Biography for
Monte Hellman More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

12 July 1932, New York City, New York, USA

Birth Name

Monte Jay Himmelman

Mini Biography

Cult director Monte Hellman has made a handful of offbeat, inventive and intriguing low-budget independent features throughout the years. His films are distinguished by slow pacing, vague but compelling plots and often obsessive characters.

Hellman was born on July 12, 1932, in New York City. He studied drama at Stanford University and film at UCLA. Hellman hooked up with legendary exploitation movie producer Roger Corman in the late 1950s. He made his directorial debut with the enjoyable creature feature Beast from Haunted Cave (1959). He also directed portions of the notorious Corman fright flick fiasco The Terror (1963). Hellman joined forces with frequent collaborator Jack Nicholson for two pictures that were shot back-to-back on shoestring budgets in the Philippines: the exciting World War II potboiler Back Door to Hell (1964) and the entertaining action thriller Flight to Fury (1964) (Nicholson also penned the screenplay for this latter film). Monte then reteamed with Nicholson for two outstanding and enigmatic existential westerns that were filmed in Utah under similar conditions: Ride in the Whirlwind (1965)--Nicholson once again wrote the script--and the especially striking The Shooting (1966), which was the first of four features Hellman did with scruffy character actor supreme Warren Oates. Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) rates highly as Monte's most remarkable cinematic achievement to date: it's a fascinatingly bleak and oblique road movie that perfectly nails the bummed-out malaise of the early 1970s, boasts musicians James Taylor and Dennis Wilson (of The Beach Boys) in their sole acting efforts, and showcases an amazing central performance by Oates as mysterious motorist "GTO". "Two-Lane Blacktop" received favorable reviews from most critics, but alas bombed at the box office. Luckily, it has since garnered a well-deserved avid fan following. Cockfighter (1974) was an excellent adaptation of 'Charles Willeford''s gritty novel with another mesmerizing lead performance by the incomparable Oates. Hellman began the Hammer crime action yarn Shatter (1975) but was replaced by Michael Carreras halfway through the production. he also directed an episode of the Robert Blake cop series "Baretta" (1975). China 9, Liberty 37 (1978) was a typically quirky revisionist spaghetti western. Iguana (1988) offered a brutal and provocative allegory on the darkest aspects of human nature, but unfortunately suffered from poor distribution. Silent Night, Deadly Night III: Better Watch Out! (1989) (V) qualifies as Hellman's worst movie; it's a run-of-the-mill slasher sequel that's totally unworthy of his considerable talents.

Monte was the dialogue director for Corman's The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967). He handled second unit director chores on Samuel Fuller's stirring World War II epic The Big Red One (1980) and the fantastic science-fiction smash hit RoboCop (1987). Hellman finished two pictures in post-production that were started by other directors who died after the movies were shot: the failed Muhammad Ali bio The Greatest (1977) (started by Tom Gries) and the dismal spy saga Avalanche Express (1979) (begun by Mark Robson). He shot extra footage for the television versions of Ski Troop Attack (1960), Last Woman on Earth (1960), "Creature from the Haunted Sea" and Sergio Leone's magnificent spaghetti Western landmark A Fistful of Dollars (1964). Among the movies Hellman has served as an editor on are Corman's The Wild Angels (1966), Bob Rafelson's Head (1968), Sam Peckinpah's The Killer Elite (1975) and Jonathan Demme's Fighting Mad (1976). Monte was an executive producer on Quentin Tarantino's explosive debut feature Reservoir Dogs (1992). After a regrettably lengthy absence from directing, Monte Hellman made a welcome comeback with the "Stanley's Girlfriend" segment of the horror anthology Trapped Ashes (2006).

IMDb Mini Biography By: woodyanders (qv's & corrections by A. Nonymous)

Spouse

Barboura Morris

(? - ?) (divorced)

Trivia

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985". Pages 418-422. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.

Was member of the dramatic jury at the Sundance Film Festival in 1989.

One of 115 people invited to join AMPAS in 2007.

Personal Quotes

[on Ride in the Whirlwind (1965) and The Shooting (1966), which were shot simultaneously but released several years apart] We thought there would be a couple of more Roger Corman movies that would play on the second half of a double bill somewhere. So any thoughts about doing something different were for our own personal satisfaction. We never thought that anybody would ever notice.

I like to work on a film where it's continually opening up its secrets to me. I think any work of art, not just a film, is a mystery. I think it was Jean Cocteau who said it should reveal its secrets slowly.

[on Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)] It's a film about inner life rather than outer life. It's not a film about other films; it's not a pastiche.

When I was selling Eskimo Pies in Hollywood as a teenager, pushing a wagon around Paramount, Columbia and all the studios, my dream was to have my own parking space in any studio -- I didn't care where. My problem has always been that I've had my little parking space, but I was never in a studio long enough to have my name painted on one.

I believe the best movies are road movies. The road is very enigmatic. The road is life.

[on Jack Nicholson] There's something diabolical about him. Jack's evil.

[on Silent Night, Deadly Night III: Better Watch Out! (1989) (V)] Personally I think it's my best work. I mean, I don't think it's my best movie... in fact, it's probably my worst, to be honest. But Arthur Gorson asked me to come on-board in March of '89 and we had our final cut ready in June that same year. Even if the movie doesn't really hold up when I watch it now, I can't help but be proud of how quickly we put it together.

The idea of the road movie as a separate genre is, in a way, a little absurd because every movie is in some way a road movie.

I love reading everybody's interpretation of any movie I make, I'm fascinated by all these different readings, but my primary intent is to move the audience.

I don't think a lot about the movies I'm making and I kind of take the scripts at face value and deal with it.