Femmes Fatales

January 8 2025

RAIN OR SHINE

She's always prepared no matter the weather.

These demure cheesecake images scanned from slides star Idaho born actress Arline Hunter ready for any type of atmospheric conditions, clad in a raincoat that keeps the water off but lets the sunshine—and your eyeballs—in. Hunter first came to public notice in the nudie loop The Apple-Knockers and the Coke, but went mainstream and ultimately generated around thirty acting credits, including in 1958’s Revolt in the Big House, 1959’s The Angry Red Planet, and 1960’s Sex Kittens Go to College. You can learn a little more about her and see a fun Technicolor pin-up of her at this link.

Idaho, Playboy, The Apple-Knockers and the Coke, Revolt in the Big House, The Angry Red Planet, Sex Kittens Go to College, Playboy, Arline Hunter

Vintage Pulp

January 22 2021

ANIMAL BEHAVIOR

Competition for mates gets vicious in the Hollywood jungle.

This poster really catches the eye. It was made for The Female Animal, Hedy Lamarr’s last motion picture, filmed when she was forty-four. It’s the story of an aging star who finds herself a younger man, but watches him immediately become the target of her sexpot daughter.

The age issues strain credulity a bit. The younger man is played by George Nader, who’s only seven years Lamarr’s junior, while twenty-nine year old Jane Powell plays Lamarr’s adopted daughter. But okay, they were the ones cast, so we have to go with it. And really, who’s going to complain? Nader is a muscular uberhunk who’d fill out a Marvel superhero costume no problem, and Powell is dangerously cute straining the seams of a form fitting swimsuit.

And incidentally, speaking of casting weirdness, Powell—yeah, that’s her in the polka dots—had three children of her own by the time she played this troublesome stepdaughter role. Yes, three. There’s no substitute for lucky genes, an adage doubly proved by the fact that Powell is still kicking around today at age 90.

Moving on to the performances, Lamarr does fine in a sort of detached way, and Nader is solid enough, but it’s Powell who’s asked to spark the movie as the daughter determined to steal her mom’s man. She’s required at turns to be blind drunk, violently angry, coquettish, sexually predatory, and disconsolate. She mostly hauls that heavy load, but in the end the movie is still pretty lightweight. Probably part of the problem is the scripting by Robert Hill. Some of his other screenplays include Sex Kittens Go to College and The Private Lives of Adam and Eve, so his insights into the female animal are negligible. You may want to seek your own, though frankly, we personally have never figured them out and have abandoned any expectations that we ever will. To be fair, they probably feel the same way about us. The Female Animal premiered in New York City today in 1958.

The Female Animal, Sex Kittens Go to College, The Private Lives of Adam and Eve, Hedy Lamarr, Jane Powell, Jan Sterling, George Nader, poster art, cinema, movie review

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

January 18

1967—Boston Strangler Convicted

Albert DeSalvo, the serial killer who became known as the Boston Strangler, is convicted of murder and other crimes and sentenced to life in prison. He serves initially in Bridgewater State Hospital, but he escapes and is recaptured. Afterward he is transferred to federal prison where six years later he is killed by an inmate or inmates unknown.

January 17

1950—The Great Brinks Robbery Occurs

In the U.S., eleven thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car company’s offices in Boston, Massachusetts. The skillful execution of the crime, with only a bare minimum of clues left at the scene, results in the robbery being billed as “the crime of the century.” Despite this, all the members of the gang are later arrested.

January 17

1977—Gary Gilmore Is Executed

Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by a firing squad in Utah, ending a ten-year moratorium on Capital punishment in the United States. Gilmore’s story is later turned into a 1979 novel entitled The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer, and the book wins the Pulitzer Prize for literature.

January 16

1942—Carole Lombard Dies in Plane Crash

American actress Carole Lombard, who was the highest paid star in Hollywood during the late 1930s, dies in the crash of TWA Flight 3, on which she was flying from Las Vegas to Los Angeles after headlining a war bond rally in support of America’s military efforts. She was thirty-three years old.

January 15

1919—Luxemburg and Liebknecht Are Killed

Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, two of the most prominent socialists in Germany, are tortured and murdered by the Freikorps. Freikorps was a term applied to various paramilitary organizations that sprang up around Germany as soldiers returned in defeat from World War I. Members of these groups would later become prominent members of the SS.

DON GIOVANNI

Giovanni Benvenuti was one of Italy's most prolific paperback cover artists. His unique style is on display in multiple collections within our website.

WALKING AFTER MIDNIGHT