Wednesday, April 3, 2013

A-Z Challenge 2013: C is for Roger Corman!

Although I was sorely tempted to make this post about me  - C is for Craig Edwards - I resisted, as there's someone else who will fill this spot much better than I would - it's time for the spotlight to shine on that indefatigable filmmaking force of nature with a career reaching back nearly 60 years...



C is for Roger Corman!





This is another choice for this blogfest where we're only going to be able to scratch the surface - as our subject has been going strong since the 1950's and has had a hand in literally hundreds of motion pictures. He's been the subject of several books - but I'm hoping this post will serve to spark interest in the man - further research will yield bountiful information. I'll recommend the best two books later in the post - there you will find the life story and early years of Roger Corman.

Here today we're going to look at his incredible career in filmmaking...



Roger Corman produced his first movie in 1954. It was a police drama. But his second movie was a creature feature - Monster from the Ocean Floor. After that he started directing as well as producing, most often for American International Pictures. For the next 14 or so years Corman worked for Samuel Arkoff and James Nicholson. They were maverick showmen - with one of their tried and true formulas to create a title and poster, then have the script written and the film actually made! Corman proved one of their favorite directors because he could shoot an entire feature film on a 5 day schedule for them and bring it in on time and under budget. Later he convinced Arkoff and Nicholson to combine the shooting schedules and budgets from two of the super-low budget flicks - instead of 5 days and $100,000 -  give him 10 days and $200,000 and see what he could turn out for them in color. The result was House of Usher - and it...er...ushered in the Poe cycle - several films made in the early to mid 60's with more production value, color widescreen cinematography - and most usually Vincent Price in the lead. Corman never looked back.

Roger Corman and frequent star Vincent Price between setups for one of several Edgar Allan Poe movies they made.


After a falling out with AIP over their interference in the editing of a film he'd directed for them, Roger Corman went independent, and directed a couple of studio pictures. But big studio wastefulness (as he saw it) was not to Corman's liking, so in the early 70's he started his own production and distribution company, New World Pictures and so began the second wave of his career.

Roger Corman uses the director's talent for gesturing on the set of Von Richthofen and Brown (1971).


During this period he produced scads of movies like Big Bad Mama, Candy Stripe Nurses, Caged Heat, Death Race 2000, Piranha, Humanoids from the Deep, Rock 'n' Roll High School, and Battle Beyond the Stars. Exploitation at its finest - nudity, violence, monsters, babes - all hewn from a rock solid formula that actually had a nugget of message in its core.

Sporting a cookie duster as he eyes the scene.


At the same time that New World movies were burning up drive-in screens all over the country, Corman started importing important foreign films from directors like Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, Francois Truffault, and Federico Fellini among others. These art house foreign films might not have been easily seen in America without his distribution. It was also during this time that Roger Corman gave lots of young filmmaking hopefuls a shot at making movies - and several of them have gone on to amazing careers themselves. Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Jonathan Demme, and Francis Ford Coppola are some of the many filmmakers who graduated from "Corman College." Others also started out in Corman movies - Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, Sandra Bullock, and William Shatner are some of the actors who have Corman films on their resumes.

Directing John Hurt on Frankenstein Unbound (1991)


In the 1980's Corman sold New World Pictures and continued making exploitation movies through a succession of companies (Concorde Pictures, Millenium Pictures, New Horizons, New Concorde). This third wave of production is still going strong - with some Syuh-Fyuh channel monster movies his most recent output. In his 80's Roger Corman has become the Elder Statesman of Exploitation Filmmaking. He's truly a legend, and I'm a huge fan of his career.




If you're not familiar with Roger Corman - two books can fill in a lot of backstory for you - the first was written by a friend of this blog - Beverly Gray worked for Roger Corman off on on from the early 70's to the mid 90's. She wrote her own look at the King of Pop Cinema - here's her book's cover and a link to the Kindle ebook edition on Amazon.


Purchase the ebook at Amazon HERE.






And the second is Mr. Corman's own memoir:







Ms. Gray also runs a fantastic website that often touches on her former boss - Beverly in Movieland. She's also participating in this A-Z Blogging Challenge - with a theme of looking at 26 members of the Corman Universe of Filmmaking - so there's TWO reasons to go check out her awesome site!





And that will "C" us clear of this post! Let's do it again in 24 hours or so - until then, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!

20 comments:

  1. Corman's imprint on film can be felt across every generation since his introduction to Hollywood. Amazing, influential figure who also made excellent films. This is a perfect choice for the letter C!

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    1. His impact cannot be overemphasized - if we hadn't had a Roger Corman we might have needed to invent him! Thanks for the kind words Matty!

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  2. Mr. Craig, I quibble with some of your chronology, but I'm delighted by the spirit of your post -- and of course by your lovely plug for my book and blog (say that three times fast!) I suspect, though, that Sandra Bullock would definitely want to erase her nude scene in Fire on the Amazon from her stellar resume. (Yes, I admit I have a writing credit on that film!)

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    1. Thanks for catching my slack - I have made some corrections per your suggestions - thank you so much! And while Sandra Bullock may not enjoy having Fire on the Amazon hashed around on my blog - and least I'm not singing "I Saw Your Boobs" on the Oscars!

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  3. Craig, the man is a genius. His films are suspect, but no one understands marketing and film production like Corman.

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    1. Maurice - a very fair assessment - I love your phrase "his films are suspect"! They can be, for sure - but you give credit where it's due - his marketing and production acumen are second to none!

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  4. Five days? The man shot films in five days!?! I suspect present-day Hollywood takes that long to choose a caterer.

    Thanks for another awesome, eye-opening post on the magic behind the magic. Very cool, this!

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    1. It is boggling, isn't it. The record shoot from my career for a feature length film was 18 days. And don't think Corman left his record lounging at 5 days per film - on a bet he did one in TWO DAYS!!!

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  5. Sandra Bullock and William Shatner graduating at Corman College is very interesting.

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    1. Well, to be fair - Shatner had a career prior to his work with Corman - he'd appeared in The Brothers Karamazov in I believe 1955 - but working with Corman on The Intruder in 1962 did get The Shat away from television for some feature work. He and Corman teamed up again twelve years later for Big Bad Mama - exactly five years after Star Trek: The Series, and exactly five years before Star Trek: The Movies. Somewhat the same story for Bullock - she'd appeared in a Bionic reunion TV movie for NBC before popping her top in Fire on the Amazon.

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  6. This is one of the many things I enjoy about your blog, Craig. Learning new things about the movies! I'd never really heard of Roger Corman, but he sounds amazingly talented!

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    1. Thank you Luana! I hope you check out some Roger Corman movies - at their best they're really quite wonderful!

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  7. Hi Craig! Have you seen this blog? http://beverlygray.blogspot.com/ I started following her three days ago, so when I came over to your blog (you left a comment on mine), I found it surprising that you and Beverly are blogging on the same random topic! Do you two know each other?

    Great stuff here! Truly enjoyed. Will add you to my daily list of blogs to read. :)

    Dana
    Waiter, drink please!


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    1. I do indeed know Ms. Gray - as I'm a huge fan of her blog - and she's been a guest here - interviewed even! I actually saw your comment on Ms. Gray's blog which led me to your blog - it's all a big interweaved chain of blogging and following! Thanks for coming by! Cheers!

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    2. Great!! I'm loving getting to know other writers and having a wonderful time reading such good writing.

      Heading over to "D" in a bit.

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    3. Thank you for coming by - the more the merrier!

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  8. There's a reason why they call him Godfather :)
    Great write-up about one of the most interesting, most influential filmmakers of all time.

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    1. Thank you Harry! He was one of the first I ever took time to read about - and he's been fascinating me ever since!

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  9. I'm shamefully late to this one, but I love Roger Corman. I admire what he did and thoroughly enjoy all of his films, no matter how crazy.

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    1. I'm even more shamefully late replying! But I admire you for always coming by and adding five cents worth of your two cents on pretty much every post I put up! You rock!

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