#corman's world: exploits of a Hollywood rebel

[greensparty]

Remembering Roger Corman 1926-2024

This one hurts! One of the giants of indie film Roger Corman has died at 98. While he might have been known for B movies, his influence is immeasurable to all movies (A-Z).

If there was some sort of an It's a Wonderful Life scenario where we could see what life would be like if Corman hadn't been born, the entire history of film would look very different. As a producer / director / writer, he discovered and gave early career breaks to Jack Nicholson, Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Sylvester Stallone, Joe Dante, Ron Howard, Alan Arkush, John Sayles, James Cameron, Gale Ann Hurd and countless others. In 2010 when Corman received an honorary Academy Award, Quentin Tarantino did the tribute. Afterwards QT posed for a photo with many of Corman's proteges and made reference to feeling like he was an honorary member of the Corman Film School!

Demme directing Corman in Silence of the Lambs. The student became the master!

But most notably for me is that he discovered one of my favorite filmmakers of all time Jonathan Demme. Early Corman-produced films that Demme worked on included Angels Hard as They Come, and The Hot Box. Then the first three features Demme directed were for Corman's New World Pictures: Caged Heat, Crazy Mama, and Fighting Mad. Once he moved on to bigger films, Demme never forgot Corman as he cast him in small roles in Swing Shift, The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, The Manchurian Candidate, and Rachel Getting Married. One of the things Demme talked about quite often that Corman taught him was that you need to keep the eye engaged in a film, because if the eye gets bored, the brain (and the viewer) will too, and also that the picture will only be as strong as the hero and antagonist. In 2010 when Demme received an award from Coolidge Corner Theatre, Corman was in attendance and spoke as well. My friend Jake Mulligan taught a class about Corman at the Coolidge a few years ago and had a section about Demme and Corman as well.

Bucket of Blood movie poster

In all of this praise about Corman as a producer and the "Corman Film School" of directors he gave early opportunities to, it's easy to overlook his own directing. My favorite of his own films are the underrated A Bucket of Blood (having a lot to say about beatniks and the art world) and The Little Shop of Horrors (featuring Jack Nicholson in an early role as an eager patient).

In my own directing class in college, my professor would often make reference to Corman, not just the themes and ideas in his films but his approach to low-budget filmmaking. If you've ever seen Corman in an interview you can't help but absorb his bits of wisdom.

I'd highly recommend checking out the 2011 documentary Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel for more about the man himself. I included it in my Best Documentaries of the 2010s list.

The link above is the obit from Hollywood Reporter.

[yestolerancepro]

Tolerance Project extra The 8 Best Star Wars Rip offs Ranked

Part 1 Krull and The Last Starfighter

Introduction

Hello there and welcome to a revised edition of a blog that looks at 8 of the best Star Wars film Rip offs. this new Tumblr version will be split into two parts

This blog entry is inspired by the movieweb article of the same name you can find the original article by clicking here https://movieweb.com/best-star-wars-ripoffs-ranked/#:~:text=The%208%20Best%20Star%20Wars%20Rip-offs%2C%20Ranked%201,2%20Flash%20Gordon%20%281980%29%208%201%20Spaceballs%20%281987%29

One of the first sequences in the Tolerance film is a Star Wars spoof so this article peeked my interest our Star Wars Spoof was a bit less blatant than those featured in the movieweb article all we did for ours was spoof the opening dialogue crawl that opened all 9 of the movies in the Star Wars saga

You can read about how Star Wars created that original opening crawl by clicking here https://www.slashfilm.com/1322995/how-star-wars-created-original-opening-crawl-using-black-paper/#:~:text=Thus%2C%20to%20make%20the%20crawl%2C%20they%20had%20to,illusion%20of%20the%20letters%20progressing%20up%20the%20screen.

To quote the movie web article Star Wars is one of the biggest and most successful science fiction franchises ever created. Beginning in 1977, the original film became one of many episodic movies now dubbed the Skywalker Saga, told in a trilogy of trilogies.Recounting the galactic civil war between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire, Star Wars shares the sociopolitical consequences of space exploration and planetary conquest. On the surface, the franchise is a fairy tale told in space. Its formula and genre became so popular, it led to copycats in a galaxy not so far away.

Of the 8 films mentioned I have never seen the man who saved the world 1982 trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsRV6z-cd-c  and Starchaser the legend of Orin 1985 trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8UZ2WfLG70

Krull (1983)

Krull is a science fiction and fantasy adventure film about a royal family who will rule the galaxy as foretold in a prophecy. Playing off the fairy-tale-in-space trope, the film didn't know what to be as it tried cashing in on two genres for the price of one. The rip-off was also released the same year as Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, leading to an early death by comparison. However, it has survived being a box-office bomb and panned by critics with its own cult following.

The website space.com published this short article about the film

Luke Skywalker's well publicized exploits on the Death Star were such a spectacular success that there was an air of inevitability when other Hollywood studios tried to make a "Star Wars" of their own. More remarkable was the fact that their subsequent efforts to milk the cash cow (or bantha, perhaps?) took such different approaches to outer space.

However, most of the wannabes ignored a crucial element of George Lucas's extremely lucrative franchise – for all the spaceships, robots, and lasers, "Star Wars" was actually fantasy in sci-fi clothing, built around a hero whose quest revolved as much around magic (cleverly rebranded as "the Force") as futuristic gadgets.

In the years following "A New Hope," viewers were invited to experience the high camp of "Flash Gordon," the overblown space opera of "The Black Hole," and a Roger Corman-produced interstellar riff on "The Magnificent Seven" called "Battle Beyond the Stars." "Star Trek" also got in on the act with the "2001: A Space Odyssey"-esque grandeur of "The Motion Picture," while T.V. viewers were given a weekly dose of sci-fi in their homes courtesy of "Battlestar Galactica" (arguably one of the best sci-fi TV shows of all time).

According to this article on the Giant Freaking Robot website Krull could be getting a new film Reboot with JJ Abrams directing https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/exclusive-krull-reboot-jj-abrams.html

Further Watching

To watch a trailer for Krull click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6i2par2Fv0

To watch a documentary called 10 things you didn’t know about Krull click here

The Last Starfighter (1984)

The Last Starfighter follows teenager Alex, who is chosen to be a gunner in an interstellar war based on his high score in an arcade game of the same, a secret recruitment tool of the Rylan Star League. Alex is forced to save the dying alien squadron and destroy the enemy fleet, the Ko-Dan Armada.

He later stays to rebuild the league's depleted forces, knowing their overlord survived the destruction of his mothership. Compared to Luke Skywalker, the film takes the glory out of the hero's journey for Alex, who must protect a planet now facing near-extinction

The Fatherley website published this retrospective on the film to read it click here To read a retrospective on the film click here https://www.fatherly.com/entertainment/last-starfighter-retrospective-sci-fi-movie-1984

My Memories of The Last Starfighter

A very good film I watched it as a 7 year old as my Dad got us to watch it on VHS remember those ? The Star Wars stuff went over my head the Ironic thing here is that I used my Star wars toys to play the last Starfighter for weeks after seeing it I have great memories of the film it was one of the first to use CGI before the term was even known about  

That reminds me I must get a copy of the Bluray and I did the film has just been re-released by Arrow video you can order it from here The Last Starfighter Limited Edition Blu-ray Blu-ray - Zavvi UK

Further watching

To watch the film trailer for The Last Starfighter click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnJCn6lXrXg&t=3s

Click here to watch the teaser trailer for The Last Starfighter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tOHLZibvFM

To watch a video called 10 things you didnt know about the last star fighter click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-Pzxzp2m2I

Next week more Star Wars homages with Battlestar Gallactica Flash Gordon Battle Beyond the Stars and Spaceballs

Notes

Thank you to the following websites for their help Movieweb whose article inspired the blog in the first place Space.com Minty comedic arts for his Documentary on Krull Youtube for the vairous trailers and Google images for the Krull and Last Starfighter posters and Ian Medley for the Tolerance film Screengrab

Pictures

The Tolerance project Star Wars Dialoge roll

Krull film poster 1983

Last Star fighter poster 1984

If you want to help the Tolerance project after reading this blog please click on the above link

[malditoportal]

FRIKUMENTALES 129

CORMAN'S WORLD: EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL (2011)

[amatesura]

Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011)

[shagrathmovies]

Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel - 2011 - Alex Stapleton

[foxingpeculiar]

Since I don’t plan on putting on another one in the next two hours, I apparently watched exactly 200 movies for the first time in 2019. We’ll see if we can beat that. They are, if anyone cares:

Searching (2018, Aneesh Chhaganty)

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018, David Slade)

Upgrade (2018, Leigh Whannell)

Pather Panchali (1955, Satyajit Ray)

Aparajito (1956, Satyajit Ray)

The Vampire Lovers (1970, Roy Ward Baker)

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009, Werner Herzog)

*Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018, Marielle Heller)

Cape Fear (1991, Martin Scorsese)

Wild Strawberries (1957, Ingmar Bergman)

The Seven Year Itch (1955, Billy Wilder)

A Star is Born (2018, Bradley Cooper)

You Were Never Really Here (2017, Lynne Ramsay)

Vampire’s Kiss (1988, Robert Bierman)

Gangs of Wasseypur—Part 1 (2012, Anurag Kashyap)

*Destroyer (2018, Karyn Kusama)

Gangs of Wasseypur—Part 2 (2012, Anurag Kashyap)

Under the Silver Lake (2018, David Robert Mitchell)

Night Moves (1975, Arthur Penn)

*Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018, Bob Persichetti/Peter A Ramsey/Rodney Rothman)

The Thin Red Line (1998, Terrence Malick)

*Shogun Assassin (1980, Robert Houston/Kenji Misumi)

Secret Window (2004, David Koepp)

Gemini (2017, Aaron Katz)

Velvet Buzzsaw (2019, Dan Gilroy)

A Field in England (2013, Ben Wheatley)

Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened (2019, Chris Smith)

Daisies (1966, Věra Chytilová)

The Devils (1971, Ken Russell)

Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010, Panos Cosmatos)

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018, Bryan Singer)

Bye Bye Birdie (1963, George Sidney)

Body Heat (1981, Lawrence Kasdan)

Being There (1979, Hal Ashby)

Logan’s Run (1976, Michael Anderson)

Escape From Tomorrow (2013, Randy Moore)

The Double (2014, Richard Ayoade)

Days of Heaven (1978, Terrence Malick)

The Blackcoat’s Daughter (2015, Oz Perkins)

Submarine (2010, Richard Ayoade)

*The Wandering Earth (2019, Frant Gwo)

Abducted in Plain Sight (2017, Skye Borgman)

The Thomas Crown Affair (1968, Norman Jewison)

Certain Women (2016, Kelly Reichardt)

Green Book (2018, Peter Farrelly)

Cold War (2018, Pawel Pawlikowski)

*The Boxer’s Omen (1983, Kuei Chih-Hung)

Vox Lux (2018, Brady Corbett)

A Most Violent Year (2014, JC Chandor)

Leaving Neverland (2019, Dan Reed)

Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy (1968, Roger Vadim)

The Clovehitch Killer (2018, Duncan Skiles)

The Wicker Man (1973, Robin Hardy)

Jubilee (1978, Derek Jarman)

Blithe Spirit (1945, David Lean)

Burning (2018, Lee Chang-Dong)

Starchaser: The Legend of Orin (1985, Steven Hahn)

First Man (2018, Damien Chazelle)

*Us (2019, Jordan Peele)

Re-Animator (1985, Stuart Gordon)

The Dirt (2019, Jeff Tremaine)

Brokeback Mountain (2005, Ang Lee)

All That Heaven Allows (1955, Douglas Sirk)

The Blues Brothers (1980, John Landis)

Unfaithfully Yours (1948, Preston Sturges)

Hustle & Flow (2005, Craig Brewer)

Yojimbo (1961, Akira Kurosawa)

The Detective (1968, Gordon Douglas)

Support the Girls (2018, Andrew Bujalski)

The Age of Innocence (1993, Martin Scorsese)

Boys Don’t Cry (1999, Kimberly Peirce)

Eyes of Laura Mars (1978, Irvin Kershner)

*Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2019, Bi Gan)

Pet Sematary (1989, Mary Lambert)

*Avengers: Endgame (2019, Anthony & Joe Russo)

Fear (1996, James Foley)

Shivers (1976, David Cronenberg)

The Brood (1979, David Cronenberg)

Drowning by Numbers (1988, Peter Greenaway)

Like Someone in Love (2012, Abbas Kiarostami)

Society (1989, Brian Yuzna)

The Perfection (2019, Richard Shepard)

Lords of Chaos (2018, Jonas Åkerlund)

Perfect Blue (1997, Satoshi Kon)

Happy Death Day 2 U (2019, Christopher Landon)

The Dunwich Horror (1970, Daniel Haller)

Three Days of the Condor (1975, Sydney Pollack)

The Parallax View (1974, Alan J Pakula)

Klute (1971, Alan J Pakula)

The Day of the Jackal (1973, Fred Zinneman)

Play Misty for Me (1971, Clint Eastwood)

The Craft (1996, Andrew Fleming)

Charade (1963, Stanley Donen)

Her Smell (2019, Alex Ross Perry)

Gattaca (1997, Andrew Niccol)

Hackers (1995, Iain Softley)

The Paperboy (2012, Lee Daniels)

They Live (1988, John Carpenter)

*Midsommar (2019, Ari Aster)

A Murder of Crows (1999, Rowdy Herrington)

The Predator (2018, Shane Black)

*Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019, Quentin Tarantino)

Bullitt (1968, Peter Yates)

Basic Instinct (1992, Paul Verhoeven)

The Da Vinci Code (2006, Ron Howard)

The Trip (1967, Roger Corman)

X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963, Roger Corman)

The Falcon and the Snowman (1985, John Schlesinger)

Inside Daisy Clover (1965, Robert Mulligan)

The Falls (1980, Peter Greenaway)

Cannibal Holocaust (1980, Ruggero Deodato)

Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019, Rob Letterman)

War & Peace (1967, Sergei Bondarchuk)

A Zed and Two Noughts (1985, Peter Greenaway)

The Man with the Golden Arm (1955, Otto Preminger)

Maniac (1934, Dwain Esper)

Possession (1981, Andrzej Żuławski)

High Life (2018, Claire Denis)

Catch Me If You Can (2002, Steven Spielberg)

The Souvenir (2019, Joanna Hogg)

Gow the Killer (1931, Edward A Sailsbury)

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018, JA Bayona)

Suicide Squad (2016, David Ayer)

Jaws of the Jungle (1936, Eddie Granemann)

*IT, Chapter Two (2019, Andy Muschietti)

Rocketman (2019, Dexter Fletcher)

Booksmart (2019, Olivia Wilde)

A Futile and Stupid Gesture (2018, David Wain)

Goodbye Lover (1998, Roland Joffé)

24 Hour Party People (2002, Michael Winterbottom)

Wild Women of Wongo (1958, James L Wolcott)

Body of Evidence (1993, Uli Edel)

Capricorn One (1978, Peter Hyams)

Identification of a Woman (1982, Michelangelo Antonioni)

Marihuana (1936, Dwain Esper)

*Ad Astra (2019, James Gray)

The Violent Years (1956, William Morgan)

Salvatore Giuliano (1962. Francesco Rosi)

Metropolis (2001, Rintaro)

Mom and Dad (1945, William Beaudine)

The Eye of Vichy (1993, Claude Chabrol)

Harper (1966, Jack Smight)

The House That Dripped Blood (1971, Peter Duffell)

The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967, Roman Polanski)

Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959, Edward D Wood Jr)

*Joker (2019, Todd Phillips)

Attack of the Crab Monsters (1956, Roger Corman)

Fracture (2007, Gregory Hoblit)

The Bedroom Window (1987, Curtis Hanson)

The Celluloid Closet (1995, Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman)

Echoes in the Darkness (1987, Glenn Jordan)

No Way Out (1987, Roger Donaldson)

Pumpkinhead (1988, Stan Winston)

Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011, Alex Stapleton)

McLuhan’s Wake (2002, Kevin McMahon)

Taking Lives (2004, DJ Caruso)

Spine Tingler!: The William Castle Story (2009, Jeffrey Schwarz)

House on Haunted Hill (1959, William Castle)

The Tingler (1959, William Castle)

The Virgin Spring (1960, Ingmar Bergman)

Last House on the Left (1972, Wes Craven)

*Judy (2019, Rupert Goold)

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961, Stanley Kramer)

Cam (2018, Daniel Goldhaber)

Dolemite is My Name (2019, Craig Brewer)

Dolemite (1975, D’Urville Martin)

*The Lighthouse (2019, Robert Eggers)

The Defilers (1965, David F Friedman)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985, Jack Sholder)

Paranormal Activity 2 (2010, Tod Williams)

Paranormal Activity 3 (2011, Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman)

Kill List (2011, Ben Wheatley)

Krull (1983, Peter Yates)

Ginger Snaps (2000, John Fawcett)

Blood Feast (1963, Herschell Gordon Lewis)

Primal Fear (1996, Gregory Hoblit)

The World of Apu (1959, Satyajit Ray)

Man of Steel (2013, Zack Snyder)

Superman: The Movie (1978, Richard Donner)

Coffy (1973, Jack Hill)

In the Shadow of the Moon (2019, Jim Mickle)

The Irishman (2019, Martin Scorsese)

Marriage Story (2019, Noah Baumbach)

Echo in the Canyon (2019, Andrew Slater)

Shock Corridor (1963, Samuel Fuller)

The Road to Wellville (1994, Alan Parker)

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988, Martin Scorsese)

*Knives Out (2019, Rian Johnson)

Howl (2010, Rob Epstien & Jeffrey Friedman)

Hustlers (2019, Lorene Scafaria)

Late Night (2019, Nisha Ganatra)

Reefer Madness (2005, Andy Fickman)

Soapdish (1991, Michael Hoffman)

Happy Together (1997, Wong Kar-Wai)

The Cloud-Capped Star (1960, Ritwik Ghatak)

Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013, Frank Pavich)

Thief (1981, Michael Mann)

Detour (1945, Edgar G Ulmer)

The Bank Dick (1940, Edward F Cline)

Blinded by the Light (2019, Gurinder Chadha)

[documentaryoncinema]

Roger Corman

'Roger Corman: Reel life, real stories', MakingOf, 2011, VO, SE en YouTube.

'Sitges Film Festival: Entrega Premi Maria Honorífica a Roger Corman', 2010.

‘Roger Corman: Hollywood's wild angel’, Christian Blackwood, 1978, VE.

'Documental', VO, SE en YouTube.

'Roger Corman: El rey de la serie B', RTVE, 2010, VE.

'Special messages to Roger Corman', VO.

'El mundo de Roger Corman' ('Corman's world: Exploits of a Hollywood rebel'), Alex Stapleton, 2011, VE.

Con la participación de Roger Corman, Jack Nicholson, Joe Dante, Irvin Kershner, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, James Cameron, Eli Roth, Paul W.S. Anderson, Timur Bekmambetov, Brett Ratner, Catherine Hardwicke, Jonathan Demme, Peter Bogdanovich, James Wan, John Sayles, Darren Lynn Bousman, Lloyd Kaufman, Penelope Spheeris, Monte Hellman, Richard Matheson, Robert De Niro, Quentin Tarantino, William Shatner, Traci Lords, Pam Grier, David Carradine, Talia Shire, Peter Fonda, Clint Howard, Bruce Dern, Sally Kirkland, Nancy Sinatra, Gale Anne Hurd, George Hickenlooper, Dick Miller, Eric Balfour, Mary Woronov y Jonathan Haze entre otros.

Julie Halloran Corman es una productora americana casada con Roger Corman, productor, cineasta y distribuidor en su día de films de Ingmar Bergman, François Truffaut, Federico Fellini y Akira Kurosawa.

En 1970 Julie Corman cofundó con su marido la productora New World Pictures, empresa que pronto se convirtió en una de las más exitosas en producción y distribución de films independientes de la industria cinematográfica.

'Lessons from my filmmaking career by Julie Corman', Film Courage, 2013, VO, SE en YouTube.

[wrightedgar]

Roger Corman made it okay for all of us to make exploitation movies. He showed that you shouldn't be embarrassed. There's nothing wrong with you for loving a movie like 'Piranha'. That it doesn't mean that you're stupid for loving a movie that seems like a stupid exploitation movie. And that a lot of these films are very smart, made with lots of intelligence and that it's okay to have fun at the movies.

Eli Roth on Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011) dir. Alex Stapleton

[pablolf]

Film Journal

“Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel“ by Alex Stapleton

[tenaflyviper]

Horror Documentaries

Please note: Permanent link availability is NOT guaranteed.  If I could archive them, I would.

American Grindhouse (2010)

Nightmares in Red, White, and Blue (2009)

Blood on the Reel (2015)

Snuff: A Documentary about Killing on Camera (2008)

The American Nightmare (2000)

The 50 Best Horror Movies You’ve Never Seen (2014)

100 Years of Horror (1996) [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]

Attack of the 50 Foot Monster Mania (1999)

Bloodsucking Cinema (2007)

Clive Barker’s A-Z of Horror (1997)

Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film (2006)

Kingdom of Shadows (1998)

Machete Maidens Unleashed! (2010)

Monsters and Maniacs (1988)

Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream (2005)

Not Quite Hollywood (2008)

Sci-Fi Boys (2006)

Scream and Scream Again: A History of the Slasher Film (2000)

Under the Scares (2010)

Zombie Mania (2008)

Still Screaming: The Ultimate Scary Movie Retrospective (2011)

The AckerMonster Chronicles! (2012)

Magic, Murder and Monsters: The Story of British Horror and Fantasy (2007)

Stephen King’s World of Horrors (1987) [1][2][3]

Bits and Pieces: Bringing Death to Life (2003)

Blood and Black Lace: A Short History of the Italian Horror Film (1999)

Special Effects Documentaries:

Fantastic Flesh: The Art of Make-Up EFX (2008)

How NOT to Make a Horror Film (2015)

Scream Greats, Vol 1: Tom Savini, Master of Horror Effects (1986)

Smoke and Mirrors: The Story of Tom Savini (2015)

Jack Pierce: The Maker of Monsters (2015)

Nightmare Factory (2012)

Men in Suits (2012)

Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan (2011)

Special Effects: Anything Can Happen (1996)

Movie-Specific Documentaries

Apocalypse Soon: The Making of Citizen Toxie (2002)

Farts of Darkness (2016)

Poultry in Motion: Truth is Stranger than Chicken (2008)

Fury of the Demon (2015)

Room 237 (2012)

Tod Browning’s Freaks: The Sideshow Cinema (2004)

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Family Portrait (1988)

The Shark is Still Working (2007)

Halloween: 25 Years of Terror (2006)

Sleepless Nights: Revisiting the Slumber Party Massacres (2010) [1][2][3]

Leviathan: The Story of Hellraiser and Hellraiser III (2015)

The Making of Hellraiser (1987)

Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau (2014)

The Psycho Legacy (2010)

The Curse of the Omen (2005)

Full-Tilt Boogie (1997)

Hail to the King: 60 Years of Destruction (2014)

Long Live the King (2016)

Creature Feature: 60 Years of the Gill-Man (2014)

Beware the Moon (2009)

Best Worst Movie (2009)

Autopsy of the Dead (2009)

As Timeless as Infinity: The Twilight Zone Legacy (2014)

Ghostheads (2016)

Cleanin’ Up the Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2017)

Crystal Lake Memories (2013) [1][2]

His Name Was Jason (2009)

More Brains! (2011)

They Won't Stay Dead: A Look at Return of the Living Dead Part II (2011)  

Love Beyond the Grave: A Look at Return of the Living Dead III (2011)

Scream: The Inside Story (2011)

Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010)

Unearthed and Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary (2017)

Just Desserts: The Making of Creepshow (2007)

You’re So Cool, Brewster! The Story of Fright Night (2016)

Document of the Dead (1979)

The World’s End: The Making of Day of the Dead (2013)

Medieval Times: The Making of Army of Darkness (2015)

Tales from the Crypt: From Comic Books to Television (2004)

My Amityville Horror (2012)

Documentaries About Directors:

De Palma (2015)

King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen (2017)

Birth of the Living Dead (2013)

Dead On: The Life and Cinema of George A. Romero (2008)

The Dead Will Walk (2004)

Doc of the Dead (2014)

Blood, Boobs, and Beast! (2007)

Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2012)

Dario Argento: An Eye for Horror (2000)

Dario Argento: Master of Horror (1991) [1][2][3][4][5][6]

Clive Barker: The Art of Horror (1992)

Divine Trash (1998)

In Bad Taste (2000)

Diary of a Deadbeat: The Story on Jim Vanbebber (2015)

Ed Wood: Look Back in Angora (1994)

Hershell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore (2010)

Hitchcock/Truffaut (2015)

The Men Who Made the Movies: Alfred Hitchcock (1973)

John Carpenter: The Man and His Movies (2004)

Master of Cinema: John Carpenter (2000)

Long Live the New Flesh: The Films of David Cronenberg (1987)

Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy (2005)

Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows (2007)

Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story (2007)

They Came from the Swamp: The Films of William Grefé (2016)

Son of the Incredibly Strange Film Show: George A. Romero & Tom Savini Documentary (1989)

Documentaries About Actors:

To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story (2017)

I Am Divine (2011)

I Am Nancy (2011)

I Am Thor (2015)

That Guy...Who Was in That Thing (2012)

That Guy Dick Miller (2014)

Bride of Monster Mania (2000)

Invasion of the Scream Queens (1992)

Scream Queens: Horror Heroines Exposed (2014)

Screaming in High Heels: The Rise and Fall of the Scream Queen Era (2011)

Some Nudity Required (1998)

Something to Scream About (2003)

Welcome to My Dark Side (2009)

Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (2000)

Documentaries About Horror Hosts:

American Scary (2006)

Every Other Day Is Halloween (2009)

Uncovering Elvira Mistress of the Dark (????)

Vampira and Me (2012)

Vampira: The Movie (2006)

Watch Horror Films, Keep America Strong! (2008)

Virginia Creepers (2009)

Hi There Horror Movie Fans (2011)

Documentaries About Writers:

Anne Rice: Birth of the Vampire (1994)

Charles Beaumont: The Short Life of Twilight Zone’s Magic Man (2010)

Edgar Allen Poe: The Mystery of Edgar Allen Poe (1994)

Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown (2008)

A Night at the Movies: The Horrors of Stephen King (2011)

Stephen King: Shining in the Dark (1999)

Documentaries About Studios:

Amicus: House of Horrors (2012)

Amicus Vault of Horrors (2015) [1][2][3][4]

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)

The Go-Go Boys: The Inside Story of Cannon Films (2014)

Flesh and Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror (1994)

Hammer: The Studio That Dripped Blood! (1987) [1][2][3][4][5]

It Was a Colossal Teenage Movie Machine (2015)

Make Your Own Damn Movie! (2005)

MGM: When the Lion Roars (1992) [1][2][3][4][5]

Hollywood’s Golden Years: The RKO Story (1987) [1][2][3][4][5][6]

Universal Horror (1998)

Clip and Trailer Collections:

Mad Ron’s Prevues From Hell (1987)

Celluloid Bloodbath: More Prevues From Hell (2012)

Terror in the Aisles (1984)

Coming Soon (1982)

Zombiethon (1986)

The Best of Sex and Violence (1981)

The Best of All Time Horror Classics (1985)

42nd Street Forever (2005) [Vol 1][Vol 2][Vol 3][Vol 4][Vol 5]

Grindhouse Trailer Classics (2007) [Vol 1][Vol 2][Vol 3]

Bravo’s 100 Scariest Movie Moments (2004) [1][2][3][4][5]

30 Even Scarier Movie Moments (2006) [1][2]

Linnea Quigley’s Horror Workout (1990)

Full Moon Video Zone (short “making of” segments that were added to the end of many Full Moon Productions VHS releases):

Puppet Master II

Puppet Master III

Puppet Master 4

Puppet Master 5

Curse of the Puppet Master

Retro Puppet Master

Netherworld

Seed People

The Creeps

Talisman

Mandroid

Hideous!

Doctor Mordrid

Shrieker

Castle Freak

The Pit and the Pendulum

Dollman

Demonic Toys

Dollman VS Demonic Toys

Lurking Fear

Witchouse

Blood Dolls

Bad Channels

Shrunken Heads

Subspecies

Subspecies II

Subspecies III

Subspecies 4

Dark Angel: The Ascent

Oblivion 2: Backlash

Other:

Adjust Your Tracking: The Untold Story of the VHS Collector (2013)

Rewind This! (2013)

VHS Forever? Psychotronic People (2014)

VHS Massacre: Cult Films and the Decline of Physical Media (2015)

The American Scream (2012)

Halloween: The Happy Haunting of America (1997)

Legion of Terror (2009)

Horror Café (1990)

Dear Censor (2002)

The Aurora Monsters: The Model Craze that Gripped the World (2010)

Doc of the Dead (2014)

Famous Monster: Forrest J. Ackerman (2007)

Fantasm (2013)

I Heart Monster Movies (2012)

The Night SHE Came Home (2013)

The Rep (2012)

UnConventional (2004)

The Walking Dead Girls (2011)

Why Horror? (2014)

Down with Clowns (2014)

In Search of Dracula (1975)

Vincent Price’s Dracula (1982)

Killer Legends (2014)

Scream Greats 2, Vol. 2: Satanism and Witchcraft (1986)

The Witch’s Dungeon: 40 Years of Chills (2006)

Fangoria’s Weekend of Horrors (1986)

Gorgon Video Magazine, Vol. 1 (1989)

Gorgon Video Magazine, Vol. 2 (1990)

Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video (1979)  (just because)

Upcoming Documentaries:

Forgotten Scares: An In-Depth Look at Flemish Horror Cinema (2018)

Something Wicked This Way Comes (TBA)

The History of Metal and Horror (TBA)

Rocky Horror Saved My Life (TBA)

Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street (2018)

Celluloid Wizards in the Video Wasteland: The Saga of Empire Pictures (TBA)      

Lastly, here is my “Horror Documentaries” playlist, which contains additional documentaries not listed here.

I only wish I could have provided links for every documentary listed here, but I hope there are enough here to satisfy your horror documentary needs.

Happy Halloween!

[trailerscloud]

https://trailerscloud.com/14415-cormans-world-doc-2011-s-world-exploits-of-a-hollywood-rebel-official-trailer.html

[greensparty]

BEST DOCUMENTARIES OF THE 2010s, Honorable Mentions

In the 2010s, I, myself made a labor-of-love documentary Life on the V: The Story of V66. Working my tail off on tracking down old footage, interviewing countless former employees and musicians, and researching as much as I could and then promoting it at the 2014 premiere onward, I truly became a part of the documentary filmmaking community. I know how hard it can be make a good doc. Whether it is shining a light on a subject very few know about or profiling something that has been over-analyzed but in a new way, the strongest docs of the 2010s were the ones that didn’t play it safe and took chances. It was also a decade where there were more docs than ever being made. Between everyone having access to technology to shoot and edit and access to information online, just about anyone can make a doc now. Something to keep in mind with my list is that it’s my ranking of the best documentaries. In some instances I wasn’t even a fan or familiar with the subject. In other cases I was a fan of the subject but the documentary didn’t do it justice. As you can tell, I gravitate towards documentaries about pop culture, but there’s a variety of subject and themes. Here are the ones that mattered most (I disqualify Life on the V from this list BTW):

Honorable Mentions:

De Palma

2015  Noah Baumbach / Jake Paltrow

Out of Print

2014  Julia Marchese

Birth of the Living Dead

2013  Rob Kuhns

Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel

2011  Alex Stapleton

Filmworker

2017  Tony Zierra

Waiting for Superman

2010  Davis Guggenheim

Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles

2014  Chuck Workman

John G. Avildsen: King of the Underdogs

2017  Derek Wayne Johnson

Back in Time

2015  Jason Aron

Abacus: Small Enough to Jail

2016  Steve James

Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World

2017  Catherine Bainbridge

Amy

2015  Asif Kapadia

Searching for Sugar Man

2012  Malik Bendjelloul

SuperMensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon

2013  Beth Aala / Mike Myers

Boys of Summer

2010  Keith Aumont

[moviesandmania]

Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel - USA, 2011 - review

Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel – USA, 2011 – review

‘Some men take on the world. Roger Corman created his own.’

Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebelis a 2011 documentary feature directed by Alex Stapleton (and co-written with Gregory Lockyear) that profiles the prolific Hollywood producer-director associated with decades of B-pictures, often in the horror and exploitation fields, whose “exploits” nonetheless resulted in numerous…

[aotbm]

B-Movie Pioneers - Roger Corman

In this edition of B-Movie Pioneers I am going introduce you to “The Pope of Pop Cinema” producer, actor and director Roger Corman.  One of the biggest things he’s known for are his low budget cult films based on famous Edgar Allen Poe works.  Also, unlike many B-Movie filmmakers, much of Cormans work has gotten critical acclaim. I really don’t…

B-Movie Pioneers – Roger Corman was originally published on The Attack of the B-Movies Podcast and Blog

[s0022795a2film]

Creative Investigation T - First Essay Draft

F634 Creative Investigation In Film

INTRODUCTION

Debated heavily from the time it was first introduced in the French publication Cahiers du Cinéma in 1954 by François Truffaut, authorship is still a controversial topic today. Theorists such as Kael and Sarris have argued over whether a director can be considered the true auteur of a film or not, and what a director has to do in order to be worthy of that status.

Having produced over 400 films and directed over 50, Roger Corman has been bestowed with the nickname ‘The King of the B’s’ following a filmography full of low-budget shockers and lurid exploitation films, often full of gore and nudity. These are not the type of films critics would consider to be ‘art’. The typical auteur creates films full of thematics and meaning, with distinct stylistic personality carrying over their films, and bolstering the film with their own ideologies and feelings.

Rather than merely dismissing Corman, though, I wish to investigate some of his earlier contributions to the film industry and analyse whether he meets the criteria of a typical auteur. Through the less refined aesthetics of his films, I wish to investigate as to whether Corman carries a particular personal style that indicates that he could in fact be considered an auteur as much as more respected directors. I believe that this could reveal an interesting angle of the authorship debate- do films need to be ‘artistic’ for their directors to be considered an auteur?

According to theorist Andrew Sarris, there are three key areas that a director needs to cover to be considered an auteur. The director needs to show technical competence, a signature style, and an interior meaning within the films. These terms are not necessarily restricted by budget or the time it took the film to be made. By examining these aspects I intend to reveal whether Corman can be considered an auteur in terms of these criteria.

I will be studying Corman as a director, although he has numerous other credits as well, as this is the role that initial authorship theories aimed to benefit. I will be looking at three of his earlier films, which he directed from the period of 1956 to 1960, an era typically considered as dedicated to horror and exploitation films aimed at a teenage audience. As such, my research revolves around the earlier ideologies expressed by Corman in his films. I intend to work against the early years of the authorship debate, and demonstrate why he should be considered alongside more ‘prestigious’ directors of the time, such as Hitchcock. With a current 56 directing credits listed on IMDb, Corman has so far displayed a longevity and dedication that often goes unrecognised.

I selected three films I considered to be key for Corman’s development as a creator- It Conquered The World (1956), as a traditional ‘alien invasion’ sci-fi film, Attack of the Crab Monsters, which covers the base of the ‘oversized monster’ trope, and finally, The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), possibly the most well-known of a triad of ‘black comedy’ films that was a turning point for Corman in terms of genre, and later went on to become a cult classic with a musical remake.

AIMS OF RESEARCH

Through this investigation I intend to answer the overall question ‘can Roger Corman be considered a true auteur?’ To address and support this idea, I also investigated three further sub topics that link back to the concept of authorship and thus will help me reach a conclusion. These are:

Did Corman develop the horror and sci fi genres further through his films or did he rely on convention?

Do It Conquered The World, Attack of the Crab Monsters and The Little Shop of Horrors show that Corman used personal stylistic techniques in the period of the 1950s to 1960s?

Was Corman’s ideologies and representations of women more developed in his films than other directors of the time?

PRIMARY SOURCES

1: It Conquered The World. (Roger Corman. 1956. Sunset Productions.)

A traditional science fiction and horror film, in which a disillusioned scientist whose discoveries have been shunned offers assistance to a Venusian alien, who then descends to control the earth. Entirely filmed in black and white, and in only five days. The titular ‘it’, also referred to as Beluah, was designed by Paul Blaisdell, but is not exactly intimidating in appearance. Overall, this makes the film a typical Corman picture- basic plot, strangely designed monster, and a short shooting period.

2. Attack of the Crab Monsters. (Roger Corman. 1957. Los Altos Productions.)

Another sci-fi horror combination, this time including a group of scientists studying nuclear effects on a remote island who come under attack from native giant crab monsters. Filmed on an estimated budget of $70,000, also in black and white. Blaisdell did not design the crab monsters on this particular picture despite being a regular designer in Corman’s company.

3. The Little Shop of Horrors. (Roger Corman. 1960. Roger Corman Productions.)

One of a ‘trilogy’ with A Bucket of Blood and Creature from the Haunted Sea, later remade into the 1980s cult classic musical of the same name. Unlike the other two films I am studying, it is a black comedy horror rather than a sci-fi film, but still stars a gigantic monster as the main antagonist. It was actually filmed on the leftover set from A Bucket of Blood, and scraped together in only two days, and its plot is very similar when broken down. While filmed in black and white, a colour-restored version exists. It was filmed on a budget of merely $27,000.

SECONDARY SOURCES

4. Armstrong, L. (1980). Roger Corman’s Flicks May Be ‘B’ Shlock, but No One in Hollywood Has Nurtured More 'A’ Talent. People. [online]

Essentially a 1980s biography of Corman’s life and career, with inclusion regarding some of the young actors whose careers he helped.

5. Corman, R. (2013). The Poe Perplex. Sight and Sound, p.29.

Roger Corman, in his own words, discusses the cycle of films he made between 1960 and 1964 based on the tales of Edgar Allan Poe.

6. Grimes, W. (1995). COVER STORY: Yikes! Roger Corman is Back, Still. New York Times. [online]

An article revolving around Corman just prior to the airing of ‘Roger Corman Presents’, which included some remakes of older Corman films.

7. Queenan, J. (2017). B-movie king Roger Corman: ‘Death Race isn’t an essay on violence – it’s an action comedy’. The Guardian. [online]

Corman discusses the release of Death Race 2050 (2017), especially in regards to politics, and also reflects on his history.

8. Holte, M. (2010). Value Engineering: Roger Corman Within His Own Context. East of Borneo. [online]

Regards Corman in the making of horror comedies such as A Bucket of Blood and The Little Shop of Horrors, going more in-depth on the collaborations of others to the films. Also discusses his later works. I had found this to be the most useful of the online articles I read, as it touched on issues of authorship within Corman films.

9. Corman, R. and Jerome, J. (1990). How I made a hundred movies in Hollywood and never lost a dime. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo, pp.Chapter 4, Chapter 6, Page 237.

The autobiography of Roger Corman- he offers a personal insight into the films that he directed, wrote and produced, and the ideology behind them.

10. Frank, A. (1998). The Films of Roger Corman: ‘Shooting My Way Out of Trouble'. Bath: The Bath Press, pp.12, 35-39, 72-76, 79.

A book offering a rundown of Corman’s entire filmography, including production details and facts. It also includes reviews for each film from critics of the time they were released.

11. Masters of Fantasy: Roger Corman, (1997). [TV programme] Sci-Fi Channel.

A brief documentary summarizing Corman’s career. As well as his assistants and proteges offering some insight into his work, Corman makes a few comments himself about his career.

12. Post Mortem with Mick Garris: Roger Corman, (2010). [TV programme] Comcast.

A more recent interview between Mick Garris and Roger Corman just following the event where Corman received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy.

13. Nashawaty, C. and Landis, J. (2016). Crab monsters, teenage cavemen, and candy stripe nurses. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, p.Introduction, Preface, Chapter 1.

Another written account of Corman’s career, including interviews directly from the graduates of the ‘Corman film school’- actors and screenwriters and producers who worked with him.

14. Aleksandrowicz, P. (2016). The cinematography of Roger Corman: exploitation filmmaker or auteur?. 1st ed. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp.63, 71-74, 164, 181, 186.

A study of Corman in relation to auteur theory, focusing on his work ethic, themes and style.

15. Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel. (2011). [DVD] Directed by A. Stapleton. USA: A&E IndieFilms.

A full-length documentary closely following the history of Corman’s career, including behind the scenes details and interviews with people he worked with.

16. D’Amore, L. Smart Chicks: Representing Women’s Intellect in Film and Television. (2016). Rowman & Littlefield. p. 67.

A book discussing the representation of smart women through history. It included a section regarding Attack of the Crab Monsters that offered a different perspective to what I had seen in the movie and was therefore useful to my investigation.

Did Corman develop the horror and sci fi genres further through his films or did he rely on convention?

Roger Corman is often referred to as ‘King of the B’s’ and one of the defining genres of that type of film were horror and science fiction films. From a modern perspective, his early filmography may appear inherently clichéd. Some would argue that he just turned out as many generic films he could as quickly as possible to draw in an audience. but others may consider that perhaps he helped alter the conventions and ideologies reflected in the genres.

There are several genre conventions that emerge in 1950s sci-fi horror films, including those out of Corman’s jurisdiction. Stock plots and characters, such as a discredited person trying to prove themselves, useless policemen who do not believe something is occurring, or intrepid but unrealistically represented scientists doing something or other related to the film’s plot, frequently arise.

stock characters and plots (alien invasion etc)

fear of ‘the other’, invasion, etc

generic cops and scientists / the army get involved

giant mutated things for no real reason or explanation (nuclear antics!)

unscientific radioactivity

aliens and monsters are hammy or silly (all three films!)

lots of discrediting of a person (anderson in ictw, seymour in lsoh)

essentially the antagonist is ‘unamerican’ and represents political enemies at the time

from source 9: “Genre to me is very important… You’re not working with a star. On a big picture with a star, you’re free to do many things that you wouldn’t do on a low-budget picture because the star sells the picture.” - Implies that Corman had to stick to genre in some cases to appeal to audiences because he wasn’t using stars and therefore didn’t have a lot of leeway. By using genre conventions he could shape a film that meets the expectations of the audience.

Corman’s films are cheap and designed to shock, but regardless contain a certain level of ideology that furthers the simple narrative of the films and perhaps builds on the basic foundations of the film’s genre. He has stated himself that his pictures are ‘entertainment… underneath subtextually, is a little bit of thought on my part’ [12].

The 1950s was a period of tense unrest within the US. All three of my focal films were filmed during this period, which is part of what is referred to as the Cold War, in which tensions rose between the United States and the Soviet Union. During this time, there was a perpetual fear of invasion from the Communists of the USSR, and this was inevitably reflected in sci-fi films of the time, most prominently in Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), a film which preceded It Conquered The World by a mere five months.

Corman himself seemingly made films that subtly reflected political views and fears of the 1950s. Pawel Aleksandrowicz claims It Conquered The World can be classed as ‘an anti-Communist film’. [14]

There are obvious parallels to Invasion of the Body Snatchers in It Conquered The World, from mind control to emotionlessness to useless policemen. All three of these aspects are reflected in the above scene, in which a brainwashed policeman kills the newspaper editor without a note of remorse. The concept and fear of the ‘other’ in society is ever-present, as the cast of both films react with disgust or disbelief at the brutal invader in their midst. This horror is presented as merely justified, however- the Venusian in It Conquered The World wants to remove all emotion from humanity, after all!- and reflects the opinion everyday American citizens had of Communist invaders. To them, it seemed that this was what the USSR planned to do with them, or least one possible outcome.

Attack of the Crab Monsters ponders on an alternate outcome of the Cold War. Aleksandrowicz additionally considered that the message of it ‘matches the anti-militaristic trend in the 1950s science fiction’, despite being silly on the surface. [14] With its titular monsters spawned from radioactive waste, the film is an allegory against the nuclear-related tension between the USA and the USSR.

Following the mould of A Bucket of Blood, the film that it essentially replicated, The Little Shop of Horror’s social commentary lies less in civilian fears of war and invasion and more in the way they acted themselves. While A Bucket of Blood was a sharp commentary on the beatnik scene, with a clumsy protagonist resorting to murder to meet their pretentious standards, Little Shop follows the same vein with a similar protagonist’s plan at first aiming to impress a girl he likes, but eventually also turning to killing because of the attention that he receives from it.

corman could have just been imitating IOTBS because it was a hit (5 months between them, ITCW was shot in five days, so it’s possible it was a copycat film)

never stated it was anti-communist himself

‘focuses more on the ambivalence of science’

Do It Conquered The World, Attack of the Crab Monsters and The Little Shop of Horrors show that Corman used personal stylistic techniques in the period of the 1950s to 1960s?

Films in the 1950s to 1960s were generally not as flashy and complex as films of the modern era, but directors still had room to develop their own aesthetics. Style is considered a significant aspect of what defines authorship, as it shows that the director is able to carry a consistent visual theme through their films, which in itself is comprised of aspects of their psyche. According to authorship theorist Andrew Sarris, a director must ‘exhibit certain recurring characteristics, which serve as his signature’ over a group of films to be considered an auteur. By looking at three of Corman’s films, which come from a specific time frame, I will investigate whether Corman’s films can be considered to have a stylised edge, or whether there is a lack of consistency between films, and what exactly that style is.

By the 1950s, Corman had settled into a groove of turning out cheap, no-frills films that could be compared to other similarly inexpensive films of the time. Pawel Aleksandrowicz called them ‘faulty and stylistically simple.’ [14] Meanwhile, Chris Nashawaty notes that he ‘wasn’t much of a stylist at first. He was working too quickly...’ [13] However, this period may actually have seen the development of Corman’s initial style.

In Corman’s own words, the trilogy of black comedies including  Little Shop of Horrors helped him to ‘put together some of the most definitive elements of my style’. [9] Director Joe Dante stated that Corman ‘liked to move the camera a lot... sometimes the camera would merely tip over and he wouldn’t do another take…’ [11]

In one scene of Little Shop of Horrors, it is not the camera tipping over that makes a shot, but some set equipment. The scene in the dentist’s ends abruptly on a comical note as Seymour topples into the dental set. This was genuine equipment belonging to the dentist that the crew was borrowing, however, and there was a rush to end the scene quickly so it could be rescued. Despite the equipment malfunction, the shot was simply cut at this point and used anyway.

The concept of Corman’s fast and loose directorial habits as a ‘style’ could be considered debatable, however. On the one hand, it certainly fits Sarris’s idea of a director having a ‘signature style’- Corman carries this method of filmmaking through much of his filmography, not just the three focal films I have studied, and he is notorious for it. Bob Burns described shoots as ‘ fast and furious’, stating that Corman ‘would only retake a shot if something really went wrong’. [8] Corman showed a level of intensity in filmmaking that led him to shoot films in ridiculously short periods of time- two days for Little Shop- utilising whatever props and actors came to hand. This kind of severe adaptation serves as his style.

However, some may dissent because this method becomes mostly incidental, relying on chance. Scenes might turn out well in one take, they might not. By working so quickly, there is no actual distinct intention behind this style, and it can be viewed as simply random. In the light of Alexandre Astruc’s theory of the camera-stylo, in which the director’s use of cameras reflects the author’s usage of a pen, Corman’s directorial style could be considered a hasty scribble.

Some may consider that it doesn't even matter whether Corman’s style was intentional or not, as it became an iconic part of his films anyway. However, in terms of assigning credit for the authorship of his films, it starts to present issues. According to theorist Janet Staiger, authorship assists in giving credit or blame, depending on the success of the film. Yet Corman stated in an interview that for A Bucket of Blood,  ‘everyone was coming up with ideas as we went and we just tossed them in.’ [6] If similar could be said of his other films, it is difficult to determine where Corman’s influence begins and ends within a film. True, his films were not exactly up for critical acclaim, but several are hailed as ‘cult favourites;. [7] This does align with what is Corman is known best for- nurturing young talents and offering them a headstart in the industry. This vision of Corman’s films suggests they served as a playground for these young screenwriters, stars and producers, offering them a chance to contribute something proper to a film.

Was Corman’s ideologies and representations of women more developed in his films than other directors of the time?

The 1950s to the 1960s, which is the period from which the films I am focusing on originate, is a time reflected on as still majorly unpleasant for marginalised groups, and often seen as offering mostly sexist films in an industry with little to offer to women of the time. However, unlike some directors of the time, Corman did include representations that differed to the general societal view of the time. Corman even stated in his autobiography that he does ‘believe in the feminist movement’ [9]. I would like to see how far Corman went into positively representing women, but also how he used them in exploitation films, in order to see whether he is truly reflective of early feminist ideals not, and whether that was intentional.

As a basic examination of my focal films, I put all three of them under the Bechdel test. Named for Alison Bechdel, the creator of the comic strip Dykes to Look Out For, this test first appeared in 1985 and has been used as a prevailing method of judging female representation within film. There are three simple criteria present- does the film include at least two named women? Do said women have a conversation? And is that conversation about something other than a man?

In terms of my focal films, It Conquered The World scrapes a pass due to a conversation in the opening between Claire Anderson and Joan Nelson, who discuss the dishes they are washing. Meanwhile, Attack of the Crab Monsters does not pass on the principle that Martha is the sole female character in the film. The cliché of having one sole female in a group of men is one that has persisted into more modern times. Finally, The Little Shop of Horrors doesn’t pass in particular- Audrey is vaguely involved in conversations involving at least one other woman, but it is the presence of other men and she says little to any other woman herself.

As a measure of feminist ideology within a film, the Bechdel test is definitely flawed. It does not take into account what the conversation actually is in the case that a film passes. The dishes conversation It Conquered The World is hardly the pinnacle of feminist progression, after all. It seems flawed that the film should be considered passable for this incident rather than Claire’s genuine show of independence later on in the film. It cannot really be used as a moral measure of how women are represented in films, as the only criterion is that the conversation with another woman isn’t about a man- this does not mean that they are free from poor, outdated representation. They could only be talking about clothes, or shopping, or housework as in the aforementioned film- all stereotypical ‘feminine’ topics.

It does correlate with the representation of women in Attack of the Crab Monsters, as mentioned above, which does not pass and does not have a strong representation of women. In this regard, it is quite useful, as it marks out an area where female representation is noticeably sparse.

It Conquered The World is notable for the speech given by Beverly Garland’s character Claire, cementing her as an unusually assertive female character in a period where women weren’t often seen doing much significant in films. However, as William Grimes stated in a New York Times article, ‘The Corman message tends to be practical rather than moral’, and this may have been an exploitative measure to cause a stir amongst audiences. [6] According to Pawel Aleksandrowicz, Corman’s use of exploitative topics ‘served as a framework or context for stories about exclusion or female empowerment’. [14]

In the penultimate scene of It Conquered The World, as well as the diegetic dialogue from Claire Anderson which denounces the monster and ultimately confronts it, there is the use of this medium shot, which is framed in a way that presents Anderson as larger than the Venusian monster. The camera angle shows her facing it directly, prepared to take it on.

A sharp contrast from the submissive housewife trope of the time, Claire starts off as a seemingly average archetype. She loves her husband, and her only conversation with another woman is about doing the dishes (which calls into question the validity of the Bechdel test, something I will discuss later). She is seen to disagree with her husband, but does not have the power to dissuade him from contacting the Venusian. However, this frustration evolves into a wish to take matters into her own hands, and she progresses into a more active character. However,  her efforts are ultimately not enough and she is killed in her confrontation with the alien.

On the other end of the spectrum, the sole female character in Attack of the Crab Monsters, Martha Hunter, is shown throughout the final scene framed by her two male colleagues. In this way, they appear to be almost like sentinels around her, protecting her from the titular beasts. She does not break away to fight them herself. In addition they are often seen leading her by the hand away from danger. This cements her as a markedly more submissive character in times of danger.

Martha is not as strong a character as Claire, and rarely does anything of importance on her own. She is introduced as Dale Drewer’s fiancée and most of what she does either involves him or some other member of the crew. However, she is a female scientist, which was not a common position for females at all during that period.

audrey is the sexy lamp trope- she has no real bearing on the plot other than seymour’s love for her fuelling his decisions. she’s sweet but a flat character and her arc revolves around her relationship with seymour.

domesticity vs sexuality in all three films then

RESEARCH EVALUATION

Considering Corman’s directorial profile of over fifty films, and his work as a producer of over four hundred more, it is impossible to say whether the three films I have studied properly exemplify all of his work. It would be incredibly difficult to study each and every one of Corman’s films, and therefore I feel that my study has been somewhat limited despite working within a particular Corman era. It also does not account for any development in skill Corman has made over the following few decades.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

[1] It Conquered The World. (1956) Directed by R. Corman. USA: Sunset Productions (III). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHarPB15kQ8 [Accessed 15 Sept. 2017].

[2] Attack of the Crab Monsters. (1957) Directed by R. Corman. USA: Los Altos Productions. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RA12RHnYIA [Accessed 15 Sept. 2017].

[3] The Little Shop of Horrors. (1960) Directed by R. Corman. USA: Roger Corman Productions. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m0tivu8u-A [Accessed 15 Sept. 2017]

[4] Armstrong, L. (1980). Roger Corman’s Flicks May Be ‘B’ Shlock, but No One in Hollywood Has Nurtured More 'A’ Talent. People. [online] Available at: http://people.com/archive/roger-cormans-flicks-may-be-b- shlock-but-no-one-in-hollywood-has-nurtured-more-a-talent-vol-14-no-20/ [Accessed 20 Sep. 2017].

[5] Corman, R. (2013). The Poe Perplex. Sight and Sound, p.29.

[6] Grimes, W. (1995). COVER STORY: Yikes! Roger Corman is Back, Still. New York Times. [online] Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/09/tv/cover-story-yikes-roger-corman-is-back-still.html [Accessed 25 Sep. 2017].

[7] Queenan, J. (2017). B-movie king Roger Corman: ‘Death Race isn’t an essay on violence – it’s an action comedy’. The Guardian. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/mar/16/b-movie-king-roger-corman-death-race-isnt-an-essay-on-violence-its-an-action-comedy [Accessed 25 Sep. 2017].

[8] Holte, M. (2010). Value Engineering: Roger Corman Within His Own Context. East of Borneo. [online] Available at: https://eastofborneo.org/articles/value-engineering-roger-corman-within-his-own-context/ [Accessed 1 Oct. 2017].

[9] Corman, R. and Jerome, J. (1990). How I made a hundred movies in Hollywood and never lost a dime. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo, pp.Chapter 4, Chapter 6, Page 237.

[10] Frank, A. (1998). The Films of Roger Corman: ‘Shooting My Way Out of Trouble'. Bath: The Bath Press, pp.12, 35-39, 72-76, 79.

[11] Masters of Fantasy: Roger Corman, (1997). [TV programme] Sci-Fi Channel.

[12] Post Mortem with Mick Garris: Roger Corman, (2010). [TV programme] Comcast.

[13] Nashawaty, C. and Landis, J. (2016). Crab monsters, teenage cavemen, and candy stripe nurses. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, p.Introduction, Preface, Chapter 1.

[14] Aleksandrowicz, P. (2016). The cinematography of Roger Corman: exploitation filmmaker or auteur?. 1st ed. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp.63, 71-74, 164, 181, 186.

[15] Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel. (2011). [DVD] Directed by A. Stapleton. USA: A&E IndieFilms.

[16] D’Amore, L. (2016). Smart Chicks on Screen: Representing Women’s Intellect in Film and Television. Rowman & Littlefield. p67.

[thashanamcqueen]

I cannot think of a better way to celebrate the 91st birthday of a man who in my opinion is a national goddamn treasure - the one and only Roger Corman - than watching one of my all time favorite films of his at one of my favorite places in Nashville with some of my favorite individuals. Thank you Mr. Corman for all you have given to the world of cinema. The list is far to long to go into here, but if you haven't seen the 2011 documentary Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel, I HIGHLY recommend you do so ASAP. (at The Blue Room at Third Man Records)