Lo Squartatore di New York, Movies

New York Ripper Dutch Lobby Cards

Blue Underground’s excellent 4K restoration of The New York Ripper is a fine opportunity to delve into one of the movie’s rarest memorabilia.

Lucio Fulci’s bleak New York City-based 1982 giallo does not have the fan following, of say, George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead or the Star Wars series and the number of memorabilia or new merchandise associated with the movie is rather limited.

There are known to be three Western European sets of lobby cards: German, French, and Italian. There are 16 French lobby cards and 6 Italian photobustas. The German set of lobby cards is the most sought-after as this set consists of 24 lobby cards. Owning the most complete set, however, does not make the others redundant because each features images that are not included in the German set. The Italian photobustas also have a different design and show two images on each lobby card.

Unbeknownst to most giallo and Fulci fanatics, there exists a set of 30 (!) Dutch lobby cards. The Dutch lobby cards are authentic and were made available by the now-bankrupt Dutch film distribution company Concorde Film from Den Haag for the release of the movie.

What is interesting about the New York Ripper lobby cards is that many of them show much wider shots or different angles than seen in the movie. Even more intriguing are the lobby cards that feature set photos, or even takes that were not used in the movie, such as Faye walking around the Prospect Theater area, or Jane wearing a tweed jacket with leather elbows while conversing with her husband. The lobby cards also feature subtle clues about New York locations that are hard to infer from watching the movie.