Vintage Pulp

September 24 2024

GOLDEN RULES

Bond goes on a gilt trip.

When it comes to early James Bond movies, generally people’s favorites starring Sean Connery seem to be Dr. No, Goldfinger, and From Russia with Love. Among Roger Moore movies they’re usually Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun. When we wanted to read another Bond novel (we blazed through Casino Royale several years ago), and wanted one based on an iconic early movie, that left us with five choices. We went with Ian Fleming’s posthumous 1965 effort The Man with the Golden Gun. You see a dust jacket above illustrated by John Richards. The yellowish color is true—it’s not a scanner issue. You might assume the book is expensive, and it sometimes is, but we saw copies of this edition going for fifteen dollars. It was an easy buy.

Perhaps you’ve heard that the filmmakers took extraordinary liberties in adapting the novel. Well, we hadn’t—and liberties is an understatement. The villain Francisco Scaramanga remains, though he’s more urban than urbane in the book. The plot is wildly different. There’s no scheme to sell advanced solar technology to the highest bidder, no gun duel, no private island, no Herve Villechaize-like character; instead there’s a mundane desire to con a group of money men into investing in a Jamaican hotel. Bond insinuates his way into Scaramanga’s employ as an assistant/security guard. Can you imagine, in any of the movies, Bond being a security guard?

The book is of extremely limited scope in comparison to the movie. We find that fascinating because back then movies were constrained in what they could depict. Sets, models, and special effects could achieve only so much, but authors’ imaginations were theoretically unlimited. Yet moviemakers were consistently more imaginative than authors—at least outside the realm of sci-fi/fantasy. The Man with the Golden Gun the movie makes The Man with the Golden Gun the novel feel underdeveloped, but that’s no fault of Fleming’s. No 1960s authors could have conceived of moments like the movie’s spiral car leap across a river. Even so, the book is quick and entertaining. There’s a reason Fleming became a pop literature giant, and it shows here.

The Man with the Golden Gun, Ian Fleming, James Bond, John Richards, cover art, literature

Femmes Fatales

June 7 2024

STRUCTURALLY SOUND

We mean her, not what's she sitting on. That thing is a deathtrap.

Above: a really nice promo image of Chinese actress and nightclub performer Mitsouko, first published in the French magazine Cinémonde today in 1967. Mitsouko’s real name was Maryse Guy, but under her pseudonym she appeared in ten films, including Agent 077 – Mission Bloody Mary and—briefly—Thunderball. She made a number of interesting promo images, so she’ll probably show up here again.

China, France, Thunderball, Agent 077 - Mission Bloody Mary, Cinémonde, Mitsouko, James Bond

Femmes Fatales

June 3 2024

CLEANING AGENT

I'll be out in a minute! I'm just washing off the day's deceit and violence!

Above: another primo promo of lovely U.S. actress Gloria Hendry. This one, like the others we’ve shared of her, was made for the 1971 James Bond movie Live and Let Die, in which she played undercover CIA agent Rosie Carver. 007 never had it so good.

Live and Let Die, Gloria Hendry, James Bond

Femmes Fatales

April 8 2024

PUTTER IN HER PLACE

She's good with it, but she's even better with a 9 wood.

What is it about sports that all of them have so much terminology fit for sexual puns? Someone should do a study on that. Meanwhile, here you see British actress Eunice Gayson, who you remember as Sylvia Trench from the James Bond movies Dr. No (the source of this image) and From Russia with Love. In both films she serves as soft comic relief, as it were, when Sean Connery amusingly abandons her before they can consummate their lust. But that’s probably why she survived both films—back then Bond’s chance encounters usually were killed.

Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Eunice Gayson, James Bond

Vintage Pulp

March 17 2024

COLOMBIAN GOLD

Maybe if we were high we'd have bought it.

We ran across this on mercadolibre.com. It’s Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger from Ediciones Albon, out of Colombia, published in 1964. The vendor was asking 200 for this. Pesos? No—dollars. That’s a lot of plata. We’d rather spend the money on actual Colombian gold, so we took a pass. But we love the cover.

Colombia, Ediciones Albon, Ian Fleming, James Bond, cover art, literature

Hollywoodland

December 23 2023

BOND RESTRUCTURING

Diamonds are forever, but Connery wasn’t.

Sean Connery made as many appearances in sixties and seventies tabloids as just about any celeb of his time period, so here he is again in an article promoting his role in Diamonds Are Forever, which would premiere just a couple of weeks after this December 1971 National Police Gazette hit newsstands. we talked a bit about the source novel for the film, and author Ian Fleming’s troubles with his publishers. It’s interesting, so check here if you wish.

In Gazette, Connery speaks of his futile struggle to portray James Bond as a balding hero, and quips about making his stylist thin his wigs so there was almost no point in wearing them at all. Connery said about Bond’s aging, “No one is immortal—not me, not you, and not James Bond.” It was a commendable sentiment, but naïve. Seems as though Connery didn’t realize United Artists had already branded Bond well beyond the point where the character was tethered to any concept of aging.

The studio proved that when it brought the much younger Roger Moore on the scene for 1973’s Live and Let Die. Moore would later give way to Dalton, who gave way to Brosnan, who gave way to Craig, as Bond himself remained eternally forty-ish through the passing years. Elsewhere in the Gazette you get a report on the hash capital of the world, the world’s greatest racing systems, and the usual assortment of random beauties in bathing suits. All that, plus hashish toasted cheese, below.

Police Gazette, United Artists, Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, Sean Connery, Jill St. John, Claudine Auger, James Bond, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, Lana Wood, Daniel Craig, drugs, tabloid

Femmes Fatales

November 4 2023

A GAME OF SOLITAIRE

She can Seymour in the cards than you can.

Playing the virgin tarot reader Solitaire in 1973’s James Bond film Live and Let Die, British actress Jane Seymour wore probably a dozen hairstyles, but we don’t remember this one. It’s ridiculous, but when you’re beautiful you can get away with it. Since shifting her career into top gear with Bond, she’s racked up acting credits in something like 170 films and television shows. While she’s appeared on the silver screen plenty, she truly made her mark in television, playing everything from an Old West physician in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman to Lady Brett Ashley in a mini-series of The Sun Also Rises. There’s little doubt she’s one of the more enduring small screen stars of her generation. We doubt even Solitaire saw that coming.

England, Live and Let Die, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, The Sun Also Rises, Jane Seymour, James Bond, television

Femmes Fatales

August 31 2023

LIVE AND LET DIE QUICKLY

We'd probably regret it, but in this situation we'd take a good long look before running.

Yes, it’s Gloria Hendry again. We’ve shown you a couple of her famed Uzi packing promo photos made for the James Bond flick Live and Let Die. In this image, also made for that film, she’s ditched the rattling heavy weaponry for something a little more ergonomic. But based on appearances alone, we doubt she needed armaments of any sort to be seriously problematic for anyone who needed their behavior corrected. Her chisled body type was not the norm back in 1971 when the photo was made, but these days, in an era of numerous women action stars, she’d fit right in. See Gloria and her Uzi here.

Live and Let Die, Gloria Hendry, James Bond

Vintage Pulp

June 27 2023

A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH

Live fast, die young, and leave a terribly damaged corpse thanks to James Bond.

As with Shaft a few days ago, we can’t add much new to the longtime assessments of 1973’s Live and Let Die. We wouldn’t discuss the film at all except that the posters were the work of illustration wizard Robert McGinnis. However, in light of our Shaft examination, there’s an angle we can take: Live and Let Die was the first Bond movie to be clearly influenced by the diversification of Hollywood, becoming the first to include numerous black cast members in speaking roles. Since most participants in a Bond movie are there to get killed, including, often, all but one of the women he sleeps with, the rules didn’t change even with the diversified cast. This leads to head villain Yaphet Kotto suffering perhaps the most brutal death in the franchise, and hottie Gloria Hendry departs for the hereafter too, which is criminal, in our view. But their participation was a landmark and gives Live and Let Die, even today, a different feel and look than the usual Bond fare.

On other fronts, Live and Let Die seems like the movie in which Bond stuntwork kicked into high gear, beginning a push that would soon extend beyond the bounds of earthly physics. The speedboat chase produced a then-world record aerial leap of 110 feet. On the acting front, newcomer Roger Moore displayed even at the outset of his Bond journey some of the cheeseball tendencies that would eventually take over his later portrayals, but it works fine. He was probably one of the best looking actors in the world in 1973, and while he doesn’t have a chiseled physique, he’s still everything and a free refill. We consider Live and Let Die to be one of two good Moore outings as Bond, along with The Man with the Golden Gun. It’s certainly worth a watch, even if you’ve already seen it. And if you want to have a really fun night, watch it back-to-back with Shaft.

Live and Let Die, Roger Moore, Yaphet Kotto, Jayne Seymour, Geoffrey Holder, Gloria Hendry, Robert McGinnis, James Bond, poster art, cinema, movie review

Femmes Fatales

May 7 2023

PERMISSION GRANTED

It's better to apologize later than to ask now. But she's not going to do either.

This photo shows French actress Nicole Calfan and was made for her 1975 thriller Permission To Kill, also known as The Executioner, a film we’ve taken notice of because it starred Ava Gardner in one of her later roles, and future Bond boy Timothy Dalton in one of his first. Calfan has made more than seventy movies and is still busy today, having appeared in four in 2022, plus a television series. We’ll try to track down Permission To Kill and report back.

France, Permission To Kill, The Executioner, Nicole Calfan, Ava Gardner, Timothy Dalton, James Bond

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

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.

October 5

1945—Hollywood Black Friday

A six month strike by Hollywood set decorators becomes a riot at the gates of Warner Brothers Studios when strikers and replacement workers clash. The event helps bring about the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, which, among other things, prohibits unions from contributing to political campaigns and requires union leaders to affirm they are not supporters of the Communist Party.

October 4

1957—Sputnik Circles Earth

The Soviet Union launches the satellite Sputnik I, which becomes the first artificial object to orbit the Earth. It orbits for two months and provides valuable information about the density of the upper atmosphere. It also panics the United States into a space race that eventually culminates in the U.S. moon landing.

October 4

1970—Janis Joplin Overdoses

American blues singer Janis Joplin is found dead on the floor of her motel room in Los Angeles. The cause of death is determined to be an overdose of heroin, possibly combined with the effects of alcohol.

October 3

1908—Pravda Founded

The newspaper Pravda is founded by Leon Trotsky, Adolph Joffe, Matvey Skobelev and other Russian exiles living in Vienna. The name means “truth” and the paper serves as an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991.

October 3

1957—Ferlinghetti Wins Obscenity Case

An obscenity trial brought against Lawrence Ferlinghetti, owner of the counterculture City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, reaches its conclusion when Judge Clayton Horn rules that Allen Ginsberg’s poetry collection Howl is not obscene.

October 3

1995—Simpson Acquitted

After a long trial watched by millions of people worldwide, former football star O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Simpson subsequently loses a civil suit and is ordered to pay millions in damages.