Femmes Fatales

October 31 2025

PRIMA DONA

A leading lady in the area of beauty.

In Italian primadonna means “leading lady.” The lady you see here is Dona Drake, who as far as we’re concerned leads in numerous categories, including good hair and general sultriness. She acted in about thirty films between 1935 and 1953, with some of her most popular being Road to Morocco, Another Part of the Forest, and Kansas City Confidential. Many of the roles she played were ethnic, and she was in fact partly black. She still managed to work steadily through a segregationist era by not publicly acknowledging her ethnicity. To anyone who inquired she answered that she was Mexican, which made her eligible for decent roles in Hollywood. She’s another actress who made a smart name change, as, sadly, she was born Eunice Westmoreland. Nothing sad about this photo, though, except that we’ve seen it sometimes misidentified as Gene Tierney. There’s definitely a similar look.

Road to Morocco, Another Part of the Forest, Kansas City Confidential, Dona Drake

Femmes Fatales

September 20 2021

GRAY AND SUNNY

Downtime always means pooltime in Hollywood.

We like this shot of Coleen Gray, née Doris Bernice Jensen, with its casual day-off feel. Gray appeared in some very good movies, including Kiss of Death, The Killing, Kansas City Confidential, State Fair, and The Leech Woman (well, maybe that one’s not so good, but it’s really fun). All told, she amassed more than one hundred credits in cinema and on television. We obviously haven’t seen them all, but our favorite role of hers is as Molly in Nightmare Alley. Interest in that one will pick up soon because it’s being remade by Guillermo del Toro, with Willem Dafoe, Cate Blanchett, and Bradley Cooper in the leads. We can understand why a maestro of the weird like del Toro was attracted to that film, and we expect the remake to be very interesting. But do yourself a favor and watch the original sometime too.

Nightmare Alley, Kansas City Confidential, The Killing, The Killing, Kansas City Confidential, State Fair, The Leech Woman, Coleen Gray

Vintage Pulp

January 21 2017

KANSAS CITY CHIEFS

The best defense is a good offense.

Four robbers knock off a bank in Kansas City with plans to split the money after the heat has cooled. The mastermind behind the job has arranged it so the crooks don’t meet before the job, and wear masks during it, thus can’t possibly identify each other. But each man has an ace, torn in half to create a unique mate, to match with the second half and confirm his identity when the time comes. It all sounds clever and foolproof, except the mastermind has framed someone for the robbery to throw police off their trail, and when this man is arrested but turned loose from police custody due to lack of evidence, he decides to track down the men who set him up.

This character, played by John Payne, is our anti-hero and looming wrench in theives’ works. He quickly picks up the trail of one of the robbers in Mexico, but the police have too. In trying to discover who framed him, Payne could look to these lurking cops as though he’s a member of the gang—if they spot him, that is. When Payne sees an opportunity to adopt one of the robber’s identities—no difficult task since they’ve never seen each other—he leaps at it, but this draws him in even deeper. He’s now in danger from the men he’s playing imposter to, while to the cops he looks like a participant in the robbery.

There are more twists, including a star-crossed romance with Coleen Gray, but we’ll stop there. This is a nice, multi-layered film noir, with good performances all around. Considering the risk Payne has to take we aren’t sure we fully buy his motivation, but once he’s made the decision there’s no easy way out, and it’s fun to watch him threaten and beat his way up the chain to the top guy. Coleen Gray always adds a nice element to any movie she’s in, and Lee Van Cleef is good in a tough guy role. The only serious blemish here may be the silly final minute, but you shouldn’t let it ruin the film for you. We recommend giving this 1952 drama a whirl.

Mexico, Kansas City, Kansas City Confidential, John Payne, Coleen Gray, Lee Van Cleef, Dona Drake, poster art, cinema, film noir, movie review

ABOUT

EMAIL

LEGAL

SEARCH PULP INTERNATIONAL

PULP INTL.
HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

January 17

1950—The Great Brinks Robbery Occurs

In the U.S., eleven thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car company’s offices in Boston, Massachusetts. The skillful execution of the crime, with only a bare minimum of clues left at the scene, results in the robbery being billed as “the crime of the century.” Despite this, all the members of the gang are later arrested.

January 17

1977—Gary Gilmore Is Executed

Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by a firing squad in Utah, ending a ten-year moratorium on Capital punishment in the United States. Gilmore’s story is later turned into a 1979 novel entitled The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer, and the book wins the Pulitzer Prize for literature.

January 16

1942—Carole Lombard Dies in Plane Crash

American actress Carole Lombard, who was the highest paid star in Hollywood during the late 1930s, dies in the crash of TWA Flight 3, on which she was flying from Las Vegas to Los Angeles after headlining a war bond rally in support of America’s military efforts. She was thirty-three years old.

January 15

1919—Luxemburg and Liebknecht Are Killed

Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, two of the most prominent socialists in Germany, are tortured and murdered by the Freikorps. Freikorps was a term applied to various paramilitary organizations that sprang up around Germany as soldiers returned in defeat from World War I. Members of these groups would later become prominent members of the SS.

January 14

1967—Summer of Love Begins

The Human Be-In takes place in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park with between 20,000 to 30,000 people in attendance, their purpose being to promote their ideals of personal empowerment, cultural and political decentralization, communal living, ecological preservation, and higher consciousness. The event is considered the beginning of the famed counterculture Summer of Love.

DON GIOVANNI

Giovanni Benvenuti was one of Italy's most prolific paperback cover artists. His unique style is on display in multiple collections within our website.

WALKING AFTER MIDNIGHT