Vintage Pulp

April 2 2025

BAIT THE HOOK

With Michaels as the lure the prey is helpless to resist.

Blonde Bait is yet another vintage b-movie with an a-poster, as Beverly Michaels stars on this colorful concoction put together from tinted production photos. She plays a nightclub singer who sees her mysterious boyfriend only rarely and is supposed to meet him next on New Year’s Eve, a few months hence. Unfortunately she gets herself tossed in jail for assault, and on the inside comes to the attention of the U.S. State Department. They know exactly who her boyfriend is—a courier of illegal secrets and a murderer. They decide to manipulate Michaels into railroading him. She has no idea about her man’s shady past, and no idea she’s being steered by federal suits. She’s given the opportunity to escape prison and keep that New Year’s Eve tryst, all while unknowingly acting as bait in a trap. Unlikely? For sure. But if the movie isn’t a must-see (even within the parameters of cheapie vintage dramas) you can spend your time in worse ways than hanging with Michaels. As a side note, Blonde Bait shares footage with a British drama titled Women without Men, so if you’ve seen that don’t be surprised at the similarities. Blonde Bait premiered today in 1956.

Blonde Bait, Women without Men, Beverly Michaels, Jim Davis, Joan Rice, Paul Cavanaugh, Richard Travis, poster art, women in prison, cinema, movie review

Vintage Pulp

February 26 2024

SAVAGE BY NATURE

He was a good husband at first. Then he turned into a total ape.

This Mexican poster for La novia del gorilla, aka Bride of the Gorilla, is chockful of interesting elements, from the massive simian at top, to the snake hanging in a tree, to star Barbara Payton being borne away by a second gorilla, and co-star Carol Varga in her classic “native” two-piece. There’s a line early on: “White people shouldn’t live too long in the jungle. It brings out their bad side—jealousies, impatience.” That sums up the thrust of the plot, the subplot, and the underlying themes, because it’s a one-note psychological suspense flick about northerners out of place in the humid global south.

In brief, Raymond Burr runs a rubber plantation for colonial boss Paul Cavanaugh, and has the hots for his wife Barbara Payton. He kills Cavanaugh, thanks to a serendipitous lethal snake that’s slithering by. He gets away with the murder, but he can’t fool the withered old crone who runs the plantation house. She uses the pe de guine—the so-called plant of evil—to place a curse on Burr. It’s slow to act, but by the time he marries the widowed Payton he comes to think he’s changing into a beast. Is it in his mind? Is he suffering the effects of slow poisoning from the pe de guine? Or is he really a monster?

Bride of the Gorilla, while a middling and basically inconsequential cinematic effort, is well remembered by Hollywood buffs for its extracurriculars. Barbara Payton was being surveilled via detective by her husband Franchot Tone, and passed on the unfortunate news that Payton was enjoying sweaty horizontal interludes with Woody Strode. He was one of the best looking guys you can imagine, so it’s no wonder the highly sexed Payton got hot and bothered. It was one in a series of affairs for her, but this one harmed her career because Strode was black. She would later suffer one of the more infamous downward spirals in celebrity history.

In any case, the question is should whether you give Bride of the Gorilla a screening. Hmm… well, owing to the good cast, we think so. Chaney and Burr are quality talents even when overrmatched by substandard screenwriting, and Payton had been an acclaimed actress in earlier roles and is certainly decent here. But keep your expectations in check. It’s watchable, but it’s still pure b-movie schlock. It was originally released in the U.S., and opened in Mexico today in 1951

Mexico, La novia del gorilla, Bride of the Gorilla, Barbara Payton, Lon Chaney Jr., Raymond Burr, Tom Conway, Paul Cavanaugh, Woody Strode, Carol Varga, poster art, cinema, movie review

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

February 16

1937—Carothers Patents Nylon

Wallace H. Carothers, an American chemist, inventor and the leader of organic chemistry at DuPont Corporation, receives a patent for a silk substitute fabric called nylon. Carothers was a depressive who for years carried a cyanide capsule on a watch chain in case he wanted to commit suicide, but his genius helped produce other polymers such as neoprene and polyester. He eventually did take cyanideâ€”not in pill form, but dissolved in lemon juiceâ€”resulting in his death in late 1937.

February 15

1933—Franklin Roosevelt Survives Assassination Attempt

In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to shoot President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but is restrained by a crowd and, in the course of firing five wild shots, hits five people, including Chicago, Illinois Mayor Anton J. Cermak, who dies of his wounds three weeks later. Zangara is quickly tried and sentenced to eighty years in jail for attempted murder, but is later convicted of murder when Cermak dies. Zangara is sentenced to death and executed in Florida’s electric chair.

February 14

1929—Seven Men Shot Dead in Chicago

Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone’s South Side gang, are machine gunned to death in Chicago, Illinois, in an event that would become known as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Because two of the shooters were dressed as police officers, it was initially thought that police might have been responsible, but an investigation soon proved the killings were gang related. The slaughter exceeded anything yet seen in the United States at that time.

February 13

1935—Jury Finds Hauptmann Guilty

A jury in Flemington, New Jersey finds Bruno Hauptmann guilty of the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby, the son of Charles Lindbergh. Hauptmann is sentenced to death and executed in 1936. For decades, his widow Anna fights to have his named cleared, claiming that Hauptmann did not commit the crime, and was instead a victim of prosecutorial misconduct, but her claims are ultimately dismissed in 1984 after the U.S. Supreme Court refuses to address the case.