"The Big Land", Original Release Japanese Movie Poster 1957, STB Size (51x145cm) O417

Size: STB / 20 × 57 in (51 × 145 cm)
Country / Studio: Japan / Warner Bros. (WarnerScope)

Film & context
Starring Alan Ladd, Virginia Mayo, and Edmond O’Brien, The Big Land is classic 1950s studio western—a frontier town‑building saga that prefigures the harder edge to come in the 1960s. Japan’s audiences loved wide‑screen American epics, and studios promoted them with striking vertical designs for crowded city streets.

Design highlights
The Japanese title 「大荒原」(Dai‑Kōgen / “The Great Prairie”) sits like a sunset cloud above Ladd on horseback. A lobby‑still block at bottom carries the English word “STAMPEDE”, a kinetic sub‑caption used by the Japanese distributor to promise large‑scale action. Right‑hand vertical copy reads:

“At the dawn of a new land—intense! A blood‑soaked struggle of vice and justice, painted across the vast Kansas prairie; a grand Western epic!!”
A wall of warm orange gradates into the yellow prairie—pure poster poetry from post‑WarnerColor Japan.

Condition
Very Good / Excellent. Theatre‑used, unrestored STB with light handling; rich, unfaded color.

Authentication
Original first‑release Japanese poster; COA included.

About STB (Tatekan) posters

STBs are tall, two‑sheet verticals (c. 51 × 145 cm) printed on thin stock and designed to be posted outdoors on purpose‑built wooden stands at cinemas and busy transit approaches. They functioned as mini billboards; because they were exposed to weather and changed frequently, most were discarded. Original survivors are ultra‑rare, especially for Spaghetti Westerns at the height of their Japanese popularity.