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Gespensterschiff
A ghost ship advertised by the two men who had just finished frightening Berlin.
What
A 1920 German placard for the Gloria-Film production Gespensterschiff, directed and designed by Paul Leni, with the poster drawn by Otto Arpke.
Why
Arpke had, that same year, co-designed the Caligari campaign that taught German film advertising to be strange. Here he is again, a few months on, applying the new grammar to a supernatural sea picture — proof that the Expressionist placard was a working idiom, not a single stunt.
Notice
Look at how the vessel and the lettering share one continuous rhythm; the type is not laid over the image, it is drawn as part of it.
“The house style of the German uncanny, out at sea.”
Format
The full-resolution, color-managed file — restored honestly, yours to print and keep.
Sized to protect print quality — this scan supports sizes up to 11x17" cleanly.
Size
$29.00
Provenance
- Film
- Gespensterschiff (1920), dir. Paul Leni
- Country / studio
- Germany · Gloria-Film
- Designer
- Otto Arpke
- Format
- One-sheet (27 × 41 in.)
- Poster published
- German lithographed film placard, 1920
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons
Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. 95-year rule (poster published 1930 or earlier). Gated by the poster’s own publication year, never the film’s. Cleared by registry on 2026-07-18.
From The Haunted Screen
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The Double Bill
Two one-sheets, hung as a pair — a double feature for your wall, at a pairing price of $270.00 for the two. Build one from any two one-sheets in the gallery.
Pair it in the gallery →A house of the Provenance family