FAST 50s: Early Roger Corman Sci-Fi
FAST 50s: Early Roger Corman Sci-Fi
'Day the World Ended,' ' It Conquered the World,' 'Not of This Earth,' and 'War of the Satellites' are all family-friendly films from the Golden Era of Sci-Fi cinema. One is a true gem.
Now Streaming: Nobody would ever describe Roger Corman as a family-friendly director.
Indeed, seeing Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957) as a young child scarred me for life. I watched it because Russell Johnson, The Professor on Gilligan's Island, was in it, and the movie was on Saturday afternoon TV in Los Angeles in the late 1960s, but I still have images from the film -- giant claws around the necks of mere men -- burned into my brain.
Known for producing nearly 500 films in his legendary career and for giving neophyte directors Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdonovich, Ron Howard, and James Cameron, among many, many others, their first jobs in the business, Corman began as a neophyte himself and learned on the job how to produce and direct motion pictures. His autobiography, How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime, written with Jim Jerome, is a fabulous book that I've read twice and consulted dozens of times since it was first published in 1990.
His recent death prompted an outpouring of tributes across all social media channels, and also moved me to explore the films that he directed himself in the 1950s and 60s. Many film fans today are quick to relate to his horror films, especially those adapted from Edgar Allan Poe, but Corman ranged all over the genre map in his exploitation films, all made on a low budget (by Hollywood studio standards).
For the purposes of this site -- and for the sake of my precious sleep (no nightmares, please) -- I decided to skip over his horror output and, for the sake of my limited budget, watch only movies available on FAST (Free Ad-supported Streaming Television) channels.
That allowed me to begin with his feature debut, Five Guns West (1955), which has a crackling story that presages his own The Secret Invasion (1964) and Robert Aldrich's The Dirty Dozen (1967), followed the titular gunmen, who are all on their way to be hanged for their murderous crimes when they are offered pardons by the desperate Confederacy during the tail end of the Civil War, in exchange for going on a possibly suicidal mission to catch a traitor and, more importantly, the gold that he stole. Corman's propensity for a variety of vivid set-ups and his propensity for moving the camera combine to make this a dynamic picture that moves quickly through its 78 minutes. [Tubi]
With a taste for Corman's talent already evident in Westerns, I decided to then focus on his (fewer) science-fiction efforts. The 50s may be my favorite sci-fi movie decade, what with Destination Moon (1950), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), The Thing From Another World (1951), When Worlds Collide (1951), Invasion USA (1952), Invaders From Mars (1952), It Came From Outer Space (1953), The War of the Worlds (1953), Godzilla (1954), and Them! (1954) already released before Corman got started. But those were (mostly) studio pictures. How would a scrappy independent stand out?
His first sci-fi effort, Day the World Ended, followed a small group who have somehow survived an atomic war because they are in a box canyon that is protected by the lead in the surrounding hills. (?!) A former military man (Paul Birch) foresaw the disaster and has been hoarding supplies in his home with his kind-hearted daughter (Lori Nelson), who simply cannot bear to turn away strangers who arrive at their door seeking refuge, including Rick (Richard Denning), the most heroic among them and Mike Conners -- billed as Touch Conners -- as the most antagonistic character.
As their supplies dwindle and conflicts among the group increase, they become aware of a monster lurking in the box canyon, a creature that has been horribly mutated by radiation. Again, Corman's direction, imaginative staging, and the strong performances carry the picture through its conclusion, even when we get a closer look at the monster. (?!) It was released in December 1955 as part of a double-bill with The Phantom with 10,000 Legs. [Tubi]
Corman next "did two films about aliens -- Not of This Earth and It Conquered the World," as he writes in his book, "Both were shot in black and white in two weeks for well under $100,000 each. … With Not of This Earth I tried for the first time to have some fun with a suspense film." That included a bite-sized supporting role by Dick Miller -- billed as Richard Miller -- as a vacuum cleaner salesman, 'ad-lipping as he went.' (Miller had been cast in Corman's second picture, Apache Woman, as both "an Indian," then, after his scenes were shot, Corman asked him to play one of the cowboys who were chasing his character. So he shot himself.)
Released in February 1957, on a double-bill with Attack of the Crab Monsters, "the picture took in close to $1 million in rentals. It was a definite turning point because it proved that mixing in some offbeat humor only increased the appeal of science fiction." It is, admittedly, an uneven picture, but the self-conscious humor consistently works, and the idea of an otherworldly creature who looks like an ordinary human who wears sunglasses to hide his deadly eyes on his mission to collect human blood samples to his native planet was striking and different. [Fawesome]
Corman "approached Conquered with the same loose spirit as Not of This Earth." He also had the benefit of early-career Lee Van Cleef as a possibly mad scientist who has established communication with the dwindling inhabitants of Venus, who have sent an emissary to Earth. Again, the movie crackles in the performances by Van Cleef, Beverly Garland as his wife, and Peter Graves, as well as Corman's dynamic pacing and camera movements. [Fawesome]
After making two pictures in Hawaii -- Shark Reef and Thunder Over Hawaii, retitled Naked Paradise -- Corman began making films about rebellious youth, such as Rock All Night, Sorority Girl, Carnival Rock and Teenage Doll, with horror picture (The Undead) and an action adventure (The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent). In between the latter two, returned to science fiction.
Inspired by Russia putting their Sputnik satellite into space in 1957, special effects expert Jack Rabin came up with an idea that suited Corman, who says he "promptly called the head of Allied Artists and told him I could do a ten-day picture about satellites, cut it in four weeks, and have it on screens in two or three months. He said fine, do it. He didn't even ask me what the story was; it was just as well, since I didn't have one yet."
War of the Satellites showed Corman's increasing effectiveness as a director, even with a slapped-together script. Dick Miller steps up to a lead role as an astronomer, who gives a rousing speech to the U.N. about the continuing need for space exploration, even after a message from outer space has been received expressing displeasure -- by causing disastrous "natural" disasters to increase worldwide -- with what humans have been doing.
Miller's performance is quite good, and it's hard to believe that its 66 minutes were shot so quickly. The pace is intense and it's a very good picture; in my mind, it's a true gem. [Tubi]
Notes on Streaming: It's great that so many Roger Corman movies are available to watch on FAST channels, but the experience is not all the same. The three that I watched on Tubi all feature decent (Five Guns West) to very good source prints (Day the World Ended, War of the Satellites), with only three ad-breaks, each consisting of just one 30-second ad.
In contrast, the two I watched on Fawesome (Not of This Earth, It Conquered the World) feature less than optimal prints, looking more like worn videotapes, and each feature ad-breaks every 9-10 minutes, with the breaks feature 4-7 30-second ads, usually with the same advertising, sometime running the same ads, one after the after.
It quickly became tiresome. Now, I realize that the poor source prints may have been the best available, and I am grateful to have seen these movies. But be aware that the viewing experience is … challenging, to say the least.