Tag: Joe Dante

Live Interactive Interview With Directing Legend Roger Corman – A FollowSpot LIVE Virtual Event Sunday June 21st

This Sunday, join a Q&A with legendary director/producer Roger Corman. It celebrates the 60th anniversary of HOUSE OF USHER, which was released on June 22, 1960. The Q&A will be moderated by Vincent Price experts Victoria Price & Peter Fuller. The event is Sunday 21 June (11.30am PDT, 2:20pm EST, 1:30 CT) You can ask Roger a question. Roger Corman is known as ‘King of the B’s’, a Hollywood legend who’s discovered so much talent and gave so many future directors and actors their starts, that he has to be considered a one-man movie industry.  Reseve your seat for this event with a ticket HERE

Roger Corman has directed more than 50 low-budget drive-in classics, produced and/or distributed 450 more, and helped the careers of hundreds of young people breaking into the industry. A partial list: Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Irvin Kershner, Monte Hellman, Peter Bogdanovich, Gail Ann Hurd, James Cameron, Jonathan Kaplan, Joe Dante, Robert Towne. Considering Corman’s own films, Jonathan Demme has stated. “Roger is arguably the greatest independent filmmaker the American film industry has seen and probably ever will see.” 

WAMG Pays Tribute to Director Roger Corman on His 94th Birthday – Here Are His 10 Best Films

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, and Tom Stockman

Happy 94th Birthday to a legend! Roger Corman has directed more than 50 low-budget drive-in classics, produced and/or distributed 450 more, and helped the careers of hundreds of young people breaking into the industry. A partial list: Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Irvin Kershner, Monte Hellman, Peter Bogdanovich, Gail Ann Hurd, James Cameron, Jonathan Kaplan, Joe Dante, Robert Towne. Considering Corman’s own films, Jonathan Demme has stated. “Roger is arguably the greatest independent filmmaker the American film industry has seen and probably ever will see.” We Are Movie Geeks has taken a look at Corman’s career and here are what we think are the ten best films that he has directed:

HONORABLE MENTION. THE PREMATURE BURIAL

THE PREMATURE BURIAL (1962) is the ‘odd man out’ among the series of Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptations because of the absence of Vincent Price (Corman began this project at a different studio while Price was under contract at American International). Ray Milland was instead cast as the paranoid and cataleptic Guy Correll, a 19th-century English nobleman convinced that hereditary catalepsy will cause him to be buried alive. While Price’s flamboyant theatrics are missed, Milland’s low-key anxiety as man teetering on the edge of mental collapse works fine for the material. A sequence where Milland, trapped immobile in a coffin looking up and hoping the mourners will see his open eyes, is particularly nightmarish as is the film’s dream centerpiece. With its lavish sets and impenetrable fog, THE PREMATURE BURIAL is unmistakably a Corman production and the stunning Hazel Court is, as always, absolutely wonderful in the female lead. Milland and Corman reteamed the following year for X, THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES, a film Corman considered among his very best.

10. BLOODY MAMA

“A family that slays together stays together!”was the tagline for BLOODY MAMA, Corman’s loose 1970 account of Ma Barker and her gang of rural depression-era criminal offspring. Shelly Winters, indulging in some bold over-the-top overacting, was born to play Ma, who, after dumping her weak husband, takes her hillbilly brood off on a brutal crime spree of killing, raping, kidnapping, and torture (Winters had played the spoofish Ma Parker on Batman three years earlier). BLOODY MAMA is a squalid whitetrash crime melodrama that packs one hell of a mean and lingering punch and is one of the most sadistic films from the Corman canon, a perverse mix of murder, incest, bloodshed, family bonding, and action. Corman inserts a good deal of social commentary on America at that time and directs a strong cast including Bruce Dern, Don Stroud, and a young Robert DeNiro who sniffs glue like there’s no tomorrow. Though historically far from accurate (the real Ma Barker never participated in her son’s crimes and her legend as the gang’s leader was fabricated by the FBI to justify her eventual killing), BLOODY MAMA is an entertaining lesson in family psychology peppered with machine gun fire.

9. LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

Long before the off-Broadway Ashman/Meinken musical, the Frank Oz directed film of said work, and the Fox Kids TV show there was this seventy minute 1960 black and white comedy classic. And it all kind of stemmed from a bet that producer/director Roger Corman made . A fellow at the studio showed him a storefront set that would be taken down in two weeks. Corman told him he could use it in a film. In two weeks? No way , the studio guy said. Corman bet him that not only could he come up with a movie idea in that time, but he could shoot it in two days. He brainstormed overnight with frequent screenwriter Charles Griffith, they hammered out a script , and Roger shot it in two days ( and one night ). This second entry in Corman’s ‘black humor trilogy’ begins at a run- down skid row flower shop owner by the tightwad tyrant Gravis Mushik ( you gotta love these Yiddish sounding names! ) played by Mel Welles. Sweeping the floors there is lowly employee Seymour Krelboin ( Jonathan Haze ) who yearns for the lovely cashier/clerk Audrey ( Jackie Joseph ). Aside from Burson Fouch ( Dick Miller ) who purchases single flowers that he devours with a pinch of salt, they have no customers. Seymour shows Mushnik a strange hybrid plant that he is cultivating. Maybe putting this weird plant in the front window will inspire some walk-in traffic. When it doesn’t respond to soil supplements and water, Seymour stays at the shop trying to nurture the plant to grow. When he accidentally cuts his finger, a few drop of blood falls onto the bud. Then it grows and blooms. For the next few nights, he pricks his fingers to feed it. Finally he’s all bleed out. The plant will have none of this and becomes vocal and demanding: “Feeed me! Feed me! Bring on the chow!”. Seems it, Audrey Jr. ( after his unrequited love ), has to have human flesh and blood! Corman piles on the laughs here-from the pseudo-Dragnet narration to the wild, bellowing plant to a hilarious appearance by a very young Jack Nicholson as the masochistic( had they ever been shown in movies before? ) dental groupie Wilbur Force. This is one dark ( almost pitch black ) comedy. Who’d have ever thought that this would be adapted into a musical that’s become a staple of schools the world over?

8. BUCKET OF BLOOD

In 1959 Roger Corman produced and directed the first of his ‘black humor trilogy’ for American International Pictures, A BUCKET OF BLOOD. For this black and white sixty six minute gem Corman explored the seedy world of coffee houses to take a satirical look at modern art and those proto-hippies: beatniks. Previously these bearded and bereted jazz lovers were spoofed in the musical FUNNY FACE and they would later inspire the beloved TV character Maynard G. Krebbs on the Dobie Gillis show. The movie centers on the slow-witted schlub Walter Paisley ( Corman regular Dick Miller ), a bus boy at a coffee house/ art gallery who wants to impress the beautiful Carla ( Barboura Morris ). He decides to turn to sculpting with poor results. Out of frustration he flings his modeling knife out the window accidentally killing a stray alley cat. Then a light bulb go on above his head. He covers the cat in clay and passes it off as his art. The beatniks there are impressed as is Carla. Unfortunately One of the patrons shows his appreciation by giving the art sensation a herbal gift. Undercover cop Lou ( future TV game show host Bert Convy ) sees this and follows Walter back to his apartment/studio to arrest him for possession of ‘reefer’. Paisley panics when Lou pulls out his revolver and smashes the cop with a frying pan. What to do? Another sculpture! As Walter becomes more popular he seeks out more ‘subjects’ to put together a big art show. BUCKET OF BLOOD boasts a very funny script by frequent collaborator Charles Griffith, a great jazzy score from Fred Katz ( later the pianist at Chicago’s Second City Cabaret ), and a great cast of supporting players ( Corman regulars Anthony Carbone and Ed Nelson ). Viewers expecting a brutal thriller from the title might be surprised by the delightful satire that Corman concocted. Or should I say sculpted?

7. WILD ANGELS

After years of shooting on enclosed sets for the AIP Poe films, Roger Corman needed a change; he wanted to shoot films on location, using open spaces and existing houses as sets. He got his wish with the film that’s generally credited as launching an entire genre of biker films in the 1960s and 70s. Compared to all the copies that followed, Corman’s WILD ANGELS (1966) set a high standard for chopper action, sexy motorcycle mamas, drugs, and brutal violence. Peter Fonda stars as gang leader Blues, whose one desire in life is to be “free to ride, .. get loaded, and party without being hassled by the man”. Along for the ride are fellow bikers Nancy Sinatra, Bruce Dern, Diane Ladd, and Gayle Hunnicutt (I love that the prettiest biker chick has the scar on her face!). Some of actual members of the Venice Chapter of the Hell’s Angels also are in the movie as extras, though some of the real Angels later sued Corman after the film was released, as they perceived the movie portrayed them in a negative light. From its opening shots of Fonda riding his chopper, to its climactic funeral party, with its general tone of anarchy and rebellion, WILD ANGELS still packs a visceral punch for moviegoers. Corman regards this movie, along with THE TRIP and EASY RIDER, to be the three seminal counterculture films of the decade. Who are we to argue?

6. MACHINE GUN KELLY

Corman gave Charles Bronson his first starring role in the low budget gangster bio MACHINE GUN KELLY (1958) as a hardened criminal who always has his Thompson machine gun in hand and the fear of death on his mind. The most interesting thing about watching MACHINE GUN KELLY today is seeing a relatively young Bronson (actually he was 37) give the type of performance he wouldn’t give after he became a megastar; that of a smiling, fast-talking ladies’ man (and watch him tease a caged lion!). This was one of the first films to gain Corman international recognition and acclaim, due in part to his crisp and efficient directorial style and also a symbolism-heavy script that focused on the psychological mind of a criminal. It was Corman’s idea to film the story of Kelly, a real-life thug who coined the term ‘G-Men’ but ended up surrendering meekly to authorities and later died in prison. Susan Cabot, who played the moll who was the driving force behind Kelly’s exploits as well as the title character in Corman’s THE WASP WOMAN (1959), was bludgeoned to death by her own son in 1986.

5. X – THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES

Next to Vincent Price, one of Roger Corman’s favorite performers was Ray Milland. With his old Hollywood star power and sometimes brooding screen presence, Milland could carry a film and gave standout performances regardless of budget or studio. In X – THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES (1963), Corman’s rumination on the dangers of too much scientific knowledge, Milland does not disappoint. Appearing in nearly every scene, Milland plays Dr. Xavier, a research scientist on the verge of a breakthrough to enhance visual abilities. We watch as the obsessed Dr. Xavier descends into the depths of the world he created. Originally the Xavier character was a musician, and this gave the story an oblique anti-drug theme. Some of those elements remain, but the movie’s themes are solidly in the realm of “be careful what you wish for” science fiction, technology vs. religion, and the limits to mankind’s quest for knowledge. Don Rickles, in his screen debut, also shines as a sleazy promoter. Made during a busy time when Corman was at his creative peak (he made four other films that same year), X holds up well today. Highly regarded by many critics (Stephen King wrote about it), what Corman called his “low budget Greek tragedy” is a compelling little gem with something to say.

4. THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM (1962)

Not much of Edgar Allen Poe’s short story which shares its title is on screen besides the eponymous torture device, but thanks to a deft screenplay by Richard Matheson, a pitch-perfect performance by Vincent Price, sure handed direction by Roger Corman, and the inspired casting of Barbara Steele, THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM is an epic helping of gothic grand guignol that deserves its place on the top of this list. Vincent Price’s Don Medina is a much more lively than his Roderick Usher form the previous year. Price was often accused of overacting, but his frantic scenery-chewing was the correct style for this material. The casting of the otherworldly Barbara Steele shows that American International was properly impressed with her horror debut in the previous year’s BLACK SUNDAY (as they should have been), the Italian film they distributed and this was her stateside debut. Steele is something to behold in THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM, slinking and smirking like a deranged cat around the torture chamber, driving Price and the audience to delirium. Steele wasn’t long for Hollywood though. She fled the set of an Elvis film the next year and returned to Europe where she starred in a string of unparalleled gothic horrors. Corman’s camera stays in time to the berserk performances of his two horror stars, as he experiments with odd lens techniques and hallucinatory framing and you’d never guess that THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM was shot on for only $200,000 as it is consistently dazzling to look at with spooky color camerawork by Floyd Crosby and imposing art design by Daniel Haller. Stock footage of the climactic torture sequence would later find its way into the 1966 spy spoof DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE BIKINI MACHINE, which also starred Vincent Price as well as GHOST IN THE INVISIBLE BIKINI (also 1966). THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM is a fantastic and fascinating viewing experience that just keeps getting better with age.

3. THE TRIP

Until 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY was released the following year, Corman’s uniquely weird THE TRIP (1967) was unofficially the most psychedelic film ever. Taking advantage of the keen interest at the time in both the drug culture and the hippie movement, Corman received a wonderfully wacked-out script from Jack Nicholson (yes, the Oscar-winning actor) and assembled a first-rate cast of young talent (Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Bruce Dern, and Susan Strasberg). Utilizing ground-breaking effects, with in-camera lighting, image projection, and post-optical work creating wild visuals of spiraling symbols and eddys of color, plus then-novel rapid editing techniques, Corman created a snapshot of 1960s counterculture that has rarely been equaled. The plot is simple: a young director of TV commercials (Fonda) is going through a bittersweet divorce from wife Strasberg (stunningly sexy and beautiful in a nearly silent role). About 10 minutes into the film, Fonda drops acid, and the entire rest of the movie chronicles his experiences-both real and LSD-induced ‘trip’. What follows is outlandishly colorful fashions, body paint, and lots of hippie slang (the word ‘man’ ends every other sentence). Corman also continues his desire, after years of the claustrophobic Poe films, to shoot more in open, natural settings and locations, like the Big Sur scenery here. Corman even manages to sneak in some horror film imagery during Fonda’s drug-induced dreams. And if anyone doubts the reality of the 60s culture, Corman notes that the houses chosen as sets were redressed very little, if at all. In other words, people actually used to live like that! Upon its release, the film was considered controversial for its sex and nudity (tame by today’s standards), and for its perceived pro-drug themes. Corman claims he tried to balance both the positive and negative aspects of LSD, and was upset when the studio added a ‘disclaimer’ at the beginning of the film without his knowledge or consent. A must-see for both fans of Corman and 1960s cinema, this TRIP is groovy!

2. THE INTRUDER

Ironic that so near the top of this list is the only of his movies that Corman claims lost money, but THE INTRUDER, a timely look at school desegregation in the South, is his most unusual and visionary film, far too truthful and bold for U.S. audiences in 1961 and one that gets better with age. William Shatner gives a hugely charismatic performance as Adam Cramer, a cocky racist agitator who travels the South in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education decision, stirring up protests and riots and organizing white citizens groups with himself as their leader. Cramer arrives in a small town (filmed in the bootheel of Missouri) where the local white high school is about to get its first black students and manipulates the townsfolk, taking control of the debate and agenda, and turning an already-tense situation into a riot. THE INTRUDER flopped in its U.S. release despite reissues under the titles SHAME and I HATE YOUR GUTS. Segregation was no doubt a touchy topic at the time, but few directors would have had guts to release a film like this, and it took a maverick like Corman to do so. There’s no sugar coating of the subject of racism in THE INTRUDER. Charles Beaumont’s startling script pulls no punches and it was Europe where it was initially received as the daring and well-made film that it is. THE INTRUDER is a masterpiece by any measure and a cult classic still ripe for rediscovery.

1. THE TOMB OF LIGEIA (1964)


The final entry in Roger Corman & Vincent Price’s six-film cycle of Edgar Allen Poe adaptations, THE TOMB OF LIGEIA was never a favorite to kids because of its lack of overt horror elements and its focus on gothic romance. The years have been very good to LIGEIA, now considered to be the most ambitious and mature film in the series and Price himself is on record as saying it was the best of his eight Corman collaborations. Price played British aristocrat Verden Fell, who believes his wife Ligeia, who’d committed suicide, will return from the grave and that her spirit has entered a cat. He meets Lady Rowena (Elizabeth Shepherd), her spitting image, and the two marry, opening the doorway for Ligeia’s revenge. Corman and crew returned to England after filming the previous entry, MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH there, filming LIGEIA at the crumbling Castle Acre Priory in Norfolk, and the film benefits from the lack of stagy, claustrophobic studio sets that marked the rest of the series. In fact, the first twenty minutes takes place in the bright outdoors and that Fell has a medical aversion to sunlight seems appropriate, almost like they were cleverly building on what had gone on in the previous films. Elizabeth Shepherd was a beautiful and talented actress who had been hired to replace Honor Blackman on “The Avengers” TV series as the first Emma Peel but was fired and replaced with Diana Rigg before audiences were able to see her in action. Her Rowena is more fleshed out than any female character in the Price/Corman/Poe series. Unlike the morose, downcast women of the earlier films, Ms Shepherd wears a smile throughout much of the proceedings that grows more sinister as the story progresses, though her character isn’t immune from the same fate as most Poe women. It’s mostly a two-person drama and Ms Shepherd holds her own against Price, who’s at his most anguished. Screenwriter Robert Towne, who would go on to win an Oscar nine years later for CHINATOWN, provided a genuine, if suggestive, ghost story with a sense of realism missing from the earlier Poe films. Corman employed Arthur Grant, longtime director of photography for many Hammer horror films, including THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF and FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED and Grant utilizes the English countryside in ways he did not for Hammer.

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Presenting Roger Corman the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ at Vincentennial, the Vincent Price 100th Birthday Celebration in May of 2011 in St. Louis

GREMLINS and GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH Screening This Saturday at The St. Andrews in St. Charles with Voice Actor Mark Dodson


Hulk Hogan: “Okay you guys, listen up! People pay good money to see this movie! When they go out to a theater they want cold sodas, hot popcorn, and no monsters in the projection booth! Do I have to come up there myself? Do you think the Gremsters can stand up to the Hulkster? Well, if I were you, I’d run the rest of Gremlins 2! Right now! Sorry folks, it won’t happen again!”


GREMLINS and GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH are screening This Saturday, December 15th, at the St. Andrews Cinema in St. Charles, MO (2025 Golfway St, St Charles, MO 63301). The doors open at 2:00pm and the first film starts at 2:30. Admission for both films is $5. GREMLINS will be introduced by Mark Dodson. Mark was the voice of Salicious Crumb in RETURN OF THE JEDI and Mogwai in GREMLINS. His other voice credits include DAY OF THE DEAD and STAR WARS THE FORCE AWAKENS. A Facebook invite for the event can be found HERE


GREMLINS (1984) is a fabulous flick, because it somehow manages to be both a sentimental good-natured modern-day fairytale, and an uproariously riotous comic horror film that stomps all over the nice wholesome image of Christmas and small-town America. The script by Chris Columbus is simply fantastic – all the characters are nicely drawn, the Three Rules Of Gremlins are brilliant, and there are whole scenes which are simply priceless – the evocative Chinatown opening, the Peckinpah-esque kitchen massacre sequence, Kate’s phenomenal “Why I Hate Christmas” speech, Mrs Deagle’s grisly demise and the Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs spectacle, to name but a few. This is one of those rare examples of a film where everything just gels together perfectly – Joe Dante’s gleefully insane direction, Jerry Goldsmith’s alternately soothing and teeth-grating score, wonderful camera-work by John Hora and eye-popping special effects puppetry by Chris Walas – Gizmo and Stripe are not just props in this movie, they are real characters who give performances with more depth than a lot of A-list actors I could name. The rest of the cast shine; Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates (one of the cutest young actress of the eighties) are extremely appealing, Hoyt Axton is terrific as the hapless inventor dad, Miller hilarious as the xenophobic neighbour Mr Futterman, and Luke is unforgettable as the wise old grandfather. Look out also for an unbilled bit by Dante alumni Kenneth Tobey and executive producer Steven Spielberg in a rare cameo appearance.


With the sequel, Dante took everything that was great about Gremlins and cranked it all the way up to a zillion. The original movie was a dark xmas comedy horror with B-movie undertones. The sequel was so over-the-top it launched itself into the stratosphere and doesn’t come back down until the very, very end of the credits. It’s just wall-to-wall mayhem with so many in-jokes it’ll make your head explode. GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH even attempts to begin as a Looney Tunes cartoon.


These are brilliantly-made, wonderfully wicked horror comedies,  equal parts intriguing, funny, gross, touching and scary, so don’t miss them when they play this Saturday at the St. Andrews.

Joe Dante’s EXPLORERS Opens Friday at The Keller 8 in St. Louis


“Burn in hell, alien maggots. You shall not possess our women, slime-bred vermin!”


Joe Dante’s EXPLORERS (1985), starring a young Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix, opens June 22nd at the discount theater The Keller 8 in South St. Louis County (4572 Lemay Ferry Road). Daily showtimes are 1:45 and 9:35pm.


Like GOONIES, EXPLORERS  is one of those films that a lot of young boys saw in the mid ‘80s and stayed with them, developing something of a following over the years.


Though Steven Spielberg’s name is nowhere to be found in EXPLORERS, all the familiar Spielbergian motifs of smart children, lovable space aliens, 1950s television shows, and topnotch (for 1985) special effects are in place. The story opens with a computerized animation sequence, which, it turns out, is the dream of modern-age child Ethan Hawke. He quickly wakes up, then sketches out some of his dream’s hardware. Using a walkie-talkie, Hawke contacts his sleeping pal River Phoenix, giving him the details. Phoenix, a pint-sized computer genius, suspects this dream is yet another in a series of mysterious signals from unknown beings. Using the symbols from Hawke’s dreams, as well as his sophisticated computer setup, Phoenix creates a perfect sphere of light for a power source for their own spaceship, which takes them for an encounter with the mysterious source of Hawke’s dream signals. Industrial Light & Magic, George Lucas’ special effects company, is responsible for the visual extravaganzas in this orgy of special effects, and as usual, its work is superb. The alien costumes are clever and show some real imagination in their design. I’m not quite sure why the Keller 8 is running EXPLORERS, but here’s your chance to see it again on the big screen.

Happy 92nd Birthday Roger Corman! Here Are His Ten Best Films

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, and Tom Stockman

Happy 92nd Birthday to a legend! Roger Corman has directed more than 50 low-budget drive-in classics, produced and/or distributed 450 more, and helped the careers of hundreds of young people breaking into the industry. A partial list: Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Irvin Kershner, Monte Hellman, Peter Bogdanovich, Gail Ann Hurd, James Cameron, Jonathan Kaplan, Joe Dante, Robert Towne. Considering Corman’s own films, Jonathan Demme has stated. “Roger is arguably the greatest independent filmmaker the American film industry has seen and probably ever will see.” We Are Movie Geeks has taken a look at Corman’s career and here are what we think are the ten best films that he has directed:

HONORABLE MENTION. THE PREMATURE BURIAL

THE PREMATURE BURIAL (1962) is the ‘odd man out’ among the series of Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptations because of the absence of Vincent Price (Corman began this project at a different studio while Price was under contract at American International). Ray Milland was instead cast as the paranoid and cataleptic Guy Correll, a 19th-century English nobleman convinced that hereditary catalepsy will cause him to be buried alive. While Price’s flamboyant theatrics are missed, Milland’s low-key anxiety as man teetering on the edge of mental collapse works fine for the material. A sequence where Milland, trapped immobile in a coffin looking up and hoping the mourners will see his open eyes, is particularly nightmarish as is the film’s dream centerpiece. With its lavish sets and impenetrable fog, THE PREMATURE BURIAL is unmistakably a Corman production and the stunning Hazel Court is, as always, absolutely wonderful in the female lead. Milland and Corman reteamed the following year for X, THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES, a film Corman considered among his very best.

10. BLOODY MAMA

 “A family that slays together stays together!”was the tagline for BLOODY MAMA, Corman’s loose 1970 account of Ma Barker and her gang of rural depression-era criminal offspring. Shelly Winters, indulging in some bold over-the-top overacting, was born to play Ma, who, after dumping her weak husband, takes her hillbilly brood off on a brutal crime spree of killing, raping, kidnapping, and torture (Winters had played the spoofish Ma Parker on Batman three years earlier). BLOODY MAMA is a squalid whitetrash crime melodrama that packs one hell of a mean and lingering punch and is one of the most sadistic films from the Corman canon, a perverse mix of murder, incest, bloodshed, family bonding, and action. Corman inserts a good deal of social commentary on America at that time and directs a strong cast including Bruce Dern, Don Stroud, and a young Robert DeNiro who sniffs glue like there’s no tomorrow. Though historically far from accurate (the real Ma Barker never participated in her son’s crimes and her legend as the gang’s leader was fabricated by the FBI to justify her eventual killing), BLOODY MAMA is an entertaining lesson in family psychology peppered with machine gun fire.

9. LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS


 
Long before the off-Broadway Ashman/Meinken musical, the Frank Oz directed film of said work, and the Fox Kids TV show there was this seventy minute 1960 black and white comedy classic. And it all kind of stemmed from a bet that producer/director Roger Corman made . A fellow at the studio showed him a storefront set that would be taken down in two weeks. Corman told him he could use it in a film. In two weeks? No way , the studio guy said. Corman bet him that not only could he come up with a movie idea in that time, but he could shoot it in two days. He brainstormed overnight with frequent screenwriter Charles Griffith, they hammered out a script , and Roger shot it in two days ( and one night ). This second entry in Corman’s ‘black humor trilogy’ begins at a run- down skid row flower shop owner by the tightwad tyrant Gravis Mushik ( you gotta love these Yiddish sounding names! ) played by Mel Welles. Sweeping the floors there is lowly employee Seymour Krelboin ( Jonathan Haze ) who yearns for the lovely cashier/clerk Audrey ( Jackie Joseph ). Aside from Burson Fouch ( Dick Miller ) who purchases single flowers that he devours with a pinch of salt, they have no customers. Seymour shows Mushnik a strange hybrid plant that he is cultivating. Maybe putting this weird plant in the front window will inspire some walk-in traffic. When it doesn’t respond to soil supplements and water, Seymour stays at the shop trying to nurture the plant to grow. When he accidentally cuts his finger, a few drop of blood falls onto the bud. Then it grows and blooms. For the next few nights, he pricks his fingers to feed it. Finally he’s all bleed out. The plant will have none of this and becomes vocal and demanding: “Feeed me! Feed me! Bring on the chow!”. Seems it, Audrey Jr. ( after his unrequited love ), has to have human flesh and blood! Corman piles on the laughs here-from the pseudo-Dragnet narration to the wild, bellowing plant to a hilarious appearance by a very young Jack Nicholson as the masochistic( had they ever been shown in movies before? ) dental groupie Wilbur Force. This is one dark ( almost pitch black ) comedy. Who’d have ever thought that this would be adapted into a musical that’s become a staple of schools the world over?

8. BUCKET OF BLOOD


 
In 1959 Roger Corman produced and directed the first of his ‘black humor trilogy’ for American International Pictures, A BUCKET OF BLOOD. For this black and white sixty six minute gem Corman explored the seedy world of coffee houses to take a satirical look at modern art and those proto-hippies: beatniks. Previously these bearded and bereted jazz lovers were spoofed in the musical FUNNY FACE and they would later inspire the beloved TV character Maynard G. Krebbs on the Dobie Gillis show. The movie centers on the slow-witted schlub Walter Paisley ( Corman regular Dick Miller ), a bus boy at a coffee house/ art gallery who wants to impress the beautiful Carla ( Barboura Morris ). He decides to turn to sculpting with poor results. Out of frustration he flings his modeling knife out the window accidentally killing a stray alley cat. Then a light bulb go on above his head. He covers the cat in clay and passes it off as his art. The beatniks there are impressed as is Carla. Unfortunately One of the patrons shows his appreciation by giving the art sensation a herbal gift. Undercover cop Lou ( future TV game show host Bert Convy ) sees this and follows Walter back to his apartment/studio to arrest him for possession of ‘reefer’. Paisley panics when Lou pulls out his revolver and smashes the cop with a frying pan. What to do? Another sculpture! As Walter becomes more popular he seeks out more ‘subjects’ to put together a big art show. BUCKET OF BLOOD boasts a very funny script by frequent collaborator Charles Griffith, a great jazzy score from Fred Katz ( later the pianist at Chicago’s Second City Cabaret ), and a great cast of supporting players ( Corman regulars Anthony Carbone and Ed Nelson ). Viewers expecting a brutal thriller from the title might be surprised by the delightful satire that Corman concocted. Or should I say sculpted?

7. WILD ANGELS


 
After years of shooting on enclosed sets for the AIP Poe films, Roger Corman needed a change; he wanted to shoot films on location, using open spaces and existing houses as sets. He got his wish with the film that’s generally credited as launching an entire genre of biker films in the 1960s and 70s. Compared to all the copies that followed, Corman’s WILD ANGELS (1966) set a high standard for chopper action, sexy motorcycle mamas, drugs, and brutal violence. Peter Fonda stars as gang leader Blues, whose one desire in life is to be “free to ride, .. get loaded, and party without being hassled by the man”. Along for the ride are fellow bikers Nancy Sinatra, Bruce Dern, Diane Ladd, and Gayle Hunnicutt (I love that the prettiest biker chick has the scar on her face!). Some of actual members of the Venice Chapter of the Hell’s Angels also are in the movie as extras, though some of the real Angels later sued Corman after the film was released, as they perceived the movie portrayed them in a negative light. From its opening shots of Fonda riding his chopper, to its climactic funeral party, with its general tone of anarchy and rebellion, WILD ANGELS still packs a visceral punch for moviegoers. Corman regards this movie, along with THE TRIP and EASY RIDER, to be the three seminal counterculture films of the decade. Who are we to argue?

6. MACHINE GUN KELLY


Corman gave Charles Bronson his first starring role in the low budget gangster bio MACHINE GUN KELLY (1958) as a hardened criminal who always has his Thompson machine gun in hand and the fear of death on his mind. The most interesting thing about watching MACHINE GUN KELLY today is seeing a relatively young Bronson (actually he was 37) give the type of performance he wouldn’t give after he became a megastar; that of a smiling, fast-talking ladies’ man (and watch him tease a caged lion!). This was one of the first films to gain Corman international recognition and acclaim, due in part to his crisp and efficient directorial style and also a symbolism-heavy script that focused on the psychological mind of a criminal. It was Corman’s idea to film the story of Kelly, a real-life thug who coined the term ‘G-Men’ but ended up surrendering meekly to authorities and later died in prison. Susan Cabot, who played the moll who was the driving force behind Kelly’s exploits as well as the title character in Corman’s THE WASP WOMAN (1959), was bludgeoned to death by her own son in 1986.

5. X – THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES


 
Next to Vincent Price, one of Roger Corman’s favorite performers was Ray Milland. With his old Hollywood star power and sometimes brooding screen presence, Milland could carry a film and gave standout performances regardless of budget or studio. In X – THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES (1963), Corman’s rumination on the dangers of too much scientific knowledge, Milland does not disappoint. Appearing in nearly every scene, Milland plays Dr. Xavier, a research scientist on the verge of a breakthrough to enhance visual abilities. We watch as the obsessed Dr. Xavier descends into the depths of the world he created. Originally the Xavier character was a musician, and this gave the story an oblique anti-drug theme. Some of those elements remain, but the movie’s themes are solidly in the realm of “be careful what you wish for” science fiction, technology vs. religion, and the limits to mankind’s quest for knowledge. Don Rickles, in his screen debut, also shines as a sleazy promoter. Made during a busy time when Corman was at his creative peak (he made four other films that same year), X holds up well today. Highly regarded by many critics (Stephen King wrote about it), what Corman called his “low budget Greek tragedy” is a compelling little gem with something to say.

4. THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM (1962)

Not much of Edgar Allen Poe’s short story which shares its title is on screen besides the eponymous torture device, but thanks to a deft screenplay by Richard Matheson, a pitch-perfect performance by Vincent Price, sure handed direction by Roger Corman, and the inspired casting of Barbara Steele, THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM is an epic helping of gothic grand guignol that deserves its place on the top of this list. Vincent Price’s Don Medina is a much more lively than his Roderick Usher form the previous year. Price was often accused of overacting, but his frantic scenery-chewing was the correct style for this material. The casting of the otherworldly Barbara Steele shows that American International was properly impressed with her horror debut in the previous year’s BLACK SUNDAY (as they should have been), the Italian film they distributed and this was her stateside debut. Steele is something to behold in THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM, slinking and smirking like a deranged cat around the torture chamber, driving Price and the audience to delirium. Steele wasn’t long for Hollywood though. She fled the set of an Elvis film the next year and returned to Europe where she starred in a string of unparalleled gothic horrors. Corman’s camera stays in time to the berserk performances of his two horror stars, as he experiments with odd lens techniques and hallucinatory framing and you’d never guess that THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM was shot on for only $200,000 as it is consistently dazzling to look at with spooky color camerawork by Floyd Crosby and imposing art design by Daniel Haller. Stock footage of the climactic torture sequence would later find its way into the 1966 spy spoof DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE BIKINI MACHINE, which also starred Vincent Price as well as GHOST IN THE INVISIBLE BIKINI (also 1966). THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM is a fantastic and fascinating viewing experience that just keeps getting better with age.

3. THE TRIP

Until 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY was released the following year, Corman’s uniquely weird THE TRIP (1967) was unofficially the most psychedelic film ever. Taking advantage of the keen interest at the time in both the drug culture and the hippie movement, Corman received a wonderfully wacked-out script from Jack Nicholson (yes, the Oscar-winning actor) and assembled a first-rate cast of young talent (Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Bruce Dern, and Susan Strasberg). Utilizing ground-breaking effects, with in-camera lighting, image projection, and post-optical work creating wild visuals of spiraling symbols and eddys of color, plus then-novel rapid editing techniques, Corman created a snapshot of 1960s counterculture that has rarely been equaled. The plot is simple: a young director of TV commercials (Fonda) is going through a bittersweet divorce from wife Strasberg (stunningly sexy and beautiful in a nearly silent role). About 10 minutes into the film, Fonda drops acid, and the entire rest of the movie chronicles his experiences-both real and LSD-induced ‘trip’. What follows is outlandishly colorful fashions, body paint, and lots of hippie slang (the word ‘man’ ends every other sentence). Corman also continues his desire, after years of the claustrophobic Poe films, to shoot more in open, natural settings and locations, like the Big Sur scenery here. Corman even manages to sneak in some horror film imagery during Fonda’s drug-induced dreams. And if anyone doubts the reality of the 60s culture, Corman notes that the houses chosen as sets were redressed very little, if at all. In other words, people actually used to live like that! Upon its release, the film was considered controversial for its sex and nudity (tame by today’s standards), and for its perceived pro-drug themes. Corman claims he tried to balance both the positive and negative aspects of LSD, and was upset when the studio added a ‘disclaimer’ at the beginning of the film without his knowledge or consent. A must-see for both fans of Corman and 1960s cinema, this TRIP is groovy!

2. THE TOMB OF LIGEIA (1964)

The final entry in Roger Corman & Vincent Price’s six-film cycle of Edgar Allen Poe adaptations, THE TOMB OF LIGEIA was never a favorite to kids because of its lack of overt horror elements and its focus on gothic romance. The years have been very good to LIGEIA, now considered to be the most ambitious and mature film in the series and Price himself is on record as saying it was the best of his eight Corman collaborations. Price played British aristocrat Verden Fell, who believes his wife Ligeia, who’d committed suicide, will return from the grave and that her spirit has entered a cat. He meets Lady Rowena (Elizabeth Shepherd), her spitting image, and the two marry, opening the doorway for Ligeia’s revenge. Corman and crew returned to England after filming the previous entry, MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH there, filming LIGEIA at the crumbling Castle Acre Priory in Norfolk, and the film benefits from the lack of stagy, claustrophobic studio sets that marked the rest of the series. In fact, the first twenty minutes takes place in the bright outdoors and that Fell has a medical aversion to sunlight seems appropriate, almost like they were cleverly building on what had gone on in the previous films. Elizabeth Shepherd was a beautiful and talented actress who had been hired to replace Honor Blackman on “The Avengers” TV series as the first Emma Peel but was fired and replaced with Diana Rigg before audiences were able to see her in action. Her Rowena is more fleshed out than any female character in the Price/Corman/Poe series. Unlike the morose, downcast women of the earlier films, Ms Shepherd wears a smile throughout much of the proceedings that grows more sinister as the story progresses, though her character isn’t immune from the same fate as most Poe women. It’s mostly a two-person drama and Ms Shepherd holds her own against Price, who’s at his most anguished. Screenwriter Robert Towne, who would go on to win an Oscar nine years later for CHINATOWN, provided a genuine, if suggestive, ghost story with a sense of realism missing from the earlier Poe films. Corman employed Arthur Grant, longtime director of photography for many Hammer horror films, including THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF and FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED and Grant utilizes the English countryside in ways he did not for Hammer.

1. THE INTRUDER


 
Ironic that topping this list is the only of his movies that Corman claims lost money, but THE INTRUDER, a timely look at school desegregation in the South, is his most unusual and visionary film, far too truthful and bold for U.S. audiences in 1961 and one that gets better with age. William Shatner gives a hugely charismatic performance as Adam Cramer, a cocky racist agitator who travels the South in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education decision, stirring up protests and riots and organizing white citizens groups with himself as their leader. Cramer arrives in a small town (filmed in the bootheel of Missouri) where the local white high school is about to get its first black students and manipulates the townsfolk, taking control of the debate and agenda, and turning an already-tense situation into a riot. THE INTRUDER flopped in its U.S. release despite reissues under the titles SHAME and I HATE YOUR GUTS. Segregation was no doubt a touchy topic at the time, but few directors would have had guts to release a film like this, and it took a maverick like Corman to do so. There’s no sugar coating of the subject of racism in THE INTRUDER. Charles Beaumont’s startling script pulls no punches and it was Europe where it was initially received as the daring and well-made film that it is. THE INTRUDER is a masterpiece by any measure and a cult classic still ripe for rediscovery.

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Presenting Roger Corman the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ at Vincentennial, the Vincent Price 100th Birthday Celebration in May of 2011 in St. Louis

King Kong Documentary LONG LIVE THE KING Now Available for Digital Purchase on Amazon Video and YouTube

If you missed LONG LIVE THE KING when it played last November at The St. Louis International Film Festival, you can now watch it on Amazon Video and YouTube!
The 2016 documentary LONG LIVE THE KING explores the enduring fascination with one of the biggest stars in Hollywood history: the mighty King Kong. LONG LIVE THE KING is produced and directed by Frank Dietz and Trish Geiger, the creative team behind the award-winning BEAST WISHES (the 20112 documentary about Bob and Kathy Burns, the goodwill ambassadors of science fiction film fandom. LONG LIVE THE KING devotes primary attention to the 1933 classic, celebrating the contributions of filmmakers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, stars Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, and Bruce Cabot, writer Edgar Wallace, and especially stop-motion innovator Willis O’Brien. But Kong’s legacy is also fully detailed: the sequel “Son of Kong,” the cinematic kin “Mighty Joe Young,” the Dino DeLaurentis and Peter Jackson remakes, even the Japanese versions by Toho Studios. Among the legion of Kong fans interviewed are “Simpsons” writer/producer Dana Gould, director Joe Dante, and artist Bill Stout.These celebrity interviews reflect decades of passion and fandom of the original 1933 classic film, revealing how many entertainment creators’ lives were influenced by childhood first viewings of KING KONG, and how this timeless adventure fantasy influenced future careers of filmmakers, writers, actors and artists for generations since its release. These amusing personal stories weave together common threads of admiration, wonder and inspiration that all KONG fans share in their lives and work.

LONG LIVE THE KING is now available for digital purchase on Amazon Video and YouTube.

EXCLUSIVE: WAMG Talks To JOE DANTE – Mammoth Lakes Film Festival

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The 2nd Annual MAMMOTH LAKES FILM FESTIVAL is underway here in beautiful, Mammoth Lakes, California, and this year, they continue to impress with an incredible film selection. They are also introducing the Sierra Spirit Award, which they are presenting to legendary filmmaker Joe Dante tomorrow night after they screen his hit comedy INNERSPACE. Robert Picardo will also be joining Dante in a Q&A following the film. I spoke with Mr. Dante on the phone earlier this week. Check it out below!

First off, I have to say that I covered the Mammoth Lakes Film Festival for their first year last year, and I was very excited to see that you were on the list this year.

JOE DANTE: What is it like? What should I expect?

Oh, it’s beautiful. The mountains are incredible, the people are beyond friendly, and the programming is amazing. I’m curious , how were you made aware of the festival?

JOE DANTE: Honestly, they simply sent me an email and said ‘we would like you to come to our festival one night.’ I’ll be honest and say that I was not particularly with the festival. I know Mammoth Lakes, but I haven’t been there in 20 years. People have told me that it hasn’t changed much… But they were very cordial and nice and I thought ‘Gee, I’d love to see Mammoth Lakes!’

Not too far back, I went to the Egyptian Theater to see their tribute to Dick Miller. He and Rick Baker did a Q&A, and they happened to show GREMLINS and GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH. What has your experience been working with Dick Miller, since he has been in just about all of your films?

JOE DANTE: I would have been there, but I was out of town. Dick is someone who… I won’t say I grew up watching… but I was certainly a lot younger when I saw him in the Roger Corman movies. He was always a favorite actor of mine, so when I came out to Hollywood and I worked with Roger Corman, I determined that I would make a film with Dick Miller in it. So, I wrote a part for him in my first picture. We hit it off so well that I thought ‘here’s a guy that I just like to see on screen. So, if I’m going to get more jobs, and make more movies, I’d like to see more of Dick!’ I basically put him in every picture that I made. There was one movie that he got cut out of, [laughs] but otherwise, he’s like my talisman! [Laughs]

It’s amazing to see the amount of credits he has under his belt!

JOE DANTE: Well, you know… You gotta keep working! You gotta feed your kids! [laughs]

Speaking of Roger Corman you don’t see the types of relationships where a producer takes on a director the way Corman did with you, and so many others. Would you ever consider mentoring someone in a more indie fashion, the way Corman did with you?

JOE DANTE: I have considered it, and have done it on occasion. I have a film that just came out called DARK by director Nick Basile, which I am an executive producer on because I wanted to see him get the picture made. That does happen, but the opportunities are limited because of the way the business is. When I was working with Corman, there was a non-stop flow of movies that were at the drive-in, so they’re a lot more opportunities to mentor young people. We were cheap to hire, and we really didn’t know what we were doing, so we would look to him. He was the professional. He would help us, and guide us so that we could get the movie finished.

There was a revolving door at Cormans, with many different people who got their first breaks working for him. Unfortunately, that spicket his turned off. There is certainly no one like him anymore, and there’s no business like that anymore. There is no flow of movies going to drive-ins anymore. Even, really, to theaters. Independent films now almost always bypass theaters and go straight to video on-demand. It’s a whole different paradigm. You just really don’t have a lot of opportunities for mentoring.

I kind of feel as though the middle budget films have it the hardest right now, because it seems like studios are gravitating to the independent film that will gain them an award, or the big summer blockbuster. That being said, there are so many options for distribution now. You have theaters, Hulu Netflix, iTunes… Television has even become a major competitor. Has the evolution of the market changed how you approach the market, and do you have a preference?

JOE DANTE: Feature people used to look down on television because it was a lesser medium, they thought. It was a small screen, and they had certain restrictions on how they shot because the screen was so small. That’s all gone now, obviously. Some people have home theater systems that are better than their local theater. There’s really no difference in the aesthetic anymore. What’s happened in the last decade is the rise of the mini-series, and they have allowed people to do the whole book… and not have to cut it down to just 90 minutes. They can now develop sub-plots for all these characters. That’s why a lot of directors are gravitating towards television now as a storytelling medium… and now the theatrical has become a spectacle business. People go because they want to see stories on big screens… superheroes, and movies with 12 climaxes… with special-effects, and all that that’s one kind of movie. It used to be one of many kinds of movies, but now it’s the kind of movie that only gets made for theaters. Of course you have your dramas, and your romantic movies… your thrillers… but they just don’t do that well theatrically. There’s no market anymore. it’s syndication. They used to show a lot more on local stations, but now it’s all infomercials. Your revenue streams cut off. The idea of making an independent film and having it be seen. There might be more places for independent films to be seen, but not paying. If you want to put it out on VOD, like my last movie… if I type in the title the first five sites to come up are pirate site so people can watch your movies for free. The chances of people making money by putting their films on video on demand is greatly deduced.

One of the things that I really respect is the amount of practical effects that you’ve used over the years. It’s sad to see practical effects being used less and less with the rise of CGI quality.

JOE DANTE: I was brought up on practical effects, because that’s what was state-of-the-art when I was working. And also because you’re doing it on the set and you have something for the actors to relate to instead of telling them to stare into the corner and pretend that there’s a monster there. CGI has taken over to a degree that most people don’t even understand. When they go to see a movie like GRAVITY they don’t realize that besides the actors faces there was nothing to photograph. There are a few practical scenes, but for the most part it’s all done on computer, and very cleverly done. It’s very convincing. All the beautiful, mundane things like the sky, or the mountains in a shot are manipulated somehow. It’s far beyond any photographic manipulation that we could ever do. We had a hard time trying to move the TV Ariel out of the shot in a period piece because there was nothing we could really do to erase it without scratching the movie and then you have to figure out a way to try and de-scratch it. We had very limited tools and now you can push a button and do just about anything. Literally anything you could think of to do you can do. It really is great, but I do think that there is something to be said about the old way of doing it… of the practical effects that are actually photographed and in the scene with the people. They’re not standing on a green screen. They’re standing on a set. They know where the chairs are. They know where the other actors are. I’m old-fashioned I guess, but I prefer that. There’s no way were going to be able to turn our back on the computer generated stuff. It’s the future, and I think that once the virtual reality stuff comes in the play, which I think is right around the corner, it’s almost all gonna be virtual reality.

Speaking of practical effects I was reading somewhere that you have kept props from a lot of your movies. What are some of your more prized pieces?

JOE DANTE: I don’t know about prized, because they’re from my own movies. I have a Rosebud sled, original… that I take pride in, because it’s a great movie. Mostly I have all of the inventions from GREMLINS, the spaceships from EXPLORERS, miniatures from INNERSPACE…things like that that are dotted around my house in various places. It’s not exactly a museum.

That’s wonderful! I actually have a life-sized Gremlin in my house…

JOE DANTE: Really? Where did you get that?

There’s a company called Neca that makes…

JOE DANTE: Oh, Neca! They do great stuff!

Yeah, he’s pretty neat. They’re made from the original stunt puppets so I have a Flasher Gremlin just hanging around, amongst other things… He definitely gets a look whenever I have people over!

JOE DANTE: [Laughs]

Check out A NIGHT WITH JOE DANTE : Centerpiece Sierra Spirit Award Presentation and screening of INNERSPACE Saturday Night, May 28th, at the U.S. Forrest Service Theater in Mammoth Lakes, California. You can buy your tickets before they sell out HERE. 

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Happy 90th Birthday to Roger Corman – Here Are His Ten Best Films

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Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, and Tom Stockman

Happy 9oth Birthday to a legend! Roger Corman has directed more than 50 low-budget drive-in classics, produced and/or distributed 450 more, and helped the careers of hundreds of young people breaking into the industry. A partial list: Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Irvin Kershner, Monte Hellman, Peter Bogdanovich, Gail Ann Hurd, James Cameron, Jonathan Kaplan, Joe Dante, Robert Towne. Considering Corman’s own films, Jonathan Demme has stated. “Roger is arguably the greatest independent filmmaker the American film industry has seen and probably ever will see.” And he’s still going strong, currently producing the upcoming actioner DEATH RACE 2050. We Are Movie Geeks has taken a look at Corman’s career and here are what we think are the ten best films that he has directed:

 

HONORABLE MENTION. THE PREMATURE BURIAL

THE PREMATURE BURIAL (1962) is the ‘odd man out’ among the series of Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptations because of the absence of Vincent Price (Corman began this project at a different studio while Price was under contract at American International). Ray Milland was instead cast as the paranoid and cataleptic Guy Correll, a 19th-century English nobleman convinced that hereditary catalepsy will cause him to be buried alive. While Price’s flamboyant theatrics are missed, Milland’s low-key anxiety as man teetering on the edge of mental collapse works fine for the material. A sequence where Milland, trapped immobile in a coffin looking up and hoping the mourners will see his open eyes, is particularly nightmarish as is the film’s dream centerpiece. With its lavish sets and impenetrable fog, THE PREMATURE BURIAL is unmistakably a Corman production and the stunning Hazel Court is, as always, absolutely wonderful in the female lead. Milland and Corman reteamed the following year for X, THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES, a film Corman considered among his very best.

10. BLOODY MAMA

 “A family that slays together stays together!”was the tagline for BLOODY MAMA, Corman’s loose 1970 account of Ma Barker and her gang of rural depression-era criminal offspring. Shelly Winters, indulging in some bold over-the-top overacting, was born to play Ma, who, after dumping her weak husband, takes her hillbilly brood off on a brutal crime spree of killing, raping, kidnapping, and torture (Winters had played the spoofish Ma Parker on Batman three years earlier). BLOODY MAMA is a squalid whitetrash crime melodrama that packs one hell of a mean and lingering punch and is one of the most sadistic films from the Corman canon, a perverse mix of murder, incest, bloodshed, family bonding, and action. Corman inserts a good deal of social commentary on America at that time and directs a strong cast including Bruce Dern, Don Stroud, and a young Robert DeNiro who sniffs glue like there’s no tomorrow. Though historically far from accurate (the real Ma Barker never participated in her son’s crimes and her legend as the gang’s leader was fabricated by the FBI to justify her eventual killing), BLOODY MAMA is an entertaining lesson in family psychology peppered with machine gun fire.

9. LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS


 
Long before the off-Broadway Ashman/Meinken musical, the Frank Oz directed film of said work, and the Fox Kids TV show there was this seventy minute 1960 black and white comedy classic. And it all kind of stemmed from a bet that producer/director Roger Corman made . A fellow at the studio showed him a storefront set that would be taken down in two weeks. Corman told him he could use it in a film. In two weeks? No way , the studio guy said. Corman bet him that not only could he come up with a movie idea in that time, but he could shoot it in two days. He brainstormed overnight with frequent screenwriter Charles Griffith, they hammered out a script , and Roger shot it in two days ( and one night ). This second entry in Corman’s ‘black humor trilogy’ begins at a run- down skid row flower shop owner by the tightwad tyrant Gravis Mushik ( you gotta love these Yiddish sounding names! ) played by Mel Welles. Sweeping the floors there is lowly employee Seymour Krelboin ( Jonathan Haze ) who yearns for the lovely cashier/clerk Audrey ( Jackie Joseph ). Aside from Burson Fouch ( Dick Miller ) who purchases single flowers that he devours with a pinch of salt, they have no customers. Seymour shows Mushnik a strange hybrid plant that he is cultivating. Maybe putting this weird plant in the front window will inspire some walk-in traffic. When it doesn’t respond to soil supplements and water, Seymour stays at the shop trying to nurture the plant to grow. When he accidentally cuts his finger, a few drop of blood falls onto the bud. Then it grows and blooms. For the next few nights, he pricks his fingers to feed it. Finally he’s all bleed out. The plant will have none of this and becomes vocal and demanding: “Feeed me! Feed me! Bring on the chow!”. Seems it, Audrey Jr. ( after his unrequited love ), has to have human flesh and blood! Corman piles on the laughs here-from the pseudo-Dragnet narration to the wild, bellowing plant to a hilarious appearance by a very young Jack Nicholson as the masochistic( had they ever been shown in movies before? ) dental groupie Wilbur Force. This is one dark ( almost pitch black ) comedy. Who’d have ever thought that this would be adapted into a musical that’s become a staple of schools the world over?

8. BUCKET OF BLOOD


 
In 1959 Roger Corman produced and directed the first of his ‘black humor trilogy’ for American International Pictures, A BUCKET OF BLOOD. For this black and white sixty six minute gem Corman explored the seedy world of coffee houses to take a satirical look at modern art and those proto-hippies: beatniks. Previously these bearded and bereted jazz lovers were spoofed in the musical FUNNY FACE and they would later inspire the beloved TV character Maynard G. Krebbs on the Dobie Gillis show. The movie centers on the slow-witted schlub Walter Paisley ( Corman regular Dick Miller ), a bus boy at a coffee house/ art gallery who wants to impress the beautiful Carla ( Barboura Morris ). He decides to turn to sculpting with poor results. Out of frustration he flings his modeling knife out the window accidentally killing a stray alley cat. Then a light bulb go on above his head. He covers the cat in clay and passes it off as his art. The beatniks there are impressed as is Carla. Unfortunately One of the patrons shows his appreciation by giving the art sensation a herbal gift. Undercover cop Lou ( future TV game show host Bert Convy ) sees this and follows Walter back to his apartment/studio to arrest him for possession of ‘reefer’. Paisley panics when Lou pulls out his revolver and smashes the cop with a frying pan. What to do? Another sculpture! As Walter becomes more popular he seeks out more ‘subjects’ to put together a big art show. BUCKET OF BLOOD boasts a very funny script by frequent collaborator Charles Griffith, a great jazzy score from Fred Katz ( later the pianist at Chicago’s Second City Cabaret ), and a great cast of supporting players ( Corman regulars Anthony Carbone and Ed Nelson ). Viewers expecting a brutal thriller from the title might be surprised by the delightful satire that Corman concocted. Or should I say sculpted?

7. WILD ANGELS


 
After years of shooting on enclosed sets for the AIP Poe films, Roger Corman needed a change; he wanted to shoot films on location, using open spaces and existing houses as sets. He got his wish with the film that’s generally credited as launching an entire genre of biker films in the 1960s and 70s. Compared to all the copies that followed, Corman’s WILD ANGELS (1966) set a high standard for chopper action, sexy motorcycle mamas, drugs, and brutal violence. Peter Fonda stars as gang leader Blues, whose one desire in life is to be “free to ride, .. get loaded, and party without being hassled by the man”. Along for the ride are fellow bikers Nancy Sinatra, Bruce Dern, Diane Ladd, and Gayle Hunnicutt (I love that the prettiest biker chick has the scar on her face!). Some of actual members of the Venice Chapter of the Hell’s Angels also are in the movie as extras, though some of the real Angels later sued Corman after the film was released, as they perceived the movie portrayed them in a negative light. From its opening shots of Fonda riding his chopper, to its climactic funeral party, with its general tone of anarchy and rebellion, WILD ANGELS still packs a visceral punch for moviegoers. Corman regards this movie, along with THE TRIP and EASY RIDER, to be the three seminal counterculture films of the decade. Who are we to argue?

6. MACHINE GUN KELLY


Corman gave Charles Bronson his first starring role in the low budget gangster bio MACHINE GUN KELLY (1958) as a hardened criminal who always has his Thompson machine gun in hand and the fear of death on his mind. The most interesting thing about watching MACHINE GUN KELLY today is seeing a relatively young Bronson (actually he was 37) give the type of performance he wouldn’t give after he became a megastar; that of a smiling, fast-talking ladies’ man (and watch him tease a caged lion!). This was one of the first films to gain Corman international recognition and acclaim, due in part to his crisp and efficient directorial style and also a symbolism-heavy script that focused on the psychological mind of a criminal. It was Corman’s idea to film the story of Kelly, a real-life thug who coined the term ‘G-Men’ but ended up surrendering meekly to authorities and later died in prison. Susan Cabot, who played the moll who was the driving force behind Kelly’s exploits as well as the title character in Corman’s THE WASP WOMAN (1959), was bludgeoned to death by her own son in 1986.

5. X – THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES


 
Next to Vincent Price, one of Roger Corman’s favorite performers was Ray Milland. With his old Hollywood star power and sometimes brooding screen presence, Milland could carry a film and gave standout performances regardless of budget or studio. In X – THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES (1963), Corman’s rumination on the dangers of too much scientific knowledge, Milland does not disappoint. Appearing in nearly every scene, Milland plays Dr. Xavier, a research scientist on the verge of a breakthrough to enhance visual abilities. We watch as the obsessed Dr. Xavier descends into the depths of the world he created. Originally the Xavier character was a musician, and this gave the story an oblique anti-drug theme. Some of those elements remain, but the movie’s themes are solidly in the realm of “be careful what you wish for” science fiction, technology vs. religion, and the limits to mankind’s quest for knowledge. Don Rickles, in his screen debut, also shines as a sleazy promoter. Made during a busy time when Corman was at his creative peak (he made four other films that same year), X holds up well today. Highly regarded by many critics (Stephen King wrote about it), what Corman called his “low budget Greek tragedy” is a compelling little gem with something to say.

4. THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM (1962)

Not much of Edgar Allen Poe’s short story which shares its title is on screen besides the eponymous torture device, but thanks to a deft screenplay by Richard Matheson, a pitch-perfect performance by Vincent Price, sure handed direction by Roger Corman, and the inspired casting of Barbara Steele, THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM is an epic helping of gothic grand guignol that deserves its place on the top of this list. Vincent Price’s Don Medina is a much more lively than his Roderick Usher form the previous year. Price was often accused of overacting, but his frantic scenery-chewing was the correct style for this material. The casting of the otherworldly Barbara Steele shows that American International was properly impressed with her horror debut in the previous year’s BLACK SUNDAY (as they should have been), the Italian film they distributed and this was her stateside debut. Steele is something to behold in THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM, slinking and smirking like a deranged cat around the torture chamber, driving Price and the audience to delirium. Steele wasn’t long for Hollywood though. She fled the set of an Elvis film the next year and returned to Europe where she starred in a string of unparalleled gothic horrors. Corman’s camera stays in time to the berserk performances of his two horror stars, as he experiments with odd lens techniques and hallucinatory framing and you’d never guess that THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM was shot on for only $200,000 as it is consistently dazzling to look at with spooky color camerawork by Floyd Crosby and imposing art design by Daniel Haller. Stock footage of the climactic torture sequence would later find its way into the 1966 spy spoof DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE BIKINI MACHINE, which also starred Vincent Price as well as GHOST IN THE INVISIBLE BIKINI (also 1966). THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM is a fantastic and fascinating viewing experience that just keeps getting better with age.

3. THE TRIP

Until 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY was released the following year, Corman’s uniquely weird THE TRIP (1967) was unofficially the most psychedelic film ever. Taking advantage of the keen interest at the time in both the drug culture and the hippie movement, Corman received a wonderfully wacked-out script from Jack Nicholson (yes, the Oscar-winning actor) and assembled a first-rate cast of young talent (Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Bruce Dern, and Susan Strasberg). Utilizing ground-breaking effects, with in-camera lighting, image projection, and post-optical work creating wild visuals of spiraling symbols and eddys of color, plus then-novel rapid editing techniques, Corman created a snapshot of 1960s counterculture that has rarely been equaled. The plot is simple: a young director of TV commercials (Fonda) is going through a bittersweet divorce from wife Strasberg (stunningly sexy and beautiful in a nearly silent role). About 10 minutes into the film, Fonda drops acid, and the entire rest of the movie chronicles his experiences-both real and LSD-induced ‘trip’. What follows is outlandishly colorful fashions, body paint, and lots of hippie slang (the word ‘man’ ends every other sentence). Corman also continues his desire, after years of the claustrophobic Poe films, to shoot more in open, natural settings and locations, like the Big Sur scenery here. Corman even manages to sneak in some horror film imagery during Fonda’s drug-induced dreams. And if anyone doubts the reality of the 60s culture, Corman notes that the houses chosen as sets were redressed very little, if at all. In other words, people actually used to live like that! Upon its release, the film was considered controversial for its sex and nudity (tame by today’s standards), and for its perceived pro-drug themes. Corman claims he tried to balance both the positive and negative aspects of LSD, and was upset when the studio added a ‘disclaimer’ at the beginning of the film without his knowledge or consent. A must-see for both fans of Corman and 1960s cinema, this TRIP is groovy!

2. THE TOMB OF LIGEIA (1964)

The final entry in Roger Corman & Vincent Price’s six-film cycle of Edgar Allen Poe adaptations, THE TOMB OF LIGEIA was never a favorite to kids because of its lack of overt horror elements and its focus on gothic romance. The years have been very good to LIGEIA, now considered to be the most ambitious and mature film in the series and Price himself is on record as saying it was the best of his eight Corman collaborations. Price played British aristocrat Verden Fell, who believes his wife Ligeia, who’d committed suicide, will return from the grave and that her spirit has entered a cat. He meets Lady Rowena (Elizabeth Shepherd), her spitting image, and the two marry, opening the doorway for Ligeia’s revenge. Corman and crew returned to England after filming the previous entry, MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH there, filming LIGEIA at the crumbling Castle Acre Priory in Norfolk, and the film benefits from the lack of stagy, claustrophobic studio sets that marked the rest of the series. In fact, the first twenty minutes takes place in the bright outdoors and that Fell has a medical aversion to sunlight seems appropriate, almost like they were cleverly building on what had gone on in the previous films. Elizabeth Shepherd was a beautiful and talented actress who had been hired to replace Honor Blackman on “The Avengers” TV series as the first Emma Peel but was fired and replaced with Diana Rigg before audiences were able to see her in action. Her Rowena is more fleshed out than any female character in the Price/Corman/Poe series. Unlike the morose, downcast women of the earlier films, Ms Shepherd wears a smile throughout much of the proceedings that grows more sinister as the story progresses, though her character isn’t immune from the same fate as most Poe women. It’s mostly a two-person drama and Ms Shepherd holds her own against Price, who’s at his most anguished. Screenwriter Robert Towne, who would go on to win an Oscar nine years later for CHINATOWN, provided a genuine, if suggestive, ghost story with a sense of realism missing from the earlier Poe films. Corman employed Arthur Grant, longtime director of photography for many Hammer horror films, including THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF and FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED and Grant utilizes the English countryside in ways he did not for Hammer.

1. THE INTRUDER


 
Ironic that topping this list is the only of his movies that Corman claims lost money, but THE INTRUDER, a timely look at school desegregation in the South, is his most unusual and visionary film, far too truthful and bold for U.S. audiences in 1961 and one that gets better with age. William Shatner gives a hugely charismatic performance as Adam Cramer, a cocky racist agitator who travels the South in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education decision, stirring up protests and riots and organizing white citizens groups with himself as their leader. Cramer arrives in a small town (filmed in the bootheel of Missouri) where the local white high school is about to get its first black students and manipulates the townsfolk, taking control of the debate and agenda, and turning an already-tense situation into a riot. THE INTRUDER flopped in its U.S. release despite reissues under the titles SHAME and I HATE YOUR GUTS. Segregation was no doubt a touchy topic at the time, but few directors would have had guts to release a film like this, and it took a maverick like Corman to do so. There’s no sugar coating of the subject of racism in THE INTRUDER. Charles Beaumont’s startling script pulls no punches and it was Europe where it was initially received as the daring and well-made film that it is. THE INTRUDER is a masterpiece by any measure and a cult classic still ripe for rediscovery.

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Presenting Roger Corman the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ at Vincentennial, the Vincent Price 100th Birthday Celebration in May of 2011 in St. Louis

Highlights From the 2014 TCM Classic Film Festival

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The Turner Classic Movies (TCM) Film Festival wrapped up its 5th annual hoorah in Hollywood on Sunday and this year was chock full of joyful and exciting films and special guests. There were so many wonderful old movies that most people have seen, but for me the true thrill was the chance to see a beloved movie on the big screen, the way it was intended.

Throw in some amazing guests and it was absolute gold.

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Walt Disney’s The Jungle Book (1967)

Screened at the beautiful El Capitan Theater, The Jungle Book was the last Disney animated feature that was overseen by Walt Disney himself. After the success of Mary Poppins and other Disney hits such as The Parent Trap, The Absent Minded Professor and The Sword in the Stone, Disney went back to the well and asked songwriters Bobby and Richard Sherman to take a swing at its animated version of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. What resulted were instant classics such as “The Bear Necessities” and “I Wanna Be Like You.”

Commonplace now with big budget animated features, The Jungle Book was really the beginning of using well known actors and musicians as voice talent. Fans at the time would have recognized the voices of TV and film stars Phil Harris (Baloo the bear), Sebastian Cabot (Bagheera the panther), Louis Prima (King Louie of the Apes) and Sterling Holloway (Kaa the snake) of Winnie the Pooh fame.

Mary Poppins (1964) – Special Guest Richard Sherman

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Also screened at the El Capitan Theater, Mary Poppins was followed by a discussion with famed songwriter Richard Sherman, who recounted many of the true stories featured in last year’s film Saving Mr. Banks, which told the story of how author P.L. Travers was finally convinced by Walt Disney to bring her famous British nanny to the big screen.

My favorite story is the one about the 1964 Academy Awards. After being passed over for the screen version of My Fair Lady that same year, Julie Andrews won the Best Actress Oscar for Mary Poppins. Audrey Hepburn, who ended up playing Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady because she was a bigger star at the time, was not even nominated.

The Goodbye Girl (1977) Special Guest Richard Dreyfuss

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This was the film that made Richard Dreyfuss the youngest Best Actor Oscar winner at the time – and in a role that, in a different script, was originally supposed to be played by Robert DeNiro! Screenwriter Neil Simon decided Dreyfuss was more of an every-man that audiences would better identify with. Dreyfuss was already a star thanks to huge box office hits American Graffiti (1973) and Jaws (1975). 1977 saw no slowing down for Dreyfuss who starred in both The Goodbye Girl and Close Encounters of the Third Kind that same year.

Before the film, Dreyfuss sat down with TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz and told of how after things weren’t going well with DeNiro on the project (originally titled “Bogart Slept Here”) he was brought out to read with Marsha Mason and their chemistry is what led Neil Simon to rewrite the entire script in a different direction.

Fiddler on The Roof (1971)

Special Guests Norman Jewison (director), Lynn Stalmaster (casting director) and John Williams (composer)

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This is one of those films that is a must-see on the big screen for movie musical fans. An adaptation of the 1964 Broadway musical, Fiddler On The Roof won 3 Academy Awards, including one for arranger-conductor John Williams, his first of five. The film was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Actor (Chaim Topol as Tevye).

After the film, director Norman Jewison sat down with John Williams and casting director Lynn Stalmaster to discuss the film. One of the most interesting stories was how Jewison actually went to Chicago to personally ask famed violinist Isaac Stern if he would record the part of “the fiddler.”

Said Jewison, “I thought, well, if you’re going to have a musician to play that famous music, why not get the best in the world?” Jewison also explained his reasoning behind wanting Topol as Tevye (who played the role on stage in London) rather than Zero Mostel, who originated the role on Broadway: “After seeing Chaim play Tevye in London, I just knew he embodied the spirit and the character of who I thought Tevye was.” Indeed.

Conversation with Richard Sherman – Club TCM at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel

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Festival-goers that were lucky enough to get a seat were treated to a delightful sit-down with songwriter Richard Sherman, hosted by Leonard Maltin.

Sitting at a piano, Sherman not only recounted his Hollywood/Disney background, but also turned the conversation into a sing-a-long of his best known hits as half of The Sherman Brothers (with brother Bobby). The Sherman Brothers started their careers writing pop songs for artists like Annette Funicello and Johnny Burnette in the 50’s.

Sherman reminisced about growing up in Hollywood and how working as staff writers for Disney changed their lives.

When the discussion turned to current projects (yes, even at age 86!), Sherman confirmed he is working on a stage version of the Disney classic Bedknobs and Broomsticks for next year, as well as a stage version of The Jungle Book.

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Here’s some of my other favorites from the festival.

You can follow the TCM Classic Film Festival here:

http://filmfestival.tcm.com/

https://twitter.com/tcmfilmfest

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Throwback Thursday: ‘The Burbs’

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I can’t help but love Joe Dante. Sure, he’s done some less-than-favorable projects in recent years (Small Soldiers, Looney Tunes: Back in Action) but it’s the films he made that I grew up with that stick with me. Dante has a unique sense of dark humor that dwells in the circles of suburban life that is both twisted but family friendly, an off combination to work with. The strange thing is that Dante’s work started out well-rooted within the horror genre and has lightened up over the years. Dante’s earliest successes include ‘Piranha’ (1978) and ‘The Howling’ (1981). Both of which were great, fun films, followed by ‘Gremlins’ (1984) which was his initial baby step away from making strictly horror films.

In the eighties, ‘Explorers’ and ‘Innerspace’ became proof that Dante had the ability to venture out of his mold and still maintain his sense of humor and style while appealing to an audience large enough to result in box office stability. Both films are favorites of mine from the era and are followed up by ‘The ‘burbs’ which is probably his best film since ‘Gremlins’ and some may even say his last good movie. This is the epitome of Dante’s interest in the “darker” side of the suburban culture. Along the same vein of ‘Parents’ and ‘Neighbors’, this movie takes the happy-go-lucky visaed of the quaint little suburban neighborhood with the picket fences and cul-de-sacs and flips it on it’s head by adding an element of the bizarre.

The cast of ‘The ‘burbs’ alone should be enough for newcomers to jump on with full enthusiasm. Tom Hanks plays Ray Peterson, a stressed-out corporate worker bee who is spending the week at home on vacation. Carrie Fisher plays Ray’s wife Carol. Bruce Dern play’s their ex-marine uber-patriotic neighbor Mark Rumsfield married to Bonnie (Wendy Schaal), whom neighbor teenager Ricky Butler (Corey Feldman) holds a lustful crush for. The play between these characters and the elderly Walter Seznick and his free-pooping pooch are enjoyable as they are, but the story centers on the mysterious Klopek family who live in seclusion while their neighbors harbor wild and morbid fantasies about what goes on behind their closed doors. What ensues is a boredom-induced suburbanite mission to prove the the Klopek’s are a family of evil, Satan worshiping cannibals that are killing off neighbors.

‘The ‘burbs’ is one of several films from the 80’s that feature the comical Tom Hanks before he went and got all serious on us. I might even go so far as to say it was a golden age of Hanks, but that’s probably going too far. I do miss the good ole days of ‘Bosom Buddies’… wait, did I say that out loud? The mischief begins when the cranky elderly neighbor Walter turns up missing and the men of the suburban cul-de-sac begin spending too much time together and end up fabricating a conspiracy theory revolving around the Klopeks. The reluctant Ray initially resists the temptation to be drawn into their web of paranoia, but the powerfully alluring combination of conspiracy-theorist neighbor Art (Rick Ducomman) and the ever-eager to engage militarily neighbor Rumsfield eventually pulls him into their warped reality as they become determined to prove their suspicions.

From pop-culture references of the late 80’s including Jeopardy and Mister Roger’s Neighborhood to tongue-in-cheek jabs at suburban life, ‘The ‘burbs’ takes it’s funny stick and pokes at the fragile nature of “the simple life”. While the neighborhood men snoop around looking for evidence against the Klopeks, the “normal” citizens begin to look like the true wrong-doers picking on the odd but peaceful Addams Family. The delusions of this amateur motley crew of neighborhood sleuths are reinforced by the slightly saturated, contrast-rich cinematography of Robert Stevens, often used by John Waters, and the playfully sinister score by Jerry Goldsmith.

The end of the film does eventually turn around at the last minute to please those expecting the ever-typical Hollywood ending, but it’s the fun to be had on the journey to the end that makes this classic comedy of the 80’s such a twisted treasure. If you miss seeing Tom Hanks doing his classic 80’s “I’m pissed off and going to lose it while getting all animated and raising my voice” shtick, then you’ve got to check this one out again. Besides, it’s always worth re-watching any movie that stars Carrie Fisher and Corey Feldman is a blast to watch as a sort of unconventional narrator to the story.