| Vintage Pulp | Jul 2 2020 |
This hat looks great. Now with water, fertilizer, and a lot of patience I'll be able to make a dress to go with it.
Above, a return engagement on Pulp Intl. for American model Joanne Arnold, who in this nice Technicolor lithograph is wearing nothing but a bonnet garlanded with daisies. Arnold was a 1954 Playboy centerfold and sometime model for famed photographer Peter Gowland, who made her the centerpiece of a famous series of underwater nudes, one of which we showed you way back in 2012. She also popped up on another Technicolor litho with four other models. You can see that here. The date on the above item is 1950. Arnold will return, we promise, at which point we'll see if she ever got the rest of her outfit together.
| Femmes Fatales | Jun 26 2020 |
Our boyfriends have no clue our slumber parties involve absolutely zero slumbering.
Above is an amazing photo published in the Japanese pop culture magazine Weekly Playboy in 1972. It's uncaptioned, as you can see. Two of the women pictured are pinku actresses Miki Sugimoto and Yuri Yamashina, next to each other at bottom, looking at you rightside up. We have plenty of material on both of them in the website. We can't identify the other models. Feel free to enlighten us.
| Vintage Pulp | Jun 21 2020 |
There's no kung fu like topless kung fu.
These Italian posters were made for the sexploitation/kung fu flick Schiave nell'isola del piacere, originally released in Hong Kong as Yang chi, and known in English as The Bod Squad, or alternatively, Virgins of the Seven Seas. This is a Shaw Brothers production, and when a company makes forty films a year not all of them will be scintillating. What you have here are five western women, all allegedly virgins, who get kidnapped by Chinese pirates. They're to be sold for big bucks to a brothel, but only after some training in delightful and arcane sexual arts. The plan to remake these inexperienced white girls into perfect carnal receptacles goes pear-shaped when an unexpected ally also trains the women in martial arts, and the five end up fighting alongside downtrodden locals to help take down an organized crime cartel.
Some of the things the squad learn—both sexually and for combat—are pretty funny. Like when they're taught to spit olive pits at lethal velocity. Or when they get a lesson in Chinese sex techniques—knowledge which is of course derived from a crinkly old parchment. There's also quite a bit of slapstick humor. The entire point of the movie, however, is to show five women going through various contortions in their undies, and on that score the movie is a slam dunk. The five squad members, Sonja Jeannine, Diane Drube, Gillian Bray, Tamara Elliot, and Deborah Ralls, give the physical acting their all, and in the end confirm that toplessness—like red sunsets, fine wine, and good music—makes everything better. After premiering in Hong Kong today in 1974, Yang chi reached Italy sometime in 1975.
Hong KongItalyShaw BrothersYang chiThe Bod SquadVirgins of the Seven SeasSchiave nell'isola del piacereHua YuehHui-Ling LiuSonja JeannineDiane DrubeGillian BrayTamara ElliotDeborah RallsHsieh Wangposter artcinemasexploitationnuditymovie review
| Modern Pulp | May 29 2020 |
Once is bad luck. Twice is a trend. Six times looks more like a career choice.
Yes, Junko's back. Counting this movie—Dan Oniroku onna hisho nawa chyokyo, also known as Secretary Rope Discipline—we've now watched six of Miss Mabuki's roman porno outings, and what can we say? They're all crazy. In fact, sources say she retired because her body couldn't stand up to all the kinbaku in these flicks. This time around she's a worker at a fashion house, mostly filing and typing her days away. But she's also stealing trade secrets. When she's caught, she refuses to reveal who put her up to it, and to make her talk, the company's chairman... well, you can figure out what happens next. It involves ropes, whips, and enemas.
There's a subplot. Does anyone care? Okay, her boyfriend is a cheating dawg. He even does it right in front her because he's a terrible guy. It gets worse and worse for Junko. Later the chairman's son takes a liking to her and assumes the duties of disciplining her, which leads to her being forcibly tattooed—a standard and terribly disturbing motif in these films. The two plot streams intertwine, so to speak, in a final manic orgy. We knew fashion was a tough industry, but we had no idea it was anything like this. Next time you buy a new outfit, try to remember the pain and suffering that went into it. Dan Oniroku onna hisho nawa chyokyo premiered today in 1981.
JapanDan Oniroku onna hisho nawa chyokyoSecretary Rope DisciplineJunko Mabuki麻吹 淳子Jun Nakaharaposter artcinemapinkuroman pornosexploitationkinbakushibarinuditymovie review
| Femmes Fatales | May 24 2020 |
Don't change a thing for anybody.
You know we're Stella Stevens fans here. Though we prefer the thirty-plus version of her, she first turned heads as a model in her early twenties, posing for a Playboy centerfold published in 1960, sessions from which the above shot originates. Stevens had begun acting before then, appearing in three films released in 1959. The next year she won a Golden Globe for New Star of the Year, and eventually appeared in dozens of films and television shows. She was always a good actress, but never scored prestige roles. She did, however, grace some low budget classics, foremost among them the blaxploitation flicks Slaughter and Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold. Mixed in were cheeseball hits like The Poseidon Adventure and The Silencers, and an occasional good movie, such as The Ballad of Cable Hogue. All in all she's had an amazing career, on pause since 2010. But she'll never be on pause on this website. More Stella here and here.
Edit: We recieved an e-mail from Herman, a man who knows a thing or two about mid-century celebs and has helped us with corrections, and he wanted to remind us:
I certainly appreciate that image of Stella. Although I have been a fan of PB since the mid 50s as a boy, I don't believe I have seen this particular photo. Of course, I have to say I believe you left some important points out of your commentary about her. I believe you said once you are not a particular fan of Elvis Presley (that may have been someone else) but without the 1962 Girls, Girl, Girls appearance I don't think she would have caught on so quick. Don't forget that the reason PB recognized her in the first place was because of her appearance in Li'l Abner in 1959. I know you didn't set out to do a biography on her, but these were points I think are important in her chronology.
Agreed, H, Stevens has a long and interesting story. We didn't set out to write a biography, as you said, but we may need to spend a little more time on her to give her proper due. She's not a subject we'll tire of easily.
PlayboySlaughterCleopatra Jones and the Casino of GoldThe Poseidon AdventureThe SilencersThe Ballad of Cable HogueGolden GlobeStella Stevensblaxploitationnudity
| Modern Pulp | May 20 2020 |
Always put your best foot forward.
It's been a while, so here's another Japanese poster for an American x-rated movie. We have many of these and really should share more. Consider that a pledge. This one was made to promote A Scent of Heather, starring Veronica Hart. We shared a different poster for this film a while back, but this one is for the foot fetishists out there. We took a glance at the movie when we made that previous post, and we can attest that Hart's allure extends beyond her feet. A Scent of Heather opened in the U.S. in 1980, but reached Japan considerably later, today in 1983. Below is promo shot of Hart for the non-foot fetishists out there, and you can see that previous poster we mentioned here. We'll see more from her later.
| Vintage Pulp | May 5 2020 |
The most important entrance requirements are proper positioning and good lubrication.
Roman porno filmmakers used every possible Japanese social niche and professional realm for sexploitation fodder, so there's no chance they would overlook a milieu as ripe as higher education. Above are two pretty posters for Joshidaisei: sex hōteishiki, aka College Girls: Sex Equation, with roman porno goddesses Mari Tanaka and Hitomi Kozue. It premiered in Japan today in 1973. Basically, they're attending university but decide to do some nude modeling as a side hustle and things go weird in that roman porno sort of way. We looked around for a copy of it with no success, so we'll have to hope we see it later.
Want some bonus images? Alrightee, we are always happy to comply. Below you see Tanaka reacting with embarrassment after getting busted raiding the fridge when she's supposed to studying for her poli-sci exam. Meanwhile Kozue's study session has been so intense she doesn't even have the strength to make it to the kitchen. This is more or less how we've felt the last few weeks of this lockdown thing, but there's light at the end of the tunnel, or so we're being told. We shall see. Plenty more Tanaka and Kozue in the website. Just cllick their keywords below.
JapanNikkatsuJoshidaisei: sex hōteishikiCollege Girls: Sex EquationMari TanakaHitomi Kozueposter artpinkuroman pornocinemanudity
| Femmes Fatales | May 4 2020 |
The things we put ourselves through in the name of fashion.
What we've subjected ourselves to over the ages in order to be alluring is astounding. Bone corsets, Victorian wigs, thongs, bikini waxing, back waxing, ball waxing, nostril waxing (which we recently learned is a thing), stiletto heels, and the list goes on. Obviously, women have it far worse than men. We don't want to sound unduly incredulous, because we get that all the things we do to ourselves show how important the mating game is. If a fashion trend gets you that partner you seek for a night, a lifetime, or any time between, is there really any length that is too far? Still, though, from our generational perspective, the torpedo bra is among the strangest of all fashion items, and this shot of model Donna Reading shows how extreme the look could get. It comes from an issue of Daily Girl and dates from around 1970. Reading, who was also known as Donna Marlowe (sometimes Marlow), acted as well as modeled, and appeared in a dozen or so television series, including The Benny Hill Show and Monty Python's Flying Circus. The real circus act was wedging herself into this medieval device. We've expressed our wonder concerning this subject before, here and here. Meanwhile, below, Marlowe bans the bra.
| Vintage Pulp | May 2 2020 |
Katayama finds herself with too much skin in the game.
Above you see two posters for the Japanese movie Tokugawa irezumi-shi: Seme jigoku, which is known in English as Inferno of Torture, and, occasionally, Hell's Tattooers. We aren't going to get too deeply into the film. It's where Japanese cinema delves into bondage and tattoo fetish layered with gore, and deals with two Edo-era master tattooists who play out a bitter rivalry on the skin of Yumiko Katayama, as well as other unfortunates. If you can tolerate the frontloaded blood and torture, the latter two thirds of the movie may be worth watching for the tattoos, which verge on magical rather than merely ornate. The set design and Teruo Ishii's direction are good too. The tateken sized promo at top is rare, if not even nonexistent online until this very moment, so we thought we'd share it. Tokugawa irezumi-shi: Seme jigoku premiered in Japan today in 1969. Below you see Katayama in a nice pose, untattooed.
JapanToei CompanyTokugawa irezumi-shi: Seme jigokuInferno of TortureHell's TattooersTeruo YoshidaMasumi TachibanaYumiko KatayamaTeruo Ishiiiposter artcinemasexploitationnudity
| Femmes Fatales | May 1 2020 |
For perfect composition start with the basics.
This artful photo shows U.S. actress Paula Kelly, who appeared in such classic films as The Andromeda Strain, Soylent Green, and the blaxploitation comedy Uptown Saturday Night. She was also a dancer and choreographer, which probably helped her nail this pose and make the photographer look brilliant. She just died a couple of months ago at age seventy-seven, an event we totally missed, but we're glad we found this timeless image.
