Femmes Fatales

June 8 2020

ALEXANDRA THE GREAT

All dressed up and ready to conquer the world.

Canadian actress Alexandra Stewart has had a long and varied show business career with too many movie roles to count—at a glance, more than one hundred. She was born in Montreal and spoke French, so her first parts were in French language films such as L’eau à la bouche and Le bel. Most of her English speaking roles were in b-movies such as Emmanuelle 3, The Bride Wore Black, and Tarzan the Magnificent. But there were a few high profile movies too, such as In Praise of Older Women. The above photo didn’t come with a date, but 1970 is a good bet.

Canada, Quebec, The Bride Wore Black, In Praise of Older Women, Tarzan the Magnificent, Alexandra Stewart

Intl. Notebook

February 28 2020

READY TO SCRAP

Some say recycling doesn't make a difference. The Luftwaffe may disagree.

If you search online, World War II posters are typically grouped under the umbrella of “propaganda.” Many pieces, such as this one with its Luftwaffe aircraft in flames, also offered public information. It was commissioned by the U.S. Government Printing Office in 1942, and was painted by Canadian artist Steve Broder. There were many posters made at the time that are now collectible classics. We wouldn’t go so far as to call this one a classic, but it’s a nice painting. We’ve seen no data on how much of an effect recycling had on the U.S. war effort, and would be surprised if it’s even quantifiable. But we imagine at the very least it helped reduce costs for munitions manufacturers. We have quite a bit of World War II memorabilia in the website, much of it pure propaganda, some of it rather unusual. If that sounds interesting, check here, here, here, and here, for starters.

Canada, World War II, Steve Broder

Femmes Fatales

December 23 2019

ROCKER RECLINER

Being a badass is tiring. I've earned this little break.

Canadian actress Linda Thorson had a career almost exclusively dedicated to television. Of her scores of tube roles she’s probably most beloved for her first—as the hard punching, high kicking secret agent Tara King on the British action serial The Avengers. She debuted on the show in March 1968, taking the place of the iconic Diana Rigg, and appeared in thirty-three episodes. The above photo of her relaxing in a rocking chair is from 1969.

Canada, Britain, The Avengers, Linda Thorson, Diana Rigg, television

Intl. Notebook

December 6 2019

FINAL SCORE

Vickers tells Midnight readers what's what.

This cover of Midnight dated today in 1965 features Laura Vickers, who is touted as an actress, but who had no credited film roles. In fact, for a while we thought she was a made up person, but that wasn’t Midnight‘s style. The magazine had enough cred to get legit celebrities for its covers. So we kept checking and it turns out Vickers was an obscure glamour model who appeared in super low rent magazines like Flirt ‘n Skirt and Black Nylons. Midnight was probably the closest she ever came to mainstream recognition—which is to say, not very close. So what’s the score? As usual with this tabloid it’s about sex. A man who knows the score knows what women want. But we don’t need Midnight to know what that is. The Pulp Intl. girlfriends keep us well informed what women want: it all.

Canada, Midnight, Flirt 'n Skirt, Black Nylons, Laura Vickers, tabloid

Modern Pulp

November 25 2019

REMOTE DROME

Have you had a hallucination yet today?

We’re really living up to the Intl. part of Pulp Intl. today with this fascinating promo poster from far away Ghana. It was made for Canadian horror filmmaker David Cronenberg’s 1983 freakshow Videodrome, starring Debbie Harry and James Woods in a wild story about video-triggered hallucinations that become real. We found this on a website called Deep Fried Movies, and they found it at Deadly Prey Gallery on Instagram. It’s signed O.A. Heavy J. Teshie, if we’re reading that right. Well, good job, O. Since you worked in the ’80s you may still be out there, and if you are, FYI, dealers in the U.S. are selling your posters for up to $4,000 a pop. If you’ve got any pieces hanging around, we strongly urge cutting out the middlemen.

Ghana, Canada, Videodrome, David Cronenberg, O.A. Heavy J. Teshie, Debbie Harry, James Woods, poster art, cinema, horror

Vintage Pulp

October 20 2019

SAVAGE WORLD

We're not on the fence about it—this magazine is a lot of fun.

As macho names for men’s magazines go Matclif Publications’ Savage Adventure is right at the top of the list. This issue from October 1960 was its debut. We gave it a read and it lived up to its name. Our favorite story was “Lizzie Russel and Her Riverboat Bordello,” by George Peterson, which deals with a floating brothel called The Virgin Queen plying the Yukon River during the 1890s gold rush. Basically, the tale is one of bad decisions and bad luck, and indeed gets pretty savage.

The brothel’s owner is warned that her paddlewheeler is too big to make it upriver to White Horse, and sure enough, it runs onto a sandbar in a remote area. Left aground in deadly below freezing temperatures, the boat’s two Chinese engine stokers decide to take advantage of the work stoppage with a little opium break, but overdose. Late that night everyone wakes up to a freezing ship. The captain discovers the bodies and simply chucks them overboard. When they thud instead of splash that’s how he discovers the river has frozen solid. Pretty savage already, this story, but it gets crazier.

The captain gets the fire going again, but because he doesn’t know what he’s doing the engine boiler explodes. Fire ravages the boat so quickly that half the women going overboard don’t even have clothes. One prostitute jumps but lands head first on the ice. Not good. Another catches on fire. A third runs from her flaming cabin directly into the sub-zero air and the shock stops her heart. Stranded ashore, miles from White Horse, the only heat source is the flaming boat, but once the conflagration dies they’re all going to freeze to death, some of them naked.

We’ll stop there—remember, no spoilers—but as savage tales go, “ Lizzie Russel and Her Riverboat Bordello” is pretty good. Other wild stories include Carl Williams’ “The Grizzly Came for Breakfast,” and Jim Cooley’s “I Listened To Them Scream.” We’re glad we picked this magazine up. We imagine, since it was the debut issue, the editors really tried hard to get it just right. Mission accomplished, at least in our opinion, but Savage Adventure folded after only four issues. That makes this example exceedingly rare.

The cover is signed, illegibly, but thanks to the internet we were able to learn that the cropped scrawl at the bottom of the art says Norm Eastman. We’ve featured his work before—here. Aside from the fiction, Savage Adventure offers readers a couple of exposés, some glamour photography, and several rather interesting ads. We scanned our two favorites—one for burlesque dancer Honey Bee, and another telling readers that they can make a mint investigating auto accidents—sexy auto accidents. You’ll see what we mean below.

Canada, White Horse, Savage Adventure, Norm Eastman, Barry Waldman, Lew Bruce, Ted Lewin, Susan Wood, Bob Correa, Carl Williams, Jim Cooley, Honey Bee, magazine art, literature, burlesque

Vintage Pulp

May 19 2019

NOTTE GIRLS

Water levels and more rise in Belle/Grier sexploitation romp.

We’ve had a lot of Pam Grier on this site, and here she is yet again, co-starring with Annie Belle and Anthony Steel in La notte dell’alta marea, aka Twilight of Love, aka Night of the High Tide, an Italo-Canadian sexploitation flick, and probably her most obscure role. An advertising exec played by Steel is looking for the perfect ass for a blue jeans campaign, spots Annie Belle in a sauna, and decides she fits the bill. The funny part of this is he sees her from behind initially and thinks she’s male, which tells you quite a bit about Belle’s elfish body type. But male or female, her ass will do just fine, and for more than only the ad campaign. She’s amenable to Steel’s advances, but she has a boyfriend who isn’t quite as sharing.

In the midst of this man-against-man for woman’s affections melodrama there’s still an advertisment to finish, so Steel takes Belle, her boyfriend, a photographer, and a second model played by Grier to Martinique for a photo shoot. This is a pretty sweet spot for location work, and Grier sports a killer afro that looks mighty good with the Caribbean wind blowing through it. Belle, never to be upstaged, has virtually no hair for the wind to play with but wears what must be one of the earliest thong bikinis to appear in cinema, and soon doffs the shoestrings for even less. Strangely, the jeans this entire excursion are supposed to be about never make an appearance.

From Martinique the group ventures to a smaller, uncharted island and promptly get stuck there. With no hope of rescue and tensions rising—like the tide—problems soon occur. Boy problems. Possessiveness problems. Aggression problems. Don’t fear though—rescue comes before anyone gets seriously hurt, and Belle gets the customary sexploitation send-off, jetting away backed by synth music and a torch singer as a man stares wistfully into the middle distance, wishing he could hold onto her but knowing in his heart he can’t. Because she’s a free spirit, you see. And free spirits must soar.

Cheesy? Certainly. But this is sexploitation, so we knew the script would be bad. We accepted that, but we wish the beach sequences hadn’t been shot through a layer of gauze—though on the whole the film looks great. We also wish Grier’s distinctive voice hadn’t been dubbed, but as she speaks no Italian, this was unavoidable. Preferences aside, if you like romantic island erotica this one will please you, though we can’t go so far as to call it a good film. But with Belle and Grier sharing the same screen and the same beach it’s hard to fail completely. La notte dell’alta marea premiered in Italy today in 1977.

Italy, Canada, Martinique, La notte dell'alta marea, Twilight of Love, Anthony Steel, Annie Belle, Pam Grier, poster art, cinema, sexploitation, movie review

Intl. Notebook

January 15 2019

CLOSER EXAMINATION

Which one liked to wallow in crap more? National Examiner or Adolf Hitler?

National Examiner offers up a provocative cover on this issue that hit newsstands today in 1973, with an unidentified blonde model and the promise of expert lovemaking tips. Nothing new there. What’s different is this issue takes Adolf Hitler’s corpse for a gallop around a well-traveled track. The article “Hitler’s Strange Desires” digs into der Führer’s toilet training, his family background, his private writings and public statements, and comes to the conclusion: sexual pervert! The piece discusses Hitler’s “sexual inadequacy and impotence, frail body and softness that was almost effeminate,” and reveals how he doted on his mother but eventually felt betrayed by her, stating, “This sudden indignation with his mother could have been caused if he saw his parents having intercourse.” The ultimate conclusion is no surprise: “[Because of] his extreme form of masochism [he derived] sexual gratification from the act of having a woman urinate or defecate on him.”

As psychological disturbances go, you can take your pick here. Like beer in a Berlin rathskeller, Hitler allegedly had multiple flavors on tap, and they culminated in turning him into a shit freak. That’s amusing to consider, but was it anything other than pure bullshit itself? Labeling Hitler a disturbed child-turned sexual deviant was a mini-industry in the decades after his death, and the rumors started by these reports are still prevalent today. We get it—by making him into a non-human it’s easy

to distance him from the rest of us, but as far as we know there’s no evidence he was anything other than a heterosexual who had run-of-the-mill sex, or for that matter that he was anything other than a run-of-the-mill human. Many people would love for the stories to be true, but they’re just too easy. We don’t blame Examiner for beating that Hitler horse, though. Everybody did it—it sold piles of papers.

Examiner goes for lighter material elsewhere in the issue, with an update on the whereabouts of Canadian actress Ruby Keeler, a story about a wife who makes her husband take her to a swingers club so she can get some strange dick, and a pervy advertisement for instant peepholes we know would be illegal to use today, and which we suspect were illegal to use back then too. Other celebrities who make appearances include Maria LaTour and Monika Zinnenberg. In fact, on closer examination that unidentified cover model might be Zinnenberg. She made the usual slate of bad West German comedies and exploitation flicks during the ’60s and ’70s before leveraging her front-of-the-camera work into a directing career which she sustained all the way up until 2012. And finally there’s a centerspread on the benefits of yoga, featuring stars like Cary Grant, Geraldine Chaplain, and Barbara Parkins touting its benefits. That’s about it for this Examiner. Scans below, and more here and here.

West Germany, Canada, National Examiner, Adolf Hitler, Eva Braun, Cary Grant, Geraldine Chaplain, Barbara Parkins, Maria LaTour, Monika Zinnenberg, Ruby Keeler, Raquel Welch, tabloid, nazis

Vintage Pulp

January 14 2019

WINTER IS COMING

Nobody knows who'll win the game of Thorne's.

Yes, she’s back. These posters were made for the 1977 naziploitation flick Ilsa the Tigress of Siberia, starring the inimitable Dyanne Thorne dealing out discomfort and death in the icy wastes of Gulag 14. In 1975’s Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS she was a member of the Third Reich, but here, only eight years after the Reich cratered, she’s somehow employed by the Nazis’ mortal enemies the Soviets. She must have nailed the interview.

Interviewer: “What’s your greatest strength, professionally?”

Ilsa: “Creatively making people suffer. Like the electrified dildo I invented at a previous gig. That’s standard gear for torture now. Stress positions, beatings. I mean, I love it all.”

Interviewer: “What would you say is your biggest weakness?”

Ilsa: “I sometimes work too hard. I’m a perfectionist. In a way, I’m harder on myself than I am on the people I torture.”

Interviewer: “Tell me about a challenge in a work situation, and how you dealt with it.”

Ilsa: “I had a prisoner who was problematic. His positivity was bringing hope to the camp. I had him castrated.”

Interviewer: “And did this solution work?”

Ilsa: “Yes, he became very negative.”

Interviewer: “I think I’ve heard enough. When can you start?”

Ilsa: “I already did. I took the initiative and killed the other applicants in the waiting room.”

It’s amazing that the first Ilsa flick generated two sequels, considering how bad it was. This third entry in the series actually played at the Sitges Film Festival in October 2018, which just goes to show that interest in terrible vintage sexploitation films runs beyond the fringe. We think this movie is almost as bad as entries one and two, but you can decide for yourself. After opening in Canada in 1977, Ilsa the Tigress of Siberia premiered in Japan today in 1978.

Japan, Soviet Union, Canada, Sitges, Ilsa the Tigress of Siberia, Dyanne Thorne, women in prison, poster art, cinema, sexploitation, nazis, movie review

Mondo Bizarro

December 13 2017

FOUND FOOTAGE

Bad dog! Drop it! Daddy doesn't wanna play! Stay the hell back!

We’ve had a couple of found body parts stories on Pulp Intl., such as the Ohio heart and the Michigan heart. Today we have the Vancouver foot. Earlier this month Canadian hiker Mike Johns was walking along the southern coast of Vancouver Island when his dog became highly interested in something tangled up in a patch of sea kelp. Everyone who owns a dog dreads these finds, which nearly always turn out to be something no right-minded human would ever normally touch, but which dogs—loveable creatures that they are—immediately want to play fetch with. In this case the discovery was especially unpleasant, as it turned out to be a human foot. The subsequent game of fetch would have looked a lot like a man running desperately away, with his dog in eager pursuit. At least if it had been us.

But what makes the story extra curious is that the foot is the thirteenth found in British Columbia in ten years. Speculation online has of course focused on the sinister, such as serial killers, but medical experts say simply that when bodies in the water decompose, a sneaker will prevent rot and provide buoyancy, allowing easterly currents to reunite foot with terra firma in western Canada. Investigators ruled out foul play in the other foot cases, and results are pending on unlucky thirteen. Every good story needs art, and Johns provided that above, snapping a photo after taking the leg/foot home with him because he feared the tide might claim it before police arrived. We’re just hoping he made the dog carry it for him. It’s the least the hound could do after screwing up a perfectly good walk.

Canada, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Mike Johns

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

March 23

2011—Elizabeth Taylor Dies

American actress Elizabeth Taylor, whose career began at age 12 when she starred in National Velvet, and who would eventually be nominated for five Academy Awards as best actress and win for Butterfield 8 and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, dies of congestive heart failure in Los Angeles. During her life she had been hospitalized more than 70 times.

March 22

1963—Profumo Denies Affair

In England, the Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, denies any impropriety with showgirl Christine Keeler and threatens to sue anyone repeating the allegations. The accusations involve not just infidelity, but the possibility acquaintances of Keeler might be trying to ply Profumo for nuclear secrets. In June, Profumo finally resigns from the government after confessing his sexual involvement with Keeler and admitting he lied to parliament.

March 22

1978—Karl Wallenda Falls to His Death

World famous German daredevil and high-wire walker Karl Wallenda, founder of the acrobatic troupe The Flying Wallendas, falls to his death attempting to walk on a cable strung between the two towers of the Condado Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Wallenda is seventy-three years old at the time, but it is a 30 mph wind, rather than age, that is generally blamed for sending him from the wire.

March 22

2006—Swedish Spy Stig Wennerstrom Dies

Swedish air force colonel Stig Wennerström, who had been convicted in the 1970s of passing Swedish, U.S. and NATO secrets to the Soviet Union over the course of fifteen years, dies in an old age home at the age of ninety-nine. The Wennerström affair, as some called it, was at the time one of the biggest scandals of the Cold War.

March 21

1963—Alcatraz Closes

The federal penitentiary located on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay closes. The island had been home to a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military prison over the years. In 1972, it would become a national recreation area open to tourists, and it would receive national landmark designations in 1976 and 1986.

March 20

1916—Einstein Publishes General Relativity

German-born theoretical physicist Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity. Among the effects of the theory are phenomena such as the curvature of space-time, the bending of rays of light in gravitational fields, faster than light universe expansion, and the warping of space time around a rotating body.