This brown-haired femme fatale on the cover of Lewis Michael’s 1967 novel No Exit for a Blonde seems to have taken a hint from the title and secured an escape from whatever difficulty she faced. So very clever of her. The book is about a federal agent who goes on vacation in the unlikely locale of Tucson, Arizona, but runs into trouble involving drugs, murder, and slavery—you know, the usual Tucson stuff. The art here is by Italian artist Mario Ferrari, aka Mafé, and the book too was clearly designed in Italy, which the giallo style gives away.
Gambier and company get their freak on during the end of the world.
Before we get into the Italian porn flick Shocking let’s focus on the poster. This is, once again, the work of the marvelous Mafé, who has gone unidentified here for many years. Well, turns out all along he was paperback cover artist Mario Ferrari, whose work we’ve shared often. We probably should have deduced it long ago from the stylistic similarity, but late or not, we always figure it out eventually, even if it takes like fifteen years. We’re curious whether Ferrari deciding to credit his porn posters to a pseudonym was deliberate misdirection, or just a whim derived from working in a different area of promotional art. We’ll probably never know. We’ve gone back and re-keyworded all our previous Mafé and Mario Ferrari posts, so you can now see everything we have on him by clicking his links at bottom.
As for the movie, which was written and directed by French filmmaker Claude Mulot, it’s a political satire following various people, among them Karine Gambier, Emmanuelle Parèze, and Marie-Christine Chireix, as warfare rages between the Soviet Union and U.S. The geopolitical sequences are handled in exactly the absurd fashion you’d expect, as the U.S. president drinks vodka and the Russian president swills Bourbon. Eventually, the Russian prez accidentally hits the big red nuclear button while receiving a blowjob, and the U.S. accidentally retaliates under nearly identical circumstances. While the movie is high-concept, in the end the plot is a mere fig leaf fronting assorted orgies. Sound fun? Then go for it. For our part, we just came for the poster.
Time flies. We’ve always reminded ourselves to get back to the Italian artist who signed his work as Mafé, but seven years passed. Well, we have him today, better late than not at all. Above you see his poster for the French made sex flick Pornoestasi, which starred Erika Cool, Marilyn Guillame, Élisabeth Buré, and Martine Grimaud, and was originally titled Tout est permis, or “everything is allowed.” Mafé created other nice pieces, several of which you can see by clicking his keyword below.
We had a glance at Pornoestasi, and what you get is a typically clumsy xxx production from the era, poorly scripted and shot, in which a couple who run a clothing boutique together are experiencing some doldrums. The man decides he needs time away from the woman, she agrees, and both take the opportunity to experience new partners. The funny part is that “away” means a hotel in the same town. We’d at least go to Antibes or Saint-Tropez. In any case, Pornoestasi is nothing to write home about. It premiered today in 1977.
Bad fast food. A random shooting. And now an aquatic theme park. On my trip to the U.S. I'm experiencing all the most American things.
Mario Ferrari returns with this nice cover for 1965’s Grossi guai per Tony Hunter, written by Perry Landers for Edizioni Wamp’s series Narratori Americani del Brivido (Thrilling American Storytellers). And of course Landers wasn’t American, but Italian, working under a pseudonym. Most likely he was Mario Pinzauti, and we say most likely because we can’t be 100% sure other authors didn’t borrow the same pen name, as often happened. But we don’t read Italian anyway, so we’re focused on Ferrari’s art. It’s excellent as always. Click his keywords if you want to see what we mean.
This outfit is itchy, hard to get on, and makes it ridiculously impractical to pee. It better turn you on or you're dead.
In Italy the concept of gialli was literary as well as cinematic, and here you see a typical giallo novel—Traccia profumato, or “scented trail,” by Larry Madison. This appeared in 1966 from Edizioni Aldo Crudo for the series I Super Gialli della Sterlina. Madison is a pseudonym of course. Generally, the credited translator is actually the author, which would make Giovanni Simonelli the brain behind this one. The cover is by Mario Ferrari. It’s been a while since we featured him, but he was one of Italy’s top paperback illustrators. See supporting evidence here.
Above, a nice cover for Azzurro è l’inferno, aka Hell Is Blue, 1968, by Rab Dylan for the Italian publishers Silpe as part of its Giallo 70 line. This was Silpe’s first publication of many. The story is espionage set in Hong Kong, with all the James Bond style trappings. The author Dylan was pseudonymous, in this case for Italian writer Gualberto Titta, who we assume was worried people would laugh at his last name. What’s notable about this book, at least for us, is that the company was founded by genius illustrator Mario Ferrari, who we’ve featured several times. And once we knew that, it was suddenly obvious this was also Ferrari’s work on the cover. He’s top tier, and you can see plenty more from him here, here, and here.
They were so delirious they forgot their own names.
Pornodelirio was originally made in France as Les grandes jouisseuses and premiered today in 1978. The title literally means “the great enjoyers,” but Pornodelirio is a lot snappier, don’t you think? As usual with these Italian smut posters, the names are all pseudonyms made especially for the movie’s run in Italy. We don’t know why, but if if any of the stars ever needed to go there at least their hotels weren’t overrun by adoring, pornodelirious fans.
In any case, Annick Fougery, Anne Sand, Michele Perelo, and Pierre Forget are actually Brigitte Lahaie, Ursula White, Jean-Louis Vattier, and Dominique Aveline. It’s weird that two of the pseudonyms are Fougery like “forgery” and Forget. And it’s even weirder that Annick Fougery and Pierre Forget were actual French stars. But they certainly weren’t in this movie. Did they ever know their names had been borrowed? Did Europe have trademark infringement laws in 1978? When they checked into hotels were they beseiged by pornodelirious fans?
This is all a bit of a mystery, but the only name in which we’re really interested is Mafé. He or she painted the promo poster you see above and it’s another example of his/her great work on an x-rated promo, along with this, these, and these, one of which you’ll notice is an alternate poster for Pornodelirio. We still have no idea who Mafé is/was, but as always, we’ll keep up the research. Soon as our delirium subsides. You wanna watch the film? The English dubbed version with correct credits is generally online if you look.
Above: a superb cover by Mario Ferrari for Nella morsa del terrore, aka In the Grip of Terror, written by Fred Gable for the series Narratori Americani del Brivido (Thrilling American Storytellers), 1961. Gable was a pseudonym for Italian author Franco Prattico, who also wrote as Rick Donovan, Danny Revak, and possibly others. We think Ferrari’s talent borders on genius. You can see more from him here and here.
1977’s Porno Shock was originally released in West Germany as Der Ruf der blonden Göttin, but was also known as Porno gola profonda, The Call of the Blonde Goddess, and Voodoo Passion. Indeed, there’s voodoo involved, as the film was shot in Haiti, and every film shot there involves voodoo. The movie was directed by Jesús Franco under his Manfred Gregor pseudonym, and starred Vicky Adams, better known as Nanda Van Bergen or sometimes Muriel Montosse. Supporting her were Ada Tauler, aka Annie Sand, Karine Gambier, Siegrid Sellier, Jack Taylor, and others.
Basically, a woman arrives in Haiti to visit her husband who works there, uncovers what seems to be an incestuous relationship between hubby and his sister, has some detailed erotic nightmares, and begins to believe she’s fallen under the influence of a voodoo curse. Probably the only thing you’ll fall under the influence of in this mostly atrocious softcore production is the dancing of Vicky Adams, who as a white voodoo priestess spends long stretches of screen time gyrating naked in the woods. Even the fact that she has to share these scenes with sundry male dancers and their stubby penises doesn’t detract from her extreme, er, watchability. You can see for yourself right here at about minute 24:00, minute 38:00, and minute 103:00. Not that we kept track.
But lest we forget, Pulp Intl. is mainly dedicated to art, and the only reason we’re talking about Porno Shock is because the two English language posters above—and obviously the Italian one at right—were painted by Mafé, an Italian master illustrator who five years after we first learned about him remains a total mystery. We have no full name on him, no biography, nothing. But what we do have is more of his work, and you can see that here, here, and here. We also have more of his posters in our hard drive and we’ll get those up in a bit. Meanwhile, help us out Italian friends—who is this guy?
They’re on the case faster than you can say passer les beignets.
Above are some great covers for ERP’s Super Policier series, which were published in France beginning around 1955. The authors here were all pseudonyms for guys like Mario Pinzauti, Pino Belli, Aldo Crudo, Franco Prattico, and a host of others. You may have noticed the distinctly Italian sounds of those names. Well, they were Italian, because ERP was based in Rome, but published in France. You may also notice, if you’re looking very closely, that the last cover is from ERP’s Super Détective series. We threw that in just because we liked it. The art on at least one of these covers is by Mario Carìa, and a few others are by Mario Ferrari, who we talked about here and here.
Mexican-born serial killer Juan Vallejo Corona is convicted of the murders of 25 itinerant laborers. He had stabbed each of them, chopped a cross in the backs of their heads with a machete, and buried them in shallow graves in fruit orchards in Sutter County, California. At the time the crimes were the worst mass murders in U.S. history.
1960—To Kill a Mockingbird Appears
Harper Lee’s racially charged novel To Kill a Mockingbird is published by J.B. Lippincott & Co. The book is hailed as a classic, becomes an international bestseller, and spawns a movie starring Gregory Peck, but is the only novel Lee would ever publish.
1962—Nuke Test on Xmas Island
As part of the nuclear tests codenamed Operation Dominic, the United States detonates a one megaton bomb on Australian controlled Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean. The island was a location for a series of American and British nuclear tests, and years later lawsuits claiming radiation damage to military personnel were filed, but none were settled in favor in the soldiers.
1940—The Battle of Britain Begins
The German Air Force, aka the Luftwaffe, attacks shipping convoys off the coast of England, touching off what Prime Minister Winston Churchill describes as The Battle of Britain.
1948—Paige Takes Mound in the Majors
Satchel Paige, considered at the time the greatest of Negro League pitchers, makes his Major League debut for the Cleveland Indians at the age of 42. His career in the majors is short because of his age, but even so, as time passes, he is recognized by baseball experts as one of the great pitchers of all time.
Argentine publishers Malinca Debora reprinted numerous English language crime thrillers in Spanish. This example uses George Gross art borrowed from U.S. imprint Rainbow Books.
