Vintage Pulp

June 8 2021

GUNN RIGHTS

When Jim Brown stands his ground an entire city is turned upside down.

This Japanese poster was made to promote the U.S. blaxploitation flick Black Gunn, which in Japan was called スーパー・ガン, or “Super Gun.” The U.S. promo for the movie is nice too, but we prefer this version. Black Gunn starred Jim Brown as a Los Angeles nightclub owner whose little brother rips off the mob and stashes the cash in Brown’s office safe. Little brother has also stolen and stashed ledgers containing information that could bring down the entire organized crime apparatus. Naturally, the mob comes looking and they aren’t subtle about their methods. A few beatings and threats elicit some useful information, and pretty soon they’re knocking on the door of Gunn’s Club, as Brown’s joint is called. Think his little brother is going to survive all this? If he did, you wouldn’t get to see vengeful Jim beat, kick, and blast various members of mafia west.

Brown is usually a passable actor, no worse than average for action movies of the period, but here he seems to be sleepwalking, along with every other cast member apart from head villain Martin Landau. Brenda Sykes in particular seems to be adrift about a hundred nautical miles offshore. We chalk these performances up to a rushed production, but the good news is the action is explosive, so the film isn’t a total waste of time. Plus it has Bernie Casey, and we’ll watch him in anything. He had a palpable cool that should have been bottled and sold. Black Gunn premiered in the U.S. today in 1972.

Japan, Los Angeles, Black Gunn, Jim Brown, Martin Landau, Brenda Sykes, Bernie Casey, Timothy Brown, Luciana Paluzzi, poster art, cinema, blaxploitation, movie review

Vintage Pulp

June 4 2021

HEAT OF THE MOMENT

The temperature goes up but everything else goes down hard in low budget action flick.

We’re drawn by cool promo posters, but even though there’s nothing special about the cheap-ass art for the 1976 blaxploitation flick Black Heat, we had to watch it anyway because we love low budget vintage cinema. It’s like panning for gold. Usually you end up disappointed, but occasionally you find something shiny and nice. Black Heat stars Timothy Brown, who we last saw in an epic disaster called The Dynamite Brothers, aka Stud Brown, that probably should have ended his cinematic career. But here he is two years later still riding the blaxploitation wave. He plays Kicks Carter, an L.A. cop trying to get to the bottom of illegal activities at a fancy hotel, keep his partner’s born loser girlfriend out of gambling trouble, and make time for romance on the side.

Considering the bad luck Brown had with The Dynamite Brothers we’d love to tell you Black Heat is a major step up in his career. It isn’t. It’s terrible. The only spark is provided by co-star Tanya Boyd, who you may remember from her eye popping turn in Black Shampoo. Anything she’s in, we’ll gladly watch, because as far as heat is concerned her dial goes to eleven. But she about covers the positives here. Well, her and the fact that the movie features one of our favorite sights from ’70s cinema—the car that goes over a cliff with a dummy in the driver seat. It’s a good metaphor for the film—basically driverless, destined to crash and burn. Black Heat premiered today in 1976.

Las Vegas, Black Heat, The Murder Gang, Timothy Brown, Russ Tamblyn, Tanya Boyd, Jana Bellan, poster art, cinema, blaxploitation, movie review

Vintage Pulp

May 25 2021

A TASTE OF CHERI

It's pie for everyone in Girls Are for Loving.

Above you see a poster for Girls Are for Loving, which is a spy movie in which a sexy operative for hire is tapped by the CIA to foil a set of international baddies that want to disrupt Asia-U.S. trade negotiations. The movie is third in a series after 1971’s Ginger and 1972’s The Abductors, with Cheri Caffaro in the lead role of Ginger MacCallister, while Sheila Leighton is the head villain and Timothy Brown is the CIA’s man on the spot. It’s an action-sexploitation flick, but the international trade aspect, mid-level budget, and shooting locations in St. Thomas elevate it above what you’d expect.

But it isn’t that elevated. Caffaro does some lingerie karate, some bikini karate, some hot pants karate, and some topless karate, while her backup Brown always shows up too late to help. Inevitably she’s captured, and just as inevitably, she’s stripped and molested. But you can’t keep a good international spy down, even with ropes and the weight of a hairy, slobbering villain. In the end Caffaro gets the better of her foes, and she and sidekick Brown head off into the sunset smiling.

As sexploitation goes, this one is raunchier than most, and the fact that Caffaro was married to director Don Schain makes it even more eyebrow raising that he directed another man getting touchy feely with his wife’s cherry pie. But on the other hand, you have to admire these spouses’ commitment to art. We can imagine Schain’s direction: “Suck her nipples. No, suck them. Really get them in your mouth. Great. Cheri, act like you enjoy it. Good. That’s uh… actually quite convincing.” As ’70s action goes Girls Are for Loving isn’t great, but as ’70s sexploitation it’s muff-see entertainment. It premiered in the U.S. today in 1973.

U.S. Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, Girls Are for Loving, Cheri Caffaro, Sheila Leighton, Timothy Brown, Don Schain, poster art, cinema, sexploitation, movie review

Vintage Pulp

May 21 2019

NO BANG FOR THEIR BUCK

Brothers can you spare a production budget?

It’s fair to suggest that most blaxploitation movies weren’t good in the traditional sense. But The Dynamite Brothers, aka Stud Brown, which premiered in the U.S. this month in 1974, is probably close to the worst movie of the genre. It’s a low budget The Wild Ones with a chop socky revenge thriller tacked on, and it has “rush job” scribbled all over it. Everything is off, from the direction to the screenplay to the sound effects. Not to put too fine a point on it, but it’s films like this that helped kill blaxploitation.

Picture the first screening for the studio, Asam Film Company. Director Al Adamson managed to put up a brave front during the shooting schedule, but he’s made his final cut and knows the movie is shit. He’s cringing. He’s slumped so low in his seat he looks like he’s lost air pressure. He even considers scuttling for the exit during the second reel. If he stays low, like a crab, he might make it unseen. But he’s still there when the lights come up, and various execs and investors are sitting around looking stunned. They’re just white guys with money and don’t know dick about this blaxploitation thing, so they have no idea what to think.

Finally someone ventures hopefully, “Was that good? Or…”

Someone else: “Al? Al? Where are you?”

Al: *sigh* “I’m down here.”

“What the hell are you doing on the floor?”

“Uh, my back. Laying flat helps with—”

“Were you hiding?”

“I was just—”

“Are we fucked?”

“Well….”

“Did you FUCK US?”

He fucked them. The Dynamite Brothers was an unremitting disaster. It turned out to be the only movie Asam Film Company ever made. Co-star Timothy Brown in particular had to be disappointed with the final product, considering his film debut was the all-time classic M*A*S*H, in which he played Corporal Judson. Top billed Alan Tang also had to be bummed. Back in Hong Kong when he was first approached about the project, someone told him mixing kung-fu into a blaxploitation flick was a no-brainer. Halfway through the screening he began to wonder if he’d misunderstood the meaning of that term.

Nevertheless, somehow both he and Brown survived The Dynamite Brothers and went on to have long careers, which is a tribute to their talent and persistence. Al Adamson kept working too, which is possibly a tribute to filmgoers’ short memories. But like Bran the Broken in Game of Thrones, allow us to serve as the memory for all humanity here—steer clear of this one like the un-defused bomb it is. Get a tactical robot to delete it from your movie queue. It’s baaaad. We don’t mean cool-bad or funny-bad. It’s just bad-bad.

Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Asam Film Company, Stud Brown, The Dynamite Brothers, Timothy Brown, Alan Tang, Aldo Ray, Carol Speed, Al Adamson, James Hong, poster art, cinema, blaxploitation, movie review

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

October 13

1970—Angela Davis Arrested

After two months of evading police and federal authorities, Angela Davis is arrested in New York City by the FBI. She had been sought in connection with a kidnapping and murder because one of the guns used in the crime had been bought under her name. But after a trial a jury agreed that owning the weapon did not automatically make her complicit in the crimes.

October 12

1978—Sid Vicious Arrested for Murder

Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious is arrested on suspicion of murder after the body of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen is found in their room at New York City’s Chelsea Hotel. Vicious and Spungen had a famously stormy relationship, but Vicious proclaims he is innocent. He is released on bail and dies of a heroin overdose before a trial takes place.

October 12

1979—Adams Publishes First Hitchhiker's Book

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the first of five books in a series, is published by Douglas Adams. The novels follow on the heels of the tremendously successful British television series of the same name.

October 11

1976—China Coup Thwarted

The new head of the Chinese Communist Party, Hua Goufeng, snuffs out a coup led by Chairman Mao’s widow Jiang Qing and three other party members. They become known as the Gang of Four, and are tried, found guilty of treason, and receive death sentences that are later commuted to lengthy prison terms.

October 11

1987—Loch Ness Expedition Ends

A sonar exploration of Scotland’s Loch Ness, called Operation Deepscan, ends after a week without finding evidence that the legendary Loch Ness Monster exists. While the flotilla of boats had picked up three sonar contacts indicating something large in the waters, these are considered to be detections of salmon schools or possibly seals.

October 10

1971—London Bridge Goes Up

After being sold, dismantled and moved to the United States, London Bridge reopens in the resort town of Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

October 10

1975—Burton and Taylor Marry Again

British actor Richard Burton and American screen star Elizabeth Taylor secretly remarry sixteen months after their divorce, then jet away to a second honeymoon in Chobe Game Park in Botswana.