vintage and modern pulp fiction; noir, schlock and exploitation films; scandals, swindles and news
Last time we saw a promo image of Japanese actress Natusko Yashiro—co-star of action films such as Kyôfu joshi kôkô: Animal dôkyôsei, aka Terrifying Girls High School: Animal Courage, and roman porno films such as Hirusagari no onna: chohatsu!, aka Woman of the Afternoon: Incite!—she was wisely contemplating the snow from an indoor perch. Sadly, she didn’t get to stay there. Again, it’s amazing what pinku actresses did for their photographers, but the results were always striking.
Above: a bo-ekibari style promo, and a zoom, for the pinky violence clash Kyôfu joshi kôkô: Animal dôkyôsei, known in English by the attention garnering title Terrifying Girls High School: Animal Courage. It starred Reiko Ike, Ryôko Ema, and Natsuko Yashiro. You can see the tateken promo here, and the standard promo here, as well as read what we thought about the film.
We talked about Reiko Ike’s 1974 pinky violence flick Kyôfu joshi kôkô: Animal dôkyôsei—known in English as Terrifying Girls High School: Animal Courage—a long while ago, but we wanted to highlight this rare promo in tateken format. You can see the original poster and learn a bit about the film here.
This is the last of our Heibon Punch calendar pages. Sad, we know—these things have provided a lot of visual pleasure, but we’ll acquire more at some point. The above foldout features actress Harumi Tajima, who appeared in Kyôfu joshi kôkô: Animal dôkyôsei, aka Terrifying Girls’ High School: Animal Courage, and in Seijû gakuen, aka School of the Holy Beast. This shot, as you can see from the date at bottom left, is from 1974, and she sports the same garb worn last month by Yumiko Tatsuno. While the look is similar, the photographer is different. This shot was made by Keinosuke Hashimoto.
Above is a poster for Kyôfu joshi kôkô: Animal dôkyôsei, aka Terrifying Girls’ High School: Animal Courage, fourth and final entry in the Terrifying franchise, with Reiko Ike, Ryôko Ema, Natsuko Yashiro, and others. The plot here is simple: the Seiwa Private School accepts troubled girls, turns them into exemplary students, and sends them to study abroad. Reiko is a new transfer to the school, but it soon becomes clear that she’s there for more than academics. She’s actually looking for her missing older sister, a former student at Seiwa. Needless to say she’s going to be pretty well cheesed off by what she discovers.
Before she gets to the bottom of the mystery she has to deal with complications involving a lesbian gang, but eventually gets to face down evil plotters. Obviously, that brief description alone hints that there’s a formula underpinning these high school delinquent movies, but they often manage to entertain even when they don’t cover any new ground, and the plot surprises aren’t really surprises at all. Gasp! A group of bad older men are really behind everything! Kyôfu joshi kôkô: Animal dôkyôsei is generally considered a weaker entry in Terrifying series, but it’s worth a look if you can locate it. It premiered in Tokyo today, 1973.
In the U.S., Canadian born evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappears from Venice Beach, California in the middle of the afternoon. She is initially thought to have drowned, but on June 23, McPherson stumbles out of the desert in Agua Prieta, a Mexican town across the border from Douglas, Arizona, claiming to have been kidnapped, drugged, tortured and held for ransom in a shack by two people named Steve and Mexicali Rose. However, it soon becomes clear that McPherson’s tale is fabricated, though to this day the reasons behind it remain unknown.
In Britain, scores of youths are jailed following a weekend of violent clashes between gangs of Mods and Rockers in Brighton and other south coast resorts. Mods listened to ska music and The Who, wore suits and rode Italian scooters, while Rockers listened to Elvis and Gene Vincent, and rode motorcycles. These differences triggered the violence.
In the U.S., Los Angeles police raid the headquarters of the revolutionary group the Symbionese Liberation Army, resulting in the deaths of six members. The SLA had gained international notoriety by kidnapping nineteen-year old media heiress Patty Hearst from her Berkeley, California apartment, an act which precipitated her participation in an armed bank robbery.
Eleven weeks after it was disinterred and stolen from a grave in Corsier near Lausanne, Switzerland, Charlie Chaplin’s corpse is found by police. Two men—Roman Wardas, a 24-year-old Pole, and Gantscho Ganev, a 38-year-old Bulgarian—are convicted in December of stealing the coffin and trying to extort £400,000 from the Chaplin family.
In the U.S., Congress passes a set of amendments to the Espionage Act called the Sedition Act, which makes “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the United States government, its flag, or its armed forces, as well as language that causes foreigners to view the American government or its institutions with contempt, an imprisonable offense. The Act specifically applies only during times of war, but later is pushed by politicians as a possible peacetime law, specifically to prevent political uprisings in African-American communities. But the Act is never extended and is repealed entirely in 1920.
Las Vegas, Nevada is founded when 110 acres of barren desert land in what had once been part of Mexico are auctioned off to various buyers. The area sold is located in what later would become the downtown section of the city. From these humble beginnings Vegas becomes the most populous city in Nevada, an internationally renowned resort for gambling, shopping, fine dining and sporting events, as well as a symbol of American excess. Today Las Vegas remains one of the fastest growing municipalities in the United States.
The animated character Mickey Mouse, along with the female mouse Minnie, premiere in the cartoon Plane Crazy, a short co-directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. This first cartoon was poorly received, however Mickey would eventually go on to become a smash success, as well as the most recognized symbol of the Disney empire.
