Escape 1948 original vintage lobby card on heavy card stock. 11x14 inches. Escape is a 1948 British-American thriller film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. It follows a Royal Air Force World War II veteran (Rex Harrison) who goes to prison and then escapes and meets a woman who persuades him to surrender. The screenplay by Philip Dunne was based on the 1926 play Escape by John Galsworthy, which had previously been filmed in 1930. Movie lobby cards are a uniquely American creation. They are a hybrid of movie posters and, usually, movie star photos. Back in the early 1910s, the small nickelodeons, where films were first shown, started morphing into larger, more permanent, and more elegant venues.