How I Made A Hundred Movies In Hollywood

As fast-paced and fun as this memoir is, it still probably took me longer to read than it took Corman to make some of his movies.Before reading this, I didn't know much about Corman and figured he was just a low-budget schlockmeister whose only concern was turning a buck. And while it is true he was very business savvy and motivated by profit, making movies was always about more than the money. Corman emerges as a very funny, creative, and ambitious filmmaker, whether directing, producing, or distributing.This book offers great insight into the business side of movies in tandem with hilarious behind the scenes anecdotes. Corman discovered and/or nurtured the fledgling careers of dozens of future Hollywood giants, including Jack Nicholson, Francis Ford Coppola, Dennis Hopper, Ron Howard (as director), Jonathan Demme, Martin Scorcese, Sylvester Stallone, and James Cameron, to name just a few. In a town known for backstabbing, fleeting loyalty, and dirty dealing, it's telling that Corman seems to be universally hailed as a fair and generous collaborator, as attested by the many testimonials in this book. (Of course, they wouldn't include the negatives, if any, but even outside of this book I haven't found anything to besmirch his reputation.) He had a great eye for talent and gleefully exploited it by paying more in opportunity than cash, but those opportunities launched many to great heights they might never had achieved if they'd had to work their way up gradually within the more bureaucratic and less meritocratic studio system.After reading this I watched Corman's original Little Shop of Horrors (1962) (purportedly made in just two days and one night of shooting) and laughed harder at a movie than I have in years. Corman, educated as an engineer, placed efficiency foremost and famously didn't waste words on set, preferring to move quickly to the next setup rather than dribbling time away in piddling "thank you that was great" fluffing of cast and crew egos. He was a master of maximizing budgets, often scripting and shooting entire new films if he had time remaining on a set, which apparently was the case with Little Shop, hence its rushed production. But that sort of headlong gung ho push to keep creating and take advantage of every opportunity resulted in more than one masterpiece.Corman's story is fascinating and inspiring. It would be hard, if not impossible, to replicate his career trajectory today, but with new filming and distribution technologies, there are unique avenues for today's hungry filmmakers to make a splash, and this book might just serve as an impetus for them to get out there and make it happen.

Superb read. We've recently lost the legendary producer-director ROGER CORMAN (at age 98!). This autobiographical career retrospective, released in 1990, is forever fresh. Obviously timely in the moment, this absorbing, smooth-reading book---at once hard to put down and a quick-bite comfort read---hearkens you back to the lost Silver Age of cinema strike-back against the hypnotic grasp of the early TV years, the 1950s and '60s.Roger Corman was an iconic commando leader of that low-budget, indie-movie, double-feature lashback that pried the masses out of their living rooms (especially the growing money-to-burn sector of thrill-seeking teens) and courted their repeat patronage. The resultant so-called "B-movies"---a misnomer ported over from the Hollywood Golden Age, when the secondary feature on a double-bill was relegated to lower marquee billing and presumed "B" status---created the indelible B-movie concept in popular viewer fancy that denoted cheap-looking and poorly executed film fare (often enough worthy of much LOWER alphabetical value). Cheesy characters in fast-moving plots that seldom bore up to close scrutiny---or credibility, often enough. Pleasant passing of time---hey, what were you guys looking for?!And nobody ever carped beyond the occasional "worst flick I ever saw, man!" They were rapidly-paced, exploitative, mostly forgettable fun. Perfect popcorn accompaniment. And lo and behold----a lot of them were damned good shoestring-budgeted filmmaking, holding up to latter-day appraisal.Corman was the foremost expositor of this phenomenon. The book is rife with his canny lessons on making every penny count. Endlessly fascinating, detailed and anecdotal, this wonderful memoir, supplemented with dozens of boldface-offset comments from many of the fledgling film artists Corman tutored and launched (e.g., Francis Ford Coppola, Jack Nicholson, Robert Towne, Peter Bogdanovich), is a sobering correction to the often-heard, nose-crinkled lazy jeering about "Roger Corman movies."Corman's wildly entertaining book, professing no illusions about what marvels could be created on the cheap, casts a follow-spot on the man's wisely mapped-out journey outside the expensively clunky Hollywood mechanism.The truth is all in there. And cheap or not, truth bears a value that can't be airily dismissed.

This is an excellent look at Roger Corman's rise through the film industry to become a legendary producer/director of independent movies. There are comments throughout the book from Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda and others who worked with Corman on various projects. A great read.