Pulp International

vintage and modern pulp fiction; noir, schlock and exploitation films; scandals, swindles and news

IN ANY LANGUAGE

Even all the way over in Japan nobody needed to be told his name.

Humphrey Bogart does pensive on this Japanese promo for his great 1948 drama Key Largo. This is one of those nice little rarities we’ve had around for a long time. It’s interesting to us because it has the English title of the movie instead of the Japanese one, and because Bogart’s name doesn’t appear. Why would it, though? His was one of the most famous faces in the world. We can’t tell you much more about this, except that it may have been produced by the magazine ロードシヨ, or Roadshow. We’re sharing it today because Key Largo finally premiered in Japan today in 1951.

Japan, Key Largo, Humphrey Bogart, cinema, film noir

THEM AGAINST THE WORLD

Bogart and Astor stand ready to defeat all comers.

This majestic promotional photo featuring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor was made for the 1942 film Across the Pacific. It isn’t one we’ve watched yet, but we’ll get to it, because this shot hints at high adventure of the best kind. Yes, we’re aware that the movie was not well reviewed in its day, but we’ll see about that.

Across the Pacific, Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor

FALLEN COLOSSO

The bigger they are the more it hurts when they hit the ground.

Above: an Italian poster for Il colosso d’Argilla, which was originally made in the U.S. as The Harder They Fall, and premiered in Italy today in 1956. It starred Humphrey Bogart, Rod Steiger, Jan Sterling, Mike Lane, and boxers Max Baer and Jersey Joe Walcott. It was good, and we talked about it here.

Italy, Il colosso d'Argilla, The Harder They Fall, Humphrey Bogart, Rod Steiger, Jan Sterling, Mike Lane, Max Baer, Jersey Joe Walcott, poster art, cinema

BOGART IN FULL

Take it aaalllll in, people. I know it's a lot, so I'll give you whatever time you need.

Humphrey Bogart goes way beyond in this promo image made for his 1936 drama The Petrified Forest. At this point he was on the precipice of widespread fame, but even he couldn’t have known he would become one of the biggest stars in the history of Hollywood. Or actually, looking at the photo again, maybe he did know.

The Petrified Forest, Humphrey Bogart

WHEN LIZABETH SINGS

The whole world sings with her—except Bogart.


The first time we saw Lizabeth Scott sing was in the film noir Dead Reckoning, in which she starred with Humphrey Bogart. Scott breaks into a little torch number while they’re at dinner. Old fims, including old noirs, often required female leads to sing, but having Scott sing at the table was a twist. Unlike the normal set-up in which the actress sings onstage sa a performer in a nightclub or casino, it was closer to the technique that would become standard in musicals, with the song flowing directly from the dialogue. Bogart mostly seemed baffled, possibly even spooked. You can see what we mean here.

We realized only recently that Scott, backed by Henri René and His Orchestra, released this 1958 album on RCA. She has a somewhat smoky speaking voice, so we were intrigued by the possibilities of an album. She performs such classics as “I’m in Love Again,” and “When a Woman Loves a Man,” and her vocal instrument is really nice, residing in the deep and mellow mode. If you like orchestral pop music you’ll probably like the record. Give her a listen here and here, while the links last.
Dead Reckoning, RCA Records, Lizabeth Scott, Henri René, Humphrey Bogart, album art

LIGHTER ALL THE TIME

I've run through every bit of fluid in this thing in just a week. Hmm. Maybe I should cut back on my smoking.

Dolores Moran’s film career started with a bang when her first credited role was as the smoldering Hellene de Bursac in the 1944 thriller To Have and Have Not when she was only eighteen. She was the reason Humphrey Bogart tossed off the memorable quip, “I don’t understand what kind of a war you guys are fighting. Lugging your wives with you. Don’t you get enough of them at home?” It would have been easy to assume nobody would ever get enough of Moran, but after very nearly outshining Lauren Bacall in that film she managed perhaps ten more credited screen roles. Health issues had partly to do with it, and a marriage at age twenty probably curtailed her as well, though her husband was the film producer Benedict Bogeaus. But she wasn’t the first flame to fizzle in Hollywood—that’s part of the nature of the place. The above shot was made as a promo for her next-to-last film Count the Hours. That was in 1953. 

To Have and Have Not, Count the Hours, Dolores Moran, Humphrey Bogart, Benedict Bogeaus, Lauren Bacall

CRIME IN LA CITTA

There's a new prosecutor in town—and his name is Humphrey.


Above: an Italian poster for La città è salva, better known as The Enforcer, starring Humphrey Bogart as a prosecutor tasked with cleaning up rampant corrutpion in the big city. The movie is middle tier for Bogart, but that means it’s still very good. The poster is uncredited, but spectacular, with its abstract skyscraperscape and elongated figures. If we ever find out who painted it we’ll updated this post. La città è salva premiered in Italy today in 1951.

Italy, La città è salva, The Enforcer, Humphrey Bogart, poster art, cinema, film noir

A PASSAGE TO ITALY

With Bogart and Bacall in the starring roles an unusual fugitive movie takes flight.

This beautiful poster for La fuga was painted by Italian artist Luigi Martinati, and you doubtless recognize Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. They starred in four movies together and had a dual cameo in a fifth. This promo was made for their fourth outing Dark Passage, retitled to “the escape” in Italy. And therein lies the plot. Bogart breaks prison and undergoes a backalley cosmetic surgery procedure on his face in order to evade the cops and have a chance to solve the crime for which he was unjustly sent up the river.

The filmmakers decided to use the gimmick of having the first section of the film in Bogart-vision—i.e. first person pov until he gets his new face. It makes sense. Otherwise they’d have needed to have another actor play pre-surgery Bogart, or have resorted to clunky make-up and prosthetics. Bacall co-stars as unlikely shelter and succor, plus the prospect of love—if Bogie can survive. It’s a good movie.

But we’re going to tack upwind at this point and suggest that Dark Passage, while good, isn’t as scintillating as its reputation. Certainly it isn’t in the class of To Have and Have Not, Key Largo, or The Big Sleep. But hey—it stars B&B, and that’s all audiences of the era really cared about. Three years into her film career Bacall had grown into superstardom—or stardom as it was called back then—and dished out a performance here that did plenty with a thin script and a belief defying scenario.

The other star here is San Francisco, where most of the movie was shot. The city appeared in many period productions, but we can’t think of it ever being used to such an extent as in Dark Passage. Since we lived across the Bay in Berkeley for a couple of years, we got to know San Fran well and it’s fun to see it as it once was. Dark Passage—slightly overrated and all—is fun too. It premiered in the U.S. in 1947 and reached Italy today in 1948.

Italy, San Francisco, La fuga, Dark Passage, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Luigi Martinati, poster art, cinema, movie review, film noir

INGRID’S IN THE HAUS

Bogart may own the café, but Bergman owns the room.


Since we’re checking out European poster art today, above is a nice West German promo for the classic wartime drama Casablanca, with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. We’ve covered just about all the nice promos for this film: Japanese, Spanish, Italian, and of course the classic U.S. version. Plus we wrote a post about the movie’s brilliant set design. But this additional poster is worth sharing because it’s the first time we’ve featured artist Hans Otto Wendt, a well regarded figure who worked during his youth as a draftsman in the newspaper industry, before taking his talents afield and collaborating with Deutsche London Film, Warner Bros., Twentieth Century Fox, and other major studios. He worked until 1969, at which point he retired due to poor health, and finally died in Berlin in 1979. For the above effort, note that he not only made Bergman the star of the poster, but the star of his handpainted lettering too. Casablanca premiered in West Germany today in 1952. 

West Germany, Germany, Berlin, Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Hans Otto Wendt, poster art, cinema

NEVER MIND, SAM

Who needs a piano player when you have Maxell?

We’ve never quite been able to wrap our heads around the idea that dead stars can be made to advertise products, but hey, capitalism. Above is an advertisement we ran across featuring Humphrey Bogart in his role as Rick from Casablanca, shilling Hitachi’s Maxell videocassettes. This is from 1983. We’d have put this in our pulp advertising feature in the sidebar, but that gadget froze us out years ago. Due to some coding glitches we can neither add nor subtract from there. It’s yet another reason for the long promised site redesign that’s still tops on the list of things to do (except for traveling, hitting bars and beaches, and hanging with PI-1 & PI-2). Maybe in 2023 it’ll actually happen. Hell, if Bogie can embrace the new, so can we.

Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart
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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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

Uncredited cover art for Orrie Hitt's 1954 novel Tawny. Hitt was a master of sleazy literature and published more than one hundred fifty novels.

INSATIABLE APPETITE

George Gross art for Joan Sherman’s, aka Peggy Gaddis Dern’s 1950 novel Suzy Needs a Man.

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