RIP Roger Corman

Roger Corman

Roger Corman died May 9th at 98 and damn did the dude have a resume. He directed 55 films and produced over 350 more. I didn’t realize it until recently but he’s one of my favorite people in 20th century filmmaking.

Corman was the king of the B movie. They got monsters, vampires, hot girls and fast cars. Whenever you see a parody of a 50’s drive in monster movie, they’re parodying Roger Corman. He was that dude.

His directed movies are fun, some are even good (The Trip, The Raven, Gass-s-s-s, Deathsport) but, his real contribution comes from his his work with the production company American International Pictures. AIP is my makes kick ass movies. I like them so much I’m about to take a break to recommend some shit.

Night Tide (1962) Early Dennis Hopper

Black Sabbath (1964) Early Giallo by Mario Bava

Die Monster Die (1965) Boris Karloff

Nashville Rebel (1966) WAYLON JENNINGS stars

The Wild Angels (1966) Peter Fonda in a pre Easy Rider biker role

Riot of Sunset Strip (1967) Filmed at the actual riots

The Born Losers (1968) Billy Jack’s first appearance

Psych-Out (1968) Jack Nicholson plays a hippie one of my favorite movies

The Vampire Lovers (1970) Hot ladies vampires

Boxcar Bertha (1972) One of Scorsese’s first

Coffy (1973) Pam fuckin Grier

Rolling Thunder (1977) Viet Nam vet with a hook hand and a shotgun gets revenge. Another one of my favorite movies

Mad Max (1980)n You know mad max

Dressed To Kill (1980) Brian De Palma at his best and another favorite

I have more but alright…

Working with API and New World Pictures, Roger Corman launched the careers of Francis Ford Coppola (Night of the Blood Beast), Peter Bogdanovich (Targets) Martin Scorsese (Boxcar Bertha) Johnathan Demme (Caged Heat), Curtis Hanson (Sweet Kill), Ron Howard (Grand Theft Auto), and more. Think about that list for a second. Quentin Tarantino (in Cinema Speculation described API/NWP as being the minor leagues for film making. If you had a minor hit and exhibited technical ability someone like Fox, Universal or Warner would pick you up.

Roger Corman was the best AAA coach in Hollywood. I’m gonna watch Targets tonight.