The Roger Corman Collection

The Films

The Roger Corman Collection

One of the most influential figures in modern Hollywood, Roger Corman knew exactly how to make a film without losing money, shooting from dawn to dusk and only doing repeat takes when absolutely necessary.

He made over 100 films, directing, producing, writing and acting and is still going in 2008. Along the way he gave valuable experience to such fledgling directors as Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese and James Cameron.

This collection includes films from various stages of his career, from his debut to three of his more well known gothic horrors.

Five Guns West

This marked Roger Corman's directorial debut and is almost a precursor to The Dirty Dozen. During the American Civil War, five Confederate soldiers who had been sentenced to death are spared having their necks stretched on the condition that they ride west into California and rob a stagecoach of its gold and the Confederate traitor taking it to the Union army.

Under the assumed leadership of Govern Sturges (John Lund), the five men plot between themselves to betray each other, but make the 4-day ride in the 3 days required to head the coach off.

When they reach the ambush point, they find a farm run by Shalee (Dorothy Malone) and her uncle Mime (James Stone). Having been on death row for some time, the sight of a woman exacerbates the existing frictions within the group and threatens their mission.



Although this follows a formula (first used in The Seven Samurai) that would be used in other films, such as The Dirty Dozen, The Guns of Navarone and Kelly's Heroes, it's not a particularly good film. The acting is wooden, the direction uneven, but the script quickly and effortlessly establishes each man's character and the greed that threatens to destabilise the mission.

Five Guns West is a very watchable B-movie, with some unintentionally funny fight scenes and a complete lack of on-screen chemistry between Malone and Lund.

Gunslinger

When Rose Hood's (Beverly Garland) husband, the sheriff, is gunned down in front of her in his own office, she attends the funeral and, when no-one will take action, she tells the mayor to make her sheriff.
The party responsible, Erica Page (Allison Hayes, best known for playing The 50ft Woman), the owner of a bawdy saloon and property speculator has hired someone to kill the new sheriff so nothing will prevent her buying up half the town to sell at a massive profit if the railroad comes.

Cane Miro (John Ireland), the gun for hire, gets quite friendly with Rose and the scene is set for him to choose between them before the women confront each other.



Roger Corman obviously intended this to be a proto-feminist western, with women as the powerful figures, in traditionally male roles. The story is interesting enough, with Rose playing a similar character to James Stewart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - a reluctant hero who dons a gun for justice.

This is extremely silly and hangs on the most tenuous of plot points - why did Erica have to kill the sheriff when she was doing nothing illegal? Buying a property and using the capital to purchase another one isn't against the law. Slightly immoral perhaps, but nothing that should involve the sheriff. After his death, it's understandable that his wife should pursue his killers, but mystifying how quickly she falls for another man.

It's daft and it's funny, unintentionally so, and it's no surprise that it featured on MST3K. Worth a watch, even if you want to provide your own sarcastic dialogue.

Haunted Palace

The title of this is somewhat misleading, designed to cash in on the success that Roger Corman had had with other Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, but it is not based on the Poe poem The Haunted Palace, but the H. P. Lovecraft story The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.

The film begins in Arkham, New England, where Joseph Dexter Ward (Vincent Price) is dragged from his castle by angry torch-bearing villagers, tied to a tree and burned alive. Before succumbing to the flames, he had time to curse the village and everyone in it.



110 years later and Joseph's great grandson, Charles (also Vincent Price), and his wife Ann (Debra Paget) arrive in Arkham to stay at the family castle. Given Charles' uncanny resemblance to Joseph and the Ward curse, they are met with a frosty reception by the villagers.

Once in the house, Charles starts behaving strangely, becoming possessed by the spirit of Joseph.

Though not a Poe adaptation, The Haunted Palace looks and feels very much like Pit and the Pendulum, The Raven and House of Usher, which are. Casting Vincent Price in the lead adds to this deception, given his prominent roles in the Corman's other Poe films. Price is very good here, switching from Charles to Joseph and back again with ease and giving the Latin incantations a real sense of theatre.

I prefer Corman's gothic horrors to his other work, so I enjoyed the camp Hammer feel to this movie.

Premature Burial

Adapted from the Edgar Allan Poe tale of the same name, Premature Burial follows Guy Carrell (Ray Milland), who is visited by old flame Emily (Hazel Court). Guy's sister Kate (Heather Angel) tells Emily that Guy doesn't want to see her, but Emily persists, saying she wants to hear it from Guy. He explains they cannot be together because of his phobia of being buried alive, meaning he must live in seclusion and take medication.



Much to Kate's dismay, Guy and Emily marry and are seemingly happy but, after an attack of the nerves, he tells his new bride that his father, a cataleptic, was buried alive and that he fears he will suffer the same fate.

Guy constructs an elaborate crypt that would allow him to 'die' and be buried, but with every precaution against a misdiagnosis of death and a premature burial, that would kill him. This obsession with death leads to his wife giving him an ultimatum - the tomb or her.

Thus begins a well constructed mystery that keeps you guessing right up to the unexpected conclusion. Being buried alive is one of those scenarios that nightmares are made of and Corman does his best to exploit this, whilst showing the dangers of obsession.

Masque of the Red Death

Vincent Price plays Prince Prospero, a wealthy and ruthless Italian landowner who sadistically abuses his peasants, holds extravagant parties and worships Satan. On the way to his castle through a village, he amuses himself by forcing Francesca (Jane Asher) to choose whether her father or her lover should die. Before she answers, screams interrupt and they discover that the Red Death has broken out, so Prince Prospero flees, taking Francesca with him and ordering his guards to bring the two men back to the castle and burn the village to the ground.

Francesca is entrusted to Juliana (Hazel Court), who is expected to prepare her for the ball, where most of the Italian nobility will attend. During the frivolity, the prince spots a guest dressed in red, a colour he has forbidden and, thinking it is Satan, follows him.



Masque of the Red Death is based on a short story by Edgar Allan Poe and expands dramatically on the source material, turning it into a lavish horror film, similar in style to the other Poe adaptations. Price is on top form and is well supported by Asher, Court and especially Patrick McGee as a cruel Italian aristocrat. In an odd bit of casting, a dwarf ballerina is played by a young girl, with her voice dubbed by a woman, but rather creepily, McGee makes lecherous comments about her!

This is one of Corman's better efforts and fits in alongside the likes of Pit and the Pendulum, Premature Burial and The Raven.

The Wild Angels

Peter Fonda plays Heavenly Blues, the leader of a group of Hells Angels who get into a fight with Mexicans and then the police turn up and Loser (Bruce Dern) is shot and hospitalised. The Angels break him out before he can be sent to jail and he predictably dies.

At the funeral, the priest asks Blues:

"Just what is it that you want to do?" to which he replies:

"We wanna be free! We wanna be free to do what we wanna do. We wanna be free to ride. We wanna be free to ride our machines without being hassled by The Man! ... And we wanna get loaded. And we wanna have a good time. And that's what we are gonna do. We are gonna have a good time... We are gonna have a party."

The party turns into a fight and trashes the chapel and the Hells Angels go to bury Loser, but start another fight with the townspeople, when one throws a rock at a pall-bearer.



This is a non-judgemental look at biker gangs - there is a minor debate over their use of Nazi symbols, with Blues wearing an Iron Cross, but it's a film where not much happens apart from the fight, the death and the funeral. If Corman wanted to do something exploitative, then this would have been more eventful, but he wanted to make a film from the Angels' point of view, spent time with them and cast members of the Venice Chapter.

The Wild Angels appears to be a realistic and very well-made depiction of bikers in the 1960s - probably the most accomplished of the films in this collection, but not my favourite.

Opinion

The Discs

Each of these discs are bare-bones with only three containing the theatrical trailer and the others completely vanilla. The picture quality is unspectacular, with no restoration work and each showing evidence of spotting and other print damage. Sound-wise, each film has a Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono soundtrack, which vary in quality but are all more than passable. Sadly, there are no subtitles.

Overall

The Roger Corman Collection is an eclectic mix of Westerns, Horrors and Drama, ranging from his debut in 1955 to 1966. It's hard to work out who the target audience for this might be - it doesn't contain all the Poe adaptations, so not Horror fans.

With the exception of Masque of the Red Death, all of these are released for the first time on DVD in the UK. If you're a fan of Roger Corman's work, this collection is worth a look, but the R1 Roger Corman Collection contains more films with better extras and subtitles.