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Posted: |
Jun 21, 2024 - 11:31 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Roger Corman went to Europe to shoot footage on the Grand Prix racing circuit in Monaco, Belgium, France, Ireland, and the Netherlands for THE YOUNG RACERS. The film finds former racer “Stephen Children” (Mark Damon) setting out with help from his secretary “Henny” (Luana Anders) to write a vicious expose, disguised as a novel, about Grand Prix champion “Joe Machin” (William Campbell), an "arrogant, ruthless, crude, and altogether hateful human being."
Stephen's girlfriend “Monique” (Beatrice Altariba) left him for Joe, but he's already dumped her for “Lea” (Margarete Robsahm), whom he openly seduces in front of wife “Sesia” (Marie Versini). Meanwhile, Joe's brother, “Robert” (screenwriter R. Wright Campbell, also actor William's real-life brother), is in love with Sesia, while Joe's predatory nature soon has him trying to seduce “Henny.”
The film was shot from race to race during the 1962 Formula One season, with the cast and crew taking breaks in between. Estimates of the 1963 film’s budget range from $90,000 to $150,000. Les Baxter’s score has not had a release.
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Posted: |
Jun 22, 2024 - 1:13 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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THE TERROR was the infamous Roger Corman quickie—a quickie that, ironically, required the longest production of Corman's career. The apocryphal story I originally heard, as long ago as the 1970s, was that a script was hastily dreamed up and shot on the sets of THE RAVEN to use up three days of time for which Boris Karloff had been paid, and which were not used on THE RAVEN. More recent interviews with Roger Corman and the other principals involved now indicate that Karloff was engaged for two extra days of shooting following completion of THE RAVEN, and before its sets were torn down, so that Corman could use the footage to make another film.
In the film that ultimately resulted, French Army officer “Lieutenant Duvalier” (Jack Nicholson), has been separated from his unit and receives help from a mysterious woman (Sandra Knight). He follows her to the castle of “Baron Von Lepp” (Karloff) only to find that she is the Baron's wife who died 20 years ago.
A week before filming ended on THE RAVEN, Corman paid Leo Gordon, an actor and writer, $1,600 for a sixty-page script written by the following weekend which could be shot over two days. Corman said his only other requirement was that the script finish with a flood, since several Poe pictures had finished with a fire sequence, and he wanted to do something new.
Corman made a deal with Karloff to be available for two days' filming for a small amount of money, plus a deferred payment of $15,000 that would be paid if the film earned more than $150,000. The first two days of filming on THE TERROR took place on the weekend after THE RAVEN finished on a Friday. Corman directed all these sequences using the crew from THE RAVEN. According to one report, Corman mostly shot people walking down hallways, entering doors, and having a few conversations.
Boris Karloff later recalled: “Corman had the sketchiest outline of a story. I read it and begged him not to do it. He said ‘That's alright Boris, I know what I'm going to do. I want you for two days on this.’ I was in every shot, of course. Sometimes I was just walking through, and then I would change my jacket and walk back. He nearly killed me on the last day. He had me in a tank of cold water for about two hours. After he got me in the can, he suspended operations and went off and directed two or three operations to get the money, I suppose... [The sets] were so magnificent... As they were being pulled down around our ears, Roger was dashing around with me and a camera, two steps ahead of the wreckers. It was very funny.”
Corman said they were so pressed for time towards the end of the second day, the crew shot footage without slating the shots. Dick Miller, who also filmed for those two days, later recalled, "When we were shooting in the castle, none of it made any sense. Some of the things I did were ridiculous because I was a butler and I was there just for Karloff to talk to, for Jack to talk to, just a butler."
THE RAVEN had been financed by American International Pictures (AIP), but THE TERROR was financed by Corman privately, albeit using sets that AIP had paid for without asking for their permission. Samuel Z. Arkoff of AIP later said he became suspicious when he attended the wrap party for THE RAVEN and noticed that the sets had not been taken down. He said he later discovered Corman was using AIP sets for the director's own movie, but Arkoff knew Corman would "put that film in a vault, finish, and come to us [AIP] with a distribution deal. So, it turned out to be our picture anyway."
After the Karloff scenes were shot, Leo Gordon wrote the rest of the script for the movie. Dick Miller said "about three months later, when things slowed down" he "got a call: we were going to make a movie. I had forgotten all about it, literally. "
Corman could not direct the rest of the film himself. He said after shooting the Karloff sequences "I didn't have the money to shoot the rest of the picture [with a union crew], which meant I couldn't direct [it] myself because I was personally signed with the unions."
The remainder of the film was shot over a nine-month period by five directors: Francis Ford Coppola, Dennis Jakob, Monte Hellman, Jack Nicholson, and Jack Hill. As each one left the project to work on something else, Corman hired the next one to shoot more footage. According to Monte Hellman, he was the one that pulled all the material together for the finished film. Corman said that when he viewed the footage, he realized that "it didn't make sense," so he filmed a scene between Dick Miller and Jack Nicholson (in close-up because the sets had been taken down) and got them to explain the plot.
American International Pictures would frequently make use of “frozen” funds and cheaper European facilities by sending composers Les Baxter and Ronald Stein to Europe to record their scores in London, Munich, or Rome. Despite this film having a small budget (estimated at $800,000), Stein was able to use the 90-piece Munich Symphony Orchestra to record the score. Stein’s score was released by Percepto in 2007 in their box set “Mad, Mod & Macabre - The Ronald Stein Collection.” THE TERROR grossed $1.8 million at the U.S. box office.
In May 1966, Corman told Karloff that he would not be getting his deferred $15,000 since the film never made a net profit of $150,000. However, he said that he would pay the money if Karloff worked on a new undetermined future project for Corman. This turned out to be the Peter Bogdanovich film TARGETS (1968). Karloff was paid his deferred fee once he agreed to be in the movie.
Because Corman’s Filmgroup didn’t copyright THE TERROR, it fell into the public domain. In 1990 Corman prepared a new version with about 10 minutes of additional footage to copyright the film for his Concorde-New Horizon Corp. Mark Griffiths was the director of this new footage (added at the beginning and the end of the film). It was shot on video and featured Rick Dean, Wayne Grace, and Dick Miller (the only actor from the original cast - now 27 years older).
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Posted: |
Jun 23, 2024 - 2:22 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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The 1963 science fiction thriller "X" -- THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES follows “Dr. James Xavier” (Ray Milland) on an odyssey, with eyedrops enabling him to have X-Ray vision. After accidentally killing associate “Dr. Sam Brant” (Harold J. Stone), Xavier moves from carnival attraction to inner-city faith healer to fugitive from justice. Don Rickles plays "Crane," a carnival owner who exploits Xavier’s strange power. As Xavier’s visual spectrum widens, he grows more and more insane, overwhelmed and anguished by the onslaught of newfound sight that comes at the expense of anything like normal vision - or even darkness. So strong is his X-Ray vision he can't even sleep—he sees right through his closed eyelids. He stops relating to people and even everyday objects once they lose all recognizability.
Roger Corman produced and directed the film. To create the effect of being able to see through a building, Corman filmed the building while it was under construction. The film’s budget has been estimated as between $300,000 and $750,000. The picture debuted in early July 1963 at the International Festival of Science Fiction Film in Trieste, Italy, where it won a “Silver Spaceship” award. When released commercially, the film grossed $2.4 million in the U.S. Les Baxter's score was released by La-La Land in 2011.
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Posted: |
Jun 24, 2024 - 11:19 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Roger Corman based THE HAUNTED PALACE on the novella "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" by H.P. Lovecraft. American International Pictures, however, decided that H.P. Lovecraft was not a big enough name to sell the film, so against Corman’s wishes they used a name from a poem of Edgar Allan Poe’s (“The Haunted Palace”), and renamed the film “Edgar Allen Poe’s THE HAUNTED PALACE.” Thus, the film became the sixth entry in Corman’s “Poe” series. To seal the deal, Corman added a verse of Poe’s poetry at the end of the film, spoken aloud by Vincent Price. However, the film takes its main story from the H.P. Lovecraft tale, although it’s not completely loyal to the book, and has nothing to do with Poe.
The story concerns the mild-mannered “Charles Dexter Ward” (Vincent Price), who moves to the mysterious town of Arkham with his wife “Ann” (Debra Paget) to inhabit a creepy castle. The townspeople, a forbidding, brooding, suspicious group except for “Dr. Marinus Willet” (Frank Maxwell), react in panic after they discover that Ward resembles an evil ancestor, “Joseph Curwen,” who was executed by Arkham residents long ago.
THE HAUNTED PALACE marked last theatrical film appearance of Debra Paget. It was also the first time that a literary work by H.P. Lovecraft was adapted for the screen. The author completed it in 1927, but it was not published until 1941, four years after his death.
Ronald Stein’s score for the film was released by Percepto in 2000. THE HAUNTED PALACE had a domestic gross of $3.4 million.
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Posted: |
Jun 27, 2024 - 3:44 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH was the first of Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe series of films to be shot in England. In the film, “Prince Prospero” (Vincent Price) responds to the plague sweeping Europe by locking himself and his guests inside the castle walls and refusing shelter to the terrified peasants under his protection. Prospero invites the virginal “Francesca” (Jane Asher) to join him, as deflowering and disillusioning innocent girls is one of his favorite pastimes. Francesca thinks she's saving the life of her beloved “Gino” (David Weston) and her father (Nigel Green), but Prospero has no intention of keeping his promise: he commits evil deeds as a way of pleasing his master, Satan. Among Prospero's hangers-on, parasites, and prisoners are the corrupt noble “Alfredo” (Patrick Magee), his concerned former mistress “Juliana” (Hazel Court), and “Hop Toad” and “Esmerelda,” midget performers for the court's amusement (Skip Martin & Verina Greenlaw).
In a 2021 interview with the Glasgow Film Festival, Roger Corman spoke about his approach to Vincent Price's character of Prospero: "Vincent…embodied much of what Edgar Allan Poe was thinking about, particularly both in MASQUE and in the HOUSE OF USHER, which is the first one, in which he was a highly educated, elegant man, yet at the same time tormented by demons within. In Prospero's thinking, the key to him is—Vincent and I used to talk about these things, of course, before we'd start the picture—I said, 'Vincent, the key to this is, Prospero believes God is dead. With the absence of God, he is free to do anything he wants. If he wishes to replace God with Satan, or if he says there's nothing, it's just me, we can work that out. But the key—God is dead'."
American International Pictures had recently signed a co-production deal with Anglo-Amalgamated in England, so Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson suggested to Corman that the film be made there. This meant the film could qualify for the Eady subsidy and increase the budget. Normally, an AIP film was done in three weeks, but MASQUE was shot in five weeks on a $1 million budget. The film was one of the first pictures shot in color by cinematographer Nicolas Roeg.
Daniel Haller was used as production designer, but Robert Jones was credited to ensure the film qualified as British. (Recent video releases have credited Haller.) Corman said this was also why George Willoughby was credited as associate producer. Haller was able to make the film look more opulent than earlier productions by using many of the extensive castle sets left from BECKET, which had been shot earlier that year. (BECKET would go on to win a BAFTA award for its sets, as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction.)
Corman later expressed dissatisfaction with the final "masque" sequence, which he described as "the greatest flaw" in the film, feeling he did not have enough time to shoot it. He filmed it in one day, which he said would have been enough time in Hollywood, but that English crews were too slow. Corman disliked the disruptions caused by the heavily unionized crew's insistence on regular tea breaks.
In an in-depth interview in Cinema Retro magazine (Issue #18), Corman nominated THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, his seventh Poe film, alongside THE INTRUDER and “X” -- THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES as his personal favorites among his own films. David Lee’s score for THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH was released by Quartet in 2012. The 1964 film grossed just $2 million at the U.S. box office, the lowest for any of the Poe films to date.
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Posted: |
Jun 28, 2024 - 1:29 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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THE SECRET INVASION was a pre-DIRTY DOZEN World War II adventure in which British Intelligence selects five convicts—“Durrell” (Henry Silva), a murderer; “Rocca” (Raf Vallone), the former head of a crime syndicate; “Scanlon” (Mickey Rooney), a demolition expert; “Fell” (Edd Byrnes), a forger; and “Saval” (William Campbell), an art thief and impersonator—to perform an essential mission in exchange for their freedom. Their mission, led by “Maj. Richard Mace” (Stewart Granger), is to rescue Italian “General Quadri” (Enzo Fiermonte) from a prison in Dubrovnik so that he can turn his troops against their German allies and facilitate the end of the war.
This was Stewart Granger's first low-budget independent film after years of major starring roles, and he had concerns about allowing his character to be less than central to the story. During the filming on the Adriatic Sea, the production crew had already created the smoke for the scene when Granger told director Roger Corman that he wouldn't do the scene as written because Edd Byrnes had too much dialogue, and Granger's character was of lesser importance. Corman quickly wrote some new dialogue for Granger to satisfy his concerns (though Corman declined to state how much of that dialogue made it into the finished film), and filming proceeded before the smoke dissipated.
Principal photography for THE SECRET INVASION took place on location in Dubrovnik and other parts of Yugoslavia in the summer of 1963 for a typically short Corman shooting schedule of 36 days. The budget was an unusually healthy (for Corman) $600,000, provided by United Artists. The picture was quite the success, grossing $5.3 million domestically. It has an unreleased score by Hugo Friedhofer.
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Posted: |
Jun 29, 2024 - 10:15 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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THE TOMB OF LIGEIA once again had Vincent Price playing a character debilitated by the death of his wife. In this case he's “Verden Fell,” a patrician 19th century man whose failing sight forces him to wear "Ben Franklin" eyeglasses that make Price look like a slightly prescient older version of what would soon be called a hippie. Fell is convinced his wife “Ligeia” will be able to return from the dead, and has built a special transparent coffin just so he can keep an eye on her. He seems to live at his wife's tomb, and in fact frightens the daylights out of the young pretty horsewoman “Rowena Trevanian” (Elizabeth Shepherd) when she's out riding there one day.
Roger Corman returned to England to film the picture at Castle Acre Priory in Norfolk and at other locations, with a mostly British cast. Corman gave up his producer credit to Pat Green in order to qualify for a British subsidy. The film was based on the Edgar Allan Poe short story “Ligeia.” Because the original story was so short, screenwriter Robert Towne read all of Poe's work and decided to expand on Poe's themes, particularly mesmerism and necrophilia.
Corman was initially reluctant to use Vincent Price in the lead role, worrying he was too old for a character who was 25 to 30 years old; his preference was for Richard Chamberlain. However, Price's casting was a condition of AIP investing in the film, and Corman relented. Robert Towne had specifically requested Price not be cast, and when Corman broke the news he told the screenwriter, "Don't worry, Bob, I've got Marlene Dietrich's make-up man!" Corman ended up giving Price a wig and using more makeup on him than usual to make him look younger. Nevertheless, he later remarked that Price's casting still "did change the orientation of the film quite a bit."
Kenneth V. Jones’ score for the 1964 film has not had a release. The $150,000 production grossed just $1.8 million in the U.S., the lowest for any of the Poe films. It would prove to be the eighth and final Poe film that Roger Corman would direct.
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Posted: |
Jun 29, 2024 - 10:58 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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In the mid-1960s, Roger Corman’s production company bought the rights to several Russian sci-fi films and developed new stories around the various special effects sequences, reusing the expensive footage in new low budget films. One such new film was QUEEN OF BLOOD, which reused footage from the Russian sci-fi epics “Niebo Zowiet” (1959) and “Meshte Nastreshu” (1963). Director Curtis Harrington shot new sequences starring John Saxon, Basil Rathbone, and Dennis Hopper for the film.
At the same time, Harrington shot scenes for VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET, a film that was developed around the story of, and primarily used footage from, the 1962 Soviet science fiction film “Planeta Bur” (“Planet of Storms”). Basil Rathbone appeared in this film as well, along with Faith Domergue, and both shot their scenes on the same set used for QUEEN OF BLOOD.
Harrington later recalled: "It had to do with a couple of people orbiting the planet Venus. So, I had, instead of the Soviet actors, Faith Domergue orbiting the planet Venus. Then all the scenes with the Russians were dubbed in English. She was in touch with Basil Rathbone, who was supposedly on a Moon station. That’s all I shot. I shot about a day or two with her as she was in that ship orbiting around planet Venus. All the rest of it was just dubbed stuff."
Roger Corman had Peter Bogdanovich create another film around much of the same footage from “Planeta Bur”—VOYAGE TO THE PLANET OF PREHISTORIC WOMEN. Bogdanovich remembered that Corman “came to me and said, ‘Would you shoot some footage with some girls? AIP won't buy it unless we stick some girls in it.’ So, I figured out a way to work some girls in it and shot for five days, and we cut it in. I narrated it, because nobody could make heads or tails of it. Roger wouldn't let me add any sound. It was just a little cheap thing we did, and people think I directed it when I really only directed 10 minutes of it.”
Bogdanovich hired Mamie Van Doren and several other blondes to play Venusians "because I thought everyone should be blonde on Venus. I dressed them up in rubber suits, bottoms only and put shells over their breasts. I had them traipsing around Leo Carrillo Beach for a while shooting inserts that might relate to Venus." Bogdanovich says he gave the female characters "South Sea movie names" because "it seemed right."
Neither of the VOYAGE films had a theatrical release, and both were sold to American International Television. The films sat on the shelf for several years before they both made their television debuts on local stations beginning in October 1968, their similar titles causing no end of confusion among viewers.
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Posted: |
Jul 1, 2024 - 12:09 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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In 1963, while on vacation in Europe, Roger Corman made a $20,000 deal to distribute an as-yet unproduced Yugoslavian espionage thriller titled “Operation: Titian.” Corman also insisted on involvement in the production to ensure it could be adequately "Americanized," and provided two well-known English-speaking cast members, William Campbell and Patrick Magee for lead roles. Unfortunately, the completed film was deemed unreleasable by Corman, and sat on the shelf.
In 1964, Corman asked director Jack Hill to salvage the film. Hill wrote numerous new principal scenes, and filmed them in Venice, California, in order to match the original movie's European look, and turned the former spy thriller into a horror movie about a crazed madman who kills his models and makes sculptures out of their dead bodies. Campbell was available for the reshoots but insisted on a sizeable paycheck to appear in the film, reportedly angering Corman, who nonetheless agreed to the actor's demands. However, the resulting film, now titled BLOOD BATH, was not released, as Corman once again was unhappy with the results.
In 1966, Corman made another attempt to create a workable film from the footage already shot. He hired another director, Stephanie Rothman, to change the story as she saw fit. While retaining much of Hill's material, she changed the plot from a story about a deranged, murderous artist to a story about a deranged, murderous artist who is also a vampire. Because Campbell refused to participate in yet another reshoot, Rothman was forced to use a completely different actor (unidentified) for the new vampire scenes. This meant Rothman now had to provide the Campbell character with the ability to magically transform his physical shape whenever he turned into a vampire, to explain why the vampire-killer looked nothing like Campbell.
Despite the inconsistencies in the finished product's plot and actors, created by Rothman's new ideas, it was this version of the film that most pleased Corman. It was subsequently released to theatres in 1966 by American International Pictures—retaining Hill's BLOOD BATH title—as a second feature with QUEEN OF BLOOD. Both Hill and Rothman were credited as co-directors.
Other versions of the film also exist. A redubbed, slightly re-edited version of “Operation: Titian” would eventually be released directly to television under the title “Portrait in Terror.” Because Rothman's BLOOD BATH ran 62 minutes, which was deemed too short for television showings, further footage was filmed, including a six-minute sequence showing actress Linda Saunders dancing non-stop on a beach. This version of the film was titled “Track of the Vampire” and released to television. Jack Hill’s cut of the film seems to be the only one that hasn’t survived intact, having been subsumed in the Hill-Rothman version.
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Posted: |
Jul 2, 2024 - 12:50 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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A news item in the 8 June 1966 issue of Variety reported that American International Pictures (AIP) was abandoning its series of youth-oriented fare, which began with BEACH PARTY (1963), in favor of “protest” films. The first of these, THE WILD ANGELS, focused on “Heavenly Blues” (Peter Fonda), the leader of the Hell's Angels, a group of California motorcyclists intent on living lives free of all social responsibility. Trouble begins when the motorcycle of one member, “Loser” (Bruce Dern), is stolen by another gang. Loser then is fired from his construction job because of the Nazi emblems he wears. His group retaliates by raiding a rival Mexican club, inciting a rumble, and stealing one of the rivals' motorcycles.
George Chakiris was originally hired by producer-director Roger Corman to play "Black Jack" (later changed to "Heavenly Blues" by Peter Fonda), but he insisted that a stunt double do his motorcycle riding. So Corman replaced him with Fonda, who was willing to do his own riding. (Fonda was originally cast as "Loser".)
Roger Corman became interested in making a film about the Hells Angels after seeing a photo of a biker funeral in the January 1966 issue of Life magazine. Corman approached AIP, and Charles B. Griffith was hired to write a screenplay. Griffith's first draft was a near-silent movie which contrasted the bikers with the story of a police motorcycle cop. Corman did not like it and had Griffith rewrite it. Corman still was not happy, gave it to Peter Bogdanovich, and paid him $300 to rework the script. Bogdanovich later estimated he rewrote 80% of the script. He later directed second unit and did various other odd jobs. Corman claims the entire script was based on stories the Hells Angels recounted to them, "even though I think they embellished some of their stories."
Roger Corman, Bruce Dern, and Peter Fonda on the set of THE WILD ANGELS
To research the movie, Corman sponsored parties for the Hells Angels and attended the parties along with Griffith to take notes. According to Corman: “We went through a whole series of Hells Angels parties. We would buy them marijuana and beer — their essentials. They didn’t take any drugs other than marijuana then, and they didn’t seem to drink whiskey. Beer and marijuana was their trip. And they would tell us these stories of sexual action, fights, raids with other gangs.”
Roger Corman actually used several members of the real Hell's Angels as extras. They were paid $35 a day for their cooperation, and $20 a day for use of their motorcycles.
Several edits were made to Corman’s cut of the film after it was released in the U.S., particularly in the “orgy” scene, to avoid condemnation by the National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures, which declared the film “morally objectionable in part for all.” Corman disapproved, saying the cuts rendered his film “less meaningful.” The picture was already in limited release in several U.S. cities, and was beginning its second New York City engagement, with no advance advertising or press reviews.
The unabridged version of THE WILD ANGELS was chosen to open the 1966 Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy. The American representative to the festival did not attend the screening “as an expression of U.S. government disapproval of the film.” Audience reaction was lukewarm, while critics were offended by the picture’s “pointless brutality.”
The film met with an enthusiastic public response in the U.S., and the $360,000 production ended up grossing $15.5 million. Even so, controversy over the picture continued. Twenty-two members of the Hells Angels sued Corman and AIP for depicting the club “in a false and derogatory manner,” making it unsafe for them to wear their uniforms in public. One month later, Corman and James H. Nicholson said that neither had yet received a court summons. Meanwhile, Corman announced plans to meet with British and Danish censors to explain the presence of swastikas and other Nazi symbolism in the picture. Both countries suffered under German aggression during World War II. Despite Corman’s efforts, Denmark’s minister of justice banned THE WILD ANGELS. It was only the fifth picture to be banned by that office. However, censorship boards in Austria, France, Israel, and Greece were relenting in their resistance to admitting the film. A U.S. Senate committee investigating juvenile delinquency subpoenaed Corman to discuss the causes of crime among the nation’s youth. The filmmaker claimed he was “delighted” by the opportunity.
Tower Records released a soundtrack LP, which featured music by Davie Allan and the Arrows. A “Vol. II” LP was released in 1967. The original LP was re-issued on CD by Curb Records in 1996.
According to the 2 August 1967 Daily Variety, AIP planned to capitalize on the success of THE WILD ANGELS soundtrack albums by creating a band of the same name. While selection of band members was still underway, AIP had already arranged a recording contract with Tower Records, a management contract with broadcast personality Casey Kasem, and public appearances through Associated Booking Corporation. There were also plans for a sequel to the 1966 film, and a television series, both starring the band. Although the project was ultimately aborted, a rockabilly band called “The Wild Angels” was formed in England that same year, and continued to perform into the early twenty-first century.
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Posted: |
Jul 2, 2024 - 11:27 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Roger Corman tried to cash in on the success of THE WILD ANGELS by executive producing DEVIL’S ANGELS the following year. The film was directed by Corman’s long-time art director Daniel Haller.
In the film, when “Marianne” (Mimsy Farmer), the town slut, starts fooling around with gang member “Roy “(Kip Whitman), she winds up at beach party where, a few tokes later, she gets a little manhandled. Understandably afraid and upset, she heads out of there and makes a report to the police. Since she looks roughed up and possibly raped, they believe her story and throw the leader of The Skulls motorcycle gang, “Cody” (John Cassavetes), in the clink. When he gets out shortly after, The Skulls bring in scores more of their biker pals intent on trashing the town and taking it for all its worth, despite the fact that Cody wants them to just move on.
Cassavetes only accepted the lead in this film because he needed the money to fund post-production on his own film FACES (1968). Mike Curb’s score was released on a Tower Records LP, but it has not been re-issued on CD. The 1967 film’s grosses didn’t approach those of THE WILD ANGELS, but still returned a healthy $4.4 million.
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In 1964, Roger Corman signed a long-term deal with Columbia Pictures. Over the next year, he found they were unreceptive to his ideas, and, likewise, he was not interested in the material they had to offer him. He eventually agreed to make the western A TIME FOR KILLING on the condition that he was “allowed to do what he wanted with the script.” He was assigned to direct and co-produce the film through his La Honda Service Productions.
The production would cost more than $500,000, making it a higher-than-usual budget for Corman. Although principal photography was initially scheduled to begin in spring 1965, production was delayed. Filming began on 7 June 1966, in or around Kanab, UT. By 24 June, Corman had been replaced by director Phil Karlson. Monte Hellman was replaced as editor several weeks later. Although no reason was given at the time of Corman’s departure, a 29 June 1966 Daily Variety item later cited “artistic differences.”
Corman immediately began work on THE ST. VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRE for Twentieth Century Fox. Corman later said that Fox had invited him in to pitch ideas, and he had told them about the St. Valentine's Day Massacre and a biopic about the Red Baron, but since Fox had just made THE BLUE MAX, it opted for the gangster film.
In the film, George Segal plays Peter Gusenberg, a member of Chicago’s North Side Gang, led first by Hymie Weiss (Reed Hadley) and then by Bugs Moran (Ralph Meeker). The North Side Gang becomes engaged in a war with the gang led by Al Capone. Although Corman reportedly expressed interest in casting Marlon Brando as the legendary Capone, the role went to Jason Robards.
Principal photography began 24 October 1966. Filming took place on Stage 8 of the Fox studio lot in Los Angeles, since Chicago proved unsuitable for the period setting due to the presence of modern street fixtures. Machine gun effects were achieved using circuit-laced striker boards. It was estimated that “dummy” ammunition costs exceeded $9,000 for 10,000 bullets (priced at fifty cents apiece) and 20,000 explosive squibs (twenty cents apiece) to simulate wounds on the actors. According to Fox, more squibs were used in this film than in their three-hour war epic THE LONGEST DAY.
Corman described the picture as "the most accurate, authentic gangster film ever." The shoot took just over seven weeks, though this marked the longest duration for any of Corman's films. "By the end of the movie I was very weary," he said. Corman later wrote that "... physically, it is one of the best films I ever directed because I was able to walk around the lot and pick those fantastic sets."
The 1967 gangland drama was Corman’s first major studio picture and his biggest-budgeted film to date. The $2.5 million production grossed $4.2 million at the U.S. box office. Corman later claimed that the film cost $1 million and that the rest was studio overhead. The film's score, by Fred Steiner and Lionel Newman, was released by Intrada in 2009.
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Posted: |
Jul 4, 2024 - 10:34 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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In order to prepare for the filming of THE TRIP, Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Jack Nicholson all engaged in a group LSD trip. Director Roger Corman also took LSD before starting the film, figuring he couldn't make a film about LSD without trying it himself. He had a good experience, and had to ask others what a "bad trip" was like in order to incorporate it into the film.
Corman was hoping to re-team Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra, who had co-starred in his recent box-office success THE WILD ANGELS, in the film. But Susan Strasberg was eventually hired as the female lead.
Peter Fonda stars in the film as TV commercial director “Paul Groves.” While filming on location at a California beach, Groves is chided by his estranged wife, “Sally” (Strasberg), for failing to appear to sign their separation papers. Cracking under the pressures of his personal and professional life, Paul asks his friend “John” (Bruce Dern), a guru, to guide him through his first LSD trip.
The film’s budget was cited as $1.5 million in the 31 August 1966 Variety. However, Peter Fonda stated in Esquire that, although he was not supposed to reveal it, the production cost only $450,000. With Corman’s blessing, Fonda and co-star Dennis Hopper used their own funds to shoot additional acid trip sequences in the desert, a collaboration which marked the precursor to EASY RIDER, Hopper’s directorial debut in which he and Fonda co-starred along with Jack Nicholson, who had written the final screenplay for THE TRIP.
On using Nicholson as a screenwriter Corman said, "I hired him because I knew he was a very good writer. He had written several scripts before. His career wasn’t really doing that much at that time. I knew he had experience with LSD, so I hired him as a writer.”
Salli Sachse, who played “Glenn,” a seductive blonde who gets involved with Paul, recalled working on the film: “Roger was a very linear director–everything went from A to B to C. He was very serious. You didn't goof off or kick back while working with him. You had to be very on-task. It was a stricter atmosphere than I was used to. Roger felt that there had to be a distinction between Susan Strasberg's character and mine, so he wanted me to appear as a blonde... THE TRIP didn't deserve all the bad press it received. There was no drug use going on during filming–it was strictly professional. Maybe after hours, but I couldn't talk for anybody else.”
Also in the Esquire article, Fonda asserted that Corman had abandoned THE TRIP before editing and scoring were completed, in order to produce a racing picture overseas (THE WILD RACERS, 1968), leaving Fonda to spend an additional $7,500 of his own money to have the score produced. Corman got wind of Fonda’s claims before the article was published and wrote to its author, Rex Reed, to clarify that Hopper and Fonda’s additional footage took up only one minute of the final film. He also disputed the sum Fonda said he had paid to musicians, and the actor’s assertion that he had found the musicians in the first place. Reed approached others who had worked on the picture and determined that Fonda’s version of events was generally agreed upon, but he compromised by inserting Corman’s reactions parenthetically within the Esquire article.
The film's score was written and played by "The Electric Flag, An American Music Band," which was fronted by Mike Bloomfeld. Sidewalk Records released a 41-minute LP of the score. But when Curb Records released it on CD in 1996, the album was inexplicably cut down to 26 minutes. A 2013 re-issue of the CD restored the 6 missing tracks. THE TRIP was a hit at the box office, finishing in the top 25 films of the year with a gross of $13.8 million.
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TARGET: HARRY (aka HOW TO MAKE IT) is one of Roger Corman’s lesser-known films. Produced by his brother Gene, the film finds charter airline pilot “Harry Black” (Vic Morrow) flying Englishman “Jason Carlyle” (Stanley Holloway) to Istanbul. After Carlyle is murdered and his briefcase stolen, Harry learns that the valise contains engraving plates stolen from the British Treasury. As two rival gangs of would-be counterfeiters fight for the plates, Harry becomes attracted to the seemingly innocent “Diane Reed” (Suzanne Pleshette).
Corman shot the film in Morocco and Istanbul. Under the title of “What’s In It for Harry?,” the picture was originally conceived as a pilot for a TV series for ABC, but due to various unexpected developments, it evolved into a feature film. On some prints of the film, Corman is credited as “Henry Neill.”
Gene Corman reportedly added some nude scenes to help sell the movie to theaters under the title of HOW TO MAKE IT. When the film was first released to theaters in 1969, the film was unrated, and local advertisements for the picture variously carried self-imposed ratings of [M], [R], and [X]. When it was finally submitted to the MPAA in 1970, it received a rating of [GP], but it’s not known if the nudity was included in the submitted cut.
Les Baxter’s score has not had a release. The film was a mediocre performer at the U.S. box office, with a gross of $1.8 million.
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In DE SADE, the Marquis de Sade (Keir Dullea) escapes from an insane asylum where he has been confined for committing unnatural sex acts and for his opposition to the French royalty. The Marquis takes refuge in the ruined mansion where he was reared, and there he meets his uncle, the Abbé de Sade (John Huston), who forces the Marquis to remember his past life.
Roger Corman worked on the script for DE SADE with Richard Matheson and was planning to direct, but he was worried about being unable to show the fantasies, and disappointing the audience if they did not. He walked away, and AIP hired Cy Endfield instead. Endfield changed the structure of Matheson's script, making it chronological and turning sequences that were fantasies in the script into actual events.
Endfield came down with flu during filming and had to go to the hospital. Corman was called in to replace him for the rest of the shoot. John Huston expressed dismay that he had not been asked to direct the film. Corman was not credited in the film, and later claimed that AIP did not pay him what he felt he was owed for his work on the picture, contributing to him leaving the company.
Billy Strange’s score was released on a Tower Records LP, but has not been re-issued on CD. The film grossed just $1.25 million in the U.S., and Samuel Z. Arkoff of AIP said that it lost money because of large advertising costs to promote the X-rated film to mainstream audiences.
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In NAKED ANGELS, “Mother” (Michael Greene), president of the L.A. Angels motorcycle club, is released after being cooped up in a hospital after a rival gang member beat him up. Mother gets off to a fresh start by stealing a bike, reclaiming his old lady “Marlene” (Jennifer Gan), and taking back his colors and leader position from Angels VP and buddy, “Fingers” (Richard Rust), who was also clinging on to his girl while he was away. Mother is out to find the member of the Vegas Hotdoggers who is responsible for his lengthy hospital stay, and he’s bent on sweet revenge.
Roger Corman financed and was the executive producer of this film, which was directed by Bruce Clark. The cast was primarily made up of UCLA film students, who were advised by a former member of the Hells Angels, contributing to the gritty feeling of the film. It was written over three weekends and shot in three weeks.
Jeff Simmons’ rock score was released on a Straight Records LP. It was re-issued on CD by Fallout Records in 2007. Simmons was a member of the L.A. freak band Easy Chair in the late sixties. His work on this film came soon after the band broke up, and the band's drummer performed on the soundtrack.
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Posted: |
Jul 8, 2024 - 12:16 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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THE DUNWICH HORROR stars Dean Stockwell as “Wilbur Whateley,” the sinister town creep who stems from a family of accused devil-worshipers. He visits Miskatonic University in the hopes of acquiring an ancient occult book, The Necronomicon, but lecturer “Dr. Henry Armitage” (Ed Begley) informs him that the book is not to leave the campus library. Wilbur attracts the attention of one of Armitage's students, “Nancy” (Sandra Dee), and she gives him a ride back to his family farmhouse in the town of Dunwich. By sabotaging her car engine and drugging her tea, Wilbur secures the naive girl for a weekend stay, and has big plans in store for her. After stealing The Necronomicon, Wilbur intends to make Nancy the pawn in a blasphemous mating ritual atop Sentinel Hill.
Sandra Dee was cast in the lead role of Nancy in April 1969, and paid $65,000 plus 5% of the profits. The role was Dee's first major part after the lapse of her years-long contract with Universal Pictures, and she saw it as a notable change of pace in her career. Dissatisfied with her previous work (Dee referred to her past 25 films with Universal as "all rotten"), she stated, "The reason I decided to do DUNWICH was because I couldn't put the script down once I started reading it. I had read so many that I had to plow through, just because I promised someone. Even if this movie turns out be a complete disaster, I guarantee it will change my image." However, Dee refused to be nude in the film's final sequence, as was written in the screenplay.
Daniel Haller directed the American International release, which was executive produced by Roger Corman. Les Baxter’s score was released on an American International Records LP, the label’s first soundtrack release. It was expanded on a 2009 CD by La-La Land. The film grossed $3.2 million at the U.S. box office.
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Posted: |
Jul 9, 2024 - 10:46 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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BLOODY MAMA was about machine gun totin' Ma Barker (Shelley Winters), who led her family gang (her sons) on a crime spree during the Depression era. Her loyal brood have every perversion imaginable. The sadistic Herman (Don Stroud) sleeps with his Ma. When Fred Barker (Robert Walden) is released from prison, he brings home his cell mate/lover Kevin Dirkman (Bruce Dern), who also sleeps with Ma, much to Fred's chagrin. Lloyd Barker (Robert De Niro) is a spaced-out drug addict who sniffs glue if nothing better is around. Ma kidnaps happy-go-lucky millionaire Sam Adams Pendlebury (Pat Hingle) and holds him for ransom. Clint Kimbrough plays Arthur Barker, Ma's wallflower son, and Diane Varsi plays Herman's hooker lady friend Mona Gibson.
Producer-director Roger Corman shot the film on location in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, although American International Pictures originally wanted Corman to shoot the film on the MGM studio backlot.
On 14 May 1970, BLOODY MAMA was screened at the British Film Institute, as part of a Corman retrospective. One month later, British censors banned the film. It met the same fate in France, until later that year, when the ban was lifted.
Don Randi’s score for the film was released on an American International Records LP. It has not been re-issued on CD. BLOODY MAMA was AIP’s highest grossing film of 1970, taking in $3.4 million at the U.S. box office.
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