Pulp International

vintage and modern pulp fiction; noir, schlock and exploitation films; scandals, swindles and news

GOLDEN RULES

Bond goes on a gilt trip.

When it comes to early James Bond movies, generally people’s favorites starring Sean Connery seem to be Dr. No, Goldfinger, and From Russia with Love. Among Roger Moore movies they’re usually Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun. When we wanted to read another Bond novel (we blazed through Casino Royale several years ago), and wanted one based on an iconic early movie, that left us with five choices. We went with Ian Fleming’s posthumous 1965 effort The Man with the Golden Gun. You see a dust jacket above illustrated by John Richards. The yellowish color is true—it’s not a scanner issue. You might assume the book is expensive, and it sometimes is, but we saw copies of this edition going for fifteen dollars. It was an easy buy.

Perhaps you’ve heard that the filmmakers took extraordinary liberties in adapting the novel. Well, we hadn’t—and liberties is an understatement. The villain Francisco Scaramanga remains, though he’s more urban than urbane in the book. The plot is wildly different. There’s no scheme to sell advanced solar technology to the highest bidder, no gun duel, no private island, no Herve Villechaize-like character; instead there’s a mundane desire to con a group of money men into investing in a Jamaican hotel. Bond insinuates his way into Scaramanga’s employ as an assistant/security guard. Can you imagine, in any of the movies, Bond being a security guard?

The book is of extremely limited scope in comparison to the movie. We find that fascinating because back then movies were constrained in what they could depict. Sets, models, and special effects could achieve only so much, but authors’ imaginations were theoretically unlimited. Yet moviemakers were consistently more imaginative than authors—at least outside the realm of sci-fi/fantasy. The Man with the Golden Gun the movie makes The Man with the Golden Gun the novel feel underdeveloped, but that’s no fault of Fleming’s. No 1960s authors could have conceived of moments like the movie’s spiral car leap across a river. Even so, the book is quick and entertaining. There’s a reason Fleming became a pop literature giant, and it shows here.

The Man with the Golden Gun, Ian Fleming, James Bond, John Richards, cover art, literature

JOEY, IT’S YOU

She'd do the mirror mirror bit, but it would be a rhetorical question.

Above: a shot of the lovely U.S. actress, singer, and dancer Joey Heatherton from 1964. We’ve shared a couple of images of her, including a great one about ten years back, and touched on her film Bluebeard, but she’s actually a major fave here, so it’s a requirement that we feature her a few more times. Stay tuned.

Bluebeard, Joey Heatherton

DANCE OF DEATH

Murder to the beat of a different drummer.

You could be forgiven for thinking the front of Robert Dietrich’s, aka E. Howard Hunt’s, 1961 novel Steve Bentley’s Calypso Caper was painted by Robert McGinnis, but it’s actually the work of Tom Miller. So sayeth the rear cover, otherwise we’d have guessed McGinnis and had little doubt.

What’s truly doubtless, though, is that Hunt rescued the Steve Bentley adventures from an ignoble death by toning down the invective. In this episode, the seventh Hunt wrote and the third we’ve read, Bentley is sent down to the steamy island of St. Thomas to help with a tricky tax case and arrives in time to see his client jailed on suspicion of murder. What’s an accountant to do at that point? He launches his own investigation.

It’s all very unlikely, but it works this time around, and Hunt manages to do well with island flavor (though he’s not particularly kind to island inhabitants). There’s plenty of action, drinking, sexual intrigue, and repartee. This is well above average work from Mr. Watergate. So, after a success, a failure, and today’s success, what next? We’ll leave on a high note. E. Howard, we barely knew ye.

Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, Dell Publications, Robert Dietrich, E. Howard Hunt, Howard Hunt, Tom Miller, cover art, literature

A FAREWELL TO ARM

The rest of him went bye-bye too.

Above: another shot from the Los Angeles Police Department Archives. There’s no info about what happened here, but if we had to speculate, because the knife has no blood on it, we bet the dead man tried to defend himself against an assailant and failed. We’re sharing the photo mainly because we think it has an interesting composition. It was made today in 1950.

Los Angeles, LAPD, murder

APELIKE BEHAVIOR

Scream at her like a terrifying beast first. Have a quiet discussion with her later.

Hey, you hook up with a giant ape you have to expect these types of outbursts. He’s a big softy inside, though. Vegetarian, actually. Bit of a tree-hugger. He’s starring on an Egyptian promo poster made by the National Film Company for a movie titled in Arabic المتوحشه, which translates as “the savage.” It was originally made in 1968 in Italy as Eva, la Venere selvaggia, and was known in English as Kong Island.

The movie starred Brazilian actress Esmeralda Barros, who appeared in a number of fantastically terrible international flicks, such as O Castelo das Taras, aka Castle of De Sade, the cheapie spaghetti westerns W Django! and La colt era il suo Dio, aka God Is My Colt .45, and the women-in-prison flick Presidio de Mulheres Violentadas, known in English as Prison for Violated Women.

As enticing as all those sound we’ll probably skip them. However, because we like lost world flicks we’ll probably watch Kong Island, at which time we’ll share the original Italian poster. We’re reasonably sure it’s going to be bad. But at least it’ll probably be harmless. The above is undated, but is probably from 1968 or 1969. You can see more Egyptian posters here.

Egypt, Italy, Brazil, Eva la Venere selvaggia, O Castelo das Taras, Castle of De Sade, W Django!, La colt era il suo Dio, God Is My Colt .45, Presidio de Mulheres Violentadas, Prison for Violated Women, Kong Island, Esmeralda Barros, poster art, cinema

CONSIDERATE TO A FAULT

She's having a close encounter of the worst kindness.

When you look at GGA covers long enough they all start to look a little dirty. This Paul Rader effort for J. Harvey Bond’s 1959 novel Kill Me with Kindness has a subtly foot-festishy cover, as the femme fatale seems to be tickling the male figure’s balls. Or is that just us? There’s no foot-on-testicle action in the story. Bond gives readers tough investigative reporter Mike Lanson, who’s hired by newspaper owner Colonel Gordon Tanner to look into the background of vice crusader named Clarence Proost. The newspaper owner thinks Proost is a con artist, using the cloak of moral outrage to shake down supporters and enrich himself. Proost ends up murdered, then the usual round of questions and red herrings commence. We liked the book reasonably well because Lanson is glib, which always strikes a chord with us. However, we wouldn’t call it outstanding. If we run into J. Harvey again we’ll see if he can take his writing to the next level.

Digit Books, J. Harvey Bond, Paul Rader, cover art, literature

BB RIGHT WITH YOU

For Bardot fans it's a good time to be in Japan.

Brigitte Bardot’s ninetieth birthday is upcoming Saturday. Above is a double-sided Japanese poster advertising a film retrospective meant to coincide with that event. Eleven of Bardot’s films are on the slate in Tokyo at the Shinjuku Musashinokan Cinema and the Human Trust Cinema Yurakucho, as well as at other venues across the country. This began last Friday and runs through October 18, with not only screenings, but talks and panels. Scheduled movies include 1956’s En effeuillant la marguerite, aka Plucking the Daisy, 1957’s Une parisienne, aka A Parisian Woman, 1962’s Vie privée, aka A Very Private Affair, and even 1971’s Boulevard du Rhum, aka The Rum Runners. If you happen to be in Japan the next week or so, you’ve now been duly informed.

Japan, France, Tokyo, En effeuillant la marguerite, Plucking the Daisy, Une parisienne, A Parisian Woman, Vie privée, A Very Private Affair, Boulevard du Rhum, The Rum Runners, Brigitte Bardot, poster art, cinema

FALLEN COLOSSO

The bigger they are the more it hurts when they hit the ground.

Above: an Italian poster for Il colosso d’Argilla, which was originally made in the U.S. as The Harder They Fall, and premiered in Italy today in 1956. It starred Humphrey Bogart, Rod Steiger, Jan Sterling, Mike Lane, and boxers Max Baer and Jersey Joe Walcott. It was good, and we talked about it here.

Italy, Il colosso d'Argilla, The Harder They Fall, Humphrey Bogart, Rod Steiger, Jan Sterling, Mike Lane, Max Baer, Jersey Joe Walcott, poster art, cinema

ZWAK ATTACK

Their problem was they didn't understand what I meant when I said we should meet to settle our differences.

We showed you a cover a while back for Robert Tachet’s Les morts sont toujours collants painted by Jean Sidobre, aka Francis Leroy. Above is a Dutch language cover for Conald Leüger’s Zwak Vlees that remixes Sibdore’s original effort into a pleasing bright orange result. The title of the book means, “weak flesh.” It’s from Antwerp based Uitgeverij Publiforce and appeared in 1958.

Belgium, Antwerp, Uitgeverij Publiforce, Peter Driben, Conald Leüger, Jean Sidobre, Francis Leroy, cover art, literature

THE RED END OF THE SPECTRUM

Ann-Margret demonstrates the principle of addition by subtraction.

Above: a really nice oversaturated 1965 shot, minus all colors except red and adjacent shades, of Swedish star Ann-Margret, scanned from the West German/Austrian magazine Party. In the true-color images from this session the background is more burgundy, the faux fur blanket is in the purple-gray range, and Ann-Margret’s skin is a normal hue. But she’s still red hot in every frame.

Sweden, Germany, West Germany, Austria, Party Magazine, Ann-Margret
Femme Fatale Image

ABOUT

EMAIL

LEGAL

  • CATEGORIES

SEARCH PULP INTERNATIONAL

PULP INTL.
HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1966—LSD Declared Illegal in U.S.

LSD, which was originally synthesized by a Swiss doctor and was later secretly used by the CIA on military personnel, prostitutes, the mentally ill, and members of the general public in a project code named MKULTRA, is designated a controlled substance in the United States.

1945—Hollywood Black Friday

A six month strike by Hollywood set decorators becomes a riot at the gates of Warner Brothers Studios when strikers and replacement workers clash. The event helps bring about the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, which, among other things, prohibits unions from contributing to political campaigns and requires union leaders to affirm they are not supporters of the Communist Party.

1957—Sputnik Circles Earth

The Soviet Union launches the satellite Sputnik I, which becomes the first artificial object to orbit the Earth. It orbits for two months and provides valuable information about the density of the upper atmosphere. It also panics the United States into a space race that eventually culminates in the U.S. moon landing.

1970—Janis Joplin Overdoses

American blues singer Janis Joplin is found dead on the floor of her motel room in Los Angeles. The cause of death is determined to be an overdose of heroin, possibly combined with the effects of alcohol.

1908—Pravda Founded

The newspaper Pravda is founded by Leon Trotsky, Adolph Joffe, Matvey Skobelev and other Russian exiles living in Vienna. The name means “truth” and the paper serves as an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991.

1957—Ferlinghetti Wins Obscenity Case

An obscenity trial brought against Lawrence Ferlinghetti, owner of the counterculture City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, reaches its conclusion when Judge Clayton Horn rules that Allen Ginsberg’s poetry collection Howl is not obscene.

1995—Simpson Acquitted

After a long trial watched by millions of people worldwide, former football star O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Simpson subsequently loses a civil suit and is ordered to pay millions in damages.

  • FEATUREd PULP

BUTTERFACE

Classic science fiction from James Grazier with uncredited cover art.

COOL UNDER FIRE

Hammond Innes volcano tale features Italian intrigue and Mitchell Hooks cover art.

VINTAGE ADVERTISING

Things you'd love to buy but can't anymore

Vintage Ad Image

Around the web