Sex Files

July 28 2022

HIPS AND LIPS

Notable show business encounters: the Pelvis meets the Throat.

Issues of National Informer on back-to-back days? Sure, why not? The above example, published today in 1974, is five years older than yesterday’s, and in the intervening timeframe the editors seem to have stopped woman bashing. They’re still treating them as complete sex objects, but that’s what Informer was all about. They’ve also replaced the (not so) Great Criswell with new psychic Mark Travis. We’re still curious who actually bought these mags (we do it for scientific purposes, so we don’t count), and exactly how seriously they took it. Our guess is not very.

The main attraction in this issue is the story on swivel-hipped musical star Elvis Presley and Linda Lovelace, centerpiece of the xxx smash Deep Throat. Lovelace, who was purportedly involved—at least for a few hours at a time—with such aging stars as Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Bob Hope, Dean Martin, and (of course) Frank Sinatra, as well as young Hollywood rebels Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, and Dennis Hopper, is alleged to have met up with Presley in Las Vegas. You could be forgiven for assuming that nature took its course, but it didn’t. At least, according to reports.

What on Earth could have stopped these two sex elementals from joining forces? Presley allegedly told Lovelace he was temporarily hors de combat because he had hurt himself having sex with Natalie Wood the previous week. Hey, we just relay this stuff. We make no claim that any of it is true. And we thought Natalie was so sweet. Well, you should never judge a book by its cover. Tabloids, on the other hand, you can safely evaluate at a glance. Informer is just as down and dirty as it looks.

Las Vegas, Deep Throat, National Informer, Elvis Presley, Linda Lovelace, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Bob Hope, Dean Martin, Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, Dennis Hopper, Tony Curtis, Frank Sinatra, Natalie Wood, Mark Travis, tabloid, nudity, xxx

Modern Pulp

October 26 2017

INTO THE FIRE

Worse comes to worst in a dusty western town.

We told you the film was on the slate. When we noticed its premiere date was right around the corner we watched it immediately after finishing Hell Hath No Fury. First order of business—the poster and tagline are terrible. It shows how easy it can be for a studio to screw up both. The text tells you The Hot Spot is a film noir, but the triptych style art provides no compelling imagery. Worse, you don’t see Don Johnson clearly, though as a huge television star thanks to Miami Vice he was the movie’s greatest asset. And you don’t see Jennifer Connelly at all, who even back then was one of Hollywood’s most beautiful women. Posters are seen before they’re read, and the visuals here give no reason to examine further. We grade it a major fail.

But what of the film? Well, it got generally good reviews, but the public never turned up to see it. Johnson is nicely cast as the drifter/grifter Harry Madox, so he isn’t to blame. Jennifer Connelly and Virginia Madsen were less known, but as supporting characters they more than did their part. Other modern noirs had performed well in cinemas, so it’s not the style of The Hot Spot that hurt it. The direction from Dennis Hopper sticks reasonably close to the novel, and he gets the overheated small town atmosphere right, so we’ll give him a pass too. Most likely the studio simply didn’t make an effective push behind the movie—a theory backed up by the bad poster.

But The Hot Spot holds up well these years later. Some might find Madsen’s honeydripping femme fatale improbable, but she’s channelling both the source material and classic noirs. Other viewers probably doubted a nineteen-year-old Connelly could develop feelings for a Johnson on the far side of forty, but it happens. People who doubt that just haven’t spent enough time in the real world. In the film the age difference does not go unaddressed. Johnson’s feelings for his inappropriate crush prompt him to act against his best interests. Whether he pays a price hangs less on his cunning than on chance. Or perhaps it hangs on someone else’s cunning—that’s where the best femmes fatales always come in. The Hot Spot premiered in the U.S. today in 1990.

The Hot Spot, Charles Williams, Dennis Hopper, Don Johnson, Virginia Madsen, Jennifer Connelly, poster art, cinema, film noir, movie review

Hollywoodland

May 30 2010

LAST RIDE

The man who went looking for America.

Promo photo of Dennis Hopper, actor in Rebel without a Cause, Cool Hand Luke, and Apocalypse Now, also co-writer, co-star and director of the eternal Easy Rider, seen here circa 1955. Easy Rider‘s official tagline was: A man went looking for America—and couldn’t find it anywhere. It was meant to describe Peter Fonda’s character Captain America, but it is real-life maverick Hopper for whom the line always seemed more apt

Easy Rider, Apocalypse Now, Rebel without a Cause, Cool Hand Luke, Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, deaths

Modern Pulp

February 27 2009

ALONE IN THE DARK

Francis Ford Coppola makes a long day's journey into night.

You know what’s curious about Apocalypse Now? That a movie with such a quirky (some would say botched) ending is considered a classic. We are not among those who think Francis Ford Coppola fumbled in the fourth quarter, but even if we were, one viewing of the documentary Hearts of Darkness would dispel that notion, and make us realize the true curiosity of Apocalypse Now is that it was ever finished in the first place. What with the heart attack, and the devastating monsoon, and the capital flight, and Hopper on drugs, and Brando on donuts, it’s a mystery how Coppola survived. But there’s no mystery why we love this Turkish one sheet—it’s a genius piece of promo art that exudes both menace and chaos. Apocalypse Now aka Kiyamet (Turkish for “doomsday”) premiered today in Istanbul in 1980.

Turkey, Apocalypse Now, Hearts of Darkness, Francis Ford Coppola, Marlon Brando, Dennis Hopper, poster art, cinema

Vintage Pulp

January 31 2009

DUO IN THE SUN

So you say you wanna be free.

Neither of us at Pulp Intl. were around during the 60s. Articles and reviews tell us Easy Rider—heavy with symbolism, sparse of dialogue, and low on budget—perfectly captured the unsettled mood of the times and changed moviemaking forever. But we weren’t there, so we watch this film as latecomers, like people examining the high water mark of a flood that long ago receded. If the waters had risen higher perhaps we’d be living in a different world now, a better world rebuilt from scratch. But maybe not. Easy Rider was released in Japan today, 1970.

Japan, Easy Rider, Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson, bikers, drugs, poster art, cinema

Modern Pulp

January 21 2009

HIDE AND FREAK

Hey, you wanna go for a ride?

When Blue Velvet opened in 1986 it received decidedly tepid notices from several high-profile reviewers, one of whom was aghast at the sexual humiliation endured by Isabella Rossellini. But it was clear David Lynch meant to shock, even if his totally nude wife was doing the shocking. His disturbing neo-noir freakshow went on to win a nice collection of festival and critic’s awards, including the grand prize at France’s now defunct Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival. Above you see the Avoriaz promo art. Blue Velvet premiered there in mid-January 1987, then went into wide release across France today.

France, Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival, Blue Velvet, David Lynch, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, Kyle MacLachlan, poster art, film noir, cinema

Hollywoodland

November 17 2008

MELROSE SPACE

Television vamp got so high, she still hasn’t come down.

Heather Locklear made a career playing the sexpot, but even she couldn’t beguile her way out of a Santa Barbara, CA traffic stop back in October. Now a judge has formally charged the actress with misdemeanor DUI for driving under the influence of pills. Precisely what kind of superpills these were we don’t know, but the last time we saw a girl look so spaced out she was running around in a cemetery with Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda.

Santa Barbara, Heather Locklear, Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, drugs, mugshots

ABOUT

EMAIL

LEGAL

SEARCH PULP INTERNATIONAL

PULP INTL.
HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

November 6

1935—Parker Brothers Buys Monopoly

The board game company Parker Brothers acquires the forerunner patents for Monopoly from Elizabeth Magie, who had designed the game (originally called The Landlord’s Game) to demonstrate the economic ill effects of land monopolism and the use of land value tax as a remedy for them. Parker Brothers quickly turns Monopoly into the biggest selling board game in America.

November 6

1991—Gene Tierney Passes Away

American actress Gene Tierney, one of the great beauties in Hollywood history and star of the seminal film noir Laura, dies in Houston, Texas of emphysema. Tierney had begun smoking while young as a way to help lower her high voice, and was hooked on cigarettes the rest of her life.

November 5

1937—Hitler Reveals His Plans for Lebensraum

Adolf Hitler holds a secret meeting with Nazi officials and states his intention to acquire “lebensraum,” or living space for Germany. An old German concept that dated from 1901, Hitler had written of it in Mein Kampf, and now possessed the power to implement it. Basically the idea, as Hitler saw it, was for the Nazis to kill, deport, or enslave the Polish, Russian and other Slavic populations to the east, whom they considered inferior, and to repopulate those lands with a Germanic upper class.

November 5

1991—Fred MacMurray Dies

American actor Fred MacMurray dies of pneumonia related to leukemia. While most remember him as a television actor, earlier in his career he starred in 1944’s Double Indemnity, one of the greatest films noir ever made.

November 4

1955—Cy Young Dies

American baseball player Cy Young, who had amassed 511 wins pitching for five different teams from 1890 to 1911, dies at the age of 88. Today Major League Baseball’s yearly award given to the best pitcher of each season is named after Young.

November 4

1970—Feral Child Found in Los Angeles

A thirteen year-old child who had been kept locked in a room for her entire life is found in the Los Angeles house of her parents. The child, named Genie, could only speak twenty words and was not able even to walk normally because she had spent her life strapped to a potty chair during the day and bound in a sleeping bag at night. Genie ended up in a series of foster homes and was given language training but after years of effort by various benefactors never reached a point where she could interact normally in society.