Usually we take pains to post rare femme fatale images, if not shots that have never appeared on the internet before, but sometimes you gotta make exceptions, especially when there’s very little chance of improving on existing photos. Such is the case with the above images of American model and actress Joi Lansing in a skirted bikini. She posed in this suit a few times, and never have polka dots looked so good. In the 1950s there were the Monroes and Mansfields, but people who say actresses were generally more curvaceous are wrong. Curves were an ideal, but for every Monroe and Mansfield there were women like Linda Darnell and Joi Lansing who had what would today be considered ideal physiques. These shots are actually later Lansing, made for her role in the 1965 comedy Marriage on the Rocks, when she was thirty-seven years old.

This great shot of Faye Dunaway in a bagel-like hat was made in 1968 when she was filming her hit movie The Thomas Crown Affair with Steve McQueen. Really nothing more can be said about this rare image except behold her beauty and watch the movie. Also, we have another rare Dunaway image here. 

Above, an image of Japanese actress Miki Sugimoto, who appeared in such movies as Zeroka no onna: Akai wappa, aka Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs and Sukeban gerira, aka Girl Boss Guerilla, seen here doing, um, we don’t know. She’s sort of making the sign of the horns with her right hand, though, and that was traditionally meant to ward off bad luck. Didn’t work, clearly, since she lost her clothes somewhere. Circa 1973. 

These two eye-catching shots feature American actress Barbara Nichols, née Barbara Marie Nickerauer, who did the usual round of pin-up modeling and beauty contests before earning a running part in the Broadway musical Pal Joey. She later appeared in the film version along with Frank Sinatra, Kim Novak and other notables, and during her show business career became known for playing strippers. Pretty easy to see why. We have no date for these photos, but if we had to guess we’d say 1955 or 1956.

This provocative shot features German adult actress Brigitte Maier from the Dutch magazine Chick, sometimes referred to as Chick Amsterdam. Back in October we featured a poster, which you can have a look at here, from Maier’s famous 1975 X-rated hit Sensations. This image was made the previous year.

This very rare image of Russian-descended American actress Natalie Wood should serve as inspiration for those of you suffering through the last weeks of winter. Cold weather goes away, and then you too can sit laughing in the sun. This shot, showing Wood wearing the all-but-extinct summer headkerchief, is from around 1968. 

This shot of American actress Lana Turner shows her at the height of her fame during the filming of the 1946 film noir The Postman Always Rings Twice. Turner’s own life rivaled that of any of her characters, encompassing the murder of her father to her daughter stabbing a Mafia thug to death. 

Above, Irish born actress Angela Greene, who appeared in movies but really made her career as a television actress during the 1950s and 1960s. This image is most likely from around 1947 or 1948.