Jan 10 2008
King of the B’s
Roger Corman is the definition of a cult film maker. The man has produced, written, or directed over 300 movies and has earned the title “The King of the B’s,” referring to his status as a god amongst the drive-in and low-budget film set. Despite his eternal lack of budget, he’s managed to become one of my favorite filmmakers, and it’s only right that since we’ve been talking a lot about Rock ‘n’ Roll High School lately that he gets his just desserts.
I really shouldn’t have to defend this pick, but I’ll make the case for Roger anyway. His direction and production of the Poe Cycle for American International Pictures turned him from a schlock director into a marketable name, and the juicy scripts written by Richard Matheson made Vincent Price into an icon for generations of horror fans and helped move the master of the macabre from William Castle black and white films to gory, beautiful color. They helped cement the memorable on-screen partnership between Vincent Price and Peter Lorre (I can’t picture one without the other), helped Basil Rathbone find a memorable role outside of Scrooge and Sherlock Holmes, and made AIP into a semi-respectable distributor of gothic horror alongside Hammer Films.
Click on to read about Corman’s eye for talent, Pam Grier in a women’s prison, and of course everyone’s favorite dinosaur movie, Carnosaur 2!
Dude, don’t forget that he gave the world Jim Cameron. And for that, we can thank him for Titanic.
Well, I was trying to talk about the positive aspects of Roger Corman, so we’ll thank him for Terminator 3 and split the difference.