Pulp International

vintage and modern pulp fiction; noir, schlock and exploitation films; scandals, swindles and news

AUTO CLUBBED

She's not a reckless driver. He was a reckless pedestrian.

This is a striking cover for Lee Roberts’ thriller Kleine Hexe, from Hannover based publisher Walter Lehning Verlag for its Panther-Buch series. The title of this means “little witch,” and it’s a 1956 translation of Roberts’ 1952 detective drama Little Sister. The art shows the set-up of the novel—a woman receives assistance disposing of a corpse. She didn’t actually run him over, though. We won’t get into what happened except to say the basic plot is this: spoiled rich girl causes private dick no end of trouble. We’ll dig up more from Walter Lehning Verlag later. The art on their editions was not properly credited, but most covers were by Hansrudi Wäscher and Helmut Nickel. Nice work.

West Germany, Germany, Walter Lehning Verlag, Lee Roberts, Robert Martin, Hansrudi Wäscher, Helmut Nickel, cover art, literature

SLIPPERY WHEN WEHT

Okay! I thought I was *gasp* chasing you. But I get it now! You're *sputter* drowning me, right?

He’s gonna need a closer boat. The globally popular Charles Williams appears in yet another foreign edition, this time from Munich based publisher Heyne-Bücher. Heiss weht der wind von Yukatan, which means, “the wind blows hot from Yucatan,” is a translation of Scorpion Reef, aka Gulf Coast Girl, and came in 1959 with art that is signed but, unfortunately, illegibly. As always when it comes to Williams, this was an excellent novel.

West Germany, Germany, Munich, Heyne-Bücher, Charles Williams, cover art, literature

WIRD AROUND TOWN

Cold cases always get hot in vintage fiction.

This is a striking cover for Frank Gruber’s 1967 thriller Gesucht Wird… D.D., or “Wanted… D.D.” If you want attention on a newsstand this bright red collage style art is a way to do it. Unfortunately, we don’t know who put this together for West German publishers Martin Kelter and have no way of finding out. We do know about Gruber, though. He was a stalwart pulp author born in 1904 in Minnesota. He began publishing in his mid-twenties and was well received in magazines such as Argosy, Weird Tales, and Black Mask. This particular book is a translation of his 1961 novel Twenty Plus Two, in which an investigator searches for a woman—named Doris Delaney—who’s been missing for twenty-two years. It was made into a movie of the same name. You can be sure we’ll check that out.

Germany, West Germany, Martin Kelter Verlag, Argosy, Weird Tales, Black Mask, Twenty Plus Two, Frank Gruber, cover art, literature

RAMPAGE NOTES

Keeping readers up to date with all the most important news.

America’s self-proclaimed top satire and humor weekly is back. We’ve now shared an even dozen issues of this tabloid. We’re proud to have enriched your life. Or at least given you a few smiles. This issue was published today in 1973, and promises to take readers “inside a whore,” reveal how to “make it with a ski bunny,” and use its daily horoscope to make better lovers.

All these stories are dumb as hell, though the prostitute story—featuring a Hamburg professional allegedly named Hilda Repp—tries to be serious. Rampage journo Heine Heinrich (sure, sure) discusses government regulations within the industry, details the workings of brothels where women are employed, and reveals that Hilda’s fee is the equivalent of $30 for sex, $20 for oral only.

Rampage also treats readers to a profile of Elizabeth Taylor, who had split from Richard Burton and was dating singer Tom Jones. The editors detail every relationship she ever had, then wish her luck with Jones. She married a total of eight times, so maybe the editors’ wishes had the opposite effect. We have more than a dozen scans below.

West Germany, Hamburg, Rampage, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Tom Jones, tabloid, prostitution, nudity

PERMANENT VACATION

She achieved her ambition of spending the rest of her life at the beach.

Above: Gil Brewer’s Ein Mädchen Schrie, better known as And the Girl Screamed, originally published in 1956 in the U.S., with this Panther-Buch edition from Walter Lehning Verlag appearing in West Germany in 1957. The art is signed but illegible. Whenever we see covers like this our minds go to late nights and killer hangovers, but she’s dead, sadly, the synopsis indicates. We have a copy of this we’ll try to get around to reading.

West Germany, Germany, Walter Lehning Verlag, Gil Brewer, cover art, literature

KILLER SMILE

I've heard about angry, disaffected shooters, but personally I've always been the exact opposite.

Above: a colorized black and white photo of German actress Sabine Sinjen made when she was filming the 1963 western Die Flußpiraten vom Mississippi, known in English Pirates of the Mississippi. Sinjen accumulated about seventy credits, mostly on television. We’ve seen Die Flußpiraten vom Mississippi referred to as a spaghetti western, which raises the question of whether the label can be applied to a film that’s German made. For purists, the answer is no. Such films would have to be Italian or Italian-Spanish productions shot in Italy and/or Spain. But many films with a spaghetti western feel and look were shot in Greece, the south of Portugal, Turkey, or really any place that offered a dry landscape. Die Flußpiraten vom Mississippi was shot in the former Yugoslavia. The aforementioned purists would call it a Eurowestern, which is fine with us.

West Germany, Germany, Yugoslavia, Die Flußpiraten vom Mississippi, Pirates of the Mississippi, Sabine Sinjen, spaghetti western

THE RED END OF THE SPECTRUM

Ann-Margret demonstrates the principle of addition by subtraction.

Above: a really nice oversaturated 1965 shot, minus all colors except red and adjacent shades, of Swedish star Ann-Margret, scanned from the West German/Austrian magazine Party. In the true-color images from this session the background is more burgundy, the faux fur blanket is in the purple-gray range, and Ann-Margret’s skin is a normal hue. But she’s still red hot in every frame.

Sweden, Germany, West Germany, Austria, Party Magazine, Ann-Margret

HARD TO BEIRA

I'm sorry I hurt your feelings. Have you considered looking for a woman out of your league who's closer to your age?


Above you see one of the items we picked up in Lisbon. It’s an issue of Colecção Cinema. Basically, these and others of its ilk in multiple countries were print versions of current release films. Starring on front are Curd Jürgens and Eva Bartok from their 1956 West German movie Ohne dich wird es Nacht, which was titled in Portuguese À Beira do Pecado, meaning “on the verge of sin.” It was known in English as Without You It Is Night, the literal German title. Sounds dark, and it is. It’s about drug addiction. Though there isn’t as much art inside Colecção Cinema as you’d think considering it’s a cine-novela, we picked it up anyway for the interesting cover and the low price—a mere €1. Fifteen scans below.
Portugal, West Germany, Germany, Colecção Cinema, Ohne dich wird es Nacht, Ѐ Beira do Pecado, Without You It Is Night, Curd Jürgens, Eva Bartok, Barry Coe, cinema

HER AIM IS TRUE

With her new progressive lenses she can finally shoot accurately near and far.

Austrian actress Hennelore Auer sees with new clarity exactly who she plans to ventilate in this fun promo photo made for her 1968 spy flick X: Drei blaue Panther, aka Kill Panther Kill. She acted in more than thirty films, mostly in West Germany, between 1960 and 1972, including Kommissar X – Drei goldene Schlangen, aka Three Golden Serpents, and Willy, der Privatdetektiv. This image came from the West German film magazine Film Kurier.

Austria, West Germany, Film Kurier, Kommissar X: Drei blaue Panther, Kill Panther Kill, Willy der Privatdetektiv, Kommissar X - Drei goldene Schlangen, Three Golden Serpents, Hannelore Auer

ORGIEN OF THE SPECIES

Nygren and friends teach moviegoers all about natural selection.

We’ll return to paperback covers tomorrow, but for the moment we’re running with the same sort of material we posted a couple of days ago, because as the weather warms thoughts naturally turn to sensual pleasures. We can’t think of a movie more sensual than Emmanuelle IV. Set in our planet’s most sensual country, steamy Brazil, it was the entry in the Emmanuelle series that ushered original lead Sylvia Kristel out the studio gate, and brought in the first of several new Emmanuelles, in this case Swedish actress Mia Nygren.

This West German poster, on which the film is titled Die orgien der Emmanuelle, or “the orgies of Emmanuelle,” caught our eye because—well, for several reasons—but mainly because Nygren is pushed into the background by Camella Donner, aka Camella Thomas. Why is that so interesting? Because she isn’t in the cast. She probably wasn’t even on the same continent. We guess the West German distributors wanted to sex up the poster a bit more. Donner would have been a great addition to the film, but even without her it was fun. Ridiculous, stupid, carnivalesque fun. They don’t make ’em like that anymore. Emmanuelle IV premiered in West Germany today in 1984. Bonus imagery below.

West Germany, Sweden, Die orgien der Emmanuelle, Emmanuelle IV, Mia Nygren, Sylvia Kristel, Camella Donner, Camella Thomas, poster art, cinema, sexploitation, nudity
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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1960—To Kill a Mockingbird Appears

Harper Lee’s racially charged novel To Kill a Mockingbird is published by J.B. Lippincott & Co. The book is hailed as a classic, becomes an international bestseller, and spawns a movie starring Gregory Peck, but is the only novel Lee would ever publish.

1962—Nuke Test on Xmas Island

As part of the nuclear tests codenamed Operation Dominic, the United States detonates a one megaton bomb on Australian controlled Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean. The island was a location for a series of American and British nuclear tests, and years later lawsuits claiming radiation damage to military personnel were filed, but none were settled in favor in the soldiers.

1940—The Battle of Britain Begins

The German Air Force, aka the Luftwaffe, attacks shipping convoys off the coast of England, touching off what Prime Minister Winston Churchill describes as The Battle of Britain.

1948—Paige Takes Mound in the Majors

Satchel Paige, considered at the time the greatest of Negro League pitchers, makes his Major League debut for the Cleveland Indians at the age of 42. His career in the majors is short because of his age, but even so, as time passes, he is recognized by baseball experts as one of the great pitchers of all time.

1965—Biggs Escapes the Big House

Ronald Biggs, a member of the gang that carried out the Great Train Robbery in 1963, escapes from Wandsworth Prison by scaling a 30-foot wall with three other prisoners, using a ladder thrown in from the outside. Biggs remained at large, mostly living in Brazil, for more than forty-five years before returning to the UK—and arrest—in 2001.

  • FEATUREd PULP

DON’T RIDE THE WHITE HORSE

Rafael DeSoto painted this excellent cover for David Hulburd's 1954 drug scare novel H Is for Heroin. We also have the original art without text.

BARN GIRLS

Two Spanish language digest novels from Argentine publishers Malinca Debora and Malinca Nueva Pandora.
Argentine publishers Malinca Debora reprinted numerous English language crime thrillers in Spanish. This example uses George Gross art borrowed from U.S. imprint Rainbow Books.

LOVES OF A BLONDE

Uncredited cover art for Orrie Hitt's 1954 novel Tawny. Hitt was a master of sleazy literature and published more than one hundred fifty novels.

INSATIABLE APPETITE

George Gross art for Joan Sherman’s, aka Peggy Gaddis Dern’s 1950 novel Suzy Needs a Man.

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