| Vintage Pulp | Dec 15 2022 |
His wife sometimes made him so mad he felt like he could kill her. Then the opportunity came.
We've watched a lot of movies this month, and today is the day we begin squeezing them onto the site before the end of the year. The shooter's POV poster above was made for Aiyoku no wana, aka Trap of Lust, which is a roman porno reinterpretation of Seijun Suzuki's 1967 gangster classic Koroshi no rakuin, aka Branded to Kill. It's the story of a veteran hitman who botches an assignment, with the unexpected consequence that he's ordered to kill his own wife.
It isn't a punishment thing, exactly, that brings this about. The reason she becomes his target is narratively more complex. But killing one's spouse is not easy even for a cold-blooded professional terminator, and ultimately he's pitted against a couple of top yakuza hitmen, one of whom is a freaky deaky assassin who does his work alongside a nearly life-sized marionette that he voices like a schoolgirl. We know it sounds out there, and it is. Look at the screenshots below for an idea what this disturbed character is about.
The marionette gimmick isn't totally gratuitous. It contributes to a pivotal duel that by itself nudges the movie onto the positive side of the watch/don't watch ledger. While we're tempted to get into the weird psychocultural reasons why embodiments of pure human evil in Japanese films are often covered in brown shoe polish, we'll just leave the obvious unspoken. Ready for something bizarre? Then go for it. Aiyoku no wana premiered in Japan today in 1973.
JapanNikkatsuAiyoku no wanaTrap of LustKoroshi no rakuinBranded to KillGenjiro AratoMoeko EzawaRie Nakagawaposter artcinemayakuzamovie review
| Vintage Pulp | Dec 14 2022 |
Yup. We remember being in this condition several times.
This piece of unusual and excellent cover art was painted for the 1965 Pocket Books edition of Raymond Chandler's four-part anthology Pick-Up on Noon Street, and the scene is personally familiar to us, though it's been years since we got so loaded we ended up insensate. But it happened a few times when we lived in Central America. Ever heard of a liquor called Tic Tack? Steer clear of that stuff. You'll end up a floor tile. The cover specifically illustrates the tale, “Guns at Cyrano's,” in which the hero finds an unconscious blonde in a hotel room. She didn't get that way by doing anything fun, though. The art was painted by Unknown, who's outdone himself here. Seriously, he's put together some masterpieces, but we think this one is top of the heap. You can read more about Pick-Up on Noon Street here.
| Femmes Fatales | Dec 14 2022 |
Well, you're right. I'm mainly angry at myself. But I'm going to take it out on you.
Pre-Code star Clara Bow looks mighty miffed in this promo shot made for her 1928 Paramount drama Ladies of the Mob, in which she plays the daughter of a lifelong criminal who falls in love with a crook and tries to reform him. Interesting trivia: because bullet squibs wouldn't be invented until around 1943, for shooting scenes studios often employed marksmen to fire real bullets near actors. Both Bow and her co-star Richard Arlen were injured by ricocheting fragments. Which brings us back to the photo. We like to imagine Bow facing Paramount head honcho Jesse Lasky and saying, “Don't worry, Jesse—I'm just going to shoot near you.”
| Vintage Pulp | Dec 14 2022 |
Avelli treats moviegoers to a double helping of his art.
We recently shared a poster painted by Italian artist Tino Avelli and wanted to revisit his work. He was prolific, painting great promos for such well known films as The Man with the Golden Gun and Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. We also recently saw a tarot deck he painted going for $3,000 at an auction site. We predict... we won't be buying that.
Above you see two Avelli efforts for the 1975 film La bolognese. Usually we have an English title for you, but this one was never shown in the U.S. The Italian title refers to any person from the city of Bologna. We've seen the movie, and it's a comedy, so we won't get into it. Plus, it's not funny anyway. It's the type of thing where star Franca Gonella rides her bike with the wind blowing her skirt up and everyone she passes ends up in a ditch from staring too hard at her white panties. Big laughs.
Not that we're above anything gratuitous, whether nudity, violence, or whatever. Vintage genre fiction is all about adding heaping helpings of fan service to most every narrative, therefore we are too. To prove it we've uploaded a nice shot of Gonella below—without her white panties. And you'd been thinking, "Hmm... not a lot of nudity on Pulp intl. lately." Solved. We should add that Gonella made some crime and horror movies, so maybe she'll return in the future.
ItalyBolognaLa bologneseThe Man with the Golden GunThunderbolt and LightfootFranca GonellaTino Avelliposter artcinemanudity
| Vintage Pulp | Dec 13 2022 |
Ryan reaches the limits of control in crimefighting and romance.
On Dangerous Ground, which premiered today in 1951, is a film noir melodrama about a bad cop who finds a reason to reset his professional and emotional lives. It was adapted from Gerard Butler's novel Mad with Much Heart, and that title pretty much tells the tale, as Robert Ryan plays a detective so mean even his colleagues warn him he's out of control.
He eventually ruptures a suspect's bladder during a beating. He deserves to be drummed out of the police and publicly shamed for such a transgression (in our opinion), but his chief, instead of handing him the pink slip he deserves, sends him to the mountains to help with a distant investigation until the heat cools. Once there Ryan finds a reason to reassess his life in the form of Ida Lupino, the blind but insightful sister of a murder suspect. She can sense bullshit and hurt miles away, and she becomes the first person that Ryan has actually listened to for a long time.
On Dangerous Ground is not by any means the best that film noir has to offer, but it has its moments, including extensive location shooting in snowy western Colorado. For noir completists it's certainly one to watch. Those with limited time allotments can probably give it a pass in favor of something better, but note that Lupino is a film noir icon as both an actress and director, and in fact directed some scenes in this movie, though she wasn't credited. Keep an eye out for her official work.
| Vintage Pulp | Dec 11 2022 |
On the first day of murder, my true love gave to me...
The 42 days of Roger Torrey's 42 Days for Murder refers to the six weeks that someone needed to be resident in Nevada to qualify for a divorce, which we think is kind of clever title-wise. The story deals with a rich man's wife who runs away to Reno to dissolve her marriage but goes incommunicado after she arrives. The husband hires a detective named Shean Connell to track down his wife so that he can at least talk to her before she ditches him. Finding her is not much of a problem for Connell. Arranging for his client to talk to her is another deal entirely. As the story unfolds, it turns out there's a reason for her reluctance to chat. A very good reason, actually, which Connell figures out only at the cost of considerable mayhem, two deadly shootouts, and a veritable pile of corpses.
The book was originally published in 1938, but this Hillman edition featuring a photo cover came in 1949. Torrey was an experienced writer, having produced stories for the pulp magazine Black Mask, and here he shows a deft hand with a unique idea that we can't even hint at without spoiling the book. Flaws include dialogue that sometimes stretches past the point of usefulness or interest—Torrey could have cut the book by twenty pages easily, if not thirty—but it remains a fun ride tearing around 1930's Reno with Connell, who's not only a shamus but an ace piano player. He's the best part of the novel, though he's unusually cynical about women. Too bad 42 Days for Murder was Torrey's only book. It's not perfect, but it's one to catch if you can.
| Femmes Fatales | Dec 11 2022 |
Moody, never really warm enough, thinking about shooting some dumb fucking guy—I'm a real woman alright.
This 1982 promo image of a gun toting Sean Young, a variation on one we shared a while back, comes from Blade Runner, one of the most awesome imaginative achievements in cinematic history. Young played a genetically superior flesh-and-blood replicant—sort of like a clone—who was anguished that she might not be a real woman. But let's go down a list. Genetically superior but not treated with due respect? Check. Trailed by a guy with issues who thinks he deserves on-demand access to her vagina? Check. Entire society telling her what she can and cannot be? Triple check. Young was real enough. Her main motivation was to reconcile her past and have hope for her future, and that overarching theme is exactly why Blade Runner is such a good movie. We've seen it, we'd guess, ten to twelve times, and we'll watch it again that often, at least.
| Vintage Pulp | Dec 10 2022 |
Now is de Winter of her discontent.
We wanted to bring back Dutch illustrator J. H. Moriën, so above you see a signed cover for Jan de Winter's 1960 novel Schaduw over Scheveningen, published by Nederlandsche Keurboekerij for its S.O.S. series. The main reason we're revisiting Moriën is because there's confusion about his identity. The Amsterdam-based auction site Catawiki, which we figure is pretty well informed, tells us this signature belongs to a J.H. Moriën, who was active during the 1920s and 1930s, then again during the 1950s and 1960s. He was born around the turn of the century, so he'd have been working into his sixties, which was common for illustrators.
But we've now seen some Dutch covers signed Moriën E. Beck, and though the signatures on those are slightly different, they're on Nederlandsche Keurboekerij S.O.S. editions from the same period, leaving little doubt it's the same person. But is his name J.H. Moriën or Moriën E. Beck? Hell, if the Dutch can't agree, what can we possibly say? American illustrator Ernest Chiriacka signed some of his work as Darcy, so maybe it's a similar situation. The answer will probably present itself in time. Until then, you can see two more brilliant Moriëns here and here.
Edit: What did we tell you? We got an e-mail from Bert:
I am reacting to your article about the book covers of J.H. Morien. I am preparing an article about his work and so I discovered that he had an office in the fifties in Amsterdam where he worked together with C. Beck, Damrak 45. They were specialized in commercials and advertising, but they also worked together for book covers (C. Beck the lettering?). I hope you can use this information.
Yup, we can use the information alright, Bert. And an immense thanks to you for taking the time to write.
I am reacting to your article about the book covers of J.H. Morien. I am preparing an article about his work and so I discovered that he had an office in the fifties in Amsterdam where he worked together with C. Beck, Damrak 45. They were specialized in commercials and advertising, but they also worked together for book covers (C. Beck the lettering?). I hope you can use this information.
Yup, we can use the information alright, Bert. And an immense thanks to you for taking the time to write.
| Vintage Pulp | Dec 9 2022 |
Taylor and Turner make an explosive pairing in hit gangster romance.
MGM produced a beautiful poster for its 1941 melodrama Johnny Eager, which you see here in all its vibrancy and clever design. Starring Robert Taylor and Lana Turner, the unknown creator or creators used the stars' names crossword style to include “TNT” into the text. MGM knew they had something special on their hands in Turner and had been trundling her out for audiences to goggle at in awe and wonder, building up her career in comedy, musicals, straight drama, a western, and even horror in 1941's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Now at age twenty it was time for her to co-anchor a crime melodrama.
Turner is a sociology student who crosses the path of an ex-con named John Eager (Taylor) at his parole office. Turner is smitten, as well as impressed with Taylor's efforts to stay on the straight and narrow by working as a cab driver. The problem is Taylor is actually running an elaborate scam, heading a criminal enterprise in the form of a profitable gambling racket while keeping his parole officer bamboozled, and others either paid off or bedazzled into silence. Such is his charm that even the head secretary at the parole office is helping him.
Turner, as an innocent young student who isn't in on the scam, of course throws a wrench in Taylor's plans by finding out he's lying. But it turns out she's a little more worldly than she at first seemed. When she learns Taylor is still an underworld goon she's fine with it. She's just gotta have the guy. It means jilting her square boyfriend and disappointing her protective dad, plus she's warned that disaster will result, but the heart wants what it wants. Will she be corrupted? Will Taylor become so loopy that he loses control of his empire? Can true love blossom in the barren soil of the organized crime underground?
In the end Johnny Eager is a smart, well-written movie, with memorable lines aplenty and several refreshing plot surprises. Burgeoning superstar Turner does just fine in her key role, and it helps that her surrounding cast are all confident and talented. Van Heflin even won a supporting actor Academy Award for his role as a poetry spouting, alcoholic sidekick to Taylor's smooth gangster, and the accolade was well deserved. Johnny Eager is a movie every vintage film buff should add to their queue. It premiered today in 1941.
Academy AwardJohnny EagerRobert TaylorLana TurnerEdward ArnoldPatricia DaneDiana LewisVan Heflinposter artcinemamovie review
| Vintage Pulp | Dec 7 2022 |
I believe you that it's life or death, honey. But believe me it's also life or death that I finish my toes.
The Devil's Spawn was a random acquisition, a cheap throw-in within a six-book lot. It's a 1956 Dell original with cover art by Mitchell Hooks, was written by Robert Carse, and is a very interesting and unusually graphic tale about an escapee from Cayenne Prison in French Guiana (now Guyana) who lives under a new identity in New York City, but learns that one of the four men he fled with has been targeted by a blackmailer. That means, as the protagonist Jean Prevot puts it, “the trail might be followed down to the next, and the next.” That's exactly what happens, and the blackmailer is from Cayenne Prison, the one person everyone there feared—its sadistic executioner, known as le Bouc.
That's a compelling set-up for a novel, and Carse is an able writer. Especially interesting are his shifts from third-person narrative into second-person deliberations and reveries, without the expected italics to offset the latter from the former. The flow between these passages gives the story an occasional trancelike quality. Also interesting is that Prevot takes intelligent countermeasures. For example, in order to neutralize the blackmail threat, he immediately confesses his past to everyone in his inner circle, most importantly his wife. That's real-world smart, but isn't what most authors would choose. Most would use secrecy as a wedge between Prevot and his loved ones, giving even more initiative to the men who threaten to expose the truth. Carse goes a different way.
But the core of the threat remains even after Prevot brings his inner circle up to speed. Either he does what le Bouc says, or le Bouc informs French authorities that a notorious fugitive—who, by the way, killed a guard during his escape—is alive and well in New York City. If Prevot is caught he'll lose his wife, the lucrative career he's built, and anything resembling a future. That's as far as we'll go in describing the book, except to say that it's a good, gritty ride. Carse will be another one we watch for during our digging for dusty old paperbacks.
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