Vintage Pulp

July 6 2024

LITTLE GIRL BLUE

She makes sure a Pheasant time is had by all.

We were attracted to the 1958 John Boswell thriller The Blue Pheasant not only because of the lovely cover art, and the tale’s setting in East Asia and New Zealand, but because the title suggests that a bar plays a central role. We always like that, whether in fiction or film. The teaser text confirms it. The title refers to a fictional bar in Hong Kong. Irresistible.

The book stars professional photographer, amateur painter, and rolling stone Chris Kent, who’s at desperate ends and takes a job to travel from Hong Kong to far away Auckland to recover two Chinese scrolls that are the keys to a vast inheritance. Needless to say, there are other interested—and ruthless—parties. In addition there are three femmes fatales: Sally Chan, the bar dancer who puts Kent onto the job; Sonya Sung, whose family are the rightful owners of the misplaced scrolls (or are they?); and Ann Compton, mystery woman who becomes Kent’s reluctant partner.

We were amused by how easily Kent’s head was turned by all three women. He’s tough, but he’s also an all-day sucker. In trying to sort out why women are so confounding to him, there are numerous moments of, “Well, what’s a guy to do when women are ________” By the end, though, he starts to wonder if he’s the problem. Spoiler alert: pretty much. The actual caper is well laid out, with a lot of sleuthing and surveillance, a few moments of swift action, a suspicious Kiwi cop, a love/hate dynamic between Kent and Compton, and precise local color in both Hong Kong and Auckland.

We consider The Blue Pheasant to have been a worthwhile purchase. That was actually almost a given, considering the low price for the book (Seven dollars? Sold!). But our point is that you never know what you’ll get with a writer as obscure as Boswell. Well, now we do. And we have his sequel, 1959’s Lost Girl. We’ll get around to reading that later.

Turning back to the cover for a moment, the example at top is one we downloaded from an auction site because the William Collins Sons & Co. edition, which is a hardback with a dust jacket, shows the wonderful art painted by British talent John Rose to best advantage. The edition we actually bought is a paperback from Fontana Books, and our scans of that appear below. They’re fine, but the cleaner Collins version is frameworthy. We have another Rose cover at this link, and we’ll be getting back to him again shortly.

New Zealand, Australia, China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Auckland, Sydney, Fontana Books, John Boswell, John Rose, cover art, literature

Femmes Fatales

July 1 2024

LOOK BACK IN ANGER

...and Wendy has stormy eyes... that flash at the sound of lies...

This squinty and displeased looking shot once again shows Wendy Barrie in a promo made for her drama I Am the Law. It’s one of more than fifty movies she made, along with 1932’s The Barton Mystery, 1934’s Murder at the Inn, 1936’s Indy 500 themed Speed with James Stewart, 1939’s The Witness Vanishes, et al. The shot dates from 1938 and follows one we shared a while back. You can see that one here.

Hong Kong, Britain, I Am the Law, The Barton Mystery, Murder at the Inn, Speed, The Witness Vanishes, Wendy Barrie, James Stewart

Vintage Pulp

January 27 2024

THE MATRIX PT. 2

The return of the dragon.

A while back we shared two Italian posters for the Hong Kong action flick Tang shan da xiong, aka The Big Boss. Those were painted by Averado Ciriello, and one of them, with star Bruce Lee depicted as moving so fast he had seven blurry arms, brought to mind those moments in The Matrix when Neo and Mr. Smith fight at mindbending speed. We’re looking today at more art from the movie. The above efforts—a finished poster and a preliminary study—were painted by Italian artist Giuliano Nistri for the film’s British release by Crest Films. We included the study because we wanted to highlight a website that you should visit, where you can see more of the same and gain a greater appreciation for Nistri’s work. It’s at this link. Tang shan da xiong premiered in England today in 1971.

Italy, Hong Kong, Britain, Tang shan da xiong, The Big Boss, Fists of Fury, Bruce Lee, Giuliano Nistri, poster art, cinema, movie review

Femmes Fatales

January 18 2024

BARRIE DANGEROUS

With her the outcome is always in the bag.

Above: a promo image of Hong Kong born British actress Wendy Barrie made for the drama I Am the Law, in which she played a newspaper columnist with, shall we say, pliable ethics. She also appeared in The Hound of the Baskervilles, Dead End, and Public Enemies, in which she played Bonnie Parker. The above shot is from 1938.

Hong Kong, Britain, I Am the Law, Dead End, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Public Enemies, Wendy Barrie

Vintage Pulp

July 23 2023

AFTER A FASHION MODEL

Hopefully there's a direct correlation between runway experience and runaway capability.

Master illustrator John Solie made this promo poster for the low budget exploitation flick Cover Girl Models, and it’s another example of his incomparable work. The movie, on the other hand, is very comparable—it’s similar to 1973’s Fly Me, but with models instead of flight attendants. Cirio Santiago, a legend in the exploitation field, directed both movies, and the plots develop in identical fashion, as a trio of carefree women travel to Asia for work and accidentally become embroiled in a criminal plot. In the case of Cover Girl Models, spies want to secretly transport microfilm, so they arrange to have it sewn into one of the model’s dresses. But when the seam rips and the microfilm disappears, bad men come after her.

The three models are played by Pat Anderson, Lindsay Bloom, and Tara Strohmeier, with John Kramer as their photographer and Mary Woronov as their agent. You’ll also see a few familiar faces from other made-in-Asia grindhouse productions, such as Vic Diaz and Tony Ferrer. None of this group are extremely talented, however the point is for the lead actresses to look beautiful, and they do that well, especially Anderson. We can’t call the movie good. Nobody could and be serious. But like many exploitation efforts it’s funny in parts. Unintentionally, we mean. Therefore, you know the drill here—watch it with friends and booze, and it might turn out to be one of the more enjoyable nights you’ve had in a while. Cover Girl Models premiered today in 1975.

Hong Kong, New World Pictures, Cover Girl Models, Pat Anderson, Lindsay Bloom, Tara Strohmeier, John Kramer, Mary Woronov, Vic Diaz, Tony Ferrer, John Solie, sexploitation, poster art, cinema, movie review

Vintage Pulp

October 2 2022

DIDDLY SQUAD

Five women meant to be sex playthings instead wreak bloody havoc on their oppressors. Duh.

This is the U.S. poster for the Hong Kong sexploitation action flick Yang chi, aka The Bod Squad, aka Virgins of the Seven Seas, which we talked about a while back. Shorter version: effort by men to forcibly create perfect sexual beings leads to violent bikini uprising. We have no idea why the bad guys didn’t anticipate that result. We guess they never saw a ’70s sexploitation movie, in which case they’d know such movies often end with the men toes up. That’s half the point of watching them. The Bod Squad premiered in the U.S. this month in 1976.

Hong Kong, Yang chi, The Bod Squad, Virgins of the Seven Seas, Hua Yueh, Hui-Ling Liu, Sonja Jeannine, Diane Drube, Gillian Bray, Tamara Elliot, Deborah Ralls, Hsieh Wang, poster art, cinema, sexploitation

Vintage Pulp

April 13 2022

THE ANALOG MATRIX

You moved like they do. I've never seen anyone move that fast.

Usually when we share a foreign poster for a film it’s because the foreign version is markedly better. The original poster for Bruce Lee’s Hong Kong-produced martial arts thriller Tang shan da xiong is actually pretty nice, but the Matrix-like motion capture attempt on this Italian version is just too cool to ignore. In Italy the film was titled Il furore della Cina colpisce ancora, or “China’s fury strikes again,” and the art is by Averado Ciriello. It’s an inspired effort, which he almost equals on version two, at bottom. There are also two Japanese posters at this link, and it’s here that we mention that the movie was titled in English The Big Boss and Fists (not Fist) of Fury.

Bruce Lee movies are not to be watched for their acting or complex plots, and the dialogue in this one is laugh-out-loud bad. The film is a morality play about Lee, an expert fighter, having promised his wise old uncle never to fight again because “violence is never the answer.” Of course he’s immediately dropped into a pit of evil when his new job in an ice factory turns out to be a front for drug smuggling. His intervention in the racket comes exactly too late to help his cousin, who’s murdered by the villains, but when he finally fights, it’s with lightning quickness and almost mystical ability, as he lethally wades through hoards of baddies and cripples the smuggling enterprise single-handedly, or double-fistedly. Maybe violence is the answer after all.

But it isn’t quite that easy. These traffickers didn’t reach the top of the heap for nothing. Their continued commitment to violence demands that Lee either walk away or willingly descend into the same cycle. As always there’s a final showdown with a crafty old karate master who pushes Lee to his limits. His moral progression from purity through temptation, corruption, shame, revenge, and consequences is cheesy but it’s also very entertaining, and one thing is clear. He never needed digital help to dazzle the eye. He’d demonstrate his gifts in three more movies, then be gone, at the age of thirty-two, with his final film—his biggest hit Enter the Dragon—released posthumously. Tang shan da xiong premiered in Hong Kong in 1971 and reached Italy today in 1973.

Italy, Hong Kong, Titanus, Tang shan da xiong, The Big Boss, Fists of Fury, Bruce Lee, Maria Yi, James Tien, Averado Ciriello, poster art, cinema, movie review

Vintage Pulp

December 21 2021

UNLUCKY BAMBOO

Hong Kong sexploitation epic isn't very good, but give it credit for ripping the scab off a historical wound.

Above is a poster for the sexploitation flick Nu ji zhong ying, known in English as The Bamboo House of Dolls, and to get right to the heart of the matter, this one must have set Sino-Japanese relations back a few years. The film stars Danish actress Birte Tove as a nurse in Hong Kong who during World War II gets corralled along with her co-workers into Japanese Women’s Concentration Camp 13, there to undergo various indignities before finally deciding that escape is her only option. You know the drill.

Tove is the marquee attraction, but the film is largely cast with Hong Kong actresses such as Lee Hye-Sook, Hseih Wang, and others, which means that while the movie resembles entries in the women-in-prison sub-genre—with the scheming wardeness, lesbian sex, group showers, and half-cocked escapees made into examples of what not to do while in a tropical women’s prison—the obvious historical context of Japan actually sexually abusing Chinese women during the war gives it an underlying grimness that’s hard to ignore.

We suspect that if this were made today it would spark an international crisis, insults traded by high ranking officials on Twitter, and possibly diplomats kicked out of China and Japan, but 1970s filmmakers did not shy away from uncomfortable subject matter—and this is about as uncomfortable as it gets. That isn’t the problem, though. Well, that isn’t the problem for us. The objective problem is the movie is just bad.

Legendary Hong Kong producers the Shaw Brothers (and by legendary we mean Run Run Shaw would be knighted in 1977) wanted to copy Jack Hill’s women-in-prison movies The Big Bird Cage and The Big Doll House, but possibly overlooked the fact that setting such films in imaginary Central American hellholes as Hill did was worlds away from making the Japanese the villains in a historically laden sexual abuse epic. But what do we know? Run Run got knighted, not us. In any case, Tove’s escape plan runs into some snags, but we won’t reveal what those are, just in case you’re in the mood for politically explosive titillation. Our advice? Give it a pass. Nu ji zhong ying premiered in Hong Kong today in 1973.

I get the feeling there’s history here. Since I’m from Denmark, maybe I can I just leave?

Japan, China, Hong Kong, Denmark, Nu ji zhong ying, The Bamboo House of Dolls, Birte Tove, Lee Hye-Sook, Lieh Lo, Hsieh Wang, Terry Liu, Shaw Brothers, Run Run Shaw, Jack Hill, poster art, cinema, sexploitation, women in prison, movie review

Vintage Pulp

November 10 2021

DON’T WAKE UP LITTLE SUZIE

Her story is more dream than nightmare, but that's why it's fiction.

The World of Suzie Wong was the definition of a polarizing film, generally liked by audiences, but often reviled by social observers. For the former group it was just entertainment, a risqué Cinderella fantasy. For the latter group, it was an exercise in cinematic irresponsibility. Few filmmakers have been interested in exploring the human trafficking, physical and psychological abuse, drugs, and destroyed futures that predominate prostitution, but that’s no surprise—filmmaking is about moneymaking, and who’d normally go see a movie that was such a downer? While it’s true that 2015’s Tangerine was acclaimed, it was also shot on three iPhones. Its director has moved on to bigger budgets because he wants to make money too. So let’s first of all accept Suzie Wong for what it is: a mainstream film exploring the idea of a rare type of prostitute—the one clearly destined for a better life.

The idea isn’t actually so outlandish. Our personal experience has taught us that there are all kinds of hookers. In Brazil, some do it for two weeks bracketing Carnival and make more money than they do working their regular jobs the rest of the year. They don’t consider themselves to be prostitutes. They consider themselves to be modern-minded and smart. When PSGP worked at Playboy he was aware of models (anecdotally) and porn actresses (definitely) who did it when they had money troubles. There are plenty of men who’ll pay to sleep with his favorite centerfold or porn star, and the money she earns is all hers—none goes to an agent or grifter boyfriend. Models were occasionally invited to certain Middle Eastern oil states and were paid many thousands of dollars per week just to attend swank social occasions and be friendly. The friendliest—interpret that how you wish—would be welcome to stay for months and earn gifts, while the less friendly ones quickly would be shipped out. The point is there are all types.

So while people who hate Suzie Wong are correct that a depiction of prostitution that doesn’t explore the typical reality reinforces a false narrative about what is a dirty and dangerous job, the movie is simply a piece of entertainment—and has the right to be. It’s no more about real prostitution than Raiders of the Lost Ark is about real archaeology. You’ll have to gloss over its imperialist ethnic snobbery too. But if you choose to cross the disbelief suspension bridge, it’s a pretty entertaining flick, a drama about an American artist in Hong Kong played by William Holden who meets a local prostitute played by Nancy Kwan, asks her to model for him, and over the course of their increasingly fruitful artistic collaboration finds himself drawn to her. Kwan makes no secret of the fact that she immediately has feelings for Holden, but he resists—not forever, obviously. At that point the difficult question of whether they can actually make a life together—or should even try—is what the plot explores.

Suzie Wong‘s gimmick of a hooker’s love completing a man who’s lonely or adrift has been used in films such as Irma la Douce, Night Shift, and Pretty Woman, and audiences responded favorably because, at their core, all those films are romances. But there’s more to Suzie Wong than just its sooty Cinderella aspects. At a time of still-rigid ideas about female purity, it asked male viewers to consider the possibility that the number of men a woman sleeps with is immaterial. So in that sense it’s a forward thinking film—something usually forgotten by its critics. The source novel by Richard Mason is probably more nuanced, but we haven’t read it. We do know, however, that he wrote it after staying at the Luk Kwok Hotel in Hong Kong, which was a brothel. So maybe he learned a little something that gave his book—and the film—a bit more verité than people generally suspect. When you include its great exteriors and sets, and Kwan herself in a starmaking role, the result is exotic, emotional, and at times uplifting. The World of Suzie Wong premiered in the U.S. today in 1960. See more promo images here and here.

Hong Kong, The World of Suzie Wong, William Holden, Nancy Kwan, Richard Mason, prostitution, poster art, cinema, movie review

Femmes Fatales

December 9 2020

RARE GOLD KWAN

From Hong Kong with love (at a price).

Nancy Kwan poses in costume as the title character of her hit 1960 film The World of Suzie Wong, which is about a romance between an American painter in Hong Kong and a local “yum yum girl”—i.e. a prostitute. This shot is excellent, we think. Kwan made numerous movies in Hollywood, including 1961’s Flower Drum Song and 1968’s The Wrecking Crew, but Suzie Wong remains her legacy, a subject of much debate due to its sex trade subject matter, and a source of interesting memomorabilia, such as here and here. Maybe we’ll talk about the movie later.

Hong Kong, The World of Suzie Wong, Flower Drum Song, The Wrecking Crew, Nancy Kwan, prostitution

ABOUT

EMAIL

LEGAL

SEARCH PULP INTERNATIONAL

PULP INTL.
HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

October 9

A day after being captured, Marxist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara is executed in Bolivia. In an attempt to make it appear as though he had been killed resisting Bolivian troops, the executioner shoots Guevara with a machine gun, wounding him nine times in the legs, arm, shoulder, throat, and chest.

October 8

1918—Sgt. York Becomes a Hero

During World War I, in the Argonne Forest in France, America Corporal Alvin C. York leads an attack on a German machine gun nest that kills 25 and captures 132. He is a corporal during the event, but is promoted to sergeant as a result. He also earns Medal of Honor from the U.S., the Croix de Guerre from the French Republic, and the Croce di Guerra from Italy and Montenegro. Stateside, he is celebrated as a hero, and Hollywood even makes a movie entitled Sergeant York, starring Gary Cooper.

October 8

1956—Larsen Pitches Perfect Game

The New York Yankees’ Don Larsen pitches a perfect game in the World Series against hated rivals the Brooklyn Dodgers. It is the only perfect game in World Series history, as well as the only no-hitter.

October 7

1959—Dark Side of Moon Revealed

The Soviet space probe Luna 3 transmits the first photographs of the far side of the moon. The photos generate great interest, and scientists are surprised to see mountainous terrain, very different from the near side, and only two seas, which the Soviets name Mare Moscovrae (Sea of Moscow) and Mare Desiderii (Sea of Desire).

October 6

1966—LSD Declared Illegal in U.S.

LSD, which was originally synthesized by a Swiss doctor and was later secretly used by the CIA on military personnel, prostitutes, the mentally ill, and members of the general public in a project code named MKULTRA, is designated a controlled substance in the United States.