The House Next Door

Hey, Matt! As I was up late last night posting my tribute to Mr. Corman I regretted not sending you a note about this blog-a-thon. But it literally happened so fast I'm lucky to have gotten anything out myself, so I was crossing my fingers that if you were interested you'd get wind of it and have something original and fun to contribute. Of course, I needn't have worried.

Your cafeteria metaphor made me weep with laughter because it was so unexpectedly right. And as for recycling, I'll never forget seeing those sets from Battle Beyond the Stars and hearing from the New World producer, who spoke with a mixture of embarrassment and amazement, about the many uses they would get out of them for several productions already in the pipe. (It even became a little parlor game I created for myself in the years directly after visiting the New World production facility/ex-lumberyard-- How many times could I spot bits and pieces of those sets in subsequent films? I can recall three off the top of my head!)

Anyway, thanks for the great post and the shout-out. (I was sitting here working, minding my own business, wondering why my traffic seemed to suddenly be spiking.) I can't wait to see what you come up with for the Angie Dickinson Blog-a-Thon. (Have you seen Big Bad Mama lately? Even though I understand the visual gamesmanship, it's hard for me to believe De Palma felt a body double was necessary in Dressed to Kill. But I digress. Oh, how I digress...)

Which three reuses of BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS footage do you recall? I can't name names, to be honest, because I came across most of them while channel surfing. I am pretty sure one of them was in a softcore porn flick made sometime in the late 80s; all the women had hair like Sheila E circa 1987, the bulk of the movie appeared to have been shot in a refurbished boiler room lit with a lot of gelled lights, and every now and then they'd pretend to look at a viewscreen on the wall, at which point they'd cut to the fallopian tube-scrotum starship flying through space. Very odd, and as I recall, not too sexy either.

PS -- I haven't seen BIG BAD MAMA in quite a while, but I did stumble across BIG BAD MAMA 2 on cable not too long ago, and it was almost as unnerving as that Sheila E movie mentioned above.

Roger Corman is my hero. Even if his movies were horrible--and a lot of the time they were--you had to marvel at the man's ingenuity!

Chopping Mall was on the other day, and I don't know why I sat there watching it; it's so cheesy and bad. OK I do remember why: the scene where the killer robot blows that woman's obviously-made-of-papier-mache head off and then says "Have a nice day!" You don't even have to watch the movie to see the effect! It's repeated in the closing credits! Now that's what I call saving you precious movie-watching time!

Didn't Roger Corman's defunct New World Pictures release several Ingmar Bergman movies in America as well? I recall seeing the logo on Cries and Whispers, right before the killer robot shot Liv Ullman.

Thank you, Mr. Corman, for introducing me to Bergman and Scorsese. And two JD's: Jonathan Demme and Joe Dante. And five C's: Coppola, Chicks In Chains, and cheesy creatures. And one Jack. And the Raven, which they must have run every other day on the Channel 7 4:30 movie here in NYC. And lest I forget, Little Shop of Horrors which beget a musical that people actually paid to see me in. Here's to you, Mr. C., and to papier-mache!

And thank you, Matt Zoller Seitz, for reminding me of the hermaphroditic spaceship from Battle Beyond the Stars, yet another movie I dragged my cousins to back in 1980. Unlike the other movies I mentioned before, it was my turn to suffer. They actually liked it.

It could have been worse. You could have picked an even worse Roger Corman movie from 1980, Humanoids from the Deep. Yuck!

SHEILA E?!!

I guess you're leading the Glamorous Life, Matt.

Hey Matt, a prolific guy like you shouldn't worry about recycling. Heck, your well-written and witty intro was longer than most of these entries! You're a machine, man!

Thanks, man, but I was just revving my engines on this one. The real action is over at the other blogs particpating in Cormania (is that a word?) particularly Dennis, whose entry is nearly encyclopedic. He actually made me want to see HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP again (rerferenced above by Odie). I was a kid when I snuck into that one, and all I remember was that it seemed like somebody had mixed CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON with the local news. That was really a disturbing movie. I couldn't decide whether to laugh at it or throw up.

Here's my own personal Corman top 5 (films he directed, not produced, only):

1. THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH: combines, stylishness (thanks to Nicolas Roeg's camerawork), ghoulishness, Vincent Price, and a literary quality not usually found in horror (and totally gone today).

2. X: THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES, featuring Ray Milland's last good performance and a fun sci-fi story with a wonderfully twisted ending.

3. PIT AND THE PENDULUM: as good as MASQUE is, this is the movie that features Vincent Price at his absolute best. The close-up where he transitions from neurotic coward to psychopathic sadist is wonderful stuff.

4. THE INTRUDER: stepping away from genre into the real world of southern racism, but compelling results.

5. IT CONQUERED THE WORLD: mostly because of repeated viewings on MST3K, but just about perfect as a cheap INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS ripoff, and Beverly Garland is great in it.

Matt, we've never communicated before to my knowledge, so -- as a regular lurker on your blog, which I discovered after enjoying your fine movie HOME (which was given to me by a friend who got it from you) -- I was delighted to discover your participation in the Roger Corman Blog-A-Thon. I've added your name and link to the list of participants presented on Video WatchBlog, and only regret that it's presently at the bottom of a long list. Let's look at it as "and with the special participation of" billing. I'm actually flabbergasted by the number of participants I know about (28 and counting), but that just goes to show how beloved Roger Corman is, I suppose.

Keep up the fantastic work on one of the best-written blogs I've found. Your SOPRANOS wrap-ups are a Monday must with me.

All the best,
Tim / VW

I was going to try to say something witty, but since I'm worn out from writing today (I do have my limits) I'll just say thanks.

Jeff, I owe you a Top 5, for real. Yours got me thinking. I can tell you right away that DEATH RACE 2000 and LITTLE SHOP would both be on there, because both demonstrate Corman's facility to make something out of almost nothing.

Matt, the three I'm thinking of are these-- yet another Alien rip-off, this one starring Sid Haig and Erin Moran (!) called Galaxy of Terror (1981); a not-half-bad humanistic sci-fi movie with Klaus Kinski called Android (1982); and a cut-above-the-average-Alien-ripoff ripoff called Forbidden World (1982). Squint, and you'd almost think the were all the same movie, although Android is a fairly idiosyncratic and singular entry for this period in New World Pictures history, and I recall it being pretty thoughtful and entertaining.

IMDb reminds me of another space opera that New World cranked out, which I've not seen, called Space Raiders which, according to one of the commenters on that site, also recycled special effects shots as well as whole bits of set design from Battle Beyond the Stars. I can't say from personal experience if that's true, but if it is, and counting your Sheila E. softcore interstellar porn epic (O, for that title!), that's at least five passes for the bargain-basement opulence of the painted styrofoam and plywood sets from Battle, which, for all I know, might well have been cobbled together from pieces of some other cut-rate New World spectacular. Whew!

Finally, my best friend was also thinking about seeeing Humanoids again after reading my post. But I just don't believe I have the stomach for it. I think of myself as able to endure a lot within this genre, but HFTD one was genuinely repellent and, yes, disturbing... I'm sorry for stirring that particular pot for you. As I recall, we laughed AND threw up!

So I've been wracking my brain, and the only relevant Corman contribution I can muster (other than echoing Odie's "thanks for all the great directors!" line) is a telling anecdote related by an old NYU professor.

This was an adorably diminutive fireplug of a woman, and one day in class she explained how, ages ago, she had some sort of creative meeting with Corman and he point-blank asked her: "What's the most important thing about a movie?"

The good prof went on at length about the artists point-of-view and blah-blah-blah.

"NO!" Corman screamed. "The most imoportant thing about any movie is THE POSTER!"

"Look at this poster!" he exclaimed, and pointed to something on his wall. (I have no idea what movie it was... it probably could've been any given one of them.)

"It's got a pretty girl in a bikini, and a motorcycle, and a guy with a gun! This movie is already a hit!"

I think about that story a lot these days, especially now that the formerly fine art of illustrated movie posters has been degraded to a collection of gargantuan movie-star-heads.

Walking through a theater lobby the other night, I stopped and took a look at the MIAMI VICE one-sheet. I honestly dunno if there's a 2006 movie I'm more excited to see than this one... but what's up with selling it on the giant craniums?

Where's the new Ferrari? Where's the cigarette boat? (Shit, where's Gong Li?) Whatever happened to a little bit of showmanship?

Sean: I happily direct you, if you haven't made it there already, to That Little Round-Headed Boy's celebration of the poster art for Corman's Big Bad Mama. And I couldn't agree with you more-- when great posterart does come around these days, like the campaign for V for Vendetta, it almost seems like a freakism, an aberration. TLRHB also has a link to more terrific poster art by John Solie, the creator of the BBM one-sheet and many other classics of '70s exploitation cinema.

Is there a more important yet less pretentious man in the entire history of Hollywood than Roger Corman? I think not. When will he get his lifetime achievement Oscar?

Somehow his work embodies every aspect - good and bad - of the film industry, and film as an artform. I can't think of a more inspiring example to follow.

Roger Corman should get next year's honorary Oscar. And immediately after accepting it, he should announce that he will sell it to the highest bidder.

No love for Rock & Roll High School hereabouts? I get a little chill up my spine every time I watch it (and then, having nothing better to do, I go eat wheat germ and blow up high schools). Sure, it's goofy and doesn't make any sense, but most Corman flicks (and, for that matter, Godard flicks) could be described the same way. Sure, I might have just bought a ticket to hell for comparing Anna Karina and P.J. Soles, but it was worth it.

Another Corman flick worth mentioning is Cockfighter. What's not to love? You have Monte Hellman directing an existential-crisis movie (what else?) starring Warren Oates as a mute cockfighter, complete with painfully graphic scenes of animal cruelty. Hard to believe it wasn't box office gold.

hayden childs: “Another Corman flick worth mentioning is Cockfighter….Hard to believe it wasn't box office gold.”

I came on to post about my favorite Corman repurposing and here’s hayden offering the perfect lead-in. I don’t have my copy of How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime close to hand to confirm the details, but as I recall it:

So Cockfighter opens and does, indeed, flop. Turns out that Corman miscalculated the extent to which the South, rather than taking cockfighting to their bosom as a unique part of their culture, was embarrassed by the whole thing. On the very weekend that the theaters are calling in the depressing numbers, Corman phones up one of his editors (either Joe Dante or Allan Arkush, who relayed the tale) and tells him what to do.

New World had just made or acquired some thriller shot in the Philippines. Corman has the editor recut Cockfighter’s trailer to splice in some footage of a gun fight and a helicopter exploding from the action movie, then insert the same footage into the movie after a shot of Oates waking up to offer the flimsy justification of a dream sequence. A quick retitling to Born to Kill and one re-release later, and chipper, indefatigable Corman chalks up another profitable picture.

From Matt’s NY Press Review: “The list of future boldfaced names on his payroll included Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, John Sayles, Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson, David Carradine, Ron Howard and James Cameron. Yet few of the movies made by soon-to-be-famous artists under Corman were anywhere near as good, or even interesting, as movies they would make after they left Corman.”

I agree, but for whatever reason Hellman is the major exception to that rule. The Shooting, Ride in the Whirlwind, and Cockfighter are for me his best works, even more so that Two Lane Blacktop.

odienator: “Didn't Roger Corman's defunct New World Pictures release several Ingmar Bergman movies in America as well? I recall seeing the logo on Cries and Whispers, right before the killer robot shot Liv Ullman.”
Not only released, but shoved Bergman (as well as Kurosawa, Schlöndorff, Truffaut, Losey, Fellini, Herzog, Resnais….) into drive-ins. Bergman. Drive-ins. At a profit! There are no words to express my love for Corman.
(Cannon Pictures tried to duplicate New World’s mix of downtown and uptown in the ‘80s, but their schlock wasn’t as fun and the arty stuff was fairly thin.)
matt: “Roger Corman should get next year's honorary Oscar. And immediately after accepting it, he should announce that he will sell it to the highest bidder.”

Or negotiate that a film crew be allowed backstage to capture location footage for Carnosaur 4: Hollywood Bloodbath.
And I like all of jeff’s selections, but my favorite film directed by Corman is the giddy beatnik parody A Bucket of Blood, with Dick Miller’s career-defining performance. With Tomb of Ligeia the creepiest of his Poe films.

I got much love for ROCK N ROLL HIGH SCHOOL, the movie that introduced me to the Ramones. And COCKFIGHTER as well, the movie both AMORES PERROS and THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA kept threatening to turn into, but didn't quite have the nerve. (Both decent films, though.) A good friend of mine who's an editor at the Star-Ledger and has consistently hardcore taste in dramas, considers COCKFIGHTER one of the best films he's ever seen. Dunno if I'd go that far, but I would never dismiss that love.

Corman's greatest contributions, though are not individual films, but (1) all the careers he spawned, (2) his numerous examples of how to infuse shlock with social relevance without ruining the fun factor, and (3) his dedication to the idea that niche movies can be moneymakers, particularly if they appeal to under-served or untapped markets.

anonymous: How hilarious that we both posted COCKFIGHTER observations almost simultaneously. The Corman World Mind at play, maybe?

THE SHOOTING and RIDE THE WHIRLWIND are great existential westerns, and fine examples of Corman's willingness to give filmmakers -- in this case Hellmann and actor/screenwriter Jack Nicholson -- a really tiny amount of money but total freedom. Those two were shot back to back, which boggles the mind.

matt: "How hilarious that we both posted COCKFIGHTER observations almost simultaneously."

Even odder, we both mentioned "fun schlock" in a conversation about Roger Corman.

OK, that one's not so odd.

Anon: Cannon Pictures tried to duplicate New World’s mix of downtown and uptown in the ‘80s, but their schlock wasn’t as fun and the arty stuff was fairly thin.

Yeah, Cannon seemed to be the "house that Chuck Bronson kinda built." During my teenage years, I could rely on the ever-escalating in age Charlie to show up onscreen in Dirty Harry knockoffs like Ten to Midnight, the repugnant Kinjite and The Evil That Men Do, all of which were directed by the guy who did the original Cape Fear. None of these were as much fun as most Corman knockoffs (though, if you twist my arm, I'll admit that I kinda liked Murphy's Law).

Words cannot express the love I feel for Rock and Roll High School, even today. It was the movie that opened the little "Shameful Movies of Odie's Past" mini-film festival I had at my hous last year, and it was just as good as I remember, right down to the hilariously fake looking explosion at the high school.

And, like Days of Heaven, I saw Cries and Whispers at the drive-in. It was on a double feature with...get ready for this...Death Race 2000. Death plays chess for Bergman, runs over old people for Roger Corman. Go figure.

Cannon was the precursor to Miramax, in that they craved respectability as much as profit. Odie's right -- the schlock wasn't schlocky enough and the art wasn't artful enough. But still, I can't help rooting for David over Goliath, so I still like the idea of Cannon, even if I don't particularly like Cannon. And they win props for saying yes to Godard's KING LEAR at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival and drawing up a deal memo on the back of a napkin. Even though the movie wasn't much good, there was a Cormaesque spirit there, no doubt.

And I have to say, Odie, whoever programmed that drive-in was a genius. CRIES AND WHISPERS with DEATH RACE 2000 and DAYS OF HEAVEN with WATERSHIP DOWN are flat-out brilliant pairings. What other double features did they show?

MZS: And I have to say, Odie, whoever programmed that drive-in was a genius.

Ah, the days of the drive-in! I was thinking about the drive-in while at the Regal earlier in the week. The Regal has that The Twenty bullshit, where they try to justify showing 20 minutes of commercials before the 15 minutes of previews before the feature. "Be sure to get to the theater early so you don't miss it!" says the announcer in a voice perkier than Susan Sarandon's breasts in Atlantic City.

The drive-in came to mind because they used to run those pre-show "welcome to the movies" animations and mini-features while the sun set. I remember that they'd show "delicious concession stand items" but the film was so old that the food looked brutalized. The pizza looked like a manhole cover. And throughout the entire loop, the drive-in speaker, hanging precariously in the rolled up window of my Pops' Oldsmobile Delta 88, would blast out really bad early 70's music, with flat, out of tune voices going "da-da-daaaa-da! da-da-daaaa-da!"

Of course, when I was old enough to drive, and use the drive ins for that which they were intended (screwing my brains out in the back seat), they were all closed down in this area. Que sera sera.

As for double features, both at the drive in and the old Pix Theater I frequented, I remember that they tried to put two movies from the same studio together, regardless of how little sense the pairings made. The ones that stick out include Dirty Harry's The Enforcer and Evel Knievel's Viva Knievel (which had GENE KELLY and LESLIE NIELSEN in it!!!); Car Wash and the pimp classic Willie Dynamite (featuring Gordon from Sesame Street as a hapless pimp); and the G-rated The Wiz paired with the R-rated Which Way Is Up?

Both of those last two were from Universal and had Richard Pryor in them, but that was where the similarities ended. WWIU? is a Black remake of Lina Wertmueller's The Seduction of Mimi, full of foul language and explicit sex, including a scene seared into my 8 year old mind forever, where Richard Pryor (God bless him!) unwillingly winds up on the receiving end of a vibrator. I can still see that woman with the whip winding her arm around and around before introducing Odie to sodomy.

See why I'm so messed up in da head?

I believe MESSED UP IN DA HEAD might have been the sequel to WHICH WAY IS UP.