early '50s as a bit player. Although never a star, he did manage to quietly accumulate 0 million dollars through shrewd investments in securities, real estate, cattle, and Thoroughbreds. For his role as a sex offender attempting to change in the 1961 British film The Mark, Whitman was nominated for an Oscar. In addition to features, Whitman has also appeared extensively on television.