Luis Buñuel's LOS OLVIDADOS (1950) First Release Mexican Lobby Card RARE

Description

This is a vintage original 12.5 x 16.5 in. "country of origin" Mexican lobby card from what is considered to be one of the greatest Mexican films of all time, the famous crime drama,
LOS OLVIDADOS
(
The Young and the Damned
), released in Mexico in 1950 and
directed by
Luis Buñuel
.
A group of juvenile delinquents live a violent and crime-filled life in the festering slums of Mexico City, and the morals of young Pedro are gradually corrupted and destroyed by the others.
The image features the film's two leads, actor
Miguel Inclán
(as Don Carmelo, the blind) and beautiful
Estela Inda
(as the mother of Pedro), as the young couple share a moment of passion between them. There border artwork in the right half features the image on the film's original Mexican poster and
depicts
the young reform school runaway, El Jaibo (Roberto Cobo), with a young girl in the squalid slums of the city. This vintage original duotone lobby card was printed for the film's original theatrical release in Mexico and is not from the later theatrical Mexican re-release (which included full-color lobby cards).  It is unrestored in fine+ conditoin with some small SMALL water stains of varying sizes along the left border; a small crease in the right
background
area above the boy's shoulder; and light signs of wear on the corners.
When
Los Olvidados
was released in Mexico in 1950, its theatrical commercial run only lasted for three days due to the enraged reactions from the press, government, and upper and middle class audiences.
This film was very poorly received in Mexico when originally released with particular resentment directed at the Spaniard Luis Buñuel, as a foreigner, for exposing the nation's problems with poverty and crime. In fact, it was only after Buñuel won the coveted "Best Director" award at Cannes that the film's quality was reevaluated by Mexican critics and audiences. Critical opinion of the film in Mexico is now very high: in a 1994 poll for the magazine "Somos,"
Los Olvidados
was named the second greatest Mexican film of all time (
Let's Go with Pancho Villa
(1936), directed by Fernando de Fuentes, was ranked first). A ninth reel of the movie was found after decades of thinking that the film only consisted of eight. The ninth reel includes an alternative "happy" ending and is included in a new DVD released in Mexico with a book about the movie.