Roger Corman

[herman]

How the mighty have fallen eh!

There I was an Italian genre film blogger minding my own business then all of a sudden the effects of oil price spike and food price rises and protectionim have resulted in this household being almost skint at the end of the working week. I have stalled on shemeless 9,. I am doing overtime friday and saturday to buy the rest which I hope to pick up Cup final day in cardiff during a rescheduled cardiff trip and maybe pick up a few more titles.

Anyway what I am saying is this- I have no money for films folks! So, since I have no money I do what any self respecting film blogger does- I start reviewing public domain films. In particular the ones found here- www.archive.org (download and view online),

anyhow this has resulted in me learning what a delightful director Roger Corman actually was. And I have largely overlooked this dude for so long _ ithink the only corman directed films I'd seen was X (the man with the xray eyes) and the great drugsploitation film The Trip and possibly the poe ones. Now I can add Swamp Women and Last Woman on Earth to that list. And I have a few more downloaded ready to watch. (all it seems public domain)

Anyway is there someone here who could give the lowdown on Corman, what to watch, what to avoid, etc.

am probably more familiar with corman produced stuff to e honest, as he did produce hell of a lot of films but corman as a director am learning here,

[siccoyote]

Well the obvious ones would be Little Shop of Horrors, Bucket of Blood and The Terror

That's the ones off the top of my head.

[RobbieD]

I agree with Little Shop of Horrors & Bucket of Blood, they're both fantastic!

[vincenzo]

You've already mentioned them but Masque Of The Red Death and The Trip are 2 classics. Attack Of The Crab Monsters and It Conquered The World are dreadfully silly but also great fun.

Away from horror try the violent Shelley Winters gangster film Bloody Mama (once banned here) with Bruce Dern and a young Robert De Niro. However one of my all-time Corman faves is the low budget racial shocker The Intruder from 1962. A stunningly powerful film and William Shatner's finest hour.

[herman]

thanks for suggestions, i will review the ones you guys mention over the coming weeks- will be doing a review of Dementia 13 next, then maybe the terror and I will work through the others.

I am enjoying this journey through US B movies, but I really miss my italian film purchases

hope to catch up with shameless titles anyways on 17th and will then have some fresh italiana to watch and write about yay. for now its corman and co.

[herman]

ooo the intruder was on earllier, but I missed it. Movies4men.

I working tonight so I slept through one of my recommendations.

[Matt]

I'm not particularly well versed in Roger Corman but I have a massive soft spot for a film he produced called Chopping Mall. It's genius. It's a bit Short Circuit gone wrong. I picked it up a few years ago for ?5 knowing nothing more than that if someone had made a film called Chopping Mall I blatantly had to own it. I will one day pick up the US issue that has at least a couple of bonus features.

(Also, if you're running low on money and are looking for film to consume I can't recommend online rentals highly enough. Granted, your choices are limited to UK releases, but you'll find a hefty choice none the less)

[siccoyote]

I'd say if you liked chopping mall (a film Barbara Crampton refused to really talk about in an interview in Femme Fatales) I'd say go after Jim Wynorski's other films

The Lost Empire
Deathstalker II
Not of This Earth
Return of Swamp Thing(not seen)
Transylvania Twist

Unfortunately many of his films (the best releases) are oop.

[Stephen@Cult Labs]

Was looking through my dvds for something to watch and completley forgot that I owned Roger Corman's Frankenstein Unbound starring John Hurt.Largley dismissed as a bad movie upon release,I don't think it's really as bad as people make out.It's an interesting take on the classic tale and the late Raul Julia gives a great performance as Victor Frankenstein and Nick Brimble is a suitably sympathetic monster.

[oaxaca]

I would recommend Corman's "Tower of London". Its a great Vincent Price vehicle from 1962 (not to be confused with the earlier Boris Kaloff film of the same name). Its basically Corman's rather twisted take on Shakespeare's Richard III. Very Entertaining! Not quite as bloody as Roman Polanski's Macbeth but worth watching.