Femmes Fatales

October 31 2025

PRIMA DONA

A leading lady in the area of beauty.

In Italian primadonna means “leading lady.” The lady you see here is Dona Drake, who as far as we’re concerned leads in numerous categories, including good hair and general sultriness. She acted in about thirty films between 1935 and 1953, with some of her most popular being Road to Morocco, Another Part of the Forest, and Kansas City Confidential. Many of the roles she played were ethnic, and she was in fact partly black. She still managed to work steadily through a segregationist era by not publicly acknowledging her ethnicity. To anyone who inquired she answered that she was Mexican, which made her eligible for decent roles in Hollywood. She’s another actress who made a smart name change, as, sadly, she was born Eunice Westmoreland. Nothing sad about this photo, though, except that we’ve seen it sometimes misidentified as Gene Tierney. There’s definitely a similar look.

Road to Morocco, Another Part of the Forest, Kansas City Confidential, Dona Drake

Vintage Pulp

January 21 2017

KANSAS CITY CHIEFS

The best defense is a good offense.

Four robbers knock off a bank in Kansas City with plans to split the money after the heat has cooled. The mastermind behind the job has arranged it so the crooks don’t meet before the job, and wear masks during it, thus can’t possibly identify each other. But each man has an ace, torn in half to create a unique mate, to match with the second half and confirm his identity when the time comes. It all sounds clever and foolproof, except the mastermind has framed someone for the robbery to throw police off their trail, and when this man is arrested but turned loose from police custody due to lack of evidence, he decides to track down the men who set him up.

This character, played by John Payne, is our anti-hero and looming wrench in theives’ works. He quickly picks up the trail of one of the robbers in Mexico, but the police have too. In trying to discover who framed him, Payne could look to these lurking cops as though he’s a member of the gang—if they spot him, that is. When Payne sees an opportunity to adopt one of the robber’s identities—no difficult task since they’ve never seen each other—he leaps at it, but this draws him in even deeper. He’s now in danger from the men he’s playing imposter to, while to the cops he looks like a participant in the robbery.

There are more twists, including a star-crossed romance with Coleen Gray, but we’ll stop there. This is a nice, multi-layered film noir, with good performances all around. Considering the risk Payne has to take we aren’t sure we fully buy his motivation, but once he’s made the decision there’s no easy way out, and it’s fun to watch him threaten and beat his way up the chain to the top guy. Coleen Gray always adds a nice element to any movie she’s in, and Lee Van Cleef is good in a tough guy role. The only serious blemish here may be the silly final minute, but you shouldn’t let it ruin the film for you. We recommend giving this 1952 drama a whirl.

Mexico, Kansas City, Kansas City Confidential, John Payne, Coleen Gray, Lee Van Cleef, Dona Drake, poster art, cinema, film noir, movie review

ABOUT

EMAIL

LEGAL

SEARCH PULP INTERNATIONAL

PULP INTL.
HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

January 25

1949—First Emmy Awards Are Presented

At the Hollywood Athletic Club in Los Angeles, California, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences presents the first Emmy Awards. The name Emmy was chosen as a feminization of “immy”, a nickname used for the image orthicon tubes that were common in early television cameras.

January 25

1971—Manson Family Found Guilty

Charles Manson and three female members of his “family” are found guilty of the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders, which Manson orchestrated in hopes of bringing about Helter Skelter, an apocalyptic war he believed would arise between blacks and whites.

January 24

1961—Plane Carrying Nuclear Bombs Crashes

A B-52 Stratofortress carrying two H-bombs experiences trouble during a refueling operation, and in the midst of an emergency descent breaks up in mid-air over Goldsboro, North Carolina. Five of the six arming devices on one of the bombs somehow activate before it lands via parachute in a wooded region where it is later recovered. The other bomb does not deploy its chute and crashes into muddy ground at 700 mph, disintegrating while driving its radioactive core fifty feet into the earth.

January 23

1912—International Opium Convention Signed

The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague, Netherlands, and is the first international drug control treaty. The agreement was signed by Germany, the U.S., China, France, the UK, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Persia, Portugal, Russia, and Siam.

January 22

1946—CIA Forerunner Created

U.S. president Harry S. Truman establishes the Central Intelligence Group or CIG, an interim authority that lasts until the Central Intelligence Agency is established in September of 1947.

January 22

1957—George Metesky Is Arrested

The New York City “Mad Bomber,” a man named George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and charged with planting more than 30 bombs. Metesky was angry about events surrounding a workplace injury suffered years earlier. Of the thirty-three known bombs he planted, twenty-two exploded, injuring fifteen people. He was apprehended based on an early use of offender profiling and because of clues given in letters he wrote to a newspaper. At trial he was found legally insane and committed to a state mental hospital.

KISS AND TELL STORIES

We can't really say, but there are probably thousands of kisses on mid-century paperback covers. Here's a small collection of some good ones.

INCLEMENT WEATHER

Two Spanish covers from Ediciones G.P. for Peter Cheyney's Huracan en las Bahamas, better known as Dark Bahama.

DON GIOVANNI

Giovanni Benvenuti was one of Italy's most prolific paperback cover artists. His unique style is on display in multiple collections within our website.