Pulp International

Oct 8 2018

Connie Stevens goes up against international drug dealers without a single hair slipping out of place.

This one we watched entirely because of the promo art. In Scorchy Connie Stevens stars as a Seattle undercover cop assigned to bust a Rome-based drug ring. Her name isn't Scorchy—it's actually Jackie Parker, and this Seattleite is sort of tough-cute, a flirt and an eyelash batter, someone prone to making sexual quips and comical faces. None of this seems to us as though it would be conducive to convincing international drug dealers that she's a charter pilot willing to fly shady cargoes, but whatever—it's in the script, so they buy it. Stevens maneuvers her way into flying a load of heroin and, theoretically, this will be the basis of a big drug bust. Does it work out that way? We aren't saying.

Scorchy came from low budget studios Hickmar Productions and American International, but they're serious with this effort, aiming for French Connection grit combined with a bit of b-movie cheese. But lofty aspirations aside, you know going into any American International movie that it's very likely to be bad, even if it's one they bought from another production company, as was the case here. And Scorchy delivers the badness in spades—the fight scenes and shootouts are lame, the acting is merely adequate, and the plot doesn't offer much in the way of twists and turns. What does offer some twists and turns is the centerpiece car chase. It's almost good enough to redeem the movie, and as a bonus it also shows a lot of Seattle scenery.

Scorchy also may be worth watching for another reason—the decors. Check the screenshots below. The set designers really went to town. Stevens' living room is especially noteworthy, with its flowered sofa, driftwood art, and random acoustic guitar leaning against the wall just in case she wants to get groovy. We'll throw Stevens herself in there as another of the film's assets. She looks excellent at thirty-eight, even with silver candyfloss hair and mascara that looks like it was applied with a hot glue gun. Like the movie, she's a bit ridiculous, but she's fun to watch as she makes the bad guys regret ever coming to the Emerald City. Scorchy premiered in the U.S. today in 1976.

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Femmes Fatales

Jun 29 2017

Whatever the language, the meaning is clear.

Despite her exotic name, Azizi Johari is American, born in New York City and raised in Seattle. Her movie career consisted of bit parts, with her most noted appearances coming in the 1976 John Cassavetes film The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and the 1981 blaxploitation b-movie Body and Soul, which was a remake of the 1947 film noir classic. She originally gained recognition as a Playboy model, appearing as the magazine's Playmate of the Month in June 1975, but the above photo was used on the front of Players magazine in 1978. Oh, and on the subject of her name, “Azizi” is Arabic and means “precious,” while Johari is a Kiswahili word that means "jewel.” She's well named.

New York City Seattle Players Magazine Playboy The Killing of a Chinese Bookie Azizi Johari blaxploitation cinema nudie mags

The Naked City

Nov 5 2012

If ever anyone was born under a bad sign it was surely him.

Crime always raises difficult social questions, and it seems to be the belief of each generation that the crimes are ever worse. But this issue of Official Detective Stories from fifty-one years ago details crimes, a criminal, and an entire set of circumstances that could have appeared on today’s front pages. It was the case of Michael Andrew Olds, a troubled Walla Walla, Washington youth who caused all of America to wonder, at least briefly, what had happened to the country they thought they knew.

Michael Olds was conceived via rape. His mother was fourteen when it happened, fifteen when she gave birth. Disowned by her relatives, she and her infant son lived wherever they could, and she fed him by stealing milk from front porches. By the time Michael was six months old he was suffering from profound malnourishment. Eventually he was wrested from the girl by state authorities, who placed him in foster care. He was shuttled from home to home, and constantly ran away to search for his mother. He would track her down occasionally, but she had her own difficulties—a series of failed relationships, and three failed marriages—and mother and son were never together for long.

Over the years, Michael developed dangerously violent tendencies. Once, when he was sixteen, he choked a four-year-old girl into unconsciousness. One of the psychologists who profiled him summed him up this way: “I am doubtful that Mike will ever make more than a marginal adjustment, for he has been damaged more than the human personality can stand without permanent scarring.” Nevertheless, he was released from foster care at age eighteen. Months later, on the night of March 28, 1961, he robbed a grocery in Seattle, Washington. On the way out the door he fired two shots, both of which struck a woman named Blossom Braham, who died at the scene. One week later he robbed and held hostage a cab driver. He was arrested later that night, and confessed to Braham’s killing.

Olds was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. His mother was in court the day of sentencing, at right, and while she sounded a note of regret that her and her son’s lives had turned out so badly, Michael was philosophical. He blamed only himself for his predicament. But the American public, as well as many behavioral experts, felt there was blame to go around. One of Michael Olds’ state-appointed psychiatrists said: “In a day when we are thinking about shooting rockets to the moon, we should not allow conditions to exist where a child is starved emotionally and shuttled about.” A local juvenile authority said: “The boy pulled the trigger, but the background of the whole sordid mess began the moment he was brought into the world.”

Sixteen years later Michael Olds was released into the world again. Newly paroled, he went on a violent nationwide rampage, and when it was all done he’d kidnapped five people and shot dead a seventy-five-year-old woman and a cab driver. It was the late 1970s now, and this time through the courts there was not much sympathy for him, yet none of the questions surrounding this murderous child of rape had changed. What had

changed was that most Americans had hardened toward crime to the extent that they considered the questions immaterial. All that mattered was to make sure Michael Olds preyed on no more innocent people. And that’s exactly what happened. He received two life sentences with no possibility of parole.

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Femmes Fatales

Dec 6 2010

The red brigade to the rescue.

American actress Rhonda Fleming, who was a rarity due to actually being born and raised in the city of Hollywood, became known as “The Queen of Technicolor” because of her flaming red hair. It isn’t evident in this promo shot from the mid 1940s, but it might evident in film titles such as The Redhead and the Cowboy, in which she starred with Glenn Ford, and Those Redheads from Seattle, which paired her with Gene Barry. Fleming is still around, and we'll have more on her a little later.

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Sex Files

Nov 1 2008

Did Craigslist aid and abet prostitution, or was the website victimized by working girls?

Is Craigslist the new millenium’s red light district? Eight prostitutes were arrested in NYC last month for using the online site to solicit johns, bringing the year’s total of busted women to more than 70. In Chicago 60 women were netted. In Seattle a sting using undercover police officers nabbed 71 men, including a bank officer and a surgeon. And in Jacksonville, Fla., in August police arrested 33 men.

Nassau County, NY, assistant chief of detectives Richard McGuire put it bluntly: “Craigslist has become the high-tech 42nd Street, where much of the solicitation takes place now. Technology has worked its way into every profession, including the oldest.” Lt. Eric Sano, of the Seattle PD, describes a complex subculture exposed by his department’s sting operation, in which men are referred to as “hobbyists” and prostitutes are “providers”. There are even online review “sites where men rate their experiences and describe a woman’s looks and the sex acts she’s willing to perform, Sano said.

While law enforcement officials accuse Craigslist of enabling prostitution, company president Jim Buckmaster points out that 24 staff members cannot monitor 20 million listings per month. They count on users to flag objectionable ads. But cops ask how many users who navigate their way into the “erotic services” section of Craiglist are likely to flag ads. It’s a bit like asking a gambler to report his bookie.

Under the Communications Decency Act of 1996 the ads are legal and several websites—including Craigslist—have withstood legal challenges. “You hold the speaker liable, not the soapbox,” explains Kurt B. Opsahl, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Mr. Buckmaster agrees, saying that Craigslist is no different from magazines that carry sex-oriented ads. But law enforcement officials say Craigslist’s scope and format are especially useful to the sex industry. With listings for

approximately 450 cities around the world, the website counts 25 million users and 8 billion page views a month. Online traffic ranker Alexa calculates Craigslist is currently the thirty-seventh most visited website in the world.

Craig Newmark, above, who founded Craigslist in San Francisco in 1995, has his own take on the matter. “We are a democracy,” he explains, “and we find we can trust our community. We would prefer that [police] go after violent criminals or crooked congressmen.” Many agree with Newmark that prostitution is a minor or even victimless crime, but Lt. Sano doesn’t see it that way: “No young girl grows up dreaming of doing this. It is easy money …but these women are being exploited and it’s degrading. You should hear what some of these guys have asked our detectives to do—it’s disgusting.”

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