Maltese Falcon, The

[RafalFett]

I think this is the final image until we find the original:


The 2 photos mentioned in the earlier posts were seamlessly welded, made some color correction, then run it through Topaz Photo AI, and finally added a bit of shadow to the tree/bushes on the right to closely match the photo from the screencap.

Here's the updated calendar page:

 

[RafalFett]

Forgot to post the printed calendar:

 

[VonMagnum]

That looks pretty close except for the lower left corner. I see nothing in either original photo to explain the dark shadow present in the movie in the lower left corner. The wide shot clearly shows a hill far away with nothing that could create that shadow in the original movie calendar on that type of hill. There's no tree brush or anything on the left side and that hill zoomed out has nothing in front of it to create the shadows. It almost looks like some kind of shrubbery in the foreground, but the larger overall picture makes it hard to believe any could be present there.

 

[RafalFett]

It's just the coloration of that hill, that's what I see in the comparison image:

 

[VonMagnum]

I don't think it's just coloration. After playing with Lightning's wider image (which is at a slightly different camera angle, so not quite possible to match it exactly), I think it's the time of day casting shadows on the forward vertical surfaces. I took Lightning's wide photo, cropped it and darkened mostly the forward facing cliff areas seen dark from the movie closeup and then altered the hue and darkness/contrast and ultimately removed the saturation as well to see how well it matched up.

I concluded it's probably caused by time of day shadows on vertical surfaces facing towards the camera because of the position of the sun overhead.

 

[Lightning]

I mean, there is always the possibility of a random cloud shadow.

 

[RafalFett]

It's a combo of both coloration and shadow.

I found another great photo with better (almost perfect) shadow placement, but sadly it's not the correct angle:

 

[Lightning]

I found another great photo with better (almost perfect) shadow placement, but sadly it's not the correct angle:

grab the foreground in Photoshop and drag it to the left till it matches, cleanup around the trees should be pretty straightforward.

edit:
wait that won't work, it's not the angle that's wrong, it's the focal length, the background is too big in relation to the foreground.

 

[RafalFett]

I used the other background with this new foreground and added some of the extra shadows:


Not perfect, but I'll call this done (until the best next thing).

 

[RafalFett]

Because my OCD kicked in (but also I promised I will tackle this), here's the Greyhound poster with the US map and the location flags with text fully redone.:

 

[RafalFett]

Regarding the wall calendar...


There's a long story behind the making of this calendar, but I will resume to the most important facts: I was lucky enough, after countless hours and days, to find several sources of the photos/images seen on each page from an advertising campaign booklet for TWA (found this on eBay with 9 images and on a TWA archive site with only a brief description and a list of all 12 images - this helped me to arrange them accordingly for each month). The back cover of the calendar was found accidentally on WorthPoint so I had to include it:


All the images were enhanced with Topaz Photo AI, cleaned up, then color and light corrected if needed. I also find a perfect match of the font used for the days. The text on the front cover was mostly made up, because I could only decipher the beginning of the text, so I added all the titles of the 12 photos/illustrations.

Regarding the Grand Canyon photo, I downloaded a few TWA 1940 timetable images from eBay while I was searching for photos of the Grand Canyon:


I looked at the image on the right and I said that it is not what I'm looking for, and forgot about it. But after a week or two I was browsing through the saved images and took a better look, and low and behold: it's 1/3rd part of the photo I was looking for (it is great to see some hidden details, but also two people on the rocks):


I used that image to do the best variant so far of the Grand Canyon photo:



I added a 4th color, the green one, for the calendar. For obvious reasons, only the front and back covers, with the March pages are in full resolution, the rest are at a lower resolution, but good enough to complete your own replica.

Have fun!

 

[MAKE BELIEVE]

Amazing. Can't find more words to describe your dedication.
Now we have the full calendar
THANK YOU

 

[JamesM242]

I have to echo MAKE BELIEVE - outstanding work, RafalFett! Thank you!

 

[RafalFett]

Amazing. Can't find more words to describe your dedication.
Now we have the full calendar
THANK YOU

I have to echo MAKE BELIEVE - outstanding work, RafalFett! Thank you!

Thanks a lot for the kind words!

I forgot to mention that most likely the inside of the back cover had a description for each photo/illustration similar to this TWA calendar from 1944:


In lack of info (although I'm sure I can cook something up) I will postpone this task.

And to push this thread even further, there was another calendar in the bust terminal from another airline company (right side of the screen cap):


It is an American Airline wall calendar from 1939, and because only January and October had this month configuration (with the 1st day on Sunday and the last day - 31 - on Tuesday), I strongly believe that it was October:


This is the only page I found online.

Let the hunt begin!

 

[RafalFett]

I managed to do the Dependable matchbox:


I did 2 versions of the cover: one with the striker strip and one with the logo. The covers should print at 57 x 125 mm, while the tray at 65,6 x 111 mm. When fully done, the box measures 57 x 38 x 17 mm.

And my replicas:


And here's the finished calendar printed close to an A3 in size, more exactly 250 x 430 mm:


I also printed it at a larger scale, but still not as large as the original. I wanted to add a PVC binder, but I realized that it's not accurate, so I'll have to add that metallic binder (which is also not quite accurate):


The larger one is 290 x 498 mm.

The Greyhound poster was also printed at a smaller scale, somewhere at 300 x 350 mm:

 

[RafalFett]

And here are all my paper props in one place:

 

[MAKE BELIEVE]

RafalFett matchbox looks great. Thanks for sharing it
I'll not print the calendar yet once most likely you'll come up with a text for the back of the pages
I'm thinking of using this metalic spiral binding. What do you think?

 

[RafalFett]

RafalFett matchbox looks great. Thanks for sharing it
I'll not print the calendar yet once most likely you'll come up with a text for the back of the pages
I'm thinking of using this metalic spiral binding. What do you think?

View attachment 1747641

Thanks!

That spiral binding is not quite accurate for our calendar. I used metallic binding combs, which also doesn't look accurate:


I think a red or black PVC binder would be the best choice(?):


The original calendar had 48 rectangular holes.

 

[MAKE BELIEVE]

Aren't these too modern for a 40's calendar?

 

[RafalFett]

Aren't these too modern for a 40's calendar?

Yes, they are, but I think it would be very difficult to find the correct binder. Sadly , we are constrained to use modern variants.