Vintage Pulp

August 28 2020

SPY VS. SPY

Low rent Bond imitation withers in comparison to its inspiration.

By the time the mid-1960s rolled around movie studios the world over were imitating James Bond. The film Ypotron, aka Agente Logan – missione Ypotron, which was released in Italy today in 1966, was one of the worst imitators. It’s inept in all aspects, especially the slide guitar soundtrack that might make you bury yourself somewhere in the back yard. But then you’d miss lines of dialogue like, “I don’t specialize in making speeches. I use bullets.” Yes, it’s bad. It is bad-good? That depends on you, since you’ll have to provide all the actual entertainment. But good or bad we wanted to share the above Italian promo poster painted by Ezio Tarantelli, which is good-good. You can see more Tarantelli here, and another poster for Ypotron at the top of this post.

Italy, Ypotron, Agente Logan - missione Ypotron, Ypotron - Final Countdown, Luis Devill, Luis Dávila, Gaia Germani, Ezio Tarantelli, poster art, cinema, movie review

Vintage Pulp

May 13 2020

X-RATED ACTION

Who was that masked man?

The COVID-19 epidemic—and particularly a quarantine order that has covered where we live—has forced us to deal with severely diminished social activity, which we’ve done by placing more content on Pulp. Intl. It’s kept us busy, and today marks the sixty-sixth straight day of posts—by far an all-time record. But even boredom has its limits, and after today we’re going to ramp back down to a normal posting schedule, which means an occasional day off, including tomorrow. And maybe the next. So we’ll have to make sure today is particularly full. To that end, we have three movies to discuss. Read on.

Above you see a beautiful poster for Mister-X, a wannabe high style Italian spy movie along the lines of Diabolik or James Bond. Basically, a legendary retired thief comes out of the woodwork to stop a copycat who’s committed a cruel murder. Naturally, his investigation uncovers a much deeper plot. The movie stars Pier Paolo Capponi acting under the pseudonym Norman Clark, with Gaia Germani as his slinky, fashion forward sidekick.

Best line: “I hope you’ll accept my apologies for the frisk but there’s an ancient proverb that says: the enemies of my enemies are my enemies.”

We’ve never heard that particular proverb, but there are a lot of things about Mister-X that are off kilter. It’s another one of those films that was supposed to be sleek and clever but was upended by a dearth of talent. For us, it was mainly Germani and the pretty Capri setting that sustained our interest long enough to see the villain die screaming like a schoolgirl. But hardcore fans of euro b-cinema will probably find more here to enjoy than we did. Mister-X premiered in Italy today in 1967.

Italy, Capri, Mister-X, Norman Clark, Pier Paolo Capponi, Gaia Germani, poster art, cinema, movie review

Femmes Fatales

July 1 2016

GAIA THEORY

It's all about natural balance.

The Gaia theory suggests that organisms interact with the inorganic world to form a synergistic system that maintains the conditions for life on Earth. None of that has anything to do with Italian actress Gaia Germani, née Giovanna Giardina, save that she’s part of that synergistic system, and a particularly good part. Her film career included the 1965 spy movie OSS 77—Operazione fior di loto, 1967’s Bang Bang, and 1974’s Seduzione coniugale, which we talked about here. This photo is from around 1970.

Italy, OSS 77Operazione fior di loto, Bang Bang, Seduzione coniugale, Gaia Germani, Giovanna Giardina, cinema

Vintage Pulp

May 18 2016

ART OF SEDUCTION

Scenes from a Roman marriage.

1960s and 1970s Italian poster art is consistently great. Even obscure pieces are beautiful. The above locandina style promo is for the drama Seduzione coniugale, which means “marital seduction,” and starred Gabrielle Tinti and Rosemarie Lindt in the story of spouses who hit a rough patch, resulting in the wife enjoying sexual extra- curriculars with a hairy young judo instructor, while the husband scores with the less hairy but more beautiful Gaia Germani. He pays dearly for his straying, though. In fact, you could say he hits another rough patch—at high speed and with irreversible consequences. Directed by Daniel Franco with an excess of style, and assisted by a dreamy title track that’s a minor classic of the Italian sexploitation genre, the film is a curiosity but we can’t really recommend much about it beyond Germani and the promo poster. It premiered in Italy today in 1974.

Italy, Seduzione coniugale, Gabrielle Tinti, Rosemarie Lindt, Gaia Germani, Daniel Franco, Giancarlo Gazzani, poster art, cinema, movie review

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

July 12

1971—Corona Sent to Prison

Mexican-born serial killer Juan Vallejo Corona is convicted of the murders of 25 itinerant laborers. He had stabbed each of them, chopped a cross in the backs of their heads with a machete, and buried them in shallow graves in fruit orchards in Sutter County, California. At the time the crimes were the worst mass murders in U.S. history.

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.

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