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The lovely Stacey Dorning in Space:1999

Dolores del Rio in Bird of Paradise (1932)

Dear Allan,

I thoroughly enjoy both your magazines and although I’m more on The Dark Side than The Infinite, I’m finding a wealth of information in Infinity that I didn’t know I needed to know (if you know what I mean), the kids’ comics stuff being a case in point. However, I would like to see more coverage of Marvel UK if Mr. Millsted (or another of your team) could be persuaded. I was a confirmed Marvelite from 1973-78 and it would be nice to wallow in a bit nostalgia for that time. UK Marvels have never proved that popular with collectors due to their (mostly) reprint status and relatively high print runs, so a couple more articles might raise their profile (and stock!) a little...

Inspired by Greg Kulon’s excellent Most Dangerous Game piece in Infinity 65, I re-watched King Vidor’s Bird Of Paradise (1932). Whilst it pinches its basic premise of forbidden love on a South Sea island from Murnau’s Tabu, made the previous year, the Kong parallels are quite striking, most notably the heroine’s sacrifice to the island god. Dolores del Rio’s near-nudity is even more daring than Fay’s – very pre-code (and welcome!), and Lon Chaney Jr (in his first credited role) hovers in the background without making much impact. I’m also counting it as a fantasy movie on the grounds that (Spoiler Alert!) as Dolores is led to sacrifice, the volcano’s eruption visibly subsides before the final fadeout, giving credence to idea of the god’s appeasement! Well worth a look.