| Vintage Pulp | Sep 28 2017 |
If you think armed robbery is tough try surviving as a poster artist.
Rapina a mano armata is a title that would translate as “armored rampage,” but the movie being promoted by these spectacular Italian posters is actually none other than Stanley Kubrick's famed thriller The Killing. After debuting in the U.S. and Britain in early 1956, it opened in Italy today that same year. We discussed the film in detail a while ago. If you take a look at that post you'll immediately notice that once again the foreign promo art destroys the U.S. version. This is consistently true for most movies made after the mid-1960s because the studios began to jettison top notch promo artists in favor of simpler—and we assume cheaper—visual approaches. The foreign companies would follow suit, but not until later. European posters began to lose their pizzazz by the 1970s, and Japanese promos went the same direction by the early 1980s. Which leaves us where we are today—besieged by Photoshop jobs, all of which seem to feature a couple of large heads against some uninspiring background.
But we're here at least partly to celebrate the glories of vintage art, which means what you really want to know is who painted these particular masterpieces, right? It was Renato Casaro, whose work is consistently amazing. In fact he was so good that he survived as an illustrator well into the 1980s, painting iconic promos for the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicles Conan the Barbarian and Red Sonja, and somewhat less iconic but no less brilliant posters for Sylvester Stallone's Cliffhanger and Over the Top. The Rapina a mano armata poster you see below is unsigned but we can be reasonably sure it was also a product of Casaro's hand, as it was common practice in Italy's movie industry for the commissioned artist to produce more than one version. If the above pieces aren't the best we've seen from Casaro they're sure close. You can see several more of his efforts by clicking his keywords below.
But we're here at least partly to celebrate the glories of vintage art, which means what you really want to know is who painted these particular masterpieces, right? It was Renato Casaro, whose work is consistently amazing. In fact he was so good that he survived as an illustrator well into the 1980s, painting iconic promos for the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicles Conan the Barbarian and Red Sonja, and somewhat less iconic but no less brilliant posters for Sylvester Stallone's Cliffhanger and Over the Top. The Rapina a mano armata poster you see below is unsigned but we can be reasonably sure it was also a product of Casaro's hand, as it was common practice in Italy's movie industry for the commissioned artist to produce more than one version. If the above pieces aren't the best we've seen from Casaro they're sure close. You can see several more of his efforts by clicking his keywords below.
| Sex Files | Sep 27 2017 |
When a man gets desperate he'll spray the darndest things.
This issue of the U.S. tabloid National Spotlite was published today in 1971, and the highlight—or lowlight—is a story on chemist John Turner, an unattractive man who had no luck with women until he invented an aphrodisiac spray. According to journo Jack Friedman: “Armed with two spray cans of his unpatented aphrodisiac, Turner headed for Manhattan. Just out of the subway he saw lovely New York secretary Judy Dahlman walking in front of him. Ssssttttt... went the spray can. Mmmmm... went Judy, “Your place or mine.”
Turner ended up sticking either cock or tongue in one-hundred three women in seven days. But the big problem with the spray was that, while the women participated in sex enthusiastically, they weren't thrilled about it once the aphrodisiac effects wore off. Assorted criminal complaints resulted, and Turner was arrested on multiple counts of rape. He managed to make victim one-hundred four the policewoman who showed up to arrest him, but eventually he was bestowed by a jury and judge some years in the state pen to think about the error of his ways.
We don't have to tell you this story is a total fabrication, right? And we've already explained the process of using handout photos—usually modeling nudes—to inspire pieces of steamy sexploitation, then publishing them and pretending the fiction is fact. Elsewhere in the issue you get “Women Who Rape Men,” “I, a Lesbian,” “A Behind-the-Scenes Peek at the Porno Pictures Racket,” and more. All fake, but all fascinating, in a guilty-pleasure kind of way. We have hundreds more tabloids at our tabloid index. Just click here.
| Vintage Pulp | Sep 27 2017 |
Mess with a man and you've got a problem. Mess with his money and you've got a murder.
Above is a cover for The Crazy Kill, by Chester Himes, 1959, with beautiful art by George Ziel, someone we've technically never featured before, but who did a lot of work for Avon. We say we haven't technically featured him, but he painted the femme fatale at the top right of our webpage. It comes from a paperback by Bonnie Golightly called The Wild One. So in a sense we've showcased him every day for many years. And even more interestingly, when we narrowed down the various femmes fatales we were considering using in the site design, we ended up with three, one of which was the figure on the cover of The Crazy Kill. Not sure why we didn't choose her. In any case, we've had an affinity for Ziel's work for a long time.
And we've had an interest in Chester Himes for a while too. The Crazy Kill was our first Himes novel but it probably won't be our last. The book wasn't perfect, though. While the Harlem setting provides good atmosphere, the professional gamblers peopling the narrative are fascinating, and the two detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones are about as expected, the overall lack of sympathetic characters threw us a bit. In fact, we didn't like the two cops much either, but one scene won us over. During a previous investigation Ed had acid thrown in his face and was terribly scarred. But he presents an unfailingly tough façade—until a crook tells him he looks like Frankenstein's monster. Ed flies into a rage and beats the man, but then comes this:
Coffin Ed stuck his pistol back into the holster, turned and left the room without uttering a word, stood for a moment in the corridor and cried.
It turns out Ed is human after all, and from that point it was easier for us to be on his side. Though the writing has its flaws in our opinion, a central mystery that probably only Himes could have come up with kept us forging ahead: a preacher falls out of an apartment building window but lands in a bread basket, the type bakeries once used to deliver large orders. The preacher is fine and returns to the building, but somehow another man is found dead minutes later in the same bread basket. How he got there and why is utterly baffling. The Crazy Kill is weird, but fun and worth a read. In the meantime we may go back to the first Coffin Ed/Gravedigger Jones book For Love of Imabelle to see what these guys are all about.
| Musiquarium | Sep 26 2017 |
Raymond Brenot proves he's one of the top album sleeve artists of his era.
Above, more pin-up style vinyl sleeves from French artist Raymond Brenot, aka Pierre-Laurent Brenot, for records pressed in France during the 1950s and 1960s. We have a previous sleeve from him here, and you can see more of his art in general by clicking his keywords below.
| Femmes Fatales | Sep 26 2017 |
Whoa... is the floor swaying or is that me?
Audrey Totter isn't as well known today as she should be, considering she appeared in The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Lady in the Lake, F.B.I Girl, The Unsuspected, The Set-Up, Main Street After Dark, and Tension, but she was well appreciated in her day as a bad girl and film noir stalwart. Her career spanned radio, cinema, and television, and her life spanned ninety-five years, a good run on both counts. This promo photo of her in the typical bad girl's natural habitat—the local gin mill—was made in 1946 and appeared in Life magazine.
Life MagazineThe Postman Always Rings TwiceThe Lady in the LakeThe UnsuspectedThe Set-UpTensionMain Street After DarkF.B.I GirlAudrey Totterfilm noir
| Vintage Pulp | Sep 24 2017 |
There's nothing quite like a roll in the hay.
You'd think we'd eventually run out of themes in mid-century paperbacks, but the possibilities are seemingly endless. We can add illicit love in the hayloft to the many other time honored subjects exploited by paperback publishers. We've already shared several covers along these lines, such as this one, this one, and this one, but today we have an entire set for your enjoyment. Personally, we've never had sex in a hayloft—in fact, we've never even had the opportunity—but we imagine that once you get past the smelly manure and the scratchy hay and the jittery animals it's pretty fun. Or maybe not. There are also numerous books, incidentally, that feature characters trysting by outdoor haystacks, but for today we want to stay inside the barn. Thanks to all the original uploaders of these covers.
Cameo BooksGail JordanPeggy GaddisGeorge GrossJon BalmerHillary WaughDon BellmoreWilli PetersMark ReedLupo SebrengWilliam HopsonLon WilliamsAngela GilbertJ.X. WilliamsJean BromydeCraig BarstowLuther GordonJohn SteinbeckGeorge Victor MartinGregory SwansonWilliam Brown Meloneycover artliterature
| Vintage Pulp | Sep 23 2017 |
What do you get when you put a bunch of convicts on an island? A lot of dead convicts.
Before Escape from New York there was Terminal Island. And before Terminal Island there was, well, we aren't sure. Maybe The Big Bird Cage or She Devils in Chains. Released in June 1973, and eventually making it to Denmark today in 1977, you see the Danish promo poster for Kvindefængslet på Djævleøen, aka Terminal Island above. The movie stars Don Marshall, Marta Kristen, Barbara Leigh, Ena Hartman, and cult fave Phyllis Davis, plus it features both Tom Selleck and Roger E. Mosley, a duo that would later be cast as besties Thomas Magnum and T.C. on the television show Magnum P.I. What's the plot? It follows the expected blueprint—tough convicts left to fend for themselves except for the occasional supply drop, women in mortal peril from every inhabitant with a functioning dick, and one good-hearted prisoner who doesn't belong there at all. The whole set-up degenerates into a savage confrontation between two opposing factions, predictably fighting over the possession of women, who can only hope to choose between abusers and protectors. While Terminal Island is an early entry in the fertile penal colony genre, what you really want to know is whether it's actually any good, right? Well, let's just say it's good enough to watch if you're a fan of seventies b-movies. We'd like to offer you a better endorsement, but we really can't.
DenmarkKvindefængslet på DjævleøenTerminal IslandDon MarshallMarta KristenBarbara LeighEna HartmanTom SelleckRoger E. MosleyPhyllis Davisposter artcinemamovie review
| Vintage Pulp | Sep 22 2017 |
I felt so lonely and unappreciated I was going to jump. But then people started screaming, “Take it off! Take it off!”
It's been a while, so here's a cover from sleaze icon Darrel Millsap for Hoke Jackson's 1968 Candid Reader sleaze novel Along the Ledge to Lust. Jackson also wrote The Lecherous Age, Swappers in Heat, and Marriage for Four. He was not a person, though, but rather a pseudonym inhabited by various writers, so we don't know who really authored this, and we have a funny feeling they prefer it that way. More from Millsap here and here.
| Femmes Fatales | Sep 22 2017 |
She was Japan's best sailing actress.
This fantastic sea-themed Daiei Film Co. promo image shows Japanese pinku actress Mari Atsumi, who by now probably needs no introduction. But in case she does, click here to see and read everything we've posted on her. The image comes from her 1970 film Taiyo wa mita, aka I Saw the Sun.
| Vintage Pulp | Sep 21 2017 |
Single fatherhood can be a real challenge.
Below is a collection of Japanese posters for the amazingly entertaining film series Kozure Ōkami, aka Lone Wolf and Cub, starring Tomisaburô Wakayama as a warrior who has to single-handedly care for his child as legions of assassins try to murder him. More info below.
Two posters for Kozure Ōkami: Kowokashi udekashi tsukamatsuru, aka Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance.
Two posters for Kozure Ōkami: Sanzu no kawa no ubaguruma, aka Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx.
Kozure Ōkami: Shinikazeni mukau ubaguruma, aka Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades.
This is the only poster we don't have the tateken size for: Kozure Ōkami: Oya no kokoro ko no kokoro, aka Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril. To complete the set we used the same one we placed in our previous collection on this series, here.
Kozure Ōkami: Meifumado, aka Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons.
Kozure Ōkami: Jigoku e ikuzo! Daigoro, aka Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell.
There's one more movie, 1980's Kozure Ōkami, aka Shogun Assassin, mainly put together using footage from the previous films, none of which had really been seen in the West to that point. Shogun Assassin, though not properly part of the series, is easy to find and as a one-off it's fine and entertaining, but we recommend you do yourself a favor and watch the canonical films.
JapanKozure Ōkami: Kowokashi udekashi tsukamatsuruLone Wolf and Cub: Sword of VengeanceKozure Ōkami: Sanzu no kawa no ubagurumaLone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River StyxKozure Ōkami: Shinikazeni mukau ubagurumaLone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to HadesKozure Ōkami: Oya no kokoro ko no kokoroLone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in PerilKozure Ōkami: MeifumadoLone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of DemonsKozure Ōkami: Jigoku e ikuzo! DaigoroLone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in HellTomisaburô Wakayamaposter artcinema
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