Intl. Notebook

April 17 2023

GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS

Markov plants vivid ideas in readers' heads.

Remember the side trip to France we mentioned? Today you see the first of our acquired items, an issue of the cinema and television magazine Ciné-Revue, which was based in Belgium and published throughout Europe and the French speaking world. This one appeared today in 1975, and who is that on the cover other than Margaret Markov, a favorite star of bad U.S. exploitation movies of the era? We’ve seen her hanging out in the woods before. Remember this shot? The cover and centerfold of today’s magazine, like that previous image, were made by Italian lensman Angelo Frontoni, who photographed scores of international actresses during the ’60s and ’70s. You’ve seen his work often on our website: check here, here, and especially here. He does a bang-up job with Markov, bringing to mind mythical gardens and similar fertile places. Inside the magazine are celebs such as Valerie Perrine, Anne Libert, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Marion Davies in a tinted shot, and on the rear cover John Phillip Law shows that he dresses to the left. That one’s mostly for the Pulp Intl. girlfriends, but everyone should have a scroll and enjoy.

Belgium, Italy, Ciné-Revue, Margaret Markov, Peter Sellers, Anne Libert, Valerie Perrine, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, Brigitte Bardot, Anouk Aimée, Carole Lombard, Marion Davies, Clark Gable, Jill Clayburgh, James Brolin, John Phillip Law, Amgelo Frontoni, cinema

Vintage Pulp

December 29 2010

WILD WILD WEST

Live by the gun, die by the gun.

The sci-fi thriller Westworld—for which you see a rare Japanese poster above—was sourced from a novel by Michael Crichton and uses the same idea he would later update for his novel Jurassic Park—i.e. the attractions at a high-tech amusement park go awry and start slaughtering the guests. One of those robotic amusements is played by Yul Brynner, who is programmed to start fights then, inevitably, be shot down by Westworld guests after croaking, “Draw! It’s all fun and games at first, but when a computer virus attacks the park’s robots Brynner returns from the repair shop pissed-off and harboring a notion to ventilate the customer who killed him twice.

As compelling as this set-up seems, Westworld isn’t flawless. While Brynner is excellent as the villain and James Brolin is adequate in a supporting role, lead actor Richard Benjamin seems to be sedated, and Crichton, who directed, somehow manages to give the whole project the feel of a television movie. The stuntwork is partly to blame for this. Crichton makes ample usage of hoary gags like the candied glass bottle shattered over the head and the balsa wood chair smashed across the back, even though more sophisticated approaches were being utilized at the time in other, better films. But we recommend Westworld anyway, and we absolutely love the poster—it’s appearing here for the first time on any website, and it’s definitely in our top ten, even if the movie isn’t. Westworld premiered in Japan today in 1973.

Japan, Westworld, Michael Crichton, Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin, James Brolin, poster art, cinema, sci-fi, movie review

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

April 25

1939—Batman Debuts

In Detective Comics #27, DC Comics publishes its second major superhero, Batman, who becomes one of the most popular comic book characters of all time, and then a popular camp television series starring Adam West, and lastly a multi-million dollar movie franchise starring Michael Keaton, then George Clooney, and finally Christian Bale.

April 25

1953—Crick and Watson Publish DNA Results

British scientists James D Watson and Francis Crick publish an article detailing their discovery of the existence and structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, in Nature magazine. Their findings answer one of the oldest and most fundamental questions of biology, that of how living things reproduce themselves.

April 24

1967—First Space Program Casualty Occurs

Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when, during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere after more than ten successful orbits, the capsule’s main parachute fails to deploy properly, and the backup chute becomes entangled in the first. The capsule’s descent is slowed, but it still hits the ground at about 90 mph, at which point it bursts into flames. Komarov is the first human to die during a space mission.

April 23

1986—Otto Preminger Dies

Austro-Hungarian film director Otto Preminger, who directed such eternal classics as Laura, Anatomy of a Murder, Carmen Jones, The Man with the Golden Arm, and Stalag 17, and for his efforts earned a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, dies in New York City, aged 80, from cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

April 23

1998—James Earl Ray Dies

The convicted assassin of American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., petty criminal James Earl Ray, dies in prison of hepatitis aged 70, protesting his innocence as he had for decades. Members of the King family who supported Ray’s fight to clear his name believed the U.S. Government had been involved in Dr. King’s killing, but with Ray’s death such questions became moot.

April 22

1912—Pravda Is Founded

The newspaper Pravda, or “Truth”, known as the voice of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, begins publication in Saint Petersburg. It is one of the country’s leading newspapers until 1991, when it is closed down by decree of then-President Boris Yeltsin. A number of other Pravdas appear afterward, including an internet site and a tabloid.

April 22

1983—Hitler's Diaries Found

The German magazine Der Stern claims that Adolf Hitler’s diaries had been found in wreckage in East Germany. The magazine had paid 10 million German marks for the sixty small books, plus a volume about Rudolf Hess’s flight to the United Kingdom, covering the period from 1932 to 1945. But the diaries are subsequently revealed to be fakes written by Konrad Kujau, a notorious Stuttgart forger. Both he and Stern journalist Gerd Heidemann go to trial in 1985 and are each sentenced to 42 months in prison.