Imaginary Films/ Film Crews in Peril

[ripper]

Dan Turner also appeared in 2 films: Blackmail in 1947 and The Raven Red Kiss-Off in 1990--which went straight to video, I think.

I would agree that Bellem is one of the most distinctive of the 1930s/1940s pulp magazine writers I have read and his stories flow so smoothly that it is all over before you know it. I have read only a few of the 300 Dan Turner stories that Bellem wrote, but I was wondering if he faced any backlash at the time over the character? Did he, for instance, have to tone down Turner over the years?

[andydecker]

Sept 13, 2016 8:33:03 GMT ripper said:

Dan Turner also appeared in 2 films: Blackmail in 1947 and The Raven Red Kiss-Off in 1990--which went straight to video, I think.

I would agree that Bellem is one of the most distinctive of the 1930s/1940s pulp magazine writers I have read and his stories flow so smoothly that it is all over before you know it. I have read only a few of the 300 Dan Turner stories that Bellem wrote, but I was wondering if he faced any backlash at the time over the character? Did he, for instance, have to tone down Turner over the years?

He did the toning down himself on stories. There is a oop collection of his work where different versions of stories are compared. Deja Vue! I've Read That Before! Seems he rewrote stuff. Strangely the earlier version seem to be more spicy then the later ones.

I think you can only write like him so long if you really like what you do. Or if you never get older  How tiresome has it to be to invent new synonyms for breasts? Story after story, year after year? But a lot of his work is still fun.

[dem]

I don't know if there was any backlash against Bellem or any particular author(s), but according to Robert Kenneth Jones in The Shudder Pulps (Fax, 1975), the Spicies and the Weird Menace pulps came in for much flack at the close of the thirties.

"There had been pressure on publishers to expunge offensive material from the magazines ... The Spicies, particularly, found the going tough in New York City. It is said that [Mayor] Le Guardia wouldn't let them in unless the covers were removed, and they were sold under the counter. Spicy became Speed in the early forties to take some of the heat off."

Horror Stories and Terror Tales both went under in the early months of 1941. Bruno Fischer, aka Russell Gray, is quoted in Writer's Digest (July, 1945).

"Clean-up organisations started to throw their weight around and gave editors the jitters, and artists and writers were told to put panties and brassieres on the girls."

Bellem continued to write for the now 'respectable' Speed Detective, where, as Andy mentions, he worked within the new guidelines.

[ripper]

Thanks for the information, gents. As I read more of Dan Turner, and of pulp stories in general, it will be interesting to see how they changed over the years. With things being toned down and some publications changing title or folding, it sounds similar to what happened in the 50s to horror and crime comics.

[andydecker]

Dem, did you read Bellem's Adventure's End? Tate Shevlin pits himself against mighty powers—smashes through incredible oriental horrors—in his last magnificent adventure with the Golden Girl. Fun stuff. Whips, torture, heaving mounds. Read it on Pulpgen.

[dem]

Sept 14, 2016 18:26:55 GMT andydecker said:

Dem, did you read Bellem's Adventure's End? Tate Shevlin pits himself against mighty powers—smashes through incredible oriental horrors—in his last magnificent adventure with the Golden Girl. Fun stuff. Whips, torture, heaving mounds. Read it on Pulpgen.

Much obliged, Andy. I'm on the case.

*Hits link. Lights a gasper *

[severance]

After having read that last night, I must admit to preferring his Dan Turner stories, but it passed an enjoyable twenty or so minutes. It was a shame that both Tate and the Golden Girl were both a bit one-dimensional, the real character in the piece being the un-named female torturer who went into her work with unbridled relish. The frequent 'globes' references were a riot, though. Shame that there isn't any of the earlier Tate Shevlin stories at Pulpgen - apparently they were all part of a larger story, this being the last of them.

[ripper]

With Andy's great description of 'Adventure's End' by Bellem, I knew I had to read it. Another good one, and I agree that in this tale at least the stand-out character was the torturer. It would be nice to have more in the series available; it is difficult to judge a series by one entry alone.

[andydecker]

I thought the same. A bit one-dimensional. But I still would read all parts. Bellem couldn't have put Golden Girl into chains every time, could he?

[dem]

Sept 15, 2016 17:36:15 GMT andydecker said:

I thought the same. A bit one-dimensional. But I still would read all parts. Bellem couldn't have put Golden Girl into chains every time, could he?

I can't see any reason why not ...

Robert Leslie Bellem - Hop Cargo: (Spicy Adventure Stories, July 1937).

Max Plaisted

An SOS sends the camera guy into action. It's routine stuff, photographing a sinking vessel from an airplane - until Johnnie discovers there's dynamite aboard! Dynamite, in the shape of a human beast and a helpless, altogether lovely girl!

An example of Bellem falling foul of the clean-up campaigners. According to Locus online, there were two versions of Spicy-Adventure Stories for July 1937. The original included Bellem's 'Johnnie Piper' story Hop Cargo, the "censored" version replaced it with something called Asia Blood by Tom B. Stone.

Johnnie Piper, action camera guy for World Newsreel, boards a sinking trawler off the South Jersey shore to rescue a screaming brunette. The captain has been shot twice in the brain, the gal struggles in the iron grip of the huge, ape-like goon who murdered him. Johnnie braves the bullets to launch a two-fisted attack, but trips over the captain's corpse, and knocks himself unconscious.

The killer, Cragin, shoots dead Piper's hired pilot, commandeers the plane, and makes off with the girl, Glory Whitney, the captain's daughter. He doesn't realise the camera guy is clinging tenaciously to the wing. Johnnie drags himself into the main cabin where Glory slumps unconscious - but alive. Turns out her dad got wise to Cragin and his pals' dope-smuggling operation.

"He was filled with a surging desire to protect her . . . . and to caress her. She was so lost in grief that she seemed not to realize that her blouse was torn, her lovely white breasts almost wholly exposed. Johnnie could see each pouting hillock nestling in the torn silk of the brassiere she wore; could see the smooth, enticing valley between them. . . . On sudden chivalrous impulse he pulled the torn blouse over her revealed charms. The back of his hand brushed resilient flesh; his blood raced through his veins at the intimate contact."

Cragin crash lands the plane next to his buddies' yacht, and Piper and Glory are persuaded aboard at machine-gun point. They're both gonna die, but first, the hoods are intent on having some fun with the dame ...

An ultra-violent, gory, breast-fest for sure, but it's difficult to comprehend why Hop Cargo should run into trouble when (the excellent - grateful thanks, Andy) Adventure's End presumably didn't? Those who choose to be offended by the one are unlikely to be less so by the other. More to the point, Stewart Gates' no less salacious Priestess Of The Living Dead, appeared in both the full and censored versions of the same issue.

[helrunar]

The Pouting Hillocks of Doom ... as epochal as Crabs on the Rampage.

The great unwashed masses who pullulate and pootle in their ignorance of the rare treasures on view here truly do not know what they're missing.

But perhaps, it's better that way...

cheers, H.

[ripper]

"He was filled with a surging desire to protect her . . . . and to caress her. She was so lost in grief that she seemed not to realize that her blouse was torn, her lovely white breasts almost wholly exposed. Johnnie could see each pouting hillock nestling in the torn silk of the brassiere she wore; could see the smooth, enticing valley between them. . . . On sudden chivalrous impulse he pulled the torn blouse over her revealed charms. The back of his hand brushed resilient flesh; his blood raced through his veins at the intimate contact."

All that while clinging to the wing of a plane...what a guy!

[dem]

Sept 16, 2016 17:44:31 GMT ripper said:

"He was filled with a surging desire to protect her . . . . and to caress her. She was so lost in grief that she seemed not to realize that her blouse was torn, her lovely white breasts almost wholly exposed. Johnnie could see each pouting hillock nestling in the torn silk of the brassiere she wore; could see the smooth, enticing valley between them. . . . On sudden chivalrous impulse he pulled the torn blouse over her revealed charms. The back of his hand brushed resilient flesh; his blood raced through his veins at the intimate contact."

All that while clinging to the wing of a plane...what a guy!

Ah, I believe Piper had somehow managed to force his way through a window (without Cragin noticing) by then. Even so, admirable sense of priorities.

It's likely that what the clean up campaigners most objected to was the proposed gang-rape, although, of the hoods, only Cragin gets to slobber over Glory's glories, and even then it reads like the enraged photo guy interrupted him mid-foreplay. The violence and gore is pretty uncompromising for a Spicy - Piper is not one for taking prisoners. That said, it could be argued that Hop Cargo is not the most outrageous story featured in the July 1937 issue. Priestess Of The Living Dead drags necrophilia into the mix (the narrator's heroics in the boudoir return sisters Ra-sen and Ra-mose from the dead), yet that one was reprinted in the censored version, although I suppose there's always the possibility it was cleaned up a little beforehand.

[dem]

Jefferson Ames - Girl On The Torture Wheel (Saucy Movie Tales, August 1937)

On the wheel was a naked woman, bound hand and foot! She was dead! The nude figure was laced with her back to the wheel, the body curved around the torture machine so that the young breasts stood up like the halves of small silver footballs; so that the gently rounded belly formed a connecting link between the breasts and her thighs.

The dead girl’s neck bore bluish marks! Someone had strangled her, then tied her on the wheel..

Murder on the set of Regal Pictures latest blockbuster feature, a movie based on the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition. Worse, the victim is world famous screen Goddess, Maxine LeSoir! Lusted-up Jerry Matheson and June Garcia - collectively the Mero Detective Agency of Times Square - investigate the dead superstar's lingerie, expose the killer. Moral of the story seems to be: nymphomaniacs are rubbish at getting away with murder because they lose their concentration if you flash them.

Same issue included the intriguingly titled Hollywood Torso by Saucy regular Stephen Storm, which can only be better.

Another very welcome PulpGen revival. Where would we be without them?

Direct download

[ripper]

After reading 'Girl on the Torture Wheel' I wondered whether the detective pair were featured in any other stories or if this was their only adventure. It was okay but not a patch on Bellem's Dan Turner tales. I thought the writing style was far less smooth-flowing than Bellem's.