Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel Page #2

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And I made a number

of notes on it.

The picture became "the gunfighter"

starring Gregory peck.

And the story editor

got a bonus for my notes.

And I got no recognition

for the fact

that a number of my ideas

were used in the script.

This became a big hit for fox.

You would have thought he would have

had some acknowledgement.

This caused him to leave fox

and become what he is today.

After "the gunfighter,"

he corralled some money

from our parents

and some of his money

and a few friends',

got an enormous number

of deferments

and made his first film--

"monster from the ocean floor."

And that was basically

the beginnings of Roger corman.

I was the producer,

the assistant director and everything.

I would drive the truck

to the location

and unload everything I could

by myself.

And I would save about an hour

on the crew salary

every morning.

The second picture I made

was a picture called

"the fast and the furious."

It was about road racing and of course

had very, very little money.

Jonathan haze:
Roger went to

some sports car dealerships

and borrowed sports cars.

And we took the windshields off them

and actually raced them.

And then we'd clean them up

and take them back.

Roger was just so inane

at the time

and was trying

to do it himself

and was starting

to run out of money.

If you don't understand money

in the movie business,

it's like an artist

who doesn't understand paint.

Roger told me,

"well, I understand paint.

If I got to thin her up with turpentine

or there's no picture,

why, she gets thinned up a little.

That's all there is to it."

I could see the problem

for the independent.

You raised the money.

You made the picture.

And then you had to wait

for the picture to earn its money back

before you could make

another picture.

But Sam arkoff

and Jim Nicholson

were starting a new company--

American international.

And they made me an offer

for "the fast and the furious"

to start their company with.

I said, "i want

a three-picture deal

in which I'm guaranteed

my money back.

As soon as I finish one film,

I go to the next one

using the guarantee."

And that essentially

started me

on a regular basis

of making films

and started

American international.

Don't call me "squaw."

You're a dirty apache squaw.

I'm gonna kill you.

Your people did that--

raiding, thieving, killing.

Haze:
I was very famous

for fighting with the girls.

This was "apache woman."

Joan Taylor and I did

a knife fight in the street.

And this is dick Miller

in the background

where he belonged.

A friend of mine,

Jonathan haze, said,

"well, maybe I'll introduce you

to Roger corman and he can help you."

We went down there.

He said, "what do you do?"

I said, "I'm a writer."

He said, "we don't need

any writers right now."

He says, "i need actors."

I said, "I'm an actor."

He says, "you want to play

an Indian for me?"

At the end I got killed.

Roger said, "how would you like

to play a cowboy for me?"

I said, "oh, are we going

to another picture?"

He says,

"no, no, this picture."

I said, "oh, god. Okay."

I wound up killing myself

in the last scene.

I don't know

what the budgets were,

but they were really low.

We shot them in seven days,

so that gives you an idea.

And that's everything,

including special effects

or anything else, you know.

Some weren't all that great, and Roger'd

be the first guy to tell you that.

I never had the opportunity

to go to film school.

My student work

was being shown on the screen.

And some of it wasn't quite as good

as it might have been,

but I was learning

all the time.

Beat it, I said.

You're on a battlefield.

I know that better than you do,

sergeant. How well are you doing?

Half my men are dead.

Nothing can stop that thing.

Call off your troops.

Scorsese:
It's as if these films

were being made

on your street corner,

in a way.

They weren't encumbered

by having to deal with "art"

with a capital a-r-t.

They just weren't-- I mean,

they're art in another way.

Corman:

I learned fairly quickly

how to handle the camera,

what to do with editing,

but I didn't know enough

about acting,

and I felt I should simply

take a class.

And that was where I met

Jack Nicholson.

Nicholson:
He came into the class

with that little smile,

and everybody's as serious

as a heart attack, you know.

He had-- when I was

first working for him,

he told me he had

12 companies,

the contracts of which

were all in his back pocket.

I mean, he was

a one-man band.

Don't make me.

Don't be a fool, kid.

You think I would carry

a real gun?

As a matter of fact, the first picture

Jack Nicholson starred in

was for me-- a picture called

"the cry baby killer"

about a kid who takes

a drive-in hostage.

It's coming. Can't you get him

to be quiet until it comes?

Nicholson:
I hadn't really

worked at all before.

Then I got a lead in the movie.

I thought, "oh, this is it.

I'm here.

I'm gonna be big," you know.

Then I didn't even get an interview

for the next year.

Look, Carole was a swell girl

until Manny got his hands on her.

You mean, till she wanted

Manny's hands on her.

Listen, Fred...

"Cry baby killer"

was just humiliating...

...but good for me.

Hey, Roger's the only guy

who hired me for about 10 years.

Teenagers-- never had 'em

when I was a kid.

The word "teenager" didn't

really exist until the '50s.

If you look at the '40s and '30s,

their idea of a teenage movie

was "Andy Hardy."

Hey, Betsy.

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

What do you think's happened?

- What do you think's happened?

- What? Well, tell me what.

Cynthia won't go to the dance and

i don't know why and I don't want to.

Times were changing.

- Dave!

- Okay, Johnny.

Corman:
The major studios

didn't really understand

the audience was looking for

a different type of film.

If we were going to make pictures

about young people,

I'd have picked a young guy

like Jack Nicholson.

But you're through

breaking the law.

Sarge, I don't break the law.

I make my own.

Roger really realized

that young people at that time

really liked movies

where teenagers

were in trouble

with the authorities.

He had found an audience

that you didn't have to go

through the studio system

to reach.

Not only was he a rebel

from Hollywood

in that he did it all himself and did it

outside of the studio system,

but there was an edge of rebellion,

you know, to the movies.

Dante:
You make it

as disreputable as possible

so that the parents

wouldn't want them to see it

and that they feel

that when they go there,

they're doing

something transgressive,

and you've got an audience.

You're making

outlaw movies, basically.

And Roger has always

been an outlaw.

Let go of me, you big ape!

Now beat it, smart boy,

and don't come back

or I'll break your head.

Break whose head,

you phony frenchman?

You ain't so tough.

Took this moosehead to throw me out.

Corman:
I've always been

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