Roger Corman

Roger who? The name may not ring a bell but his films certainly will: Attack Of The Crab Monsters, The Little Shop Of Horrors, The Masque Of The Red Death, A Bucket Of Blood and dozens more. Roger Corman was the king of the B-movies, directing around fifty movies between 1954 and 1970. Shot at breakneck speed on shoestring budgets with cast and crew often filling more than one role, no-one made them cheaper, faster or better than Corman.

His retirement into production saw his companies output follow the same ethic as well as providing directors such as Bergman, Fellini and Kurosawa with a wider audience. Meanwhile, those working under Corman's aegis included many of Hollywoods future A-list such as Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, Ron Howard and Francis Ford Coppola.

With Hollywood now out-Cormanning Corman on everything but budgets and speed, his name remains a watchword for independent filmmaking from straight-to-video schlockmeisters such as Fred Olen Ray to the guerrilla film-making tactics of Myrick and Sanchez's The Blair Witch Project.

As well as an introductory essay, this book traces Cormans career through the exploitation movie industry and reviews all of his directorial output. It examines the films produced by his companies, New World and Concorde/New Horizons, including the remakes of his own movies such as Not Of This Earth and The Wasp Woman. The book also provides a potted biography section of those actors and filmmakers whose work with Corman acted as a springboard to stardom.