Jared Cowan/American Cinematheque
“This is the only person who runs a studio and knows how to make a movie,” director Allan Arkush exclaimed, welcoming his former boss Roger Corman to a sold-out crowd at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica on Saturday night.
The now 97-year-old, incredibly prolific pope of pop cinema was a guest of honor at the genre-focused Beyond Fest and sat down for a panel discussion with Arkush, fellow directors Ron Howard, Joe Dante and Amy Holden Jones, and producer Jon Davison Corman helped with his to gain a foothold in Hollywood with the independent production and distribution company New World Pictures, founded in 1970. After directing more than 45 feature films, Corman decided to create his own banner, which would later help launch the careers of Jonathan Demme and Curtis Hanson and countless other talents.
“I made a movie for American International that made too much money: ‘The Wild Angels.'” Sales went up so much and they cheated me out of the profits. We sorted that out because they wanted another one. So I directed ‘The Trip,'” Corman recalls, calling the feature, which he co-wrote with frequent collaborator Jack Nicholson, a turning point in his career. “That made a big profit and they cheated me again! I remember talking to Ingmar Bergman and he felt that Svensk Filmindustri had cheated him out of profits. I thought, ‘Well, if everyone’s getting cheated out of their distributor’s profits, the only thing I can do is become a distributor myself.'”
The Corman tribute followed Beyond Fest’s marathon of four 35mm features produced by the mogul – an all-day affair that began with Arkush’s Ramones romp “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School,” followed by Howard’s debut film “Grand Theft Auto.” and Dante’s horror comedy Piranha, the most expensive production in New World history (still economical with a generous budget of $600,000, co-financed by United Artists). The crowning conclusion of the series was the performance of Corman’s silly mood piece “The Raven” with Vincent Price and Boris Karloff as magicians who once dueled in a midnight dreariness.
Mick Garris, left, Jon Davison, Joe Dante, Roger Corman, Allan Arkush, Amy Holden Jones and Ron Howard at Beyond Fest. Jared Cowan/American Cinematheque
After the marathon concluded, Beyond Fest played two short video messages from Corman acolytes John Sayles and Todd Field. The first-time filmmaker congratulated the producer on the honor, while Field shared a humorous anecdote about meeting Corman at a test screening after appearing in one of his films.
“We went to the concession stand and Roger didn’t want anything. I got a very large can of popcorn. I watched the film and paid very, very close attention to my work, as any actor would. When I looked down, I saw Roger’s hand coming out of my popcorn tub and the tub was completely empty,” Field shared, sparking laughter from the crowd. “Smart guy. That’s why you’re Roger Corman.”
The diverse ensemble of Howard, Jones, Arkush, Dante and Davison then took the stage one after the other, introduced by host Mick Garris. Each name received a round of applause, even as the crowd waited to stand for Corman, who received the “longest standing ovation in Beyond Fest history,” according to the organization. During the nearly hour-long conversation, each panelist noted that Corman required hard work. But even that sentiment was expressed with overwhelming warmth, nostalgic for a time when the biggest headaches occurred on sets rather than in the boardrooms.
“I will never work for someone who knows movies as well as Roger again,” said Dante, who later directed the “Gremlins” series. “It is the hope of working for people who can help you because they know more than you. There are almost none. They are no help. In fact, they are an obstacle. You spend a lot of time trying to please people who don’t know what they want, and if they did, they wouldn’t know how to express it anyway. We all feel like we spent the best years of our creative lives with someone who knew more than we did.”
“The vast majority of people can’t tell the difference between good and evil,” agreed Jones, who directed the cult horror film “Slumber Party Massacre” under Corman. “You get notes on cuts that don’t make sense. There are new recordings that do not solve the actual problem. Above all, managers cannot distinguish good from bad. Roger knew straight away.”
Corman first forayed into the film industry as a critic for the Stanford Daily before working under a producer who was initially compensated only by first-hand experience. After producing two feature films, he decided to direct the third: his 1955 debut, Five Guns West.
“I had no training as a director at all. I saw what the directors were doing and thought, ‘I could do that!'” Corman said. “The film turned out to be successful and suddenly people hired me as a director. I basically learned as I went along.”
The marquee at the Aero Theater on September 30th. Jared Cowan/American Cinematheque
The veteran group of directors shared stories about working at New World under Corman, whose improvisational and bootstraps temperament offered young talent the opportunity to learn the basics of filmmaking and get a crash course in cinema history. Arkush recalled that Corman urged him to take inspiration from Sergei Eisenstein’s silent epic Ivan the Terrible when planning his post-apocalyptic B-movie Deathsport. New World staff performed color corrections on “Candy Stripe Nurses” and “Cries and Whispers” that same afternoon.
“Lucky we had Yoda!” Arkush said, pointing at Corman. “He gave us free rein. I remember showing him a comic from Punk magazine that said “Mutant Monster Beach Party” with a picture of Joey Ramone. He looked at it and said, ‘These are our boys.'”
Howard recalled that his desire to become a director after working as a child actor was considered unorthodox at the time. Corman was the first manager Howard met who did not support the idea. He offered him the responsibility as second unit director in return for the lead role in “Eat My Dust!” After the success of that film, Howard took over directing Grand Theft Auto.
“I presented everything possible – noir, thriller, science fiction. Finally Roger said, “Well, that’s all very interesting.” But I’m very interested in images of teenagers on the run and of car accidents. When we tested titles, one title came in a close second: Grand Theft Auto. “If you can create a comedy called So that you can be in, I would let you do that movie,” Howard shared. “It was probably the quickest green light I’ve ever gotten in Hollywood.”
Things didn’t go entirely smoothly for the current Oscar winner. Howard, just 23 years old, had to endure a disturbing test screening that did not appeal to the film’s target audience.
“It was full of geriatrics. Literally blue-haired ladies… I went to Roger and said, ‘Roger, this is the wrong audience.’ He said, ‘Ron, a laugh is a laugh,'” Howard shared, admitting that one later crowd of younger spectators erupted at the same moment as this first audience. “When the movie ended, the little old ladies in front of us stood up. We had seen her laugh! And they were like, ‘Oh, that was just disgusting and rude.'”
Everyone on stage had a test performance story associated with Corman, whether it was a triumph or a failure. Jones recalled performing “Slumber Party Massacre” to a boisterous audience.
“I called it ‘Sleepless Nights.’ Roger called it the “slumber party massacre.” And that was a smart move,” Jones joked. “They loved it. The killing. I went out and Roger was having popcorn. You could hear them screaming inside. I said, ‘My God, Roger.’ What have we done?’ And he said, “We did the best preview in the history of the New World.”
Arkush jumped in and bragged about landing the worst preview in New World history with Deathsport.
“It didn’t play well. People were screaming at the screen. “At one point, David Carradine says, ‘We’re going to duel now.’ And someone in the audience yells, ‘It’s about damn time.’ “Afterwards we stood on the sidewalk. “What should we do, Roger?” He says, ‘Oh, just mail it.'”
Mick Garris, left, Jon Davison, Ron Howard, Joe Dante, Allan Arkush, Amy Holden Jones and Roger Corman at Beyond Fest. Jared Cowan/American Cinematheque
New World Pictures also distributed films by authors such as Federico Fellini and Akira Kurosawa, but in the 1970s the be-all and end-all was to attract young audiences with entertaining, light-hearted and cheap films. Corman noted that many studios at the time were putting out big releases with “a 50-year-old leading man and a 40-year-old leading lady.” The youth population remained untapped.
“It had to have sex, violence or humor,” Jones explained Corman’s credo. “This is a mass medium. We are here to entertain. I never did anything again that didn’t have one of those three elements.”
“He gives you a tremendous amount of freedom within the parameters that he knows he needs to sell a film,” Dante added.
Howard agreed: “While budget was always a consideration, quality was always the focus. How do you get to the essence of a scene and do it well, but at the same time timely and responsibly?”
At New World Pictures, filmmakers had the opportunity to refine their technique. But Corman, who has directed 55 films and produced hundreds more, also exploited the virtues of disposableness. Not every image was a success, but the ethos (and business imperative) was that artists needed to evolve, learn, and then move on to the next project.
Or as Corman told the audience with typical succinctness and a broad grin: “No matter what happens, keep shooting.”