Five Favorite Films with Roger Corman
The veteran independent filmmaker and undisputed king of the B-movie drops in for a chat about his career and the new documentary Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel.
You've fostered many future-great directors on your productions; filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and James Cameron. Did you have a sense at the time that they were going on to big things?
Roger Corman: I was convinced they were both brilliant and that they would have fine careers, but I had no way of knowing the heights to which they would actually rise. I knew -- either knew or believed -- they would be successful. I couldn't predict how successful.
Was there anyone who you worked with that went on to surprise you?
Well most of them I thought were good, but one who surprised me, and on his very first picture, was Ron Howard. Ron had played the lead in Eat My Dust, a comedy car chase film, and when we did the sequel -- because the first one was so successful, we did Grand Theft Auto -- he played the lead and he directed. I was a little bit apprehensive about his ability to both act and direct in the same film -- and he just showed right there that he could do it. Grand Theft Auto became sort of a B-picture classic, and it showed right there what a fine director Ron was.
He would have been quite young at the time, too.
Yes. I knew he had gone to the SC film school for a while but he didn't graduate because he was working so much as an actor; but I knew he had something of a background. So that reassured me.
Let's talk a bit about Corman's World. Why has it taken so long for someone to make this documentary about you? It feels like there should have been many by now.
[Laughs] There was a documentary made in the late 1970s [Roger Corman: Hollywood's Wild Rebel, 1978], which I thought was a well-made documentary, but I guess nobody thought of doing it again until [director] Alex [Stapleton] came up with the idea. She asked me, and I talked with her a little bit; she's very intelligent and very sensitive, and she understood a great deal of what I was doing. I was just impressed with her and I said, "Fine, let's go ahead." I'm a little bit surprised at the number of people she got to be interviewed for it; it became a bigger picture than I thought.
It must be nice to have all these big stars and filmmakers come out and say, "We got our start with Roger Corman."
[Laughs] I was a little surprised that they were all there, and a number of them showed a certain amount of emotion -- and I felt a reciprocal emotion. I thought, there we were -- we were all young at one time -- and here we are; we're still working
Jack Nicholson quips that -- by mistake -- you occasionally happened to make a good movie --
[Laughs]
Do you have a favorite?
It varies from time to time. For today -- of the pictures I produced and directed -- maybe The Intruder, which was a picture I did with a new young actor, Bill Shatner, about racial integration, in 1960. And then one of the Poe pictures -- maybe Masque of the Red Death. I was working in England and I had greater access to facilities for the construction of the sets. We had the best look of any of the Poe films on Masque.
Nicolas Roeg's photography on that film is incredible.
Yes. He was a brilliant young cameraman. I believe he may have won the English equivalent of the Academy Award for best cinematography, which was surprising because it was a very low-budget picture.
You haven't directed since the early '70s. Did you ever consider going back to it?
Well, I had directed so many films that I just decided to take a year off in 1970, and then come back after the traditional sabbatical, but during that time I got bored and I started my own production company, New World. I got so involved in producing -- we were making 10, 12 films a year -- that I just never got back to directing.
King Crunk
A true film legend! Great interview and nice list, too. (Waits for the Avatar hate train to pour in)
Dec 15 - 11:36 AM
David Tanny
I didn't hate Avatar. It was pretty. But that's about it. I'll admit it was entertaining though. But very shallow. I enjoyed the visuals to D9 much more.
Dec 15 - 12:01 PM
Spencer Bennett
Thinking about it I think Avatar would have been a much deeper film had Cameron had some help with dialogue. A lot of the lines were cringe-worthy.
Dec 15 - 12:43 PM
David Tanny
The dialogue in the Terminator movies really wasn't great either, and Aliens as well. But for some reason they work in those movies. Especially Aliens. But with Avatar(it's been a while since I saw Titanic, so I can't say about the dialogue)the dialogue was just terrible. It made even Sigourney Weaver seem like a bad actress!
Dec 15 - 02:24 PM
Fry Samy
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Feb 26 - 08:09 AM
Janson Jinnistan
I'll spare you. Constructively, I'll just say that the extended cut adds some helpful exposition at the beginning, and I wish there was a stronger 2nd Act (which is code for 'character development'). Overall, I was disappointed in the 3D. I'm one of the unfortunates who finds the motion blurring and some of the foreground images as slightly transparent or strobey. But I didn't hate it the way a lot of people did. I admire the overall environmental allegory.
Dec 15 - 02:22 PM
David Tanny
Some character development would have been a lot better. I agree. But One thing I did like was the pacing of the film. Despite being nearly 3 hours, it flew by pretty fast. Again, I didn't hate it like a lot of people, but found it's flaws damaging enough to not call it a great film.
Dec 15 - 02:50 PM
Dave J
"A true film legend" I don't know what planet your from but are we looking at the same person here- Cormon's the king of low buget films next to Ed Wood except that he involves nudity and gore in some of the most cheesiest fashion! I saw this guy on Donahue once and he believes in the three B's- 'blood, beasts and breasts'! And there's a reason why acting talents of Sly Stallone and Jack Nicholson wouldn't do another movie with him and the reasons are very obvious! If there was no Ed Wood, he'd be next on the cheesiest films list!
Dec 15 - 03:15 PM
King Crunk
The difference between Corman and Ed Wood is that Wood was honestly trying to make good movies with what he had, he was just so paranoid about overspending and getting the most bang for his buck that it all came off very fake and cheesy. Wood was sort of disillusioned; he had heart and tried to make good films, but just was not a good filmmaker or storyteller. Corman on the other hand, knew he was making schlock. That schlock made money, though, and that is why he cornered the B-movie market. One of his great quotes (I don't remember who he said it to, might have been James Cameron) is, "If you do a good job on this movie for me, you'll never have to work for me again!" He obviously really did have a good taste, and kept an eye out for great talent like Scorsese and Cameron. I called him a legend because he has done a lot for the film industry, whether you see it as good or bad is sort of irrelevant (no offense). Going back to Ed Wood, he is a film legend, too. His films were awful, but that made him a cinema icon in a bit of irony.
Dec 15 - 03:45 PM
Dave J
I too remembered Cormon making that quote as well, and I think it was to James Cameron as well, except that Cameron is the opposite of Cormon and by watching Cormon movies overall are a waste of time. I mean I've seen some low budget films as well and they'd always have something to offer which is the opposite of watching most of what Cormon was involved in! As I had mentioned, one can get more from listening to Cormon than it would be to watch any of his films which is the same for Ed Wood! That although they're both fascinating people, their movies are generally bad as people describe them to be!
Dec 15 - 03:59 PM
King Crunk
Make no mistake, Dave, I think Corman and Wood were both largely (in Wood's case, exclusively) involved with only horrible movies. That said, they are both legends of the movie industry, even if their work was far from high calibur. And as this article notes, Corman is also responsible for bringing over a lot of foreign films that people would not have been exposed to other wise, so he should definitely be commended for that.
Dec 15 - 05:21 PM
Dave J
Cormon just as may have introduced some critically acclaimed directors from the likes of Kurosawa, Traffault and Bergman but the thing is if Cormon didn't there always be someone else who would and I don't think I saw any foreign films was a result of Cormon. I mean if he's really a film legend, it'd have to mean that 'you' as a movie viewer have to like some of the films he's involved in and not what he introduced something that's already been made, I mean the same argument can be said about the Weinsteins and Tarantino, that although they weren't part of the movie process in the making of the film, they don't mind making money out of them by releasing them to the States as well! And that although this documentary about Cormon looks rather entertaining, he's far from being a film legend considering how many critically acclaim directors their are who were successful as a result of not working for him or to be a part of his film making at all!
Dec 15 - 05:45 PM
dethburger hates Flixster
I disagree. Corman did have a lot of classic "B" films that are original and creative. Dillinger, Battle Beyond the Stars, Piranha just to name a handful.
Dec 15 - 06:45 PM
Dave J
But out of everything you've seen Cormon was given credited to, what would you say be the percentage that you liked of his and at the same time earn the same notoriety as Scorsese, Kubrick and Coppola, because I bet there's probably more films that're like other horror films that's similar to "After Dark Horrorfest" or "Ghost House" and those are as memorable as most horror films coming out with Cormon's name attached to them!
Dec 16 - 04:14 PM
Janson Jinnistan
I disagree as well. Corman made several handsome Poe productions with Vincent Price, "Little Shop of Horrors" and "Bucket of Blood" are far more inventive and charming than Wood's simple (however amusing) ineptitude. And he did shepard a number of quality filmmakers through his ranks: Coppola, Bogdanovich, Robert DeNiro, Jonathan Demme, Paul Bartel, Joe Dante, John Sayles, not to mention Scorsese, Jack Nicholson, Ron Howard and James Cameron mentioned in the article. (And Jack Hill and Monte Hellman have cult followings of their own) At worst, he was still a vaulable teacher about budget and discipline. At best, he was far more influential than his shlocky peers like William Castle, Herschell Gordan Lewis, or Russ Myers (who are also, more or less, 'legends' in their own way).
Dec 16 - 05:51 AM
Dave J
But what you're saying is that he can be a great teacher and that's not the same as that his films are inspirational, Cormon films can inspire bigger budgeted and better versions of his films but that is probably how far it would go. And out of all the names you've mentioned, they're far from being in the 'best' they had ever been in or partake in throughout their career, as a matter of fact all the directors/ actors you've dotted down are probably involved in the least favorite or at least close to the bottom of the list anyway whether it's Sly, Bogdanovich to Coppola!
Dec 16 - 02:41 PM
Janson Jinnistan
But those same directors (maybe not Sly, I haven't seen him discuss Corman) will tell you that they respect Corman, and that respect is exactly what makes him a legend.
Dec 18 - 05:59 AM
Dave J
Anyone can always respect his/her predecessor but is not the same as film legend- I mean you can call Cormon a film legend, but only behind 100 other directors you can name and even that's not saying much either!
Dec 19 - 03:15 PM
King Simba
I sorta agree with you Dave. The guy helped give a window of opportunity to so many great filmakers and actors in hollywood but at the same time it's nice to see how far genres like science fiction and fantasy have gone since the Roger Corman era (heck, the academy had to expand their best pic nominations to ten just to avoid all the controversy of not including such films at the oscars)
Dec 16 - 07:01 AM
Matthew Younker
Legend being the key word. I think the film Ray is better than any film Corman ever made, but who directed it? I have no idea, why? because that guy is not a legend. George Melies films are not something I'd want to sit down and enjoy on Friday night either but that doesn't make him any less important or legendary to the film industry. Another point is director David Cronenberg. Not one of his films would make the 100 greatest films of all time but he would definitely be on the 100 greatest directors of all time list. The fact of the matter is that Roger Corman IS a legend even if his films are not.
Dec 16 - 07:48 PM
Dave J
I do think that he's more interesting to listen to and would probably get more than by watching most out of everything that he was involved in!
Dec 15 - 03:30 PM
Diego Crespo
Avatar is a beautifully shot film with outstanding special effects. It's the perfect movie to show off a new HD tv but other than that it was predictable and had pretty bland dialogue. And I never really cared about the giant smurfs. It's good and delivers what the trailer promised, but that's about it.
Dec 16 - 04:32 PM
Diego Crespo
Avatar is a beautifully shot film with outstanding special effects. It's the perfect movie to show off a new HD tv but other than that it was predictable and had pretty bland dialogue. And I never really cared about the giant smurfs. It's good and delivers what the trailer promised, but that's about it.
Dec 16 - 04:32 PM
Diego Crespo
Avatar is a beautifully shot film with outstanding special effects. It's the perfect movie to show off a new HD tv but other than that it was predictable and had pretty bland dialogue. And I never really cared about the giant smurfs. It's good and delivers what the trailer promised, but that's about it.
Dec 16 - 04:32 PM