Roger Corman, the independent filmmaker known as the “King of the Bs,” has died at the age of 98.
The Oscar-winning director and producer blazed trails in the world of independent cinema, working his way up from story reader and screenwriter before producing his first feature at age 28 (1954’s Monster from the Ocean Floor). That film would lead to another, and another, and another until Corman eclipsed more than 300 features.
While he was often referred to as the “King of the Bs,” Corman didn’t much care for the distinction. He was a film peddler. It just so happened the wares he peddled were low-budget exploitation films. Made cheap and fast, Corman cinema climbed as Old Hollywood’s dominance began to crumble. He would be “The Spiritual Godfather of the New Hollywood” with productions that allowed Hollywood’s future stars and filmmakers to learn on the fly.
“From science fiction to horror, Westerns to cops, robbers to killers, Roger Corman created his own magic at the movies.” – D Mark Schumann
Academic institutions and film theory for aspiring directors is one thing. Courses at the Corman Film School grade on a different curve. Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Peter Bogdanovich, Jonathan Demme, Gale Anne Hurd, James Cameron, Joe Dante, John Sayles, Curtis Hanson, Carl Franklin, James Horner, and Polly Platt were among its graduates. And the acting talent that walked into frame is just as ridiculous. The list includes Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Diane Ladd, Bruce Dern, and William Shatner.
“Without Roger we wouldn’t have The Godfather. The Silence of the Lambs. Apollo 13. Avatar. Goodfellas. Easy Rider.” says Alan Cerny, writer with Vital Thrills and co-host of the Matinee Heroes podcast. “You want to celebrate Roger Corman today? Watch a movie. Any movie. That’s how big he was to cinema. There is nothing he hasn’t influenced or touched in some way.”
If looking at Corman’s legacy through B-movie goggles, you are missing out on the underappreciated greatness he has given cinema. At a time when major studios were shifting away from distributing foreign arthouse pictures in the 1970s, his production company, New World Pictures, became the U.S. distributor for films from Ingmar Bergman (Cries and Whispers), Francois Truffaut (The Story of Adele H.), Peter Weir (The Cars That Ate Paris), Federico Fellini (Amarcord), and Akira Kurosawa (Dersu Uzala) among others.
In 2020, the Houston Film Critics Society gave Roger Corman a Lifetime Achievement Award honor as part of its annual awards ceremony inside the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. The night was made even more special as Corman was in attendance to accept the honor. Gracious with his time, he would also take part in a Q&A during a revival screening of 1964’s The Masque of the Red Death starring Vincent Price. The film is the penultimate release in a series of eight Corman film adaptations based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe.
Founding member Regina Scruggs and Joshua Starnes, coordinator of the Texas Independent Film Award (TIFA) committee, have fond recollections in talking with Corman during his trip to Houston. “Roger was better than his reputation,” recalls Scruggs. “In his 55 films there is evident an economy not only of budget but often of style.” That economy also extends to length, apparently. During a critics breakfast, Starnes remembers Corman talking about giving his reactions to Scorsese about his newest feature, The Irishman. “I thought I could take an hour out of it.”
That feels like everything you need to know about Roger Corman.
D Mark Schumann, longtime Houston film critic, says when it came to how his movie patterns formed in the 1960s he could always count on American International Pictures, the production company for which Roger Corman was its leading filmmaker. “There was little risk the movie would be very good, or remembered at Oscar time, but it would never bore. From science fiction to horror, Westerns to cops, robbers to killers, Roger Corman created his own magic at the movies.”
Visionary is a broadly defined marketing term that gets thrown around loosely, and is wrongfully bestowed too early nowadays. Corman didn’t set out to be a visionary or redefine the landscape of cinema, but he did just that. With longevity comes experience, and with experience comes influence and admiration. The Dean of Drive-Ins was a mentor to many and a friend to many more. His film DNA continues and will continue to course through modern Hollywood.
And we’ll continue to watch.
