by Stephen Vagg
This was both unfair and unfortunate since Gene not only played a crucial, often overlooked part in his brother’s story, he had a fine career of his own as producer (Private Parts, FIST, The Big Red One, A Woman Called Golda). So, for this instalment we thought we’d look at the Top Ten Connections between Roger Corman and his baby brother Gene.
Monster from the Ocean Floor (1954)
Although Gene was Roger’s younger brother, he entered the film industry first, joining MCA as a receptionist in 1948 and soon becoming a top agent. Gene claims that he helped revive client Joan Crawford’s career by discovering a novel about two male gunfighters, Johnny Guitar, and suggesting it be changed to be about two women, so Crawford could play the lead role. (I wonder if this successful sex flip inspired all those female-driven Westerns Roger turned out in the mid ‘50s.) Anyway, when Roger made his first film as producer, the DIY sci-fi drama Monster from the Ocean Floor, it was Gene who negotiated the sale of the finished product to ace low budget producer/distributor Robert Lippert. Roger’s career was off and running, and it was Gene who was there at the beginning.
The Kowalski Trilogy (1958-59) – Attack of the Giant Leeches, Night of the Blood Beast, Hot Car Girl
Watching Roger churn out film after film soon gave Gene a case of sibling envy and he decided to quit agenting to join his brother in the screen trade. Their first collaboration as producers was Hot Car Girl (1958), a cheap Rebel without a Cause knock-off directed by Bernard L. Kowalski. It did well enough that the brothers promptly made two more cheapies with Kowalski, Attack of the Giant Leeches and Night of the Blood Beast, with Gene handling the bulk of producing duties on both. The films are fun, especially Leeches which Gene considered a personal favourite.
Sidebar: Gene was interviewed by the Australian Woman’s Weekly around this time
I, Mobster (1958)
With his MCA background, Gene was more comfortable at major studios than Roger, and he lured his big brother over to 20th Century Fox (well, an independent unit financed by Fox), to make this gangster tale starring Steve “I died interestingly, google it” Cochran. The film isn’t bad, though it suffers in comparison with Roger’s Machine Gun Kelly. Gene would have several stints at Fox over the years, including one where he produced films for Robert Lippert (who matched Roger Corman for productivity but was a lot less famous), and another where he worked for Fox television as an executive.
The South Dakota duo (1959-60) – Beast from the Haunted Cave and Ski Troop Attack
The Corman brothers decided to avoid unions and find fresh locations by heading off to South Dakota where they made two films using the same crew, both based on scripts by Chuck Griffith: Beast from the Haunted Cave and Ski Troop Attack. Gene had more to do with Beast, directed by Monte Hellman, who praised his producer’s tenacity, particularly as shooting took place in the snow. The films were distributed through a new company Gene and Roger formed together – Filmgroup, which specialised in movies even cheaper than those for AIP and Allied. Filmgroup was short-lived but would be responsible for some of the most eclectic, interesting films in Hollywood at the time, including the first feature credits for Francis Ford Coppola, Jack Nicholson, Robert Towne and Peter Bogdanovich, plus the next movie on this list…
The Intruder (1962)
Famously the first film Roger Corman made that ever lost money. This was a passion project for both Roger and Gene, who put up their own money and went out to the Deep South to film it with William Shatner. Gene played a crucial, often overlooked role in creating this minor masterpiece, not only providing his own cash for the budget, but producing on the ground in situations that were potentially deadly for the cast and crew, and later battling to get the film released. As with Roger, it’s one of the best things Gene ever did, although also as with Roger, it appears to have scared Gene off other “message” pictures for the rest of his career.
Tower of London (1962)
This was a Gene Corman-Leo Gordon idea that Roger directed and Gene produced for Edward Small, a legendary independent producer of low-and-mid-budget films. Despite (or because of) the fact that Small was also a Hollywood maverick, the brothers did not get along with him, particularly disliking Small’s decision to shoot the film in black and white. Tower of London is fun to watch though, as any movie starring Vince Price as Richard III was going to be. Aussie Michael Pate is in it, too.
The Premature Burial (1962)
Roger had two big hits for AIP adapting Edgar Alan Poe, House of Usher and The Pit and the Pendulum; since Poe was in the public domain, he and Gene decided to make their own Poe movie, raising finance from Pathe Labs. This annoyed Sam Arkoff and Jack Nicholson at AIP who considered they had a proprietorial interest in Poe films. On the first day of shooting, the Cormans discovered that AIP had threatened Pathe with a boycott unless they gave AIP a stake in Premature Burial and the brothers found themselves back in the embrace of AIP. The film is quite good, incidentally, especially once you get over the fact that it doesn’t star Vincent Price.
Beach Ball (1965)
Roger Corman was never a great one for making musicals – he disliked the genre on the whole, and there are few on his CV. However, the profits made in the mid-‘60s by beach party movies were too alluring for him to ignore and he kicked in a few bucks for some of those. Beach Ball, one of the best in the genre, was produced by Gene with money from Roger; Gene wanted to cast Tommy Kirk in the lead but had to pivot when Kirk got busted with marijuana, and instead hired Edd (77 Sunset Strip and not much else) Byrnes. On the beach party movie front, Roger also invested in It’s a Bikini World (1967) (directed by Stephanie Rothman) while Gene produced The Girls on the Beach (1965) (with the Beach Boys) and AIP’s Ski Party (1965) (with James Brown in a sweater singing ‘I Feel Good’). All these films rank highly amongst beach party aficionados – both Cormans always, always tried to elevate genre.
A series of overseas movies – The Secret Invasion (1964), Target: Harry (1969), Von Richthofen and Brown (1971), I Escaped from Devil’s Island (1973)
The Cormans were creatively polyamorous during the ‘60s and early ‘70s – they worked with other people but also hooked up with each other when they felt like it. In particular, the two brothers made a series of films overseas: Yugoslavia (The Secret Invasion), Monaco and Turkey (Target: Harry), Ireland (Von Richthofen and Brown) and Mexico (I Escaped from Devil’s Island). Roger directed the first three of these, getting increasingly tired with being behind the camera as time went on – Stewart Granger was a major sook on Secret Invasion; Roger took his name off Target: Harry and used a nom de plume (I’m not sure why, it’s a bit hazy – maybe because Gene added extra footage to try to sell the film, meant for television, to cinemas); and people actually died filming stunts on Von Richthofen, which wound up being the last film Roger directed for almost two decades. The brothers offered Devil’s Island to Martin Scorsese who had just made Boxcar Bertha for Roger, but Scorsese turned it down, so Gene hired old timer William Witney. It was the last film they officially collaborated on. However,…
Post-Devil’s Island
The Corman brothers officially went their separate ways in the early ‘70s when Roger established New World and Gene set up his own production unit at MGM, but they continued to “cross fertilise” after that. For instance, Paul Bartel was given his first directing gig by Gene (Private Parts, Gene’s favourite of all his films) and next two for Roger (Death Race 2000, Cannonball). Jonathan Kaplan did his first directing for Roger (Night School Nurses, Student Teachers) then shifted over to Gene (The Slams), as did George Armitage (Gas and Private Duty Nurses for Roger, then Hit Man and Vigilante Force for Gene). Roger’s New World picked up Gene’s Darktown Strutters for distribution. Most notoriously, Roger was willing to finance Mean Streets for Martin Scorsese if Scorsese could “swing a little” and turn his script into a blaxploitation film – because of the success his brother had with Cool Breeze (Scorsese turned it down but a black Mean Streets would have been quite entertaining).
The relationship between the Corman brothers was fascinating – both ambitious, driven, competitive, supportive. Gene is one of a long line of “Hollywood brothers” overshadowed by a legendary sibling (others include Charles Evans, Myron Selznick, Jack Cohn, and the non-Jack Warner brothers). It doesn’t lessen Roger to give Gene some time in the spotlight.
