| Vintage Pulp | Sep 28 2021 |
Leave it to Nazis to turn phys ed from your favorite class into the worst experience of your life.
This cover of Male from this month in 1967 has cover art of history's worst gym class, painted by the great Mort Kunstler, and leave it to Nazis to ruin the one thing you can get a good grade in just by showing up. Another thing ruined is the magazine. When it arrived it turned out some pages were razored out of the center. Probably the most interesting pages. It's an occupational hazard, we suppose. We generally assume the seller had no idea, as these mags are so often the leftovers of fathers and grandfathers, but if it was in fact deliberate, well then, cocks on their house! That's the saying, right? Or it pox? Doesn't matter. The silver lining was that we didn't have to worry keeping the magazine intact while scanning. We just ripped it apart, which sort of felt good.
There's still plenty of interesting material inside this mutilated Male. There's fiction and fact, art from Gil Cohen and Bruce Minney, plus more from Kunstler, a screed against motorcycles, a lot of pro Vietnam War content, with lots of digs at peace activists and draft fugitives. The magazine works especially hard to convince readers that draftees who fled to Canada faced lives worse than if they'd gone to Southeast Asia. We doubt quite seriously that anything could be worse than dying in a hot jungle for no rational purpose 10,000 miles from home. But maybe we're biased—our fathers were war vets, and they had one wish in life: that the military never get its mitts on us. Also that we never do hard drugs. Well, one out of two isn't bad. Twenty scans below.
| Vintage Pulp | Sep 27 2021 |
Are we safe? Beats me. I don't actually know much about wildlife. I became a great white hunter strictly for the babes.
Instantly recognizable Bill Edwards art of a woman reclining in grass fronts H.T. Lord's 1963 sleaze novel Sin Safari. This was published by Europa Books with one of its rare foldout covers. You see both the folded front and the extended cover here, and you can see another example we shared several years ago at this link. We don't know how many of these fold-outs the company produced, but our guess is a mere five, because that's how many we've seen across a decade of searching.
Turning our attention back to Edwards, his style is usually distinct enough to identify at a glance, but assuming one is unsure and the piece is unsigned, it can be confirmed as his work thanks to his trademark—a mole on his women's cheeks. But he didn't do that 100% of the time, and in fact didn't do it here. Instead he's placed a Band-Aid on her thigh. We don't know what that's about, but he painted Band-Aids on his women at least a few times, giving his work another identifiable element. We'll have more from Edwards and Europa soon.
Turning our attention back to Edwards, his style is usually distinct enough to identify at a glance, but assuming one is unsure and the piece is unsigned, it can be confirmed as his work thanks to his trademark—a mole on his women's cheeks. But he didn't do that 100% of the time, and in fact didn't do it here. Instead he's placed a Band-Aid on her thigh. We don't know what that's about, but he painted Band-Aids on his women at least a few times, giving his work another identifiable element. We'll have more from Edwards and Europa soon.
| Vintage Pulp | Sep 27 2021 |
She's pure pinku power in a pint-sized package.
This fantastic poster was made to promote the roman porno movie Joshidaisei: Sexy Dynamite, which was known in English as Female Coed: Sexy Dynamite, and starred the amazing Mari Tanaka, one of our favorite pinku actresses. Just as a reminder for the uninitiated, pinku is a Japanese film genre roughly analogous to sexploitation, though the definition can be more exclusive depending on where you look. Also, the films are not explicit, but manage to imply plenty with camera angles, props, and physical acting. Sexy Dynamite isn't available to us, sad to say, but we had to show you the poster anyway because it's so unusual. If we ever track down the film we'll update this entry. In the meantime, as consolation, check out the promo image of Tanaka below. Want to see more of her? Click her keywords below and start scrolling. Joshidaisei: Sexy Dynamite premiered in Japan today in 1972.
JapanJoshidaisei: Sexy DynamiteFemale Coed: Sexy DynamiteMari Tanakaposter artcinemapinkuroman pornosexploitationnudity
| The Naked City | Sep 26 2021 |
You're the lawyer, not me, but listen—I have an idea for a defense strategy. First, let me introduce my mother-in-law.
The above photo from the University of Southern California archive of Los Angeles Examiner crime photos shows an L.A. homemaker named Karen Jacobsen in the midst of a pre-trial conference with public defendant Victor S. Baker today in 1961. Jacobsen needed a lawyer for the most important of reasons—to beat a murder charge. She had stabbed her husband Lawrence to death while they were in his car. She said it happened after a terrorizing ride, and claimed it was in self defense of both herself and her two daughters. She was arrested but freed on bail, and this conference occurred during her pre-trial release period.
When she was tried later in the year a jury acquitted her, but we knew that before even reading about the trial, and you wanna know how? That's her mother-in-law Edith sitting next to her in the photo below, offering emotional support. Her attorney: “Your honor, I'd like to enter into evidence defense exhibit A, the deceased's mom, who's obviously fine with his death, so, like... defense rests.” If your own mom isn't in your corner when your killer is on trial, forget it. Probably Lawrence never visited her, so she'd been thinking of him for years as dead already.
Los AngelesUniversity of Southern CaliforniaLos Angeles ExaminerKaren JacobsenLawrence Jacobsenmurder
| Vintage Pulp | Sep 26 2021 |
In New York City people of a certain class live on the Upper East Side. Stockbrokers, lawyers, Nazis...
This poster would have sucked us right through the moviehouse doors had we been around when it was on display. It has beautiful colors, an air of mystery, a nice design, and dramatic graphics. The House on 92nd Street, which starred William Eythe, Lloyd Nolan, and Signe Hasso (who we've seen a lot of lately), definitely doesn't rise to the level of the promo art. It qualifies as a propaganda film, though the events depicted are accurate. But with J. Edgar Hoover appearing briefly in the prologue, a stentorian narration, stilted dialogue, and a soundtrack that veers toward the martial, it's pretty hard to immerse yourself in what is undeniably a Hollywood-on-FBI stroke job.
If you take the plunge, the movie turns out to be about a German American student who is recruited by Nazis but instead becomes a double agent for the FBI during the period when World War II was raging in Europe but the U.S. wasn't militarily involved yet. German spies had been deployed around the U.S., and the movie deals with a particular group that gets wind of an important military secret, the secret of—dum dum duuuuuuum—the bomb. You know. The big bomb. The A-bomb. The nuke. The edge. The be-all. The end-all. The mushroom cloud layin', eyeball meltin', city flattenin', effervescently fissionatin' ordnance both Germany and the U.S. thought would win the war. Good premise, actually.
But since World War II was almost over when the film came out, the plot's outcome was a given. Did audiences feel any suspense? We aren't convinced. Even if the FBI hadn't routed out the spies, the skyrocketing Upper East Side real estate prices would have. The Nazis would have moved to the Bronx seeking cheaper rent. With the conclusion not in doubt, the movie's thrills needed to be provided by the audience's attachment to double agent Eythe, who's in constant danger of being outed and de-cortexed by a Luger slug. Unfortunately, he's mostly an empty suit, therefore the movie fails on that level. It was well reviewed in its day, but duh, critics need to eat too. We doubt many would have panned the movie at that time. But the lens of history is cruel and today the film is considered substandard.
The best aspect of The House on 92nd Street is Signe Hasso as the cast iron Frau Farbissina style bitch operating the nest of naughty Nazis, but she's not enough to save the production—nor ultimately the spy ring. If the filmmakers had ditched the narration, the scare music, the scare Hoover, and gone less procedural and more personal, maybe there would have been a good film in this somewhere, but as it turned out it's just a middling crime melodrama considered to be a fringy film noir—certainly one the genre could do without. The poster, though, remains very nice. The House on 92nd Street premiered today in 1945.
GermanyNew York CityWorld War IIThe House on 92nd StreetFBIWilliam EytheLloyd NolanSigne Hassonazisposter artcinemamovie review
| Vintage Pulp | Sep 25 2021 |
He's not a bad guy. He's just a little conflicted.
Above: a beautiful French language Belgian poster for the suspense/horror film Dr. Jekyll et Mr. Hyde, aka Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, and Lana Turner. We love this poster as much as we love the Finnish and West German ones. The art here depicts quite effectively Jekyll's inner battle, with his face half in light and half in shadow. The movie opened in the U.S. in 1941, was delayed from showing in Europe for years due to World War II, but we think it finally premiered in Belgium during the autumn of 1946, a range we extrapolated from the film's premiere in France today the same year.
BelgiumDr. Jekyll et Mr. HydeDr. Jekyll and Mr. HydeSpencer TracyIngrid BergmanLana Turnerposter artcinemahorror
| Hollywoodland | Sep 25 2021 |
Really? The foot on my back again? When the time comes this motherfucker is going to taste so good.
Did you know that generally lions were tranquilized for photo ops like this? This particular lion, though, tucked its tranq between its cheek and gum and spit it out when nobody was looking. Later it's going to eat human flesh for the first time, in this case embodied by Nat Pendleton, wrestler, actor, animal lover. He made this promo in 1936 when he was filming The Great Ziegfeld, and it's part of a series that includes this shot showing him and the lion on better terms.
| Vintage Pulp | Sep 24 2021 |
Casablanca drifts 2,500 miles east and loses a little something along the way.
Above you see a nice French poster for the Humphrey Bogart adventure Sirocco, which we touched upon briefly several months back. As we noted then, Columbia Pictures promoted the film as being, “beyond Casablanca...” but Sirocco comes up short in that department. How could it not? It's like saying, “beyond chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream,” or “beyond a raspberry gin Ricky,” or “beyond the 2003 Hurricanes-Buckeyes NCAA Championship Game.” These things are not possible. But Sirocco is actually pretty good anyway, owing largely to its setting in 1925 Damascus, Syria (the film was actually shot in Yuma, Arizona, but the illusion worked adequately).
Plotwise, local independence fighters are trying to drive out French occupiers via any means deemed necessary, including what we call today terrorist bombings. Bogart plays Rick from Casablanca, except he's named Harry Smith. But he's the same cynical, opportunistic, womanizing lone wolf he was before, who instead of running a bar, runs guns. He has no ideology in his profession, except love of money, and will work for whoever can hire him, Syrian or French. As the situation in Damascus grows increasingly fraught he finds himself unwillingly stuck between the locals and the occupiers. He also finds himself in a love triangle with slinky Märta Torén and a French military officer played by Lee J. Cobb.
The movie quickly coalesces around what we like to think of as the big three Bogart plot devices: romantic feelings threaten to upset his hard-won cynicism, he must make a choice between desire and conscience, and he must beat the clock if he hopes to get out of Dodge with his skin intact. Beyond Casablanca? Columbia pretty much strip mined Casablanca, is what happened. Even so, Bogart had few serious misses in his career, and Sirocco isn't one of them. Fans will get to see him doing exactly what made him an icon, and for that reason alone we think it's worth a watch. After premiering in the U.S. in mid-1951, it opened in France this week the same year.
FranceSyriaDamascusArizonaYumaColumbia PicturesSiroccoHumphrey BogartMärta TorénLee J. CobbZero Mostelposter artcinemamovie review
| Vintage Pulp | Sep 23 2021 |
Theories anyone? I mean, the x-ray told us there was a clog in the intestine, but it isn't even chewed. It's just weird.
Above: a cover for Ellery Queen's The Dutch Shoe Mystery originally published in 1931, with this Pocket paperback appearing in 1952. This is one of those deals where the author and lead character were presented to audiences as the same person, but the secret got out pretty quickly that Ellery Queen was actually two guys named Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee, but those were pseudonyms too. Their real names were Daniel Nathan and Manford Lepofsky. Maybe they wrote mysteries because they loved to mindfuck people. And the title, as well, is a bit of a misdirection—the book has nothing to do with Dutch shoes at all.
Pocket BooksEllery QueenFrederic DannayManfred Bennington LeeDaniel NathanManford Lepofskycover artliterature
| Vintage Pulp | Sep 22 2021 |
The Zu animals break loose and Tokyo is never the same.
Above is a promo poster for Toei Company's pinky violence hit Zubekô banchô: yume wa yoru hiraku, aka Tokyo Bad Girls, aka Delinquent Girl Boss: Blossoming Night Dreams, which premiered in Japan today in 1970. We already talked about the movie years back and showed you the tateken sized promo poster. Because we had this second piece of art, today we decided to be completist. Reiko Oshida and Keiko Fuji are still the main graphic elements, but some of the other bits have been rearranged. You can see the first piece, and also read about the movie, at this link.
JapanToei CompanyZubekô banchô: yume wa yoru hirakuTokyo Bad GirlsDelinquent Girl Boss: Blossoming Night DreamsReiko OshidaKeiko FujiMasumi TachibanaYukie Kagawapinky violencepinkuposter artcinema
