Saturday, April 06, 2024

Ten key films in Roger Corman's career

 In honour of his 98th birthday

1) Monster from the Ocean Floor (1954) - little remembered but his first feature, part financed from some money from his dad

2) Five Guns West (1955) - Corman didn't direct the first two films he produced but went into it, to save money as much as anything but he handled it well and it launched his career

3) It Conquered the World (1956) - most of Corman's early films were actually Westerns but he soon discovered fantasy and sci fi were more lucratvie, such as this one - he was so prolific it's hard to specifc a turning point movie but this will do as well as any especially as Charles Griffith rewrote the script 

4) Machine Gun Kelly (1958) - Corman gets a good script and lead actor (Charles Bronson) and receives some serious critical attention for the first time

5) Little Shop of Horrors (1960) - most credit should go to Charles Griffth but Corman set up everyting around it and its wild freewheeling style shows just how confident he had become

6) The Intruder (1961) - Corman goes really serious, suffers backlash, a fantastic film for which he should be proud

7) House of Usher (1961) - Corman does his first Poe, it's terrific, launches a cycle

8) The Wild Angels (1966) - Corman kick starts the biker genre

9) A Time for Killing (1967) - Corman is wooed by Hollywood studios, but got fired off this one - he would occasionally work for them again but never consistently

10) Angels Die Hard (1970) - the first film from New World which kicked off that cycle of his career

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