Doc Savage - Part 1 Bronze Skin & Torn Shirts

Back in April 2010, DC Comics was about to launch a new DOC SAVAGE comic book series. I asked my readers if they were wondering..."who is Doc Savage?"

The character, Doctor Clark Savage Jr., first appeared in 1933 in a series of pulp magazines from publisher Henry W. Ralston, editor John L. Nanovic and author Lester Dent.

Doc has often been noted as being one of the possible inspirations that led Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster to create Superman.

After all, Doc was called a "superman," his name was Clark, he was dubbed "the man of bronze" and he had a secret headquarters called The Fortress of Solitude. Coincidence? I think not,

Unlike the last son of Krypton, Doc was an Earthling whose only "costume" was his khakis and torn off-white shirt.

Doc somehow managed to always appear either shirtless or in a terribly mangled shirt that emphasized his bulging biceps.

 

 And sometimes Doc even appeared...well, you know...

...naked! Talk about pulp fiction!

Things got a little creepy at times for Doc,

but this Savage always knew how to get his man.

Mystery on Happy Bones? I'm not even touching that one! Come back tomorrow when I take a look at the swinging, sexy paperback novel covers that made Doc a sensation and pop culture icon all over again in the 1960s.

Golden Globe winner...BUTTERFLY

In honor of the Golden Globes, I recently watched the very likable Pia Zadora in a little indie flick called BUTTERFLY (1982, directed by Matteo Ottaviano). This notorious potboiler is an adaptation of the classic James M. Cain pulp novel. Set in the late 1930s, Zadora plays a dirty little sex kitten named Kady, who has been jilted by the father of her bastard child. Stacy Keach plays Jess Tyler, a loner who has spent way too many years guarding an old abandoned silver mine in Nevada. You see, Kady is Jess's full-grown daughter who he has not seen since she was an infant. Kady's wicked little plan is to use her sexy ways to actually sexually arouse her horny old daddy and get him to reopen the silver mine.

So she decides to walk around naked...

and lets him bathe her in possibly one of the most uncomfortable scenes I've ever watched, and I've seen some of 2 GIRLS 1 CUP.Before you know it old Jess has a full house when his other daughter Janey, his TB-infected wife Belle (Lois Nettleton), her lover Moke Blue (James Franciscus) and Kady's son all show up. Complicating things further, Wash Gillespie (Edward Albert), the bastard's child, proposes marriage to Kady.After some more incest, a lot of bad dialogue, worse acting and cameos by Ed McMahon, June Lockhart and Orson Welles we learn the dark secret about Kady's birth. You'll just have to watch it to find out what it is!The accompanying documentary reveals that the film was financed by Pia Zadora's husband, multimillionaire Meshulam Riklis - who met Pia when she was just out of her teens. He apparently thought she was 10 years old and fell in love at first sight. I swear, he actually says this.
The doc also covers the Golden Globe scandal. Pia won "Best Female Newcomer" at the Golden Globes for the film that year, beating out Elizabeth McGovern and Kathleen Turner. Rumor had it that Riklis wined and dined some Hollywood Foreign Press Association members in Vegas and the resulting accusations were that the award had been "bought". Pia's heartfelt revelation that she was mortified by the whole ordeal shows a rare, intimate side of the woman and makes you want to like her even more.

Pia also won "Worst Actress" and "Worst New Star", and Ed McMahon took home "Worst Supporting Actor" in the Golden Raspberry Awards. I'd give this one a 6 outta 10. You'll want to use your fast-forward button quite a bit.