Tag Archives: Roger Corman

The TSL Grindhouse: The Wild Angels (dir by Roger Corman)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

“What is it exactly that you want?” a preacher (Frank Maxwell) asks a congregation of leather-clad bikers.

“We want to get loaded!” Heavenly Blues (Peter Fonda) replies, “And we want to have a good time!”

And have a good time, they proceed to have.  Of course, it’s a good time for them.  Everyone else who meets the bikers at the center of 1966’s The Wild Angels are horrified by this collection of rebellious and violent outsiders.  Sure, Heavenly Blues might actually be a soulful guy who mistakenly believes that he can control the gang’s more excessive tendencies.  His girlfriend, Mike (Nancy Sinatra), actually seems rather reserved and conservative when compared to the rest of the gang.  But make no mistake about it, the majority of the members of the gang are into violence for its own sake.  They are bullies who couldn’t make the football team so, instead, they hopped on a motorcycle and formed their own society.  They’re self-styled rebels  but what are they rebelling against?  What have you got?

I know, I know.  That famous line comes from Marlon Brando and it was uttered in The Wild One.  Peter Fonda, to put it lightly, was no Marlon Brando and, as directed by Roger Corman, The Wild Angels doesn’t have the societal concerns that lay at the hear of The Wild One.  As Corman was often the first to admit, his main concern when it came to making movies was to make money.  Corman wasn’t necessarily against message films.  He often stated that, as a director, 1962’s The Intruder was the film in which he took the most pride.  The Intruder took a firm stand against racism and it let everyone know where Corman stood on when it came to the Civil Rights Movement.  It was also one of his few films to lose money.  The Wild Angels celebrates rebellion but one gets the feeling that celebration is motivated by the fact that younger filmgoers would be happy to pay to see a movie about a bunch of “youngish” people telling the old folks to shut up and get out of the way.  The Wild Angels themselves don’t seem to be motivated by any sort of grand ideology.  Heavenly Blues preaches about getting loaded and having a good time and celebrating freedom but he also allows the members of the gang to drape a Nazi flag over a casket.  What does Heavenly Blues actually believe in?

Heavenly Blues believes in loyalty to his friends.  For all the fights and the orgies and the scenes of motorcycles roaring down country roads, this is ultimately just a film about a guy who wants to give his best friend a decent burial.  The Loser (Bruce Dern) dies about halfway through the film and one gets the feeling that he probably would have lived if the gang hadn’t kidnapped him from the hospital.  Heavenly Blues wants to give The Loser the type of wild funeral that Blues thinks he would have wanted though I think The Loser probably would have been happier not have been killed by the actions of his idiot friends.  Diane Ladd, who was married to Bruce Dern at the time and who has said Laura Dern was conceived during the filming of The Wild Angels, is heart-breaking as The Loser’s girlfriend, Gaysh.  Gaysh wants to mourn her boyfriend while the rest of the gang is more concerned with figuring out who her next boyfriend is going to be.

Does Heavenly Blues ever realize that he’s traveling with a bunch of animals?  He does but one gets the feeling that he’s accepted his fate.  There’s no going back.  The past can’t change and the future cannot be controlled so Heavenly Blues is content to live in the present.  All he can do is try to give his friend a decent burial while the sirens of cops shriek in the distance.

The Wild Angels was a controversial film when it was first released.  It also made a lot of money and led to a whole cycle of outlaw biker films, culminating with Easy Rider.  Seen today, it’s a portrait of a society coming apart, with the establishment and the bikers not even willing to stop fighting long enough to allow for a simple burial.  It’s definitely a time capsule film, one of those productions that epitomizes an era.  There’s not much going on underneath the surface and most of the film’s bikers really are awful people but there is something touching about Blues giving it all up just to try to give his friend a decent burial.

6 Trailers For Roger Corman’s Birthday

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today, on what would have been his birthday, we pay tribute to the legacy of the legendary Roger Corman with a special edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Film Trailers.

1. The Day The World Ended (1955)

Though Corman worked in almost every type of film genre imaginable, he’s probably best remembered for his science fiction and horror films.  This was one of the first of them.

2. Bucket of Blood (1959)

In Bucket of Blood, Roger Corman gave Dick Miller a starring role and also mixed comedy and horror in a way that influence many future horror directors.

3. Little Shop of Horrors (1960)

Roger Corman famously shot Little Shop of Horrors in just two days.  The end result was a mix of comedy and horror that continues to be influential to this day.  The musical is very good but I still prefer the cheerful low-budget aesthetic of the Corman original.

4. The Terror (1963)

Corman was famous for his ability to spot new talent.  His 1963 film The Terror starred a then unknown actor named Jack Nicholson.

5. The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

In the 60s, Corman was also well-known for his Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, the majority of which starred Vincent Price.  With these colorful and flamboyant films, Corman showed himself to be a pop artist at heart.

6. Frankenstein Unbound (1990)

In the 1970s, Corman retired from directing and instead focused on producing and distributing movies.  In 1990, he briefly came out of retirement and gave us his final directorial effort, Frankenstein Unbound.

Scenes That I Love: Peter Fonda Wants To Have A Good Time In The Wild Angels

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In this scene, from Roger Corman’s 1968 film The Wild Angels, Peter Fonda sets forth a manifesto for living.  It’s not exactly a manifesto for living for a long time but it certainly seemed to work for him.

 

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Roger Corman Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films is just what it says it is, 4 (or more) shots from 4 (or more) of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films lets the visuals do the talking.

Today would have been the 99th birthday of the legendary filmmaker, Roger Corman!  And that means that it’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 Roger Corman Films

Not of this Earth (1957, dir by Roger Corman DP: John J. Mescall)

The Fall of the House of Usher (1960, dir by Roger Corman, DP: Floyd Crosby)

The Masque of the Red Death (1964, dir by Roger Corman, DP: Nicolas Roeg)

The Wild Angels (1966, dir by Roger Corman, DP: Richard Moore)

Film Review: Swing Shift (dir by Jonathan Demme)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

1984’s Swing Shift begins in 1941.  Kay (Goldie Hawn) and Jack Walsh (Ed Harris) are a young married couple in California.  At first glance, they seem to have the perfect life.  Jack works all day and comes home and has a beer and tells his wife how much he loves her.  Kay spends her day cleaning up around the house and when her husband comes home, she sits down next to him and tells him how much she loves him.  Whenever their neighbor, Hazel (Christine Lahti), walks by their bungalow, Jack mutters that she’s a tramp.  Hazel sings in a sleazy nightclub and dates a shady fellow named Biscuit (Fred Ward) and that’s just not what respectable people do!

When the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, Jack enlists in the Navy.  Kay suggests that she could get a job while he’s gone but Jack is firm.  He doesn’t want his wife working.  However, after Jack leaves, Kay is motivated by both boredom and her patriotic duty to apply for a job in an armaments factory.  With all of the men overseas fighting, their wives have been implored to do their part for the war effort.

Kay works the swing shift, along with Hazel and a trumpet player named Lucky (Kurt Russell).  (Lucky sweetly declines to explain why he’s called Lucky.)  Despite some early antagonism, Hazel and Kay becomes friends.  Kay starts to come out of her shell, especially where Lucky is concerned.  How will Jack react when he returns home?

The late director Jonathan Demme described directing Swing Shift as being one of the worst experiences of his career.  Demme’s original cut of the film was an ensemble piece that was a drama with comedic moments.  Star Goldie Hawn was reportedly not happy with Demme’s original cut and the film was essentially taken away from the director.  Screenwriter Robert Towne was brought in to write some additional scenes.  (Even before Towne was brought in, at least four writers had written a draft of the script and the screenplay itself was finally credited to a non-existent “Rob Morton.”)  Some scenes were reshot.  The film itself was reedited.  The end result was a film that focused primarily on Kay and made her relationships with Hazel, Jack, and Lucky far less complex.  Jonathan Demme walked away from the film, retaining his directorial credit but pointedly requesting that the film not be advertised as a “Jonathan Demme film.”  Later in life, Demme declined to discuss either Swing Shift or the experience of working with Goldie Hawn.

Watching the studio cut of Swing Shift on Prime, I could understand many of Demme’s objections.  It’s a film that’s full of good performances and some stylish visuals but it really doesn’t have much narrative momentum and, especially when it comes to Kay’s friendship with Hazel, it does feel like certain scenes are missing.  Hazel is remarkably quick to forgive someone who she believes has spent years calling her a tramp.  As well, there’s a lot of interesting characters in the background, many of whom are played by regular members of the Jonathan Demme stock company.  (Charles Napier, Susan Peretz, Holly Hunter, Roger Corman, Lisa Peilkan, Sudie Bond, and Stephen Tobolowsky all have small roles.)  Watching the film, one gets the feeling that they all probably had more to do in Demme’s original cut.

That said, I have to admit that I still enjoyed the studio cut of Swing Shift, flaws and all.  A lot of that is due to the performances of Hawn and Russell.  (Christine Lahti received a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her performance in this film.  She’s okay, though I don’t really think she deserved a nomination over someone like Elizabeth Berridge in Amadeus or Tuesday Weld in Once Upon A Time In America.)  Hawn does a wonderful job portraying Kay’s transformation from being a rather meek housewife to someone who can put a plane together without a moment’s hesitation.  Hawn and Russell began their legendary romance on the set of Swing Shift and their chemistry is strong enough to carry the film over plenty of rough spots.  At its best, Swing Shift inspired me to wonder what I would have done if I had been alive in the 1940s.  Would I have ended up cutting my hair and working in a factory?  Would I have waited at home from my ‘husband or sweetheart” (as the film refers to them) to come home?  Or would I have run off with Lucky and followed him from town to town?  Swing Shift is a good film that could have been great and, by many accounts, actually was great before it was recut.  (Even with the reediting, enough of Demme’s trademark humanity comes through to make the scenes in the factory memorable.)  In the end, Swing Shift isn’t perfect but I still enjoyed it.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Edgar Allan Poe Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

by Debbie Hughes

4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films is just what it says it is, 4 (or more) shots from 4 (or more) of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films lets the visuals do the talking.

216 years ago today, Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts.  From his humble beginnings as the son of two struggling actors, Poe would go on to become one of the first great American writers.  (It’s been said that, when Charles Dickens first traveled to the United States in 1842, he specifically wanted to meet Edgar Allan Poe.  Unfortunately, it appears that popular story my not be true but it’s still a good story.)  Poe was controversial in life and even his death generated more questions than answers but no one can deny his strength as a poet and as a prose writer.  Both the detective and the horror genres owe a huge debt to Edgar Allan Poe.

Today, in honor of Edgar Allan Poe’s legacy, TSL presents 4 shots from 4 films that were inspired by the work of Edgar Allan Poe!

4 Shots From 4 Films

The Fall of the House of Usher (1960, dir by Roger Corman, DP: Floyd Crosby)

The Raven (1963, dir by Roger Corman, DP: Floyd Crosby)

The Masque of the Red Death (1964, dir by Roger Corman, DP: Nicolas Roeg)

The Pit and the Pendulum (1990, dir by Stuart Gordon, DP: Adolfo Bartoli)

#MondayMuggers – Why DEATH RACE 2000?

Posted on by Bradley Crain

Every Monday night at 9:00 Central Time, my wife Sierra and I host a “Live Movie Tweet” event on X using the hashtag #MondayMuggers. We rotate movie picks each week, and our tastes are quite different. Tonight, Monday December 2nd, we’re watching DEATH RACE 2000 starring David Carradine, Sylvester Stallone, Simone Griffith, Mary Woronov, Roberta Collins, and Martin Kove.

So why did I pick DEATH RACE 2000, you might ask? It’s pretty simple. I think it will be a fun movie to watch with a group. Unlike most of my choices, which are movies I’ve seen many times, I’ve only seen DEATH RACE 2000 one time before and it’s been awhile. I’m looking forward to seeing it again myself. I like that it’s a B-movie from legendary producer Roger Corman. That’s usually a good thing. I like that it’s directed by Paul Bartel. Bartel’s EATING RAOUL was one of those movies that helped me appreciate black comedy when I was growing up. I really like the cast, especially David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone. And finally, I like that it’s 80 minutes long. In today’s world where every film feels the need to be between 2 and 3 hours, I’ve grown to really appreciate movies clocking in at 90 minutes or less! 

It’s on Amazon Prime and Tubi. Join us if you’d like!

STRIPPED TO KILL – 35 years later!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

If you were a teenage boy in the 80’s, and you spent time at video stores, there’s no doubt in my mind that you noticed the VHS box for STRIPPED TO KILL. I certainly did! The box art promised violence and sexy women, and I was all in. I’m guessing that I watched the film when I was around 15 or 16 years old, and I hadn’t seen it since then. A few weeks back, we were recording an episode of our THIS WEEK IN CHARLES BRONSON PODCAST when actress Kay Lenz came up in reference to her part in DEATH WISH 4: THE CRACKDOWN. One of my buddies also mentioned her part in STRIPPED TO KILL. With that seed planted, I decided to give it another viewing and find out what sort of difference an additional 35 years would make in the viewing experience. 

Not surprisingly, STRIPPED TO KILL opens with a beautiful young lady named Angel performing a striptease act to an extremely 80’s song called “Deny the Night.” I’ll give Larry Steicher his credit because he was singing the hell out of the song on the soundtrack. A little later, the stripper gets a phone call from someone she knows asking her to meet. When she shows up to meet this mystery person, they throw gasoline on her and burn her alive. Detective Cody Sheenan (Kay Lenz) and her partner Detective Heineman (Greg Evigan) are working undercover in the area and come across this assault and murder in the act, but the killer gets away. When the two cops find out that the victim was a stripper at the Rock Bottom Dance Club, they want the case. Through a series of events, including Cody winning an “Amateur Night” contest, she’s able to go undercover at the club where she gets to know the dancers. Detective Heineman hangs out as well in order to protect her, and I think, to get a look at her performances. Our two undercover cops immediately begin to learn the backgrounds of the ladies at the club, and they also investigate any suspicious characters they see hanging around. When another stripper is murdered, and with several suspects beginning to emerge, it’s a race against time to see if they can catch the killer before other strippers have to die! 

I will say right off the bat that STRIPPED TO KILL delivers on the box art. There are multiple strippers killed, and by my count, there are 12 different striptease performances of various quality and duration throughout the course of the 88 minute film. And the cast is downright impressive for a low-budget B-movie like this. Kay Lenz is a fine actress with an impressive resume of TV and films, including productions like Clint Eastwood’s BREEZY, WHITE LINE FEVER with Jan-Michael Vincent, THE GREAT SCOUT & CATHOUSE THURSDAY with Lee Marvin, and FAST-WALKING with James Woods. As referenced in an earlier paragraph, she co-starred with Charles Bronson in DEATH WISH 4: THE CRACKDOWN the same year that she filmed STRIPPED TO KILL. Two classics in the same year is something every actor should hope for, and she doesn’t hold back in her performance here! Greg Evigan was in a show I liked very much when I was a kid called B.J. AND THE BEAR. I also remember him in that show MY TWO DADS when I was a teenager as well. He’s not a great actor, but he’s fine here. And then there’s Norman Fell, Mr. Roper himself, as the manager of the strip club. I have a soft spot for Norman because he played Charles Bronson’s boss in the 1973 film THE STONE KILLER, a film that also features John Ritter in a small role. Norman probably needed the paycheck, but he’s definitely a welcome presence in the film. 

This is the directorial debut of actress Katt Shea. She co-wrote the script for STRIPPED TO KILL with her then husband Andy Ruben. She apparently got the idea for the film when she lost a bet with Andy and ended up actually going to a strip club. She was so impressed with some of the performances that she wanted to make a movie showing the ladies in that world. Katt Shea would later direct films like POISON IVY with Drew Barrymore and THE RAGE: CARRIE 2. And, of course, the biggest factor in getting the movie made, Katt Shea was able to convince the legendary Roger Corman to produce the film. STRIPPED TO KILL would turn into a financially successful film for Corman. It was particularly successful overseas and on the home video market. Nice investment, Mr. Corman!

Overall, STRIPPED TO KILL delivers exactly what it promises, and it does so in 1 hour and 28 minutes. That’s a pretty nice combination in my book. I think I felt the same way in 1989 as well!

Horror Film Review: The Tomb of Ligeia (dir by Roger Corman)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Did Roger Corman have an issue with cats?

That’s the question I asked myself as I watched 1964’s The Tomb of Ligeia.  Loosely based on a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, The Tomb of Ligeia tells the story of Verden Fell (Vincent Price).  Fell’s wife, Ligeia, has recently died but Fell worries that her spirit is still haunting and watching him.  One gets the feeling that Fell hated his late wife but, at the same time, was obsessed with her.  Fell has an eye condition which causes him to wear dark glasses on the rare occassions that he leaves his manor.  He’s definitely a creepy guy but that doesn’t stop Rowena (Elizabeth Shepherd) from falling in love with him and leaving her fiancé, Christopher Gough (John Westbrook), to marry him.  Unfortunately, Rowena is soon feeling the spirt of Ligeia as well, in the form of a black cat who keeps attacking Rowena.

Now, in all honesty, I doubt that Roger Corman specifically had an issue with cats.  It’s possible the Edgar Allan Poe had an issue with cats, as he lived at a time when cats were rarely kept as pets and were instead just used to catch and kill mice and rats.  (And, in fairness to the 19th century, that was a very important job in those days of bad hygiene and outhouses.)  There’s no cats to be found in Poe’s short story about Ligeia but there was one very prominently featured in The Black Cat.  As Ligeia was not exactly one of Poe’s most detailed stories, it’s probable that Corman and screenwriter Robert Towne just included the evil black cat because that story was one of Poe’s best-known.

That said, for me, it was difficult to watch an entire movie about people hating and attempting to destroy a cat.  It’s certainly not the cat’s fault that it’s been possessed by the spirit of Ligeia.  As I watched the film, it occurred to me that cats may not have been as popular in the 1960s as they are today.  I mean, there was no internet when this film was made and, as a result, people weren’t constantly being bombarded by cute cat pictures.  Instead, people probably just knew cats for their habit of hissing at people and scratching their owners.  Today, we find that behavior to be cute.  Perhaps back in 1964, people felt differently.

If I seem to be rambling on about the cat, that’s because there’s not really a lot to be said about The Tomb of Ligeia.  It was the last of Corman’s Poe films and neither Corman nor Price seem to be particularly invested in the material.  Price is actually rather miscast as Verden Fell.  Fell is meant to be a mysterious aristocrat, in the spirit of Maxim de Winter from Rebecca.  But Vincent Price is …. well, he’s Vincent Price.  Vincent Price was a wonderful actor and personality but he wasn’t particularly enigmatic.  From the first minute we see Price, we know that he’s being haunted by his dead wife because he’s Vincent Price and the same thing happened to him in several other films.

The Tomb of Ligeia is full of the ornate sets and beautiful costumes that were featured in all of Corman’s Poe films.  And even a miscast Vincent Price is still fun to watch.  But, when compared to the other films in the Poe Cycle, this one falls flat.

Horror Film Review: The Masque of the Red Death (dir by Roger Corman)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 1964’s The Masque of the Red Death, Vincent Price stars as Prospero.

Prospero is a nobleman in medieval Italy, a decadent tyrant who rules his villages with an iron hand and who proudly and openly worships Satan.  When an old woman in one of the villages dies of the plague, Prospero orders the village to be burned to the ground.  He returns to his castle where, with his mistress (Hazel Court), he plans to throw a masquerade for the local nobility.  His plan is for everyone to hide out in the castle until Death has passed.  The problem, of course, is keeping Death from sneaking into the castle and claiming everyone within.

Prospero also abducts three villagers, Ludovico (Nigel Green), his daughter Francesca (Jane Asher), and Francesca’s boyfriend, Gino (David Weston).  The three villagers find themselves in a decadent world, where Prospero and his attendants are motivated by their own greed and petty jealousies.  Keeping Death from entering the castle would probably be a lot easier if the people in the castle would stop trying to kill each other.  It’s an odd atmosphere within the castle.  Everyone fears Death and yet, everyone seems to be doing all that they can do invite it in with them.  Can anyone, even a worshipper of the Damned liked Prospero, truly escape Death?

The Masque of the Red Death is not only the best of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptations but it’s also the best film that Corman ever directed.  Working with cinematographer Nicolas Roeg (who was himself destined to have quite a career as a director of enigmatic films), Corman fills the screen with vivid colors and scenes of medieval decadence.  Price gives one of his best performances, playing Prospero as someone who is in love with his own amoral nature but whose arrogance quickly gives way to fear when he starts to suspect the Death has somehow managed to enter the castle.  The inhabitants of the castle are all memorably eccentric and, in many cases, evil.  A man in an ape costume is burned to death and hardly anyone seems to notice or care.  Prospero and his nobles think that they’re above death because of their wealth and their place in society but, of course, no one can escape Death.

David Weston and Jane Asher are both well-cast as the two lovers, though Asher is clearly more a product of the swinging sixties than medieval Italy.  Patrick Magee and Skip Martin are both memorable as members of Prospero’s court, with Skip Martin giving an especially diabolical performance as a murderous court jester.  In the end, though, this film truly belongs to Price, Corman, and Roeg.  Roeg’s cinematography is dazzling, with the use of red foreshadowing his later film, Don’t Look Now.  Corman’s direction puts the viewer right in the center of Prospero’s court.  And Vincent Price gives one of his best performances as the self-amused but unashamedly evil Prospero.  The Masque of the Red Death remains a classic of 60s pop art and the best of Corman’s many films.