A Bucket of Blood

Purportedly made in five days, A Bucket of Blood is one of those films that just seems to grow on you after each viewing(beginning with the first!). Dick Miller plays his most substantial role in his long and varied career as a very stupid, amoral busboy for a beatnik cafe. His name is Walter Paisley and he wants to "fit" in with all the other cool cats at the cafe like the pompous Maxwell who recites poetry, the two clowns higher than kites that just take space and never order any coffee, the cafe owner Leonard that wears the trappings of being a beatnik but is more concerned about making a buck, the lovely artist Carla that wants to be surrounded by creative and artistic people, and a host of other beatnik types. Walter, by a set of bizarre and ridiculous circumstances, takes a cat he accidentally killed and covers it with clay. He brings it in to his "friends" and that laud him as a great and gifted artist. From there Walter works his way up to human sculptures. The story is filled with loads of black humour including a heavy dose of fun poked at the beatnik culture. Miller plays Paisley wonderfully with a certain innocence. All the acting is pretty good with a few stand-outs. Anthony Carbone as Leonard adds a lot of credibility to the film with his more realistic performance, and he has some of the best lines and facial expressions. Barboura Morris is beautiful and credible. But the top acting honors easily go to Julian Burton(where is this guy now?) as Maxwell. He is the poet that makes every word sound as if art were dripping from his tongue. He recites lines like, "Life is an obscure hobo bumming a free ride on the omnibus of art" and "ring rubber bells, clang cotton gongs, strike silken cymbols." He is wonderfully over-the-top in his whole portrayal and always makes me laugh with that garbage he utters. Director Roger Corman has little budget to work with here, but he makes a minor masterpiece with what he did have to work with. Walter Paisley is Born. And he lives on in video and dvd!