Vintage Pulp

February 5 2025

DELUXE SWEET

Overindulge and you'll start to feel a little queasy.

Above you see more art from Italian illustrator Averado Ciriello, whose effort here was for the cult farce Candy, known in Italy as Candy e il suo pazzo mondo—“Candy and her crazy world.” The cast of this, first of all, is tremendous. In addition to Aulin, featured are Richard Burton, Charles Aznavour, Marlon Brando, James Coburn, John Huston, Ringo Starr, Walter Matthau, Elsa Martinelli, Sugar Ray Robinson, Anita Pallenberg, Florinda Bolkan, Marilù Tolo, and Nicoletta Machiavelli. That’s unreal.

The film is a sort of coming of age tale that spirals off into various weird realities, with Aulin becoming a passenger on a military plane, getting a front row seat in an operating theatre attended by the black tie set, and other imaginings from screenwriter Buck Henry, based on Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg’s 1958 source novel. That sounds like it has potential, but the movie goes wide of the mark, with Aulin’s voice seemingly dubbed, Walter Matthau as a military crank wearily channelling Buck Turgidson, Ringo Starr playing a Mexican, accent and all, and Brando as a bindi laden guru who travels the land inside a semi-trailer layered with shells and broken mirror glass.

These characters are all supposed to be part of a satire about female sexuality and men, but its deeper meaning has been lost across the decades, and its humor is deflated by stagy overacting that stopped working for film audiences probably the very year the film was released. For such a movie to remain worthwhile it has to remain relevant, but its take on male-female relations has aged poorly. A man doesn’t have to be outwardly weird to be predatory. We’ve all learned that by now, hopefully.

The movie is long, too—a full two hours before Aulin finally trods through the final highly symbolic set piece and possibly into a realm of cosmic mysticism. Candy is one those films that supporters will say is over the heads of detractors, but not according to Hoffenberg—he considered his own co-creation half joke and half junk. Those qualities certainly filtered into the film. Candy premiered this week in the U.S. in 1968 and finally reached Italy today in 1970.

Femmes Fatales

April 10 2019

GOING AULIN

If she were a poker hand she would definitely be a straight flush

Above is a sweaty photo of Swedish actress Ewa Aulin, which immediately brings to mind the saunas they love up there in Nordic countries. In fact, just a few days ago in Sweden a cop was in a sauna, noticed a wanted fugitive having a steam nearby, and apprehended him while they were both naked. True story. We learned about saunas ourselves when we wandered through Finland, though in deference to us our Finnish acquaintances wore towels.

But we digress. We were talking about Aulin. She made about fifteen films, the best known of which is probably the 1968 sex comedy Candy, a flop when it was released that has garnered a cult following in recent years. Apparently it’s about a woman searching for the meaning of life. We haven’t watched it but we may check it out at some point. If so, we’ll report back. The great photo at top first appeared in Playmen magazine in 1973, and was part of a set that included the two shots below. And as you can see, when Aulin goes all-in she does it sans towel, in deference to nobody.

Sweden, Playmen, Candy, Ewa Aulin, nudity

Femmes Fatales

October 6 2018

BOLKANIC ACTIVITY

She looks serene but she's about to erupt.

These shots of Brazilian model and actress Florinda Bolkan, née Florinda Bulcão, were made in 1968 when she was appearing in her first film Candy. Bolkan would leverage that role into a movie career in Europe by headlining such films as Una lucertola con la pelle di donna, aka A Lizard in Woman’s Skin, Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto, aka Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, and Non si sevizia un paperino, which we just talked about. For a time Bolkan was one of the hottest properties on the continent, and in Italy she was a virtual Vesuvius, with performances ranging from giallo to comedy garnering her acclaim that led to several international awards. All from humble beginnings on this beach. Read a bit more about her movie roles here and here.

Brazil. Italy, Una lucertola con la pelle di donna, A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, Candy, Non si sevizia un paperino, Florinda Bolkan, Florinda Bulcão

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

July 10

1940—The Battle of Britain Begins

The German Air Force, aka the Luftwaffe, attacks shipping convoys off the coast of England, touching off what Prime Minister Winston Churchill describes as The Battle of Britain.

July 9

1948—Paige Takes Mound in the Majors

Satchel Paige, considered at the time the greatest of Negro League pitchers, makes his Major League debut for the Cleveland Indians at the age of 42. His career in the majors is short because of his age, but even so, as time passes, he is recognized by baseball experts as one of the great pitchers of all time.

July 8

1965—Biggs Escapes the Big House

Ronald Biggs, a member of the gang that carried out the Great Train Robbery in 1963, escapes from Wandsworth Prison by scaling a 30-foot wall with three other prisoners, using a ladder thrown in from the outside. Biggs remained at large, mostly living in Brazil, for more than forty-five years before returning to the UK—and arrest—in 2001.

July 7

1949—Dragnet Premiers

NBC radio broadcasts the cop drama Dragnet for the first time. It was created by, produced by, and starred Jack Webb as Joe Friday. The show would later go on to become a successful television program, also starring Webb.

July 7

1973—Lake Dies Destitute

Veronica Lake, beautiful blonde icon of 1940s Hollywood and one of film noir’s most beloved fatales, dies in Burlington, Vermont of hepatitis and renal failure due to long term alcoholism. After Hollywood, she had drifted between cheap hotels in Brooklyn and New York City and was arrested several times for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. A New York Post article briefly revived interest in her, but at the time of her death she was broke and forgotten.

DON’T RIDE THE WHITE HORSE

Rafael DeSoto painted this excellent cover for David Hulburd's 1954 drug scare novel H Is for Heroin. We also have the original art without text.

BARN GIRLS

Two Spanish language digest novels from Argentine publishers Malinca Debora and Malinca Nueva Pandora.

Argentine publishers Malinca Debora reprinted numerous English language crime thrillers in Spanish. This example uses George Gross art borrowed from U.S. imprint Rainbow Books.

LOVES OF A BLONDE