Pulp International

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

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

A TRIP TO AFRICKA

Yugo wherever you can to find good art.


Something unusual we ran across recently. Above you see a Yugoslavian poster for Afrička veza, an Italian film originally made in 1973 as Contratto carnale, released in English as The African Deal, and shot in Ghana. The poster is unusual because, though its text is Croatian, the actual art very much echoes vintage Ghanaian movie posters, such as here and here. We’ve never seen a Yugoslavian poster in this style. Our opinion is that because the movie was made in Ghana and was certainly released there at some point, the art was painted for a Ghanaian poster then borrowed by the Yugoslavian distributors Inex Film. We talked about Contratto carnale a few years back. It starred George Hilton, Calvin Lockhart, beautiful Anita Strindberg, and yummy Yanti Somer, was originally released in 1973, and premiered in Yugoslavia sometime in 1976.

Yugoslavia, Croatia, Ghana, Afrička veza, Contratto carnale, The African Deal, George Hilton, Calvin Lockhart, Yanti Somer, Anita Strindberg, poster art, cinema, exyu

FANTOM MENACE

Who was that masked woman? Nobody knows.

Above: a striking Yugoslavian poster in the Croatian language for Žena Fantom, better known as Phantom Lady. Again we see how Yugoslavian artists thought differently about promos. Adding a mask to the dark central figure gives the image, painted by Sasa Nikolic, just the feel of mystery it needs for a movie about a woman who can’t be found but holds the key to the hero’s redemption. There’s no exact release date known for Phantom Lady in Yugoslavia, but the poster is dated 1969. See what we wrote about the movie here.

Yugoslavia, Žena Fantom, Phantom Lady, Sasa Nikolic, poster art, cinema, exyu

FROM MUSCLE BEACH TO MURDER

Pageant winner fulfilled show business and personal ambitions. Then things went wrong.


Beauty pageants are a bit silly, perhaps, but the participants are generally ambitious people who see them as stepping stones to show business or modeling. And in mid-century Los Angeles in particular, even minor pageants occasionally led to stardom. In the above photos high school student Barbara Thomason wins the crown of Miss Muscle Beach 1954. Listed at 5 foot 3 inches and 110 pounds, she was a body-building enthusiast, and in the shot just below she celebrates her hard fought win by pumping a bit of iron while photographers click away and a crowd watches.

Did Thomason’s victory lead to bigger things? Maybe not directly, but it probably helped. She was a habitual pageant participant who also won Miss Huntington Beach, Miss Van Ness, Miss Bay Beach, Miss Southwest Los Angeles, Miss Pacific Coast, Queen of Southern California,and ten other titles. All that winning finally got her noticed by Hollywood movers and shakers. In 1955, performing under the name Carolyn Mitchell, she made her acting debut on the television show Crossroads, and in 1958 co-starred in two Roger Corman b-movies, The Crybaby Killer and Dragstrip Riot.
 
But she put her career on hold when she met and married a star—Mickey Rooney, who was nearly seventeen years her senior and nearly two inches her junior. Their union had problems from the beginning. The couple married secretly in Mexico because Rooney was still awaiting a divorce from actress Elaine Mahnken. They would have to wait almost two years before the law allowed them to wed in the U.S. Legalities, though doubtless bothersome, were the least of their problems. During the next six years, during which Thomason bore four children, Rooney indulged in numerous affairs.

It should probably be noted here that Thomason was Rooney’s fifth wife. Among the predecessors were goddesses like Ava Gardner and Martha Vickers. We don’t know what Thomason’s expectations of marriage were, but clearly Rooney didn’t know the meaning of the phrase “for better or worse.” The affairs continued, and eventually Thomason did the same with a temperamental Yugoslavian actor named Milos Milosevic, who performed under the name Milos Milos. But what was good for goose was not good for the gander—Rooney found out about these international relations, moved out of the Brentwood house he shared with Thomason, and filed for divorce, charging mental cruelty. The nerve, right?

On the morning of January 31, 1966, while Rooney was in St. John’s Hospital recovering from an intestinal infection he’d picked up in the Philippines, Thomason and Milosevic were found together on the bathroom floor of the Brentwood house, dead. Milosevic had shot Thomason under the chin and killed himself with a temple shot using a chrome-plated .38 Rooney had bought in 1964. The consensus is Thomason had decided to dump Milosevic and he flipped out.

The photos below show Thomason on Muscle Beach during her halcyon years there, a mere teenager, frolicking in the sun, filled with youthful hopes for a good life. She won beauty titles, acted in films, married an icon, and had four children. Any of those accomplishments would have been good legacies. Instead her death at twenty-nine overshadowed all the rest, and she’s remembered as another celebrity murder victim, Hollywood style, which is always somehow both sensational and banal.

Yugoslavia, Philippines, Los Angeles, Crossroads, The Crybaby Killer, Dragstrip Riot, Barbara Thomason, Carolyn Mitchell, Mickey Rooney, Elaine Mahnken, Milos Milosevic, Milos Milos, Ava Gardner, Martha Vickers, murder, suicide

YUGO CRAZY

The Bates Motel offers room service with that personal touch.

When we wrote about Psycho a while back we came across this Yugoslavian poster which we’re sharing today, finally. Usually we write about films on their release dates but there isn’t an exact one known for Yugoslavia. It arrived there in 1963, though, three years after its U.S. run. This two tone poster is about as low rent as it gets, but it’s still effective, we think. 

Yugoslavia, Psycho, poster art, cinema, horror, exyu

SINGULAR SENSATION

Rare magazine proves it's possible to be both one-of-a-kind and run-of-the-mill.

Above is the cover of yet another magazine we’ve never seen before—Sensational Exposés, produced by New York City based Skye Publishing. We’ve scanned and uploaded a couple of other rare tabloids in the last year, including Dynamite and Nightbeat. This fits right into that group. Rarity doesn’t make it special, though. It’s a great little historical tidbit but it doesn’t compare favorably to the big boy tabloids of the era—Confidential, Whisper, Hush-Hush, et al, either graphically or content-wise.

Sensational Exposés resided near the border between tabloid and true crime. The magazine came from Skye Publications out of New York City. Inside this issue published this month in 1958, the Mafia is extensively mentioned, the psychology of arsonists is discussed, pornographic films get long look, and random bodies turn up. Since it billed itself on the covers of earlier issues as offering, “daring, hard-hitting disclosures in the world of crime,” we’re calling it mainly a true crime magazine.

That said, Croatian actress Tana Velia, aka Tania Velia, gets a deep feature as she tells of her escape through the Iron Curtain. It wasn’t as hairsbreadth as journalist Bill Wolf relates it. Velia’s home country of Yugoslavia had begun to shift toward non-alignment, rejecting both Soviet and U.S. control, and Velia was competing in swim meets around Europe. She simply didn’t go back after a competition in Graz, Austria. She took several trollies to avoid being followed, walked into a British Military Zone and turned herself over to an officer.

Even so, it remains an interesting episode. Her ambition had always been to act. She says in the article that in the U.S., “every son can hope to be a president and every girl can wish for a movie career.” Edit: *eyeroll* She got her wish, but after making Queen of Outer Space, Fiend of Dope Island, and Missile To the Moon we wonder if Velia wished she’d kept swimming. As for Sensational Exposés, it launched in 1957 and didn’t last past 1958, as far as we can tell. Scans below.

Yugoslavia, Croatia, Austria, Graz, Skye Publications, Sensational Exposés, Queen of Outer Space, Fiend of Dope Island, and Missle To the Moon, Tana Velia, Tania Velia, true crime magazine, tabloid, exyu

A LONCAR NAMED DESIRE

Virtuoso poster artist finds inspiration in Serb star.

Above you see a poster from the former Yugoslavia, in Serbo-Croatian (we think), for the film Devojka za zabavu, starring Beba Lončar. We haven’t watched this, so no summary, but it’s available should you feel the urge. We’re primarily interested in the art. The poster says this is a Španjolski film, or Spanish film, and indeed it was originally made in Spain as Amor en un espejo, and titled in the U.S. Cover Girl. The poster was adapted from the Spanish promo art painted by Carlos Escobar, who signed his work as Esc. On the Spanish version his signature is prominent, but the Yugoslavians decided to wipe it out for some reason. We already showed one example of Escobar’s talent featuring Sharon Tate, and it may be one of the most beautiful of the hundreds of posters to adorn Pulp Intl. over the years. This one, which uses the lovely Lončar as a model, is also good. Evidence of what a big star the Serb actress was in her native Yugoslavia exists in her name, thrice repeated above the film’s title, which is not how the Spanish poster was set up. Check out the Tate promo here. And check out Lončar here. Amor en un espejo premiered in Spain today in 1968.

Turkey, Spain, Yugoslavia, Serbia, Devojka za zabavu, Amor en un espejo, Cover Girl, Desanka Lončar, Beba Lončar, Carlos Escobar, exyu, poster art, cinema

MONROE FOR A SPIN

If only the music were as flawless as the cover art.

Here’s little curio from the former Yugoslavia—a record sleeve from Serb pop-rock artist Boris Bizetić with a Marilyn Monroe cover motif. We’ve seen her image rather poorly used on album covers, but this one is nice, we think, if almost certainly unlicensed. And the music? Hah hah. We dare you.  

Yugoslavia, Serbia, Boris Bizetić, Marilyn Monroe, album art, exyu

TEAM SPEAR IT

Making the world a safer place one skewered man at a time.

Above and below you see some Yugoslavian promo cards for Opasnije od muškaraca, aka Deadlier Than the Male, a film we’ve talked about a few times before. The text is in Serbian, and you’ll notice it describes the movie as “Američki.” Actually, it was British. But Brits, Americans, who can tell them apart, really? We imagine the Yugoslavian distributors of the film knew quite well it came from Britain-based Greater Films Ltd., but that they labeled it Američki to make it more marketable. As if Elke Sommer and Sylva Koscina aren’t sufficient. See more from the film here.

Yugoslavia, Britain, Greater Films Ltd., Opasnije od muškaraca, Deadlier Than the Male, Elke Sommer, Sylva Koscina, poster art, cinema, exyu

ARCHITECTURALLY SOUND

Building a better future through movies.

María Baxa was born in 1946 in Belgrade, which in today’s deconstructed Yugoslavia makes her Serb. She appeared in a few Serbian-language films, then ascended into Italian cinema, appearing in productions such as Il commissario Verrazzano with Janet Agren and Patrizia Gori, and Incontri molto… ravvicinati del quarto tipo, aka Very Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind. According to Michele Giordano’s 2000 retrospective La commedia erotica Italiana: vent’anni di cinema sexy, Baxa left the movies in the late 1980s and became an architect. This shot is from 1970.

Yugoslavia, Serbia, Italy, Belgrade, Il commissario Verrazzano Incontri molto... ravvicinati del quarto tipo, Very Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind, La commedia erotica Italiana: vent’anni di cinema sexy, María Baxa, Janet Agren, Patrizia Gori, cinema, nudity
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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1953—The Rosenbergs Are Executed

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted for conspiracy to commit espionage related to passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet spies, are executed at Sing Sing prison, in New York.

1928—Earhart Crosses Atlantic Ocean

American aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean, riding as a passenger in a plane piloted by Wilmer Stutz and maintained by Lou Gordon. Earhart would four years later go on to complete a trans-Atlantic flight as a pilot, leaving from Newfoundland and landing in Ireland, accomplishing the feat solo without a co-pilot or mechanic.

1939—Eugen Weidmann Is Guillotined

In France, Eugen Weidmann is guillotined in the city of Versailles outside Saint-Pierre Prison for the crime of murder. He is the last person to be publicly beheaded in France, however executions by guillotine continue away from the public until September 10, 1977, when Hamida Djandoubi becomes the last person to receive the grisly punishment.

1972—Watergate Burglars Caught

In Washington, D.C., five White House operatives are arrested for burglarizing the offices of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate Hotel. The botched burglary was an attempt by members of the Republican Party to illegally wiretap the opposition. The resulting scandal ultimately leads to the resignation of President Richard Nixon, and also results in the indictment and conviction of several administration officials.

1961—Rudolph Nureyev Defects from Soviet Union

Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defects at Le Bourget airport in Paris. The western press reported that it was his love for Chilean heiress Clara Saint that triggered the event, but in reality Nuryev had been touring Europe with the Kirov Ballet and defected in order to avoid punishment for his continual refusal to abide by rules imposed upon the tour by Moscow.

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INSATIABLE APPETITE

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

TIT FOR TAT

Swapping literature was a major subset of midcentury publishing. Ten years ago we shared a good-sized collection of swapping paperbacks from assorted authors.

TO DIE FOR

Cover art by Italian illustrator Giovanni Benvenuti for the James Bond novel Vivi e lascia morire, better known as Live and Let Die.

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Uncredited cover art in comic book style for Harry Whittington's You'll Die Next!

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