Brought to you by Fast and Furious 74, in the future the Fast crew cast is completely replaced by robots, except Kurt Russell.
This week we travel back in time to 1955 to watch the Roger Corman classic, The Fast and the Furious. What's the tie-in to the current franchise? It appears to be a film about a car guy so maybe they are related?
What is a:
This was the first AIP film. AIP gave us such gems and the Frankie and Annette movies, and was also the launching point of Roger Corman's career.
The AIP Formula:
Later, the AIP publicity department devised a strategy called "The Peter Pan Syndrome":
AIP was the first company to use focus groups.
Another AIP method for film-making was to create a great title, get an artist such as Albert Kallis (who supervised all AIP artwork from 1955–73) to create a dynamic, eye-catching poster, then raising the cash, and finally writing and casting the film.
Corman left AIP to start Film Group with his brother Gene. Film Group didn’t work nor did most black and white double features. He returned to AIP.
The original idea, usually credited to Corman and Lou Rusoff, was to take Poe's story "The Fall of the House of Usher", which had both a high name-recognition value and the merit of being in the public domain, and thus royalty-free, and expand it into a feature film. Corman convinced the studio to give him a larger budget than the typical AIP film so he could film the movie in widescreen and color, and use it to create lavish sets as well.
New World Pictures was founded in 1970. It is highly debatable whether this or the critical failure of The Red Baron marks his exit from the directors chair.
Corman directed 6 films in 1955. This was his only producer credit of the year and his second effort as a producer.
John Ireland directed and starred in this film.
John Ireland is most notable for the Howard Hawke’s film Red River with John Wayne. His pistol scene with Montgomery Clift is part of film iconography. His role as Crixus was a key in Kubrick's Spartacus.
Irelan was known for bedding down the honeys. He attracted controversy by dating 16-year-old actress Tuesday Weld when he was 45.
The film also stars Dorothy Malone who won an Academy award for Best Supporting Actress in Written on the Wind. Image searching her on the Google may result in a big stiff boner. She is now 90. She worked for 49 years retireing in 1992. She has 112 acting credits.
If you're curious about Corman he is currently sitting at 410 producer credits (56 director).
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