Hollywoodland

March 21 2024

ON BENDED KNEES

Strange ideas from the minds and lenses of mid-century promo photographers.

A while back we shared a promo photo of Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame from 1953’s The Big Heat that was meant to imply oral sex (it absolutely was, and you can see for yourself here). We commented on its weirdness, and noted that an actress would probably not be asked or made to pose that way today. The shot got us thinking about whether there were other kneeling promo shots from the mid-century era, and above you see two others from The Big Heat.

Below we have more such shots, and while none are as jarring as that previous promo, they’re all interesting. We assumed there would be few if any featuring kneeling males, but we found a couple. Even so, there are probably scores more kneeling actresses that we missed. While many of shots took the form they did to highlight the criminal/victim themes in their parent films, you still have to wonder what else—consciously or not—was in the various photograhers’ minds. Anyway, just some food for thought this lovely Thursday. Ready, set discuss!

Rod Taylor and Luciana Pauluzzi swap subordinate positions for 1967’s Chuka.

Edmund O’Brien goes for the time honored hair grab on Marla English for 1954’s Shield for Murder.

Marilyn Monroe swoons as Richard Widmark snarls for Don’t Bother To Knock, 1952.

Inger Stevens and Terry Ann Ross for Cry Terror, an adaptation of a novel we talked about a few years ago.

Kim Hunter soothes an overheated Marlon Brando in a promo for 1951’s A Streetcar Named Desire.

George Raft menaces Marlene Dietrich in the 1941 comedy Manpower.

As promos go, these actually make sense. They show three unidentified models mesmerized by vampire Christopher Lee for 1970’s Taste the Blood of Dracula.

Glenn Ford is at it again, this time looming over Rita Hayworth for the 1946 classic Gilda.

Aldo Ray and Barbara Nichols for 1958’s The Naked and the Dead.

This one shows less domination and more protectiveness, as Humphrey Bogart prepares to defend Ida Lupino for High Sierra, 1941.

Humphrey once more. Here he’s with Lizabeth Scott for Dead Reckoning, 1947.

This shot shows Brazilian actress Fiorella Mari with an actor we can’t identify in a movie we also can’t identify.

Shelly Winters and Jack Palance climb the highest mountain together for I Died a Thousand Times, 1955.

As we said, we didn’t find as many examples of kneeling men, but we found this gem—Cappucine makes a seat of director Blake Edwards on the set of The Pink Panther in 1963. Does this count, though? While Edwards is subordinate, he isn’t kneeling and it really isn’t a legit promo.

And lastly, in a curious example, Hugo Haas seems to tell Cleo Moore to stay in a shot made for 1953’s One Girl’s Confession.

Femmes Fatales

August 17 2022

CARDINALE BLUE

Whatever the background color she was always red hot.

Above are three images of Tunisian born Italian actress Claudia Cardinale made by Italian photographer Angelo Frontoni. It’s difficult to imagine European cinema without Frontoni. He photographed everyone, and he blurred the line between mainstream photography and erotica by collaborating with magazines like Excelsior and Playmen. Cardinale is pretty racy here by her standards. She worked with Frontoni many times over the course of her career, which began during the late 1950s and continues today, encompassing such films as 8½, The Pink Panther, Blindfold, Les pétroleuses, Fitzcarraldo, Once Upon a Time in the West, et al. These shots don’t have a copyright date that we could find, but based on appearance we’d say they’re from the late 1970s.

Italy, Tunisia, 8½, The Pink Panther, Blindfold, Les pétroleuses, Fitzcarraldo, Once Upon a Time in the West, Claudia Cardinale, Angelo Frontoni

Femmes Fatales

February 5 2021

AFTERNOON BREAK

Why go out for coffee when there's a warm Capucine already waiting?

In this photo French model-turned-actress Capucine looks as relaxed as a lounging cat, which is appropriate for a woman whose film roles included The Pink Panther, Trail of the Pink Panther, Curse of the Pink Panther, Jaguar Lives!, What’s New Pussycat, The Lion, and Bernard and the Lion. Just to break things up she also was in Fellini – Satyricon. Yet another one name star from the mid-century period, she was born Germaine Lefebvre but early in her modeling career took the name of a type of flower. After some years in fashion, during which she worked for Givenchy and Christian Dior, the silver screen beckoned and the results were a success. This shot is from 1962.

France, The Pink Panther, Trail of the Pink Panther, Curse of the Pink Panther, Jaguar Lives!, What's New Pussycat, The Lion, Bernard and the Lion, Fellini ”“ Satyricon, Capucine, Germaine Lefebvre

Vintage Pulp

July 1 2020

FIRST COME, FIRST CAST

Girls Come First but Lindberg came last.

Above you see a promo poster for the wacky British sex comedy Girls Come First, which premiered this month in 1975. The movie deals with a rich magazine owner named Hugh Jampton who hires a debt-wracked artist played by hunky ex-physique model John Hamill to paint nude portraits of the hostesses that work at the Swinger Club, which Jampton owns. This is a short film, only about forty-five minutes, so that’s the entire plot, other than Hamill getting laid. Our main interest in this was determining whether Christina Lindberg is in it. She’s not on any cast lists you find online, but she’s right in the middle of the poster. Could she be in the film but be absent from cast lists? Absolutely. Thanks to the dreaded internet replication error, she’s listed everywhere as appearing in 1974’s Teenage Playmates, which she doesn’t, so we wouldn’t be surprised if she isn’t credited for a movie she’s actually in. So we took a detailed look and we can say without doubt that—like technical values, genuine laughs, acting ability, and a sense of shame—Lindberg is nowhere to be found here. The producers obviously figured she’d make a great addition to the poster and borrowed her for that purpose.

After getting over that disappointment, we noticed British-Chinese actor Burt Kwouk playing Jampton’s chauffeur. His presence is worth mentioning because, in a way, he’s a film icon, a sort of symbolic stand-in for stereotyped Asian characters in cinema. He played the bumbling Cato in four Pink Panther films, and here he plays a bumbler named—wait for it—Sashimi. Can you imagine? Kwouk personified the dilemma confronting all actors, but particularly actors of color, throughout film history. In the real world a paycheck is nothing to sneeze at, but the resulting work survives for future generations to ridicule and/or revile. Kwouk said in 1981 about the parts he played, “If I don’t do it, someone else will. So why don’t I go in, get some money, and try to elevate it a bit, if I can?” If Kwouk’s work was the elevated version you’ll break into a cold sweat imagining what his roles could have been like. In any case, we’ve solved the Lindberg mystery, and now we’ll move on. Below are a couple of shots of Hamill and Longhurst for your pleasure.

Britain, Girls Come First, The Pink Panther, Bill Kerr, John Hamill, Sue Longhurst, Christina Lindberg, Burt Kwouk, poster art, cinema, sexploitation, movie review

Vintage Pulp

July 23 2010

DRIVE YOU CRAZY

A group of reckless truckers gear up for trouble.

Above is a beautiful poster for Hell Drivers, a working class thriller set in England dealing with an ex-convict who takes a trucking job for a gravel company and begins risking life and limb trying to break another driver’s speed record. It has something of the feel of 1947’s They Drive By Night mixed with a British road rally. It also has film noir legend Peggy Cummins in a co-starring role, along with Herbert Lom from the Pink Panther movies, and lead actor Stanley Baker. Oh, and a guy named Sean Connery. And there’s a truck crash with a brutal body ejection. But it’s this amazing purple promo that prompted us to talk about the movie. We love this art. The manhandling moment depicted, by the way, precedes a kiss, as the thin narrative line between masculine anger and lust is crossed yet again in a mid-century film. Hell Drivers premiered in London today in 1957.

England, London, Hell Drivers, The Pink Panther, Stanley Baker, Peggy Cummins, Herbert Lom, Sean Connery, poster art, cinema, movie review

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

October 6

1966—LSD Declared Illegal in U.S.

LSD, which was originally synthesized by a Swiss doctor and was later secretly used by the CIA on military personnel, prostitutes, the mentally ill, and members of the general public in a project code named MKULTRA, is designated a controlled substance in the United States.

October 5

1945—Hollywood Black Friday

A six month strike by Hollywood set decorators becomes a riot at the gates of Warner Brothers Studios when strikers and replacement workers clash. The event helps bring about the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, which, among other things, prohibits unions from contributing to political campaigns and requires union leaders to affirm they are not supporters of the Communist Party.

October 4

1957—Sputnik Circles Earth

The Soviet Union launches the satellite Sputnik I, which becomes the first artificial object to orbit the Earth. It orbits for two months and provides valuable information about the density of the upper atmosphere. It also panics the United States into a space race that eventually culminates in the U.S. moon landing.

October 4

1970—Janis Joplin Overdoses

American blues singer Janis Joplin is found dead on the floor of her motel room in Los Angeles. The cause of death is determined to be an overdose of heroin, possibly combined with the effects of alcohol.

October 3

1908—Pravda Founded

The newspaper Pravda is founded by Leon Trotsky, Adolph Joffe, Matvey Skobelev and other Russian exiles living in Vienna. The name means “truth” and the paper serves as an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991.

October 3

1957—Ferlinghetti Wins Obscenity Case

An obscenity trial brought against Lawrence Ferlinghetti, owner of the counterculture City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, reaches its conclusion when Judge Clayton Horn rules that Allen Ginsberg’s poetry collection Howl is not obscene.

October 3

1995—Simpson Acquitted

After a long trial watched by millions of people worldwide, former football star O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Simpson subsequently loses a civil suit and is ordered to pay millions in damages.