Well, they weren't always that bad . . .

Corman is a decent director when he cares. He just didn’t care a lot of the time.

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Corman’s editing instincts could be well used in this modern era of grotesque bloat masquerading as quality.
I’m sure it wouldn’t cost much to hire him, either.

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I think he cared; it just came second to money.

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Well, it is that time of year when we will all be re-gifted once again with Milton DeLugg’s holiday classic, “Hooray For Santa Claus”. A good way to try to forget that ditty might be to try singing one of Mr. DeLugg’s hit songs instead. For example:

or

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Holy Toledo! That Cole ditty has been a fave of mine since I was 7 or 8 years old! But I had no idea about the MST3K connection! :bouquet: :heart_eyes_cat:

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Bradford Dillman also narrated The Atomic Brain (1963).

I saw this in the theater a couple years ago, and it was definitely not what I was expecting. Still great though!

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The two versions of D.O.A. perhaps?

Robby Benson of City Limits fame would go on to voice The Beast in Disney’s Beauty & The Beast and many tie-in media (such as the Kingdom Hearts franchise).

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Dean Devlin was also in City Limits. He would go on to co-direct Independence Day.

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Whether or not that counts as a “good movie” is the subject for much debate. I enjoy it, certainly, but it’s also really, really goofy.

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It wasn’t a good movie, I just thought I’d add that factoid.

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I.e. he had it or he didn’t.

Well, they’re still alive, though. It’s just a “whodunnit” on a clock. I’m thinking more like, oh, “Lady in White” or “Stir of Echoes”, where a ghost reveals his murderer, only with the ghost being the main character.

As someone who grew up on Corman films and considers himself a fan, I think he made many entertaining pictures and quite a few that were even “good”. But I think his obsession with not taking a risk kept him from ever making a great movie.

Like, it’s great that he never lost a dime, but he couldn’t get over his budget issues with Jack Nicholson enough to back Easy Rider. The scheme the majors used–essentially financing their riskier pictures with the safer bets–was not a bad one.

In his defense, I will say there’s as aspect of humility in that I really respect, in that he never thought he knew better than the audience.

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As another fan, I think this is an entirely fair analysis. He will (or at least should) go down in film history for having and produced many entertaining films. However, I think he always saw (and sees because he is still alive) himself as first and foremost as a craftsman rather than “artist.” As as result, he bypassed the chance to be make a “Great Film” by taking a chance.

You know that being said, I once had a conversation with David Weber, the writer of the Honor Harrington novels. These books are military science fiction/space opera. No one’s ever claimed, that I know of anyway, that any of them were the Great American Novel or really anything but entertainment. People love them, though , and they’re bestsellers.

Mr. Weber said that in his opinion there were two kinds of people who write books - writers and authors. Authors try to write the Great Novel, more or less for critics and academics. Writers write stories. However, he noted that the people we remember, whose work we remember like Dickens and Shakespeare, were writers. He said he would much rather be a writer than an author.

I don’t know if I 100% agree with all that, but there is truth there . I think about that conversation when considering Roger Corman. I think he is a guy who tries to make movies people will come to see. There actually is insight in most of them - even, yes, the Gunslinger - but at heart they are really just stories he is trying to tell which he hopes people will enjoy and will make him some money. IMO, most of them achieve his goal, and I think we agree that there’s nothing wrong with that.

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I feel obligated to be the killjoy who points out that Corman’s legendary cheapness routinely endangered his casts and crews, too. The wiki for Gunslinger has some doozies about that. The page for Viking Women used to have some mind-blowing stuff on it as well, before someone scrubbed it. :confused:

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Viking Women is not one of Roger Corman’s best. Or even in the top 3/4. I’m glad no one died bring it to the screen. Not that any film would be a worth skimping on safety. I’m just saying.

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It’s a bad, bad movie but a great, great episode. One of my enduring favorites.

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Oh, man, I really wish more modern filmmakers felt this way. I can put up with bad writing and gaping plot-holes if the movie is fun, but not if the director’s convinced he’s some kind of unappreciated genius and thinks slapping a blue filter on every shot makes it deep and arty.

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So…Zack Snyder then.

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