For much of the US filmmaking establishment, Corman is ‘King of the Bs’ – a director and producer of low-budget trash. But what filmmaker Alex Stapleton’s documentary Corman’s World demonstrates is that, as cheap and swiftly made as Corman’s movies are, they’re varied, imaginative, and contrary to common assumptions, aren’t all exploitative trash. Often produced in a matter of days – which included writing the script – the sheer speed with which Corman directed or produced meant that the results inevitably varied, but there was an unbridled sense of anything-goes fun in his movies, and that’s something perfectly captured in Stapleton’s documentary. Little Shop Of Horrors, one of Corman’s more widely known movies thanks to its adaptation into a musical and 1986 movie, was shot in less than two days, with mostly improvised dialogue, sets left over from A Bucket Of Blood (Corman’s previous picture) and some medical equipment borrowed from a dentist. If the quality of Corman’s films was mixed, so to was their subject matter. He’s perhaps best known for his monster movies and Poe adaptations, but he also made films such as The Intruder, a brave yet little-seen civil rights-era drama starring a pre-Star Trek William Shatner, and The Wild Angels, a counterculture biker movie which undoubtedly paved the way for the better-known Easy Rider. As an overview of his movies, Corman’s World is informative and briskly told. The sheer volume of his output means that omissions are inevitable – I’d have liked to see the film dwell a little longer on his late 70s and early 80s sci-fi and horror productions, such as Galaxy Of Terror, C.H.U.D. and Battle Beyond The Stars, for example – but it does mention some of his finest movies, such as A Bucket Of Blood, The Pit And The Pendulum and The Tomb Of Ligeia. Most of all, Corman’s World paints a portrait of a filmmaker who, although not without flaw (his penny-pinching mode of operation didn’t always work in his favour), has earned a great deal of respect and fondness from those who’ve spent any time on set with him. Now in his 80s, Corman continues to produce, and in 2010 rattled out no fewer than three monster movies for the Syfy Channel. And although his movies haven’t achieved the mainstream success of some of the talent he nurtured in their early years, the documentary concludes with Corman finally receiving the recognition he deserves. And as Corman’s World proves, Hollywood owes a huge debt to Corman, even though he’s stoically toiled on its periphery; Jaws, Star Wars and Alien are essentially B-picture concepts made with A-picture money. Years before Spielberg was attacking actors with rubber monsters, Corman was doing the same thing – except with less cash, less time, and probably without a permit. To borrow a saying originally written about Frank Sinatra, this is Corman’s world. We just live in it. Follow Den Of Geek on Twitter right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
