Vintage Pulp

May 25 2024

SPURRED INTO ACTION

Gordon and others get bushwacked in no-budget horse opera.

L’éperon brûlant is a U.S. movie titled Hot Spur, but once again we found a foreign poster far more intriguing than the domestic version. The movie was originally released in 1968, but this poster is from France and was made for the movie’s preimier there today in 1970. It’s signed by the artist: Loris. We can’t tell you anything about him or her except that they also painted posters for 1971’s L’homme qui vient de la nuit and 1974’s La virée superbe. This is an interesting effort.

We mainly wanted to watch this for raven brunette beauty Virginia Gordon, so imagine our suprise and dismay to see the filmmakers turn her into an unnatural blonde. In any case, the movie is nothing special—it’s a Western revenge drama, poorly directed by Lee Frost of Policewomen fame, and poorly acted by Gordon and everyone else. Basically, a Mexican farmhand is driven by constant abuse to seek revenge, and does so by kidnapping his cruel employer’s wife. Probably a bad idea.

The film takes advantage of the fraying censorship enforcement of the era to show more nudity and sexual violence than in previous years. There are themes embedded within the script about racism, patriarchal control, and what we’d call today male toxicity, but they’re so obscured by sexploitative content that you’ll be too busy feeling queasy to absorb any well-intentioned messaging. L’éperon brûlant/Hot Spur is basically a footnote suitable for true cineastes only. All others can give it a pass.

We decided to share this specific poster for a secondary reason. Users on both Alamy and Diomedia claim it as theirs, which is what happens when bloggers and Ebay sellers post high resolution images online to be hoovered up by opportunistic hustlers. Not that we don’t sometimes get images from Ebay. This one came from there. But we don’t try to claim false copyright on them. Once upon a time we considered uploading our thousands of original scans at huge sizes, but now the decision not to looks pretty smart. Many of those images would be on Alamy, Shutterstock, et al now.

In the last several years the problem of copyright squatters has grown, and with AI programs scouring the internet for instances of presumed infringement, threatening e-mails are increasingly going out to website operators. But once again, it needs to be pointed out that movie posters and promo shots were made for non-copyright holders to publicize the associated works, and such items fall into the category of fair use. The copyright on this poster belongs to the film studio or production company that originally made it (Les Films Leitienne), and isn’t transferred just because someone uploaded it to Alamy or any other site. If you operate a blog and get a threatening e-mail, ask for documentation of copyright. They’re obligated to provide that. But they won’t be able to.

France, L'éperon brûlant, Hot Spur, L’homme qui vient de la nuit, La virée superbe, James Arena, Virginia Gordon, Joseph Mascolo, Angel Carter, Loris, poster art, cinema, sexploitation, movie review

Vintage Pulp

November 12 2019

MUTHERLY LOVE

They don't have much in the way of maternal instinct but they make up for it with eagerness to please.

In the nudie flick The Muthers, which opened this month in 1968, two groups of people located somewhere in Southern California between No Budget and No Inhibitions spend an inordinate amount of time putting the ’60s ethos of free love to the test. You have the teens, who party and get laid, and the mothers, who do the same, but with more skill. The movie is just a lighthearted little softcore romp, quaint by today’s standards, but notable for the fun attitude it brings to the proceedings. The plot, such as it is, eventually coalesces around one teen’s feelings of neglect and tendency toward self-destruction, and the title derives from the fact that for some reason she can’t spell “mother” properly.

But don’t let our suggestion that there’s a plot scare you—this flick is just one long sex scene after another. None of it is explicit, or even frontal for that matter. Mainly the performers just grind and wiggle. But it’s still pretty stimulating because one of the moms is Virginia Gordon. For those unfamiliar, Gordon was an in-demand nude model, who, like a fine reposado tequila, just got more golden and more potent as time went by. She’s in her thirty-second year in this film, and her body makes every other performer, including those twelve years younger than her, look like walking cookie dough. Safe to say your muther—or mother, even—never looked like that.

I know—you can’t take your eyes off them, can you?

Grinding is how I keep my muscle tone. Three-hundred fifty reps to go.

The Muthers, Marsha Jordan, Kathy Williams, Virginia Gordon, poster art, cinema, nudity, sexploitation, movie review

Vintage Pulp

October 6 2018

FLASHY GORDON

Cats always get in the way at the worst moments.

The above cover from the Milan based publishers Longanesi & Co. features U.S. glamour model Virginia Gordon fronting a 1959 translation of Ed McBain’s The Pusher. McBain is basically a legend, but is it a stretch to call Gordon legendary too? We don’t think so. She was Playboy magazine’s January 1959 Playmate of the Month, and because of that her photos are highly collectible and expensive. You’d see two important reasons why if not for a mischievous cat, but you can outmaneuver him by clicking here or here.

Below we have a few more fronts from Longanesi, including Jonathan Craig’s Case of the Village Tramp, which also has Gordon on the cover, and John Jakes’ detective novel Johnny Havoc, featuring Carol Baker giving a nice over-the-shoulder glance. Like Australia’s Horwitz Publications and several other non-U.S. companies, Longanesi used (probably) unlicensed images of Hollywood starlets and glamor models as a matter of habit. We’ll show you more examples of those a bit later.

Italy, Milan, Longanesi & Co., Virginia Gordon, Ed McBain, Evan Hunter, Jonathan Craig, John Jakes, Henry Kane, John McPartland, Adam Knight, Carol Baker, cover art, literature, cover collection

Vintage Pulp

August 3 2017

IT’S CURTAINS FOR HER

Funny, when I ordered these I actually thought they'd give me a bit more privacy.

We haven’t had Virginia Gordon around these parts since we posted a spectacular record sleeve starring her in 2014, so here she is today on a nice Technicolor lithograph entitled “Baubles and Beads” that dates from 1958. See the earlier image here.

Technicolor pin-up, Virginia Gordon, nudity

Musiquarium

October 1 2014

MUSIC TO THE EYES

She'll make you feel like singing.

Above is a beautiful Japanese album cover featuring 1950s/1960s glamour model Virginia Gordon, who’s fronting a collection of latin jazz piano pieces by various artists. The image is taken from a session she did for the men’s magazine Rogue that appeared in its June 1961 issue. We’ve also provided a close-up and a third image showing a fuller frame from that sitting. Just because. And If you want to see another spectacular image of Miss Gordon we posted a couple of years ago click here.

Japan, Rogue Magazine, Virginia Gordon, nudity

Femmes Fatales

April 3 2012

VIRGINIA SLIM

A million dollar profile.

We were going to upload a Facebook profile for Pulp Intl. today, but then we decided you’d probably rather look at this profile instead. Pictured is Virginia Gordon, who started in 1958 as a nude model, and later appeared in b-films such as The Muthers (the 1968 sexploitation flick, not the 1976 blaxploitation flick), Hot Spur, and Francis Ford Coppola’s nudie western Tonight for Sure. Her movies were mostly forgettable, but her modeling remains precisely the opposite. Bonus shot below from the same session. Probably 1962 on these.

The Muthers, Hot Spur, Tonight for Sure, Virginia Gordon, cinema, nudity

Vintage Pulp

October 25 2011

FRANCIS BAKIN’

Coppola brings the heat in his first credited production.

Here is a true rarity. And we’ve done a thorough search around the internet and we’re 99% sure this is its first appearance online. It’s a Japanese poster for Francis Ford Coppola’s Tonight for Sure, a hot little nudie western that had only twelve minutes of Coppola-directed footage, yet, through a complicated set of circumstances, earned him full directorial credit.

What happened was that some people approached Coppola with a short nudie film called Wide Open Spaces about a man who kept hallucinating naked women whenever he looked at cows. The film was so bad that they asked Coppola to fix it, which he did by intercutting his short nudie The Peeper and adding a bit of footage to bridge the pieces. Coppola called the final result Tonight for Sure and gave himself full directorial credit.

The movie went nowhere—except to Japan, apparently, where it showed in 1963. Remember, this would have been before Coppola had achieved any semblance of fame, so there was no reason for the movie to earn an overseas release. We can only assume that the copious nudity made it sellable and Tokyo was buying.

As a side note, Virginia Gordon, who was one of the most famous nude models of the ’60s, made an appearance and we found an on set photo, which we’ve posted below. Tonight for Sure—or some part of Tonight for Sure—was at some point going to be called Lake Girls, and you can discern that for yourself by lowering your eyes from Gordon’s breasts to the slate underneath. But only if you want to. Whatever you call the movie, it premiered in the U.S. today in 1962.

Japan, Tonight for Sure, Francis Ford Coppola, Virginia Gordon, nudity, poster art, cinema

Vintage Pulp

May 12 2011

ANGER MISMANAGEMENT

Breaking out the good china.

For your enjoyment today we have eighteen images from Australia’s Adam, published May 1963, with an unusual cover of a guy going berserk on the cups and saucers. For boxing fans, we also have shots of Mickey MacDonald, Mike Rhuman, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Jack Dempsey. Oh, and that’s Playboy model Virginia Gordon in panel two, just below. You can see many more issues of Adam magazine by clicking keyword “Adam” at the bottom of the post.

Australia, Adam Magazine, Mickey MacDonald, Mike Rhuman, Sugar Ray Robinson, Jack Dempsey, Virginia Gordon, nudie mags, magazine art

Vintage Pulp

February 10 2011

LAPTOP PROBLEM

Can you get up, please? I love that you’re so thin, but your tailbone is stabbing my groin.

Above, a February 1964 cover and selected interior pages of Australia’s Adam, with famed nude model Virginia Gordon in the final panel. We’ll go out on a limb and say that we’re now the internet’s largest repository for this particular publication (as well as others). See more by clicking keyword “Adam” below.

Australia, Adam Magazine, Virginia Gordon, magazine art, literature

Vintage Pulp

November 21 2008

NAKED BUNCH

Don’t look too closely or you might spot your grandmother.

International nudist magazines promoted group nakedness as fun, healthy, and innocent—and even an unavoidable next step in human social evolution. If someone raised their eyebrows at your Campus Jaybird, it just proved they weren’t ready to be free, man. At least you knew better than to invite them on your next nude biking trip. Nudist magazines proliferated throughout the 50s and 60s, and remained popular into the 1970s. The Nudist Idea and American Nudist Leader, both below, feature covers with Diane Webber, aka Marguerite Empey, a former Playboy centerfold who remains one of the most renowned nude models of all time. Also putting in an appearance is Virginia Gordon, another Playboy model, seen on the cover of Paradise. Though the international nudist movement still exists, it is possibly less accepted than fifty years ago. We’re too young here to know for sure, so you’ll just have to ask your grandma about that. What we do know is you’ll be seeing more of these covers from us.

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

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.

October 2

1919—Wilson Suffers Stroke

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson suffers a massive stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed. He is confined to bed for weeks, but eventually resumes his duties, though his participation is little more than perfunctory. Wilson remains disabled throughout the remainder of his term in office, and the rest of his life.

October 2

1968—Massacre in Mexico

Ten days before the opening of the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, a peaceful student demonstration ends in the Tlatelolco Massacre. 200 to 300 students are gunned down, and to this day there is no consensus about how or why the shooting began.