Roger corman

Description:

A trio of terror courtesy pioneering low-budget filmmaker Roger Corman. LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, THE TERROR, and CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA. See individual titles for descriptions.

Description:

The director's many talents are put on display in this eclectic collection of films including BLOODY MAMA, THE YOUNG RACERS, THE WILD ANGELS, THE PREMATURE BURIAL, GAS-S-S, X: THE MAN WITH X-RAY EYES, A BUCKET OF BLOOD, and THE TRIP.

Description:

A Corman threesome! ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES: Roger Corman executive produced this flick about men in octapus-like "Leech" costumes terrorizing residents of a swamp. When irradiated leeches grow huge in a Southern bayou, a local storekeeper sees his chance to be rid of his trashy, two-timing wife--feed her to the leeches! WASP WOMAN: This fun, intelligent cheapie from King of the B's Roger Corman ranks as the first feminist horror film. Susan Cabot stars as aging cosmetics mogul Janice Starlin, who injects herself with an experimental wasp enzyme in order to restore her fading youth and save her company from going broke. Eccentric scientist Dr. Zinthrop (Michael Mark) first tries the serum on cats, but when they later sprout wings and stingers, he realizes the formula might not be market ready. Unfortunately, he winds up in a coma before he's able to warn Starlin of the ghastly side effects, and before long she's buzzing around the building at night, attacking and devouring her enemies. What's admirably feminist about the film is how Starlin is portrayed as intelligent, powerful, and sympathetic while her male underlings are condescending buffoons who first dismiss her serum as mere wishful vanity and later find themselves smitten by her newly restored beauty (and later bitten by her wasp alter ego). Barboura Morris plays Starlin's worried secretary, and Bruno Ve Sota is an unlucky night watchman. Cabot is splendid in the title role, reverse-aging beautifully. Carolyn Hughes and Lynn Cartwright add comic relief as a pair of gossipy receptionists. BUCKET OF BLOOD: Bumbling busboy Walter Paisley (Dick Miller) works at a beatnik coffeehouse populated by artists, poets, and dope addicts. He longs to belong and, inspired by the poetry around him, tries his hand at sculpting. When he accidentally kills a cat and covers it with clay, it becomes a celebrated work of art. Soon Walter has moved on to killing people and is the hit of the local art scene. Roger Corman regulars Barboura Morris and Anthony Carbone are the couple running the coffeehouse who are first exalted by Walter's success and then rather worried. Director Corman shot this little gem of black comedy in an amazing five days for $50,000. It's since become a true cult classic, practically inventing its own genre and perfectly satirizing the self-righteousness of the then-emerging beatnik movement, not to mention the whole world of contemporary art. Miller lends pathos as Walter, and the rest of the cast is just hilarious, particularly Julian Burton as the pretentious and portly poet whose recitation on the "artist" (accompanied by jazz sax solo) opens the film. Corman reused the same general tone and story for THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS the following year.

Description:

This program contains four classic films by director Roger Corman: A BUCKET OF BLOOD, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, THE TERROR, and THE WASP WOMAN. Please see individual titles for complete information.

Description:

The great Vincent Price stars in this quintessential adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe story. Hopeful Phillip (Mark Damon) rides up to the crumbling Usher estate to pick up his betrothed, Madeline (Myrna Fahey), and is coldly received by her brother, Roderick (Price). A most unwilling host, Roderick suffers from "morbid acuteness of the senses" and is convinced their family lineage--and the very house itself--is cursed by the evil deeds of their forebears. He is sworn to do everything in his power to keep his sister from leaving with Phillip--even burying her alive--to stop her from continuing their damned lineage. Roger "King of the Bs" Corman got permission from his producers to make this, his first film in color and with a recognizable star, for the same price as two of his usual black-and-white films. The result was a smash hit with critics and audiences, and Corman made seven more. This is still one of the best, with a comparatively restrained performance by Price, good set design and photography, and eerie music by the legendary Les Baxter.

Description:

Roger Corman is the king of the B movie, a legendary producer and director known for his hilariously fast and cheap horror flicks. This collection presents 10 of the master's most revered quick-and-dirty productions, including undeniable classics LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS and THE TERROR, both of which feature a young Jack Nicholson.

Description:

A collection of three Roger Corman camp classic "Creature Features." Includes CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA, BEAST FROM HAUNTED CAVE, and THE WASP WOMAN. See individual titles for complete details.

Description:

Bumbling busboy Walter Paisley (Dick Miller) works at a beatnik coffeehouse populated by artists, poets, and dope addicts. He longs to belong and, inspired by the poetry around him, tries his hand at sculpting. When he accidentally kills a cat and covers it with clay, it becomes a celebrated work of art. Soon Walter has moved on to killing people and is the hit of the local art scene. Roger Corman regulars Barboura Morris and Anthony Carbone are the couple running the coffeehouse who are first exalted by Walter's success and then rather worried. Director Corman shot this little gem of black comedy in an amazing five days for $50,000. It's since become a true cult classic, practically inventing its own genre and perfectly satirizing the self-righteousness of the then-emerging beatnik movement, not to mention the whole world of contemporary art. Miller lends pathos as Walter, and the rest of the cast is just hilarious, particularly Julian Burton as the pretentious and portly poet whose recitation on the "artist" (accompanied by jazz sax solo) opens the film. Corman reused the same general tone and story for THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS the following year.

Description:

A mobster hits on a plan while smuggling a deposed general and a fortune in gold out of Cuba on his yacht: He and his crew will scare the general and kill his guards by faking the attacks of a sea monster and thus keep the gold for themselves. Unfortunately, a sea monster actually is attacking them, leading to all sorts of complications. Eventually the yacht sinks, and the survivors find love on a tropical island--and death when they dive to recover the sunken loot. Roger Corman shot this fun quickie in Puerto Rico, where he also filmed THE LAST WOMAN ON EARTH with the same cast, which is deadpan perfect: Paul Carbone is the mobster, Renzo, "the most trustworthy man ever to be deported from Sicily." Future CHINATOWN-scribe Robert Towne (billed as Edward Wain) plays Agent XK150. Betsy Jones-Moreland is Renzo's leggy pistol-packing moll; she also sings the haunting theme song. Beach Dickerson plays one of Renzo's happy thugs, as well as the monster. The script by Charles Griffith taps the same vein of innovative wit that made his LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS and BUCKET OF BLOOD such satisfying cult hits.

Description:

These two tales by Edgar Allan Poe are considered horror cult classics. MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH stars Vincent Price as a satanic prince. PREMATURE BURIAL features Ray Milland in an eerie nightmare about a man obsessed with the fear of an untimely death.

Description:

Four classic horror films are collected on one disc: THE WASP WOMAN (1960), THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN (1956), THE APE (1940), and DEMENTIA 13 (1963). See individual titles for details.

Description:

King of the B's, director Roger Corman shot this crazy beat-era classic in a mere two days, but it packs plenty of inspired lunacy and clever bits in its 70-minute running time. Jonathan Haze stars as clumsy assistant florist Seymour, who saves his job in Mr. Mushnik's skid-row flower shop when he brings in a unique man-eating plant. The problem is, it's a very hungry plant; every night it opens its huge jaws and demands to be fed, forcing poor Seymour to take to the street in search of victims, lest he disappoint his boss and his adoring girlfriend, Audrey (Jackie Joseph). From a zingy script by Charles Griffith, this hilarious black comedy overflows with great ideas and characters: Corman regular Dick Miller plays a hipster who eats flowers, and a very young Jack Nicholson takes a memorable turn as a masochistic dental patient. DRAGNET-style detective Joe Fink (Wally Campo) narrates as he slowly begins to track the killer down. This oft-revived favorite still generates plenty of laughs and chills, deserving of repeat viewings. A musical version debuted off-Broadway in 1982 and led to a film starring Rick Moranis and Steve Martin.

Description:

A female cop goes undercover as an inmate in a southern prison only to join a prison break and recover a stash of diamonds.

Description:

This double feature offers two inspired pairings of shockmeister Roger Corman and the quintessentially sinister Vincent Price in moody adaptations of the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe. In THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, hopeful Phillip (Mark Damon) rides up to the crumbling Usher estate to pick up his betrothed, Madeline (Myrna Fahey), and is coldly received by her brother, Roderick (Price). A most unwilling host, Roderick suffers from "morbid acuteness of the senses" and is convinced their family lineage--and the very house itself--is cursed by the evil deeds of their forebears. He is sworn to do everything in his power to keep his sister from leaving with Phillip--even burying her alive--to stop her from continuing their damned lineage. "King of the Bs" Corman got permission from his producers to make this, his first film in color and with a recognizable star, for the same price as two of his usual black-and-white films. The result was a smash hit with critics and audiences, and Corman made seven more. This is still one of the best, with a comparatively restrained performance by Price, good set design and photography, and eerie music by the legendary Les Baxter. THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM (1961) takes place in 16th-century Spain with Francis Bonnard (John Kerr) visiting the gloomy castle of his late sister's husband, Nicholas (Price), in order to discern the reason for her death. It seems Nicholas is terrified that wife Elizabeth (Barbara Steele) is not really dead and that her spirit wanders the halls at night. It turns out Nicholas' father was a feared leader of the Spanish Inquisition, and as a child he saw him torture his mother and then bury her alive. He's now convinced Elizabeth has suffered a similar fate, even though his doctor (Antony Carbone) disagrees. Meanwhile, his father's torture chamber is still down in the basement, just waiting to get back into service. There are twisted twists and gristly surprises aplenty in this second of the Poe adaptations, which benefits from nice costumes, atmospheric cinematography, a mournfully eerie score by Baxter, the presence of European horror star Steele, and Price at his most floridly hammy.

Description:

A low-budget adventure about a young hot-rodder (Nicholson) who tries to break up a friends romance by kidnapping his straight-laced girlfriend, which turns out to be a dangerous venture with tragic results. Roger Corman's cut of THE WILD RIDE colorized with a new soundtrack and modern footage, features Jack Nicholson in one of his first starring roles.

Description:

This collection gives a career overview of notorious horror film icon Boris Karloff. Fifteen of Karloff's films are included.

Description:

This program is a triple feature of horror classics that revolve around stolen diamonds, radioactivity, and ghost stories. SWAMP WOMEN (1955), THE PHANTOM FROM 10,000 LEAGUES (1956), and CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA are the films included. See individual titles for descriptions.

Description:

Roger Corman was given the huge budget (for him) of one million dollars by 20th Century Fox to produce this documentary-esque depiction of the infamous 1929 shooting of seven Chicago mobsters. It's a fascinating reproduction of a time when bloodshed was plotted in business boardrooms and tommy guns were a daily fact of urban living. Jason Robards stars as mob boss Al Capone, with Raplh Meeker as his North Side rival Bugsy Moran. George Segal is Peter Gusenberg, one of Bugsy's henchmen targeted for takedown. To add a little sex and spice, there's a lengthy domestic-dispute scene between Gusenberg and his lovely negligee-clad moll (Jean Hale). The rest is strictly business and bullets though, with Robards chewing the scenery to nice little splinters and lots of Corman regulars appearing in bit parts, including Barboura Morris and Dick Miller. Bruce Dern appears a getaway driver. One has to keep a sharp watch to find Jack Nicholson, who floats through several scenes as one of Capone's assassins. It's a fast-moving, well-told saga, with excellent period reproduction thanks to sets refurbished from MY FAIR LADY and great deadpan narration by Paul Frees.

Description:

Bumbling busboy Walter Paisley (Dick Miller) works at a beatnik coffeehouse populated by artists, poets, and dope addicts. He longs to belong and, inspired by the poetry around him, tries his hand at sculpting. When he accidentally kills a cat and covers it with clay, it becomes a celebrated work of art. Soon Walter has moved on to killing people and is the hit of the local art scene. Roger Corman regulars Barboura Morris and Anthony Carbone are the couple running the coffeehouse who are first exalted by Walter's success and then rather worried. Director Corman shot this little gem of black comedy in an amazing five days for $50,000. It's since become a true cult classic, practically inventing its own genre and perfectly satirizing the self-righteousness of the then-emerging beatnik movement, not to mention the whole world of contemporary art. Miller lends pathos as Walter, and the rest of the cast is just hilarious, particularly Julian Burton as the pretentious and portly poet whose recitation on the "artist" (accompanied by jazz sax solo) opens the film. Corman reused the same general tone and story for THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS the following year.

Description:

King of the B's, director Roger Corman shot this crazy beat-era classic in a mere two days, but it packs plenty of inspired lunacy and clever bits in its 70-minute running time. Jonathan Haze stars as clumsy assistant florist Seymour, who saves his job in Mr. Mushnik's skid-row flower shop when he brings in a unique man-eating plant. The problem is, it's a very hungry plant; every night it opens its huge jaws and demands to be fed, forcing poor Seymour to take to the street in search of victims, lest he disappoint his boss and his adoring girlfriend, Audrey (Jackie Joseph). From a zingy script by Charles Griffith, this hilarious black comedy overflows with great ideas and characters: Corman regular Dick Miller plays a hipster who eats flowers, and a very young Jack Nicholson takes a memorable turn as a masochistic dental patient. DRAGNET-style detective Joe Fink (Wally Campo) narrates as he slowly begins to track the killer down. This oft-revived favorite still generates plenty of laughs and chills, deserving of repeat viewings. A musical version debuted off-Broadway in 1982 and led to a film starring Rick Moranis and Steve Martin.