| Vintage Pulp | Apr 29 2024 |
It's the old love triangle: man, woman, and liquor.
Charles Willeford's 1956 novel Pick-Up is fronted by the work of Frank Uppwall, who we've featured here once before. We've featured a bit more of Willeford. In this one a down-on-his-luck San Francisco diner counterman named Harry Jordan meets a down-on-her-luck customer named Helen Meredith and sparks fly. Also flying in short order are emotional turmoil, tears and regrets, and unsound life choices. The duo mostly drink and dream. They fall into a mutual depression. They make a suicide pact but fail in their wrist-slashing attempt to shuffle off this mortal coil. They check themselves into a hospital for mental care but manifest no discernible benefits. Finally they return to their downward spirals of alcoholic self-medication. The story is a bit like a noirish Days of Wine and Roses, as Harry is able to keep a grip on his drinking but Helen isn't. When you reach the end you'll go, "Huh?" and wonder whether you should read the entire thing again. It's a black tale. Willeford might not be the best writer, but his ideas are definitely unique.
| Femmes Fatales | Apr 29 2024 |
Oh, big deal. I have one too. It even lights cigarettes.
The above image of what appears to be a low intensity armed standoff was made to promote the 1965 Cold War spy flick The Ipcress File, which we hear is one of the more interesting films from a teeming genre. The photo shows Sue Lloyd, who appeared in about twenty-five films, including Revenge of the Pink Panther, No. 1 of the Secret Service, and the Joan Collins vehicles The Stud and The Bitch. The Ipcress File was headlined by Michael Caine, which makes it a mandatory watch. We'll do that at some point. We have another Lloyd promo from the film below.
The Ipcress FileRevenge of the Pink PantherNo. 1 of the Secret ServiceThe StudThe BitchSue LloydMichael CaineJoan Collins
| Vintage Pulp | Apr 28 2024 |
Joan is in her sweet spot with a challenging film role.
How do you judge a great acting performance? One way is when beforehand you look at the performer and the part and say, “Impossible, doesn't fit, can't possibly work,” then it does. Flamingo Road, which premiered in the U.S today in 1949, features Joan Crawford as a carny performer and it doesn't fit. But probably nobody would seem to fit. The main character evolves over years from carny chippie into upper crust lady, so either way a filmmaker would have to make a difficult choice—cast an ingenue who evolves into a sophisticated middle-aged woman, or cast a mature actress and hope she can play young. They chose the later option with Crawford, and it can't possibly work. But this is Crawford we're talking about—she could make most any role work, and does so here with a typically assured performance.
Flamingo Road is set in the American south and is about the social mores and political machinations of a small but wealthy town. The title refers to the enclave where the rich and powerful live together in their mansions and manors. The carny version of Crawford falls for local deputy sherrif Zachary Scott, but he's been tabbed by local kingpin Sydney Greenstreet to be his puppet in the state senate. As part of that plan Scott is to marry into wealth. Cavorting with a carny isn't going to fly. Greenstreet decides to break them up, or hurt Crawford trying, and there's nothing so underhanded or injurious that he won't do it. Crawford, though, is tougher than anyone expects, and what she learns from her travails is, first: she's going to make it to Flamingo Road no matter what it takes; and second: she will have her revenge. That's all we'll tell you about the plot.
Flamingo Road is another of those movies that's often called a film noir, and while we don't try to be gatekeepers of what is and isn't noir—because we have no authority to do so—we also don't avoid stating the obvious. Flamingo Road isn't a film noir. Some entities, including respected ones, have a vested interest in casting the noir net as widely as possible. If you host noir festivals, for example, after a while you need to expand your defintion of noir to keep your slate fresh. If you write film noir books, you might want to demonstrate that you think outside the box by including Chinatown or Lat sau san taam or The Limey (all excellent movies, by the way).
At the opposite extreme, several prominent critics attest that film noir doesn't exist at all. That's like saying there's no such thing as superhero movies because costumed heroes are just further iterations of superpowered characters such as Rambo. Superhero movies exist. So does film noir, though it resides within the wider genres of crime and drama. However, it's too easy to call any movie with conflict and a few neon-splashed night sequences a noir. Film noir is as much thematic as it is iconographic. In every way that we can discern, Flamingo Road isn't one. The definitive American Film Institute calls it a melodrama. We agree. It's a melodrama in which a good actress, aged north of forty, overcomes difficult casting to knock her years-spanning role out of the park.
Flamingo RoadJoan CrawfordZachary ScottSydney GreenstreetDavid BrianGladys GeorgeVirginia HustonGertrude MichaelAlice Whiteposter artcinemamovie review
| Vintage Pulp | Apr 27 2024 |
Gun goes bang-bang, problem goes bye-bye.
Above is a cover for Jean-Albert Foëx's 1954 crime novel Le Mauser ne s'use que si l'on s'en sert..! painted by French illustrator Jean David, whose work we've shown you before, notably here and at the bottom of this collection. We aren't happy with David's visual treatment of the black character at the lower right, but you can't doubt his technical proficiency. This book, the title of which translates to, “the Mauser only wears out if you use it,” deals with a supervillain named Luciole who gets up to no good in Mexico and is soon pitted against protagonist Milo Tchero and his crack team of sidekicks. We gather these are recurring characters but we don't know how many appearances they made. The publisher here, E.D.I.C.A., liked wraparound covers, as you can see on an example we shared a while back. Jean David will return.
| Vintage Pulp | Apr 26 2024 |
Every top notch private investigator knows the best clues are found in bed.
We wanted to show you another poster painted by John Solie, who was responsible for numerous blaxploitation, sexploitation, and action promos, all executed at the extremely high level you see here with his one sheet for Stacey. His other notable efforts include those for The Arena, Star Crash, Hit Man, and Hollywood Boulevard. You can click his keywords at bottom to see everything we've shared from him.
Naturally we watched Stacey and it's a cheesy detective tale starring erstwhile Playboy centerfold Anne Randall, who plays a model-turned-private dick hired to investigate a rich woman's extended family before any of them are allowed to be included in her will. Randall arrives just in time for intrigue and murder. Private investigators need to possess a Class C license in order to legally take on clients. The C on Randall's license probably stands for “casual sex.”
Even so, there's not much here. The detective elements are uninspiring despite a noir style voiceover, and the sexual elements, even with Randall and co-star Anitra Ford in occasional undress, are not going to blow your skirt up. To put the overall nothingness of the movie in perspective, consider the fact that we couldn't find a copy with sharp enough resolution to make screenshots worthwhile, nor enough official production photos to make them worth sharing. That's how much of a historical afterthought it is.
In lieu of imagery you could use your imagination, but we recommend not bothering. Stacey resides at the low end of grindhouse cinema characterized by numerous bold and outrageous entries. In our opinion it's notable only for being the first exploitation effort by director Andy Sidaris, who would go on to helm boobalicious ’80s throwaways such as Malibu Express, Hard Ticket to Hawaii, and Savage Beach. Stacey premiered in the U.S. this month in 1973.
StaceyMalibu ExpressHard Ticket to HawaiiSavage BeachPlayboyAnne RandallAlan LandersJames WestmorelandCristina RainesAnitra FordMiki GarciaJohn SolieAndy Sidarisposter artcinemamovie review
| Vintage Pulp | Apr 25 2024 |
My husband is clueless. He suspects I'm having an affair, but he thinks it's with a guy from his softball team.
Above: a nice sleaze cover from Greenleaf Classics' Nightstand imprint for 1960's lesbian novel Sin Girls by Marlene Longman. This has the look of a photo-illustration, but it's credited to Harold W. McCauley.
| Femmes Fatales | Apr 25 2024 |
Whoever ends up with the most loses.
This Paramount promo image shows Carole Lombard and was made for her 1933 horror drama Supernatural, which was part of a small set of vintage movies concerned with spiritualists and the supposed netherworld. Movies we've discussed that feature (always fake) séances or seers include Bunco Squad, The Amazing Mr. X, Nightmare Alley, and Ministry of Fear. In a career spanning more than seventy films, Supernatural was Lombard's only fright flick. Its rarity requires that we give it a watch, which we'll do pretty soon.
| Vintage Pulp | Apr 24 2024 |
The very moment you need help is the moment there's nobody around.
Harry Bennett put together yet another a unique paperback cover, this time for Vin Packer's 1963 novel Alone at Night. Bennett was a master illustrator who specialized in loose yet highly skilled pieces, but he had a range that we've marveled over many times. Just check his solidly representational efforts here, here, and here, as opposed to his somewhat more abstract stylings here and here, then note how he splits the difference between the two here. He's always interesting, and Alone at Night is also an interesting novel.
Vin Packer was a pseudonym for Marijane Meaker, and she sets her story in the actual small town of Cayuta, located in south central New York state. She tells us about a man named Donald Cloward who's sent to prison for fatally running over a woman. By the time he's paroled eight years later he's come to doubt the official story. On the night in question he'd been nearly incapacitated by alcohol, and had blacked out the events, yet has the vaguest memory of being placed behind the wheel of the deadly car—presumably by someone who wanted him to crash and be killed. Once dead, people would assume he stole the car.
Who would do such a thing? His father-in-law, possibly. He had offered his sedan though Cloward was clearly unable to drive. Since his father-in-law loathes him, and is not a generous man—certainly not enough to lend anyone his car—his guilt seems a good bet. On the other hand, the woman who was killed happened to be the wife of a man who desperately wanted out of his marriage in order to wed someone else. Maybe he arranged everything. After all, Cloward was found in that man's Jaguar. Yes, there may have been a switch. Cloward thinks he remembers getting into one car, even though he ended up in another. Is it a false memory?
Alone at Night is built around a leapfrogging present-past structure, and has a multi-pov narrative in which the reader soon knows all, but the characters don't. In trying to sort it all out, Cloward decides that his father-in-law moved him from the sedan to the Jaguar after realizing the second car was already pointed toward the drop-off of a cliff. After all, why merely hope for a road accident when one is already likely just by virtue of the choice of a parking space? But is he missing a few pieces of the puzzle? We won't say more about the plot. This is excellent work from Packer/Meaker. It's our second book from her, and won't be our last.
New YorkCayutaFawcett PublicationsGold Medal BooksVin PackerMarijane MeakerHarry Bennettcover artliterature
| Femmes Fatales | Apr 24 2024 |
The unburnable Hitomi Kozue finally strikes gold.
Japanese actress and eternal beauty Hitomi Kozue has finally gotten her tan perfect. She's been at it since last June, when we shared the first shot in a series she made for Heibon Punch. We checked in again a few months later and she still hadn't reached her ideal level of sun-baked luminescence. But now the star of such films as the 1974 Dirty Harry reinterpretation Sukeban Deka: daati Marii and the 1975 women-in-prison flick True Story of a Woman Condemned: Sex Hell is perfectly golden and her beach sojourn has come to a close. These two attention getting shots are the last from this particular session, but they're by no means the last photos of Kozue we have for you. She was prolific, and shall return.
JapanHeibon PunchSukeban Deka: daati MariiSukeban Deka: Dirty MaryJitsuroku onna kanbetsusho: sei-jigokuTrue Story of a Woman Condemned: Sex HellHitomi Kozueroman pornopinkunudity
| Modern Pulp | Apr 23 2024 |
Well, looks like them bandits is gone, miss. And now, I'm powerful curious about several aspects of your predicament.
Above you see a piece of modern Mexican comic book art painted by Rafael Gallur for the cover of issue #771 of La Ley del Revolver, published in 2010. Many questions could be asked here, but none can be answered without buying the comic book. Perhaps we'll do that down the line. We've shared other work from Gallur before and, like this one, it's extremely lurid. Check it out here.
