Legendary American director and producer Roger Corman died last Thursday at the age of 98 at his home in Santa Monica, California, according to Variety. Roger Corman was known as the ‘King of B-movies’ and a filmmaker for quick hits with a small budget. The independent filmmaker usually kept his distance from the big Hollywood studios. He is a role model for countless independent filmmakers far beyond the USA who dared to realise their films even on a small budget.
Roger William Corman was born on 5 April 1926 in Detroit, Michigan. After studying at Stanford University and serving in the Navy, Roger Corman began his career in the film industry as a messenger at 20th Century Fox before deciding to study English literature at Oxford. But the pull of Hollywood was strong, and he soon returned to work as a literary agent.
Roger Corman first appeared as a producer in 1953 with the film ‘Highway Dragnet’ and made his directorial debut just two years later with two western films. He skilfully combined commercial success with artistic innovation and found his niche above all at the film production company AIP, where he worked under the direction of Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson, he made an impressive series of genre films in the western, gangster, horror and science fiction genres. These films, often produced for a youthful audience, were characterised by their creative energy and often rebellious spirit.
Roger Corman‘s contribution to the development of new film genres such as the rocker and rock’n’roll film in the 1960s was particularly noteworthy. Films such as ‘The Wild Angels’ illustrated his ability to pick up on cultural trends and translate them into film, a sensibility that later found expression in the legendary ‘Easy Rider’. His adaptations of the works of Edgar Allan Poe in this decade brought him additional recognition and cemented his reputation as a master of the horror film.
In 1970, Corman directed the film ‘Manfred von Richthofen’, which marked his last directorial work for two decades before devoting himself to film production. With his company New World Pictures, later known as Concorde – New Horizons Corp., he continued to make his mark on the film industry by producing important films such as Martin Scorsese‘s ‘Fist of the Rebels’, Steve Carver‘s ‘Capone’ and Joe Dante‘s ‘Piranhas’. In 1990, he briefly returned to the director’s chair for ‘Roger Corman’s Frankenstein’ and then continued his successful career as a producer, including the ‘Death Race’ series.
Roger Corman leaves behind an unrivalled legacy with over 400 films produced. His vision, tireless dedication and ability to nurture new talent have made him a legendary figure whose influence on cinema remains undisputed. His work and spirit will live on in the films he created and in the many filmmakers he inspired. Over the course of his career, he also took dozens of filmmakers under his wing who today enjoy worldwide fame. Whether Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Manahem Golan or James Horner, whether Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda or Dennis Hopper, they all owe their careers to New World Pictures and Roger Corman.
Films produced by Roger Corman (excerpt):
1954: The Las Vegas Car Trap (Highway Dragnet) [co-producer]
1954: Monster from the Ocean Floor
1954: The Fast and the Furious
1955: Spawn of Hell (The Beast With a Million Eyes)
1958: The Cry Baby Killer
1958: The Last Reminder Was Made of Lead (Hot Car Girl)
1958: The horror came at midnight (Night of the Blood Beast)
1959: Attack of the Giant Leeches
1963: Dementia 13
1965: Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet
1966: The Shooting
1966: Ride in the Whirlwind
1966: Queen of Blood
1966: Blood Bath
1967: Rebels in Leather Jackets (Devil’s Angels)
1968: Moving Targets
1969: Naked on a hard saddle (Naked Angels)
1970: The Rockers of Boston Street
1972: The Fist of the Rebels (Boxcar Bertha)
1972: Roller Fever
1972: The Cremators
1972: God have mercy on the cops
1973: Mutiny on Devil’s Island
1973: Crazy and Dangerous
1973: The Fall of Japan (Nippon chinbotsu)
1974: The Penitentiary of the Lost Girls (Caged Heat)
1974: Dear Bad Mum (Big Bad Mama)
1975: Capone
1975: Frankenstein’s Death Race (Death Race 2000)
1975: TNT Jackson
1976: Hollywood Boulevard
1976: Eat my dust
1976: Raped behind bars
1976: All hell breaks loose in Hollywood!
1976: Make a cross and go to hell
1977: Ilsa – The Tigress
1977: Highway 101 – Full throttle until the shreds fly (Grand Theft Auto)
1977: I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (I Never Promised You a Rose Garden)
1978: Like thunder and lightning
1978: Piranhas (Piranha)
1978: Giants with Fists of Steel (Deathsport)
1979: Rock ‘n’ Roll High School
1979: Fast Charlie – The Furious Charlie
1979: Saint Jack
1980: The Horror from the Deep (Humanoids from the Deep)
1981: Planet of Terror (Galaxy of Terror)
1981: Sorceress – The Powers of Light (Sorceress)
1981: Highway Kids
1982: The Android (Android)
1982: Mutant – The horror in space (Forbidden World)
1982: The Slumber Party Massacre
1983: Deathstalker
1983: Space Raiders
1985: School Spirit – The Freaky College Spirit
1985: Wizards of the Lost Kingdom
1986: In the Realm of the Amazons (Amazons)
1986: Shopping (Chopping Mall)
1986: American Scorpion
1987: Boone: A Villain Among Villains
1987: Stripped to Kill
1987: Slumber Party Massacre I
1987: The Munchies
1987: Big Bad Mama 2
1987: Slumber Party Massacre II
1987: Hour of the Assassins
1988: The Vampire from Outer Space (Not of This Earth)
1988: Night of the Demons
1988: Tango for a Killer (Two to Tango)
1988: Watchers
1988: Emmanuelle 6
1988: Crime Zone: Hell on Earth
1988: A Kingdom Before Our Time
1989: Blood Fist Fighter (Bloodfist)
1989: Stripped to Kill 2
1989: Barbarian Queen II (The Empress Strikes Back)
1989: Warlock – Satan’s Son (Warlock)
1989: Transylvania Twist
1989: Lords of the Deep
1989: Heroes Die Alone
1989: Good Night Hell (The Terror Within)
1990: The Terror Within II – The Genes Strike Back, also Invisible Killers
1990: Deathstalker IV (Match of the Titans)
1990: Slumber Party Massacre 3
1991: Dead Space
1992: Munchie
1992: Blackbelt
1993: Carnosaurus (Carnosaur)
1993: Corman’s Dracula (Dracula Rising)
1993: Fantastic Four (not released)
1994: New Crime City
1995: Black Scorpion
1995: Caged Heat 3000
1995: Dillinger & Capone
1995: Babyface Nelson
1995: The Crazysitter
1995: Demonic Neighbours
1995: Alien Terminator
1995: The Return of the Piranhas
1995: The Alien in You
1995: Forbidden Beauty (The Wasp Woman)
1995: A Hot Affair (One Night Stand)
1996: Welcome to Planet Earth
1996: Last Exit to Earth
1996: Bloodfist 7
1996: The Horror from the Deep (Humanoids from the Deep)
1997: Prison break
1997: Deadly Inferno
1997: The Haunted Sea
1997: Mind Breakers
1997: Alien Avengers 2
1997: The Sea Wolf
1997: Knockin’ on Deaths Door
1998: The Running Woman
1998: Detonator
1998: Black Thunder – The World on the Brink
1998: Watchers Reborn
1998: Molly and the Leprechaun
1998: Dangerous Curves
1998: Club of the Vampires
1999: The Enchanted Pony
1999: Hell House
2000: Living Target
2000: The Suicide Club
2000: White Inferno: Snowboarder on the Brink
2001: Raptor
2001: A Girl, Three Guys and a Gun
2002: Marlene Dietrich – Her own song
2002: Brother in Arms
2002: Slaughterhouse
2002: Wolfhound
2003: Barbarians
2003: When the eagles strike
2004: Asphalt Wars
2004: DinoCroc
2005: Scorpius Gigantus
2005: Blood Fist 2050
2006: Dinosaur
2006: The Hunt for Eagle One
2007: Hell in the Sky (Cry of the Winged Serpent)
2007: Searchers 2.0
2007: Supergator
2008: Marcus – The Gladiator of Rome (Cyclops)
2010: Dinohai
2010: Dinocroc vs. Supergator
2010: Death Race 2
2010: Sharktopus
2011: Piranhaconda
2012: Death Race 3: Inferno
2014: Sharktopus vs. Pteracuda – Battle of the Primeval Giants
2014: Operation Villain
2014: The Fist of the Dragon
2015: Sharktopus vs. whale wolf
2015: Art school of horror
2017: Death Race 2050
2018: Death Race 4: Anarchy
2018: CobraGator
2019: Abduction
2021: The Jungle Demon
The UCM.ONE team is proud to be able to market several films in the catalogue in which Roger Corman was involved. We hope that this will enable us to make a small contribution to ensuring that his life’s work, for which Roger Corman was also awarded an Honorary Oscar in 2009, continues to be a part of our film world.
Films by Roger Corman in the UCM.ONE catalogue:
Sorceress (German title: “Die Mächte des Lichts“) [1981]
The ruthless ruler Traigon (Roberto Ballesteros) makes a pact with the forces of darkness. But the dark forces demand a blood sacrifice from him – his own children. Traigon, possessed by a lust for power, does not hesitate and sends his warriors to fetch the two twin daughters Mira (Leigh Harris) and Mara (Lynette Harris). But the two of them manage to escape the curse and mature into two brave warriors in solitude. When one day they are tracked down by their father and his hordes, because he still wants to carry out the blood sacrifice, the dramatic battle begins: Traigon and the forces of darkness against the two Amazon-like daughters who have the forces of light on their side …
More information about the movie: Sorceress
 Forbidden World (German alternative title: “Mutant – Das Grauen im All“) [1982]
On the planet Xerbia, a group of elite scientists are working to solve the problem of a galactic famine. They are trying to develop a living being from human and alien stem cells that can replicate the cell structure of everything it eats. But the mutant created is ultimately anything but a soulless pile of cells. It is a highly developed, super-intelligent eating monster that now begins to mercilessly decimate the scientists and the crew of the outpost…
More information about the movie: Forbidden World
 The Warrior and the Sorceress (German title: “Der Krieger und die Hexe“) [1984]
The swordsman Kain (David Carradine) was once a warrior of a holy order, but after its downfall he hired himself out as a mercenary in the vastness of the planet Ura. He arrives at the desert village of Yamatar at just the right time, as two warlords are fighting over the only well for miles around. Kain learns that the last survivor of his former order lives in the town and that one of the warlords, Zeg, is holding his daughter Naja (Maria Socas) captive because of her magical powers. He decides to free Naja in order to gain possession of the magical sword of Yura, which only Naja can summon and which is said to give its owner infinite power. But in order for his plan to succeed, he must first find a way to play the two hostile parties off against each other…
More information about the movie: The Warrior and the Sorceress
Wizzard of the Lost Kingdom [1985]
After the evil sorcerer Shurka (Thom Christopher) kills the king of a forgotten kingdom and his court magician, the young warrior Simon (Vidal Peterson), who is also skilled in the art of magic, sets out to defeat the forces of evil with the help of a magic ring. He wants to reunite his kingdom, which is now enslaved by three sinister magicians. On his adventurous and perilous journey, he meets the forest wizard Hurla, the good-natured monster Gulvak and the veteran fighter Kor (Bo Svenson). They join him to defeat the forces of evil together…
More information about the movie: Wizards of the Lost Kingdom
Barbarian Queen [1985]
Sometime during the early Iron Age, the inhabitants of a simple village are preparing for the wedding of their prince Argan (Frank Zagarino) to the beautiful Amathea (Lana Clarkson) when they are suddenly attacked and plundered by royal troops. Only Amathea manages to escape with two of the strongest warriors. The three women now do everything in their power to free Amathea’s sister, who has been abducted as a slave, and Argan, who is to fight for his life in a gladiatorial arena. However, after her comrades-in-arms have been killed and Amathea herself has been brutally tortured and raped, she is freed by an underground resistance movement. Amathea now embarks on an extremely bloody campaign of revenge with her new friends…
 Amazons (German title: “Im Reich der Amazonen“) [1986]
The fierce, beautiful Amazon warrior Dyala (Mindi Miller) wants to save her people, who are suffering at the hands of two cold-blooded enemies: The villainous Emperor Kalungo (Joseph Whipp), who possesses magical powers, and Dyala’s evil mother. She needs the sacred sword of her ancestors, Azundati, for her fierce fight for liberation. In search of this powerful artefact, she and her companion Tashi (Penelope Reed), who has joined this difficult undertaking despite her initial mistrust, encounter numerous dangers which they both have to overcome with their fighting skills…
More information about the movie: Amazons
Good Night Hell (Alternative title: “The Terror Within“) [1989]
A global war with terrible chemical weapons has wiped out 99% of humanity. The few survivors are mercilessly hunted by horribly mutated creatures, the ‘Gargoyles’. In an underground laboratory, a group of scientists led by Commander Hal (George Kennedy) have survived the apocalypse. But the terror never ends when a woman who was rescued on the surface is brought into the station – but shortly afterwards a monstrous creature breaks out of her body, which immediately preys on everything human and seems to grow bigger and bigger. From now on, death lurks everywhere in the dark corridors of the underground laboratory and the monster seems indestructible in its lust for blood.
