DISCOVER--the films of Roger Corman
Sci-fi B-movie enthusiast Bill Warren put it best when he said that when people write about Roger Corman they either seriously over-rate him, or seriously under-rate him. What is fair to say is that his B-movie cheapies were among the best of the bad, that he created or popularised many of the trash film genres we enjoy today, and that while paying peanuts, he gave a huge number of people working in film today valuable working experience that kick-started their careers. His contribution has been far more positive than negative. Most people interested in non-mainstream cinema started their voyage of discovery by finding the films of Roger Corman and diversifying from there. He has had his fingers in so many pies--most notably sci-fi, horror, women-in-prison, gangster films, and sexploitation--that it's very difficult, and certainly not advisable, to avoid him.
As a messenger in the Fox mailroom, then a story analyst, and an aspiring writer, Corman learned the harsh realities of the film business the hard way--credit stolen, promises broken, stories butchered, ideas messed up by others. Seeking independence, he started his own company with little more than an address (located, with brutal irony, above the Cock and Bull Inn), and made the ridiculous but modestly successful Monster from the Ocean Floor. The title of his second film may be surprisingly familiar to contemporary audiences, and demonstrates how Corman's input can be found scattered throughout cinema in every decade since he began--The Fast and the Furious.
If you were to ask for the three most important names in cinema, you would get three different names from everybody, but from my personal perspective it would be showman George Melies for pioneering fantasy and special effects, Thomas Edison for inventing the serial, and Roger Corman for knowing us, his audience. Not them, dutifully traipsing off to see the latest over-hyped blockbuster or "family film", but us. Corman was as honest about what we wanted to watch as we were about seeing it. He rapidly became a cynic, and at that point started making money, which he placed way above the quality and integrity of the finished product, but like so many independents, his films are much more interesting than those from the majors, and he has undeniably played a major part in popularising and enabling almost every type of genre film audiences enjoy.
Corman has produced over four hundred movies in the last six decades, and directed over fifty of them. Rather than laboriously list every one of them (they're all on the IMDB), what I've done is created a list of flags and signposts for every important film, direction, or development Corman has taken along the way in, at time of compilation, a sixty year career in film production. I have five of the many books specifically about Corman in my library, and only two of them have an index (Naha and McGee), although his films are mentioned in dozens of others. Finding what you want can take all morning sometimes, so I hope this list (unfinished text at the moment, but you might as well have access to it) will assist both myself, and you guys, to sort the gems from the paste.
As a messenger in the Fox mailroom, then a story analyst, and an aspiring writer, Corman learned the harsh realities of the film business the hard way--credit stolen, promises broken, stories butchered, ideas messed up by others. Seeking independence, he started his own company with little more than an address (located, with brutal irony, above the Cock and Bull Inn), and made the ridiculous but modestly successful Monster from the Ocean Floor. The title of his second film may be surprisingly familiar to contemporary audiences, and demonstrates how Corman's input can be found scattered throughout cinema in every decade since he began--The Fast and the Furious.
If you were to ask for the three most important names in cinema, you would get three different names from everybody, but from my personal perspective it would be showman George Melies for pioneering fantasy and special effects, Thomas Edison for inventing the serial, and Roger Corman for knowing us, his audience. Not them, dutifully traipsing off to see the latest over-hyped blockbuster or "family film", but us. Corman was as honest about what we wanted to watch as we were about seeing it. He rapidly became a cynic, and at that point started making money, which he placed way above the quality and integrity of the finished product, but like so many independents, his films are much more interesting than those from the majors, and he has undeniably played a major part in popularising and enabling almost every type of genre film audiences enjoy.
Corman has produced over four hundred movies in the last six decades, and directed over fifty of them. Rather than laboriously list every one of them (they're all on the IMDB), what I've done is created a list of flags and signposts for every important film, direction, or development Corman has taken along the way in, at time of compilation, a sixty year career in film production. I have five of the many books specifically about Corman in my library, and only two of them have an index (Naha and McGee), although his films are mentioned in dozens of others. Finding what you want can take all morning sometimes, so I hope this list (unfinished text at the moment, but you might as well have access to it) will assist both myself, and you guys, to sort the gems from the paste.
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