Some very dramatically sober — probably too sober — drawings from Saul Bass, via the hand of Al Kallis, for the movie version of Tennessee Williams’ ahead-of-its-time story about sex in relationships. I could not find that any of these ads were used as drawn, though what looks like a version of illustration No. 6 was one of the main ads for the campaign.

The Rose Tattoo No. 1

The Rose Tattoo No. 2

The Rose Tattoo No. 3

The Rose Tattoo No. 4

The Rose Tattoo No. 5

The Rose Tattoo No. 6

From the pressbook for the film, here are the posters that were actually used:

And here’s the ad with the illustrated embrace very similar to the one in the Bass/Kallis drawing No. 6.

The links below take you to the other Bass/Kallis work in this story:

“Magnificent Obsession” — Universal-International — release/premiere date: Aug. 4, 1954

“A Star is Born” — Warner Bros. — Sept. 29, 1954

“Carmen Jones” — Twentieth Century Fox — Oct. 5, 1954

“The Racers” — Twentieth Century Fox — Feb. 4, 1955

“Not as a Stranger” — United Artists — June 28, 1955

“The Shrike” — Universal-International — July 7, 1955

“The Virgin Queen” — Twentieth Century Fox — July 22, 1955

“Mister Roberts” — Warner Bros. — July 30, 1955

“My Sister Eileen” — Columbia — Sept. 22, 1955

“The Rose Tattoo” — Paramount — Dec. 12, 1955

“The Conqueror” — RKO — Feb. 22, 1956

“On the Threshold of Space” — Twentieth Century Fox — March 29, 1956