Vintage Pulp

September 20 2019

HANDY DANDY

Plundering priceless cultural treasures can be loads of fun.

We haven’t seen many mummy movies but if they’re all like this one we’ll look for more. The Mummy’s Hand is a deft blend of comedy and thrills, with Dick Foran and Wallace Ford playing a pair of goofy archaeologists in Egypt who stumble upon clues that point to the jewel laden tomb of a dynastic princess. They don’t have any cash, so they charm Cecil Kellaway, who here is credited as Cecil Kelloway, into financing the expedition. His daughter, the beautiful Peggy Moran, comes along for the ride.

Everyone is good in this, but Kelloway is especially enjoyable. He plays a famous magician, very adept but a bit distracted, which leads to several amusing moments, including one in which he gets locked in his own steamer trunk. There isn’t a single Egyptian in this film, just white guys wearing brown shoe polish and scraggly beards, but casual cultural insensitivity is par for the course during this era. Depending on what you’re willing to overlook The Mummy’s Hand is about as good-natured and fun as a film gets. It premiered in the U.S. today in 1940.

Egypt, The Mummy's Hand, Dick Foran, Wallace Ford, Peggy Moran, Cecil Kellaway, Cecil Kelloway, George Zucco, Tom Tyler, poster art, cinema, movie review

Femmes Fatales

July 13 2019

DON’T TELL DADDY

Not with my daughter you don't.

They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. We wonder if legendary pin-up painter and connoisseur of the nude female form Earl Moran was upset about that. We ask because that’s his daughter above, Peggy Moran, posing in the altogether in this shot made by famed photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston around 1936. Did Earl and Al know each other? Well. That must have made for an interesting discussion. But what could Earl say, really? Of course, another intriguing possibility is that he never knew. Generally, models kept their early nudes secret. Marilyn Monroe changed the paradigm when her naked shots came out and she shrugged and said, “And? Pervs. So what?” We’re paraphrasing.

Maybe Peggy kept her nude session quiet, but we prefer the idea of Earl and Alfred having a little tête-à-tête about it:

“But Alfred, I thought we agreed she was off-limits.”

“I know, Earl, but look at her. I’m only a flawed fifty-something human male faced with youthful feminine perfection. I mean, she’s 100% f’dilf.”

“Wha… what? She’s a what?”

“You know. A friend’s daughter I’d…” *winks and grins*

“I’m gonna fucking kill you.”

This stuff writes itself. In any case, two years after the above shot was made Moran got her break in films and by 1940 was a regular on the silver screen, appearing in One Night in the Tropics, Drums of the Congo, and about thirty other films. Talentwise, she had the goods, as a glance at the very enjoyable goofball horror movie The Mummy’s Hand will confirm. Her career hit overdrive by 1941, but it didn’t last long—she got married and gave up show business to raise a family. Her last role was in 1943. Her nudes finally saw daylight sometime after that.

The Mummy's Hand, One Night in the Tropics, Drums of the Congo, Peggy Moran, Earl Moran, Alfred Cheney Johnston, nudity

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

May 12

1957—Von Stroheim Dies

German film director and actor Erich von Stroheim, who as an actor was noted for his arrogant Teutonic character parts which led him to become a renowned cinematic villain with the nickname “The Man You Love to Hate”, dies in Maurepas, France at the age of 71.

May 11

1960—Adolf Eichmann Is Captured

In Buenos Aires, Argentina, four Israeli Mossad agents abduct fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann, who had been living under the assumed name and working for Mercedes-Benz. Eichman is taken to Israel to face trial on 15 criminal charges, including crimes against humanity and war crimes. He is found guilty and executed by hanging in 1962, and is the only person to have been executed in Israel on conviction by a civilian court.

May 11

2010—Last Ziegfeld Follies Girl Dies

Doris Eaton Travis, who was the last surviving Ziegfeld Follies chorus girl, dies at age 106. The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. Inspired by the Folies Bergères of Paris, they enjoyed a successful run on Broadway, became a radio program in 1932 and 1936, and were adapted into a musical motion picture in 1946 starring Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Lucille Ball, and Lena Horne.

May 10

1924—Hoover Becomes FBI Director

In the U.S., J. Edgar Hoover is appointed director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a position he retains until his death in 1972. Hoover is credited with building the FBI into a large and efficient crime-fighting agency, and with instituting a number of modern innovations to police technology, such as a centralized fingerprint file and forensic laboratories. But he also used the agency to grind a number of personal axes and far exceeded its legal mandate to amass secret files on political and civil rights leaders. Because of his abuses, FBI directors are now limited to 10-year terms.

May 10

1977—Joan Crawford Dies

American actress Joan Crawford, who began her show business career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies, but soon became one of Hollywood’s most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States, dies of a heart attack at her New York City apartment while ill with pancreatic cancer.

May 9

1949—Rainier Becomes Prince of Monaco

In Monaco, upon the death of Prince Louis II, twenty-six year old Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi, aka Rainier III, is crowned Prince of Monaco. Rainier later becomes an international household name by marrying American cinema sweetheart Grace Kelly in 1956.

May 9

1950—Dianetics is Published

After having told a gathering of science fiction writers two years earlier that the best way to become a millionaire was to start a new religion, American author L. Ron Hubbard publishes Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. The book is today one of the canonical texts of Scientology, referred to as “Book One”, and its publication date serves as the first day of the Scientology calendar, making today the beginning of year 52 AD (After Dianetics).