Posts Tagged ‘Roger Corman’


Deathsport / BattleTruck double feature

July 14th, 2010 | article by | No Comments »
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Deathsport
company: New World Pictures
year: 1978
runtime: 82′
director: Allan Arkush,
Nicholas Niciphor and Roger Corman
cast: David Carradine, Claudia Jennings,
Richard Lynch, David McLean
writer: Nicholas Niciophor,
Frances Doel and Donald Stewart
photography: Gary Graver
music: Andy Stein
BattleTruck
company: Battletruck Films, Ltd.
year: 1982
runtime: 91′
director: Harley Cokeliss
cast: Michael Beck, Annie McEnroe,
James Wainwright, Bruno Lawrence,
John Ratzenberger, John Bach
writer: Margaret Abrams, Irving Austin,
John Beech and Harley Cokeliss
photography: Chris Menges
music: Kevin Peek

The Deathsport / BattleTruck double feature is due out on August 3rd, and can currently be pre-ordered at considerable savings through Amazon.com

The first of Shout! Factory’s Roger Corman’s Cult Classics double feature DVDs brings together two wildly disparate but thematically complementary New World catalog titles – 1978’s Deathsport, roughly inspired by the earlier Death Race 2000, and 1982’s BattleTruck, an independent production from New Zealand distributed in the United States by Corman’s company. While the former was made available on DVD in 2000, the latter here makes its domestic digital debut.

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Galaxy of Terror

June 17th, 2010 | article by | No Comments »
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a.k.a.: Mind Warp: An Infinity of Terror
film rating:
disc rating:
company: New World Pictures
year: 1981
runtime: 81′
director: Bruce Clark
cast: Edward Albert, Erin Moran,
Ray Walston, Bernard Behrens,
Zalman King, Robert Englund,
Taeffe O’Connell, Sid Haig,
Grace Zabriskie, Jack Blessing
writers: Mark Siegler,
Bruce Clark and William Stout
cinematography: Jacques Haitkin
and Austin McKinney
music: Barry Schrader
Reviewed from a screener provided
by Shout! Factory LLC
Order this film from Amazon.com:
DVD | Blu-ray

Galaxy of Terror is due out on Special Edition DVD and Blu-ray from Shout! Factory on July 20th, and is currently available for pre-order from Amazon.com and other online retailers.

The anonymous ‘Planet Master of Xerxes’ (a man whose features are obscured by orange light) orders a mission to the far off planet of Morganthus after all contact is lost with a starship there.  He hand picks the crew of rescue ship Quest without their knowledge, gathering a motley assortment of officers and engineers with variety of psychological conditions (one is claustrophobic, another traumatized by a past mission, etc.).  After a crash landing on Morganthus the crew begins to disappear, killed by their own subconscious fears after an ancient alien pyramid renders them all too real.

I fondly remember the salacious ad art for Galaxy of Terror, featuring a vulnerable beauty in scraps of clothing being menaced by a variety of unlikely beasts (including a buggy skeletal bat thing hovering with obviously impure intent), staring up at vintage late ’80s me from the seedy depths of the local rental store’s horror shelf.  Only elementary school-aged at the time, I’d never have dreamt of trying to sneak something like that passed my observant mother (the prominent cleavage on the cover would have stopped her cold long before she glimpsed the ‘R’-rating), but that didn’t keep me from wondering what horribly disgusting (and inherently exciting) events might dwell behind such an illustration.  I was a long time in catching up to the film, one of a seemingly endless number I remember passing over in youth, but it was easily worth the wait.
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Forbidden World

June 16th, 2010 | article by | No Comments »
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a.k.a.: Mutant
film rating:
disc rating:
company: New World Pictures
year: 1982
runtime: 77′ / 82′
director: Allan Holzman
cast: Jesse Vint, Dawn Dunlap,
June Chadwick, Linden Chiles,
Fox Harris, Raymond Oliver,
Scott Paulin, Michael Bowen
writers: Tim Cumen,
Jim Wynorski and R. J. Robertson
cinematography: Tim Suhrstedt
music: Susan Justin
Reviewed from a screener provided
by Shout! Factory LLC.
Order this film from Amazon.com:
DVD | Blu-ray

Forbidden World is due out on two-disc special edition DVD and Blu-ray (content is identical across releases, including the ‘director’s cut’ of the film on a separate DVD) on July 20th, and is currently up for pre-order in both formats through Amazon.com and other online retailers.

A cheapie like few others in New World Picture’s extensive and budget conscious library, Allan Holzman’s Forbidden World (also known under its working title Mutant) is a nasty bit of gross-out science fiction horror that offers some serious bang for its meager buck.  Pushed into production by an ever-opportunistic Roger Corman as a means of getting an extra day out of a pricey set constructed for Galaxy of Terror, Forbidden World is never much more than a seedy exploitation of the monumental success of Ridley Scott’s Alien, but that doesn’t keep it from being a hell of a lot of fun.

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Rock ‘n’ Roll High School and Suburbia

May 25th, 2010 | article by | No Comments »
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Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (DVD / Blu-ray) and Suburbia (DVD)
are both available for purchase at
Amazon.com

These special edition DVDs of Rock ‘n’ Roll High School and Suburbia have already seen their street dates (the former is now out on Blu-ray as well), released roughly two weeks ago, and while the screeners didn’t arrive in time for me to provide advance coverage I see no reason not to give the discs the same treatment Shout!’s Gamera, the Giant Monster and Death Race 2000 have received here.  As with those, these are merely my first impressions of the discs – more comprehensive coverage of each will follow in short order.

I had the great pleasure of being more or less unfamiliar with both of these films when their screeners arrived in the post.  I had heard of Rock ‘n’ Roll High School in passing, having friends who were fans of it and The Ramones, but had seen neither picture.  These Roger Corman’s Cult Classics editions make for an excellent viewing experience, particularly for first-timer’s like myself.
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Death Race 2000 (Shout! Factory, 2010)

May 12th, 2010 | article by | 2 Comments »
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preorder this film from Amazon.com: DVD | Blu-ray

Another day, another new screener!  Paul Bartel’s violent sci-fi comedy classic Death Race 2000 is due out from Shout! Factory on the 22nd of June, and here’s a sneak peek at what you can expect from the release (which will be hitting Blu-ray same day and date).  You’re welcome.

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Shout! Factory’s upcoming ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll High School’ and ‘Suburbia’ releases detailed

March 28th, 2010 | article by | No Comments »
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From the Shout! Factory press release:


ROCK ’N’ ROLL HIGH SCHOOL
30TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL EDITION BLU-RAY™ AND DVD
&
SUBURBIA COLLECTOR’S EDITION DVD
DVDs In Stores Nationwide May 4, 2010;
Rock’n’ Roll High School on Blu-ray May 11, 2010

Gabba gabba hey! Two hugely popular Roger Corman rock films that have long been out of print will hit the home-entertainment shelves this May 2010: the Rock ’N’ Roll High School 30th Anniversary Special Edition and Suburbia Collector’s Edition, the first two titles launching the highly anticipated Roger Corman’s Cult Classics home entertainment series from Shout! Factory. Rock’n’Roll High School 30th Anniversary Special Edition DVD and Suburbia Collector’s Edition DVD debut on May 4; the first-ever Blu-ray release of Rock’n’Roll High School is set for May 11. Newly remastered and available for the first time in Anamorphic widescreen (16:9), Rock ’N’ Roll High School Special Edition and Suburbia Collector’s Edition provide the outrageous candor of teenage angst and nostalgic reverie of a counterculture rock movement that captured the hearts of many generations. With explosive musical performances from the Ramones, T.S.O.L., The Vandals and D.I., and extensive bonus content including all-new interviews and commentary with cast and crew, rare behind-the-scenes footage and much more, these two definitive home entertainment releases from Shout’s Roger Corman’s Cult Classics line are a must-have for Roger Corman fans and film aficionados as well as anyone who remains young at heart. Blu-ray is priced to own at $26.97 SRP. Each DVD title is sold separately and has a suggested retail price of $19.93.

Executive produced by Corman and directed by Allan Arkush (Heroes), Rock ’N’ Roll High School boasts performances by the Ramones and stars P.J. Soles (Halloween) in the lead role of Riff Randell, Vince Van Patten (Hell Night), Clint Howard (Grand Theft Auto), Dey Young (Spaceballs), Mary Woronov (Death Race 2000), Dick Miller (Piranha) and Paul Bartel (Hollywood Boulevard).

Based on Arkush’s own high school fantasy, the 1979 cult film takes place at Vince Lombardi High School — the wildest, most rockin’ high school around! That is, until a thug of a principal, Miss Togar, comes along and tries to make the school a totalitarian state. With the help of the Ramones, the students of Vince Lombardi battle Miss Togar’s iron-fisted rule and take their battle to a truly rockin’ conclusion!

Rock ’N’ Roll High School quickly developed a devoted following after its release in 1979 and became a mainstay of the midnight movie cult circuit. As with films like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, audience members began to dress up like the cast and the Ramones for screenings. Arkush, a self-described “unabashed rock ’n’ roll fanatic,” chose the Ramones to star as the film’s musical heroes, as he felt they epitomized pure rock ’n’ roll. As Arkush remembers, “We staged a live, marathon show at the Roxy Theatre that consisted of 22 hours of nonstop Ramones,” and the tireless quartet also wrote two songs for the film: “I Want You Around” and “Rock ’N’ Roll School.” The Ramones were fans of Corman as well. Johnny Ramone said in an interview at the time, “When we found out Roger Corman was behind the picture, we said, sure, we’ll do it because we knew he had a reputation and we knew he made good movies.”

ROCK ’N’ ROLL HIGH SCHOOL 30th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL EDITION
EXTENSIVE SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE:
New Anamorphic Widescreen Transfer (1.85:1)
Special Introduction And “Thank You” From Director Allan Arkush
Audio Commentary With Director Allan Arkush, Producer Mike Finnell And
Screenwriter Richard Whitley
Audio Commentary With Roger Corman And Dey Young
New Audio Commentary With Director Allan Arkush, P.J. Soles And Clint
Howard
Back To School: A Retrospective Including All-New Interviews With Allan Arkush, Roger Corman, Joe Dante, Dey Young, Marky Ramone And More . . .
Staying After Class: A Roundtable Interview With P.J. Soles, Vincent Van Patten And Dey Young
Interview With Roger Corman Conducted By Leonard Maltin
New Interview With Director Allan Arkush Including A Look At Rare, Behind-The-Scenes Stills From His Personal Collection
Audio Outtakes From The Roxy – Audio Recording Of The Ramones Shooting
The Final Scene
Original Radio Ads And TV Spots
Original Theatrical Trailer
Original Theatrical Trailer With Commentary By writer/director/actor Eli Roth Courtesy Of Trailers from Hell.
Additional Roger Corman Trailers
And more TBA!

Written and directed by Penelope Spheeris (Wayne’s World), featuring live performances by T.S.O.L., The Vandals and D.I., and starring Bill Coyne, Chris Pederson, Jennifer Clay and Christina Beck, 1984’s Suburbia deftly explores the punk rock generation and follows the unforgettable journey of two teenage boys who escape their unhappy home and join a group of runaways, punks who have banded together to form their own family. Dubbing themselves “The Rejected,” (aka T.R.), the teens have taken squatters’ rights in a filthy, abandoned house, and are bound together by tragedy and punk rock until they’re confronted by the “Citizens Against Crime,” a group of irascible adults from the suburbs who blame the punks for the ruin of their town. During the course of filming, the production used real kids for many parts in addition to professional actors (and includes the acting debut of Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea).

SUBURBIA COLLECTOR’S EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE:
New Anamorphic Widescreen Transfer (1.85:1)
Audio Commentary With Director Penelope Spheeris
New Audio Commentary
Theatrical Trailers
And more….

Following the release of the Rock ’N’ Roll High School 30th Anniversary DVD and Suburbia Collector’s Edition DVD, Shout! Factory will continue to present Roger Corman’s Cult Classics home entertainment releases on a monthly basis. Upcoming highlights include Death Race 2000, Battletruck (aka Warlords Of The 21st Century), Deathsport, Forbidden World, Galaxy Of Terror, Attack Of The Crab Monster, Not Of This Earth (1957), Piranha and Humanoids From The Deep, among others.


These first Roger Corman’s Cult Classics titles are sounding better and better all the time!  And what’s that?  Where’s the disc art you say?  Have a look:

Rock ‘N’ Roll High School (DVD / Blu-ray) and Suburbia (DVD) are both up for pre-order now at Amazon.com at a savings of 10% to 25% off retail.



Luigi Cozzi hits high definition hard – “Starcrash” Blu-ray due out this September from Shout! Factory

January 26th, 2010 | article by | 3 Comments »
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Details (as they currently stand) are available at Blu-ray.com

At least the bad news of the day (that the upcoming Blu-ray of Joe Dante’s Piranha is delayed until August 3rd) is tempered with great news, that Luigi Cozzi’s ridiculous spaghetti sci-fi epic Starcrash will be making its hi-definition debut just a month later, on September 7th.  Also newly announced for Blu-ray release is Death Race 2000 (street date June 22nd), recently remade by Paul W.S. Anderson as Death Race.  With Shout! Factory given access to the extensive New World library, we can expect more good things in the future.

Starcrash stars Caroline Munroe (At the Earth’s Core), Marjoe Gortner (Earthquake, Food of the Gods), David Hasselhoff (tv’s Knight Rider), and Christopher Plummer (The Sound of Music).  Special visual effects by Germano Natali (Monster Shark) and Armando Valcauda (Hercules).  Screenplay by Luigi Cozzi and Nat Wachsberger (The Mafia Wants Blood).  Original score by John Barry (King Kong, The Black Hole).  Directed by Luigi Cozzi.



Attack of the Giant Leeches

October 29th, 2009 | article by | No Comments »
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postera.k.a. The Giant Leeches
company: American International Pictures
year: 1959
runtime: 62′
country: United States
director: Bernard L. Kowalski
cast: Ken Clark, Yvette Vickers,
Jan Shepard, Michael Emmet,
Tyler McVey, Bruno VeSota
Order this film from Amazon.com

The rural folk living near a Florida game preserve are attacked by leeches that have grown to enormous size due to atomic contamination from nearby Cape Canaveral.  It’s up to a local doctor, the town sheriff, and a wildlife preservation specialist to stop them.

This is another of the poverty-row creature features produced by Roger Corman, in this case with an assist from brother Gene Corman, in the back end of the fifties before his popular cycle of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations began.  Released theatrically through American International Pictures in October of 1959, ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES is barely a feature at all with a running time of just a few ticks over an hour but undoubtedly drew in its target audience of exploitation-minded teens and pre-teens thanks to a wonderfully lurid poster showing the titular monsters hovering just above their mess of scantily clad and undoubtedly helpless female victims.

Like so many of the Corman productions of the time, ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES definitely earns some weirdness points for the nature of its key attraction.  The race of intelligent and radioactive people-sized leeches is certainly inspired in conception, if not so much in execution.  The floppy suits used to bring the beasts to life are reasonable enough in design in my estimation (just how does one judge the appearance of a giant leech suit anyway?) but look little more than clunky and awkward swimming about the Florida swamps.

Still, there are a few effectively gruesome vintage effects setups to be had along the way.  The most memorable, by far, is the sight of the leeches rising from the much of their cavern hideaway to feast on their collection of living victims, 002rendered helpless from loss of blood.  Director Bernard L. Kowalski [NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST] manages to generate some creepy atmosphere here, something that’s in short supply for the rest of the picture.

Its novel menace and a few scare scenes aside, ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES is a pretty dull affair hampered greatly by a paltry screenplay by Leo Gordon [THE WASP WOMAN].  A sleazy white-trash love triangle between sexy Yvette Vickers and her two beaus – a fat husband and a local miscreant – is good for laughs, but the rest is strictly by the books.  There’s some forced irony to our wildlife preservation specialist hero’s realization that not all animals are worth saving.  He ultimately dynamites the leeches’ swamp home after an hour of rallying against it on ethical grounds.

Performances are a mixed bag.  Lead Ken Clark makes for a thoroughly uninteresting hero while veteran bit actor Gene Roth [ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU] is wasted in his paltry role as the town sheriff.  Roth seems to have made quite a living 001in small roles, with over 250 to his credit.  The biggest draw among the cast is definitely Yvette Vickers [ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN], who has little to do but show off her physical charms.

Other aspects of the production are about what one might expect.  Decent if uninspired photography is handled by John M. Nickolaus Jr., who would go on to work on season one of the original THE OUTER LIMITS, alternating episodes with the up-and-coming Conrad Hall.  Direction by relative newcomer Kowalski is competent without being flashy, and undoubtedly earned him a few bucks on the way to a successful career in television.  Alexander Laszlo’s fine score is even better the second time around, having been composed originally for the earlier Corman cheapie NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST.

Rights to ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES have apparently fallen by the wayside, leaving it quite the easy film to find.  I’d be surrpised if half of you reading this article didn’t already own a copy or two of it due to its prevelence in those 003ultra-cheap “public domain” DVD sets put out by companies like Mill Creek and the like.  The copy I reviewed from is part of the Monsters 20 Movie Pack released by that company in 2005, and is smashed onto a dual layered disc with three other features.  There are innumerable options out there with regards to owning this one, so those looking to buy are encouraged to shop around.

If you’ve seen a Corman produced monster flick from this time period then you should already know what to expect.  This one is worth at least one trod through if only for a few moments of creepiness and Yvette Vickers’ legs.  Those for whom these simple pleasures are not enough should probably stear clear.



In the Year 2889

June 26th, 2009 | article by | No Comments »
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Azalea Pictures [1967] 80′
country: United States
director: LARRY BUCHANAN
cast: PAUL PETERSON, QUINN O’HARA,
cast: CHARLA DOHERTY, NEIL FLETCHER

After the success of their 1961 film MASTER OF THE WORLD, American International Pictures was itching to produce another fantastic film based on the works of Jules Verne – they acquired the rights to the short story IN THE YEAR 2889 in hopes of adapting it, but the project was shelved. Cut to 1967 – Larry Buchanan was working on another of his infamous AIP TV projects [pictures contracted for to fill out their syndication packages], his fourth such film, and needed a title. Having already purchased the rights to the story and refusing to waste perfectly good money, AIP attached the title of the short story to the new Buchanan film.

IN THE YEAR 2889 has absolutely nothing to do with the Jules Verne story from which it takes its namesake and is in no way futuristic science fiction – it is, instead, a near scene-for-scene remake of the Roger Corman’s post apocalyptic mutants-amok film THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED. Much of the dialogue remains intact in this updating, though the scope of the story [already limited to a single location to begin with] has been downsized a bit due to budgetary necessity [the budget for this TV production was around $20,000, compared to the roughly $90,000 expended on the Corman film].

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Zontar the Thing From Venus

December 19th, 2008 | article by | No Comments »
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Azalea Pictures [1966] 80′
country: United States
director: LARRY BUCHANAN
cast: JOHN AGAR, SUSAN BJURMAN,
cast: TONY HUSTON, PAT DELANEY

American International Pictures was doing a number of strange things under its television branch in the 1960′s – re-cutting Soviet space films to make them appear American, then re-cutting the re-cut Soviet space films for similar purposes, for instance, and unleashing all manner of pan-and-scanned monster horrors from the great land of Japan [THE MAGIC SERPENT and the majority of the original Gamera series, as well as the first two Daimajin films]. In what is perhaps the studio’s strangest move at the time, they contracted a man to pad out their TV syndication packages by re-filming a number of their earlier cheapies at budgets that would have offended even Roger Corman, director of several of the films to be remade.

That man was a Texan, a father, and a husband – it is still arguable, however, as to whether or not he could be classified as a film-maker. He was Larry Buchanan, and his second production for the company, ZONTAR THE THING FROM VENUS [an all-but-in-name remake of the 1956 cult classic IT CONQUERED THE WORLD], first tormented the television watching masses in 1966.

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It Conquered the World

December 19th, 2008 | article by | No Comments »
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American International Pictures [1956] 71′
country: United States
director: ROGER CORMAN
cast: PETER GRAVES, LEE VAN CLEEF,
cast: BEVERLY GARLAND, SALLY FRASER

Roger Corman is nothing if not prolific – having produced 385 films [just over 7 a year since 1954] and directed a comparatively slim 55, the producer/director/writer and sometimes actor has become a household name. At least he has in those corners where they prefer their cinema hard, fast, and cheap.

IT CONQUERED THE WORLD is a picture from a time when Corman productions were not quite so fast – he would direct only three films in 1956, a number disparagingly trumped by the 9 he was to helm the following year. He was quick in recognizing the market potential of low budget creature features after the success of his meagerly produced MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR and THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED [made for just over $100,000 combined] and, thusly, this 1956 effort was born with all the trademarks of a Corman creature feature intact.

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