 This is the SF Productions podcast network to be like the coal man from the pop culture bunker I'm Mindy and I'm mark you can check out our audio podcast how I got my waif three comics on iTunes or on our website SFpodcastnetwork.com we continue our masters of schlock series with the life of Roger Corman be movie impresario and Godfather to young directors He originally planned to be an engineer, but realized that life Wasn't for him while earning the degree He split his college career with a stint in the Navy in World War two He got an engineering job worked for four days and then told his boss. I've made a terrible mistake Roger's brother Jean with a showbiz agent at the time So he decided to try filmmaking instead Starting in the mail room at 20th century Fox and moved his way up to being a story editor He picked out the gunfighter as a good script provided ideas to the eventual Gregory Peck film and got no credit For it. He figured he should make movies himself After a stint in Europe. He got odd jobs while writing his first script selling it to allied pictures for $2,000 He also acted as associate producer for the film highway dragnet for free just to get the experience Corman scraped together $12,000 for his first feature as a producer the monster from the ocean floor It was a success and led to the Fast and the Furious with John Ireland and Dorothy Malone This was released through American releasing company, which would eventually become American international pictures Despite offers from larger studios because ARC offered him an advance for two more films 50 years later Universal would license the name the Fast and the Furious for the current action blockbuster franchise Corman's first directing duties came on five guns west followed by the beast with a million eyes Apache woman and the day the world ended the Wulner brothers financed swamp women with Beverly Garland and Mike touch Connors Misty's know it as swamp diamonds Back to ARC for Gunslinger a misty film the Oklahoma woman and the girl from beneath the sea by this point ARC had become a IP and Corman was their lead filmmaker It conquered the world with Peter Graves and Lee Van Cleef He learned almost too late that man is a feeling creature Naked paradise the saga of the Viking women and their voyage to the waters of the great sea serpent Machine gun Kelly, which was Charles Bronson's first leading role teenage caveman with Robert Vaughn night of the blood beast a bucket of blood Al these and at the same time he was cranking out works for allied artists like the undead Not of this earth attack of the cat crab monsters cry baby killer Jack Nicholson's first starring role Speaking of Nicholson He also made an appearance in Corman's the little shop of horrors made in two days at a cost of $28,000 using existing sets from bucket of blood the cult film would lead to the Broadway musical and film Keep in mind the last several films mentioned all came out in a five-year period from 1956 to 61 As if all that wasn't enough Corman founded his own company film group in order to crank out more films for the double feature Drive-in market high school big shot attack of the giant leeches the wasp woman ski troop attack two films made in Puerto Rico Battle of Blood Island and last woman on earth wrapped so quickly then Corman cranked out a third with the remaining budget Creature from the hot and see you may be wondering how Corman could be so prolific Well, if you've seen his early films, you know why he was obsessed with getting a single take to save time and money Which would result in flubbed lines or incorrect actions included in the final product He knew that most of his work was being seen by teenagers necking in the theater or their cars He moved into color films with House of Usher adapted by Richard Matheson's from Poe's work and starring Vincent Price Which was a big hit and followed a set of films based on Poe the pit in the pendulum the premature burial tales of terror the raven the terror the mask of the Red Death and the tomb of Ligia There's a ton of other Corman movies during this period the intruder slash the stranger with a young William Shatner the young racers with second unit director Francis Ford Coppola Corman was impressed with him and Financed his first film Dementia 13 Using the same sets of course X the man with the X-ray eyes with Ray Milan Corman always looking for a way to make a cheap film started buying rights to Eastern European and Soviet films adding some wraparound US footage producing battle beyond the Sun with Coppola shooting the additional content queen of blood blood bath and Voyage to the prehistoric planet with footage shot by Peter Bugdanovich by 1965 Corman decided he wanted to work in the big leagues and signed a contract with Columbia But every project he proposed was considered too strange too weird every idea They had seemed too ordinary to me ordinary pictures don't make money So was back to AIP for Wild Angels with Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra a film that would begin the biker movie fan Corman would direct the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1967 for 20th Century Fox But spent $400,000 under the 2.5 million dollar budget his final directing work included 1970s Bloody Mama with Shelly Winters and a young Robert De Niro gas And Von Richthofen and Brown a film he attempted to make based on the Red Baron for over a decade The dogfights cost several real crashes and to death in 1970 Corman founded New World Pictures Dedicated mostly to exploitation films such as Angels die hard the student nurses the big doll house which made Pam Grier a star Angels hard as they come produced by Jonathan Demi and a series of nurse films Big Bad Mama starring Angie Dickinson During all this New World balance their reputation by distributing foreign films in the US Including those from Igmar Bergman, Francois Truffaut Peter Weir and during this period New World won more foreign film Oscars than the other studios combined Corman then made another run at major studio work at Fox making films like Capone and Moving Violations from 1975 to 77 back a new world death race 2000 with David Caradine and a young Sylvester Stallone was a big hit and Generated a series of Cart Shays films one of those eat my dust starred Ron Howard Corman had co-financed a comedy written by Howard in order to get him to do that film which led to Howard starring and directing in Grand Theft Auto which of course began his whole directing career in another example of Corman's influence on the industry Universal would later buy the remake rights to death race and do a series of big budget films with Jason Statham One of Corman's editors responsible for creating trailers was Joe Dante Again Corman provided a chance to direct in the film Piranha that movies writer John Sayles The Star Wars juggernaut prompted Corman to produce Battle Beyond the Stars with a two million dollar budget his most expensive film to date It's essentially the magnificent seven in space in 1983 Corman sold off New World pictures using the profits to bankroll Millennial Millennium films he wanted to make more substantial films But ended up with space Raiders screwballs suburbia and death stalker a series of lawsuits between the new owners of New World and Millennium by then called New Horizons tied up a number of projects in the mid-80s and resulted in yet another company Concord pictures their films included Barbarian Queen Street walk-in cocaine wars munchies strip to kill Blood fist carna saw and fire on the Amazon with a young Sandra Bullock by the 90s Corman was making TV films for Showtime called Roger Corman presents Now this was a mix of new works and remakes of his earlier hits He also produced a superhero movie franchise and eventual sci-fi TV series called Black Scorpion Which was rather racy sci-fi was a good home for Corman where he produced a lot of mutant animal films with titles like Dino croc super Gator and shark de plus now we've been mentioning all along how Corman gave big names their first break It's been referred to as the Corman film school He would bring promising talent under his wing let them learn from him and then give them a tiny budget to make their own works Some other familiar names and their first Corman work James Cameron art direction and visual effects for battle beyond the stars James Horner composer for the lady in red gale and herd production assistant for humanoids from the deep Robert town writer and cast for last woman on earth Bruce Dern cast of the wild angels Dennis Hopper cast of the trip tell you Shire cast of wild racers Corman received an honorary Oscar in 2010 for his rich Engendering of films and filmmakers as well as a lifetime achievement award from the producers Guild in 2006 Along with many others. Yes, Roger Corman was prolific based on IMDB producing 415 works so far and directing 56 of them He also had cameo roles in a lot of films mostly from all his protégés Godfather part 2 Philadelphia the silence of the lambs Apollo 13 and scream 3 and in age 93 He's still producing new work shout factory completed a 13-part documentary series on his career called Corman's Hollywood Not sure if I'm gonna watch that I'm sure it's good. Yeah, if you don't want to watch that you can check out our radio podcast How I got my wife treat comics on iTunes or our website SF podcast network comm from the pop culture bunker I'm Mindy and I'm Mark. Thanks for watching