Vintage Pulp | Sep 30 2022 |
Haiti gets hit by hurricane Anita.
These two posters for Al tropico del cancro, aka Tropic of Cancer, were painted by Italian master Renato Casaro, and really demonstrate his artistic range, as they're stylistically different from the other poster he painted for the film. We have plenty of Casaro in the website, so if you want to see more just click his keywords below, or if you're pressed for time, you can see what we think is his best work here and here. He isn't the only person we want to highlight today. The movie stars Anita Strindberg, yet another luminous actress to come out of Sweden, and she plays a wife who travels to Haiti and is soon caught up in tropical sensuality, hallucinogenic drugs, and voodoo. It's unabashed exploitation ranging from the sexual to the cultural, and Strindberg is the main reason it's watchable, as you see below. Al tropico del cancro premiered in Italy today in 1972.
Intl. Notebook | Sep 12 2022 |
Lindberg gets in touch with her outdoorsy side.
Somewhere in the Swedish woods in 1971 international sex symbol Christina Lindberg posed for a photo that became this beautiful pin-up poster, now faded after nearly half a century, but still in good form. This was made to promote her sexploitation flick Exponerad, aka Exposed, aka Diary of a Rape. Probably sexploitation isn't the right word to describe the film. Its makers had serious intentions—we just aren't sure they were achieved. Read what we mean here.
Vintage Pulp | Jun 5 2022 |
If you have to call her anything call her Trouble.
For the sake of completeness we're circling back to Christina Lindberg's arthouse sexploitation flick Thriller - en grym film, aka Thriller: A Cruel Picture, aka They Call Her One Eye. We did an extensive write-up on this several years ago, but wanted to show you the cool Italian promo poster, plus a zoom. And below is possibly the best promo image of Lindberg made for the movie. Clearly, she's not someone to be messed with. In Italy Thriller - en grym film was called simply Thriller, and it premiered there today in 1974.
Vintage Pulp | May 18 2022 |
Sleaze novel suggests it's more fun for doctors to trick than to treat.
The only reason we took any notice of the 1975 sleaze novel Doctor's Dirty Tricks by Rand McTiernan is because Swedish actress Christina Lindberg is the cover star. That fact led to the thought process, “Well, we might as well read the thing and see what it's about.” It turns out it's about exactly what you'd think, except there are not one but two doctors—a dentist and a psychologist. They're pals, and both molest their patients. The dentist does it while they're gassed, and the shrink does it while they're hypnotized. The shrink considers himself a better breed, because, “You can't make someone do something under hypnosis they don't want to do.” The cover tagline describes this as being seduced, but the concept of seduction has nothing to do with this book at any point. Sleaze novels are usually pretty fun, with women often the main plot drivers, but then there's this kind too. Doctor's Dirty Tricks is a regressive male fantasy centered around helpless and insensate women. We'll take ours helpful and responsive. No thank you, Mr. McTiernan.
Vintage Pulp | Apr 24 2022 |
When you cross the line trouble is sure to follow.
This bright poster for Dödsdalen was made for the Swedish run of the U.S. drama Border Incident, an interesting vintage film about illegal immigration—a hot button issue everywhere these days. Ricardo Montalbán stars as a Mexican investigator named Pablo Rodriquez who goes undercover as a migrant worker and crosses the border illegally to try and get to the bottom of why and by whom migrants are being exploited and sometimes murdered. He gets support from U.S. immigration cop George Murphy, who's equally eager to apprehend the evildoers.
We were curious what sort of treatment migrants would get in the screenplay, and it was generally compassionate. The years we lived in Guatemala we became acquainted with some locals and learned quickly that the vast majority of those who left for the States didn't want to go. Well, we didn't learn it—we already knew it because it's a no-brainer. Leave their families, wives, children, culture, social networks, and all sense of security? Of course they don't want to do it. But for the most part it's go north or go hungry. If that kind of dilemma isn't worthy of a person's compassion, we don't know what is.
Montalbán brings authenticity and passion to his performance. You may remember we thought he should have starred in Touch of Evil instead of Charlton Heston. His character comes under suspicion immediately—his hands are too soft to belong to a migrant. Murphy, working undercover from the other end, also gets into hot water, but survives a beating and torture to get next to the crooks. They're from the U.S., which of course is plausible. No industry as profitable as human trafficking is controlled from only one side of a border. Americans make money on it and always have. These particular Americans will kill to keep the profits coming in, which means Montalbán and Murphy have their hands full.
Border Incident scores well in mood, tension, and seriousness, and is well photographed in noir style, and in fact qualifies as a film noir, though one that's rarely cited. It was helmed by Anthony Mann—the noir veteran behind T-Men, Railroaded!, and Raw Deal, and his expereience and style help make the movie more than the sum of its production budget. When you add it all up, what you have here is a flick that's worth seeing, not least because Montalbán is a natural star. He's great in this. Border Incident premiered in the U.S. in late 1949 and opened in Sweden as Dödsdalen—"valley of death"—today in 1950.
Hollywoodland | Mar 18 2022 |
Ann-Margret's reputation was a problem. But her reputation for what?
This should spice up your Friday. Above you see Swedish bombshell Ann-Margret on the cover of a National Enquirer published today in 1962. The editors wanted to match Ann's face with the, “I'm worried,” header, and used a promo shot of her dancing. Wild facial expressions were a specialty of hers. Winks, grins, grimaces, and more were her stock in trade, deftly demonstrated in the shot below. But regarding the above image, we don't think she looks particularly worried. Pained, possibly. Worried, no. We didn't buy this item, so we can't tell you for sure what she's supposed to be worried about, but considering the year, the article probably discusses her trying to make the transition from singer/dancer to serious actress. It was something she talked about in interviews. In the end she managed it easily. On the other hand, maybe Enquirer is hinting at something else entirely. Either way, the photo is rare.
Vintage Pulp | Feb 13 2022 |
Desperate times, desperate measures.
Above: a Swedish poster for the hostage drama Skräckens timmar, better known as The Desperate Hours, starring Humphrey Bogart. This was adapted from the French poster, which has Roger Soubie art, but the movie opened in Sweden before it did in France, so credit this to Soubie though it isn't attributed and somehow was released in public before his signed original. Such are the vagaries of vintage promo art. Skräckens timmar premiered in Sweden today in 1956.
Femmes Fatales | Jan 14 2022 |
I was never an ugly duckling. That's why you shouldn't believe fairy tales.
This photo of Swedish actress Kirsten Svanholm, better known by her pseudonym Kitty Swan, was made when she was filming the Tarzan-style adventure Gungala la pantera nuda, aka Gungala the Black Panther Girl in 1968, the second of two Gungala movies she headlined. After those films she appeared in a couple of official Tarzan movies, 1969's Tarzán en la gruta del oro, aka Tarzan in the Golden Grotto, and 1972's Tarzán y el arco iris, aka Tarzan and the Brown Prince, so you could say she ended up typecast. But what a type. We watched one of the Gungala films and it was ridiculous. Will that stop us from watching the other one? Not on your life.
Vintage Pulp | Nov 25 2021 |
Rita Hayworth and Gilda get a dose of the northern aesthetic.
The awesome film noir Gilda premiered in Sweden today in 1946, and above is a beautiful promo for the movie painted by Swedish artist Eric Rohman. In typical Nordic fashion, the overall approach here is clean and understated. One of the most interesting parts of looking at vintage posters is noting the cultural differences in approach. Every country contributes to the art form in unique ways, and all are worthwhile. We often find Swedish posters to be less inspiring than U.S., Italian, Japanese, and French efforts, but this one, in all its simplicity, is a winner, as is the movie.
Vintage Pulp | Nov 17 2021 |
Lindberg and her hair-do spice up otherwise blah Swedish sex drama.
Striking posters are usually the reason we're drawn to watch films, but lacking beautiful promo art or an enticing premise, we watched Sängkamrater, which is known in English as Wide Open, for two reasons: Christina. Lindberg. So what did we get? We got a story about a drunken old man who moves in with his son and his son's girlfriend Solvieg Andersson and disrupts their lives. The subplot is set off when Lindberg flies into town, and her acquaintance Gunilla Larsson's ambitions to make extra cash leads into some dangerous circumstances. There's not much recommendable about the movie at all, aside from the fact that Lindberg has one of her most famous nude scenes, a breast soaping photo session that also showcases her majestic black bush.
The sight of Lindberg's girlfur was like watching footage of an exotic animal that once roamed by the millions but is now near extinction. We felt deep sadness, and possibly even cried a little. We were also overcome by the certainty that a world that had let the bush come to near-oblivion is a world gone horribly, horribly wrong. But we digress. Sängkamrater is strictly average, except for Lindberg's majestic black bush, which you see below, because Pulp Intl. is one of the last bastions of beautiful nudity left on the internet, and we take our mandate seriously. Sängkamrater premiered in Sweden today in 1975.