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CORMAN

                                              December 14, 2012

Several years ago, attending an
"Ask Dr. Hal" event, I decided to          This one took place at
submit a question along the lines          Chicken John's roost on
of:                                        Chavez street.

     How can one reconcile reincarnation
     with eternal damnation, as in Roger
     Corman's "The Undead"?

     I believe he answered with the obvious
     line, ala Marlowe's _Faust_, that the
     mundane world and hell may be one and
     the same.

     But I was rather surprised by Hal's
     dismissive tone toward Roger Corman;      But perhaps I shouldn't be suprised:
     you would think that a sub-genius         some of Hal's remarks on "Puzzling
     luminary would understand the appeal      Evidence" made it clear that he was
     of Corman's work                          a special effects snob when he was
                                               growing up, and I don't think he's
         It did not seem that Hal was          ever grown out of it.
         familiar with "The Undead",
         but he did remember what the
         movie poster looked like,
         and he worked that into his
         answer giving him a nice
         touch of apparent
         omniscience: that much was
         impressive, that's pure Hal.

         What he said was something
         like this:  Hollywood respects
         Corman solely because he
         actually made money with his
         cheap, quickly made
         productions.  Corman claimed
         he would make a movie solely
         because he had a good title,
         or good poster art-- and the
         Undead did have a good poster,
         a woman posing with a giant
         skull-- but Dr. Hal asks "Is
         there any point in making
         movies this way?"

            My answer is *yes*, working
            quick and cheap without making
            much effort at Serious Quality
            opens the door to serendipity,    UNINTENDED
            it makes it possible to jam,
            to improvise, and possibly
            luck out.

            The Hollywood in-crowd respects
            Corman not soley because he made
            money, but because they *hate
            their lives*.  They're
            constantly stuck with begging
            for money, coping a pose of
            certain success when they know
            it's a complete crap-shoot;
            they're always rolling the dice
            with such high stakes that if
            they blow it just once they may
            never be able to play                  Pauline Kael, "5001 Nights
            again. They're always desperate        At The Movies": _Ride the
            to find a sure thing, because          Whirlwind_ (1965) -- Monte
            they *need* sure things.               Hellman directed this film
            They're envious of Corman's            and _The Shooting_ in Utah
            ability to live outside of that        during a seven-week period
            grind, and to every now and then       on a budget of $160,000
            achieve something unexpected and       (from Roger Corman) for
            interesting and even "pretty           both.  Jack Nicholson, who
            good" if not often "great" in          acts in both was also
            any obvious way.                       Hellman's co-producer, and
                                                   wrote the script for this one."

                                                        Now that's the
                          KAEL_TECHNIQUE                Corman style, even
                                                        if he only put the
                          MY_NAME_IS_MODESTY            money up that time.


    UNDEAD
                  CONQUERED_THE_WORLD
    X-RAY_EYES


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