Vintage Pulp

December 5 2024

ROOM SERVICING

An order of fish and chips? No, sorry, that must be next door. I'm expecting some spotted dick.

This striking Japanese poster’s large red figures—売春仕業速—translate as something like, “work fast prostitution.” Japanese posters for movies made in Britain and the U.S. sometimes also bear the original titles, and in this case you see Room 43, cleverly present in the form of a key fob. But that was just one English title. The movie is also known—and probably best known—as Passport to Shame. It’s a sex work drama starring the inimitable Diana Dors. We discussed it here. Oh, and for any who don’t know, spotted dick is a type of British dessert that to the rest of the world would be considered a cake. Dors, being British, would have found the dick mouthwatering. Passport to Shame premiered in 1958 and reached Japan today in 1962.

Japan, England, Passport to Shame, Room 43, Diana Dors, Odile Versois, Herbert Lom, Eddie Constantine, poster art, cinema, prostitution

Vintage Pulp

February 12 2021

SLIDING DORS

It's a slippery slope down to the gutter—especially when you're pushed.

This cool British poster was made to promote Passport To Shame, a vice scare flick, a cautionary tale for women about how easy it is to end up a hooker. A number of such films were made back in the day. This one even has some authority figure or other introducing the film in stentorian tones, telling how a dead end life of vice is just one bad decision away. After the oratory, we see how the leaders of a prostitution ring use labyrinthine scams to force women onto the stroll. They frame Odile Versois into debt, lure her from France to London, and convince her she needs a work permit that she can only obtain by marrying a Brit.

The “Brit” is U.S. actor Eddie Constantine, who’s being scammed to participate, also by being tricked into debt. We were baffled as to why he needed at all, but hey, it’s in the script, so we went with it. The most curious part of the gang’s scheme is that they own a boarding house connected to an adjacent boarding house via a secret door. We suppose this portal makes it easy for the ringleaders to get back and forth, but Odile, duly installed in the legit boarding house, finds the secret door to Sodom with the help of her inquisitive kitten, sees all the hookers hooking, and realizes she’s been had.

She’s going to be had in a different way by multiple men if she can’t get out, but it isn’t easy. Her keepers threaten her, starve her, and even drug her, which leads to a hallucinatory Spellbound-style sequence in which the addled Odile sees the literal pits of hell filled with half naked guys waiting to ravish her. Yup—she’s in deep shit. But somewhere out there Constantine, her sham husband, who agreed to the marriage assuming Odile knew what she was getting into, realizes she’s actually a naive young thing in need of help.

Of course the main selling point for film studio United Co-Productions was Diana Dors, an interesting actress, and an outsize personality in real life. Even though she’s second billed, and probably third in screen minutes, she gets pole position on the poster because she was who audiences wanted to see. She plays a jaded prostie named Vicki, also in the game against her will, held by the cruelest of means. Her character has a pivotal part in how this drama turns out, but you’ll have to watch to movie to find out what that is. We recommend it. Passport To Shame premiered in the UK today in 1959.

Britain, Passport to Shame, Room 43, Odile Versois, Diana Dors, Eddie Constantine, Herbert Lom, Joan Sims, poster art, cinema, prostitution, movie review

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

August 4

1944—Anne Frank Captured

After a Dutch informer tips off the Gestapo, 15-year-old Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family are captured in an Amsterdam warehouse. The Franks had first hidden there from the Nazis two years earlier, and Anne had spent much of the time writing her diary. The diary survives the war, but Anne Frank doesn’tâ€”she perishes in a Nazi prison camp.

August 3

1966—Lenny Bruce Found Dead

American comedian Lenny Bruce is found dead in the bathroom of his Hollywood Hills home. A photo taken at the scene shows him lying naked on the floor with a syringe nearby, along with other narcotics paraphernalia. The official cause of death is listed as acute morphine poisoning due to an accidental overdose.

August 2

1921—Black Sox Acquitted

After a trial lasting fourteen days, a jury finds eight Chicago White Sox baseball players not guilty of conspiring with a national gambling syndicate to throw the 1920 World Series. Despite the acquittal, newly appointed baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis expels all eight players from major league baseball in an attempt to assure the American public of the purity of the game.

August 1

1966—Whitman Massacre in Texas

Charles Joseph Whitman, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, kills 14 people and wounds 32 during a shooting rampage on and around the university’s campus. Ten are killed from the 28th floor observation deck of the University’s administrative building. Whitman had already murdered his wife and mother in their homes.