Femmes Fatales

March 21 2019

SCORCHY HEAT

Between the hair and the fur it's no wonder she's so hot.

This is pure cheese but we couldn’t resist. A while back we talked about Connie Stevens’ schlock copper flick Scorchy and above you see the photo Hickmar Productions used to make the movie’s promo poster. This is an astonishing shot in so many ways—the pose, the coat that at least fifteen animals were skinned for, the platinum hairdo that possibly several hairdressers were also skinned for, the dry ice fog, the nails, and especially that elegantly extended foot. It’s like she’s using her toe to say, “See this spot? This is where you lesser mortals will grovel for my favors.” She should be careful, though. With hair like that she might be mistaken for another exotic animal and skinned too.

Hickmar Productions, Scorchy, Connie Stevens

Vintage Pulp

October 8 2018

ROGUE SEATTLEITE

Connie Stevens goes up against international drug dealers without a single hair slipping out of place.

This one we watched entirely because of the promo art. In Scorchy Connie Stevens stars as a Seattle undercover cop assigned to bust a Rome-based drug ring. Her name isn’t Scorchy—it’s actually Jackie Parker, and this Seattleite is sort of tough-cute, a flirt and an eyelash batter, someone prone to making sexual quips and comical faces. None of this seems to us as though it would be conducive to convincing international drug dealers that she’s a charter pilot willing to fly shady cargoes, but whatever—it’s in the script, so they buy it. Stevens maneuvers her way into flying a load of heroin and, theoretically, this will be the basis of a big drug bust. Does it work out that way? We aren’t saying.

Scorchy came from low budget studios Hickmar Productions and American International, but they’re serious with this effort, aiming for French Connection grit combined with a bit of b-movie cheese. But lofty aspirations aside, you know going into any American International movie that it’s very likely to be bad, even if it’s one they bought from another production company, as was the case here. And Scorchy delivers the badness in spades—the fight scenes and shootouts are lame, the acting is merely adequate, and the plot doesn’t offer much in the way of twists and turns. What does offer some twists and turns is the centerpiece car chase. It’s almost good enough to redeem the movie, and as a bonus it also shows a lot of Seattle scenery.

Scorchy also may be worth watching for another reason—the decors. Check the screenshots below. The set designers really went to town. Stevens’ living room is especially noteworthy, with its flowered sofa, driftwood art, and random acoustic guitar leaning against the wall just in case she wants to get groovy. We’ll throw Stevens herself in there as another of the film’s assets. She looks excellent at thirty-eight, even with silver candyfloss hair and mascara that looks like it was applied with a hot glue gun. Like the movie, she’s a bit ridiculous, but she’s fun to watch as she makes the bad guys regret ever coming to the Emerald City. Scorchy premiered in the U.S. today in 1976.

Rome, Seattle, American International Pictures, Hickmar Productions, Scorchy, Connie Stevens, poster art, cinema, movie review

ABOUT

EMAIL

LEGAL

SEARCH PULP INTERNATIONAL

PULP INTL.
HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

February 12

1961—Soviets Launch Venus Probe

The U.S.S.R. launches the spacecraft Venera 1, equipped with scientific instruments to measure solar wind, micrometeorites, and cosmic radiation, towards planet Venus. The craft is the first modern planetary probe. Among its many achievements, it confirms the presence of solar wind in deep space, but overheats due to the failure of a sensor before its Venus mission is completed.

February 12

1994—Thieves Steal Munch Masterpiece

In Oslo, Norway, a pair of art thieves steal one of the world’s best-known paintings, Edvard Munch’s “The Scream,” from a gallery in the Norwegian capital. The two men take less than a minute to climb a ladder, smash through a window of the National Art Museum, and remove the painting from the wall with wire cutters. After a ransom demand the museum refuses to pay, police manage to locate the painting in May, and the two thieves, as well as two accomplices, are arrested.

February 11

1938—BBC Airs First Sci-Fi Program

BBC Television produces the first ever science fiction television program, an adaptation of a section of Czech writer Karel Capek’s dark play R.U.R., aka, Rossum’s Universal Robots. The robots in the play are not robots in the modern sense of machines, but rather are biological entities that can be mistaken for humans. Nevertheless, R.U.R. featured the first known usage of the term “robot”.

February 10

1962—Powers Is Traded for Abel

Captured American spy pilot Gary Powers, who had been shot down over the Soviet Union in May 1960 while flying a U-2 high-altitude jet, is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, who had been arrested in New York City in 1957.

February 9

1960—Woodward Gets First Star on Walk of Fame

Actress Joanne Woodward receives the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Los Angeles sidewalk at Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street that serves as an outdoor entertainment museum. Woodward was one of 1,558 honorees chosen by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce in 1958, when the proposal to build the sidewalk was approved. Today the sidewalk contains more than 2,800 stars.

February 9

1971—Paige Enters Baseball Hall of Fame

Satchel Paige becomes the first player from America’s Negro Baseball League to be voted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Paige, who was a pitcher, played for numerous Negro League teams, had brief stints in Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Major Leagues, before finally retiring in his mid-fifties.