Although a savvy executive producer and carver of independent film empires (first New World Pictures and now current Concorde-New Horizon), Roger Corman is probably best known as the director mastermind behind Vincent Price's astonishing 1960’s string of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations and the producer who helped give such film luminaries as Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Monte Hellman and Jack Nicholson their first jobs in the film business. But there are many younger movie buffs, especially those under the age of 30, who may not be aware of director Corman’s amazing catalogue of films from the mid-to-late 1950's aimed at the drive-in market. From his very first science-fiction foray, THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED (1955) (which helped to give birth to American-International Pictures) to such wonders as IT CONQUERED THE WORLD (1956) and BUCKET OF BLOOD (1959), Corman's early, mostly black-and-white efforts remain enormously enjoyable, textbook examples of how to make fast-moving, straightforward popular entertainments on shoestring budgets. We’re very excited to welcome Roger Corman to this In-Person Tribute. We'll be screening such gems as LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, THE INTRUDER (with William Shatner as a racist agitator!), ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS, WASP WOMAN, BUCKET OF BLOOD, NOT OF THIS THE EARTH (the original!) and more!

Friday, August 25 – 7:30 PM

Triple Feature!

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, 1960, Filmgroup, 70 min. Along with the Vincent Price Poe pictures, this deliciously dark, shot-in-two-days horror comedy is one of director Roger Corman’s most justifiably famous films. Nebbish Seymour (Jonathan Haze) accidentally develops a carnivorous plant on off-hours at the flower shop owned by his employer, Gravis Mushnick (the great Mel Welles). Soon enslaved by the bloodthirsty whims of his very vocal creation ("Feed me!") – named Audrey, Jr. after his girlfriend (Jackie Joseph) – Seymour finds himself on the run from the law. A delight, from Fred Katz’s quirkily offbeat score to Charles Griffith’s script to newcomer Jack Nicholson’s bizarre cameo as masochistic dental patient, Wilbur Force.

THE INTRUDER (aka I HATE YOUR GUTS), 1962, Filmgroup, 80 min. William Shatner does an unnervingly convincing turn as a racist agitator going from town to town in the South to foment tension against newly-court-ordered school desegregation. One of director Roger Corman’s favorite films, he reportedly decided to pull back from more serious pictures when it failed to generate a decent return at the box office. With it’s on-location authenticity, Charles Beaumont’s terse script and the convincing performances, it still packs a wallop today.

HIGHWAY DRAGNET, 1954, Allied Artists, 70 min. Nathan Juran (THE 7thVOYAGE OF SINBAD) directed this fastmoving chase noir, co-produced and co-written by Roger Corman, his first significant credits in the movies. Richard Conte, an ex-GI implicated in the murder of a bar girl, goes on the run to prove his innocence and is picked up by writer Joan Bennett and her assistant, Wanda Hendrix. The trio end up at Conte’s abandoned home in a deserted neighborhood in the California desert – a settlement slowly becoming immersed by the encroaching Salton Sea in the strange, dreamlike climax. NOT ON DVD! Director Roger Corman in person following LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS.

Saturday, August 26 – 7:30 PM

Triple Feature!

THE WASP WOMAN, 1960, Filmgroup, 73 min. Dir. Roger Corman. Cosmetics magnate, Susan Cabot, with the aid of mild-mannered research scientist, Dr. Zinthrop (Michael Marks), develops a fountain-of-youth serum derived from queen wasps. Impatient for results, she tries it out on herself with appropriately devastating results. Released in the wake of the first hit version of THE FLY, THE WASP WOMAN, shot in black-and-white and noticeably shorter, manages to pack just as many creepy moments, as well as more manic energy, into its compact running time. With Anthony Eisley and the lovely Barboura Morris.

ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS, 1957, Allied Artists, 62 min. Director Roger Corman planned this fast-moving giant monster mash to include a moment of horror, or threat of horror, every five minutes during it’s no-time-wasted duration. And he delivers. Surely one of the most satisfying (and most low-budget) atomic mutation tales from the 1950’s finds a team of scientists (including Richard Garland, Pamela Duncan, Mel Welles and Russell Johnson, later of "Gilligan’s Island") journeying to a pacific atoll to investigate the disappearance of an earlier scientific group. However, what they find are giant, telepathic crabs capable of absorbing the intelligence of the humans they eat. To make matters even worse, the crabs have stolen explosives from the Navy cache on the beach and are blowing up the island (!), gradually shrinking the available space for its human prey to run to. One of frequent early collaborator Charles B. Griffith’s most fun scripts.

CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA, 1961, Filmgroup, 63 min. Dir. Roger Corman. When a Caribbean island has a revolution, American gangster Antony Carbone figures out a scheme to make a fortune. He offers to help loyalist fatcats escape on his boat with the intention of murdering them for their money en route, blaming their demise on a mythical sea beast rumored to haunt the area. But he doesn’t count on a real sea monster (a dime-store version of THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON) showing up! A funny sci-fi comedy co-starring Betsy Jones-Moreland as Carbone’s moll and screenwriter Robert Towne (!) (under pseudonym Edward Wain) as hapless schmuck hero, agent Sparks Moran.

Sunday, August 27 – 7:30 PM

Triple Feature! Dick Miller Night! Dick Miller In Person With Actress Beverly Garland!

BUCKET OF BLOOD, 1959, MGM Repertory, 66 min. After LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, this ranks as probably director Roger Corman’s most famous early effort, with a wonderful Dick Miller as mentally-challenged Walter Paisley, a waiter at a beatnik café jealous of the artistic types making up the clientele. When Walter accidentally kills his landlady’s cat, on a whim, he covers it in clay. Passing it off at the cafe as a genuine sculpture, he is proclaimed an artistic genius. But he soon realizes he will have to produce more ‘works of art’ if he is to hold onto his cherished, new reputation. Soon Walter resorts to aping Vincent Price in HOUSE OF WAX, killing people and covering them in clay to serve as his newest creations. With more appearances by then Corman regulars, Barboura Morris, Antony Carbone and Ed Nelson. And look for future game show host, Bert Convy as a doomed narc! Discussion following with actor Dick Miller and actress Beverly Garland.

Ultra-Rare! NOT OF THIS EARTH, 1957, Allied Artists (Paramount), 67 min. Dir. Roger Corman. Sunglasses-wearing Paul Birch, resembling nothing so much as a cranky middle-aged businessman, is really a vanguard agent for a race of alien vampires! Birch’s planet, wracked by years of nuclear war, suffers from anemia that is rendering the population extinct. He hires feisty nurse, Beverly Garland (in one of her most charismatic 1950’s roles) to be on constant hand to give him much-needed transfusions. But Birch also does a little freelance bloodletting of his own. Morgan Jones is Garland’s rock-jawed motorcycle-cop beau, Jonathan Haze Birch’s smart-aleck punk chauffeur and Dick Miller a hip, fast-talking vacuum cleaner salesman. This impossible-to-see drive-in chiller is one of the holy grails of lost 1950’s sci-fi! NOT ON DVD!