RIP Roger Corman, “King of the B Movies”
A look at the filmmaker’s career—including conflicts with Marvel Comics, MST3K, and the USA Network.
We note the passing of Roger Corman (1926-2024), trailblazer for indie movies. He passed away on May 9. He was 98 years old.
A movie director, producer, and actor, Corman’s reputation as a filmmaker led to being known by a few different nicknames, including “King of the B Movies” and “The King of Cult.” His resume includes directing more than 50 movies and producing nearly 400 movies. For a number of movies, he was an uncredited producer or executive producer (as head of New World Pictures 1970-1983).
Corman’s giant list of movies includes the 1980 sci-fi flick Battle Beyond the Stars (which he co-directed), as well as The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), Frankenstein Unbound (1990), The Wasp Woman (1959), It Conquered the World (1956), A Bucket of Blood (1959), X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes (1963), and Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957). He also made several movies inspired by the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, many of which starred Vincent Price.
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Roger Corman vs MST3K
For modern movie watchers, their first experiences with some of Roger Corman’s movies may have been seeing them heckled by the likes of Mystery Science Theater 3000. That is, as a low-budget indie filmmaker, Corman’s output has been riffed over many times by folks like MST3K, RiffTrax, Cinematic Titanic, and the like.
Corman wasn’t thrilled at this kind of attention. As he remarked in 2014:
“If you don’t have any ability yourself, maybe you can make money by making fun of those who do.”
Corman even threatened legal action against Cinematic Titanic for heckling his 1959 movie The Wasp Woman. A compromise was eventually reached.
Find a list of Roger Corman movies riffed by MST3K and more here
That Roger Corman movie that is NOT part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
One of the most interesting movies in Roger Corman’s list is the 1994 movie The Fantastic Four—which was never officially released. It is probably one of the most famous movies that never came out. And if you’ve even seen this movie, you saw a bootleg copy that sneaked out. (In fact, this is the only Fantastic Four movie I have ever watched.)
Roger Corman was one of the producers for the low-budget movie, based on the Fantastic Four Marvel Comics series created in 1961 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Another of the film’s producers, Bernd Eichinger, was the one who had gotten the movie rights—and the reason they jumped into making a low budget movie was to retain the rights before they lapsed.
Reportedly, there were planned release dates. Apparently, there were even Fantastic Four movie trailers running in movie theaters. Cast members were planning to promote the movie.
But it was all stopped by Marvel. They claimed that Eichinger never actually wanted the movie to go out. He had possibly just made this movie to keep the rights so they could go back and make a real movie later.
At least, that’s how Marvel Studios interpreted what was happening. Marvel Studios’ Avi Arad, worried that the low-budget film might ruin the brand, bought back this Fantastic Four movie and ordered all prints destroyed. As far as Marvel was concerned, the movie would never come out.
(Of course, bootleg copies are available. You can find the movie online.)
There was even a documentary about the experience: Doomed: The Untold Story of Roger Corman's The Fantastic Four
When Roger Corman did NOT make a TV show
As we mentioned, one of the movies Roger Corman directed was the 1960 horror comedy The Little Shop of Horrors, about a florist’s assistant who raises a man-eating plant. The movie was written by Charles B. Griffith—but possible influences for the story include an 1894 story by H.G. Wells (“The Flowering of the Strange Orchid”), a 1932 story by John Collier (“Green Thoughts”), and a 1956 story by Arthur C. Clarke (“The Reluctant Orchid.”)
The popularity of The Little Shop of Horrors has, well, grown over the years. The movie spawned a stage musical. And a movie version of that musical. There was also a short-lived cartoon show based on the musical.
At one point, Corman himself was in talks with a network to make a TV show based on his movie. As novelist and TV writer Lee Goldberg talked about on his blog, Corman was frustrated with the network executive who kept scheduling meeting after meeting.
What broke the project was when the exec asked Corman and his team to underline the jokes in the script. Corman told the exec, “If you need the jokes pointed out to you, you shouldn’t be in the movie business.”
And he walked out. Which is why Corman never made a Little Shop of Horrors TV show.
Famous filmmakers that Roger Corman worked with
Roger Corman’s catalog of low-budget movies found him working with a number of filmmakers—often early in their careers. This included directors like James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, John Sayles, Joe Dante, Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, and Jonathan Demme. He also worked with a number of recognizable actors, including Vincent Price, Robert Vaughn, Charles Bronson, William Shatner, Diane Ladd, Jack Nicholson, John Saxon, Richard Thomas, George Peppard, Sybil Danning, Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, John Hurt, Raul Julia, Bridget Fonda, Jason Patric, and Bruce Dern.
Corman also sometimes acted onscreen, including movies like 2004’s The Manchurian Candidate, 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs, 1974’s The Godfather Part II, 1993’s Philadelphia, and 1995’s Apollo 13.
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