Poster Analysis: Never Mention Murder

Never mention murder (1965) poster shows a representation of women in a modern way as it shows women in a new way to how they were traditionally shown in the 1960s.This poster represents women as strong and independent. This is shown by the image on the right of the poster as it illustrates a woman holding a gun. This would be unusual to show at the time as it doesn't represent the environment of the time due to a lack of equality especially between women and men. Women would rarely ever be in a position of power against a man at the time, this is reinforced by the high rates of domestic violence in the 1960s.

This poster reinforces David Gauntlett's theory of identity. David Gauntlett's theory of identity was that female character's act as role models for women struggling against male oppression or desperate to be seen as equals to men, whatever the environment or narrative. The Never Mention Murder poster definitely reinforces this idea as one of the main characters depicted in the poster is a woman. Even though, the female lead in the poster seems to be held captive of some sort by the man in the poster, this would make her a role model to women at the time in 1965 due to the amount of inequality and domestic violence in the 1960s as it would give them a sense of relatability and maybe even hope. This code combined with the image on the right of the woman with the gun reinforces David Gauntlett's theory of identity as at the time of the poster being made there was a lack of strong female leads in film as most female characters would've played stereotypical traditional housewife roles at the time, so due to this this character may empower women and make them feel they can achieve equality due to this woman standing up against a man.