Vintage Pulp | Mar 23 2010 |
In the old noirs criminal gangs are sometimes the Mafia, sometimes the Mob, and still other times the Syndicate. In this one the gang is the Combination, hence the title The Big Combo. While the film isn’t a big budget noir, it makes up in inventiveness what it lacks for dollars. Example: one thug who wears a hearing aid is about to be rubbed out. He begs for his life, and one of his executioners says, “I’ll do you a favor—you won’t hear the bullets.” He then snatches out the thug’s hearing aid and we see a silent close-up of muzzle flashes. The film is filled with visual treats like that, and as a bonus it has first-rate acting, with the lead Cornel Wilde even pulling off a crying scene. For real. He turns on the waterworks with no help from the make-up department and it’s an exceedingly rare feat for male actors during the 1950s.
Musiquarium | Mar 31 2009 |
Assorted album sleeves from Argentine soundtrack maestro Lalo Schifrin, circa 1970s.
Vintage Pulp | Nov 11 2008 |
Isabel Sarli aka “La Coca” was born in 1935 in Argentina, and is one of the most beloved figures of sexploitation cinema. Sarli got into movies like many early actresses—by entering a beauty contest. When she won the title of Miss Argentina in 1955, softcore director Armando Bo took notice. He hired her and they went on to collaborate extensively over the years, eventually wedding each other. Sarli was described as the cleanest actress in Argentina because Bo loved filming her swimming nude in rivers and ponds. Though these scenes caused an uproar that resulted in the films being criticized and censored, the condemnation failed to stop Sarli from achieving widespread fame. You see two posters above—one for the 1976 Italian version of Insaciable, released as l’Insaciabile, and another promo released in Argentina around the same time. L’Insaciabile was one of Sarli’s last films.