| Vintage Pulp | Oct 31 2020 |
Some people need a mental health day every day.
We were going to post an assortment of covers we thought were scary, but when we came across these Psycho fronts we realized they were all we needed. The creation of veteran horror author Robert Bloch and originally published in 1959, one of literature's early homicidal psychopaths remains frightening even today. When Bloch wrote Psycho the concept of psychopathy was little known in American culture, but after Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 movie adaptation, as well as the real-world Dahmers and Specks and Bundys, that naïveté evaporated. Now everyone knows psychopaths are real and live among us.
Bloch's man-child Norman Bates, a sadist and misanthrope with lust/hate feelings toward women, was able despite his dysfunctions to operate in society with a veneer of civility, and was capable of love, but only a stunted and twisted variety instilled by an emotionally violent forebear from whose shadow he could never fully escape. Sound like anybody you know? We have mostly front covers below, along with a rear cover and a nice piece of foldout art we found on the blog toomuchhorrorfiction. These are all English editions. We'll show you one or two interesting non-English covers later.
Crest BooksWarner BooksCorgi BooksTOR BooksPsychoRobert BlochAlfred HitchcockJanet Leighcover artcover collectionliteraturehorror
| Vintage Pulp | Oct 31 2020 |
Welcome to sex education class for advanced students.
We've found another fun poster for the Italian sex comedy La Liceale, with Gloria Guida. We've shown you three in two posts, here and here. Add this to the collection, with Guida accompanied on the art by Ilona Staller. It opened in Italy today in 1975.
| Intl. Notebook | Oct 30 2020 |
When is a monster not scary? When it's a guy in a latex suit.
Maybe yesterday's Halloween themed post was a bit too grim. After all, it's a kid's holiday. So, continuing along the same lines but with less macabre realism, above and below we have a collection of monsters (full disclosure: some are actually monster-fighting good guys) culled from 1970s Japanese television and shlock cinema. There are hundreds of these from the period, but we restricted ourselves to twenty. You may recognize a few. For example, we tossed Hedorah, aka the Smog Monster, into the mix just for fun. You can definitely impress friends and the general public if you dress up as one of these ferocious entities. That'll have to wait until next year, though. Which is actually good, because it would probably take that long just to put one of these get-ups together. Most of these are a bit ridiculous, so theoretically they shouldn't give anyone nightmares. Then again, that's what they say about clowns.
| The Naked City | Oct 29 2020 |
Unknown person takes an unplanned trip to nowhere.
A lot of places in the U.S. probably aren't having an official Halloween this year, but there's no reason we can't get a bit morbid on Pulp Intl. as the 31st approaches. The photo above shows a body wedged into a trunk, in a state of partial decomposition, found in Commerce, in Los Angeles County today in 1951. The town is usually referred to as the City of Commerce, and it falls into the jurisdiction not only of the local police, but also the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. It was the latter that dealt with the body, carting it off the LASD Crime Laboratory.
Decomposition made identification a challenge. Medical examiners cut off its fingers and preserved them in alcohol to try and get prints. The body also had a dental bridge, which police hoped would lead to a breakthrough. But when all was said and done, it was a tip from the public that actually broke the case. The victim was Margaret Kelley. Her killer, who you see in photos under arrest and in court below, was John M. Kelley.
We don't have more info on the crime, the cause of death, or the outcome of the court proceedings. We suspect, due to the names involved, that this was a case of domestic murder, but we can't find confirmation in newspapers of the period—at least not ones that are accessible to us. Despite the dearth of facts, we thought the photos were unusual, and perhaps even appropriate for Halloween 2020, one of the least pleasant years on record. So there you go—trick or treat!
| Vintage Pulp | Oct 29 2020 |
She's usually the goddess of love but this has been a bad week.
We meant to get right back to Italian illustrator Franco Picchioni, but in typical fashion it's taken us a few years. But today you see another of his nice creations, this time for Georges H. Boskero's Le Veneri ardenti, which translates to The Fiery Venus. It was published in 1966 by Edizioni MA-GA for its Il Cerchio Rosso series, a series of thrillers that featured some of the best Italian cover art of the period. We'll show you some of those in a bit and at the same time revisit Franco's art. In the meantime, check out what he did with a James Bond cover here.
ItalyEdizioni MA-GAIl Cerchio RossoGeorges H. BoskeroGeorges H. BosckeroGiorgio BoscheroFranco Picchionicover artliterature
| Femmes Fatales | Oct 28 2020 |
She's probably the first person who wants to get a raw deal online.
This photo is identified all over the internet as a shot of U.S. actress Marsha Hunt from the 1947 film noir T-Men. The only problem is Hunt didn't appear in T-Men. This is actually her from 1948's Raw Deal, in which she starred with Dennis O'Keefe and Claire Trevor. So take note internet gatekeepers—uncredit this Hunt photo from T-Men and apply it instead to Raw Deal. As a side note, we have copies of both movies, and we'll get around to watching them at some point. When we do we'll report back.
| Vintage Pulp | Oct 27 2020 |
Yes, yes! A thousand and one times, yes!
Yes! We're excited because we found yet another astonishingly rare Japanese poster. This was made to promote Tokyo eros senya ichiya, which would translate approximately as “Tokyo One Thousand and One Nights,” but is known in English as Eros Nights in Tokyo. You won't see this anywhere else. At least not uncensored. Now the bad news. Just like a few years ago when we shared the film's standard promo, we're still looking for a damn copy to watch. It stars Izumi Shima, Ayako Meki, and Erina Miyai, and that's a trio we want to see anytime. But it'll have to wait. In the meantime, gaze upon the celestial Izumi in a zoom below, and check her out here and here. For that matter, check out Irina Miyai here. Tokyo eros senya ichiya premiered in Japan today in 1979.
JapanTokyo eros senya ichiyaEros Nights in TokyoIzumi ShimaAyako Meki芽樹あやこErina Miyaipinkuposter artcinemaroman porno
| Intl. Notebook | Oct 27 2020 |
They don't make happy music but it'll stick with you for a long time.
Above, a Toei Company promo photo for Zenka onna: koroshi-bushi, aka Criminal Woman: Killing Melody, featuring one of the great girl gangs of pinku cinema—comprising, counterclockwise from upper right, Reiko Ike, Miki Sugimoto, Masami Soda, Chiyoko Kazama, and Yumiko Katayama. We have some beautiful material on this flick, here, here, and here. It premiered today in 1973.
JapanToei CompanyZenka onna: koroshi-bushiCriminal Woman: Killing MelodyReiko IkeMiki SugimotoYumiko KatayamaChiyoko KazamaMasami Sodapinkupinky violencecinema
| Vintage Pulp | Oct 26 2020 |
Bad news. Your husband refused to pay the ransom. He also wanted me to tell you it's not you, it's him.
A while back we moved Jonathan Latimer from the decent bin to the mandatory bin off the back of his crazy thriller Solomon's Vineyard. We're returning him to the decent bin. The Dead Don't Care is an okay book, but not top notch. Latimer wrote it in 1938, and it was the fourth entry in a detective franchise starring a boozy dick named Bill Crane, and an equally boozy sidekick named Thomas O'Malley. The two engage in such shenanigans as ordering double-triple bourbons and generally pickling their livers at every opportunity—which we totally respect‚ but the actual mystery, divorced from its comedic elements, is overly talky and populated by characters that tend to blend after a while.
Basically, Crane and O'Malley are called in when an upper crust woman is kidnapped, and someone is murdered. As usual in such books, the first murder isn't the last, and the second killing provides key clues to finally unmasking the eventual culprit. In all, it was meh. But it did well enough to spawn a film adaptation, 1938's The Last Warning, which we may watch at some point. We're in no way discouraged by The Dead Don't Care. We already know Latimer can write. But it isn't surprising he'd run into problems four entries into a series that would peter out after one more outing. We'll move on to his other books and do so eagerly. This MacFadden-Bartell paperback came in 1964, and the cover art is by Robert Schulz.
| Femmes Fatales | Oct 26 2020 |
A straight Line, and numerous curves.
This shot of U.S. actress Jane Russell features her in an unusual get-up you've seen before, if you visit Pulp Intl. often. She wore it on the cover of the very first issue of the 1950s tabloid Exposed, which we bought, scanned, and uploaded a while back. The shot was made during her performance in the 1953 musical comedy The French Line, in which she starred as a rich woman who finds romance while aboard a cruise ship of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique—the French Line. The fact that this is a still from the movie explains why Russell is presenting her curvy body hips forward—she's in mid-musical number, swinging to the music. It was a heck of a performance, too, but just imagine—she was originally supposed to do it in a bathing suit but chickened out.
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