Known for Production
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 King of The B’s”, "The Spiritual Godfather of the New Hollywood", and "The King of Cult", he was known as a trailblazer in 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 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 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 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.
Born
April 5, 1926
Died
May 9, 2024 (age 98)
Birthplace
Detroit, Michigan, USA
Filmography
649 films, 22 shows


Frankenstein Unbound
1990 · 1h 25m
country: United States
The ultimate weapon, claimed to be safe for mankind, produces global side-effects including time slides and disappearances. The scientist behind the project and his car are zapped from the year 2031 to 1817 in Switzerland where he meets Dr. Victor Frankenstein, Mary Shelley and others.


Von Richthofen and Brown
1971 · 1h 37m
country: Ireland
Spend time on both sides of World War I, partly with German flying ace Baron Manfred Von Richthofen (John Phillip Law), aka "The Red Baron," and his colorful "flying circus" of Fokker fighter planes, during the time from his arrival at the war front to his death in combat. On the other side is Roy Brown of the Royal Air Force, sometimes credited with shooting Richthofen down.


Gas! -Or- It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It.
1970 · 1h 19m
country: United States
A gas is let loose upon the world that kills anyone over 25 years old.


Bloody Mama
1970 · 1h 30m
country: United States
Sexually abused as a young girl, Kate "Ma" Barker grows into a violent and powerful woman by the 1930s. She lovingly dominates her grown sons and grooms them into a pack of tough crooks. The boys include the cruel Herman, who still shares a bed with Ma; Fred, an ex-con who fell in love with a fellow prisoner; and Lloyd, who gets high on whatever's handy. Together they form a deadly, bizarre family of Depression-era bandits.


De Sade
1969 · 1h 53m
country: Germany
The 18th-century French marquis recalls his sadomasochistic experiments and goes to jail for lewd behavior.


Target: Harry
1969 · 1h 21m
country: United States
Pilot Harry Black is hired to fly a man named Carlyle to Istanbul, where he's murdered. Now, mysterious Diane Reed and a local gangster, Rashi, are after Harry believing that he has the priceless plates Carlyle used to counterfeit money.


The Wild Racers
1968 · 1h 23m
country: United States
Promising young racing car driver Joe Joe Quillico leaves the stock car racing scene in the United States in order to pursue Grand Prix racing in Europe. After limited success he manages to win the Spanish Grand Prix. His love life however, is much less successful and his winning on the track only serves to alienate the woman he loves - with unhappy consequences.


The Trip
1967 · 1h 25m
country: United States
After his wife leaves him, a disillusioned director dives into the drug scene, trying anything his friend suggests.


A Time for Killing
1967 · 1h 28m
country: United States
During the Civil War, Confederate soldiers escape from a Union prison and head for the Mexican border. Along the way, they kill a Union courier bearing the news that the war is over. Keeping the message a secret, the captain has his men go on and they soon find themselves in a battle with the Union search party who also is unaware of the war's end.


The St. Valentine's Day Massacre
1967 · 1h 40m
country: United States
Chicago February 14th 1929. Al Capone finally establishes himself as the city's boss of organised crime. In a north-side garage his hoods, dressed as policemen, surprise and mow down with machine-guns the key members of Bugs Moran's rival gang. The film traces the history of the incident, and the lives affected and in some cases ended by it.


The Wild Angels
1966 · 1h 27m
country: United States
A motorcycle gang arrives in a small town in search of a motorcycle that has been stolen by a rival gang; but, pursued by the police, one of its members is injured, an event that will cause an orgy of violence and destruction.


The Tomb of Ligeia
1964 · 1h 21m
country: United Kingdom
Verden Fell is shattered after the death of his lovely wife. But, after an unexpected encounter with Lady Rowena Trevanion, Fell soon finds himself married again. Nevertheless, his late wife's spirit seems to hang over the dilapidated abbey that Fell shares with his new bride. Lady Rowena senses that something is amiss and, when she investigates, makes a horrifying discovery -- learning that Fell's dead wife is closer than she ever imagined possible.


The Masque of the Red Death
1964 · 1h 30m
country: United States
A European prince terrorizes the local peasantry while using his castle as a refuge against the "Red Death" plague that stalks the land.


The Secret Invasion
1964 · 1h 37m
country: United States
During World War II, convicts are recruited by the Allies for an extremely hazardous mission.


The Haunted Palace
1963 · 1h 27m
country: United States
A man and his wife claim the mansion of his warlock ancestor burned alive in 1765.


X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes
1963 · 1h 19m
country: United States
A doctor uses special eye drops to give himself x-ray vision, but the new power has disastrous consequences.


The Terror
1963 · 1h 19m
country: United States
Lt. Andre Duvalier awakens on a beach to the sight of a strange woman who leads him to the gothic, towering castle that serves as home to an eerie baron.


The Raven
1963 · 1h 26m
country: United States
A magician who has been turned into a raven turns to a former sorcerer for help.


The Young Racers
1963 · 1h 24m
country: United States
A former race car driver-turned-writer attempts to expose a ruthless, womanizing Grand Prix racer. A film constructed around footage shot of actual Grand Prix races in Europe.


Tower of London
1962 · 1h 20m
country: United States
The twisted Richard III is haunted by the ghosts of those he has murdered in his attempt to become the King of England.


Tales of Terror
1962 · 1h 29m
country: United States
Three stories adapted from the work of Edgar Allen Poe: 1) A man and his daughter are reunited, but the blame for the death of his wife hangs over them, unresolved. 2) A derelict challenges the local wine-tasting champion to a competition, but finds the man's attention to his wife worthy of more dramatic action. 3) A man dying and in great pain agrees to be hypnotized at the moment of death, with unexpected consequences.


The Intruder
1962 · 1h 24m
country: United States
A man in a gleaming white suit comes to a small Southern town on the eve of integration. He calls himself a social reformer. But what he does is stir up trouble--trouble he soon finds he can't control.


The Premature Burial
1962 · 1h 21m
country: United States
An artist grows distant from his new wife as an irrational fear of premature burial consumes him.


The Pit and the Pendulum
1961 · 1h 20m
country: United States
In the sixteenth century, Francis Barnard travels to Spain to clarify the strange circumstances of his sister's death after she had married the son of a cruel Spanish Inquisitor.


Creature from the Haunted Sea
1961 · 1h 15m
country: United States
A crook decides to bump off members of his inept crew and blame their deaths on a legendary sea creature. What he doesn't know is that the creature is real.


Atlas
1961 · 1h 19m
country: United States
Evil king Praximedes convinces superhero Atlas to fight for him, but Atlas eventually sees the king's true nature and turns against him.


Last Woman on Earth
1960 · 1h 11m
country: United States
Harold Gern, a shady businessman from New York, is spending a holiday in Puerto Rico with his attractive wife Evelyn. They are joined by Martin Joyce, Harold's lawyer, who has come to discuss the latest indictment. Harold invites him along on a boat trip during which all three try out some newly bought scuba diving equipment. When they resurface, they find out that the world has changed forever.


House of Usher
1960 · 1h 19m
country: United States
Convinced that his family is tainted by generations of evil, Roderick Usher is hellbent on stopping his sister Madeline’s wedding to prevent the cursed Usher bloodline from expanding. When her fiancé Philip Winthrop arrives at the crumbling estate to claim his bride, Roderick goes to ruthless—even deadly—lengths to keep them apart.


The Little Shop of Horrors
1960 · 1h 13m
country: United States
Seymour works in a skid row florist shop and is in love with his beautiful co-worker, Audrey. He creates a new plant that not only talks but cannot survive without human flesh and blood.


Ski Troop Attack
1960 · 1h 14m
country: United States
An American patrol has to cross behind enemy lines by skis in order to blow up an important railroad bridge. The task is made harder by conflicts between the platoon's veteran sergeant and its inexperienced lieutenant and by constant attacks by pursuing German troops.


The Wasp Woman
1959 · 1h 1m
country: United States
The head of a major cosmetics company experiments on herself with a youth formula made from royal jelly extracted from wasps, but the formula's side effects have deadly consequences.


A Bucket of Blood
1959 · 1h 6m
country: United States
Nerdy Walter Paisley, a maladroit busboy at a beatnik café who doesn't fit in with the cool scene around him, attempts to woo his beautiful co-worker, Carla, by making a bust of her. When his klutziness results in the death of his landlady's cat, he panics and hides its body under a layer of plaster. But when Carla and her friends enthuse over the resulting artwork, Walter decides to create some bigger and more elaborate pieces using the same artistic process.


I, Mobster
1959 · 1h 21m
country: United States
The rise and fall of gang lord Joe Sante. A crime boss appears before a Senate subcommittee. A flashbacks tell his story.


She Gods of Shark Reef
1958 · 1h 3m
country: United States
Two brothers, one wanted for murder, are shipwrecked on an island inhabited by nubile young women who have amassed a valuable cache of pearls.


Teenage Cave Man
1958 · 1h 5m
country: United States
Roger Corman's post-holocaust quickie about an adolescent tribesman who dares to explore the feared "forbidden zone."


War of the Satellites
1958 · 1h 6m
country: United States
An "unknown force" declares war against planet Earth when the United Nations disobeys warnings to cease and desist in its attempts at assembling the first satellite in the atmosphere.


Machine-Gun Kelly
1958 · 1h 23m
country: United States
George Kelly is angry at the world and scared to death of dying. A career bank robber, Kelly gets his confidence from his Thompson SMG and his girl Flo. After a botched robbery, Flo, Kelly and his gang try their hand at a more lucrative job: kidnapping.


The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent
1957 · 1h 6m
country: United States
A group of Viking women build a ship and set off across the sea to locate their missing menfolk, only to fall into the clutches of the barbarian Grimolts who hold their men captive and worship the sea serpent which overturned their ship.


Sorority Girl
1957 · 1h 1m
country: United States
An affluent, malevolent girl at an all-female boarding school torments her fellow pupils while navigating a contentious relationship with her mother, who controls her late father's inheritance money.


Teenage Doll
1957 · 1h 11m
country: United States
The Black Widows, a teenage girl gang, find one of their number killed. They blame her murder on Barbara, the on-again-off-again girlfriend of the leader of rival gang The Vandals. As the gangs prepare for a fight, we take a glimpse into their tumultuous home lives.


Carnival Rock
1957 · 1h 15m
country: United States
An ocean-side nightclub owner loves a singer who only has eyes for a gambler.


Rock All Night
1957 · 1h 2m
country: United States
Cloud Nine, the local teen hangout, has been taken over by a pair of escaped killers, who hold the local teens hostage. The bartender realizes it's up to him to save the kids.


The Undead
1957 · 1h 11m
country: United States
Two psychics place a prostitute under hypnosis in order to learn about her past-life experiences. When they unwittingly send her back in time, she finds herself in the Middle Ages, suspected of being a witch and on the verge of being executed.


Attack of the Crab Monsters
1957 · 1h 3m
country: United States
A group of scientists travel to a remote island to study the effects of nuclear weapons tests, only to get stranded when their airplane mysteriously explodes. The team soon discovers that the tests have given rise to crabs mutated into intelligent, impervious, telepathic giants intent on increasing their numbers by breeding, then travelling to populated areas to feed, and which do not intend to be stopped by their discoverers.


Not of This Earth
1957 · 1h 7m
country: United States
An alien from planet Davanna, whose population has developed a terminal blood disease caused by nuclear radiation, is sent to Earth to acquire fresh human blood for his people.


Naked Paradise
1957 · 1h 8m
country: United States
Gangster Zac Cotton and his two henchmen, Mitch and Sonny, try to get a boat to get off a tropical island after a botched robbery heist.


It Conquered the World
1956 · 1h 11m
country: United States
An alien from Venus tries to take over the world with the help of a disillusioned human scientist, as his wife, his best friend and the friend's wife try to intervene.


The Oklahoma Woman
1956 · 1h 13m
country: United States
After six years in jail Steve returns to claim a ranch left him in a will. The town is in the middle of a rough election masterminded by saloon owner Marie. Steve is soon on the side of the opposition candidate and his pretty daughter. The town's tough sheriff is on no-one's side, least of all Steve's


Gunslinger
1956 · 1h 11m
country: United States
After her husband is gunned down, Rose Hood takes his place as sheriff of a small Western town.


Swamp Women
1956 · 1h 7m
country: United States
An undercover policewoman helps three female convicts escape from prison so that they can lead her to a stash of stolen diamonds hidden in a swamp.


Day the World Ended
1955 · 1h 19m
country: United States
After a nuclear attack, an unlikely group of survivors, including a geologist, a crook and his moll, and a prospector, find temporary shelter in the remote-valley home of a survivalist and his beautiful daughter, but soon have to deal with the spread of radioactivity - and its effects on animal life, including humans.


Apache Woman
1955 · 1h 19m
country: United States
A government agent ventures west to look into reports that Apaches are behind a recent wave of frontier attacks. Begins to suspect a set-up.


The Beast with a Million Eyes
1955 · 1h 18m
country: United States
At a decrepit farm outside a remote American desert community, something takes over the minds of some of the local humans and animals and is able to see through their eyes and control their actions.


Five Guns West
1955 · 1h 18m
country: United States
During the Civil War, five condemned Southern prisoners are plucked off Death Row and promised pardons on the condition that they undertake a mission to head west and bring back a double-crossing Confederate spy who has a stagecoach full of Confederate gold.