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94-585: American International Pictures LLC ( AIP or American International Productions ) is an American film production company owned by Amazon MGM Studios . In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing films from 1955 until 1980, a year after its acquisition by Filmways in 1979. It was formed on April 2, 1954, as American Releasing Corporation ( ARC ) by former Realart Pictures Inc. sales manager James H. Nicholson and entertainment lawyer Samuel Z. Arkoff and their first release

188-509: A Bachelor of Science degree in industrial engineering in 1947. While at Stanford University, Corman was initiated in the fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon . In 1948, he worked briefly at U.S. Electrical Motors on Slauson Avenue in Los Angeles, but his career in engineering lasted only four days; he began work on Monday and quit on Thursday, telling his boss "I've made a terrible mistake." Soon after he found work at 20th Century Fox as

282-404: A security guard . The sound stage is the central component of a studio lot. Most studios have several; small studios may have as few as one, and large studios have as many as 20 to 30. Movie studios also provide office space for studio executives and production companies, and makeup rooms and rehearsal rooms for talent. If space allows, a studio may have an outside backlot . Finally, there

376-555: A Hollywood Rebel , directed by Alex Stapleton, premiered at the Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals in 2011. The film's TV rights were picked up by A&E IndieFilms after a well-received screening at Sundance. Corman was born in Detroit , Michigan , to Anne (née High) and William Corman, an engineer of Russian Jewish descent. His younger brother, Gene , produced numerous films, sometimes in collaboration with Roger. Corman

470-596: A Million Eyes (1955), then made another Western, Apache Woman (1955), starring Lloyd Bridges , written by Lou Rusoff . Rusoff and Corman reunited on Day the World Ended (1955), a postapocalyptic science-fiction film, which was popular. Corman was to make The Devil on Horseback by Charles B. Griffith about the Brownsville Raid , but it was too expensive. The Woolner Brothers , Louisiana drive-in owners, financed Corman's Swamp Women (1956),

564-479: A blockbuster film of the same name .) Corman sold the movie to a new independent company, the American Releasing Company (ARC), run by James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff . Although Corman had a number of offers for the film from Republic and Columbia, he elected to go with ARC, because they undertook to advance money to enable him to make two more movies. Corman's second film for ARC

658-482: A company producing or releasing low-budget black-and-white films as double features for drive-ins and action houses. In February 1959, Filmgroup announced they would release 10 films. Their first movies were High School Big Shot (1959) and T-Bird Gang (1959), produced by Stanley Bickman. Roger seemed a driven man. Roger wanted to accomplish a lot, he had to have a lot of drive to do it, and he pushed through. He not only pushed through, he punched through! With

752-478: A double feature with Female Jungle (1955), a film noir . Other films released under the ARC banner include a British documentary Operation Malaya (1955) and Corman's Gunslinger (1956). Arkoff and Nicholson had always wanted to name their company "American International Pictures", but the name was unavailable. When the name became available, they changed over. There were three main production arms at AIP in

846-613: A faster recovery, contributing to the increasing dominance of Hollywood over New York City. The Big 5 By the mid-1920s, the evolution of a handful of American production companies into wealthy motion picture industry conglomerates that owned their own studios, distribution divisions , and theaters , and contracted with performers and other filmmaking personnel led to the sometimes confusing equation of studio with production company in industry slang. Five large companies: RKO Radio Pictures , 20th Century Fox , Paramount Pictures , Warner Bros. , and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer came to be known as

940-407: A film to support Day the World Ended , The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues (1955), but lacked the money to make both films. They split the costs with Dan and Jack Milner, film editors who wanted to get into production. The resulting double bill was very successful at the box office. Gordon also produced The Oklahoma Woman (1955), a Western by Corman, made through Sunset Productions. It was put on

1034-583: A girl will watch; therefore: to catch your greatest audience you zero in on the 19-year-old male. AIP began as the American Releasing Corporation, a new distribution company formed in 1954 by James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff. They were interested in distributing a car chase movie produced by Roger Corman for his Palo Alto Productions, The Fast and the Furious (1955). Corman had received offers from other companies for

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1128-591: A girls-on-the-lam saga. He returned to ARC for two Westerns, The Oklahoma Woman (1956) and Gunslinger (1956) (with Ireland); Gunslinger was co-written by Griffith, who became a crucial collaborator with Corman over the next five years. He bought a script from Curtis Harrington , The Girl from Beneath the Sea . Harrington made it for Corman years later as Night Tide (1961). Beverly Garland , one of Corman's early regular stock players, recalled working with him: Roger made us work hard and long, I remember that! He

1222-656: A growing proportion of Hollywood movie revenue, with approximately 70% of total movie revenue coming from international ticket sales; and the Chinese domestic box-office revenue is projected to outpace those of US in 2020. The growth of film studios and filmmaking outside of Hollywood and the US has produced popular international film studio locations such as Hollywood North ( Vancouver and Toronto in Canada ), Bollywood ( Mumbai , India ), and Nollywood ( Lagos , Nigeria ). As

1316-407: A historical horror piece about Richard III , Tower of London (1962), starring Vincent Price . It was meant to be the first in a three-picture deal with Small, but Corman did not enjoy working with the producer. For Filmgroup, he also bought the rights to a Soviet science-fiction film, Nebo Zovyot (1959) and had some additional footage shot for it by his then-assistant, Francis Ford Coppola;

1410-500: A label for acquired films for digital and theatrical releases, with MGM overseeing across streaming platforms and United Artists Releasing handling theatrical distribution in North America until 2023 when Amazon MGM Studios took over. Nicholson and Arkoff served as executive producers while Roger Corman and Alex Gordon were the principal film producers and, sometimes, directors. Writer Charles B. Griffith wrote many of

1504-451: A lot of energy, and a lot of disregard at times... What we did for Roger Corman – I mean, things that you could never do in a real studio, but you did for this guy! Everything seemed unreal with him. – Susan Cabot For AIP, Corman and Griffith made a black comedy, A Bucket of Blood (1959). Corman announced he would follow it with a similar comedy, The Bloodshot Private Eye . It does not seem to have been made. Instead, Griffith reused

1598-535: A messenger in the mail room, earning $ 32.50 per week. Corman worked his way up to a story reader. The one property that he liked the most and provided ideas for was filmed as The Gunfighter with Gregory Peck . When Corman received no credit at all, he left Fox and decided he would work in film by himself. Under the G.I. Bill , Corman studied English literature at the University of Oxford and lived in Paris for

1692-748: A new genre of beach party films featuring Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon . The original idea and the first script were Rusoff's. The highly successful and often imitated series ended in 1966 with the seventh film, The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini . Many actors from the beach films also appeared in AIP's spy-spoofs, such as Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965) and car racing films like Fireball 500 (1966) and Thunder Alley . During this time, AIP also produced or distributed most of Corman's horror films, such as X: The Man with

1786-479: A science-fiction film, Monster from the Ocean Floor (1954). It was produced by Corman's own company, Palo Alto, and released by Robert L. Lippert . The film did well enough to encourage Corman to produce another film, the racing-car thriller The Fast and the Furious (1955), directed by its star, John Ireland , and co-starring Dorothy Malone . (Decades later, the title would be licensed from Corman for

1880-537: A script by Gordon; and The Cry Baby Killer (1958), which gave Jack Nicholson his first starring role. He had his biggest budget yet for I Mobster (1958), a gangster story, co-produced by Edward L. Alperson and Corman's brother Gene for 20th Century Fox. In September 1958, he was reported as scouting locations in Australia to do a remake of H. Rider Haggard 's She . War of the Satellites (1958)

1974-583: A script called The Red Baron . He bought the rights to another Soviet science-fiction film, Planeta Bur (1962), and had some additional footage added to it by Curtis Harrington . The result was Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965). Harrington used footage from Planeta Bur in another film financed by Corman, Queen of Blood (1966). He also bought the rights to a Yugoslavian film, Operation Titan (1963), and financed additional shooting by Jack Hill and Stephanie Rothman . The result

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2068-455: A signature look. The early rubber monster suits and miniatures of Paul Blaisdell were used in AIP's science fiction films . The company also hired Les Baxter and Ronald Stein to compose many of its film scores. In the 1950s, the company had a number of actors under contract, including John Ashley , Fay Spain and Steve Terrell . When many of ARC/AIP's first releases failed to earn a profit, Arkoff quizzed film exhibitors who told him of

2162-495: A successful low-budget movie years later, during a 1980s talk show appearance. His ideas for a movie included: Later, the AIP publicity department devised a strategy called "the Peter Pan Syndrome": a) a younger child will watch anything an older child will watch; b) an older child will not watch anything a younger child will watch; c) a girl will watch anything a boy will watch; d) a boy will not watch anything

2256-836: A tarpaper-covered structure near his laboratories in West Orange , New Jersey , and asked circus, vaudeville, and dramatic actors to perform for the camera. He distributed these movies at vaudeville theaters, penny arcades, wax museums, and fairgrounds. The first film serial , What Happened to Mary , was released by the Edison company in 1912. The pioneering Thanhouser movie studio was founded in New Rochelle, New York in 1909 by American theatrical impresario Edwin Thanhouser . The company produced and released 1,086 movies between 1910 and 1917, successfully distributing them around

2350-468: A third, which was shot at the same time: Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961). Corman was going to make Part Time Mother from a script by Griffith but it appears to have never been made. AIP wanted Corman to make two horror films for them, in black and white, at under $ 100,000 each on a 10-day shooting schedule. Corman, however, was tired of making films on this sort of budget and was worried

2444-414: A time. Corman then returned to Los Angeles and tried to re-establish himself in the film industry. He took various jobs, including television stagehand at KLAC-TV and a messenger at Fox. He worked as an assistant to literary agent Dick Hyland. Corman wrote a script in his spare time and sold it to William F. Broidy at Allied Artists for US$ 2,000 (equivalent to $ 22,691 in 2023). "Dick thought it

2538-654: A tram tour of the backlot where films such as Psycho and Back to the Future were once shot. In fall 2019, movie mogul Tyler Perry opened Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta . The studio lot is claimed to be larger than any movie-studio lot in Hollywood. In the 1980s and 1990s, as the cost of professional 16mm film equipment decreased, along with the emergence of non-film innovations such as S-VHS and Mini-DV cameras, many young filmmakers began to make films outside

2632-436: A victim of its own success when other companies started copying its double feature strategy. Costs were rising and were not compensated by increased box office grosses. AIP shut down most of their production arms and focused on distributing films from Italy, while they decided what to do next. In October 1959 AIP announced it had secured finance from Colonial Bank (who had financed three of their films to date) for ten films over

2726-476: A while for the film to be released and it lost money. Corman was unhappy with his profit participation on the first two Poe films, so he made a third adaptation for different producers, The Premature Burial (1962), written by Charles Beaumont and starring Ray Milland . The film was co-financed by Pathe labs; AIP put pressure on Pathe by threatening to withdraw lab work from them and ended up buying out their interest. For producer Edward Small , Corman made

2820-407: Is a secure compound enclosed by a tall perimeter wall. This is necessary to protect filmmaking operations from unwanted interference from paparazzi and crazed fans of leading movie stars . Movement in and out of the studio lot is normally limited to specific gates (often capped with grand decorative arches), where visitors must stop at a boom barrier and explain the purpose of their visit to

2914-733: Is a studio "commissary", which is the traditional term in the movie industry for what other industries call a company cafeteria . In addition to these basic components, the largest film studios are full-service enterprises offering the entire range of production and post-production services necessary to create a motion picture, including costumes, props, cameras, sound recording, crafts, sets, lighting, special effects , cutting, editing, mixing, scoring, automated dialogue replacement (ADR), re-recording, and foley . Independent suppliers of all these services and more (e.g., photographic processing labs) are often found in clusters in close proximity to film studios. Nitrate film , manufactured until 1951,

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3008-525: The Anchor Bay DVD of Mario Bava 's Black Sabbath , Mark Damon claims that he first suggested the idea to Corman. Damon also says that Corman let him direct The Pit and the Pendulum uncredited. Corman's commentary for Pit mentions nothing of this and all existing production stills of the film show Corman directing. During the early 1960s, AIP produced a series of horror films inspired by

3102-580: The Billy Jack character. Film studio There are also independently owned studio facilities, who have never produced a motion picture of their own because they are not entertainment companies or motion picture companies; they are companies who sell only studio space. In 1893, Thomas Edison built the first movie studio in the United States when he constructed the Black Maria ,

3196-808: The Woolner Brothers and Sorority Girl (1957), starring Susan Cabot for AIP. For AIP, he made The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent (1957), shot in August 1957. He was meant to follow this with Teenage Jungle by Tony Miller. The success of Not of this Earth and Crab Monsters led to Allied offering Corman a four-picture deal for 1958. Corman received his first serious critical praise for Machine-Gun Kelly (1958), an AIP biopic of

3290-459: The patents relevant to movie production at the time. Early movie producers relocated to Southern California to escape patent enforcement, thanks to more lenient local courts and physical distance from company detectives and mob allies. (Edison's patents expired in 1913.) The first movie studio in the Hollywood area was Nestor Studios , opened in 1911 by Al Christie for David Horsley . In

3384-407: The vertically integrated structure of the movie industry constituted an illegal monopoly . This decision, reached after twelve years of litigation, hastened the end of the studio system and Hollywood's "Golden Age". By the 1950s, the physical components of a typical movie studio had become standardized. Since then, a movie studio has usually been housed on a "studio lot." Physically, a studio lot

3478-640: The Big Five, the majors, or the Studios in trade publications such as Variety , and their management structures and practices collectively came to be known as the studio system . The Little 3 Although they owned few or no theaters to guarantee sales of their films, Universal Pictures , Columbia Pictures , and United Artists also fell under these rubrics, making a total of eight generally recognized major studios. United Artists, although its controlling partners owned not one but two production studios during

3572-614: The Blood Beast , She Gods of Shark Reef and The Brain Eaters (all released in 1958). The other key producer for AIP was Alex Gordon who mostly made films though his Golden State Productions outfit, usually written by Lou Rusoff . He made Girls in Prison (1956), with director Edward L. Cahn who would become one of AIP's most prolific directors. AIP released it on a double bill with Hot Rod Girl (1956). Cahn also directed

3666-709: The Crab Monsters (1957) for Allied, which wound up being one of his most successful early films. For his own production company, Corman made a rock-and-roll "quickle", Carnival Rock (1957), released by Howco. Rock All Night (1957) was a heist film written by Griffith expanded from a TV play, "The Little Guy", with musical acts inserted. He was meant to make Rock'n'Roll Girl for AIP in December 1957. In April 1957, Corman announced he would try to make two films back-to-back from then on to save costs. Corman made two "teen girl noirs", Teenage Doll (1957) for

3760-568: The Golden Age, had an often-tenuous hold on the title of major and operated mainly as a backer and distributor of independently produced films. Smaller studios operated simultaneously with the majors. These included operations such as Republic Pictures , active from 1935, which produced films that occasionally matched the scale and ambition of the larger studio, and Monogram Pictures , which specialized in series and genre releases. Together with smaller outfits such as PRC TKO and Grand National,

3854-677: The Lost City , Portrait of a Sinner (1959, West Germany), The Professionals (1960, Great Britain), and Escape to Paradise (1960, the Philippines). They also bought Why Must I Die? and The Jailbreakers (1960). In the early 1960s, AIP gained kudos by combining Roger Corman , Vincent Price and the stories of Edgar Allan Poe into a series of horror films, with scripts by Richard Matheson , Charles Beaumont , Ray Russell , R. Wright Campbell and Robert Towne . The original idea, usually credited to Corman and Lou Rusoff,

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3948-505: The Odd . In 1962, Arkoff said AIP was in a position similar to Columbia Pictures just before they made Submarine and Dirigible : Before that they were on poverty row. Our better position will enable us to obtain more important writers, perhaps more important producers as well. We're a privately owned company at the moment but perhaps within two or three years we will become a public company. Beginning with 1963's Beach Party , AIP created

4042-671: The Poe cycle. Of eight films, seven feature stories that are actually based on the works of Poe. Seven of the films, with the exception of The Premature Burial , featured Vincent Price as the star. Occasionally, Corman's 1963 film The Terror (produced immediately after The Raven ) is recognized as being part of the Corman-Poe cycle, although the film's story and title are not based on any literary work of Poe. Some Poe films announced by AIP but not made include The Gold Bug , The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade , and The Angel of

4136-633: The Poe cycle—it featured Price and was made for AIP, written by Beaumont—but was actually based on a story by H. P. Lovecraft . Corman directed a war film in Yugoslavia with his brother, The Secret Invasion (1964), with Stewart Granger and Mickey Rooney , from a script by Campbell. Following this, he announced he would make The Life of Robert E. Lee as part of a four-picture deal with Filmgroup worth $ 3.75 million. Other movies were Fun and Profit by Joel Rapp, The Wild Surfers by John Lamb, and Planet of Storms by Jack Hill . None of these films

4230-623: The Red Death and announced two films, Captain Nemo and the Floating City and House of Secrets . Following The Pit and the Pendulum , Corman directed one of William Shatner 's earliest appearances in a lead role with The Intruder (a.k.a. The Stranger , 1962). Based on a novel by Charles Beaumont , the film was co-produced by Gene Corman and was shot in July and August 1961. It took

4324-485: The Western Outlaw Treasure (1955) starring Johnny Carpenter . ARC got Corman to direct another Western and science fiction double bill Apache Woman (1955) and Day the World Ended (1955). Both scripts were written by Arkoff's brother-in-law Lou Rusoff , who would become the company's leading writer in its early days. Apache Woman was produced by Alex Gordon, an associate of Arkoff's, Day

4418-551: The World (1956) from a script by Rusoff that was rewritten by Charles B. Griffith . His films included Rock All Night (1956); Naked Paradise (1957), in which Arkoff had a small role; The Undead ; Sorority Girl ; The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent (1957); Machine Gun Kelly with Charles Bronson ; and Teenage Caveman (1958), with Robert Vaughn . AIP also distributed films Corman helped finance, such as Night of

4512-545: The X-ray Eyes . In 1966, the studio released The Wild Angels starring Peter Fonda , based loosely on the real-life exploits of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. This film ushered in AIP's most successful year and kicked off a subgenre of motorcycle gang films that lasted almost 10 years and included Devil's Angels , The Glory Stompers with Dennis Hopper , and The Born Losers —the film that introduced

4606-489: The burning roof of the Usher mansion reappears in most of the other films as stock footage ), making the series quite cost-effective. All the films in the series were directed by Roger Corman, and they all starred Price except The Premature Burial , which featured Ray Milland in the lead. It was originally produced for another studio, but AIP acquired the rights to it. As the series progressed, Corman made attempts to change

4700-638: The documentary Naked Africa , The Screaming Skull (1957), The Cool and the Crazy , Daddy-O , Dragstrip Riot and Tank Battalion (1958). AIP developed a mutual relationship with Britain's Anglo-Amalgamated who would distribute AIP's product in the UK. In return, AIP would distribute their films in the U.S., such as The Tommy Steele Story (1957) and Cat Girl (1957). AIP also imported The White Huntress (1954, England), Pulgarcito (1958, Mexico) and The Sky Calls (1959, Russia). AIP became

4794-480: The early films, along with Arkoff's brother-in-law, Lou Rusoff, who later produced many of the films he had written. Other writers included Ray Russell , Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont . Floyd Crosby , A.S.C. famous for his camera work on a number of exotic documentaries and the Oscar winner, High Noon , was chief cinematographer. His innovative use of surreal color and odd lenses and angles gave AIP films

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4888-445: The famous gangster , which gave Charles Bronson his first leading role and co-starred Cabot. Campbell wrote the script. Also for AIP, he did Teenage Caveman (1958), with Robert Vaughn , originally titled Prehistoric World . He helped produce two films for Allied Artists, both from scripts by Leo Gordon : Hot Car Girl (1958), directed by Bernard Kowalski and produced by his brother Gene (the first film they made together) from

4982-729: The film industry had once hoped—movie studios were increasingly being used to produce programming for the burgeoning medium. Some midsize film companies, such as Republic Pictures , eventually sold their studios to TV production concerns , which were eventually bought by larger studios, such as the American Broadcasting Company which was purchased by Disney in 1996. With the growing diversification of studios into such fields as video games , television stations , broadcast syndication , television , theme parks , home video and publishing , they have become multi-national corporations. International markets account for

5076-441: The film, but ARC offered to advance money to enable Corman to make two other films. Corman agreed, The Fast and the Furious performed well at the box office and the company was launched. Corman's next two films for the company were a Western, Five Guns West (1955), which Corman directed, and a science fiction film, The Beast with a Million Eyes (1955). The title from the latter had come from Nicholson. ARC also distributed

5170-481: The first film directed by Monte Hellman . Corman went to Puerto Rico and produced another two films back-to-back: Battle of Blood Island (1960), directed by Joel Rapp , and Last Woman on Earth (1960), directed by Corman from a script by Robert Towne . Filming on these two films went so quickly and incentivized by the tax breaks on offer for filming in Puerto Rico, Corman commissioned Griffith to write

5264-683: The following for Gordon: The She-Creature (released as a double feature with It Conquered the World ); Flesh and the Spur , the last Western made by AIP; Shake, Rattle & Rock! , a rock musical with Mike Connors ; Runaway Daughters (1956); Voodoo Woman ; Dragstrip Girl (1957), with John Ashley ; Motorcycle Gang (1957), again with Ashley; Jet Attack and Submarine Seahawk (1958). Most of these were written by Rusoff and directed by Edward L. Cahn . Gordon left AIP and Rusoff alone produced Hot Rod Gang (1958) and Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow (1959). Another key producer for AIP

5358-409: The formula. Later films added more humor to the stories, especially The Raven , which takes Poe's poem as an inspiration and develops it into an all-out farce starring Price, Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre ; Karloff had starred in a 1935 film with the same title. Corman also adapted H. P. Lovecraft 's short novel The Case of Charles Dexter Ward in an attempt to get away from Poe, but AIP changed

5452-643: The late 1950s, AIP kept their company afloat by importing films from Italy. These included Sheba and the Gladiator (1959), Goliath and the Barbarians (1959) and Black Sunday (1960); the latter film proved to be one of the company's early successes. There was also Atomic Agent (1959, France), The Angry Red Planet (1959, Denmark), Tiger of Bengal (1959) and The Indian Tomb (1960) from Fritz Lang in Germany, edited together as Journey to

5546-407: The late 1950s: Roger Corman, Alex Gordon & Lou Rusoff, and Herman Cohen. Arkoff and Nicholson would buy films from other filmmakers as well, and import films from outside America. Corman continued to be an important member of AIP (though he also worked for Allied Artists and his own Filmgroup company during this period). He had a big hit for the company with the science fiction film It Conquered

5640-539: The market for them was in decline. He proposed making a film in color for $ 200,000, shot over 15 days. Corman proposed an adaptation of " The Fall of the House of Usher " by Edgar Allan Poe and AIP agreed. The film was announced in May 1959. Richard Matheson was hired to do the adaptation and Vincent Price was brought in to star; Haller did the art direction. The resulting film, House of Usher (1960), shot in early 1960,

5734-475: The minor studios filled the demand for B movies and are sometimes collectively referred to as Poverty Row . The Big Five's ownership of movie theaters was eventually opposed by eight independent producers, including Samuel Goldwyn , David O. Selznick , Walt Disney , Hal Roach , and Walter Wanger . In 1948, the federal government won a case against Paramount in the Supreme Court , which ruled that

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5828-545: The next 12 months. The remaining 14 to 20 projects planned were paid by Pathe Laboratories. The ten films were Diary of a High School Bride , Drag Race , The Haunted House of Usher , End of the World , World Without Women , Bombs Away , Blood Hill , Take Me To Your Leader , She and Eve and the Dragon . Not all of these would be made. The company moved into rented office space at the former Chaplin Studios . In

5922-754: The result was Battle Beyond the Sun (1962). He also released The Magic Voyage of Sinbad (1962), dubbed from a Soviet film. The fourth Poe was an anthology, Tales of Terror (1962), shot in late 1961. One of the installments, "The Black Cat", was a comedy, inspiring Corman to do a whole Poe story comedically next: The Raven (1963). Later, Corman used the sets for that film for The Terror (1963), made for Filmgroup but released by AIP, and starring Boris Karloff (whose scenes were all shot in two days) and Jack Nicholson. Corman did not direct all of this film; additional scenes were shot by Monte Hellman, Coppola, and Jack Hill, among others. The Young Racers (1963)

6016-603: The same script structure and Corman employed many of the same cast in The Little Shop of Horrors (1960). This film was reputedly shot in two days and one night. For Filmgroup, Corman directed The Wasp Woman (1959), starring Cabot from a script by Gordon. His brother and he made two films back-to-back in South Dakota: Ski Troop Attack (1960), a war movie written by Griffith and directed by Corman, and Beast from Haunted Cave (1959),

6110-495: The same year, another 15 independents settled in Hollywood. Other production companies eventually settled in the Los Angeles area in places such as Culver City , Burbank , and what would soon become known as Studio City in the San Fernando Valley . The stronger early public health response to the 1918 flu epidemic by Los Angeles compared to other American cities reduced the number of cases there and resulted in

6204-401: The science-fiction story It Conquered the World (1956). Co-written by Griffith, it was a follow-up to The Day the World Ended . It was a big hit. He optioned a TV play, The Stake , and hoped to get Dana Andrews to star. It was never made. Instead, Walter Mirisch of Allied Artists hired Corman to make The Undead (1957), inspired by The Search for Bridey Murphy . Griffith wrote

6298-535: The script. In June, Corman made a science-fiction film for Allied Artists, Not of this Earth (1957), written by Griffith. In August 1956, AIP financed a Corman heist movie shot in Hawaii, Naked Paradise (1957), co-written by Griffith. Corman shot it back-to-back with a movie made with his own money, She Gods of Shark Reef (1958). Corman wound up selling the movie to AIP. Corman and Griffith reunited in Attack of

6392-578: The studio system. Filmmakers and producers such as Mike Judge , Adam Sandler , Jim Jarmusch , Robert Rodriguez , Steven Soderbergh , Quentin Tarantino , Kevin Smith and Richard Linklater made films that pushed boundaries in ways the studios were then reluctant to do. In response to these films, many distributed by mini-studios like Miramax , the majors created their own in-house mini-studios meant to focus on edgier, independent content. Focus Features

6486-601: The studios increased in size they began to rely on production companies like J. J. Abrams ' Bad Robot to handle many of the creative and physical production details of their feature films. Instead, the studios transformed into financing and distribution entities for their films (generally made by their affiliated production companies). With the decreasing cost of CGI and visual effects , many studios sold large chunks of their once-massive studio spaces or backlots to private real-estate developers. Century City in Los Angeles

6580-423: The success of a title, then would have a writer create a script for it. A sequence of tasks in a typical production involved creating a great title, getting an artist such as Albert Kallis who supervised all AIP artwork from 1955 to 1973 to create a dynamic, eye-catching poster, then raising the cash, and finally writing and casting the film. Samuel Z. Arkoff related his tried-and-true "ARKOFF formula" for producing

6674-686: The tales of Edgar Allan Poe , and which collectively came to be known as the " Poe Cycle ". In 1964, Corman became the youngest filmmaker to have a retrospective at the Cinémathèque française , as well as in the British Film Institute and the Museum of Modern Art . He was the co-founder of New World Pictures , the founder of New Concorde and was a longtime member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . In 2009, he

6768-461: The title to that of an obscure Poe poem, The Haunted Palace , and marketed it as yet another movie in the series. The last two films in the series, The Masque of the Red Death and The Tomb of Ligeia , were filmed in England with an unusually long schedule for Corman and AIP. Although Corman and Rusoff are generally credited with coming up with the idea for the Poe series, in an interview on

6862-494: The value of the teenage market as adults were watching television. AIP stopped making Westerns with Arkoff explaining: "To compete with television westerns you have to have color, big stars and $ 2,000,000". AIP was the first company to use focus groups , polling American teenagers about what they would like to see and using their responses to determine titles, stars, and story content. AIP would question their exhibitors (who often provided 20% of AIP's financing) what they thought of

6956-461: The world of independent film . Many of the more than 500 features directed or produced by Corman were low-budget films that later attracted a cult following, such as The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), The Intruder (1962), X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes (1963), and the counterculture films, The Wild Angels (1966) and The Trip (1967). House of Usher (1960) became the first of eight films directed by Corman that were adapted from

7050-584: The world. In the early 1900s, companies started moving to Los Angeles, California . Although electric lights were by then widely available, none were yet powerful enough to adequately expose film; the best source of illumination for motion picture production was natural sunlight. Some movies were shot on the roofs of buildings in Downtown Los Angeles . Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company , based in New York City, controlled almost all

7144-419: Was Blood Bath (1966). He also had an investment in the beach party films Beach Ball (1965) and It's a Bikini World (1967). Corman said, "For ten years as an independent I could get financing for $ 100–$ 200–$ 300,000 pictures. Everything had been interesting, artistically satisfying, economically satisfying. But I decided I was going nowhere and wanted to move directly into the business. So I accepted

7238-605: Was Herman Cohen , who had a huge hit with I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957) starring Michael Landon . He followed it with I Was a Teenage Frankenstein , Blood of Dracula (both also in 1957 as a double feature), How to Make a Monster (1958), The Headless Ghost and Horrors of the Black Museum (both in 1959). Other key collaborators who worked for AIP in the late 1950s included: AIP would flesh out their distribution schedule by buying films made by outside producers. These included The Astounding She-Monster ,

7332-466: Was a critical and commercial hit. Following this, Corman bought two scripts, Sob Sisters Don't Cry and Cop Killer . In March 1960, Corman announced that Filmgroup would be part of an international production group, Compass Productions. He directed a peplum in Greece, Atlas , (1961) in August. He was going to direct a thriller from a script by Robert Towne , I Flew a Spy Plane Over Russia . It

7426-469: Was always fascinating to me, a fascinating man – and a good businessman! He had such incredible energy, it was tremendous – he was a dynamo to be around. I always knew he was going to be a huge success because there was no stopping him. He just made up his mind that he was going to be a success and that was it. ARC changed its name to American International Pictures. Corman was established as their leading filmmaker. They financed Corman's next film as director,

7520-599: Was awarded an Academy Honorary Award "for his rich engendering of films and filmmakers". Corman was also famous for handling the U.S. distribution of many films by noted foreign directors, including Federico Fellini (Italy), Ingmar Bergman (Sweden), François Truffaut (France) and Akira Kurosawa (Japan). He mentored and gave a start to many young film directors such as Francis Ford Coppola , Ron Howard , Martin Scorsese , Jonathan Demme , Peter Bogdanovich , Joe Dante , John Sayles , and James Cameron , and

7614-737: Was conceived and shot in record time to take advantage of the Sputnik launch; it was his first collaboration with art director Daniel Haller . Corman also produced, but did not direct, Stakeout on Dope Street (1958), directed by Irvin Kershner , Night of the Blood Beast (1958), directed by Kowalski for AIP, using leftover costumes from Teenage Caveman , and Crime and Punishment U.S.A. (1959), directed by Dennis Sanders with George Hamilton in his first lead role. In January 1959, Corman announced he would be moving into distribution. In 1959, Corman founded The Filmgroup with his brother Gene,

7708-475: Was created by Universal Pictures and Fox Searchlight was created by 20th Century Fox for this purpose. Roger Corman Roger William Corman (April 5, 1926 – May 9, 2024) was an American film director, producer, and actor. Known under various monikers such as "The Pope of Pop Cinema", "The Spiritual Godfather of the New Hollywood ", and "The King of Cult", he was known as a trailblazer in

7802-418: Was funny and let me pay myself a commission," said Corman. Originally called House in the Sea , it was retitled Highway Dragnet (1954) and starred Richard Conte and Joan Bennett . Corman also worked as associate producer on the film for nothing, just for the experience. Corman used his script fee and personal contacts to raise US$ 12,000 (equivalent to $ 136,149 in 2023) to produce his first feature,

7896-435: Was highly flammable, and sets and backlots were and still are very flammable, which is why film studios built in the early-to-mid 20th century have water towers to facilitate firefighting . Water towers "somewhat inexplicably" evolved into "a most potent symbol ... of movie studios in general." Halfway through the 1950s, with television proving to be a lucrative enterprise not destined to disappear any time soon—as many in

7990-630: Was highly influential in the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He also helped to launch the careers of actors like Peter Fonda , Jack Nicholson , Dennis Hopper , Bruce Dern , Diane Ladd , and William Shatner . Corman occasionally acted in films by directors who started with him, including The Godfather Part II (1974), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Philadelphia (1993), Apollo 13 (1995), and The Manchurian Candidate (2004). A documentary about Corman's life and career titled Corman's World: Exploits of

8084-430: Was made, nor was The Gold Bug , a Poe adaptation written by Griffith. Corman made two Poes in England starring Price, the much-delayed The Masque of the Red Death (1964), with Campbell rewriting Beaumont's scripts, and The Tomb of Ligeia (1965), from a script by Robert Towne. Corman made no further Poes; AIP started up a fresh Poe cycle in the late 1960s, but Corman was not part of it. Corman got Towne to write

8178-541: Was not made; neither were two comedies he was to make with Dick Miller and Jon Haze, Murder at the Convention and Pan and the Satyrs . House of Usher had been so successful that AIP wanted a follow-up, and Corman, Haller, Matheson and Price reunited on The Pit and the Pendulum (1961). It was another sizable hit, and the " Poe cycle " of films was underway. Corman hired Charles Beaumont to write Masque of

8272-399: Was once part of the 20th Century Fox backlot, which was among the largest and most famous of the studio lots. In most cases, portions of the backlots were retained and are available for rental by various film and television productions. Some studios offer tours of their backlots , while Universal Pictures allows visitors to its adjacent Universal Studios Hollywood theme park to take

8366-446: Was one he decided to direct, Five Guns West (1955), a Western, made in color for around $ 60,000, with Malone and John Lund . The script was written by Robert Wright Campbell , who worked with Corman on several more occasions. Corman announced he would make four more projects for ARC: High Steel , Cobra , Fortress Beneath the Sea , and an untitled film from Campbell. Instead, Corman did some uncredited directing on The Beast with

8460-477: Was produced and directed by Corman in Europe for AIP, starring and written by Campbell. Working on the film was Francis Ford Coppola, whom Corman financed to make his directorial debut, Dementia 13 (1963). Back in the U.S., Corman made X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes (1963), a contemporary science-fiction film for AIP starring Ray Milland . He followed it with The Haunted Palace (1963), ostensibly part of

8554-399: Was produced by Corman. Both were made by Golden State Productions, ARC's production arm. Normally, B movies were made for the second part of a bill and received a flat rate. As television was encroaching on the B movie market, Nicholson and Arkoff felt it would be more profitable to make two low budget films and distribute them together on a double feature . Nicholson came up with a title for

8648-594: Was raised in his mother's Catholic faith. Corman went to Beverly Hills High School and then to Stanford University to study industrial engineering. While at Stanford, Corman realized he did not want to be an engineer. He enlisted in the V-12 Navy College Training Program with six months of study to complete. After serving in the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946, he returned to Stanford to finish his degree, receiving

8742-403: Was the 1953 UK documentary film Operation Malaya . It was dedicated to releasing low-budget films packaged as double features , primarily of interest to the teenagers of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The company eventually became a part of Orion Pictures , which in turn, became a division of Amazon MGM Studios. On October 7, 2020, four decades after the original closure, MGM revived AIP as

8836-562: Was to take Poe's story " The Fall of the House of Usher ", which had both a high name-recognition value and the merit of being in the public domain , and thus royalty -free, and expand it into a feature film. Corman convinced the studio to give him a larger budget than the typical AIP film so he could film the movie in widescreen and color, and use it to create lavish sets as well. The success of House of Usher led AIP to finance further films based on Poe's stories. The sets and special effects were often reused in subsequent movies (for example,

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