Vintage Pulp

April 6 2025

FREAKY FREDDI

A nightmare on Kensington Road.

These two posters were made to promote the Italian crime flick Gli occhi freddi della paura, aka Cold Eyes of Fear, which premiered today in 1971. Plotwise, somewhere in the noctural heart of London—though the movie was actually shot at Cinecittà Studios in Rome except for some exteriors—an ex-con plans to make a judge pay bigtime for convicting and sending him to jail. Along with two henchmen he’s taken over the judge’s house in order to rob him of incriminating papers, which will expose a frame-up, and justify His Lordship being bloodily murdered.

The only problem is that, despite presumed years of hate-hardened planning forged in the white hot crucible of supermax somewhere, His Lordship isn’t home. Instead, the judge’s nephew ends up trapped inside with the criminals because he wanted to use his uncle’s swanky house as place to get laid, and now stands in the way of sweet retribution. It seems like a failure of planning on the part of the criminals, if you ask us, but what can you do? Improvise, of course.

We could get into the second half of the plot here, but we’ll just say that Italian crime movies were often convoluted (see: giallo) so we were surprised how straightforward this flick was. We could also get into the cast, but that’s what the keywords at bottom are for. The only participants that matter to us are the lovely Giovanna Ralli as the nephew’s hired hooker who’s in the wrong place at the wrong time, and Karin Schubert, who isn’t in the movie for long but deserves mention just because she’s Schubert. As housebound thillers go, with various parties trying to outmaneuver each other in a confined setting, Gli occhi freddi della paura isn’t bad.

It feels like everyone’s staring at my enormous forehead.

Maybe I should try bangs.

Italy, London, Gli occhi freddi della paura, Cold Eyes of Fear, Giovanna Ralli, Gianni Garko, Frank Wolff, Fernando Rey, Karin Schubert, Julián Mateos, poster art, cinema, movie review

Vintage Pulp

April 19 2021

BEACHFRONT PLOT

Don't hate the Playa, hate the games.

Playa prohibida was a Mexican-Spanish co-production filmed on Mallorca, starring Rossana Podesta, that premiered in Mexico today in 1956 and reached Spain the next year, in March 1957. Above are the Mexican and Spanish posters, both quite nice we think. They’re differentiated by the fact that one gives second billing to Carlos López Moctezuma, who was Mexican, while the other gives second and third billing to Spanish actors Fernando Rey and Alfredo Mayo.

Podesta plays a woman living in a beach town, and everyone thinks she’s daft. When she’s found on the beach standing over a corpse and looking guilty, the cops want to pin the crime on her, but a screenwriter passing through takes up the mystery and—with the help of his story construction skills—tries to figure out what happened. He narrates a significant part of the film, but other characters apply voiceover too, including the allegedly mad Podesta. The puzzle is eventually solved, and as you’d expect it’s layered with jealousy, greed, betrayal, and all the usual games.

If you’re thinking this sounds a bit familiar, that may because the setting bears some resemblance to Podesta’s 1953 Mexican made thiller La red, in which she was also a somewhat enigmatic woman living in a small seaside community. We suppose when Mexican filmmakers thought “exotic beach beauty” Podesta came to mind, and why not? Just look at her. Her presence alone makes Playa prohibida worth a viewing, at least for us. And possibly for you too. For the moment—i.e. while the link lasts—you can watch it on YouTube and decide for yourself. Spanish required.

Spain, Mexico, Italy, Mallorca, Playa prohibida, Rossana Podesta, Fernando Rey, Alfredo Mayo, Carlos López Moctezuma, poster art, cinema, movie review

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

July 11

1960—To Kill a Mockingbird Appears

Harper Lee’s racially charged novel To Kill a Mockingbird is published by J.B. Lippincott & Co. The book is hailed as a classic, becomes an international bestseller, and spawns a movie starring Gregory Peck, but is the only novel Lee would ever publish.

July 11

1962—Nuke Test on Xmas Island

As part of the nuclear tests codenamed Operation Dominic, the United States detonates a one megaton bomb on Australian controlled Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean. The island was a location for a series of American and British nuclear tests, and years later lawsuits claiming radiation damage to military personnel were filed, but none were settled in favor in the soldiers.

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.

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