Highly entertaining and informative look at the famous movie company, written with passion and insight from McGee. Sometimes he assumes knowledge on the part of the reader which the reader mightn’t have – for instance, starting with a “controversial” quote from Charles B. Griffith that Arkoff was nicer than Nicholson – only strong AIP buffs would have known that Nicholson had the more ethical reputation. But it’s a lot of fun, and and a great read – I wish the book was twice as long. In particular, I wish there was more on AIP in the 70s, and more talk about other key executives (there is some on Louis Heyward, who ran AIP England in the late 60s, but not enough; there is nothing on Larry Gordon, who was in charge in the early 70s).
I’m griping. Among the many positives are it well evokes all the colourful characters who worked there: Sidney Pink with his dodgy Danish films, sfx master (kind of) Bert I Gordon, hack Edward Cahn, film buff Alex Gordon, the under-appreciated Herman Cohen. Of course there’s Roger Corman, the man who really got AIP going, and helped them kick up a notch (although he had nothing to do with their breakthrough film, I Was a Teenage Werewolf - that was Cohen).
The AIP history breaks neatly into several categories.
(1) Early days – starting out as ARC, forming the relationship with Roger Corman, finding it’s feet (a lot of Westerns were made).
(2) The late 50s double bill glory days – they had their big smash in Werewolf, and created a series of double bills still beloved by buffs, especially the JD and sci-fi films.
(3) Stepping up in the early 60s. AIP cleaned house in the late 50s and decided to step up with the Poe pictures. This kicked off a big cycle for them, as did the Beach Party movies – they also became skilled at exporting from overseas, particularly Italy.
(4) Late 60s – increasing respectability, with more and more films made in England and Europe. There was a second Poe cycle, Louis Heyward became more involved, Nicholson lost equal footing in the company after his divorce, Roger Corman’s films were more popular although he was becoming increasingly annoyed with the company. This period ended with AIP going public.
(5) The 70s - Corman left to set up New World, becoming AIP’s most effective competition, then so did Nicholson to work at Fox (he died soon after), but AIP still went quite strongly, enjoying success with blaxploitation, car movies, thrillers. That decade saw them having their biggest flops (The Wild Party, A Matter of Time, Meteor) and their biggest hits (The Amityville Horror, Love at First Bite, Dressed to Kill, Walking Tall). Then Arkoff made the mistake of selling the company to Filmways - he soon quit and AIP was wound up.
Lots of great anecdotes - Sidney Pink making a film with everyone speaking in Danish, the cheap methods of the early days. (McGee includes the story of making The Intruder - was this an AIP film?) My favourite involved making a horror film in Spain, being worried about censors so they tell the local censors they'll made Abe Lincoln in Illinois and having an actor dress as Abe Lincoln hang around the set!
No comments:
Post a Comment