25 Dec 1928 – 30 Jan 2019
The American thespian treasure known as
Dick Miller, one of
our all-time favorite character actors, entered the Great Nothingness on January 30th, 2019.
A
Bronx-born Christmas Day present to the world, Miller entered the film biz doing
redface back in 1956 in the Roger Corman western Apache Woman (trailer). He
quickly became a Corman regular and, as a result, became a favorite face for an
inordinate amount of modern and contemporary movie directors, particularly
those weaned and teethed in Corman productions. (Miller, for example, appears
in every movie Joe Dante has made to date.)
A working thespian to the end,
Miller's last film, the independent horror movie Hanukkah (trailer), starring
fellow low culture thespian treasure Sid Haig, just finished production. In it,
as in many of Miller's films, his character is named Walter Paisley in homage
to his first truly great lead role, that of the loser killer artist/busboy Walter Paisley in Roger
Corman's classic black comedy, A Bucket of Blood (1959).
What follows is a multi-part career review in which we look at the feature films in which he appeared. The films are not necessarily looked at in the order of
their release... and if we missed one, let us know.
Apache Woman
(1955, dir. Roger Corman)
(1955, dir. Roger Corman)
Written by Lou
Rusoff (3 Aug 1911 – 29 June 1963), who died of brain cancer during the editing
of his final film, Beach Party (1963 / trailer).
The title Apache Woman was reused in
1976 for the English-language release of Giorgio Mariuzzo's Spaghetti Western Una donna chiamata Apache (trailer), which does not feature Dick Miller.
The plot, as
supplied by Dennis Schwartz at Ozus' World Movie Reviews:
"At a small Arizona town, the government agent Rex Moffet (Lloyd Bridges [15
Jan 1913 – 10 March 1998]) investigates a string of deadly robberies. Apaches
from the nearby peaceful reservation are the prime suspects, and receive the
enmity from the white locals. Joan Taylor (18 Aug 1929 – 4 March 2012) plays [Anne
LeBeau,] the half-breed that Bridges falls for. Lance Fuller (6 Dec 1928 – 22
Dec 2001) plays Taylor's demented college-educated brother [Armand LeBeau], who
is the mastermind of a white gang behind the robberies." Miller can be
seen in the image below: he's the guy to your far left with the bowler.
"Cult
director Roger Corman's low-budget ($80,000) second feature Apache Woman (1955) is an interesting
and capable if fairly tame (by his standards) Western, notable for his attempt
to mix action with romance, an anti-racial prejudice message, and some bright
comic relief from Keystone funny man Chester Conklin (11 Jan 1886 – 11 Oct 1971)
in a supporting role as the town crazy man. [derek winnert.com]"
Forgotten Lance
Fuller (bad guy LeBeau), by the way, is also found (and credited) in such fun stuff as the Ed
Wood Jr-scripted The Bride and the Beast (1958 /
trailer), Voodoo
Woman (1957 / trailer), and The
She-Creature (1956 / see further below). His first role, uncredited, was in the
background of Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943 / trailer).
Of his debut in Apache Woman, Dick Miller told AV Film
in 2012: "So I was playing an Indian for [Corman]. No lines. There was a
scene where a guy's coming around the corner, and he says to [co-star] Lance
[Fuller], 'You got to shoot him!' Lance says, 'I'm over here at that time with
the girl. Let Dick do it!' And then there was another one like that. And it was
one of these things where just by chance I wound up the killer. Killed about
four people in it, you know, for no reason. And I got one line, and I never
knew what it meant. Lance Fuller was playing my boss, and I say, 'Good chief,
you chief now.' And he doesn't know what I'm saying either. We still don't
know."
Below, Joan
Taylor wearing her PI Halloween squaw outfit from the film. What gams.
It Conquered the World
(1956, dir. Roger Corman)
"Okay, THIS
is how you do a stellar 'lingerie-wearing girl terrified of a monster' poster.
The distressed damsel looks genuinely terrified and the monster [at least on
the poster] looks pretty scary. The actual film version of the baddie wound up
looking like a reject from the Sid and Marty Krofft
workshop [...]. [Topless Robot]"
It Conquered the World was
shot in five days and, eventually, released on a double bill — anyone still
remember them and/or triple features? — The
She-Creature (1956 / see further below). Some ten years later, in 1966, the
legendary grindhouse schlockmeister Larry Buchanan (31 Jan 1923 – 2 Dec 2004)
remade the It Conquered the World as Zontar, the Thing from Venus
(1966 / trailer).
The plot, as
given by (Re)Search My Trash:
"The USA sends its first satellite into outer space from some small
village in the middle of nowhere under the supervision of scientist Dr Paul
(Peter Graves [18 March 1926 – 14 March 2010]), while his best friend Dr Tom
(Lee Van Cleef [9 Jan 1925 – 16 Dec 1989], of Kansas City Confidential
[1952]) warns those in command that the expedition will launch an alien
invasion. This is the 1950s, so of course Tom is right and aliens — or rather
an alien, a carrot-like monster from Venus — land on earth. But the alien soon
befriends Tom and makes him a vital part of his invasion plans since he serves
as the Venusians perfect agent and is actually made into a believer of
collective brainwashing to prevent future wars in no time — and without having
his own brain washed, actually. He soon helps the alien to spread bat-like
brainwashing devices throughout his village, but only 8 of them, because the
Venusians are obviously slow to produce those things. One such brainwashing
device should have been attached to Paul, actually, but he was already given
advance warning by Tom's weird behaviour and weirder theories and was able to
destroy the one meant for him, and he even shoots his wife (Sally Fraser [12
Dec 1932 – 9 Feb 2019] of War of the
Colossal Beast [1958 / trailer]
and Giant from the Unknown [1958 /
trailer]),
who had undergone the alien treatment. Then he pays Tom a visit to
talk/beat/shoot some sense into him, but Tom only comes to his senses when he
hears the alien kill his wife (Beverly Garland [17 Oct 1926 – 5 Dec 2008] of D.O.A. [1949 / full P.D. movie])
via intercom. Then he takes it upon himself to destroy the Venusian which is
already under attack by an entire army of eight soldiers* (commandeered by Dick
Miller) — but of course it's Tom who's allowed to kill the alien and redeem
himself dying a hero's death... "
* "The infamous "Sixth Man":
The eight-man squad led by Dick Miller and Jonathan Haze goes to the cave and
leaves the two-man bazooka team outside. Six men enter the cave, but when they
reach the monster's lair, there are only five men. The missing sixth man never
reappears. [imdb]"
Trailer to
The She-Creature:
"Portions
of the film, including the sequence in which people rush in panic through the
small town of 'Beachwood', were shot on location in Hollywood, CA's Beachwood Canyon,
in front of the Beachwood Market and adjacent shops in an area called
Hollywoodland. The same neighborhood had also been used the previous year as a
location for Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 / trailer).
[AFI]"
"What a
resounding title, huh? Say it with me: It Conquered the World. Grand.
Sensational, yet dignified. And far more likely to get people to come see your
movie than It Conquered Beachwood, which is what this movie probably
should have been called, seeing as the small, rural town of Beachwood is all
'It' manages to conquer, and only temporarily at that. Another title that
should perhaps have been considered is Roger Corman Presents: How to Make 71
Minutes Seem Like Three Days. [1000 Misspent Hours]"
The Oklahoma Woman
(1956, dir. Roger Corman)
Gee, another
1956 quickie directed by Corman and written by Lou Rusoff. This western is the
third of the four westerns Corman ever directed (prior to the previously
mentioned Apache Woman, Corman had
made Five Guns West [1955 / trailer],
and following Oklahoma Woman he did Gunslinger [1956], which we look at
later.) The Oklahoma Woman was
eventually released as part of a rather incongruent double feature with a Bruno
VeSota* (25 March 1922 – 24 Sept 1976) directed cheapie, Female Jungle (1954 / full movie further below). Currently, The Oklahoma Woman has disappeared into the
void, without even a trailer to be found online.
* Cult fave Bruno VeSota, film fanatics might
remember, is found in any number of cult faves, including Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959) and The Wasp Woman (1959), but above all plays the main heavy
in the surrealist Beat Horror masterpiece, Dementia
(1955 / full film).
VeSota's
Female Jungle:
Female Jungle:
Derek Winnert
has the plot: "Richard Denning (27 March 1914 – 11 Oct 1998) stars the
ex-convict gunslinger Steve Ward, who returns to Oklahoma after six years in
jail to claim his homestead, a ranch left to him in a will. But there in
Oklahoma the locals are fighting. His former girl Marie 'Oklahoma' Saunders
(Peggie Castle [22 Dec 1927 – 11 Aug 1973]), the Oklahoma Woman, leads the bad
guys, including shootist Tom Blake (Mike Connors aka Touch Connors [15 Aug
1925 – 26 Jan 2017] of Moon of the Wolf
[1972]), who plan to put a tame candidate in the US Senate. They are opposed by
kindly, decent politician Ed Grant (Tudor Owen [20 Jan 1898 – 13 March
1979]) and his sweet daughter Susan Grant (Cathy Downs [3 March 1926 – 8
Dec 1976])." Dick Miller, credited as Richard Miller, appears as the
bartender working in the Bad Gal's bar.
"[…] The Oklahoma Woman's poster stands out
for a pair of reasons and we don't mean boobs. Well, technically, we do. You
don't see a lot of western posters with women whipping men or two women either
fighting or making out. And this was in the '50s! We fully support these
elements making a comeback in modern westerns. [Topless Robot]"
While hardly an
early women's lib tract, this obscure and difficult to find movie does stand out as a
rare western in that the lead bad guy is a bad girl, and the lead good girl has
a fistfight with the bad girl at the end of the movie to get the info she needs
to save her man… As Once Upon a Time in a Western
says, The Oklahoma Woman "is
unique for having two females who aren't afraid to wield a gun or a whip in
lead roles."
Lead man Richard
Denning, by the way, was the husband of the great Scream Queen Evelyn Ankers
(17 Aug 1918 – 29 Aug 1985), "the only actress to appear in a Wolf Man,
Dracula, and Frankenstein film. She played Gwen Conliffe in The Wolf Man (1941 / trailer),
in Son of Dracula (1943 / trailer)
she played Claire Caldwell and she appeared in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942 / trailer)
as Elsa Frankenstein."
Gunslinger
(1956, dir. Roger Corman)
Screenplay by Charles
B Griffith and Mark Hanna (12 Jan 1917 – 16 Oct 2006); year's later, Hanna
co-wrote the entertaining Blaxploitation flick, Slaughter (1972 / trailer).
Gunslinger only made it to Germany
in 1961, where the poster (above) was supplied by Klaus Dill
(6 Oct 1922 – 19 Feb 2000).
"Sexy B-movie icons
Beverly Garland and Allison Hayes enthusiastically enact a Johnny Guitar-like (1954 / trailer)
enmity in Roger Corman's offbeat feminist western-cum-Greek tragedy. The climax
is a sort of a mini-budget Duel in the
Sun (1946 / trailer)." Gunslinger is possibly the first western to have a female
marshal.
* As we mentioned at R.I.P. Umberto Lenzi, Part II: 1964-68, "According to forgotten actress
Joanne Dru (31 Jan 1922 – 10 Sept 1996), Ireland's 'staunch Republican' wife
from 1949 to 57, Ireland was hung like a horse: 'I got John, and he ruined me
for all other men. […] John, I'm sure, had more than Monty [Clift], Marlon
[Brando] and Jimmy [Dean] put together.' [Brando
Unzipped, by Darwin Porter]"
Male lead: He of
the legendary third leg, John "The Whopper" Ireland (30 Jan 1914 – 21
March 1992).* Dick Miller, credited as Richard Miller, plays Jimmy Tonto —
spoiler: Bad Gal (Allison Hayes) shoots him in the back and dead. In fact:
"Just about everyone in town ends up getting shot, ha ha! There's not much
of a town left by the time Sheriff Bev canters her way out past the bodies of
Corman stock players that are stacked like cordwood along the roadside! [Ha ha, it's Burl!]"
Derek Winnert
once again has the plot: "Heroine Rose Hood (Beverly Garland) turns into
temporary Texas small town marshal after her husband is ambushed and gunned
down. Then she is the target for quick-draw hired gunfighter killer Cane
Miro (John Ireland of Salon Kitty
[1976]), hired by gorgeous but nasty saloon owner Erica Page (Alison Hayes
[6 March 1930 – 27 Feb 1977], seen below not from the movie)." Winnert
goes on to share with us that "[…] Hayes broke her arm when she fell
off a horse during the filming. Garland claimed it was not an accident and
that she intentionally slid from her horse to get out of the film.
Corman also shot a couple of close-ups of Hayes while they were waiting
for her ambulance."
As Video Vacuum
points out, Gunslinger is a "feminist western": "It features a female
lead that is just as tough and quick on the draw as just about anyone in
westerns at the time. Beverly Garland gives one of her best performances as the
wife of a small town marshal (William Schallert [6 July 1922 – 8 May 2016]). He
gets shot in the back in the opening scene and instead of grieving; Beverly
immediately picks up his rifle […]. […] What's cool about Gunslinger is that no one really questions her. They accept Garland
as a superior, or at the very least, an equal. […] The always awesome Allison (Attack of the 50 Foot Woman [1958 / trailer])
Hayes plays the villainess, a saloon owner who is plotting to take over the
town if the railroad comes through. […] Garland and Hayes are equals in this.
They play off each other rather well and both of them get lots of opportunities
to shine. In your typical western, these roles would've been played by men and
they would've been fighting over the affections of a woman. Here, John Ireland
is the object of their affection, and since he is just as good of a shot as
Garland is, it offers a unique dynamic than your average oater."
Unlike Video Vacuum, most people are less
enamored by the movie and tend to think more like Film Fanatic,
which calls the final shoot out "(unintentionally) humorous" and
says: "Roger Corman's penchant for spending as little time and money as
possible while churning out passable entertainment occasionally yielded
unexpected cult hits […]. Just as often, however, his films show ample,
unfortunate evidence of his slapdash approach — and Gunslinger is one of these instances. Despite a relatively
intriguing premise […], this movie is simply a mish-mash of poor acting, sloppy
continuity and editing, and a convoluted storyline. Whatever pathos could have
been generated between Garland's character and the hitman she falls in love
with (Ireland) is sublimated into silliness."
Despite what
some websites claim and the sharing of a main character who's a widow seeking
revenge, Hannie Caulder (1971 /
trailer)
is anything but a loose remake of Gunslinger.
Gunslinger itself, on the other
hand, if we are to believe what co-scribe Charles B Griffith says at Senses of Cinema,
is a loose remake of an earlier film: "[Roger] took me out to see Three Hours to Kill [1954 / pointless scene]
with Dana Andrews and said to me, 'I want you to do the same picture but with a
woman as the sheriff'."
Carnival Rock
(1957, dir. Roger Corman)
Trailer to
Carnival Rock:
The original TV
production of the tale aired as an episode of Climax! (1954-58)
on 3 January 1957. That episode, like this movie, was written by Leo Lieberman
(12 March 1916 – 31 March 2000), who five years earlier had written that
cultural milestone known as Bonzo Goes to College (1952 / trailer).
Carnival Rock features
musical performances by The Platters, David Houston, Bob Luman
and His Shadows (NOT the British group
of the same name), and some long-forgotten group called the Blockbusters. The
movie is also noteworthy for being the first Roger Corman movie to feature cult
actress Susan Cabot (9 July 1927 – 10 Dec 1986),* "Miss Motion Picture
Sweater Girl of 1951", the later star of Corman's The Wasp Woman
(1959), which was also her last feature film role.
Full Public Domain Film:
The German
website Tofu Nerd Punk
rates Carnival Rock "6 von 10 traurige Clowns", or
"6 out of 10 Sad Clowns". The plot description at TV Guide
gives an idea of why: "Nightclub owner Christopher 'Christy' Cristakos (David
J. Stewart [8 Jan 1915 – 23 Dec
1966]) loves singer Natalie Cook (Susan Cabot), who loves gambler Stanley (Brian
G. Hutton [1 Jan 1935 – 19 Aug 2014]). Stanley wins Cristakos's club cutting
cards, but Cristakos stays on as a clown between rock acts just to be near
Natalie. The finale has Stanley and Natalie married and Cristakos fired."
Nothing sadder than the tears of a clown.
David Houston performing
One and Only:
Among the music acts is also the
county music singer David Houston (9 Dec 1935 – 30 Nov 1993), a fact we only
mention as an excuse to embed him performing One and Only above, from the film, and because he also sang in the
next movie as well (which does not feature Dick Miller anywhere).
As the page above, which comes
from the weekly program of the former Gainsville Drive-In Theatre, reveals: Carnival Rock was part of a double bill
with (the now public domain flick) Teen
Age Thunder (1957). Written by Rudy Makul (20 July 1920 – 22 Feb 2006), perennial
second-unit director Paul Helmick (24 Jan 1919 – 23 May 2006) directed. Helmick's
only known other feature-film directorial credit followed three years later: Thunder in Carolina (1960 / scene)
— despite the similar name, not a sequel.
Teen
Age Thunder's basic plot: "A father's lack of understanding of his
son's enthusiasm for drag strip racing widens the breach between them. The
stars are Charles Courtney (23 July 1930 – 19 Jan 2000 [suicide] of the classic
disasterpieces, Billy the Kid Vs.
Dracula [1966 / trailer]
and The Food of the Gods [1976 / trailer])
and Robert Fuller." Or, if you prefer: "Eighteen-year-old Johnnie
(Courtney), chafing under his father's (Tyler McVey [14 Feb 1912 – 4 July 2003]
of Night of the Blood Beast [1958 / trailer]
and Attack of the Giant Leeches
[1959]) authority, seeks to get a job, buy a hot-rod, woo his girl (Melinda
Byron [20 Oct 1936 – 30 May 2018]), and stand up to the local bully (Fuller,
also found in The Brain from Planet
Arous [1957 / trailer] and What Ever
Happened to Aunt Alice? [1969 / trailer])."
Teen Age Thunder —Full movie:
Sorority Girls
(USA, 1957)
"The dark
and sleazy side of sorority life." A camp classic that is right up there
with Mommy Dearest (1981 / trailer) for fun and
campy sustained bitchiness. Aka Sorority
House, and released in Great Britain as
The Bad One.
Trailer to
Sorority Girls:
Sorority Girls:
Blogster Derek Winnert quotes Corman
as having said, "Sorority Girl
was a good idea, but the script didn't turn out too hot. Despite a few gaping
plot holes, we managed to get a lot of really good performances out of our
young actresses. Cabot was simply great." The last is a sentiment shared
by many.
In his book Spinegrinder: The Movies Most Critics Won't
Write About, Clive Davies has the plot and some relevant commentary:
"Sabra (Susan Cabot)
is a spoilt, lonely and vindictive rich college girl who vents her frustration
by abusing a pledge girl (Barbara Crane of Unwed
Mother [1958 / trailer]).
Unable to connect with her cold, widowed mother (Fay Baker [31 Jan 1917 – 8 Dec
1987] of She Devil [1957 / trailer]
and The House on Telegraph Hill
[1951 / trailer])
(their dinner scene together is an icy bitch-fest), she tries to hurt those
around her with gossip and blackmail, almost resulting in a pregnant girl's (June
Kenney of Bloodlust!
[1961]) suicide. Her nemesis is a serious member of the student council (Barboura
Morris [22 Oct 1932 – 23 Oct 1975]) with her own secrets (and she's dating Dick
Miller!). Corman's answer to the major studio The Strange One (1957 / some scene)
is a slight but quite effective melodrama, with good acting (Cabot is
excellent), interesting characters and dialogue. [sic] And check out Bill
Martin's superb opening credit sequence [below]."
Credit sequence of
Sorority Girl:
Sorority Girl:
"In Sorority Girl
(1957), Martin* uses a series of expressive charcoal drawings to illustrate the
struggles of the film's protagonist. Its tone is dark and foreboding, with
timed cross-dissolves between the drawings alternately depicting her as an
outsider and as a monster. Secondary animation and graphic overlays further
reinforce the premise, complemented by a haunting score from composer Ronald
Stein — often referred to as 'Corman's Bernard Hermann'. [The Art of Title]"
Over at Amazon,
someone named Thomas Gabriel (who gave the film 5 out of 5 stars) says, "For those
Corman freaks out there, this film marks the first teaming of Corman regulars
Susan Cabot and Barboura Morris [...]. The two beauties make a solid team in
this low-budgeter, an 'expose' of sorority girls (what else) at an unnamed
college/university in Southern California. [...] Just the usual campus hi-jinks
circa 1957, right? [...] All in all, a fun low-budgeter to watch when you're in
the mood for 1950s exploitation melodrama. This brisk, hour-long 'B' is more
fun to watch than a lot of big-budget 'A' flicks from the same era with the
same kind of subject material (which take themselves much more seriously). It
is directed with vigor and a sure hand by Corman, who makes the most of the
very sparse sets with careful camera angles and lighting, and keeps the story
going so we don't want to hit the Pause button and go get a snack."
Cinema Gonzo might add,
"For a film from 1957 about a 'bad girl' (Sabra) manipulating others for
her own selfish gain, you might expect a 'bad seed'-esque portrait of an evil
monster. However, what we have here is a tragedy borne out of what Sabra thinks
it means to be human, like a robot feebly attempting to blend in with the human
race. Director Roger Corman, utilizing the bluntness of characterization and
plot machinations of exploitation films of the time, manages to craft a fairly
realistic portrait of a sociopath, even by modern Hollywood standards."
Sorority Girl was remade
for television in 1994: Uli Edel's Confessions
of a Sorority Girl (trailer),
one of series of ten B-movie remakes — two of which, Allan Arkush's Shake Rattle and Rock! (scene with a future star) and Joe Dante's Runaway
Daughters (trailer),
also feature Dick Miller — for a TV series called Rebel Highway.
Rock All Night
(1957, dir. Roger Corman)
Supposedly one
of the director's favorites among his early films and one of Quentin Tarantino's favorite Roger Corman movies. When originally
released, Rock All Night was part of
a double bill with Edward L. Cahn's Dragstrip
Girl (1957 / trailer).
Full Movie:
At All Movie,
Hal Erickson has the plot: "Its title notwithstanding, Roger Corman's Rock All Night is a tense little
hostage melodrama. Corman regular Dick Miller stars as Shorty, a much-maligned
hanger-on at the Cloud Nine tavern. Shorty's hotheaded pugnaciousness comes in
handy when a pair of gunmen (played by Russell Johnson — yes, 'The Professor'
on Gilligan's Island [1964-67]! —
and Jonathan Haze) invade the Cloud Nine and terrorize the patrons. Mel Welles
[...] is a riot as a hip-talking showbiz agent. [...]"
"[Rock All Night] is probably the best of
the low budget rock n roll revue films of the era. For one, instead of the
normal innocuous wraparound narrative that these films carried, Corman's flick
goes from performance film to a tense barroom siege story. If you ever wanted
to see Dick Miller (as the hero) square off with psychotic killer Russell
Johnson (the Professor from Gilligan's
Island!), this hour-long noir divergence is the film for you. [...] One of
the most entertaining films from Corman's early period. [Teenage Frankenstein]"
Go to This Island Rod
for a somewhat more intellectual viewpoint of why Rock All Night is a decent flick.
From the soundtrack,
The Blockbusters doing
Rock All Night & I Wanna Rock Now:
The Undead
(1957, dir. Roger Corman)
(1957, dir. Roger Corman)
Dick Miller appears
as a leper in medieval France (?) in The
Undead, an early and obscure Corman sci-fi horror mélange that bears
similarity (but predates) his later Poe adaptations. Miller's leper ends the film healed,
but bearing the mark of the devil.
to The Undead:
Shot in 6 or 10
days (depending on the source) with a budget of $70,000 on a soundstage in a
converted supermarket, it was first released as part of a double bill with
Edward L. Cahn's Voodoo Woman (1957
/ trailer below),
Marla English's last movie. (Only 21 years old at the time, she subsequently
chose marriage over her B-film career. That's her below, not from the movie.)
* "Bridey Murphy" is mostly
forgotten by now, though the book can still be found. "In 1952, Colorado
businessman and amateur hypnotist Morey
Bernstein put housewife Virginia Tighe (Ruth Simmons) of Pueblo, Colorado, in a trance that sparked off startling
revelations about Tighe's alleged past life as a 19th-century Irishwoman [named
Bridey Murphy] and her rebirth in the United States 59 years later. Bernstein
used a technique called hypnotic regression, during which the subject is
gradually taken back to childhood. He then attempted to take Virginia one step
further, before birth, and was astonished to find he was listening to Bridey
Murphy. [...] The case was investigated by researchers and concluded to be the
result of cryptomnesia. [Wikipedia]" The book was filmed as The
Search for Bridey Murphy (1956
/ scene) and
"inspired" I've Lived Before
(1956 / full film)... not to mention the Ed Wood Jr-scripted The Bride and the Beast (1958 / trailer). It also was
the basis of some pop songs, including For the Love of Bridey Murphy and Do You Believe in Reincarnation?, and joke recordings like The Quest for Bridey Hammerschlaugen.
The Spinning Image, which says
that The Undead "surely ranks
among the most audacious and inventive horror movies of the fifties", has
the plot: "Arrogant psychic researcher Quintus Ratcliff (Val Dufour [5 Feb
1927 – 27 July 2000]) picks up
sassy streetwalker Diana Love (Pamela Duncan [28 Dec 1924 – 11 Nov 2005]) to
serve as the test subject for a radical experiment. Using hypno-therapy,
Quintus transports Diana's subconscious mind back in time for a glimpse into
the life of her Medieval ancestor, Elaine (Pamela Duncan, again) who stands
wrongfully accused of witchcraft. Elaine's sweetheart, Pendragon (Richard
Garland [7 July 1927 – 24 May 1969] of Mutiny in Outer Space [1965 / trailer]) stands ready to rescue her, but sexy,
shapeshifting witch Livia (Allison Hayes) and her hideous imp (Billy Barty [25
Oct 1924 – 23 Dec 2000] of Masters of
the Universe [1987 / trailer]) have designs
on selling his soul to Satan (Richard Devon [11 Dec 1926 – 26 Feb 2010]). [...]
Watch out for the three leggy Vampira look-alikes performing an interpretive
dance number at Satan's climactic shindig."
Once again, the
screenplay was supplied by Mark Hanna and Charles B. Griffith. At Senses of Cinema,
Griffith says: "[The Undead]
was originally called The Trance of
Diana Love. Roger [Corman] said to me, 'Do me a Bridey Murphy
picture.'* And I told him that by the time Paramount finishes theirs, ours will
fail. At the time, everybody was saying that they were making a bad picture. He
just said that we'd get ours ahead of theirs and clean up. So I did Trance of Diana Love [...]. It was in
iambic pentameter and I had to rewrite it after it was ready to shoot because
somebody told Roger that they didn't understand it. Roger would give it to
anybody to read or anybody out on the street. He'd send girls out with scripts.
[...] And then get panicky and change everything."
Trailer to
Voodoo Woman (1957):
Not of this Earth
(1957, dir. Roger Corman)
(1957, dir. Roger Corman)
One of the most
popular of Roger Corman's early science fiction cheapies, which also explains
why it's been remade so often. Written by Charles B. Griffith and Mark Hanna,
it was originally released as a double feature with Roger Corman's Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957 / trailer further below).
The
first remake came 31 years later in 1988 (trailer);
directed by Jim Wynorski, the cheap-feeling but mildly funny color movie is
perhaps most notable for the picturesque way Traci Lords' famous floppies flop
during her totally gratuitous and enjoyable nude scenes. (Wynorski's Not of this Earth was Nora Louise
Kuzma's first non-porn lead role.) Seven years later, in 1995, Terence H.
Winkless shot a version of Not of this Earth
starring Michael York (full movie)
for the Showtime series Roger Corman
Presents (1995-96), which was followed four years later by Jon Purdy's
direct-to-video version, Star Portal
(trailer).
According to
scriptwriter Charles B. Griffith, "After we did Gunslinger, I went in and said [to Roger Corman], 'Why don't we do
a science fiction film?', and he gave me the okay. And that's when I came up
with Not of this Earth. […] Dick
Miller played the vacuum cleaner salesman in Earth, which I originally wrote
for myself. [Senses of Cinema]"
(Perhaps it should be mentioned here that the vacuum cleaner salesman dies.)
Griffith later
expanded on the film, "During the production of Not of This Earth,
I was married to a nurse, and she helped me do a lot of medical research. I
remember how we cured cancer in that script. Somehow the film was a mess when
it was finished. About the time we saw Gunslinger, my wife was so
shocked at the difference between the script and the picture that she never
went to see another movie of mine. [UC Press Ebooks]"
"No nurse would dream of earning more than
$200 a week. It's ridiculous."
Nadine Storey (Beverly Garland)
Nadine Storey (Beverly Garland)
The double-feature trailer:
"A
character actor who played few leads, Birch is very good playing an alien being
unfamiliar with Earth customs, yet intelligent enough to fake it pretty well.
He also didn't get along with Corman and walked off the picture during
production (actor Dick Miller says it was because of Birch's drinking). Lyle
Latell, who receives screen credit, conspicuously doubled Birch in many scenes.
Johnson's mission is to find out whether human blood is fit for Davannan
consumption. […] He uses a transporter to communicate telepathically with his
world and send Earth blood samples home. Johnson doesn't literally suck blood.
He uses a contraption housed in a metal briefcase to drain his victims' blood
and store it in transparent tubes. He's one of cinema's most interesting
vampires, subverting most of the clichés that go along with the genre. After
he's through sucking his victims dry, he shoves the corpses into the cellar's
furnace. Though it isn't a comedy, Not
of this Earth is notable for its occasional dry humor. [Johnny LaRue's Crane Shot]"
"All in all
though, this is a much stronger version of the film. The dialogue Beverly
Garland was given was stronger. Birch makes a fine Johnson and there is an
earnestness with the whole film. The soundtrack lends the film a paranoid edge,
the sensitivity Johnson has to loud noises is used more appropriately in the
ending and the whole thing is played with an earnestness that belays the cheese
that would garnish the future versions and make this a great piece of 50s
sci-fi. [Taliesin Meets the Vampires]"
Film Fanatic
probably concurs, "[Not of this
Earth] speeds along at a fast clip, barely giving us a chance to chuckle
over the campy effects (note the brief, incongruous presence of a
jelly-fish-like predator used to kill one nosy character) and gaping plot holes
[…]. Such quibbles aside, we're kept in suspense throughout about the true
nature of Birch's mission — and once he encounters a fellow alien (Anne Carroll
[7 Oct 1930 – 30 April 2017]) in distress, our sentiments towards this presumed
villain palpably shift. Watch for Garland's especially camp-worthy response
when she learns who Birch really is: this is mid-century female strength and
presence-of-mind at its best!"
Naked Paradise
(1957, dir. Roger Corman)
(1957, dir. Roger Corman)
"Then-girlfriend
Beverly Garland stars in the fourth of five pictures for Roger," yet
another Corman cheapie with a screenplay by Charles B. Griffith and Mark Hanna.
Rereleased in 1960 as Thunder Over
Hawaii. Not to be mistaken with the Italian film Velluto nero (1976), aka Naked
Paradise …. aka Black Emmanuelle
White Emmanuelle (trailer).
The complete plot,
with spoilers, as currently (4 Feb 2019) found at Wikipedia:
"Duke Bradley's (Richard Denning) boat is hired to sail a group to the
Hawaiian Islands. His passengers include Zac Cotton (Leslie Bradley [1 Sept
1907 – 20 July 1974]), alcoholic girlfriend Max McKenzie (Beverly Garland) and
a pair of thugs, Mitch (Dick Miller) and Stony (Jonathan Haze), who following a
luau, without Duke's knowledge, rob a plantation of its payroll. The gang
intends to continue on to another island in the South Pacific, but tempers
flare after Max is struck by Zac, which causes Duke to quit, demanding payment.
As he is about to set sail, Max asks to go with him, determined to change her
life. A hurricane hits, however, forcing Duke to turn back. On arrival, he is
beaten unconscious by Mitch and Stony while the woman is roughed up by Zac. Zac
intends to make off with Duke's schooner and takes a local girl, Lanai (Lisa
Montell of World without End [1956
/ a trailer]),
as a hostage, shooting Stony, who objects to this. A fight ensues in which Duke
triumphs after Zac is killed by the boat's propeller. Duke and Max sail away."
In his interview
at Senses of Cinema,
Charles B. Griffith mentions "[Naked
Paradise] was a Bobby Campbell story that I re-wrote. It became a structure
for a few films afterwards including Atlas (1961), Beast
from Haunted Cave (1960 / trailer)
and Creature
from the Haunted Sea (1961 / trailer).
They were all basically Naked Paradise — all
variations on that same structure, almost scene-by-scene, but with different
dialogue and different characters."
The
advertisement above is for the original double feature screening with Flesh and the Spur at the Grand Theatre
of Grand Island, Nebraska.
Susan Hart sings
Is This A Disco
Or A Honky Tonk?
War of the Satellites
(1958, dir. Roger Corman)
Irving Block (2
Dec 1910 – 3 May 1986) and Jack Rabin (18 March 1914 – 25 May 1987) came up
with the story, and Lawrence L. Goldman (18 Feb 1907 – 22 May 1990) wrote the
script. In the US, it was released as a double feature with that great classic,
Attack
of the 50 Foot Woman. Dick Miller, a good foot shorter than the
movie's heavy, plays the movie's lead hero... and you of course see him in the trailer.
Trailer to
War of the Satellites:
"After the
Soviet launch of the spy satellite Sputnik, Corman sold Allied Artists on a
related sci-fi programmer without so much as a treatment. Once he got his
green light from Allied prez Steve Broidy, Corman set about a.) finding out
what a satellite actually looked like and b.) scrambling his team to roll out
in two weeks. Another of his ten-day wonders, War of the Satellites imagines that interstellar travel is the work
of five guys (one of them being Corman, who cast himself as the ground
controller to save paying another actor) sitting around what looks like the
night desk of The Bergen County Record, that space ships can be
sent up into space one after another, like stomp rockets, and that astronauts
can mozy on over to their spacecraft three minutes before blast off wearing
naught but USAF flight suits and white socks. You gotta love it! [arborgast]"
The plot: "The
story begins with the U.S. trying to send manned satellites into space, only
for them to be destroyed by some unforeseen force before get very far. Dr. Van
Ponder (Richard Devon of Blood of Dracula [1957 / trailer]), the head of the project, gets
permission to make one last attempt and decides to pilot the mission himself,
with faithful aids Sybil (Susan Cabot) and Dave (Dick Miller) along for support
him. Unfortunately, the heroes do not know that aliens are plotting to keep
Earth dwellers on their own planet by any means necessary. They sneak down to
earth, secretly killing Dr. Van Ponder and creating a duplicate version of him
to derail the mission. When that doesn't work, they plot to have their Van
Ponder clone destroy the satellite after its launch to discourage the
inhabitants of Earth into ending their space quest. Dave figures out something
is wrong with Van Ponder before the mission but is forced to go up into space
to confront him. [Schlockmania]"
Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings
gushes, "It's movies like this that make me really appreciate Roger
Corman. Had anybody else tried to make an outer space epic like this on an
Allied Artists budget, it would have probably been dull and laughable. Corman
doesn't turn it into a classic, but he manages to keep it from being a waste of
time, and except for the fact that the middle of the movie sags a little, he keeps
the interest level up. He's helped by a likable and familiar cast; in
particular, it's really a lot of fun seeing Dick Miller in a rare leading role.
The special effects are primitive, but not embarrassing, and it's well acted
throughout. All in all, it makes for decent low-budget science fiction
adventure."
Video Vacuum,
on the other hand, was not amused: "Because it was made in a rush, the
movie is pretty much a mess. The plot is thin as Kleenex, the effects are a
complete joke (the 'satellites' are hung on visible strings and have to move
via jump cuts and/or fast motion to make it look like they're moving), and
there is padding out the yin-yang. To make matters worse, there's no actual
'war' to speak of, so don't go in expecting a space battle or anything. The
bulk of the film is made up of long dull scenes with people sitting around and
having long boring conversations. If you're a Corman fan, you'll have some fun
spotting all his regulars […]. The only really worthwhile part though is when
the alien double gets his hands burned and it rapidly heals on its own. Other
than that; it's a total snoozer."
That's Dick, of course, in the lobby card above.
(1959, dir. Roger Corman)
A great movie,
with Dick Miller playing the lead character Walter Paisley, a somewhat simple
milquetoast busboy cum artist. Dick Miller was to play characters named
"Walter Paisley" in many a subsequent movie.
The Little Shop of Horrors
(1960, dir. Roger Corman)
Perhaps the most
famous and favorite of all Roger Corman's early no-budget B&W quickie black
comedies — it is, in the end, the only one to first get the big budget Broadway
musical treatment and then get remade as a big budget Hollywood feature film
musical, poster below. The last added a happy end and more or less piddled out at the box
office, though it did end up being a huge success on VHS.
Trailer to
The Little Shop of Horrors:
"Written by Charles
B. Griffith, the film is a farce about an inadequate florist's assistant who
cultivates a plant that feeds on human flesh and blood. The film's concept is
thought to be based on a 1932 story called Green Thoughts, by John Collier, about a man-eating plant. However, Dennis McDougal suggests that
Griffith may have been influenced by Arthur C. Clarke's sci-fi short story from
1956, The Reluctant Orchid (which was in turn
inspired by the 1905 H. G. Wells story The Flowering of the Strange Orchid). […] Produced under the title The Passionate People Eater,
the film employs an original style of humor, combining black comedy with farce and
incorporating Jewish humor and elements of spoof. The Little Shop of Horrors
was [supposedly] shot on a budget of $28,000, with interiors being shot in two
days utilizing sets that had been left standing from A Bucket of Blood. [Wikipedia]" (It should perhaps be mentioned that
the legendary length of the shoot and budget size changes depending on who
does/did the talking.)
Charles B.
Griffith once said, "I wrote Bucket as a satire,
and then Little Shop as a farce. Different
characters, different names and gags, but it was absolutely scene by scene the
same structure. Both were around 64 pages, which was 64 minutes. [Senses of Cinema]"
"I've got to get home. My wife's making
gardenias for dinner."
Burson Fouch (Dick Miller)
Oddly enough, Dick
Miller (seen to your left in the picture above) was supposedly offered the lead role of Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors, but turned it down in favor of the much
smaller role of the flower-eating Burson Fouch. Jack Nicholson, famously
enough, makes an early and very short appearance as a masochistic dental
patient (his character is played by Bill Murray in the later musical). Little Shop of Horrors was screened out
of competition at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival and subsequently picked up by AIP
as the highly incongruent second feature for their US release of Mario Bava's early
masterpiece Black Sunday (1960 / full masterpiece). A year later, Little Shop of Horrors was rereleased in a double feature with Last Woman on Earth (1960 / trailer).
The Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review
has the plot: "Gravis Mushnick's Skid Row florist shop is floundering
financially. Mushnick (Mel Welles) is about to fire his inept assistant Seymour
Krelbonid (Jonathan Haze) when Seymour shows him the unique new hybrid plant he
has created. Seymour has named the plant Audrey Jr in honour of Mushnick's
other assistant Audrey (Jackie Joseph), whom he secretly loves. The
opportunistic Mushnick uses the plant as a drawcard and succeeds in drumming
business back up. However, Audrey Jr soon begins to wither and die but Seymour
revives it after he accidentally drips blood onto it from a cut. As the plant
grows bigger, it demands more blood and forces Seymour to go out and acquire
human bodies to satiate its appetite."
Burson Fouch (Dick Miller)
366 Weird Movies,
which rates the movie as "Recommended" but says that "it's not
weird enough, though it certainly marches to the beat of its own drummer",
opinions: "[...] The Little Shop of Horrors
is a fast, fun ride that every cinephile should check out at least once; it's a
triumph of imagination, dedication, and sheer luck over budgetary
constraints. It's too bad it’s not a little bit weirder. […] Corman and
Griffith tried to repeat the formula of Horrors
the very next year with The Creature from the Haunted Sea,
another whirlwind horror/comedy packed with quirky characters. The abysmal
failure of Haunted Sea demonstrates just how much
luck was involved in the success of Little Shop;
everyone involved just happened to be clicking on all cylinders the week they
made it."
Shades of Gray
concurs: "The Little Shop of
Horrors is a bizarre, chaotic, strange, and thoroughly entertaining comedy.
The jokes, nonsensical situations, and oddball characters keep coming non-stop,
and along the way, Corman and crew manage to parody cop dramas, monster movies,
romance films, and even swashbuckler movies. The film unfolds almost like a
dream, so random are some of the characters and dialogue exchanges, yet it all
comes together in a film that exudes a great surreal atmosphere. […] This may
look like the low-budget movie that it is, but it was made with a crew that
understood the limitations they were working under. It's also blessed with a
fun script, and a cast of energetic actors with fine comedic timing — I
particularly love the three leads (Haze, Welles, and Joseph), Miller (as the
'flower eater'), and the two girls* buying flowers for a parade float. This is
one of Corman's very best, and I think it's a film worth seeing for anyone who
loves kooky comedies... because this is one of the kookiest!"
* Morbid
trivia: The first taste of
success Audrey brings Mushnick's flower shop is when the interesting flower
causes two girls — Shirley ("Tammy Windsor") and Shirley's Friend
(Toby Michaels) — from the local high school to decide to spend the $2000
flower budget of the Homecoming Parade Committee at Mushniks. The attractive
"Tammy Windsor", pictured above, real name Karyn Kupcinet (6 March 1941 – 28 Nov
1963), was (possibly) murdered at the age of 22 on Thanksgiving Day, 1963, in her
apartment at 1227 1/2 North Sweetzer Avenue in West Hollywood. The crime has
never been solved. She "was romantically involved with actor Andrew Prine (of
Eliminators [1986 / trailer], The Town that
Dreaded Sundown [1976 / trailer], Grizzly [1976 / trailer], The Evil [1978 / trailer], The Centerfold Girls [1974 / trailer], Crypt of the
Living Dead [1973 / trailer], Nightmare Circus aka Barn of the Naked Dead [1974 / theme song],
Simon King of the Witches [1971 / trailer] and so much more) at the
time of her murder" — a fact we bring up only as an excuse to include a
photo from Prine's May 1974 Viva
pictorial below.
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