PopHorror Let's Get Scared
On Thursday, May 9th, 2024 the film world lost a legend.
“One of the worst things you can do is have a limited budget and try to do some big looking film. That’s when you end up with very bad work.”
I am speaking, of course, of Roger Corman, a man whose impact on cinema, and particularly the horror and sci-fi genres, cannot be measured by any metric.
A ridiculously prolific writer, producer and director, Corman was a mentor, and inspiration to countless film icons. Who else could have started the careers of directors: Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, Jonathan Demme, Martin Scorcese, Joe Dante, and James Cameron (among others) and actors like: Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, Bruce Dern, Diane Ladd, and William Shatner?
“A great director, first, is highly intelligent. And he is also a dedicated and willing to work hard. Now those are easy things to identify. The third is the creativity, and that is very difficult to identify in advance. This is why so many of the directors who have started with me were my assistant – the first one was Francis Ford Coppola.”
With a career spanning 70(!!) years, virtually everyone who has watched a film, any film, has seen a measure of his influence. With his pioneering work on the many Poe adaptations with the legendary Vincent Price, to showing everyone how to operate an independent film studio, AIP, and succeed in the major studio realm, Corman left an indelible mark.
“Somebody said, ‘Roger doesn’t know how to spend money.’ And I thought, ‘I don’t spend money because I don’t have it!’ If I had it, I could spend money! That’s about the only time I was told that!”
Rising from the industrial smoke of Detroit, and following a stint in the Navy, Corman embarked on his career in cinema with an open mind, if someone said it couldn’t be done, Corman did it, often faster and cheaper than anyone thought possible. Sure, he made some turkeys, but, most importantly, he treated these as a learning experience.
“You learn, of course, when you’re working with something good, but you also can learn when you’re working with things that are not good. You can see the reasons they’re not good. I would sometimes suggest what could be done, but essentially say “It isn’t worth the bother.” So I learned from that process.”
His many interviews, especially when he was well into his 90’s, spotlight a man with a twinkle in his eyes, and a genuine smile, that shows that his passion and enthusiasm for the medium of film never waned, he still approached each new project with the same gusto is people half his age.
“I’ve never made the film I wanted to make. No matter what happens, it never turns out exactly as I hoped.”
If they ever do a Mount Rushmore of independent cinema, the faces you would see would be: Herschel Gordon Lewis, Lloyd Kaufman, Charles Band, and of course, Roger Corman, right on top. A titan of film, he will be sorely missed, but his legacy, and the gifts he gave us and millions of others, will live on. When asked, by an interviewer, how he’d like to be remembered, Corman replied “I was a filmmaker, just that.”
Rest easy in the knowledge that you will be remembered for exactly that, sir.
What is your favorite Roger Corman film? Tell us in the comments!
