The King of the B's A List: Some of Roger Corman's Best Films, Important Works & Personal Favorites

 

"The only way to make a film on a low budget is to work quickly before the money runs out"--Roger Corman, Film Comment, 1971.

 

It was reported on May the 11th, 2024 that cinema icon and independent visionary Roger Corman had passed away two days earlier on Thursday, May the 9th at 98 years old. It's impossible to sufficiently describe how important and integral to American cinema Roger Corman was in a single article. There have been numerous books on the man written over the years, but somehow it seems it's not enough considering the staggeringly voluminous career Roger Corman had. Beverly Gray's biography on the man is both essential and a fantastic tome on the subject, to give a prime example. At the bottom of this article are links to purchase books that greatly expand on the man's life, business savvy and the films he made.

 

 

Roger Corman, the man and the moviemaker, is a story that needs repeating. His reputation as the 'King of the B's'  has kept him from serious discussion while the countless actors, actresses, producers, directors and other industry types whose careers he cultivated remain the center of attention. For decades now, Corman has been affectionately lauded and even critically lambasted for the types of films he's made. Without him, there are a great many motion pictures we never would've gotten; nor the countless others influenced by his creative genius. He was awarded an Honorary Oscar in 2009 for the many careers he gave rise to; and in 2020 the Houston Film Critics Society gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award, so there has been some recognition for his remarkable accomplishments and the numerous filmmakers he sent to stardom.

 

For just one example of others covered here, if he hadn't fostered and encouraged Francis Ford Coppola's career, offering him to direct a low budget horror film financed with money left over from the Euro-lensed THE YOUNG RACERS (1963), he likely would never have made THE GODFATHER (1972), THE GODFATHER 2 (1974) or APOCALYPSE NOW (1979). Oh, that meager-monied horror flick was DEMENTIA 13 from 1963.

Roger Corman was more than the King of the B's, he was the Count of the Corner-Cutters and the Master of Multi-taskers. Slashed budgets and minimal resources tested the crew's ability to take on more on-set jobs and find a work-around. Roger Corman was as much a trendsetter as he was a man who followed them. Whether directing or producing, Corman would reinvent a genre style, laying the groundwork for eager filmmakers under his employ to follow (as you'll see in these selections). If there's a single industry figurehead who deserves to be lionized for his gargantuan contributions to American cinema, it's Roger William Corman.

 

This celebratory article is a look back at a selection of some of the man's best work; accompanied by significant pictures he was involved with that either shaped his career or the young hotshot he was giving an opportunity to; and titles he was involved with that are personal favorites. Basically, this is an article spotlighting an immensely talented man who was much more than the 'B' pictures he made; deserving of reverence on a level afforded the 'A'  talent he nurtured.

1. MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR (1954)

THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953) got sea monster cinema making waves at the box office. The minor-league MONSTER was notable in another way. It's not a good movie, but this five-figure wonder about a single-eyed, man-eating Cephalopod consuming vacationers at a Mexican resort was the first producer credit for a then 28 year-old Roger Corman made through his Palo Alto company. It also led to his partnership between Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson at American International Pictures. This low-budget triumvirate gave us many memorable motion pictures for the next three decades. Without the existence of MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR, we might not have gotten the Edgar Allan Poe pictures, and possibly no New World Pictures, either. 

 

MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR is not a good movie. It's 64 minutes long and feels like 90. Shot almost entirely on a beach, it has one thing going for it and that's a creative death for the monster. Released through Lippert Pictures, the film was indicative of the incoming AIP style of cheap thrill-double bill movies that potentially wouldn't be successful by themselves but turned profit when paired with another film of dubious quality. Together, though, Corman (whether by himself or with his brother Gene and their Filmgroup Company) and AIP were a powerful force packin'em in at Passion Pits across the country.

 

The following year in 1955, producer Corman would literally teach himself to direct his first feature for AIP (which was then known as American Releasing Corporation); it was a western titled FIVE GUNS WEST. It would be a crash-course in directing wherein the nervous producer was learning his new craft with self-induced on the job training over the course of the nine-day shoot. GUNS would be the first film Corman made in color; and the first of more than a dozen motion pictures award-winning cinematographer Floyd Crosby collaborated with Corman on. All the ingredients in the man's filmmaking formula were being quickly established, and immediately passed on to those he'd give opportunities to. 

 

2. ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS (1957)

 

This is the first of a series of personal selections on this list. I became entranced by this wildly ostentatious title in 1982 upon seeing the poster within the pages of Famous Monsters of Filmland Magazine. Corman's horror and monster pictures had a cozy home at Forrest J. Ackerman's classic monster kid periodical. A woman in a bathing suit gripped within the giant claw of a man-eating crustacean was a striking image. This was a classic case of the poster image selling the picture. I didn't see the movie till its bluray release decades later, and I was not disappointed. If you'd like to read my thoughts on the film, click HERE. 

 

CRAB MONSTERS was another in a string of catchy titles designed to attract teen Drive-in patrons and capture the imaginations of Monster Kids everywhere. Even so, a wildly exploitative title didn't always equate to quality viewing (see insert). Other  examples include DAY THE WORLD ENDED (1955), THE BEAST WITH A MILLION EYES (1955), IT CONQUERED THE WORLD (1956), NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST (1958), CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA (1961), VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET (1965) and the next film selected below....

3. THE SAGA OF THE VIKING WOMEN AND THEIR VOYAGE TO THE WATERS OF THE GREAT SEA SERPENT (1958)

This is another personal choice on the list. I remember reading the title for this film, like ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS, in Forry's Famous Monsters Magazine when I was a kid. I was just as awestruck by this poster, possibly even more so. I was likewise fascinated by the extremely long moniker although the shortened version ended up on the posters. Many of Corman's monster pictures had these ornately descriptive titles adorning them. They were appealing appellations to monster kids like myself. I loved anything with monsters in it, but this one snagged my attention because it was also a sword and sandal style adventure. Since seeing HERCULES AGAINST THE MONGOLS (1963) on television in the early 1980s, I was hooked on the super-heroics of Italian muscleman movies that rivaled my love of Tarzan movies competing for viewers on Saturday mornings. I never saw VIKING WOMEN till it hit DVD in 2006 paired with Corman's TEENAGE CAVEMAN (1958). It was certainly a fun little picture, but not the epic of its enormously exploitative title.

 

 

VIKING WOMEN has another connection to Italian cinema: one of the film's stars, Michael Forest, went on to have a career in the Italian film industry--dubbing many genre pictures into English for the export market. Best known in America for playing Apollo in the 1967 STAR TREK episode, 'Who Mourns for Adonais?', Corman gave him a leading role in ATLAS (1961). Shot in Athens, it was intended to be American competition against the fury of Italian muscleman movies marching across theater and television screens in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

4. A BUCKET OF BLOOD (1959)

Roger Corman’s movies and Dick Miller go together like macaroni and cheese. You can do great things with them separated, but together you get something very special. Any time Dick Miller turned up in a Roger Corman picture, it was like seeing a friend you wished would come around more often. In the case of the $35,000 BUCKET, it’s 66 minutes of Miller playing a mentally challenged busboy who inadvertently becomes an “artist”, first by covering a dead cat in plaster, then moving on to human victims. Marketed as humorous horror, it's less a comedy than it is a creep-fest, due entirely to Miller's performance.

 

Miller had a lead role as the hero in the previous years SciFi Cold War non-epic WAR OF THE SATELLITES (1958). He’s the lead for the second and last time as BUCKET's disturbed serial killer sculptor Walter Paisley; a character he played several more times in movies like HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD (1976), THE HOWLING (1981), and CHOPPING MALL (1986). BUCKET OF BLOOD is a special film not just for Miller being the lead, but it contains many staples of Corman’s later works like dark humor and a defiance of societal norms in its depiction of Beatnik culture.

 

5. HOUSE OF USHER (1960)

 

The first of 8 Edgar Allan Poe films directed by Roger Corman; seven of which starred Vincent Price. Only THE PREMATURE BURIAL (1962) was Price-less, headlined instead by Ray Milland. AIP struck a goldmine with this ongoing motion picture series which became the American answer to Britain's Hammer Films Gothic horror outings. The ingredients--including some of the most striking poster artwork imaginable--remained unchanged from one film to the next: an ominous, spooky castle; thunderstorms; dungeons; creaking doors; hidden passageways; ghostly revenge and a trusty nightmare sequence guaranteed big money at the box office. 

 

HOUSE was a huge success and USHERed in new, everlasting life for Vincent Price's horror film career. After HOUSE came THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM (1961), TALES OF TERROR (1962), THE RAVEN (1963), the Lovecraft-based THE HAUNTED PALACE (1963), MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (1964), and THE TOMB OF LIGEIA (1965). The formula was so successful, there were additional American Gothics made by Corman like TOWER OF LONDON (1962) starring Price and THE TERROR (1963) starring Boris Karloff and Jack Nicholson. MASQUE (see insert) is the best filmed of them all, and often cited as the pinnacle of the cycle. USHER solidified the style that Corman perfected for his RED DEATH.

 

6. THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1960)

 

This relentlessly cheap and entertaining black comedy became one of the greatest cult films of all time. Shot in a staggering two days and two weekends utilizing sets about to be demolished from Corman's A BUCKET OF BLOOD (1959), SHOP's production history is a textbook example of frazzled shoestring filmmaking you'll never see again. The story about a myopic skid row flower shop employee and his peculiar looking plant with a taste for human flesh became a cult hit over the years despite Corman initially disregarding it and not bothering to copyright it. Over the years it's been released on a variety of labels, been colorized, turned into musical versions on and off Broadway, and the subject of an enormously fun and entertaining musical remake directed by Frank Oz in 1986. 

 

Jack Nicholson's nutty performance as the deranged dental patient is just as memorable as the talking, man-eating plant. Nicholson's star-power was key to promote the film on home video in the 1980s when it was released in its original B/W version and a colorized edition. Nicholson got his start in a Roger Corman production in 1958 titled THE CRY-BABY KILLER; a teen delinquent picture directed by Joe Addis. The picture was the first Roger produced that didn't turn a profit in theaters.

 

Corman making movies on a bet or through near-impossible stipulations, would become a mainstay of his career, and the careers of those he helped start. If you're a fan of low-budget miracles, the jet-black humor of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS is a tacky establishment worth a visit or two.

 

7. THE INTRUDER (1962)

 

Many people say William Shatner wasn't a good actor but you'd be hard pressed to tell by his performance in this amazingly potent drama produced and directed by Roger Corman. Written by Charles Beaumont and based on his own 1959 novel of the same name, it's a searing drama about a  racist and propagandist (played by Shatner) who tries to stir unrest and halt desegregation in a small southern town. Big screen heavy and real life Tough Guy Leo Gordon has a prominent role as a protagonist for a change. Leo was an important cog in the Corman wheel in those pre-New World days--behind the scenes and in front of it.

 

According to Corman, it was one of a few films he made that lost money. It almost didn't get made due to the incendiary subject matter. Roger and his brother Gene (who co-produced) put their own money into the project to get it made. It's also one of the man's best works. It also went out under other titles like SHAME and THE STRANGER. Another alternate title, I HATE YOUR GUTS, does the picture a disservice by giving the impression you're about to see an exploitation movie; it's anything but an atypical, Drive-in style entertainment.

 

8. THE RAVEN (1963)

 

Another personal selection, Corman's THE RAVEN left an indelible mark on my psyche when I saw it on ABC's Late Movie in 1982. It was the first of the Corman Poe pictures I saw and led to my anticipation to see more of them. It was also the first horror comedy I ever saw; and while I'm not a big fan of the fright n' fun combo, this one is perfection with its melding of horror and sorcery, slathered with humor and an energized musical score as amusing as the film itself. Artist Reynold Brown was arguably the best poster artist in those days. He contributed many fantastic pieces to the Corman catalog, THE RAVEN being one of them. In the 1970s, John Solie contributed numerous and memorable posters for Corman's productions.

 

Peter Lorre is hilarious and his scenes with Jack Nicholson are among the best knee-slapper moments in the movie. Lorre's line delivery and bugged-out eyes reminded me of my grandmother on my mom's side of the family. Even now, the casts' comic interactions never fail to make me laugh. Vincent Price, of course, keeps a straight face throughout, but manages to wring humor out of his subdued performance. When I was a kid, I watched THE RAVEN everyday after school for a week or two. I love it just as much today as I did back in 1982. Back then to my young mind, Gothic horror was the best: Great Britain had Hammer and we had Roger Corman at home.

 

9. X: THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES (1963)

 

We're getting close to crossing over from the more kid-friendly Corman movies into adult, thought-provoking territory. You ever see those X-ray glasses ads in comic books back in the day? If so, this movie will be of interest. If you're looking for something that presents some intriguing ideas, then this engrossing SciFi Thriller is just the ticket. It's basically a modern-day Frankenstein story, but one in which the scientist experiments on himself. The end result is the same--good intentions lead to horrific consequences.

Ray Milland is Dr. Xavier. He's created eye drops which will allow the patient to see through objects. Believing this will potentially lead to medical breakthroughs and modern miracles, Xavier tests the drug on himself. The initial results are harmless, even pranksterish fun whereby Xavier is at a dance party and everyone there is naked in his eyes. After he accidentally kills his colleague, he goes on the run and ends up a sideshow attraction in a carnival run by a seedy barker played by comedian Don Rickles. By the end, Xavier's vision becomes too painful to bear. The last scene is a shocker bordering on horror.

Watch for Dick Miller as a carnival patron. The on-screen title is simply X. One of Producer-Director Roger Corman's best movies, he would cover similar material in 1967's THE TRIP, a drug movie starring Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Bruce Dern. Dick Miller turns up there, too.

 

10. THE WILD ANGELS (1966)

 

Corman and company possibly didn't expect the first biker movie to be the massive success it was. These harder edged youth rebellion pictures were an extension of the "juvenile delinquency" pictures of the 1950s--a genre Corman helped propagate. Those pictures--like HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL! (1958), often promoted a "hide your daughters" mentality--while emphasizing the danger and allure of marijuana, smoking cigarettes, leather jacket-wearing motorcyclists, and the correlation to crime--from legitimate to propagandized.

 

Coming out past the midway point of the 1960s, the degeneracy of society is echoed in THE WILD ANGELS, and subsequent films that expanded on the so-called "counterculture" movement like EASY RIDER in 1969. But whereas that movie was more art film than exploitation, Corman lavished screentime on its title militant motorcyclists with no real plot other than violence and anarchy. Even though EASY RIDER was a massive success, the biker flicks that followed revved their engines in the direction of Corman's swastika-bearing barbarians. Had there not been a WILD ANGELS, there likely wouldn't have been an EASY RIDER.

 

Roger Corman was crucial to the evolution of these kinds of pictures, having directed the girl gang flick TEENAGE DOLL in 1957 and produced the aforementioned THE CRY-BABY KILLER in 1958. The glamorization of criminality and the rebellion against normalcy was a mainstay of Corman’s work; the Beatniks of A BUCKET OF BLOOD (1959); the hippies in GAS! (1970); and of course, the vicious bikers of THE WILD ANGELS (1966), led by Peter Fonda and Bruce Dern.

 

ROGER CORMAN IN EUROPE

 

Prior to his entry into the film industy, Roger Corman had lived in Paris. His affinity for Europe would shape and influence his career for decade. In the mid 1960s, Roger Corman became the youngest filmmaker to be awarded with retrospectives in European countries. Shortly after the enterprising independent filmmaker opened New World Pictures for business, he wanted to show his company was more than just an exploitation factory. A fan of European filmmakers of the art-house variety like Fellini and Bergman, Corman optioned some of their films (as well as other filmmakers like Akira Kurosawa) for release in America. Some of these include CRIES AND WHISPERS (1972) and AMARCORD (1973). The second title was directed by Federico Fellini and won Best Foreign Language Film at the 1974 Academy Awards.

 

A decade earlier, Corman had imported a few Russian SciFi features with the intent on re-editing them into domestic productions palatable for American consumption. One of these Soviet pictures, NEBO SOVYOT (1959), was heavily recut by Francis Ford Coppola, who also shot the infamous moon monster battle. The resulting hodgepodge was then titled BATTLE BEYOND THE SUN, released in 1962. Another of Roger's Russian imports, PLANET OF STORMS, was re-edited by Curtis Harrington and turned into the 1965 flick, VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET. In 1968, footage was again re-edited and re-assembled by Peter Bogdonavich for another Corman patch-job titled VOYAGE TO THE PLANET OF PREHISTORIC WOMEN.

 

By 1970 after Corman directed GAS--a film he was extremely proud of--he received notice that his movie had been a huge hit with audiences at the Edinburgh International Film Festival that year, having played alongside Corman's BLOODY MAMA (1970). From there, more of Corman's producer work directed by up-and-coming names like Jonathan Demme were screened there. Corman would continue releasing the occasional European import; and by the time he'd founded Concorde-New Horizons, he'd be filming the largest portion of his company output in European territories. To expound further on the filmmaker's Euro-sojourn, Mr. Corman shot two of his celebrated Poe pictures in England--those being the seminal THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (1964) and THE TOMB OF LIGEIA (1965).

It's worth mentioning that Corman's love of Europe also indirectly ended his directing career for twenty years. While shooting VON RICHTHOFEN AND BROWN (1971) in Ireland, Corman encountered many problems, the biggest of which was BLUE MAX flyer Charles Boddington's death in a plane crash during the filming. Leading actor Don Stroud (who said in an interview some 4 people were killed during the shoot) was almost killed in one of the crashes. Filming was initially set for Munich but Ireland was chosen since the planes used in THE BLUE MAX (1966) were available there. Director Corman was so exhausted from the experience he gave up directing to found New World Pictures and be behind a desk as opposed to a camera. He would return to the director's chair in 1990 to helm FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND (1990).

 

"To survive, a director must have a long string of successes. It therefore depends more or less on fashion, must conform to current tastes. That said, I don't think any gender is "inferior". Everything interests me: the adventures of a 120ft monster, of a gangster, of a schoolgirl in love with rock n' roll. I accepted to deal with such diverse stories, because I felt that, in this way, I would learn my craft. Everything was useful to me, everything enriched me. But nevertheless, I tried to innovate a little in all these genres, and to have original ideas".--Roger Corman in a 1964 interview.

11. THE ST. VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRE (1967)

 

In a break from his independent Drive-in tradition, Roger Corman joined forces with major studio 20th Century Fox. When the now seasoned filmmaker first started out, he worked at Fox as an errand boy. Armed with a $2+ million budget, Corman set out to recreate the Valentine's Day hit-job ordered by Al Capone on Chicago's Northside Gang in 1929. While there's plenty of gunfire and blood squibs, the emphasis is on performance as opposed to exploitation. Jason Robards tears up the screen as Al Capone while other big names like Ralph Meeker, George Segal and Joseph Campanella fill out the cast of Tommy Gun-toting gangsters. Corman's LITTLE SHOP faces Jonathan Haze, Dick Miller and Jack Nicholson also have roles.

 

Unlike Corman's indy flicks, THE ST. VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRE got hit at the box office. If all you've ever seen of Corman's catalog is his AIP and New World work, you're in for a treat. The man showed a remarkably skilled hand at navigating big names and a big budget, wrapping his movie with money to spare despite the 7+ weeks shooting schedule being the longest he'd labored through. When you watch this movie, it's easy to see how Mr. Corman was an expert at creating and nurturing new talent--many of whom went on to successful careers of their own. 

 

This wasn't the first time the King of the Drive-in directed movies about mobsters. In 1958, Corman helmed the quasi- biopic MACHINE GUN KELLY starring Charles Bronson in his first leading role. Director Corman would later state Bronson was one of the best actors he ever worked with, and MACHINE GUN KELLY was an important picture to him due to critics started to take him seriously. In 1959, Corman directed I, MOBSTER for Fox, eight years before they hired him to helm the big budget MASSACRE.

 

Corman would later produce another movie about Capone but directed by Steve Carver; titled simply enough as CAPONE in 1975, and again for a major studio--Corman's return to 20th Century Fox. CAPONE was the first of a four-picture action movie deal that included the WALKING TALL-styled FIGHTING MAD (1976) starring Peter Fonda; MOVING VIOLATION (1976); and THUNDER AND LIGHTNING (1977) starring David Carradine and Kate Jackson. Sylvester Stallone had a role in CAPONE, which led to his participation in DEATH RACE 2000 that same year. Prior to CAPONE, Corman would produce additional, and graphically violent gangster-era films… such as an upcoming selection...

12. TARGETS (1968)

TARGETS is a classic example of Roger Corman giving a near impossible assignment to a hungry would-be filmmaker, leaving them to their own devices to make something marketable out of it; confined only by the limits of their imagination. Peter Bogdanovich’s task was to build a movie around two days of filming with Boris Karloff (who owed Corman a movie) utilizing footage from THE TERROR (1963) to create a new feature. The resulting motion picture was nothing short of remarkable.

Using mass killer Charles Whitman as a source, the multi-strand plot concerns Byron Orlok, an aging horror film star who feels society’s real-life descent into madness and increasingly violent behavior has made his kind of horror obsolete. Meantime, a disturbed Vietnam veteran murders his family before using a sniper rifle to kill random people on the freeway; and finally, at a Drive-in movie theater where Karloff’s Byron Orlok is making his last appearance during a showing of THE TERROR. Director Bogdonavich has a supporting role, spending several scenes with Karloff, and no doubt having the time of his life doing so.

Recently cited as an anti-gun movie, it never felt like that kind of film to me, but was certainly indicative of a growing social sickness, isolation and madness. But since that's the narrative now, there's approximately 83 million gun owners in America compared to approximately 50,000 gun-related deaths including suicides and accidentals. America doesn’t have a gun problem; it has a problem with societal decay compounded by damaging political rhetoric paired with destructive policies that preys on mental fragility. Moreover, if military veterans had been treated humanely since Vietnam--particularly by the government that sent them to war--the suicide rate amongst them wouldn't be so high. In 2012, Bogdanovich seemed to have regretted making the film after the Aurora shooting in Colorado. His movie didn't contribute to society's sickness, he simply visualized it.

 

TARGETS is two films that intersect during the finale. It's about the demise of simpler, safer times coexisting with a frightening depiction of a killer who is scary because he seems so normal and unassuming. It's even more terrifying in that he comes from a loving family whose rampage is left unexplained. The two tonally different storylines may put off some viewers, but they're both blended near perfectly. That the finale takes place at a Drive-in showing a Roger Corman movie is not only a tribute to the man who handed Bogdanovich the assignment, but to the director's masterful handling of it.

THE CORMAN QUICKIE

In the 1950s, Roger Corman's movies were seldom full-length features--often around 65 minutes long. These were ideal for Drive-in double features. In the 1960s, his films maintained this fast and furious style by focusing attention on atmosphere and motion instead of building characterization. These were generally films that took a big budget, mainstream idea and centralized the focus on areas largely hinted at in the major studio offerings the lower budget flicks were mimicking. This meant increasing the exploitation value and, in later years, inserting hefty doses of violence and nudity. Corman took this to new heights when he founded New World Pictures in 1970--truly the leading independent film company in America at the time.

13. GAS! OR IT BECAME NECESSARY TO DESTROY THE WORLD IN ORDER TO SAVE IT (1970)

It’s the end of the world as we know it when a nerve gas is accidentally unleashed that successfully kills off anyone over the age of 25. This is arguably Corman’s most explicitly political youth movement movie. Its hippies and radical revolutionaries live the perpetual leftist fantasy of a Marxist utopia that, in real life, has brought about the economic apocalypse for the populaces in the countries subjected to it. Despite the oppressive politics, Corman touches on the hypocrisy of it all while also trying to mask the heavy handedness in dark humor—some of which is pretty damn funny. Corman both spoofs and pays tribute to all his films up to this point; the best of which being Edgar Allan Poe as a biker. Communists will love it while mainstream viewers will likely be confused by it. AIP drastically re-edited the movie resulting in GAS being Corman’s last movie for the company. Flawed but fun, the experience lead to Corman founding New World Pictures that same year. 

Roger would return to light-hearted youth insurgency territory with the cult favorite comedy musical ROCK N ROLL HIGH SCHOOL (1979). That picture featured punk rockers The Ramones in a major role and gave fan-favorite P.J. Soles a rare leading part. Also in this class room are New World regulars like Paul Bartel, Mary Woronov, Clint Howard, Dick Miller and The Real Don Steele.

14. THE STUDENT NURSES (1970)

Four young nursing school students live together and share the experiences and troubles of life in the first movie produced through Roger and Gene Corman's newly founded New World Pictures. Prior to NURSES production, ANGELS DIE HARD (1970), a biker movie starring William Smith and directed by Richard Compton, was the first film distributed through the new independent company although not shot in-house. Filmmaker Stephanie Rothman was the first to be signed on at New World and this was her assignment. Described as an exploitation movie, Rothman wanted to put in a lot of social issue topics which dominate the sexual situations that were a stipulation of her doing the picture. The leftist mentality gets thick at times with the inclusion of an Hispanic domestic terror group one of the student nurses gets involved with. Drugs, abortion, and other topics that everyday people have discussed at some point in their life are trotted out. 

 

The film made enough money to birth four sequels; those being PRIVATE DUTY NURSES (1971), NIGHT CALL NURSES (1972), THE YOUNG NURSES  (1973) and CANDY STRIPE NURSES (1974). It's more drama than comedy, but all the films were supposed to have nudity, some humor, political subtext and violence. The series was so successful, another similar series of sex n' subtext pictures surfaced starting with THE STUDENT TEACHERS (1973).and SUMMER SCHOOL TEACHERS (1974). Similar movies were wedged in between, one about stewardesses called FLY ME (1973) and one about fashion models titled COVER GIRL MODELS (1975); both shot in the Philippines and both directed by action ace Cirio H. Santiago.

 

15. BLOODY MAMA (1970)

Out of all of Corman's gangster pictures, BLOODY MAMA is the bloodiest and most brutal. Originally to have been made in 1968, Corman got around to directing this trashy and violent drama in 1970–based on the sanguine matriarch of the title, the notorious Ma Barker and her brood. It stars Shelley Winters, Don Stroud, Pat Hingle, Bruce Dern and Robert De Niro. Corman's THE ST. VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRE (1967) was bloody, but this was New World Pictures; and this being 1970, the indie filmmaker went wild with the sex and violence. Corman's movie is arguably the sleaziest gangster picture of them all. Asked in 1971 why his films were getting bloodier, Corman's reply was, "The world is getting bloodier and bloodier".

Like Robards as Capone in 67's MASSACRE, Winters is equally outrageous as Ma Barker. Fans of Don Stroud will want to see it since he has the co-lead playing her dominant son Herman. Corman keeps the focus on the villains who do all sorts of nasty things save for one moment of surprising humanity towards the end. The last ten minutes is full of flying bullets and blood squibs. DILLINGER (1973), directed by John Milius and released by AIP, plays out near verbtim to BLOODY MAMA, but romanticizes its antagonists where Corman glorifies their barbarism.

In 1972, Corman gave Martin Scorsese his second project but first Hollywood production. That picture was BOXCAR BERTHA (1972). Like BLOODY MAMA, it was another gangster picture, but unlike Corman's movie, Scorsese's played out almost like an art film. He didn't skimp on the violence though, outdoing Corman in the sex and brutality department. The tone is oppressively downbeat. Filled with sex and graphic beatings, the finale features a gruesome crucifixion and massive shotgun blast-induced blood squibs. Barbara Hershey, David Carradine, Bernie Casey and John Carradine star. Recommended, but you'll probably feel like a shower afterward.

The most famous and fun of these gangster pictures is one where Corman was only a producer, BIG BAD MAMA (1974) directed by Steve Carver and starring Angie Dickinson, Tom  Skerritt and William Shatner. MAMA made headlines due to Dickinson's nude scenes. Others include the lighter, PG-rated CRAZY MAMA (1975) starring Cloris Leachman, Ann Southern and Stuart Whitman and directed by Jonathan Demme; and THE LADY IN RED (1979) starring Pamela Sue Martin and Robert Conrad and directed by Lewis Teague. In 1987, Jim Wynorski would direct BIG BAD MAMA II with Angie Dickinson returning and Corman producing. It had a brief theatrical run, but most caught it on home video and cable.

16. BIG DOLL HOUSE (1971)

One of the key New World Pictures is this Philippines-lensed Women-In-Prison classic directed by Jack Hill. The sexy shenanigans of the NURSES movies is carried over but with little of the political propaganda; although there's always a revolution of sorts going on in these pictures. SEVEN WOMEN FROM HELL (1961) may be the first WIP flick, but the Big Money made by THE BIG DOLL HOUSE (1971) ensured more bare-breasted ladies bearing arms in a sweltering jungle hell would follow. The plot is a flimsy as the clothing worn by the beautiful cast that includes Judy Brown, Roberta Collins and genre staple Pam Grier. Women end up in a jungle prison for various reasons, attempt escape, are tortured, then rescued, and lead a machine gun assault on the bamboo encampment. 

 

This description fits many others, including the even more fun follow-up, THE BIG BIRD CAGE (1972); also directed by Jack Hill. Exploitation stalwart Sid Haig is the Dick Miller of the WIP genre and as integral to these films as Filipino star Vic Diaz was. DOLL’s six-figure budget making some ten million dollars in returns meant not only would there be more of the same, but that more of the same was coming from Roger Corman. A few of these were THE HOT BOX (1972), WOMAN HUNT (1972), SAVAGE! (1973), and CAGED HEAT (1974) directed by Jonathan Demme.

 

17. SEVEN BLOWS OF THE DRAGON (1973)

 

This is a classic case of trimming the fat--wherein a movie producer takes a martial arts drama and transforms it into a martial arts movie with a little drama in it. In 1973, Roger Corman acquired the rights to the 1972 Shaw Brothers production, THE WATER MARGIN, Chang Cheh's epic, big screen adaptation of Shi Nai'an's famous novel, 'Outlaws of the Marsh'. This was right at the beginning of the Kung Fu craze started by Shaw Brothers global smash FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH (aka KING BOXER) that snowballed with the still to this day potent popularity of the late Bruce Lee.  Chang Cheh was known for his testosterone-fueled martial arts movies featuring heroes who refuse to die while partaking in the goriest mayhem imaginable. THE WATER MARGIN kept this tradition, but placed its focus more on the court intrigue and dramatic elements. At 125 minutes, it was hardly Drive-in material. So Corman gutted most of its exposition, leaving little beyond the martial arts sequences and requesting additional nude footage for an existing, tastefully shot sex scene. Now running 79 minutes and graced with a new, exploitative title and new music score (that, ironically, had an Oriental soundscape versus the Uriah Heep music used in the original version), SEVEN BLOWS OF THE DRAGON was now ready for Drive-in prime-time. 

A few years later, Run Run Shaw would co-produce CANNONBALL! (1976) with Corman and Gustave Berne; the latter whom produced films like THEATER OF BLOOD (1973), THE PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE (1974) and THE STRANGER AND THE GUNFIGHTER (1975).

 

Corman would pull a similar stunt with a Japanese samurai movie several years later with SHOGUN ASSASSIN (1980). Produced and directed by David Weisman and Robert Houston, it exposed Western audiences to Japan's LONE WOLF AND CUB series of six films that ran from 1972-1974. SHOGUN ASSASSIN was a combination of the first two movies in the series (12 minutes of part 1 and the rest part 2). Roger Corman picked up the finished American version and released it through New World where he made a bundle on it. The sale of the picture to New World by Weisman and Houston didn't include a percentage of the profits but they did receive some compensation when New World stole the SHOGUN ASSASSIN soundtrack for their Kung Fu sexploitationer FIRECRACKER (1981) the following year.

18. DEATH RACE 2000 (1975)

Roger Corman had an uncanny ability to create film stars and filmmakers by allowing them to explore their imaginations while taking risks that could make or break a career. That's not to say Corman did not maintain some level of control over his productions. He also had a sixth sense on the types of movies people wanted to see. Corman was also known to occasionally object to directions some filmmakers wanted to go. DEATH RACE 2000, Paul Bartel's gruesomely comical cult classic based on Ib Melchior's short tale 'The Racer' , is one such example. Bartel wanted to increase the comedy and decrease the violence while Roger Corman wanted to reverse that. In the end, a compromise was made and a legitimate cult classic was born. At its core, DEATH RACE 2000 is a futuristic, gladiatorial combat movie that's set on the open road instead of an arena.

 

Influenced by the then upcoming dystopian sports movie ROLLERBALL (1975), Corman beat his big budget competition to theaters by two months. That picture was also based on a short story, and bore an R rating but was played totally straight. Between the two, DEATH RACE 2000 has the bigger cult following. Bartel's movie got a remake in 2008 (ROLLERBALL got one in 2002) starring Jason Statham that shared commonality with the original, but looked more like a live-action adaptation of the hit video game, Twisted Metal Black. 

As for the nitro-fused original, the satirical comedy is dark as tar and morbid in the extreme. David Carradine stars as Frankenstein in one of his most fun roles while Sylvester Stallone (who did CAPONE for Corman before this movie) makes a nasty villain in "Machine Gun"  Joe Viterbo. There's the usual New World formula of sex, nudity and violence in abundance and easily the best role for the enormously popular Los Angeles disc jockey, The Real Don Steele. The only thing it doesn't have is an appearance by Dick Miller. David Carradine returned for an unrelated but similar movie, the dark humor-free DEATHSPORT in 1978 co-starring Richard Lynch and Drive-in Queen Claudia Jennings.

19. EAT MY DUST! (1976)

Car chase cinema became big business in the late 1970s due largely to SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT (1977). Roger Corman dabbled in it with his second producer job in 1955s THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS; a film that was the first picture of what would eventually become American International Pictures. It was also a title that accurately described Corman's and AIP's style of moviemaking. In 1963, Corman would direct THE YOUNG RACERS (1963), a movie about the Formula One International Racing Championships, and filmed in Europe where the event takes place. EAT MY DUST! (1976) is a similar endeavor with its unruly young characters and speeding cars. The difference being Charles Griffith's movie is a cartoon-level, car chase comedy with a 70s sensibility. Partial to the Hixploitation genre, EAT MY DUST! possibly wouldn't have come about if not for the success of DEATH RACE 2000 (1975). It's also a family affair, featuring Ron's brother Clint and their father Rance in supporting roles.

Ron Howard (Opie Taylor from THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW) was working on HAPPY DAYS when he received the offer to headline the car crash spectacle. He wasn't much interested, but desired to direct. Corman made Howard an offer he couldn't refuse, that if he starred in the picture, he could direct the next one so long as Corman approved of the script. EAT MY DUST! was a huge hit for the New World president, so Howard directed for the first time with GRAND THEFT AUTO (1977); virtually the same script, but a slightly better movie, and an even bigger smash at the box office. As for Ron Howard, he took what he learned from the Fast and Furious School of Roger Corman Filmmaking, and became one of America's most celebrated directors with films like NIGHT SHIFT (1982), SPLASH (1984), COCOON (1985), WILLOW (1988), BACKDRAFT (1991) and APOLLO 13 (1995). He would later win an Academy Award for Best Director for Best Picture recipient A BEAUTIFUL MIND (2001).

Corman would produce additional movies of the DUST variety with films like THUNDER AND LIGHTNING (1977) starring David Carradine and Kate Jackson; MOONSHINE COUNTY EXPRESS (1977) starring John Saxon, Claudia Jennings and Maureen McCormick; and the heavy-on-the-recycled-footage SMOKEY BITES THE DUST (1981), a practice Corman would take to aggravating levels in the 80s and 90s.

 

20. HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD (1976)

 

HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD is the filet mignon of the New World catalog. Directors Joe Dante and Allan Arkush made a bet with Corman they could make the cheapest New World Picture yet and within ten days. Corman said “you’re on”, and off they went. Arguably one of the most fun Drive-in motion pictures ever made, HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD is 82 minutes of art imitating life in depicting the wild and woolly world of low budget filmmaking. Exploding with in-jokes and Drive-in gags, Joe Dante's and Allan Arkush's kitchen sink classic patched together with plot points and stock footage from previous Corman pictures pokes endless fun at itself; and the 'anything goes' mentality of independent motion pictures, especially the New World variety.

The shoestring plot involves Candice Rialson going to Hollywood to become an actress and the chaos that ensues. Many other movies have used this narrative like the Corman produced exploitation drama NASHVILLE GIRL (1976), Dimension Pictures’ comedic drama THE WORKING GIRLS (1974) and formed the basis for the action thriller TRACKDOWN (1976). Anyway, Rialson meets Dick Miller who sends her to the Philippines to star in movies with Paul Bartel and makes an enemy in Mary Woronov. If you ever wondered what it was like to make exploitation movies, this picture is the perfect dramatization. A ton of fun, HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD should be better known than it is. Roger Corman was so pleased with the result, two solo directing gigs were offered to Arkush and Dante; one of them is the next selection...

 

21. PIRANHA (1978)

 

Not only is PIRANHA a great horror movie and cult favorite, but it's a personal selection for this list. I remember when it premiered on Network Television in 1980, I showed the TV Guide ad to my parents. My dad commented how it was just a rip-off of JAWS (1975), basically dismissing it. The night it came on, I barely got five minutes into it when my mom told me I had to go to bed. A few years later, I convinced my dad to rent the VHS sometime around 1985. Back then, anybody with two VCR's was copying rentals to blank tapes. Unfortunately, despite enjoying the movie a great deal, my dad wouldn't make a copy of PIRANHA. Seeing it again now, it retains some scary moments; and the humor spread throughout enriches the characters, making the movie even more endearing. If you love 1950s SciFi and Monster pictures, you will love PIRANHA. Joe Dante shows his love for the genre at regular intervals--examples being the stop-motion creature in the lab and via an airing of THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD (1957) that multiple characters are watching.

 

As much as I think PIRANHA stands on it own, if there had never been a JAWS, there probably wouldn't have been a PIRANHA. A movie titled PIRANHA was announced in 1975, but this version, intended for release in the Spring of 1976, never got made. One of that film's producers, Jeff Schectman, passed the project to New World Pictures and into the hands of Joe Dante. The plot about a lake resort taken over by the ravenous fish remained, but the story elements involving a rampaging bear and a wildfire were removed. This would be the first time New World collaborated with United Artists. With the big budget JAWS 2 (1978) in production and in trouble, the low budget PIRANHA finally began filming in the latter part of 1977. 

 

PIRANHA had its share of troubles, too. THE WILD ANGELS Peter Fonda reluctantly joined the production but dropped out due to feeling the special effects would be an embarrassment. Bradford Dillman took his place. Eric Braeden (the assassin in ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES) was next to abandon the production after getting cold feet about the possible disaster he was lending his name to. Kevin McCarthy (star of the original INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS) then took the role. The rest of the cast is just as top tier: Keenan Wynn, Barbara Steele, and a spirited co-lead with the adorable Heather Menzies. There's also Paul Bartel and Dick "What about the goddamn piranhas?!"  Miller in a great part as Buck Gardner, the resort owner who refuses to close the lake. PIRANHA was so popular all over the world, director Dante was offered every killer fish/mammal movie in the pipeline: ALLIGATOR, BARRACUDA, the unmade 'Orca 2', THE BERMUDA DEPTHS, and the unmade 'Jaws 3 People 0'. Joe Dante's movie is possibly the best loved New World picture. It led to him having a great career in Hollywood. PIRANHA 2: THE SPAWNING (1981) picks up where PIRANHA ended, but with James Cameron as director for the first time. 'Piranha 3'  was announced but never surfaced. A 3D remake faithful to the original arrived in 2010.

 

ROGER CORMAN, RECYCLIST

 

Always trying to find ways to save a few bucks, Corman sometimes used stock footage to pad out his movies to give them a bit more bang than he was willing to pay for. This was a practice a lot of production companies participated in. One example was 1966's SciFi-Horror flick, QUEEN OF BLOOD, produced by an uncredited Roger Corman. Footage from one of the Russian SciFi pictures he imported titled A DREAM COME TRUE had special effects footage pilfered to make the blood-drinking QUEEN appear more majestic than she was.

 

More annoying, though, was when Corman recycled footage from his own movies and even the music scores. Every so often you'd spot that all-too-familiar castle shot from THE RAVEN (1963) in numerous pictures from the 60s to the 90s. Nowhere was this as egregious as the many times Corman reused both footage and the soundtrack from BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (1980). FORBIDDEN WORLD (1982) used shots of BATTLE's white spacecraft although these shots looked new. 

 

1983's SPACE RAIDERS was the worst example. Save for a handful of shots, every space scene was lifted from BATTLE as was James Horner's exemplar compositions. It was such a poverty row production, they couldn't even afford laser effects; instead, you get sparks flying out of the laser gun barrels. I saw it in the theater in 1983 and my 8-year old self enjoyed it. Judging by the reactions, so did the half-full theater. By the time I saw BATTLE on channel 48 a year or two later, I was surprised to discover the thievery of the aptly titled SPACE RAIDERS. 

 

Corman even recycled Horner's BATTLE score in movies that weren't even in the same genre. You'd hear the music in Sword and Sorcery Fantasy flicks like the theatrical release SORCERESS (1982), and DTV ones like WIZARDS OF THE LOST KINGDOM (1985) and DEATHSTALKER III: THE WARRIORS FROM HELL (1988). WIZARDS also pads its already short running time with footage from DEATHSTALKER (1983); while the third film in that series contained those aforementioned, famous, low-angle castle shots from Corman's THE RAVEN (1963).

In the late 80s and into the 1990s, Roger Corman's Concorde-New Horizons productions often swiped scenes from his New World catalog to cut costs. These films were mostly inferior to the New World days. Jim Wynorski's NOT OF THIS EARTH, a 1988 remake to Corman's 1956 original, was a peppy, humorous, and nudity-soaked rendition. However, it was sick with stock footage. The opening credits were made up entirely of Corman's earlier pictures from as far back as BATTLE BEYOND THE SUN to HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP. Additional scenes from the latter title are recycled for EARTH's shameless propensity for padding.

 

22. HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP (1980)

 

Controversial in its day, this ultimate Drive-in experience began life as 'Beneath the Darkness' and 'Humanoids Up From the Depths'  before settling on one of the most memorable titles of any film in history. Packed with gore, nudity and a fantastic score by James Horner, HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP is an R-rated throwback to the sort of monster flicks Corman made in the 1950s. 'King of the Monster Movies'  Doug McClure stars with Vic Morrow battling fish-men with a fondness for the fairer sex. The movie was a sizable global success. Some of that may have been due to Corman's dissatisfaction with Barbara Peeter's original version that was minus all the T&A. Both director Peeters and actress Ann Turkel were angered over new scenes shot without their knowledge that ramped up the film's sex and violence quotient. Despite her displeasure with the film she didn't know she was making, Turkel was reported to have been mulling over returning for a proposed sequel that never came.

 

The budget for HUMANOIDS was reportedly $1.5 million; markedly higher than the five and six figure ranges Corman was used to in the previous two decades. The monster suits by Rob Bottin (THE HOWLING; THE THING), Chris Walas and Ken Myers look amazing. They're among the most original big screen monsters with their exposed brains and elongated arms. Curiously, the vaguely menacing US poster artwork is noticeably subdued compared to previous New World pictures. The foreign publicity suits the film's contents even though the title is the less sensational MONSTER. Under its HUMANOIDS title, the film lost some of its gorier footage for an R-rating; and several attack sequences were cut from the picture, all cut footage is on the recent blu-ray releases from Scream Factory. A vastly inferior Made-For-Showtime remake surfaced in 1996 that uses embarrassing amounts of stock footage from the original.

One of my favorite movies, I finally got to see HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP when I was a teenager. I almost got to see it when I was around 7 years old, but that planned first viewing was not to be. If you'd be interested in finding out what happened, you can read about it, and other horror movie memories HERE.

23. GALAXY OF TERROR (1981)

Roger Corman's second in-house SciFi movie was almost as expensive as BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (1980). This is another personal choice, and my favorite of Corman's New World outer space pictures. BATTLE is fun and has a high rewatch value, but if it weren't for James Horner's rousingly memorable soundtrack, the spaceship dogfights would be more boring than they already are. Outside of maybe two shots, you never see two spaceships battling beyond the stars on the screen at the same time. Then there's FORBIDDEN WORLD (1982), aka MUTANT. It's sex n' gory trash of the highest order, but it lacks the creative polish of GALAXY. I remember having to sneak and see this when my father recorded it off HBO in 1983. I'll return to this memory shortly.

 

GALAXY OF TERROR was released under a few other titles. The GALAXY poster design was done in a 50s fashion that promotes the film's exploitation-heavy elements, but doesn't quite do the dark nature of the picture justice. The poster for its alternate title, MINDWARP: AN INFINITY OF TERROR, sells the movie much better. It also went out as PLANET OF HORRORS (see insert). Another, far cheaper ALIEN-styled money-chaser, INSEMINOID (1981), was sold as HORROR PLANET.

 

The notorious maggot rape scene, Sid Haig being killed by his own severed arm and Erin Moran's head exploding are the film's most spectacularly outrageous and gory set-pieces. Aside from plentiful space splatter, there's a gallery of monsters, lots of cool laser blasts, Saturday morning cartoon sound effects and impressive set design. The McDonald's burger boxes adorning the ship corridors painted to look futuristic is low budget ingenuity at its finest. The burger cases returned in FORBIDDEN WORLD, but in that film, they don't try to hide the fact it looks like the catering was hundreds of McDLT's. The fast food giant figures into this entry another way: Not long after when I was 10, I visited my uncle's house on a weekend in 1985 and asked if I could watch GALAXY OF TERROR. My aunt wasn't high on it, but she'd just returned with a bag of McDonald's cheeseburgers for me. When you're a kid, you do these silly things that seem daring for your age group. Every time a gory scene would occur, I'd take as many bites of a burger as I could--as long as they lasted--to test my stomachs constitution.

 

Going back to the GALAXY, there's also some brief Kung Fu action, and James Cameron honing his skills a few years before he made a name for himself directing THE TERMINATOR (1984).

24. DEATHSTALKER (1983)

Yet another personal selection, I remember the first time I saw this movie in 1984. My dad had rented it along with Bruno Mattei's living dead gut-muncher NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES and Jackie Kong's toxic monster-fest THE BEING. Believing DEATHSTALKER was also a horror picture, I was both surprised and excited to see it was actually a CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982) clone. It looked like it cost all of $500, but the energy and faithfulness to barbarian lore belies the meager resources. Channeling both Frazetta and Vallejo paintings (Vallejo did the poster artwork), and packed with sex, nudity and violence, DEATHSTALKER opened yet another revenue stream for Roger Corman; that being Sword and Sorcery movies. Corman would shoot a series of them in Argentina just as he had produced numerous WIP flicks in the Philippines over a decade earlier.  

 

DEATHSTALKER wasn't a New World production but made through Corman's Palo Alto company; the establishment from whence came his first production, MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR way back in 1954. Corman sold New World Pictures in January of 1983, but an agreement with the new owners meant they'd distribute his subsequent films... till lawsuits soured the relationship two years into the deal. As for DEATHSTALKER, lead actor Rick Hill looked great as the title death-dealer, and enjoyed a moderate Action Hero career that should've been much bigger than it was. Lana Clarkson, who is memorable as the bare-chested swordswoman-lover of Deathstalker, got her own movie trilogy beginning with BARBARIAN QUEEN in 1985. Three STALKER sequels followed, with Hill only returning for the fourth and last picture.

 

And that's the end... but not the end of the endless entertainment Roger Corman gave so many movie fans for decades. From Science Fiction, to Teen Delinquents, to Monsters big and small, to Historical Dramas, to Foreign Art Imports, to Action and Exploitation, Roger Corman kept us entranced, humored and scared a hundred times over. He is THE signature figure that defined the Drive-in and home video experience. Without him and the many artists and technicians whose careers he started, the world of cinema would be a less exciting and provocative place. Roger Corman has left this world and entered the next, but his films, his influence, and his ingenuity remain... to be admired and enjoyed for many more decades to come.

 

If you're a fan, the following are links to purchase books currently in print on the subject of Roger Corman and his New World history and beyond...

 

To buy HOW I MADE A HUNDRED MOVIES IN HOLLYWOOD AND NEVER LOST A DIME, click HERE.

 

To buy ROGER CORMAN: BLOOD-SUCKING VAMPIRES, FLESH-EATING COCKROACHES AND DRILLER KILLERS: AN UNAUTHORIZED LIFE, click HERE.

 

To buy ROGER CORMAN: INTERVIEWS, click HERE.

 

To buy CORMAN/POE: INTERVIEWS AND ESSAYS EXPLORING MAKING OF ROGER CORMAN'S EDGAR ALLAN POE FILMS 1960-1964, click HERE. 

To buy ROGER CORMAN'S NEW WORLD PICTURES (1970-1983): AN ORAL HISTORY VOLUME 1, click  HERE.

 

To buy ROGER CORMAN'S NEW WORLD PICTURES (1970-1983): AN ORAL HISTORY VOLUME 2, click HERE. 

To buy CELLULOID WARS: THE MAKING OF BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS, click HERE.