Stubs - The Little Shop of Horrors

The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) Starring: Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles. Directed by Roger Corman. Screenplay by Charles B. Griffith. Produced by Roger Corman. Run time: 70 minutes. Black and White. USA. Horror, Comedy.

Roger Corman was known for a lot of things as an independent film producer. Not only did he make countless feature films including X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes (1963), The Wild Angels (1966), The Trip (1967) and House of Usher (1960), he also handled the distribution in the US for such directors as Federico Fellini (Italy), Ingmar Bergman (Sweden), François Truffaut (France) and Akira Kurosawa (Japan). He mentored such directors as Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Peter Bogdanovich, Joe Dante, John Sayles, and James Cameron. He also helped to launch the careers of actors like Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, Bruce Dern, Diane Ladd, and William Shatner.

But the one title that comes up every time his name is mentioned is The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), a self-described comedy/horror film.

Corman shot the film quickly in order to beat changing industry rules that would have prevented producers from "buying out" an actor's performance in perpetuity. On January 1, 1960, new rules were to go into effect requiring producers to pay all actors residuals for all future releases of their work. This meant that Corman's B-movie business model would be permanently changed and he would not be able to produce low-budget films in the same way. Before these rules went into effect, Corman decided to shoot one last film and scheduled it for the last week in December 1959.

Stubs - The St. Valentine's Day Massacre

The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (1967) Starring Jason Robards, George Segal, Ralph Meeker, Jean Hale, Clint Ritchie, Frank Silvera, Joseph Campanella, Richard Bakalyan, David Canary, Bruce Dern. Directed by Roger Corman. Screenplay by Howard Browne. Produced by Roger Corman. United States. Color. Run time: 100 minutes. Melodrama, Docudrama, Gangster.

The name Roger Corman is almost synonymous with low-budget cinema. Called "The Pope of Pop Cinema", Corman is perhaps best known for a series of low-budget films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe at AIP. He also mentored such directors as Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, John Sayles, and James Cameron. Corman also had a hand in launching the careers of actors like Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, Bruce Dern, Sylvester Stallone, Diane Ladd, and William Shatner.

While Corman spent most of his career as an independent producer/director, he did for a time work with some of the Major studios in Hollywood. One of those films was The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, for then major Twentieth Century Fox. Given a budget of $2.5 million, he managed to make the film for $400,000 less. He apparently didn’t like the restrictions placed on him by the studio but many consider the finished work to be one of his best.