(1957)
Overall: GOOD
Roger Corman made nine films in 1957 alone and the third of them and first, (but not last), sci-fi one of the bunch was Not of This Earth. Typical of the period and certainly for such rushed, B-movie fare, the plot is inconsistently structured. Paul Birch's "Mr. Johnson", (we are never given his true alien name if his species even bothers with such things), has the ability to hypnotize anyone he wants at the drop of a hat and for permanent periods, yet he neglects to use this incredibly useful ability on key people he surrounds himself with. Plus his home planet's scheme seems needlessly complicated as they require gallons of human blood to analyze, also require live humans to operate on, and have a transporting beam to send people through, yet when time is of the essence, they insist on doing these experiments in separate stages while Johnson disposes of the blood victims in his furnace instead. If one can ignore all the faux pas in the script or more practically just giggle at them, the film is well-paced and frequently eerie in its cold depiction of the aliens with their emotionless speech patterns and dark-rimmed sunglasses. Corman was never one for originality in his cheap, drive-in projects and this is no different, but its redeeming factors kind of balance the lazy ones.
(1958)
Overall: MEH
A line like, "If you can give me $80,000, I will have a picture about satellites ready to go into the theaters in ninety days.", followed by "What's the story?", followed again by, "I have no idea" allegedly spoken by Roger Corman to Allied Artists producer Steve Broidy is the perfect example of Corman-lore that could not be more believable once viewing the final results. Never one to miss an opportunity to jump on any public interest bandwagon he could squeeze a drive-in cheapie with, War of the Satellites was dropped less than a year after the Russian Sputnik satellite was launched. A day shooting and eight total week production schedule be damned, Corman indeed delivered a movie about satellites. Is it any good? Well anyone familiar with the hilariously prolific filmmaker's work would have the appropriate expectations going in and on that measure, it is both impressive in spite of its limitations and humorous due to its camp value. The sets and model work are laugh-out-loud embarrassing and the plot barely if at all important, but the performances from a crop of Corman regulars play everything effectively serious, with Richard Devon in particular making for both a creepy space captain and his increasingly emotional doppleganger.
(1959)
Overall: MEH
The last movie Roger Corman made in his most prolific directing decade as well as actress Susan Cabot's final screen appearance, (who later suffered severe mental ailments and was ultimately and tragically bludgeoned to death by her own son), The Wasp Woman most likely was said filmmaker's attempt at riding the coattails of 20th Century Foxes The Fly. In that regard, it pails in comparison in every practical way. For one, the pacing is utterly dreadful with a completely useless, seven minute honey farm prologue, (added for television syndication by fellow B-movie director Jack Hill), getting things off to a arduous start. Corman has the good sense to show his title monster under the darkest possible lighting for most scenes, considering that it is nothing more than Cabot wearing black and a cheap bug mask. Still, he makes the mistake of waiting until the movie only has about twenty minutes left in it to do so. This technically makes The Wasp Woman a lousy advertising firm drama first and foremost. Scenes of characters in laboratories or on the phone go on for enough seconds too long that it feels like a lifetime, further plodding the whole ordeal along. Thankfully, (unless you are a steadfast schlock fan), Corman would find better uses of his talents with Vincent Price in tow the following year with the beginning of the Edgar Allan Poe cycle, thus beginning the process of winding down his irresistible urge to make any movie as quickly and cheaply as possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment