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Pulp Film Recommendations


Steve Long

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So, pulp buffs, what films have you run across, either period or modern, that you think are worth watching for pulp gaming purposes?

 

To save you some time, here's the PH draft filmography as of 04/01/2005:

 

 

 

FILMOGRAPHY

 

The movie industry was in one of its heydays in the pulp era, giving GMs and players plenty of period films they can watch to get a feel for things (though many of those old movies aren’t available on VHS or DVD, or are rare). Rather than try to list all of them, this Filmography lists a few classics, concentrating instead on modern films and television shows depicting pulp adventures that the author particularly enjoys or thinks would be helpful for gamers to watch.

 

Casablanca (technically a little after the pulp era, but too good to pass up!)

Citizen Kane

Doc Savage (ridiculously cheesy, but lots of fun!)

Hindenburg

The Indiana Jones movies and the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles TV show

It Happened One Night

King Kong

The Maltese Falcon

Only Angels Have Wings

The Phantom

The Rocketeer

The Shadow

Zeppelin!

 

 

Note that, as usual, I'm mostly restricting myself to movies that I enjoy and/or think are worthwhile. I can't, and don't want to, produce an exhaustive filmography of the genre, and won't recommend films I don't think are worth watching -- which is why Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow isn't on the list.

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Re: Pulp Film Recommendations

 

It can be difficult to find nowadays, but if you can dig it up I recommend a classic 1930's film serial, Daredevils of the Red Circle, featuring a trio of circus acrobats drawn into the schemes of a mysterious mastermind villain. Good period archetypes (Romantic Hero/Leader, Strongman, Agile Little Guy, Mastermind), great cliffhangers, well-done mystery angle, surprisingly strong writing and acting. The fisticuffs and stunts are very well handled, and some of the more spectacular visual effects became staples that were reused in later serials.

 

EDIT: a Google Search turned up a lot of website entries, plus the fact that the whole 12-episode serial is available on Amazon, 2 VHS tapes for $19.95 US.

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Re: Pulp Film Recommendations

 

Well, I hate to include it, but "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" had some good pulp fiction elements in it.

 

Similarly, cheesy though they may be, Richard Chamberlain's 'Allan Quartermain' movies ("King Soloman's Mines", "Lost City of Gold") are popcorn-tossin' fun.

 

"The Mummy" movies with Brenden Frasier (well, at least the first one).

 

Heck, even "Tomb Raider".

 

Anyone remember "Zone Troopers"?

 

"Road To Perdition" has some good pulp/noir elements in it (and it's a good movie anyway...go rent it!)

 

"Buckaroo Banzai" could easily be adapted to a pulp-era game (and it's a good movie...go rent it!)

 

"Romancing the Stone", of course.

 

I'm just riffin' here but that's what I came up with initially.

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Re: Pulp Film Recommendations

 

Um...not a hack' date=' mind you, but how'd this wind up in your list?[/quote']

 

There are great sequences in the movie where one of Jakes sons comes riding up on an ealry motorcycle, and is armed with an automatic pistol, a spring loaded holster, and a bolt action rifle with a pretty modern looking scope. This would probably be at the very beginning of the pulp Genre...

 

Ok here's another one that had some very early pulp elements....

 

The Adventures of Briscoe County Junior... :whistle:

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Re: Pulp Film Recommendations

 

There are great sequences in the movie where one of Jakes sons comes riding up on an ealry motorcycle' date=' and is armed with an automatic pistol, a spring loaded holster, and a bolt action rifle with a pretty modern looking scope. This would probably be at the very beginning of the pulp Genre...[/quote']

Aah...I thought that might be where you were goin'. That mule goin' crazy was a good scene :)

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Re: Pulp Film Recommendations

 

If you can find them, I recommend the TV Series "Bring 'Em Back Alive!" and "Tales of the Gold Monkey" from the '80s ... also, the cartoon "Tailspin" ... As far as movies, I'd like to add "To Cast a Deadly Spell" to that list as well ;)

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Re: Pulp Film Recommendations

 

If you can find them' date=' I recommend the TV Series "Bring 'Em Back Alive!" and "Tales of the Gold Monkey" from the '80s ... also, the cartoon "Tailspin" ... As far as movies, I'd like to add "To Cast a Deadly Spell" to that list as well ;)[/quote']

If you include "Tailspin," you can't leave out Miyazaki's Porco Rosso.

 

The similarities are too good to ignore.

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Re: Pulp Film Recommendations

 

Well, if you are going to submit something like Van Helsing - I'll add an equally apalling movie - Wild Wild West.

 

Hmm, Anime -

Steamboy, Cowboy Beebop (although scifi), Lupin (as mentioned previously), Metropolis (but also scifi)

 

Comics-

Girl Genius. Ruse by Crossgen Comics

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Re: Pulp Film Recommendations

 

This kinda depends on what you consider "Pulp." I think when most people talk about "Pulp Games." they really mean "Games based on the adventure pulps of 1930's." This knocks out most of the stuff written by the likes of Lovecraft and Hammett.

 

I tend to take a more inclusive, view, though, and I tend to set my games in the twenties, since prohibition, gangsters, and the general spirit of the times seems to me to be a bit more fun than setting a game during the Great Depression. My best film resources have been silent films set in the appropriate years. These give a lot of "passive" information about how daily life was conducted - how people lived, what they bought, what they ate, how they dressed, etc.

 

My favorite source of this kind of information has been through watching Buster Keaton movies. Anything set in "modern" times will generally have a lot of slapstick gags involving the trappings of life as it was in the twenties. Harold Loyd movies are also good. I find Charlie Chaplin movies to be somewhat less good, but that could just be because I just don't appreciate Charlie Chaplin as much as the other two.

 

If you're looking for "Pulpish" films from this era, then you have to include Valentino's "The Sheik" and perhaps "The Son of the Sheik."

 

If you're looking for "Pulpy" kinds of films, "Scooby Doo" is a direct descendant of the "Weird Manace" genre of pulp stories.

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