Pulp International - Mara+Corday

Apr 27 2019

There's room for only one off-the-shoulder evening gown in this gang.

There's nothing quite like a knife fight, and you get a doozy on this promo poster for the crime thriller Girls on the Loose. You're probably wondering if this actually occurs in the movie. It does, and it's a fun scene, but a long and winding road getting there. The film has a nice opening—a heist by a trio of masked robbers. They pile into a laundry van driven a fourth gang member and peel off their disguises to reveal themselves as women. Mara Corday is the ruthless ringleader trying to keep her gang in line, but trouble soon arrives in the form of a police investigation and a weak link in the crew who needs dealing with.

The problems multiply when a detective takes a romantic interest in Corday's little sister Barbara Bostock. Gang member Joyce Barker wants sis silenced, but blood is thicker than money for Corday. She and Barker eventually have the knock-down-drag-out depicted on the poster, but it isn't really worth the wait. Girls on the Loose is a fun idea but ultimately is an undistinguished and forgettable b-movie that doesn't do as much with its premise as it should have. There's no definitive release date, but most of its reviews appeared at the end of March and beginning of April 1958, so we'll say it opened within a week either way of today 1958.

Girls on the Loose Mara Corday Joyce Barker poster art cinema movie review

Vintage Pulp

Jan 5 2019

Upon close inspection everything looks ship shape.

Model and actress Mara Corday, née Marilyn Watts, captains this nautical 1953 Corp. A. Fox Technicolor lithograph. Corday is one of those vintage actresses who has a cult following today, which in her case mainly derives from starring in three cheesy sci-fi films—Tarantula, The Giant Claw, and The Black Scorpion. She also appeared in some thrillers and noirs, but her stardom was truly cemented when she was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for October 1958. That centerfold may be one of the most demure the magazine ever published, but the issue sold well, owing to Corday's status as an established movie star. She's still with us at age eighty-eight, and these images are nice mementos from a time when legions of fans were willing to sail anywhere with her.

Playboy Tarantula The Giant Claw The Black Scorpion Mara Corday Marilyn Watts Corp. A. Fox A. Fox Corp.Technicolor pin-up sci-fi

Femmes Fatales

Nov 23 2017

Nobody messes with Mara.

Mara Corday appears above in a promo photo for the crime drama Girls on the Loose, which she headlines as the owner of nightclub that's a front for her all-woman crime ring. It sounds interesting, so we'll try and track that one down. The photo dates from 1958.

Girls on the Loose Mara Corday

Vintage Pulp

Aug 1 2012

He really appreciates the wilder side of life.

Last year we posted the front and back covers of an issue of He magazine. As usual, it’s taken us longer than we intended, but today we’re back with more. The above cover appeared this month in 1953 and features a masked model shot at New York City’s annual Artists Equity Ball, which, according to He, pretty much turned into an orgy. We don’t know about that, but the photos do reveal a rather racy scene. You also get shots of (we think) Rocky Marciano knocking out someone or other and lightweight champ Jimmy Carter mashing some hapless opponent’s face, photos of Laurie Anders, Lili St. Cyr, Lilly Christine, Daniele Lamar, and other celebs of the day, an amazing still of Julie Newmar, aka Julie Newmeyer, dancing in Slaves of Babylon, plus a back cover featuring highly touted but ultimately underachieving actress Mara Corday. We don’t have to bother too much with a description today, because these digest-sized magazines have text that scans large enough to be read even on small computers. So read and enjoy.