Roger Corman: Blood-Sucking Vampires, Flesh-Eating Cockroaches, and Driller Killers (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...an absorbing peek into a unique era in motion picture history . . . a must for anyone who loves movies." -- Mel Welles, actor in several Corman films

"Beverly Gray nails both sides of the complex Corman, the tame and the wild, the cheap and the generous..." -- Chuck Griffith, screenwriter for Little Shop of Horrors

"Gray's sensitive combination of scholarly detachment and firsthand observation have made [Corman] come alive in all his wily brilliance." -- L.A. Weekly

"Kudos to Gray for her exhaustive work on the pop-culture icon who's given us all years of guilty cinematic pleasure" -- Total Movie

"[Corman's] supreme talent is a rare ability to liberate talent in others. He liberated an excellent film historian in Gray." -- L.A. Weekly

Product Description

The original King of the Exploitation Film, Roger Corman has filled his movies with images of blood-sucking vampires, rampaging biker gangs, vigilante strippers, and abducting aliens. During a career that spans fifty years, he has produced more than five hundred films on shoestring budgets, making a profit on nearly every one.

In the process, Corman has become the role model for today’s independent filmmaker, laying the groundwork for the success of directors like Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. This guru with a vision has also demonstrated an uncanny eye for talent, being among the first to recognize and employ the abilities of Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Joe Dante, Ron Howard, John Sayles, and James Cameron, to name but a few.

In this updated paperback version of 2000’s critically-acclaimed Roger Corman: An Unauthorized Biography of the Godfather of Indie Filmmaking, Beverly Gray takes you behind the cameras and into the heart of Cormanville for a first-hand, insider’s look at the man and the mogul. Interviewing over one hundred of Corman’s friends and associates, Gray provides a compelling look at the private and public lives of this soft-spoken giant of the cinema.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; Rep Sub edition (December 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560255552
• ISBN-13: 978-1560255550
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #369,817 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #88 in

  Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Movie Directors

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "must" for all Roger Corman fans!, September 7, 2000

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Roger Corman: An Unauthorized Biography of the Godfather of Indie Filmmaking (Hardcover)

Roger Corman is a Hollywood movie making legend in his own lifetime. What is sometimes overlooked is that he was also responsible for launching the film making careers of such luminaries as Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, John Sayles, James Cameron, Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, and Sylvester Stallone. Roger Corman: An Unauthorized Biography Of The Godfather Of Indie Filmmaking is the thorough, informative, illuminating, at times inspiring life of a unique, one-of-a-kind film directors who has fifty low-budget movies to his credit, and who has producers almost five hundred more! This is one well-written, meticulously researched Hollywood biography that is a "must read" for all movie fans, film buffs, and show business historians.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book About Moviemaking, June 20, 2000

By	Lee Goldberg (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Roger Corman: An Unauthorized Biography of the Godfather of Indie Filmmaking (Hardcover)

Usually, these unauthorized bios of entertainment industry figures are either slick, superficial rehashes of newspaper articles cobbled together by pseudo-writers or vicious hack-jobs by bitter ex-employees out for blood. Not this one. Beverly Gray's book is a wonderfully written, methodically researched, indepth look at a movie-making legend, written by an ex-employee who manages to portray her former boss with warmth, wit and surprising objectivity. Gray's background in academia really comes through, not in the dry, textbook writing usually associated with scholars, but in the intelligence and smoothness of her prose. This book is as educational as it is entertaining, marked by exceptional reporting and insightful anecdotes from her first-hand experience as Corman's right-hand woman. You'll learn far more about Roger Corman from her book than the one he wrote about himself. Highly recommended for anyone interested in movie-making...and the business behind the business.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kudos from Creating Characters author Marisa D'Vari, September 3, 2005

By	Marisa D'vari (New York, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This fascinating "biography" is really a savvy "how to" book that belongs on the shelf of every screenwriter, aspiring producer, director, and development executive -- and everyone else who loves films and craves to know the secrets of Hollywood's most colorful mogul.

I found it fun to read as a realistic "behind the scenes" glimpse of what it takes to be a profitable mogul, such as the way Corman hired young cheap "promising" talent instead of going for experience. Directors fresh out of film school reading this book, for example, can get a good feel for the mindset and financial situation of producers they interview with. Screenwriters will learn how Corman and team (Gray had been his development executive) managed to write and produce so many successful films quickly.

Few books reveal the inner machinations of a successful producer so intimately. Gray, a screenwriting teacher at UCLA, has done a spectacular job of showcasing the life story of an intruiging man through more than eighty interviews and via her own experience.