Vintage Pulp

November 28 2025

PRISON WITHOUT WALLS

How can you escape when the outside is worse than the inside?

Escape de un carcel de mujeres, which you can discern from the poster of two women handcuffed together in a swamp, is another women-in-prison flick, one we discussed earlier this year. Short version: the jungle prison sets from other WIP movies keep getting usage by exploitation filmmakers. The movie was Italian in origin but the above promo is Spanish. Who painted this dealie? ¿Quien sabe? It’s unsigned, but owes a debt to Boris Vallejo, though it doesn’t approach anything the Peruvian master ever painted. Still, very nice, which is why we’ve shared it. Escape de un carcel de mujeres opened in Spain today in 1980.

Spain, Italy, Escape de un carcel de mujeres, Femmine infernali, Ajita Wilson, poster art, sexploitation, women in prison, poster art, cinema

Modern Pulp

March 27 2025

HARD TIME LAPSE

She'll escape from prison eventually. She's had more than enough practice.

The Italian sexploitation flick Femmine Infernali, which premiered in Italy today in 1980, is another women-in-prison effort, and because we already knew it was cobbled together from footage concurrently shot with the same cast and sets as Orinoco: Prigioniere del sesso, we didn’t feel a burning need to see it. But the art on the above poster is pretty nice. It was painted by Carlo Alessandrini, who signed his work as Aller. It’s been a long while since we’ve looked at his output. You can see some interesting examples of his style here, here, here, and here.

Femmine Infernali starred Ajita Wilson, and was retitled for its English release to Escape from Hell. As with any b-level sub-genre, women-in-prison movies are generally terrible. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. At their best—and we use that term advisedly—they offer this: veiled social commentary, proto-feminist themes couched deep within their inherently sexist overarch, occasional tender depictions of lesbianism, and action featuring women who can kick ass.

This was not Wilson’s first or even second tango in women’s prison, as we noted above. We also discussed her turn in 1976’s Perverse oltre le sbarre, and she was in Sadomania – Hölle der Lust, so she earned at least a superfecta. In today’s spin through WIP purgatory she’s again installed in a hellhole jungle prison with abusive guards and little hope, and once again decides to escape or die trying. In the end, does the movie have any of the four WIP characteristics we mentioned above? Not enough to matter. This random quote should demonstrate its basic quality: “Decency is one of the rules in our regulations.” You see? Our advice: if you watch it, tell nobody you did.

Angela the sunbear: I liked the movie. It spoke to me because, here at Hangzhou Zoo, I too am illusorily free but in reality imprisoned and watched over by cruel keepers.

Spain, Italy, Escape de un carcel de mujeres, Femmine infernali, Escape from Hell, Ajita Wilson, Anthony Steffen, Cristina Lay, Cintia Lodetti, poster art, cinema, women in prison, sexploitation, nudity, lgbt, movie review

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

April 17

1961—Bay of Pigs Invasion Is Launched

A group of CIA financed and trained Cuban refugees lands at the Bay of Pigs in southern Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro. However, the invasion fails badly and the result is embarrassment for U.S. president John F. Kennedy and a major boost in popularity for Fidel Castro, and also has the effect of pushing him toward the Soviet Union for protection.

April 16

1943—First LSD Trip Takes Place

Swiss scientist Albert Hofmann, while working at Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, accidentally absorbs lysergic acid diethylamide, better known as LSD, and thus discovers its psychedelic properties. He had first synthesized the substance five years earlier but hadn’t been aware of its effects. He goes on to write scores of articles and books about his creation.

April 15

1912—The Titanic Sinks

Two and a half hours after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean on its maiden voyage, the British passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks, dragging 1,517 people to their deaths. The number of dead amount to more than fifty percent of the passengers, due mainly to the fact the liner was not equipped with enough lifeboats.

April 15

1947—Robinson Breaks Color Line

African-American baseball player Jackie Robinson officially breaks Major League Baseball’s color line when he debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Several dark skinned men had played professional baseball around the beginning of the twentieth century, but Robinson was the first to overcome the official segregation policy called—ironically, in retrospect—the “gentleman’s agreement.”

April 14

1935—Dust Storm Strikes U.S.

Exacerbated by a long drought combined with poor conservation techniques that caused excessive soil erosion on farmlands, a huge dust storm known as Black Sunday rages across Texas, Oklahoma, and several other states, literally turning day to night and redistributing an estimated 300,000 tons of topsoil.

BRAZIL UNDERGROUND

Edições de Ouro and Editora Tecnoprint published U.S. crime novels for the Brazilian market, with excellent reworked cover art to appeal to local sensibilities. We have a small collection worth seeing.

FLUENT IN VIOLENCE

Walter Popp cover art for Richard Powell's 1954 crime novel Say It with Bullets.

IN HOT WATER

There have been some serious injuries on pulp covers. This one is probably the most severe—at least in our imagination. It was painted for Stanley Morton's 1952 novel Yankee Trader.