First cab off the rank is a top ten of our favourite “making of” stories for Corman films.
The Terror (1963)
Corman, while making The Raven (1963) for AIP, is playing tennis on a rare day off; it gets rained out, he becomes bored, starts thinking, “it’s a shame to waste that perfectly good Raven set”, gets Leo Gordon to crank out a script that can use the set and Boris Karloff, persuades Karloff to film a few days, shoots The Terror in a few days once The Raven finishes before the set is torn down, quickly realises that when you write and film a movie that quicky there will be gaps, spends the next few months filming bits and pieces to fill out the film when he can, and eventually produces quite a decent little film – it starred Karloff, Jack Nicholson, Dick Miller and Sandra Knight and had a crew which, at some stage or another, included a pre-fame Francis Ford Coppola, Monte Hellman and Jack Hill.
Little Shop of Horrors (1960)
After making a bunch of sci-fi and gangster films, Corman decides to try a comedy, gets Charles B. Griffith (Corman’s X factor in the 1950s) to come up with something, resulting in Bucket of Blood (1959). Corman likes it so much that he gets Griffith to basically rewrite it, and he produces the glorious script for Little Shop of Horrors (the films share the same structure but Horror is better) – supposedly filmed in two days, which is mostly true, I think, although most of it takes place in one set (why it made such a good musical) and I think the days were long and there were a LOT of pick-ups.
Targets (1968)
Corman’s assistant Peter Bogdanovich wants to make a feature, Corman goes, “well, I’ve got some footage from The Terror and Karloff owes me a few days, can you use that and him?”, Bogdanovich goes left field, and with the help of Polly Platt and (uncredited story editor) Sam Fuller comes up with a stunningly good movie about a movie star played by Karloff coming to watch his latest film – The Terror – in modern day LA and encountering a spree killer. This was arguably the best movie that Corman financed.
The Puerto Rico trilogy (1960)
Corman liked to take money from a film studio to make a movie in an interesting location, then use his own money to pay for the actors and crew to make a second movie immediately after – he did this in Hawaii (Naked Paradise, She Gods of Shark Reef), North Dakota (Beast from the Haunted Cave, Ski Troop Attack) but most memorably in Puerto Rico where he made three movies, two of which he directed, two of which star Robert Towne – the most interesting of which is the gloriously weird The Creature from the Haunted Sea based on a Charles B. Griffith script.
Hollywood Boulevard (1976)
Producer Jon Davison (Robocop, Starship Troopers) pitches an idea that he knows Corman won’t be able to resist: a super cheap movie comprised of action footage from New World’s other movies. Co-directors Alan Arkush and Joe Dante come up with a brilliantly funny, affectionate take on the “three girls” movies, benefiting from the presence of New World’s three best support actors at the time, Paul Bartel, Mary Woronov, Dick Miller, and all the old footage is quite cleverly incorporated.
The Soviet quadrilogy (1960s)
Corman buys a Russian science fiction film which no other distributor wants because it’s full of commie propaganda, but it does contain excellent special effects – so he ditches the propaganda and gives it to Francis Ford Coppola to see what Coppola (fresh out of film school and a decade before The Godfather) can do, allowing him to shoot a little extra of his own footage and cut it in, and the result is Battle Beyond the Sun, which is fairly creaky, then he gives footage to Curtis Harrington who comes up with Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, which isn’t bad, then gives Harrington another go and some more money (to hire Dennis Hopper, John Saxon and others) and the result is Queen of Blood (1966) which is great, THEN he gives footage to Peter Bogdanovich and Polly Platt (this is before Targets) and gives them enough to hire Mamie Van Doren and they make Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women – so, four films! BTW every film school should run that as an exercise – give them public domain footage and make the students create a film around it.
The Fantastic Four (1994)
A sadder story, but needs to be told to understand Corman, as the buck always won out. In the ‘80s, Marvel properties were in low demand, Corman is hired to produce a low budget Fantastic Four movie so that the rights holders can hang on to the film rights; Corman does, then Avi Arad, the guy who runs Marvel films, goes “hang on, I think this IP has more potential” and becomes worried that the Corman movie will ruin the brand, so Corman is paid off to not release it – Corman does so, as this way he makes a guaranteed profit. The film is never seen (though it’s not hard to track down and the whole saga formed the basis of an excellent documentary.)
Blood Bath (1966)
Corman buys a Yugoslav spy film with nice photography, gives it to Jack Hill with a little money, Hill turns it into a psycho thriller about a crazed painter who kills models, Corman doesn’t like it, gives it to Stephanie Rothman who turns it into a vampire movie called Blood Bath, Corman still doesn’t like it, some extra footage is filmed and it becomes Track of the Vampire. No one much likes any version, but Corman gave it a good try.
The Intruder (1961)
Corman decides to make a straight-up message picture about integration in the Deep South, and films it in said Deep South. During shooting, William Shatner gives a racially charged speech as part of the film, which is cheered on by locals who take it seriously – and when they figure out what the film’s about they start harassing the cast and crew who are in genuine danger and Corman and company have to hightail it out of there – the film loses money and Corman sticks to genre films from then on. But this movie is a masterpiece.
The Young Racers
Corman decides to make a car racing film in style, on the cheap… the deal for his crew is to meet up in Europe wherever a Grand Prix race is on, film a section of the film (using the race and crowds etc as free background footage) then take a break and meet up at the next one – so the film was made in instalments with people having to pay their own way from A to B – but that’s the way to do low budget movie making! His crew includes Francis Ford Coppola, Menahem Golan (Cannon), and Robert Towne. Corman repeated this technique on The Wild Racers (1968).
