| Vintage Pulp | Aug 6 2021 |
How do you show your man you love him? Show your love to other men.
Here's another amazing and framable movie poster, this time for Le trottoir, which was originally made in England as The Flesh Is Weak. The art is by René Brantonne, who typically illustrated book covers, such as here and here. This is stylish work, very different from what we've seen him do before. It's cartoonish, but captures the mood of the film, an urban drama starring John Derek. Yes, that John Derek, the one who— Or has he been forgotten already? We'll reacquaint you. Derek was an actor, photographer, screenwriter, and director, but he's best known as a sort of Svengali who directed his fourth wife Bo Derek in several erotic films in which male actors got to squeeze and lick her soft parts. In 1984's Bolero he shot Bo in three love scenes, one of which made viewers wonder if there was more than acting involved. That's unlikely, but even so, actual penetration was about the only thing missing, which makes John Derek a different kind of husband indeed.
His partnership with Bo in using her body to make money is even more interesting considering the subject matter of The Flesh Is Weak. He plays London agent who meets naive Milly Vitale and convinces her to attempt resolving his debt problems by selling her womanly favors. Of course, he has no debt problems, and he's no agent—he's a pimp, and chose Vitale to convert to prostitution. She ends up tricked into selling herself because she's in love, and though for some readers that surely seems impossible to comprehend, we read Iceberg Slim's autobiographical Pimp some years back and he confirmed from a firsthand perspective that love was what he often used as a lever. It's hard to imagine but true. And its pretty sad, even in the sanitized version presented in The Flesh Is Weak. Is it worth watching? There's no need to clear your schedule, but overall it's pretty good. There's no known French release date, but it had its world premiere in London today in 1957.
FranceBritainLondon. Le trottoirThe Flesh Is WeakJohn DerekMilly VitaleFreda JacksonShirley Anne FieldRené BrantonneIceberg Slimposter artcinemaprostitutionmovie review
| Vintage Pulp | Jul 17 2017 |
… blah blah blah … free you from sin and save you … name of the lord ... amen. Okay, all done, guys. Cook him.
En deux manches et une belle... translates to, “In two sleeves and a beautiful..." offering us no idea of its actual meaning. Doubtless this is another French colloquialism. The author is Patrick Rock, an obvious pseudonym. These can be difficult to untangle, but in this case the main clue comes from the fact that the translator Louis Valgrand is listed on the cover. That sort of attribution is somewhat rare. And considering the fact that this book was almost certainly never actually written in English, but rather was part of the wave of French language imitations of American crime novels, we suspect Valgrand was the author. Probably the publishers Éditions Flamme d'Or wanted to Americanize the novel with an appropriate sounding pseudonym, but Valgrand couldn't forego seeing his name on the cover. Don't cite us on that. It's still just a guess, but one that makes sense. The cover art is by René Brantonne and the copyright is 1952.
| Vintage Pulp | Feb 24 2015 |
Jean de la Hire’s truth is stranger than fiction.
The French sci-fi novel L’Invisible was written by Jean de La Hire, aka Espié Adolphem, for Éditions Jaeger et Hauteville’s Fantastic series in 1953. The set-up is ingenious here—basically, H.G. Wells’ famous novel The Invisible Man was a disguised factual account, and this book reveals the truth about the man Wells fictionalized. He develops an invisibility potion, uses it to make a fortune, and later faces a choice between continuing on his path or giving it up for love. The cool cover art is by René Brantonne.
FranceÉditions Jaeger et HautevilleL’InvisibleThe Invisible ManJean de La HireEspié AdolphemH.G. WellsRené Brantonnecover artliterature
