Roger Corman’s ‘First 70 Years in Hollywood’

When people asked why my wife and I were going to Las Vegas, for some reason, people seemed surprised when we told them we were going to the Third Annual Drive-In Jamboree, hosted by Joe Bob Briggs. Their surprise surprised me. Why else would someone want to go to Las Vegas?

This year featured one of the great legends of drive-in filmmaking, Roger Corman. You might not recognize the name, but you would likely recognize the names of people Corman worked with, very often giving stars, writers, and directors their first break in Hollywood.

Before Francis Ford Coppola introduced us to the Corleone Family, he got his start when Roger Corman asked him to Americanize the 1959 Soviet science fiction film, Nebo Zovyot, into something fit for the drive-in screen, Battle Beyond the Sun. Corman let the kid direct a film of his own, about an ax murder, titled Dementia 13. This was the ticket to get FFC into studio work with a decent paycheck. (The two worked together again when Coppola cast Corman as “Senator #2” in The Godfather 2.)

Jack Nicholson got a big role from Corman in The Cry Baby Killer (1958), but more people remember him in the bit part of the masochistic dental patient in the Corman directed Little Shop of Horrors.

Before Martin Scorsese won an Oscar and complained about Marvel films, he made Boxcar Bertha for Corman. James Cameron first filmed aliens for Corman with Battle Beyond the Stars. Sure, Ron Howard had acted in films, but Corman let him direct with Grand Theft Auto. Corman gave his directors shoestring budgets, but always assured them they would get better budgets and salaries…when they worked for someone else.

Joe Bob Briggs (a.k.a. John Bloom), the world’s foremost drive-in critic, interviewed the 97-year-old about his “first 70 years in Hollywood.” They discussed Corman’s career as a writer, director, and producer. Corman was proud of his record of never losing money on a film. For a long time, there was an exception to that record. In 1962, Corman cast William Shatner as a racist fighting integration in the South, in The Intruder, which didn’t do well at the box office. But Corman noted it did come into the black with a DVD release in 2003.

Sure, he directed some real schlock, such as The Wasp Woman and Teen Age Caveman. But he also made some very good films, such as his Edgar Allen Poe series; The House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Premature Burial, and more. The night Corman was honored, October 7, there was a drive-in screening of Bucket of Blood, a horror film, sure, but also a funny satire of the world of beatniks and the pretentiousness of the art world.

As a producer, Corman also brought to the United States work of foreign masters such as Fellini and Kurosawa. He even brought Ingmar Bergman’s Cries and Whispers to drive-ins in the U.S. He was proud of the fact the film did “average” business.

Corman was accompanied by his wife of 53 years, Julie Corman, also a movie producer (of such classics as Night Call Nurses and Dinoshark.) Corman was surprised by a special guest, Bruce Dern. The two worked together on The Wild Angels and The Trip. The Wild Angels was made with the help of the Hell's Angels, but the gang wasn’t fully pleased with the product, so Corman’s life was threatened. The Trip was a film about LSD use, and in preparation, Corman and the cast took their own LSD trips. The ’60s were a different time.

But Corman said he isn’t done. He’s working on a new version of Little Shop of Horrors even now.

Corman is certainly a political lefty. But he made his fortune with hard work, thrift, and integrity. An American Dream if there ever was one.