“Now that we can create anything you can imagine with CG and technology, I think sometimes the special effects are emphasized over the story. It should still be about effects serving the narrative.”
—Roger Corman
For decades, Roger Corman was the Michelangelo of the B-movie, single-handedly painting hundreds of low-budget movies at the neighborhood drive-ins with titles like It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Little Shop of Horrors, X The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, The Wild Angels and a title that lingers called The Terror which featured a handsome unknown Jack Nicholson. All were created at the fastest pace on the cheapest budget imaginable. And it could be said the trailers (and titles) were just as exhilarating as the features. But beneath the cheese resided a surprising truth: Corman was a godfather of American independent film who played a prominent role in launching the careers of directors such as Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Peter Bogdanovich, and Francis Ford Coppola.
Some of his most notable films were his adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe, which featured the hauntingly surreal art design by Daniel Haller and the Baroque magnificence of Vincent Price at the center of it all. About those masterpieces of the macabre to come!
Some of my most beloved memories as a kid growing up in the early 1960s are spending balmy afternoons exploring Corman’s world. It’s about time I paid tribute to his monumental contribution in the wake of his passing. And you know me… I’ll cover it all.
Read The Hollywood Reporter article here:
Actually the true “King of the B’s” was Edgar G. Ulmer.
You bring up a good point. Both are true.
Nice tribute Joey. He left such an amazing legacy of B movies and more. I love that apt description where you compare him to Michaelangelo…