Femmes Fatales

June 24 2022

ONE GIANT LEAP

Hughes takes a not-so-small step in the right direction.

Kathleen Hughes heard about the Pulp Intl. gymnastics team and is busily getting into top condition in this 1955 promo image made in Los Angeles. This represents a real turnaround compared to when she was younger and lazier, and all we can say is if she keeps up the good work she might get to hang with Bardot and Co. eventually.

Los Angeles, Kathleen Hughes

Vintage Pulp

June 5 2020

THE IT FACTOR

Desert town suffers invasion of body snatchers.

There’s something about cheeseball ’50s sci-fi. The earnestness and analog efx are fun, but it’s their speculative nature that makes them don’t-miss cinema. How will we travel in the future? What would a trip to Mars be like? How will society have changed by the year 2000? What if aliens visited Earth? It Came from Outer Space falls into the latter category, and here’s why aliens visit—by accident. The entire script can be summed up with: space ship crashes, space ship broken, space ship needs repair, aliens take over human bodies to do it. Talk about invading your personal space. Pretty soon two local menials are wandering around like zombies seeking spare parts to fix the grounded ship, while studly Richard Carlson tries to figure out what crashed in the desert.

It sounds silly, but this is a high budget flick, as such efforts go, with good direction, more than adequate acting, and lots of alien-cam shots. It’s funny too, though unintentionally, for example when Kathleen Hughes, for reasons that are never clear, plays her bit part like a mink in heat, even though she’s supposed to be worried to death about her kidnapped boyfriend. That boyfriend is Russell Johnson, the professor from Gilligan’s Island. Can you believe this guy? First Hughes, then he’s shipwrecked with Ginger and Mary Ann. Some guys have all the luck. But we’re lucky too—we found numerous excellent promo images and uploaded them below. The movie’s iconic poster was painted by Joseph Smith. It Came from Outer Space premiered in the U.S today in 1953.

It Came from Outer Space, Richard Carlson, Barbara Rush, Russell Johnson, Kathleen Hughes, Joseph Smith, poster art, cinema, movie review, sci-fi

Vintage Pulp

May 30 2018

SNAKE EYES

G.I. foe: the rise of the cobra.

Some promo posters work exactly as intended. We saw this one for Cult of the Cobra and immediately dropped everything to find the film. We knew it was going to be a cheesy b-movie because we’d never heard of it before, and perhaps having low expectations is the key to enjoying it. In the story six American G.I.s in (presumably) India decide to alleviate their boredom by attending a local cobra cult’s ritual. When they disrupt the ceremony in spectacularly boneheaded fashion the high priest curses the group. They pay no attention to this at all.

They return to the U.S. not knowing they’ve been tracked there, but when they start dropping dead they think, “Hey, didn’t that high priest dude curse us?” Yes, he did. In fact, he specifically said the cobra goddess would kill them one by one. Missy Misdemeanor Eliot once memorably rapped in her hit song “Slide,” Behind every curtain there’s a snake bitch lurkin’, and that neatly encapsulates the problem for the surviving G.I.s—they realize they’re in trouble but have no idea who their nemesis could be.

But we viewers don’t have to guess. Their homicidal stalker is Faith Domergue, raven haired veteran of many beloved sci-fi and horror films, including This Island Earth and The Atomic Man. She also starred in dramas such as Vendetta and Where Danger Lives. She’s an unusual looking woman but here her sleepy-eyed beauty really works. You can almost believe she’ll turn into a snake at any moment. Check her out:

Definite snakelike qualities, right?

Cult of the Cobra is a bad but fun Universal International cheapie, what we like to call a popcorn muncher, a time killer you can enjoy and forget immediately thereafter. Its main attractions are Domergue as the snake woman, the luscious Kathleen Hughes as the hero’s love interest, and some amusing cobra-vision sequences. And that amazing promo poster. We also have the alternate U.S. promo and Australian promo below. Cult of the Cobra slithered into cinemas for the first time today in 1955.

Australia, Universal International Pictures, Cult of the Cobra, Faith Domergue, Richard Long, Kathleen Hughes, poster art, cinema, horror, movie review

Femmes Fatales

June 25 2013

RECREATIONAL HUGHES

This must be her way of asking for a foot massage.

Above, a Universal International Pictures promo shot of American actress Kathleen Hughes, who starred one of our favorite hilariously awful films, It Came from Outer Space, and another movie that sounds terrible but which we haven’t seen yet*, Cult of the Cobra. She also acted in television extensively and appeared on Perry Mason, Gomer Pyle, I Dream of Jeannie and Mission: Impossible. This image dates from 1953.

*We’ve seen it now. It’s bad.

Universal International Pictures, Cult of the Cobra, It Came from Outer Space, Mission: Impossible, Perry Mason, Gomer Pyle, I Dream of Jeannie, Kathleen Hughes, cinema, television

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

October 10

1971—London Bridge Goes Up

After being sold, dismantled and moved to the United States, London Bridge reopens in the resort town of Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

October 10

1975—Burton and Taylor Marry Again

British actor Richard Burton and American screen star Elizabeth Taylor secretly remarry sixteen months after their divorce, then jet away to a second honeymoon in Chobe Game Park in Botswana.

October 9

1967—ChÃ© Executed in Bolivia

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).