Vintage original 27x41 in. US one-sheet poster from the classic 1960's multi-Academy Award-winning drama, WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, released in 1966 by Warner Bros. and directed by Mike Nichols. Based upon the highly acclaimed play by gay playwright Edward Albee, and boasting a screenplay by Ernest Lehman, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton co-star as a bitter, aging couple who, with the help of alcohol, use their young houseguests (George Segal and Sandy Dennis) to fuel anguish and emotional pain towards each other over the course of one distressing night.
The starkly-designed one-sheet evokes the feeling of anger and rage that is the centerpiece the film's story and depicts a close shot of Martha (Elizabeth Taylor) and her husband, George (Richard Burton), in startling close shots with a vignette of the two of them fighting beneath. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was the first American film to be given the M.P.A.A. tag: "Important Exception: No one under 18 will be admitted unless accompanied by his parent," due primarily to the coarse and vulgar language that was essentially banned before this film. Unrestored and folded as originally issued, this vintage original one-sheet is in fine+ condition with small areas of separation at the top and bottom center crossfolds; a small area of separation at the start of the bottom horizontal foldline with light signs of wear along the left edge near each fold line; and a small 2 in. long piece of clear Scotch tape on the center of the bottom edge. The color tints are fresh and vibrant without any signs of fading.
Every credited member of the cast received an Academy Award nomination and the film became the first movie in Academy Awards and cinema history to be nominated for every Academy Award category in which it was eligible, including Best Adapted Screenplay (Ernest Lehman), Best Director (Mike Nichols), all of the acting categories (Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, George Segal, and Sandy Dennis), and Best Picture of the Year (Ernest Lehman), since Cimarron (1931). Taylor and Dennis won in their categories, while Burton and Segal, sadly, did not. Elizabeth Taylor was only thirty-three when this movie was filmed in 1965, while her character Martha is supposed to be fifty-two, and she gained nearly thirty pounds to play the role of a middle-aged wife just for this movie. In her A&E Biography special, Taylor remarked that her performance as "Martha" was her personal best. Academy Award-winning Cinematographer Harry Stradling, Sr. was replaced by Haskell Wexler just after filming began for attempting to "beautify" Taylor, and Wexler won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White.
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