Roger Corman: Metaphysics on a Shoestring

by Alain Silver, James Ursini

Roger Corman is considered by many to be the king of the B-movie, having directed such films as Bloody Mama, The Last Woman on Earth, "X": The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, Machine Gun Kelly, and She Gods of Shark Reef. This text profiles 50 of Corman's films, summarizing plots and commenting on themes. Corman's own brief comments on each film also appear. The text also lists films co- directed, produced, or written by Corman, along with those in which he appears as an actor. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Genres: Film

332 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2000

About the author

Alain Silver has co-written and co-edited a score of books including The Samurai Film, The Noir Style, The Vampire Film, Raymond Chandlers Los Angeles, director studies of David Lean and Robert Aldrich, and four Film Noir Readers. His articles have appeared in numerous film journals, newspapers, and online magazines. He holds a Ph.D. from UCLA and is a member of the Writers Guild of America west and the Directors Guild of America.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too much summary, not enough analysis. This is the sort of book that was great before the days of video, internet, etc. Now it looks impressive but the modicum of original material interview (analysis of the films and commentary by Corman) makes it a bit of a disappointment. Even so, I enjoyed reading it and noticed only minor errors, such as adding or removing "the" on the fronts of titles of films in ways that don't match the on-screen title.