Roger Corman filmography
Related: Roger Corman - filmography
Films as director: The Intruder (1962) - X - The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963) - Masque of the Red Death (1964)
Films as distributor: Fantastic Planet (1973)
Film poster for The Trip (1967)
see also: 1967 - drugs in film - LSD - Roger Corman
Beverly Garland in It Conquered the World (1956) - Roger Corman
Candy Stripe Nurses (1974) - Alan Holleb
Candy Stripe Nurses (1974) - Alan Holleb
Image sourced here.
More film posters by John Solie here.
See also: American cinema - 1974 - Roger Corman
Nebo zovyot (1960) - Mikhail Karzhukov
Nebo zovyot (1960) - Mikhail Karzhukov
[Amazon.com]
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Image sourced here.
AIP distributed over 400 films in the USA. --http://us.imdb.com/company/co0062707/ [Dec 2005]
Realizing great savings on special effects, Corman bought another Russian film, Niebo Zowiet, which none other then Francis Ford Coppola turned into the film Battle Beyond the Sun. Thus, Coppola earned his way into a feature film, his first, which Corman financed, the torrid Dementia 13. --http://www.levideo.com/articles_corman.php [Dec 2005]
BATTLE BEYOND THE SUN (aka Nebo zovyot) In the future year of 1997, the world's two opposing powers--the North Hemis and the South Hemis--are involved in a space race to put a man on Mars. Starring Ivan Pereverzev, Aleksandr Shvorin, Konstantin Bartashevich, Larisa Borisenko. Written by Mikhail Karzhukov, Yevgeni Pomeshchikov, Aleksei Sazanov; Directed by Karzhukov, Aleksandr Kozyr, Francis Ford Coppola. 1963. --http://mtceuropavideo.com/aip_cinerama.htm [Dec 2005]
See also: Russia - 1960 - 1963 - SF film - Francis Coppola - AIP
Planeta Bur (1962) - Pavel Klushantsev
Planeta Bur (1962) - Pavel Klushantsev
Roger Corman acquired the American rights to Planeta Bur, added extra footage, and distributed it on the American market in tow versions, one directed by Peter Bogdanovich, another by Curtis Harrington. [Dec 2005]
Peter Bogdanovich, long before his Last Picture Show established him as an American Maverick, was re-splicing Russian Sci-Fi flick Planeta Burg into the Corman feature Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women. Also taking a hack at the same material, Curtis Harrington, former NY expiremental filmmaker, created Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet.
Realizing great savings on special effects, Corman bought another Russian film, Niebo Zowiet, which none other then Francis Ford Coppola turned into the film Battle Beyond the Sun. Thus, Coppola earned his way into a feature film, his first, which Corman financed, the torrid Dementia 13. --http://www.levideo.com/articles_corman.php [Dec 2005]
See also: Peter Bogdanovich - Roger Corman - American cinema - Russia - science fiction film
More films (director)
Screen writer Richard Matheson [Stir of Echoes (1999); Omega Man (1971)] tells the tale of an elderly Marquis de Sade [played by Keir Dullea / Black Christmas (1974); 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)] laying in his death bed thinking about his life and his struggles for freedom. Twenty-eight of his seventy four years were spent in prison, as he was often "...hounded by the police on charges of inflammatory writings..." Telling the story of de Sade from childhood to manhood through flashbacks and surreal theatre sets; the movie gives a look at the innocent boy who was too often a victim of the "perverse brutality" of others. As he grows, so do his tastes. "...He exacts his sexual pleasure from the tender flesh of the women of France..." Filmed under heavy German guard at the royal palace of Charlottenburg and Saint Nikola's Cathedral in West Berlin the movie's sets and costumes are incredible. Like the Hammer Studios horror films, the movie is more a period piece than pure exploitation, yet it's subject matter alone is irresistible trash for any collector of bad movies. Uniquely a 1960's film, it was aimed at the Samuel Z. Arkoff produced Roger Corman [The Trip (1967) / Wild Angels (1966)] drive-in crowd. Surprisingly low on violence and / or nudity, and any that still remains has been filtered with an annoying purple jel over the camera lens to avoid censorship from the higher ups. Little xtras on the disc besides a trailer and short interview with Richard Matheson. A commentary track would have been interesting, but still grateful that MGM dusted this one off the shelf in the first place. Collectors should be on the lookout for Peter Brook's Marat / Sade (1966) also released on the under the Avant-Garde Cinema collection. --Tony Crosgrey [ Fringe Video Fanzine Issue #005] for amazon.com
Cyril Raker Endfield (November 10, 1914 – April 16, 1995) was an American screenwriter, film director, theatre director, author and sometime inventor, based in Britain from 1953.
In 1951 Endfield was named as a Communist at a HUAC hearing. Blacklisted by the movie studio bosses, he was unable to get work in Hollywood and moved to Britain where he wrote and directed films under various pseudonyms, often starring fellow blacklistees.--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cy_Endfield [Dec 2005]
The great Roger Corman produced and directed this cheerfully gory skewering of beatniks and the arts community. Dick Miller plays Walter Paisley, a no-talent busboy who idolizes the artsy types who frequent the coffeehouse where he works. When Walter accidentally kills his landlady's cat, he tries to hide the crime by covering the kitty in clay, and is soon hailed as a sculpting genius. Sure enough, the fickle arts community begins clamoring for some larger work. As a horror movie, A Bucket of Blood is merely okay, but it's great as a little black comedy. Corman works in some nice gruesome touches, such as backing up Walter's Big Emotional Moment with a steady drizzle of blood from a victim's arm. Most of the jokes aimed at the artists' pretensions still seem fresh: When offering Walter some breakfast, Maxwell announces that they're having "soy and wheat-germ pancakes, organic guava nectar, calcium lactate and tomato juice and garbanzo omelettes sprinkled with smoked yeast." The free-verse parodies are also very funny. Don't expect Bucket of Blood to keep you up with nightmares, but do sit back and prepare to enjoy a refreshingly sick sense of humor. --Ali Davis, Amazon.com
Bloody Mama (1970) - Roger Corman
Shelley Winters as Kate "Ma" Barker in
Bloody Mama (1970) - Roger Corman [Amazon.com]
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When Kate "Ma" Barker (Shelley Winters) robs a bank with her four beloved sons, she's got a great opening line: "We're gonna play Simon Says, and this," she says, pointing to her Tommy gun, "is Simon." You gotta love the ol' broad's moxie, and you gotta love this Roger Corman classic for serving it up so shamelessly. Capitalizing on the impact of Bonnie and Clyde while adding the more perversely exploitative elements of Corman's drive-in fare, this Depression-era shoot-'em-up is prime viewing for its early appearance by Robert De Niro (making his fifth film) and Corman stalwarts like Don Stroud, but it's Winters's over-the-top portrayal of Ma Barker (very loosely based on fact) that gives the movie its rather unseemly edge. Alternately sharing her bed with each of her sons (as if they were teddy bears made for her incestuous pleasure), and twisting morality to suit the needs of her homicidal brood, this gun-toting matriarch is a deviously amusing detour on Winters's weight-gaining road to The Poseidon Adventure.
The movie gains character from its rural Arkansas locations, but the redneck flavor is entirely theatrical, and while De Niro learns to shine for the camera, his performance as glue-sniffing, dope-shooting Lloyd Barker shows hints of future stardom. Corman gets good work from the entire cast, in fact, even if his formula calls for sex, violence, or vice every 10 minutes. And while it would be a mistake to elevate Bloody Mama above its trashy aspirations, it certainly earns its place among such '70s gangster fodder as Big Bad Mama and Boxcar Bertha. Made at a time when movies were enjoying their liberation from the confines of good taste, Bloody Mama is an enjoyable wallow in bad taste. --Jeff Shannon via Amazon.com
Shelley Winters
Shelley Winters (born August 18, 1920) is an American actress. Born Shirley Schrift in East St. Louis, Illinois, she is known to today's audiences as a large figure of comedians' scathing humor, but when she began her career, she was known as a voluptuous beauty. She is said to have had an affair with Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., father of President John F. Kennedy.
Her first movie was What a Woman! in 1943. By 1959, she had won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Diary of Anne Frank and A Patch of Blue in 1965. Notable later roles included The Poseidon Adventure (1972) as the ill-fated Belle Rosen, for which she received her final Oscar. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelley_Winters [May 2005]
Kate 'Ma' Barker
Kate 'Ma' Barker (Birth name Arizona Clark) ( c. 1871 - January 16, 1935) is a legendary American figure from the 1930s public enemy era, when the exploits of gangs of criminals in the Midwest gripped the American people and press. Today her name is usually mentioned last when people cite the criminals of this period, often after Bonnie and Clyde and John Dillinger. The era led to the creation of the modern FBI.
The myth of Ma Barker inspired a 1970 low budget film called Bloody Mama. Directed by Roger Corman and starring Shelley Winters as Ma, the movie depicts Barker as a corrupt mother who encourages and organises her children's criminality and is notable for an early appearance by a young Robert De Niro playing the part of Lloyd Barker.--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_Barker [May 2005]
Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) - Jimmy T. Murakami
Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) - Jimmy T. Murakami [Amazon.com]
Twenty-first-century science fiction fans accustomed to special-effects orgies like The Matrix may snigger at the quaint, Flash Gordon-like spaceships in Battle Beyond the Stars. But executive producer Roger Corman's belated entry into the '70s sci-fi craze surpasses expectations with sharp performances and a witty script by John Sayles (his third for Corman, including 1978's Piranha). The story, lifted wholesale from Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954), finds the dictator Sador (John Saxon) threatening the planet of Akira. Its pacifist inhabitants are no match for Sador's devastating weapon, the Stellar Converter, but young Shad (Richard Thomas) decides to fight back. Borrowing the ship of notorious mercenary Zed the Corsair, he recruits a band of mercenaries, each of whom has a personal reason to join the fight. Among them are a lizard-like humanoid (Morgan Woodward), an improbable space cowboy (George Peppard), a zaftig female warrior (Sybil Danning), and brooding killer-for-hire Gelt (Robert Vaughn, reprising his Magnificent Seven role). Battle's final showdown is somewhat anticlimatic, but the surprisingly stellar cast (which includes Sam Jaffe and Darlanne Fluegel) and the indie spunk of Sayles' script, with its light meditations on death and honor, will charm newcomers and repeat audiences alike. New Concorde's digitally remastered DVD features commentary by Sayles and Terminator 2 producer Gale Anne Hurd, Battle's assistant production manager. Oh, and those spaceships? Designed by Titanic director James Cameron. Still laughing? --Paul Gaita for amazon.com
Battle Beyond the Stars is a Roger Corman produced science fiction film, directed by Jimi Muramaki and released in 1980 in order to exploit the popularity of the Star Wars series. The film is notable in that the screenplay was partly written by John Sayles and the special effects are directed by James Cameron.
The story is a pastiche of The Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven. A peaceful planet of farmers are threatened by the space tyrant, Sador (played by Corman regular John Saxon). Richard Thomas (at the time attempting to fashion a film career based on the popularity of his character in The Waltons) plays Shad, who sets out to recruit a band of mercenaries to fight Sador. This band includes Gelt, played by Robert Vaughn in a part that is essentially a reprise of his role in The Magnificent Seven with many of the same lines of dialogue, George Peppard as a space cowboy (who was originally considered to play Vin, Steve McQueen's character, in The Magnificent Seven), and probably the most memorable character, Saint-Exmin, a "Valkyrie" played by Sybil Danning.
The film dialogue contains a high level of wit reflecting Sayles' influence. It is also a compedium of the cliches that came to dominate sci-fi films following Star Wars including giant spaceships, "cute" robots, exotic aliens and the finale of a suicidal assault on a space fortress.
At the time of its release, Battle Beyond the Stars was the most expensive film produced by Roger Corman. Many of the effects shots were re-used in later Corman productions. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Beyond_the_Stars [Dec 2005]