Happy Birthday, Roger Corman

[filkertom]

Eighty and goin' strong. Everybody's favorite camp director... except he's actually turned out quite a number of entertaining films, and some that are really frickin' good (The Raven and The Tomb of Ligeia leap to mind, and I have a great fondness for many of his other Poe flicks) -- and we owe him a lot for Little Shop of Horrors, which kick-started the career of Jack Nicholson and inspired Ashman and Menken to write a musical which eventually got them that little gig at Disney.

What are your favorite Corman films? Either as producer or director, good or bad. I'd pick the ones above, Fantastic Planet, Tales of Terror, the first live-action Fantastic Four, and Death Race 2000, with a kinky nod towards Barbarian Queen starring the late Lana Clarkson.

Comments

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Death Race 2000, no contest, is my favorite. Though I hold a certain fondness for "It Conquered the World" which is better than any film starring a mutant Venusian turnip has any right to be.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Mmmm... Beverly Garland....

His last directorial effort

[pickledcritter.livejournal.com]

I must admit a certain fascination with Frankenstein Unbound. Of course, I was usually a sucker for anything Raul Julia was in...

Fantastic Planet? Wow...I didn't realize he produced that - that was one of my favorite flicks in the 80s, when they used to show it on USA Networks' Night Flight - absolutely mesmerizing!

Re: Battle Beyond The Stars

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. There were -- hell, still are -- a lot of guys who have vision of one form or another, and who work on the cheap (or, in the case of Uwe Boll, make it look as if they work on the cheap)... but Corman is one of the few who also had some real talent. Not necessarily a huge amount, not necessarily mainstream... but the guy does have some of the magic.

The Raven

[zillafan.livejournal.com]

My favorite: The Raven (1963) starring Vincent Price and Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff.... who can forget that magic duel!

Oh and can I say "Mmmm... Hazel Court (http://www.yodaslair.com/dumboozle/hazel/hazeldex.html)...". In retrospect she could be responsible for my love of buxom redheads!

Heck, the success of the whole "shoestring Poe period" of Corman is hard to refute. All good stuff!

Re: The Raven

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Word. The three leads, and Hazel, combined with the imaginative use of magic, are what make that film so watchable.

Battle Beyond The Stars

[lizard-sf.livejournal.com]

Because, dammit, there NEEDED to be a "Seven Samurai In Space" movie!

Re: Battle Beyond The Stars

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't mind a little retrospective with The Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven, and Battle Beyond the Stars -- just for comparison's sake.... :) What other remakes of that are there? (Beyond the obvious Return of the Magnificent Seven.)

Re: Battle Beyond The Stars

[lizard-sf.livejournal.com]

"A Bugs Life" treads the some of the same ground (Group of misfits forms band to defend innocents against marauders), but with less point-by-point parallels.

I'm sure there's more. The core story is so wonderfully iconic that it can be told in almost any setting.

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

"Masque of the Red Death" with Vinnie Price.. course the "Raven" is very very close.

Corman's always at his best when he handles dread serious mellodrama with a hint of tongue-in-cheek

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. The Tomb of Ligeia is the closest he came to doing absolute straight drama, and it is quite good, but I don't think he could sustain it for more than one film in a row.

[lizard-sf.livejournal.com]

Not Corman...but speaking of Price reminded me of "The Abominable Dr. Phibes", perhaps the best gift TiVo ever got me...

If you haven't seen this, you must.

[r-caton.livejournal.com]

If you are on a Price tangent (and like Todd Slaughter, you always got the impression that Vincent Price relished the roles he played)you might remember Theatre of Blood from 1973....

For me Death Race 2000 will always be a killer....

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

Little Shop, hands down. The Poe stuff, of course, and all that drive-in fodder that landed on MST3K--who else would cast the same actor to play Seymour Krelboyn and a Viking warrior?

A serious thumbs-up to Corman graduate Joe Dante, for casting Corman as the director of the Batman movie in Dante's "Looney Tunes Back In Action". Yaknowwhat? Considering most of the Batman films that had preceded it, a Corman version sounded like a pretty good idea...

And considering how much of Hollywood owes their careers to him, I'm still waiting for his lifetime achievement Oscar... :)

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

If Roger Corman goes senile... How can you tell?

[lukeski.livejournal.com]

For a great fan-made MST3K-parody-tribute of the Roger Corman Fantasic Four Movie on DVD (featuring lukeski in a couple skits) check out http://www.ilikesheep.com/mst11/ ! :)

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes. The Duhans.

I helped them write lines for their Dungeons and Dragons movie spoof.

Did they say they remembered me?