With the death of Roger Corman, it's a sad day for baby boomers who spent much of their youth in drive-ins or grind houses making out during the low-budget "schlock" he produced at American International Pictures (AIP). My two favorites were Easy Rider, Jack Nicholson's breakout film ("the story of a man who went looking for America . . . and couldn't find it anywhere"), and Wild in the Streets which starred Christopher Jones as a hunk who became president during a youth quake by running on a platform that mandated retirement at thirty which, come to think of it, would have solved the problem facing the American electorate in 2024.
Corman's bloat-free movies, often starring monsters, may not be considered "art" (although a few have made it into the Criterion Collection), but the 98-year-old lifelong liberal gave so many of Hollywood's most lauded directors and actors their first chance at working in a highly commercial medium that AIP was probably the 20th century's most influential film school. Peter Bogdanovich captured the company's can-do spirit when he described the instructions Corman gave when he hired the future Oscar nominee and film historian to direct Targets:
“I want you to take 20 minutes of [Boris] Karloff footage from The Terror, [an earlier AIP production] then I want you to shoot 20 more minutes with Boris, and then I want you to shoot another 40 minutes with some other actors over 10 days. I can take the 20 and the 20 and the 40, and I’ve got a whole new 80-minute Karloff film!"
Film geeks and what's left of old Hollywood must be weeping with Corman's passing. If there's a memorial service, I hope Quentin Tarantino, the ultimate film geek, speaks.
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| Roger Corman with Vincent Price, star of his Edgar Allen Poe franchise |
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