| Vintage Pulp | Nov 7 2019 |
| Vintage Pulp | Feb 19 2018 |
It's a coming of age story in which she proves to be too independent for all—male and female—who wish to possess her. She begins the film under the wing of her incest-minded father, travels with him to Hong Kong, where he's arrested for money laundering, forcing her to fend for herself. From there she makes the inevitable sexual splash in upper crust expat circles around the island. And who can fault them for their interest? In real life Belle is a tiny, tomboyish figure, certainly no more than 5' 2”, but onscreen she comes across as even lusher than the Hong Kong hills. There's no disputing it: the camera loves her. She's one of the most striking stars of any era of cinema.
La fine dell'innocenza is remembered for its extended sequence depicting Belle's escape from a brothel. She pulls it off—no body double—by sprinting starkers through the Hong Kong streets, leaping onto the back of a motorcycle driven by an associate, careening through traffic as she wantonly flouts local helmet laws, leaping off the bike and running again, now chased by cops, to a public fountain, where she's finally apprehended. The scene is worth rewinding just to see all the locals gawking from the backgrounds of the shots. They must have thought, watching this platinum blonde boy-woman with the jet back muff running through their city—what the hell do these foreigners smoke?
| Vintage Pulp | Jan 22 2018 |
| Vintage Pulp | Dec 18 2017 |
| Modern Pulp | Nov 18 2017 |
So does the movie. One plus is that it was made primarily on beautiful beaches in the Dominican Republic, and several scenes were shot in Santo Domingo, which is interesting to see pre-tourist era. Another plus is that there's wall to wall sex featuring such beauties as Dirce Funari, who's the real star of the movie, and Lucia Ramirez. The unrated version goes all the way, and even treats viewers to a Tijuana donkey show-worthy routine involving a stripper and a Champagne bottle. None of the X action includes Gemser, who was strictly softcore her entire career, though her nudity is more explicit than usual here. Basically, it's all just as dumb as it sounds, but we'll admit it's accidentally funny in parts, which helps. Le notti erotiche dei morti viventi premiered in Italy today in 1980.
| Vintage Pulp | Aug 14 2013 |
Il Trionfo della casta Susanna, for which you see two posters above, isn’t pulp influenced—it’s a period comedy set during the Napoleonic era—but it does feature giallo superstar Edwige Fenech, and any Fenech is good Fenech. Also, the promo posters were painted by Aller, who we’ve shown you a couple of times before, and like Fenech anything he does is worth sharing. Just for fun, we actually watched this film, and basically, the hostess of a hotel saves Napoleon from an assassination attempt, gets romantically entangled with him, and learns some military secrets. By the way, did you know Napoleon wasn’t short? He was about 5’7”, which was above average for those days. Anyway, there’s a lot of bed hopping, tasteful nudity, and broad humor, but really we can’t recommend the movie. Il Trionfo della casta Susanna, aka Frau Wirtin hat auch eine Nichte, aka House of Pleasure opened in Italy today in 1969.
| Vintage Pulp | Oct 25 2012 |
Last year we showed you a poster by Carlo Alessandrini, the Italian illustrator who signed his work Aller. Today seemed like a good day to bring him back, so above and below are five more posters by the same artist. We don't know anything about him but as always we'll dig. Regardless, we’ll have more from him down the line. Know anything about this artist? Drop us a line. You can see that other amazing piece from Alessandrini/Aller here.
| Vintage Pulp | Jan 22 2011 |
Hmm, how to assess Bruno Mattei’s nazisploitation flick Casa privata per le SS, aka La maison privée des SS, aka SS Girls? Well, let’s just say that the term softcore is too kind. In reality, it’s droopcore, or better yet, shrinkcore—i.e., watching this will affect your sex organs like a dip in icy waters. If you took out all the inept, thrashing semi-sex scenes, and the scenes of sweaty Gabriele Carrara playing his pipe organ, as well as the shots of Nazis laughing evilly (and interminably), what you’d have left is maybe forty minutes of Mystery Science Theatre-level awfulness about a group of women coerced into sleeping with high ranking SS officers in order to uncover a plot to betray Hitler. Our girlfriends gave up during the naked hunchback scene (“Oh my God! That’s revolting! How can you watch this?”) but we stuck with it and eventually focused our attentions on Macha Magall, who might be the only watchable cast member. But she’s eventually mutilated and dumped out a castle window, and the movie fatally plummets at that point too. So in the end, perhaps the flick’s best quality is its promo art by Aller, aka Carlo Alessandrini, which you see above. Casa privata per le SS premiered in Italy today in 1977.
| Vintage Pulp | Nov 10 2010 |
What a difference four years makes. Talent-wise, the Claudia Jennings from the 1972 rags to riches flick Unholy Rollers is not remotely in the same league as the one from 1976’s Dynamite Women, which we discussed here. If Jennings ever had acting lessons, she must have driven to the first one ten minutes after Unholy Rollers wrapped. Some difficulties stem from poor scripting, editing and directing, but those problems take a backseat to the fact that Jennings simply hadn’t had enough dramatic training when she starred here. We recommend this one only for fans of Jennings and/or roller derby. Unholy Rollers premiered twenty-nine years ago today, and above we have probably the best part of it—the kick-ass promo poster painted by Aller, aka Carlo Alessandrini, for the movie's Italian run.
| Vintage Pulp | Oct 31 2009 |
In the Italian sex comedy La Liceale, aka The Teasers, Gloria Guida plays the sort of cocktease supreme we’ve seen in films such as Lolita, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and American Beauty. Those are all great films, but the slapstick tone of La Liceale makes it more like a Benny Hill episode with nude scenes. Still, we give credit—Ms. Guida plays the role of a predatory virgin with an engaging sort of breeziness that makes clear why this movie was her starmaking screen appearance.
She isn’t the only sex symbol on display here—Ilona Staller, aka Ciccolina, gets her kit off as well, in her cinematic debut. You may remember she went on to a career in hardcore porn before winning election to the Italian parliament promoting a platform of legalized brothels and no nukes. While those are two sentiments we support, we can’t quite fully support La Liceale. But we think it has amazing poster art. It opened in Italy today in 1975. More Guida below.
