The fabled "King of the B’s" producer and director influenced the careers of Jack Nicholson, Ron Howard, Peter Bogdanovich, Martin Scorsese,
Remembering Roger Corman 1926-2024
This one hurts! One of the giants of indie film Roger Corman has died at 98. While he might have been known for B movies, his influence is immeasurable to all movies (A-Z).
If there was some sort of an It's a Wonderful Life scenario where we could see what life would be like if Corman hadn't been born, the entire history of film would look very different. As a producer / director / writer, he discovered and gave early career breaks to Jack Nicholson, Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Sylvester Stallone, Joe Dante, Ron Howard, Alan Arkush, John Sayles, James Cameron, Gale Ann Hurd and countless others. In 2010 when Corman received an honorary Academy Award, Quentin Tarantino did the tribute. Afterwards QT posed for a photo with many of Corman's proteges and made reference to feeling like he was an honorary member of the Corman Film School!
Demme directing Corman in Silence of the Lambs. The student became the master!
But most notably for me is that he discovered one of my favorite filmmakers of all time Jonathan Demme. Early Corman-produced films that Demme worked on included Angels Hard as They Come, and The Hot Box. Then the first three features Demme directed were for Corman's New World Pictures: Caged Heat, Crazy Mama, and Fighting Mad. Once he moved on to bigger films, Demme never forgot Corman as he cast him in small roles in Swing Shift, The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, The Manchurian Candidate, and Rachel Getting Married. One of the things Demme talked about quite often that Corman taught him was that you need to keep the eye engaged in a film, because if the eye gets bored, the brain (and the viewer) will too, and also that the picture will only be as strong as the hero and antagonist. In 2010 when Demme received an award from Coolidge Corner Theatre, Corman was in attendance and spoke as well. My friend Jake Mulligan taught a class about Corman at the Coolidge a few years ago and had a section about Demme and Corman as well.
Bucket of Blood movie poster
In all of this praise about Corman as a producer and the "Corman Film School" of directors he gave early opportunities to, it's easy to overlook his own directing. My favorite of his own films are the underrated A Bucket of Blood (having a lot to say about beatniks and the art world) and The Little Shop of Horrors (featuring Jack Nicholson in an early role as an eager patient).
In my own directing class in college, my professor would often make reference to Corman, not just the themes and ideas in his films but his approach to low-budget filmmaking. If you've ever seen Corman in an interview you can't help but absorb his bits of wisdom.
I'd highly recommend checking out the 2011 documentary Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel for more about the man himself. I included it in my Best Documentaries of the 2010s list.
The link above is the obit from Hollywood Reporter.
