When it came to showmanship on a low budget, Roger Corman was a learn. The beloved producer, who died Thursday at his Santa Monica dwelling at the age of 98, turned a Hollywood icon for manufacturing a multitude of thriving movies on a shoestring, which acquired him the title “King of the B’s.”
Quite a few of the movies also served as instruction grounds for quite a few prominent filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola, Jack Nicholson, Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, James Cameron, Sylvester Stallone and numerous other individuals.
While the checklist of cult classics and drive-in theater gems could fill a lengthy scroll, the next examples screen the magic Corman contact.
1. “Eat My Dust!” (1976): This wild auto chase comedy about the son of a sheriff and his girlfriend heading for a joy trip in a stolen motor vehicle was the launchpad for Howard’s vocation as an award-winning director, proving he was no longer the minor boy on “The Andy Griffith Clearly show.” (Primary Movie).
2. “The Minor Shop of Horrors” (1960). Corman directed this comedy about a hapless florist’s assistant who raises a plant that craves human blood. The solid incorporates a young Jack Nicholson. The story gained new life decades later as a Broadway musical and a strike movie starring Rick Moranis and Steve Martin. (The Roku Channel).
3. “Death Race 2000” (1975). David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone star in this quickly-paced sci-fi epic about the Transcontinental Dying Race, in which drivers collect details for killing spectators and pedestrians. The tagline: “In the 12 months 2000, strike-and-operate driving is no extended a felony. It is the national sport!” (Tubi).
4. “The Wild Angels” (1966). Corman’s fascination in the Hells Angels was the spark for this movie, which helped launch the outlaw biker style. Peter Fonda, Nancy Sinatra, Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd starred in this film about a fictitious motorcycle gang (Prime Video clip).
5. “Piranha” (1978). Soon after “Jaws,” there was “Piranha.” Corman was the government producer of this horror movie about a mass of flesh-feeding on piranhas infesting a river. Joe Dante (“Gremlins”) directed from a screenplay by John Sayles (“Eight Guys Out.”) (Roku).