1.
Filmways
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Filmways, Inc. was a television and film production company founded by American film executive Martin Ransohoff, and Edwin Kasper in 1952. The police drama Cagney & Lacey, and The Addams Family, Filmways acquired famous companies throughout the years, such as Heatter-Quigley Productions, Ruby-Spears Productions and American International Pictures. It was also the owner of the film distributor Sigma III Corporation, Wally Heider Recording, Filmways was formed by Martin Ransohoff and Edwin Kasper in 1952, who would part with Filmways 5 years later. In 1966, The company acquired Heatter-Quigley Productions, the show producers known for their biggest hit. In 1969, it bought Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma County, California, and Wally Heider Recording with studios in Hollywood and San Francisco, Studio 3 Inc in Hollywood In 1972, Ransohoff left Filmways as president. In 1974, it acquired book publisher Grosset & Dunlap from American Financial Group, in May 1975, it bought television syndication firm Rhodes Productions from Taft Broadcasting. In 1978, it acquired Ruby-Spears Productions, which had launched a year earlier, in 1979, after Arkoffs retirement, Filmways purchased American International Pictures. Their TV subsidiary, AITV, became Filmways new syndication division in 1980, Filmways had lost nearly $20 million during the nine months ending in November 1981. However, it exited bankruptcy by selling few of its previously acquired assets. In 1981, Ruby-Spears Productions was sold to Taft Broadcasting and Sears Point Raceway was sold to Speedway Motorsports, in 1982, Grosset & Dunlap was sold to G. P. Putnams Sons. In 1982, Filmways was acquired by Orion Pictures, Filmways was then renamed as Orion TV Productions, Inc. on August 31,1982. Most productions ended with the announcement, “This has been a Filmways presentation”. ”The Beverly Hillbillies, following a few episodes, the voice of Jethro, Max Baer, Jr. can be heard saying, Aww, shuddup, Elly May, following her announcement. Seasons 1-3, however, feature Bill Baldwin, the announcer for the shows sponsors, later seasons feature Mister Ed saying it after Keatings death in 1963. The Addams Family, The logo was silent, but in some episodes the phrase was said in a baritone voice by Ted Cassidy. Other times, Carolyn Jones said the phrase and added darling at the end, CBS holds distribution rights to The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction. Viacom syndicated these two programs since the 1970s, however, any new compilation of Hillbillies material will be copyrighted by either MPI Media Group or CBS, depending on the series content. Filmways co-produced Eye Guess, The Face Is Familiar, Personality and those four game shows are currently owned by Sony Pictures Television. SPT co-distributed the MGM library for a short time, were retained by Filmways and are now owned by MGM
2.
Samuel Z. Arkoff
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Samuel Zachary Arkoff was an American producer of B movies. Born in Fort Dodge, Iowa to a Russian Jewish family, along with business partner James H. Nicholson and producer-director Roger Corman, he produced eighteen films. In the 1950s, Nicholson founded the American Releasing Corporation, which became known as American International Pictures. AIP films were mostly low-budget, with production completed in a few days, a number of actors shunned or overlooked by most of Hollywood during the 1960s and 1970s, such as Bruce Dern and Dennis Hopper, also found work in one or more of Arkoffs productions. Arkoffs most financially successful film was the 1979 adaptation of Jay Ansons book The Amityville Horror, not long after American International Pictures went out of business, Arkoff founded Arkoff International Pictures. Arkoff began his career in Hollywood as a producer of The Hank McCune Show and he innovated the television laugh track, rather than go to the expense of a studio audience. In 2000, Arkoff was featured alongside former collaborators including Roger Corman, the Secret History of American Movies, a film about the rise and fall of American exploitation cinema. He was married to Hilda Rusoff and they had two children, Louis Arkoff, who was also his producing partner, and Donna Roth, who is a movie producer married to the former chairman of Walt Disney Studios, Joe Roth. He also has five grandchildren and a great-grandson, Arkoff died in 2001, within weeks of his wifes death. During a 1980s television talk show appearance, Arkoff related his ARKOFF Formula for a successful, memorable movie
3.
Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital
4.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
5.
Roger Corman
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Roger William Corman is an American independent film producer, director, and actor. He has been called The Pope of Pop Cinema and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film, much of Cormans work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of low budget cult films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe. In 2009, he was awarded an Honorary Academy Award, Corman mentored and gave a start to many young film directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese and James Cameron. He also helped to launch the careers of actors Peter Fonda, a documentary about Cormans life and career entitled Cormans World, Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel, directed by Alex Stapleton, premiered at the Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals in 2011. The films TV rights were picked up by A&E IndieFilms after a screening at Sundance. Corman was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Anne and William Corman and his younger brother, Eugene Harold Gene Corman, has also produced numerous films, sometimes in collaboration with Roger. Corman and his brother were baptized in their mothers Catholic faith, Corman went to Beverly Hills High School and then to Stanford University to study Industrial Engineering. While at Stanford, Corman enlisted in the V-12 Navy College Training Program, after the end of World War II, Corman returned to Stanford and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering in 1947. While at Stanford University, Roger Corman was initiated in the fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon, in 1948, he worked briefly at U. S. Electrical Motors on Slauson Avenue in Los Angeles, but his career in engineering lasted only four days, he work on Monday and quit on Thursday. More interested in film, Corman found work at 20th Century Fox initially in the mail room and he worked his way up to a story reader. The one property that he liked the most and provided ideas for was filmed as The Gunfighter with Gregory Peck, when Corman received no credit at all he left Fox and decided he would work in film by himself. Under the GI Bill, Corman studied English Literature at Oxford University and he then returned to Los Angeles, beginning his film career in 1953 as a producer and screenwriter, then started directing films in 1955. Corman began to direct films in the mid-1950s, including Swamp Women, in his early period, he produced up to nine movies a year. His fastest film was perhaps The Little Shop of Horrors, which was shot in two days and one night. Supposedly, he had made a bet that he could shoot a feature film in less than three days. Another version of the claims that he had a set rented for a month. In addition to producing and directing films for American International Pictures, in 1959, Corman founded Filmgroup with his brother Gene, a company producing or releasing low-budget black-and-white films as double features for drive-ins and action houses
6.
Alex Gordon
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Alexander Jonathan Gordon is an American professional baseball left fielder for the Kansas City Royals of Major League Baseball. Prior to playing professionally, Gordon attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, at Nebraska, Gordon won the Brooks Wallace Award, Dick Howser Trophy, and Golden Spikes Award in 2005. That year, the Royals made Gordon the second pick in the 2005 MLB Draft. Gordon has won four Gold Glove Awards, three Fielding Bible Awards, a Platinum Glove Award, and one Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Award in MLB, prior to 2010, Gordon was primarily a third baseman. Alex was born into a family in Lincoln, Nebraska. He was a two-time Gatorade Nebraska Player of the Year after hitting.483 with 25 home runs and 112 runs batted in at Lincoln Southeast High School, Gordon played American Legion Baseball and earned the organizations Graduate of the Year award in 2015. Alex attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and played third base and he earned 1st-team All-America honors for the 2nd straight season hitting.372 in 72 games with 22 doubles,4 triples,19 home runs and 66 RBI. He posted a.353 career average, he hit 44 homers and drove in 189 runs, drew 139 walks and he finished the season as the Big 12 leader in walks and on-base percentage, while ranking 3rd in home runs, total bases and slugging percentage. Gordon was the highest draft pick out of Nebraska since Darin Erstad was taken 1st overall in the 1995 draft, during his time at the University of Nebraska, Alex was a member of the 2004 U. S. National Team, which had players from 15 different colleges. He helped lead Team USA to an 18–7 overall record, seeing the majority of his time at first base. Alex was drafted in 2005 by the Kansas City Royals with the second pick overall and he hit 29 home runs and stole 22 bases with an OPS over 1.000 in his first full season in minor league baseball with the Double-A Wichita Wranglers. He was generally regarded as one of the best hitting prospects in baseball playing in the Texas League All-Star game and was selected for the 2006 All-Star Futures Game, Alex declined to play for Team USA in 2006, while leading the Wichita Wranglers to the Texas League playoffs. On April 10,2007, he hit his first major league home run off pitcher Josh Towers of the Toronto Blue Jays, Alex struggled to begin with, but the Royals stayed patient with him. He was hitting.185 with 3 home runs and 8 RBI through the first two months as a starter of the regular season. However he was hot in June, batting.327 with 3 home runs and 14 RBI and he stayed consistent through the summer, hitting.253 in July, and.271 in August. However, he slumped to a.244 average for the month of the season. On August 17, Alex got his 100th major league hit off pitcher Dan Meyer of the Oakland Athletics. On September 2, Gordon had the first multi-home run game of his career, connecting off Boof Bonser of the Minnesota Twins in the 2nd inning, on September 7, Gordon hit a single off former college teammate Joba Chamberlain of the New York Yankees
7.
Herman Cohen
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Herman Cohen was a producer of B-movies during the 1950s, who helped to popularize the teen horror movie genre with films like the cult classic I Was a Teenage Werewolf. Cohen began his career in business as a gofer and later an usher at the Dexter Theater in Detroit. By 18, he was managing the Dexter, from there he went on to become assistant manager of the Fox Theatre — a theater featuring 5200 seats. After a tour of duty with the Marines, Cohen became sales manager for Columbia Pictures in the Detroit Area and he later worked for Allied Artists and United Artists producing such films as Target Earth, Magnificent Roughnecks, and Crime of Passion. Cohen also wrote the stories and/or screenplays for at least nine films, co-writing with pal Aben Kandel, Cohen really struck it big in the mid 50s though, with a horror film for American International — I Was a Teenage Werewolf which he both wrote and produced. The film cost about $100,000 to make, but earned more than $2 million in box office receipts and he also discovered young Michael Landon, cast in the lead role for I Was a Teenage Werewolf. Cohen followed this success by writing and producing more teen horror films, such as I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, How to Make a Monster, Cohen also occasionally appeared in his own films, usually as an uncredited extra. He played the director in the room in How to Make a Monster, and can also be seen in I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Konga, Black Zoo, Crooks and Coronets. In the 1960s and 1970s, he began producing films in the United Kingdom, working with such stars as Joan Crawford in Berserk. and Trog. In 1961, he returned to his roots in Detroit purchasing the Fox Theater he had worked for in his youth, by the late 1970s, Cohen was working more in writing and distribution than in film production. He founded Cobra Media, a distribution company, in 1981. Cohen died of throat cancer June 2,2002, Craze Herman Cohen fansite Obituary at Los Angeles Times
8.
The Raven (1963 film)
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The Raven is a 1963 American independent B movie/horror-comedy film produced and directed by Roger Corman. The film stars Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Boris Karloff as a trio of rival sorcerers, the supporting cast features a young Jack Nicholson as Lorres characters son. It was the fifth in the so-called Corman-Poe cycle of eight films largely featuring adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories produced by Roger Corman, the film was written by Richard Matheson, based on references to Poes poem The Raven. Three decades earlier, Karloff had appeared in film with the same title. Set during the 15th century, the sorcerer Dr. Erasmus Craven has been mourning the death of his wife Lenore for over two years, much to the chagrin of his daughter Estelle. One night he is visited by a raven, who happens to be a transformed wizard, together they brew a potion that restores Bedlo to his old self. After fighting off the attack of Cravens coachman, who acted under the influence of Scarabus, they set out to the castle, joined by Cravens daughter Estelle. At the castle, Scarabus greets his guests with false friendship, at night, Rexford finds him alive and well, hiding in the castle. Craven, meanwhile, is visited and tormented by Lenore, who is revealed to be alive and well too, as Craven, Estelle, Rexford and Bedlo try to escape the castle, Scarabus stops them, and they are imprisoned. Bedlo panics and begs Scarabus to turn him back into a rather than torture him. Craven is forced to choose between surrendering his magical secrets to Scarabus or watching his daughter be tortured, Bedlo secretly returns, frees Rexford, and together they aid Craven. Craven and Scarabus sit facing each other and engage in a magic duel, after a lengthy performance of attacks, counterattacks and insults, during which Scarabus sets the castle on fire, Craven defeats Scarabus. Lenore tries to reconcile with him, claiming that she had been bewitched by Scarabus, Craven, Bedlo, Estelle and Rexford escape the burning castle just as it collapses on Scarabus and his mistress. The miscreants survive, but Scarabus has lost his magic forever, Bedlo tries to convince Craven to restore his human form. Craven tells him to shut his beak, and says, Quoth the raven - nevermore, Vincent Price as Dr. Erasmus Craven Peter Lorre as Dr. Adolphus Bedlo Boris Karloff as Dr. After I heard they wanted to make an out of a poem, I felt that was an utter joke, so comedy was really the only way to go with it. The movie was shot in 15 days, Roger Corman said that although they kept closely to the structure and story script, We did more improvisation on that film than any of the others. The improvisation was in terms of dialogue and bits of business from the actors, during shooting, Peter Lorre ad-libbed a number of famous lines in the film including, How the hell should I know
9.
Filmmaking
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Filmmaking is the process of making a film. Filmmaking takes place in places around the world in a range of economic, social, and political contexts. Typically, it involves a number of people, and can take from a few months to several years to complete. Film production consists of five stages, Development, The first stage in which the ideas for the film are created, rights to books/plays are bought etc. Financing for the project has to be sought and greenlit, pre-production, Preparations are made for the shoot, in which cast and film crew are hired, locations are selected and sets are built. Production, The raw elements for the film are recorded during the film shoot, post-production, The images, sound, and visual effects of the recorded film are edited. Distribution, The finished film is distributed and screened in cinemas and released to home video. In this stage, the project producer selects a story, which may come from a book, play, another film, true story, video game, comic book, graphic novel, or an original idea, etc. After identifying a theme or underlying message, the works with writers to prepare a synopsis. Next they produce an outline, which breaks the story down into one-paragraph scenes that concentrate on dramatic structure. Then, they prepare a treatment, a 25-to-30-page description of the story, its mood and this usually has little dialogue and stage direction, but often contains drawings that help visualize key points. Another way is to produce a scriptment once a synopsis is produced, next, a screenwriter writes a screenplay over a period of several months. The screenwriter may rewrite it several times to improve dramatization, clarity, structure, characters, dialogue, however, producers often skip the previous steps and develop submitted screenplays which investors, studios, and other interested parties assess through a process called script coverage. A film distributor may be contacted at a stage to assess the likely market. All these factors imply a certain appeal of the film to a possible audience, not all films make a profit from the theatrical release alone, so film companies take DVD sales and worldwide distribution rights into account. The producer and screenwriter prepare a film pitch, or treatment and they will also pitch the film to actors and directors in order to attach them to the project. Many projects fail to move beyond this stage and enter so-called development hell, if a pitch succeeds, a film receives a green light, meaning someone offers financial backing, typically a major film studio, film council, or independent investor. The parties involved negotiate a deal and sign contracts, once all parties have met and the deal has been set, the film may proceed into the pre-production period
10.
Double feature
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Opera houses staged two operas together for the sake of providing long performance for the audience. This was related to one-act or two-act short operas that were otherwise commercially hard to stage alone, a prominent example is the double-bill of Pagliacci with Cavalleria rusticana first staged on 22 December 1893 by the Met. The two operas have since been performed as a double-bill, a pairing referred to in the operatic world colloquially as Cav. Movie theaters suffered a downturn in business in the years of the Great Depression. To attract customers, managers would offer additional features to the main attraction, the tactic worked, audiences considered the cost of a theater ticket good value for several hours of escapist and varied entertainment, and the practice became a standard pattern of programming. Afterward, the main feature ran. The major studios also made film series featuring recurring characters, the U. S. Supreme Court decided that this practice was illegal in United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. in 1948, contributing to the end of the studio system. Even after the requirement was dropped, many smaller or independent neighborhood theatres, especially drive-in theatres. By the end of the 1940s double features were regular policy at 29 percent of American cinemas with 36 percent having them part-time, after the Paramount Decree the sources of the second feature had changed. James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z, by the 1960s, double features had been mostly abandoned in non–drive-ins in favor of the modern single-feature screening, in which only one feature film is exhibited. While most cinemas have discontinued the practice of showing the double feature, the Astor Theatre in St Kilda Melbourne, Australia, established in 1936, continues the tradition of the double feature. Short films still occasionally precede the feature presentation, but the feature is now effectively extinct in first-run movie theaters in the U. S. Only three were made and the scheme failed, many repertory houses continue to show two films, usually related in some way, back to back. During the 1990s, many VHS cassettes that showed two films on the tape were self-named as double features. Although Grindhouse received critical acclaim, it was a financial flop in the United States. The films were screened individually in international markets and on DVD, another recent double feature was the Duel Project, when Japanese directors Ryuhei Kitamura and Yukihiko Tsutsumi created competing films to be shown and voted on by the premier audience. More recently, two features of re-released popular films hit the big screen. The first was of the re-release of Toy Story and Toy Story 2 that started October 2,2009 before the release of Toy Story 3 in the following year, both films were in Disney Digital 3D in select movie theaters
11.
The Fast and the Furious (1955 film)
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The Fast and the Furious is a 1955 American film noir starring John Ireland and Dorothy Malone. It was the first film produced by American International Pictures production company, the B movie was co-directed by the films leading man, John Ireland. The story was written by Roger Corman and the screenplay by Jean Howell, Frank Webster has broken out of jail, charged with a murder he did not commit. While on the run, and the subject of news reports. He commits battery to escape, and kidnaps a woman named Connie as he gets away. Frank drives off with Connie in her Jaguar, but she soon proves a difficult hostage, trying to escape a few times, which leads him to treat her more roughly than they both would prefer. This mutual struggle soon leads the two to fall in love each other. Continuing to elude police, the couple slips into a sports car race. The film ends with his capture by police imminent, John Ireland as Frank Webster Dorothy Malone as Connie Adair Bruce Carlisle as Faber Iris Adrian as Wilma Belding Snub Pollard as a park caretaker The movie was originally known as Crashout. The film was shot in ten days and it was picked up for distribution by a new company, American Releasing Corporation, which became American International Pictures. The plot of the film was used again in The Chase starring Charlie Sheen and Kristy Swanson
12.
Charles B. Griffith
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He was credited with 29 movies, but is known to have written many more. He had also directed at least six films, acted in six films, was second director in six films. With a career spanning decades, he is cited as the father of American black comedy. During the late fifties and early sixties, Griffith created both redneck classics such as Eat My Dust and black comedies such as A Bucket of Blood and he had a small role in It Conquered the World, which he also wrote, as Dr. Pete Shelton. Griffith died on September 28,2007 in San Diego, aged 77, quentin Tarantino dedicated his film Deathproof to Griffith, whom he referred to as one of his main influences and called the father of redneck cinema. Griffith was born into a family of actors and performers, his mother and grandmother were actors, his father was in vaudeville and his mother died in childbirth in 1941, and Griffith was raised by his grandmother and attended military school. He broke into the industry writing scripts for the serial, Myrt and Marge. He then worked on the TV adaptation on the serial which ended up not being filmed, Griffith began writing film scripts, which an actor friend of his, Jonathan Haze showed to Roger Corman, who hired Griffith as a writer. He wrote two Westerns for Corman that were not made before being hired to do a rewrite on It Conquered the World. He received his credit with Gunslinger. For the next six years Griffith was Cormans most regular screenwriter and he wrote several of his early scripts with a partner, Mark Hanna, although Griffith later claimed that he did most of the writing while Hanna did the selling. Following his success with Corman, Columbia Pictures signed Griffith to a contract as producer. Griffith, They told me to make a list of 100 titles to see if I could do it, I really don’t want to get into the Columbia pictures because they thought I was putting them on. Roger thought I told them that I taught him everything he knew, Griffith made two films for Columbia, directing one, but did not enjoy the experience, They were really terrible. It stopped me for twenty years from ever directing again and you see, I got chicken and started to write very safely within a formula to please the major studios, and of course, you cant do that. Griffith soon returned to Corman and wrote two script for him made in North Dakota, Beast from Haunted Cave, Ski Troop Attack and he says for Beast from Haunted Cave he reused the structure he developed for Naked Paradise. (He would subsequently use this structure on Creature from the Haunted Sea and Atlas. }After the North Dakota movies he persuade Corman to make a black comedy and he later re-used the structure for his most famous script, The Little Shop of Horrors. That’s the most precious thing you can find is a new structure, Griffith was paid just $800 for his work
13.
Richard Matheson
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Richard Burton Matheson was an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres. Matheson also wrote 16 television episodes of The Twilight Zone for Rod Serling, including Nightmare at 20,000 Feet and he adapted his 1971 short story Duel as a screenplay directed by a young Steven Spielberg, for the television film of the same name that year. Six more of his novels or short stories have been adapted as motion pictures — The Shrinking Man, Hell House, What Dreams May Come, Bid Time Return, A Stir of Echoes. Lesser movies based on his work include two from his early noir novels — Cold Sweat, based on his novel Riding the Nightmare, Matheson was born in Allendale, New Jersey, to Norwegian immigrants Bertolf and Fanny, who divorced when he was 8. Matheson subsequently was raised in Brooklyn, New York by his mother and his early writing influences were the film Dracula, novels by Kenneth Roberts, and a poem he saw in the newspaper The Brooklyn Eagle, where at age 8 he would publish his first short story. After returning home, he attended the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri and it is the tale of a monstrous child chained by its parents in the cellar, cast as the creatures diary in poignantly non-idiomatic English. Later that year he placed stories in the first and third numbers of Galaxy Science Fiction and his first anthology of work was published in 1954. Between 1950 and 1971, he produced dozens of stories, frequently blending elements of the fiction, horror. He was a member of the Southern California Sorcerers in the 1950s and 1960s, which included Charles Beaumont, Ray Bradbury, George Clayton Johnson, William F. Nolan, Jerry Sohl, Duel was adapted into the 1971 TV movie of the same name. Mathesons first novel to be published, Someone Is Bleeding, appeared from Lion Books in 1953, in 1960, Matheson published The Beardless Warriors, a non-fantastic, autobiographical novel about teenage American soldiers in World War II. It was filmed in 1967 as The Young Warriors though most of Mathesons plot was jettisoned and his other early novels include The Shrinking Man and a science fiction vampire novel, I Am Legend. Matheson wrote screenplays for television programs including the Westerns Cheyenne, Have Gun – Will Travel. His Death Ship episode was a metaphysical statement that went well beyond pure television entertainment. For all of Mathesons Twilight Zone scripts, he wrote the introductory. He adapted five works of Edgar Allan Poe for Roger Cormans Poe series, including House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum and he wrote the Star Trek episode The Enemy Within. Three of his stories were filmed together as Trilogy of Terror. Other Matheson novels turned into films in the seventies include Bid Time Return. In the 1980s Matheson published the novel Earthbound, wrote several screenplays for the TV series Amazing Stories, Matheson published four western novels in this decade, plus the suspense novel Seven Steps to Midnight and the blackly comic locked-room mystery novel, Now You See It
14.
Charles Beaumont
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Charles Beaumont was an American author of speculative fiction, including short stories in the horror and science fiction subgenres. Lao, The Intruder and The Masque of the Red Death, novelist Dean R. Koontz has said, Charles Beaumont was one of the seminal influences on writers of the fantastic and macabre. Beaumont is also the subject of a documentary, Charles Beaumont, The Short Life of Twilight Zones Magic Man, Beaumont was born Charles Leroy Nutt in Chicago, to Charles H. and Letty Nutt. His mother is known to have dressed him in girls clothes and these early experiences inspired the celebrated short story Miss Gentilbelle, but according to Beaumont, Football, baseball and dimestore cookie thefts filled my early world. School did not hold his attention, and his last name exposed him to ridicule and he dropped out of high school in tenth grade to join the army. He also worked as a cartoonist, illustrator, disc jockey, during his time as an illustrator he briefly used the pseudonyms Charles McNutt and E. T. Beaumont, before settling on the name Charles Beaumont. He soon adopted this name legally, and used it both personally and professionally for the rest of his life, in 1954, Playboy magazine selected his story Black Country to be the first work of short fiction to appear in its pages. It was also at about time that Beaumont started writing for television. Beaumont was energetic and spontaneous, and was known to take trips at a moments notice, an avid racing fan, he often enjoyed participating in or watching area speedway races, with other authors tagging along. His short story The Crooked Man presented a dystopian future wherein heterosexuality is stigmatized in the way that homosexuality then was. It depicts heterosexuals living as furtively as pre-Stonewall gays and lesbians, in the story, a heterosexual man meets his lover in a gay orgy bar, they try to have sex in a curtained booth and are caught. Beaumont scripted the film Queen of Outer Space from an outline by Ben Hecht, according to Beaumont, the directorial style is not informed by his satiric intent. He penned one episode of the Steve Canyon TV show, Operation B-52, in which Canyon, Beaumont was much admired by the well-known colleagues who outlived him, and his work is currently in the process of being rediscovered. Many of his stories have been re-released in the posthumous volumes Best of Beaumont and The Howling Man, in 2004, Gauntlet Press released the first of two volumes collecting Beaumonts Twilight Zone scripts. In 1963, when Beaumont was 34 and overwhelmed by numerous writing commitments and his speech slowed and his ability to concentrate diminished. He was rarely well, his friend and colleague William F. Nolan would later recall and he was almost always thin, and with a headache. He used Bromo-Seltzer like most people use water and he had a big Bromo bottle with him all the time. The disease also affected his work and he could barely sell stories, much less write
15.
American Society of Cinematographers
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The American Society of Cinematographers, founded in 1919, is an educational, cultural, and professional organization. Neither a labor union nor a guild, ASC membership is by invitation and is extended only to directors of photography, members can put the letters A. S. C. after their names. ASC membership has become one of the highest honors that can be bestowed upon a professional cinematographer, the ASC currently has approximately 340 members and continues to grow. Its history goes back to the Cinema Camera Club in New York City founded by Arthur Charles Miller, Phil Rosen, Arthur Miller left to work in Hollywood, California, one year after the Motion Picture Industry Union was formed. The ASC was chartered in California in January 1919 by Miller,1920 also marked the beginning of American Cinematographer magazine, still in print today. The magazine focuses on the cinematography of current motion picture releases, including interviews with cinematographers, back-issues remain in high demand among film makers, seeking to discover how a particular films look was achieved. Other than the magazine, the most well-known publication of the ASC is the American Cinematographer Manual, the first edition was published in 1935 by Jackson J. Rose as The American Cinematographer Hand Book and Reference Guide. The Hand Book evolved from the Cinematographic Annual only published twice, roses handbook went through nine editions by the middle of the 1950s, and it was from this book that the modern American Cinematographer Manual originated. The first edition of the new manual was published in 1960, and is now in its ninth edition
16.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
17.
High Noon
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High Noon is a 1952 American Western film produced by Stanley Kramer from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper. The plot, depicted in real time, centers around a town marshal, though mired in controversy with political overtones at the time of its release, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, and won four as well as four Golden Globe Awards. The award-winning score was written by Russian-born composer Dimitri Tiomkin, in Hadleyville, a small town in New Mexico Territory, Marshal Will Kane, newly married to Amy Fowler, is preparing to retire. Millers gang—his younger brother Ben, Jack Colby, and Jim Pierce —await his arrival at the train station, for Amy, a devout Quaker and pacifist, the solution is simple—leave town before Miller arrives, but Kanes sense of duty and honor is strong. Theyre making me run, he tells her, ive never run from anybody before. Besides, he says, Miller and his gang will hunt him down anyway, Amy gives Kane an ultimatum, She is leaving on the noon train, with or without him. While waiting at the hotel for the train, she meets Helen Ramírez, who was once Millers lover, and then Kanes, and is leaving as well. Amy understands why Helen is fleeing, but the reverse is not true, Helen tells Amy that if Kane were her man, Kanes efforts to round up a posse at the tavern, and then the church, are met with fear and hostility. Some townspeople, worried that a gunfight would damage the towns reputation, others are Millers friends, and resent that Kane cleaned up the town in the first place. Kanes young deputy Harvey Pell, who is bitter that Kane did not recommend him as his successor, says he will stand with Kane only if Kane goes to the city fathers, Kane rejects the quid pro quo, and Pell turns in his badge. Kane writes out his will as the clock in his office ticks toward high noon, at the stables, Pell saddles a horse and tries to persuade Kane to mount it and leave town. Their conversation becomes an argument, and then a fist fight, Kane finally knocks his former deputy senseless, then goes into the street to face Miller and his gang. In one of the most iconic shots in film history, the camera rises, the outlaws approach and the gunfight begins. Kane guns down Ben Miller and Colby, but is wounded in the process, as the train is about to leave the station, Amy hears the gunfire, leaps off, and runs back to town. Choosing her husbands life over her religious beliefs, she picks up Ben Millers gun and shoots Pierce from behind, leaving only Frank Miller, Amy claws Millers face and he pushes her to the ground, giving Kane a clear shot, and he shoots Miller dead. Kane helps his bride to her feet and they embrace, as the townspeople emerge and cluster around him, Kane surveys them with bitter contempt, wordlessly throws his marshals star in the dirt, and departs with Amy on their wagon. Foreman had once been a member of the Communist Party, but he declined to identify fellow members, as a result, he was labeled an uncooperative witness by the committee, making him vulnerable to blacklisting. After his refusal to name names was made public, Foremans production partner Stanley Kramer demanded a dissolution of their partnership
18.
Science fiction film
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Science fiction films have often been used to focus on political or social issues, and to explore philosophical issues like the human condition. The genre has existed since the years of silent cinema. The next major example in the genre was the film Metropolis - being the first feature length science fiction movie, from the 1930s to the 1950s, the genre consisted mainly of low-budget B movies. After Stanley Kubricks landmark 2001, A Space Odyssey, the fiction film genre was taken more seriously. This definition suggests a continuum between empiricism and transcendentalism, with science fiction film on the side of empiricism, and horror film, however, there are numerous well-known examples of science fiction horror films, epitomized by such pictures as Frankenstein and Alien. The visual style of fiction film can be characterized by a clash between alien and familiar images. This clash is implemented when alien images become familiar, as in A Clockwork Orange, as well, familiar images become alien, as in the films Repo Man and Liquid Sky. For example, in Dr. Strangelove, the, distortion of the make the familiar images seem more alien. Finally, alien and familiar images are juxtaposed, as in The Deadly Mantis, Science fiction films appeared early in the silent film era, typically as short films shot in black and white, sometimes with colour tinting. They usually had a theme and were often intended to be humorous. In 1902, Georges Méliès released Le Voyage dans la Lune, generally considered the first science fiction film, several early films merged the science fiction and horror genres. Examples of this are Frankenstein, a adaptation of Mary Shelleys novel. Taking a more adventurous tack,20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a based on Jules Verne’s famous novel of a wondrous submarine. In the 1920s, European filmmakers tended to use science fiction for prediction and social commentary, as can be seen in German films such as Metropolis and Frau im Mond. In the 1930s, there were big budget science fiction films, notably Just Imagine, King Kong, Things to Come. Starting in 1936, a number of science fiction comic strips were adapted as serials, notably Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers and these serials, and the comic strips they were based on, were very popular with the general public. Other notable science fiction films of the 1930s include Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Doctor X, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, F. P. The 1940s brought us Before I Hang, Black Friday, Dr. Cyclops, The Devil Commands, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Man Made Monster, It Happened Tomorrow, It Happens Every Spring and The Perfect Woman
19.
John Ashley (actor)
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John Ashley was an American actor, producer and singer. Born John Atchley, he was reared in Oklahoma and attended Will Rogers High School in Tulsa and Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, while a student, Ashley visited a friend in California and accompanied him to the set of The Conqueror. He was seen by John Wayne who was impressed with the mans good looks. Ashley broke into films when he accompanied a girlfriend to an audition at American International Pictures for a part in Dragstrip Girl, lou Rusoff asked him if he wanted to audition as well and he ended up getting the part. AIP signed him to a four-picture non-exclusive contract expected to run for two years, Ashley was a particular favorite of the daughters of James H. Nicholson, one of the main figures at American International Pictures, who always hoped he would become a big star. Ashley unsuccessfully auditioned for the lead in I Was a Teenage Werewolf and his second role for the studio, Motorcycle Gang, was almost identical to Dragstrip Girl. By this stage Ashley had been drafted and production was held up until he completed his basic training, AIP wanted Ashley to make a film called Hot Rod Girl. He was offered a part on the TV series Matinee Theatre, however, Samuel Arkoff of AIP refused, and got an injunction preventing Ashley from appearing on TV. I never really forgave him for that, said Ashley and he also had a semi-recurring role as one of Ellie Mays suitors on The Beverly Hillbillies. and a strong part in Hud, perhaps his most acclaimed film. In 1959, Ashley was cast in the episode Elkton Lake Feud of the western television series, Frontier Doctor. In the story line, two families for years quarrel over the ownership of the lake, and only three individuals remain when a judge hands down the critical decision, in addition to acting, Ashley also made a number of records in the late 1950s. In the late 1960s, Ashley received an offer to make a film in the Philippines, as his first marriage had just broken up, he was keen to get out of the country and accepted. He made Brides of Blood for producer Eddie Romero, then returned to Oklahoma where he ran some theaters, a distributor friend of Ashleys found success screening Brides of Blood and suggested that Ashley return to the Philippines to make additional similar movies. Ashley agreed and returned there to film The Mad Doctor of Blood Island and Beast of Blood as an actor and this began a long-running association with the Philippines and producer Eddie Romero. Ashley eventually started financing these movies, as well as acting as Philippines liaison for movies like The Big Doll House and Apocalypse Now and he then returned to the US in order to concentrate on his theater interests and move into American production work. Ashley went on to such series as The A-Team, NBCs The Quest. His voice can be heard as the narrator in the title sequence of The A-Team during the shows first four seasons. Ashley married actress Deborah Walley in 1962 and they had one son, Anthony Ashley, before they divorced
20.
Fay Spain
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Fay Spain was an American actress in motion pictures and television. She began living alone in her English teachers attic at the age of 14, the teacher had a daughter who was affiliated with an acting stock company in Maryland. She gave Spain a job which combined the duties of acting apprentice, at sixteen, Miss Spain was in New York City, residing in an $8-a-week room on the Upper West Side. She worked in a tie shop where she became acquainted with an associate of Walter Winchell, the gossip writer mentioned her name in a column and Spain received a call from Columbia Pictures. She was not extended a contract because she wasnt pretty enough for Hollywood, within two months she found work with a stock company in the Catskill Mountains. She obtained an Equity Card which enabled her to working as an actress. Spain eschewed a college scholarship after attending school in White Salmon, Washington. She chose instead to pursue a stock company apprenticeship, as a film aspirant her first screen test was made with James Garner. The test was unfavorable and she was not considered photogenic and she continued to pursue acting, unimpeded by rejection. She accepted any parts which came along, learning the techniques of the acting trade, Spain first came to prominence with movie audiences in the late 1950s. In 1957, she appeared as Carol Smith with John Smith as Tommy Kelly in the dramatic film The Crooked Circle in which a boxer is pressured to throw a fight. In 1958, she was cast as Darlin Jill in the version of Gods Little Acre. The film marked the debut of Tina Louise and also starred Robert Ryan, Jack Lord, Buddy Hackett, Aldo Ray. Her final appearance as an actress came in 1974, when she portrayed the wife of mobster Hyman Roth in The Godfather Part II. In 1959 the actress married west coast abstract painter John Altoon and they spent their honeymoon in Reno, Nevada. Both led busy lives and enjoyed their time away from work by relaxing in a home they remodeled in the San Fernando Valley of California, Altoon was an art instructor in Los Angeles. He contributed art for a series of album covers. Spain had a son from a previous marriage who lived with her in California
21.
Five Guns West
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Five Guns West is a 1955 Western film set during the American Civil War directed by Roger Corman. It was Cormans first film as director although he had made two as producer. It was the second of two films he made for the American Releasing Company, which later became American International Pictures, the film stars Dorothy Malone, John Lund and Mike Connors. The cast also includes R. Wright Campbell, who wrote the screenplay, a pack of Confederate soldiers go after a traitor and a shipment of stolen gold. They end up taking a woman, Shalee Jethro, captive and begin fighting over her, before one of the men and it was Dorothy Malones first film following the death of her younger brother. It was shot over nine days, Corman reportedly went over budget making the movie. List of American films of 1955 Five Guns West at the Internet Movie Database
22.
The Beast with a Million Eyes
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The Beast with a Million Eyes is a 1955 independently made science fiction film produced and directed by David Kramarsky that stars Paul Birch, Lorna Thayer, and Dona Cole. Some film sources have said that the film was co-directed by Lou Place, the film was co-produced by Roger Corman and Samuel Z. Arkoff. and was released by American Releasing Corporation, which later became American International Pictures. The films storyline concerns an alien that is able to see through the eyes of a large array of Earth life that it can also mentally control. The isolated Kelley family struggle with their farm located in an isolated. After a mysterious object crashes nearby, both wild and domesticated animals and finally the farms handyman turn on the family, attacking them and it turns out that a space alien has taken over the minds of the areas lesser animals and is working its way up to controlling humans. This is all part of a plan to conquer the Earth, in the end the family bond together and unite, fighting against the alien menace to thwart its plan of conquest. The Beast with a Million Eyes was the third of a three-picture deal Roger Corman had with the American Releasing Company following The Fast, only $29,000 remained to make the film for Pacemaker Productions. Studio publicist James H. Nicholson had come up with a title, when Samuel Z. Arkoff of ARC received The Beast with a Million Eyes he was unhappy that it did not even feature the beast that was implicit in the title. Paul Blaisdell, responsible for the special effects, was hired to create a three-foot-tall spaceship for a meager $200. Notably, the Art Director was Albert S. Ruddy, who would win two Best Picture Academy Awards for The Godfather and Million Dollar Baby. Filming took place in Indio and the Coachella Valley, California, Corman shot 48 pages of interiors in just two days at a studio on La Cienega Blvd. in Los Angeles. The Beast with a Million Eyes was a film originally titled The Unseen. After one days filming, the union threatened to shut down the production unless everyone signed with the Guild, Roger Corman, who was producing, took over the films directing chores and replaced the cinematographer with Floyd Crosby, however Corman took no official screen credit. Another version of story has Corman allocating directing duties to Dave Kramarsky. He further described the film as, early Roger Corman production features Paul Blaisdells first movie monster, in 2007 Metro-Goldwyn Mayer distributed The Beast with a Million Eyes as part of its Midnight Movies catalog on a double-feature DVD shared with The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues. List of American films of 1955 The Beast with a Million Eyes at the Internet Movie Database
23.
Day the World Ended
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Day the World Ended is a 1955 post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Roger Corman. The story centers on a heroic scientist who, among others, chet Huntley of NBC, later of The Huntley-Brinkley Report, served as narrator. The film was released by American International Pictures as a feature with The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues. An atomic war has seemingly destroyed most human civilization, leaving Earth contaminated with radioactive fallout, Louise is engaged to be married, but her fiance is missing. Into this natural bomb shelter come stumbling survivors, who by chance were inside the canyon when the war occurred, after initially refusing to admit them, Jim relents when his daughter appeals to his humanity. Among the survivors are a geologist, Rick, who happens to specialize in mining. The second threat comes in the form of a monster, which seems bent on killing anything it comes across. All three dangers coincide as the monster kidnaps Louise and it then releases her into a small lake, where it is obviously afraid to enter. Rick appears and attacks the creature, which runs away as it begins to rain, following the creature as it is destroyed by the rain, they realize that it is Louises missing fiance. Tony, having stabbed Ruby to death when she realizes that he wants to be with the younger Louise and he waits to waylay Rick when he returns with Louise. As he takes aim, Jim reveals a concealed pistol and shoots Tony dead and he has heard voices of other survivors on the radio. Rick and Louise, the two survivors of this group, walk hand-in-hand out of the canyon, with the end card The Beginning appearing on the screen. Nicholson of AIP thought up the title, then commissioned Lou Rusoff to write a script and it was the second film by Golden State for the American Releasing Corp. Day the World Ended was the film directed by Corman. The film was shot over 10 days on a budget of $96,234.49, denning was paid $7,500 plus a percentage. It was released on a bill in December 1955 with The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues. The pairing proved popular, due in part to savvy marketing by Nicholson. Within two months of release, the films had earned $400,000, on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes,3 out of 5 critics gave the film a positive review, but it still only holds a 40% audience score
24.
The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues
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The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues is a 1955 science fiction film, directed by Dan Milner, produced by Dan and Jack Milner, starring Kent Taylor. The movie was released in December 1955 on a bill with Day the World Ended. American Releasing Corporation soon changed their name to American International Pictures, both films cost approximately $100,000 each. It has had many DVD releases, a mysterious, man-sized monster kills a fisherman at sea. A marine biologist and a Federal agent later find the body on the beach, the biologist, Ted Baxter, tries to get a sample of a radioactive rock in the sea, but the same monster attacks him. Ted escapes and returns to the beach, on a later trip with the other agent, William Grant, the monster nearly kills Ted, but Grant shoots it with a spear gun. Ted discovers that Dr. King, a marine biologist, created the monster, meanwhile, foreign agents try to discover Dr. Kings secrets, while Ted and Kings daughter develop a relationship. Agent Grant captures the foreign agents, while Ted finally tells Dr. King the monster is killing people and must be stopped, Dr. King destroys his lab and goes to kill his creation using dynamite. Shortly before a timed detonation, the monster grabs him, Ted arrives just in time to witness the explosion, which destroys the rock, the monster, and Dr. King. They realised if they made two low budget films and distributed them on a bill they could make more profit. ARCs cofounder James H. Nicholson came up with the title and he was looking for a movie to support Day the World Ended on a double bill. ARC lacked money to both films so they allocated Phantom to Dan and Jack Milner, film editors who wanted to get into production. ARC and Milner spit the costs 60/40, the double bill with Day the World Ended proved popular, due in part to savvy marketing by James H. Nicholson. Within two months of release the films had earned $400,000, list of films in the public domain Midnite Movies The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues was released for CatCom and for one of the 50 horror movies in a huge box set. In 2007 Metro-Goldwyn Mayer distributed The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues as part of its Midnight Movies catalog on a double-feature DVD shared with The Beast with a Million Eyes. The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues at the Internet Movie Database The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues at the TCM Movie Database The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues at Rotten Tomatoes
25.
Female Jungle
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Female Jungle is a 1955 black-and-white film noir directed by Bruno VeSota, featuring Lawrence Tierney, Kathleen Crowley, John Carradine, Jayne Mansfield, and Burt Kaiser. The production is notable for being Mansfields first film, as well as the only American International Pictures entry into film noir, a cop is suspected of killing a gorgeous film star. Since he was drunk at the time, even he suspects that he did it. The investigation leads him to Candy, a mistress, as well as to a slimy Laura-type gossip columnist who spent time with the woman that night. But he also becomes a red herring when a man is finally found to be the real killer. John Carradine as Claude Almstead Lawrence Tierney as Det and it is rumored that Mansfield was paid $150 USD for her role in the film. The movie was shot in six days, Kathleen Crowley was the lead, one day with half the film to finish she turned up to filming three hours late claiming she had been raped. The script was rewritten to build up the role played by Jayne Mansfield, the film also marked a return to the screen of noir icon Lawrence Tierney, whose off-screen bar brawls and numerous arrests during the 1940s had made him persona non grata in Hollywood. Film critic Dennis Schwartz, gave the film a mixed review and he wrote, A muddled but diverting B film noir melodrama from cheapie American International Pictures. Future sex queen Jayne Mansfield, known as the blonde bombshell, made her acting debut, costarring as a nymphomaniac. Its attempts to be hard-boiled fall apart when it becomes apparent that writer Burt Kaiser couldnt get a handle on the plot line and it also suffers from a weak directing effort by Bruno Ve Sota and cheesy production values
26.
Film noir
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Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly such that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywoods classical film noir period is regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression. Cinema historians and critics defined the category retrospectively, before the notion was widely adopted in the 1970s, many of the classic films noir were referred to as melodramas. Whether film noir qualifies as a genre is a matter of ongoing debate among scholars. Although film noir was originally associated with American productions, films now so described have been made around the world, many pictures released from the 1960s onward share attributes with film noir of the classical period, and often treat its conventions self-referentially. Some refer to such works as neo-noir. The clichés of film noir have inspired parody since the mid-1940s, the questions of what defines film noir, and what sort of category it is, provoke continuing debate. They emphasize that not every film noir embodies all five attributes in equal measure—one might be more dreamlike, another, while many critics refer to film noir as a genre itself, others argue that it can be no such thing. Because of the diversity of noir, certain scholars in the field, such as film historian Thomas Schatz, treat it as not a genre but a style. Other critics treat film noir as a mood, characterize it as a series, there is no consensus on the matter. By 1931, Curtiz had already been in Hollywood for half a decade, the Universal horror that comes closest to noir, in story and sensibility is The Invisible Man, directed by Englishman James Whale and photographed by American Arthur Edeson. Edeson later photographed The Maltese Falcon, widely regarded as the first major film noir of the classic era, josef von Sternberg was directing in Hollywood at the same time. Films of his such as Shanghai Express and The Devil Is a Woman, with their hothouse eroticism and baroque visual style, the commercial and critical success of Sternbergs silent Underworld was largely responsible for spurring a trend of Hollywood gangster films. Successful films in that such as Little Caesar, The Public Enemy. An important, possibly influential, cinematic antecedent to classic noir was 1930s French poetic realism, with its romantic, fatalistic attitude, the movements sensibility is mirrored in the Warner Bros. drama I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, a forerunner of noir. Among films not considered films noir, perhaps none had an effect on the development of the genre than Citizen Kane
27.
Operation Malaya (film)
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Operation Malaya is a 1953 British documentary about the actions of British troops during the Malayan Emergency. It was also known as Terror in the Jungle, scenes from the action of English troops against Communists in Malaya, focusing around the tracking down of a group of communist who killed a rubber planter. David MacDonald had previously made a movie about World War II. He approached the Colonial Office for money to make a similar movie about the Malayan Emergency but was refused by Sir Gerald Templar on the grounds it was a commercial venture. Instead MacDonald obtained commercial funding from Sir Alex Korda, the film mixed genuine documentary footage with dramatic re-enactments of real life incidents. The voices of actors were used, including Chips Rafferty. The film was partly in Merton Park Studios. The film debuted at the Edinburgh Festival but struggled to find distribution in England. The Manchester Guardian called it an attempt to describe the course of politico-military events in post-war Malaya but it often looks. American rights to the film were bought by the American Releasing Corporation and it was one of the first movies released by that company. Herman Cohen was credited as producer for this version, Operation Malaya at Colonial Film Operation Malaya at the Internet Movie Database Operation Malaya at TCMDB Operation Malaya at BFI
28.
Gunslinger
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Gunman was a more common term used for these individuals in the 19th century. Today, the gunslinger is now more or less used to denote someone who is quick on the draw with a pistol. The gunfighter is also one of the most popular characters in the Western genre and has appeared in associated films, video games, the term gun slinger was used in the Western film Drag Harlan. The word was adopted by other Western writers, such as Zane Grey. Swarthout seems to have been correct about gunslinger, but the term existed in several newspapers in the 1870s. Bat Masterson used the term gunfighter in the articles which he wrote about the lawmen. However, Joseph Rosa noted that, even though Masterson used the term gunfighter, Clay Allison, a notorious New Mexico and Texas gunman and cattleman, originated the term shootist. Often, the term has been applied to men who would hire out for contract killings or at a ranch embroiled in a war where they would earn fighting wages. Others, like Billy the Kid, were notorious bandits, a gunfighter could be an outlaw—a robber or murderer who took advantage of the wilderness of the frontier to hide from genteel society and to make periodic raids on it. The gunfighter could also be an agent of the state, archetypically a lone avenger, there were also a few historical cowboys who were actual gunfighters, such as the Outlaw cowboy gang who participated in the bloody Skeleton Canyon Massacre. Gunslingers frequently appear as characters in Western movies and novels. Often, the hero of a Western meets his opposite double, Western gunslinger heroes are portrayed as local lawmen or enforcement officers, ranchers, army officers, cowboys, territorial marshals, nomadic loners, or skilled fast-draw artists. They are normally masculine persons of integrity and principle - courageous, moral, tough, solid, the Western hero usually stands alone and faces danger on his own, commonly against lawlessness, with an expert display of his physical skills. In films, the gunslinger often possesses a superhuman speed. Twirling pistols, lightning draws, and trick shots are standard fare for the gunmen of the big screen, in the real world, however, gunmen who relied on flashy tricks and theatrics died quickly, and most gunslingers took a much more practical approach to their weapons. Real gunslingers did not shoot to disarm or to impress, another classic bit of cinema that is largely a myth is the showdown at high noon, where two well-matched gunslingers agree to meet for a climactic formal duel. Gunfights could be won by simple distraction, or pistols could be emptied as gunmen fought from behind cover without injury, when a gunman did square off, it rarely was with another gunfighter. Gunslingers usually gave each other a wide berth, and it was uncommon for two well-known gunslingers to face off, the gunslingers reputation often was as valuable as any skills possessed
29.
It Conquered the World
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It Conquered the World was released theatrically by American International Pictures on a double bill with The She Creature. It Conquered the World concerns an alien creature from the planet Venus that secretly wants to control of the Earth. Dr. Tom Anderson, an embittered scientist, has made contact with a Venusian creature, Anderson agrees to help the creature and even intends to allow it to assimilate his wife and friend Dr. Nelson. The Venusian then disrupts all electric power on Earth, including motor vehicles, after killing a flying bat-like creature which carries the mind control device, Dr. Nelson returns home to find his wife newly assimilated. She then attempts to force his own assimilation using another bat-creature in her possession, by then, the only people who are still free from the Venusians influence are Nelson, Anderson, Andersons wife and a group of army soldiers on station in the nearby woods. Nelson finally persuades the paranoid Anderson that he has made a mistake in blindly trusting the Venusians motives. When they discover Toms wife has taken a rifle to the cave in order to kill it, they hurriedly follow her. Finally, seeing the loss of everything he holds dear, Dr. Anderson viciously attacks the Venusian by holding a blowtorch to the creatures face, Anderson dies at the aliens hand as it expires. It Conquered the World was written by Lou Rusoff, but before being completed, Rusoffs brother died, roger Corman then called in Charles Griffith to do a final rewrite, two days before filming began, Griffith, however, didnt want his name to be credited on screen. The design of the creature was Cormans idea, and he thought that coming from a big planet, It would have evolved to deal with heavy gravity, Corman later admitted this was a mistake, saying the creature would have been more frightening had It been larger or taller. When Beverly Garland first saw the creature, she commented That conquered the world, Charles Griffith on the creature prop, I called it Denny Dimwit and somebody else called it an ice-cream cone. I was around when Paul Blaisdell was building it, and he thought the camera would make it look bigger, I have some photographs of it in construction, probably the only ones in existence. I asked for my name not to be on that picture and it Conquered the World was released theatrically by American International Pictures in July 1956 on a double bill with The She Creature. During the 1960s, the film was syndicated to television by American International Television, VHS versions appeared in the 1990s on the US home video market but these are no longer in distribution, nor is the film available on DVD or Blu-ray in the US or in the UK. AIP successfully argued an enemy alien from space was not an animal. Film historian and critic Leonard Maltin called It Conquered the World, well acted and interesting but awkwardly plotted. Time Out magazine, however, gave the film a negative review, critic Tony Rayns opined, You have to see a movie like this to realise that film-makers who feel they have nothing to lose are rarer than youd think. Chicago Reader gave the film a positive review, saying Amazingly
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Rock All Night
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Rock All Night is a 1957 American International Pictures film produced and directed by Roger Corman based on a 25-minute television episode of The Jane Wyman Theatre from 1955 called Little Guy. It stars Dick Miller, Russell Johnson and Abby Dalton, the film was released as a double feature with Dragstrip Girl. Two escaping killers hide out in a called the Cloud Nine and hold the bartender. Griffith to expand into a feature, Mel wrote his own “hiptionary” for sale in the theatre to go with it. Dick Miller was in the Dane Clark part and he was the little guy of the title. The music was by Buck Ram, The Platters and those people all doing their hit songs, of course, no songs were written in 24 hours. I would just put down “musical number here”, the girl has her dialogue with the guys and then turns around to sing a song. It was up to them what she sang, up to Roger, the film was at one stage known as RocknRoll Girl. Dane Clark was originally sought to play the lead, Corman filmed Rams acts lip-synching their tunes on a separate set that comprise the beginning of the film. Rock All Night was made in five days and originally appeared as a feature with Dragstrip Girl. Comedian Lord Buckley had planned to be in the film, but when he was unavailable, one of Cormans stock company, wells wrote a dictionary of hip talk for the film. Dick Miller, a former Navy boxing champion, played the role Dane Clark did in the television show, despite the short shooting schedule and minimal locations, Corman always regarded the movie as a personal favourite
