While the Corman films featured on MST3K are a far cry from being masterpieces, not everything he was involved with was irredeemably bad schlock. Some of the schlock he produced was reasonably good, or at least could qualify as guilty pleasures. So the question is which Corman production(s) do you like? I personally enjoy Death Race 2000 for its darkly humorous tone.
So many to choose from, but I will have to go with “Pit and the Pendulum” and genuinely creepy little horror outing starring Vincent Price.
What’s your pick?
Please keep those suggestions coming!
) to help our users cope with "trolls" and other commenters whom they find annoying. Go to our
@ #21: That’s why I specified Corman productions, so as to include films where he was just the producer.
I’ve been meaning to check out The Haunted Palace, as I’ve heard that it’s a reasonably faithful adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. It’s nonexistence on Netflix has been something of a hurdle, though.
The Man with the X-Ray Eyes is one of my favorite films. Ray Milland turns a great performance as a man being overwhelmed by his perceptions. It works as a tale of scientific hubris, deific arrogance, or mental illness. Before being treated for my clinical depression I wanted to cancel my perceptions and consciousness [spoiler alert] like Ray at the end of the film, but I knew that simply removing my physical eyes wouldn’t stop the perceptions I couldn’t stand. Hence I can really relate to the alleged “I can still see” ending. Anyway, I take my medication seriously. And a bad day for me now is a lot better than what my best days used to be like. So I’m in a good place. Glad I never killed myself. Not even once.
Back to Corman, check out The Trip. It has Peter Fonda and Roger had a good time dropping acid before he made the movie.
Its been a long time since I last saw it, but I have enjoyed “Creature from the Haunted Sea”. A story, dialogue, characters, and monster meant as parody comedy. It made me laugh, and not just because of any “OMG-shake-your-head-at-the-badness” reaction. Also, when I was a kid in the 1960s, Corman involved movies like “Attack of the Giant Leeches” and “The Wasp Woman” had, for the time, some pretty explicit violence that scared the crap out of me. I have a phobia about leeches, and when I saw the giant leeches sucking the blood from their victims, it was pretty traumatizing. The Wasp Woman attacks and feeding creeped me out also. Sometimes I wish I could experience that innocent, almost virginal reaction to things never seen, heard, or felt before. But neither will I engage in a self-inflicted monsoon of nostalgia about it. I’m just glad that in 2013, we have access to our choice of thousands upon thousands of horror, science fiction, and fantasy offerings. Whether excellent, good, mediocre, flawed or just plain awful, there is something for everyone.
Eenie, Meanie, Miney Woah! This party is really percolating! Scooby-Doo!
My favorite is THE TRIP (1967). Directed by Roger Corman with a script by Jack Nicholson. Peter Fonda decides to take LSD and the whole movie is his “trip” with crazy visuals and psychedelic music.
I liked a number of Corman movies and of the ones on MST3K “The Undead” was the best. Pretty well done considering the usual miniscule budget of a Corman movie at that time. Allison Hayes as the witch was reason alone to watch that one.
I’m with you on The Pit and the Pendulum watched it the first time Junior year of high school, think I was the only one paying attention.
Also enjoy the Giant Leaches unriffed.
@45 “Roger Corman was executive producer at New World during the 70?s-80?s, so they’re technically not “his” films, any more than anything made at MGM in the 30?s was “a Louis B. Mayer film”.”
Seeing as how this whole weekend topic was started with a mention of Death Race 2000, I should think that anything Corman had a hand in should be mentioned as being fair game. For instance for Piranha, I know that Jon Davison produced the movie, John Sayles wrote the screenplay, and Joe Dante directed it. But Corman’s studio produced it and he definitely had a say in the final product, after all his company New World was financing these movies. If anything Corman had more of a say as a producer at New World, as opposed to the films he directed for AIP, where Nicholson and Arkoff reigned supreme.
He never took a backseat and just released whatever Dante or Arkush or Demme or Howard did. Corman looked over what they were doing beforehand, budgeted to what he saw was adequate and in most cases even less, had a hand in casting, presold it for distribution, and went over the final film, sometimes to a filmmaker’s chagrin as what happened to a certain degree in Humanoids From The Deep.
Shout Factory wasn’t wrong when they labeled these films as “Corman Cult Classics” for DVD release. Without his production company, these films wouldn’t exist or wouldn’t have had the major release that they had after he purchased them. But his studio was never as blindly democratic as for instance American Zoetrope set out to be and ultimately failed. Roger had his hands all over the films New World and later companies such as Concorde released. So I know I have no problem labeling these as “his” movies, because they ultimately were. Some of the talents underneath him chafed a bit at this and ultimately went out on their own. Others acknowledged Corman’s input and appreciated what he did for their films and their careers.
Blazing Saddles…Aww, I thought this was about HARVEY KORMAN movies!
“The Undead” is my favorite just for putting Allison Hayes in a tight slinky outfit. :)
Your right guys, if she wants a zipper, she can have a zipper!! OwwwoooooooO!!!
The original Little Shop of Horrors is fun, and one of the few movies that could be considered a comedy that RiffTrax has done.
Undead is a good one, Allison Hayes is always good to watch and Pamela Duncan is also nice to look at.
Servo: I’d like to fleabomb her!
Servo: Showcasing breasts!
My favorite Corman double feature would be comprised of “Death Race 2000” and “Rock N’ Roll High School”. I remember renting Death Race for the first time when I was 17 or so and I couldn’t believe my eyes. Over the years the impact of the violence has been overtaken by the goofiness of the production and Stallone’s over the top tough guy hilarity. For a Ramones fan, you can’t get much better than RRHS, plus P.J. Soles!
#27 – Just saw Carnosaur a couple of months ago. Pretty rotten. Don’t watch it again lest your warm fuzzies turn sour.
For a Julie Corman production, how about The Nest? Your flesheating cockroach movies don’t get much better than that. And recently released on Blu-ray/DVD combo pack. Get yours today!
I actually liked It Conquered the World – I could watch that unMSTed anytime. As for non-MSTed films, I kind of like the Poe pictures, but I think my favorites are the original Little Shop of Horrors, X – The Man with X-Ray Eyes (with a classic Don Rickles scene), and Frankenstein Unbound. I also thought GASSSSS was kind of weird…
TV Guide did an article years ago about the release of some Corman collection (probably the Poe films – I don’t remember), and it started with something like, “Maybe the reason the movie-razzers of Mystery Science Theater 3000 don’t like Roger Corman is because Dr F never sends them any of his GOOD films.” They do exist.
But someone should tell him he doesn’t have to reboot them every few years. He’s remade Not of This Earth about three times, and each time it got worse. And what the heck was the point of the remake of Teenage Caveman? If you tell us up front that it’s NOT prehistoric, what’s the point?
The Undead. I love that film.
It is one crappy movie, but Attack Of The Crab Monsters is just plain fun to watch. The giant crab moves at a snail’s pace. How can they not get away from it?
Pretty much the entire Poe series, including “The Haunted Palace” which is actually Lovecraft, and “The Premature Burial” with Ray Milland.
Truly, “The Intruder” is one hundred percent the real deal, as other have mentioned. Naturally, as it was a film where Corman actually cared deeply about the message and content beyond turning a profit, it was his first film to lose money at the box office.
“I Never Promised You a Rose Garden”, a Corman production, to me wasn’t that bad. The wasteland scenes of the Kingdom of Yr predated some of the desert scenes of the “Mad Max” movies by a few years and it was Kathleen Quinlan’s breakthrough performance. It also had a few notable cast members: Lorraine Gary who was Ellen Brody in the “Jaws” movies, Sylvia Sidney who probably best known in this era in the Tim Burton films “Beetlejuice” (as Juno) and “Mars Attacks” (the old lady with the Slim Whitman records) and and brief appearance by………..Clint Howard portraying a normal, non creepy person!
The Intruder starring William Shatner. But I’m pretty sure this movie is unriffable, and if you’ve seen it you know what I am typing about.
Frankenstein Unbound.
If Dick Miller is in the film, it is perforce good. He makes any of Corman’s clunkers at least interesting to watch.
I’d have to go with “the trip” starring peter fonda. It attempted to show the “real” affects of LSD. It was weird, but good (and truthful, not that i would know, lol). GREAT FILM!!!!
Pit and the Pedulum is by far my favorite RC film
If you want to improve your knowledge simply keep visiting this web page and
be updated with the newest news update posted here.
Review my blog post; vintage piece