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Robert Towne's early work with Roger Corman led to a successful career in Hollywood, collaborating with Jack Nicholson on iconic films like The Last Detail and Chinatown. Towne's screenplays were known for their gritty realism, sociopolitical commentary, and dark, downbeat endings, shaping the New Hollywood era. Towne maintained a close friendship with Tom Cruise, collaborating on films such as Days of Thunder and Mission: Impossible.

Before legendary Hollywood screenwriter Robert Towne emerged as a leading voice within the New Hollywood movement in the early 1970s, he got his start in Hollywood working for B-movie legend Roger Corman, who hired him to write the low-budget 1960s horror films Last Woman on Earth and The Tomb of Ligeia.

Townes ascendance owed as much to being in the right place at the right time as his prodigious talent. Through Corman, he met fellow Corman alumnus Jack Nicholson in the late 1950s, when...

Screenwriter Robert Towne, noted for his Oscar-winning screenplay for the crime thriller “Chinatown’ has died:

Towne started writing screenplays for TV series, before hooking up with low-budget film director Roger Corman on “The Tomb of Ligeia”.

Part of the ‘New Hollywood’ wave of filmmaking, Towne wrote the Academy Award-winning screenplay…

…for director Roman Polanski's “Chinatown” (1974) starring Jack Nicholson.

For director Hal Ashby, he wrote screenplays for “The Last Detail” (1973), also starring Nicholson…

…and “Shampoo” (1975), starring Warren Beatty.

Noted as a script doctor, Towne collaborated on numerous features including “Days of Thunder (1990), “The Firm” (1993) and Brian de Palma’s “Mission: Impossible” (1996).

Click the images to enlarge…...

Robert Towne, the screenwriter who wrote the Academy Award-winning original script for Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, has died at the age of 89. His publicist, Carri Mclure, announced that Towne died at his home in Los Angeles on Monday.

He originally set out to work as an actor and writer and quickly found employment with Roger Corman. He scripted Corman’s Last Woman on Earth and also co-starred in the film under the pseudonym Edward Wain. He also wrote The Tomb of Ligeia for Corman. Towne then earned a reputation as a top script doctor after Warren Beatty asked him to help out on Bonnie and Clyde. He went on to make uncredited contributions to movies such as The Godfather, The Parallax View, Marathon Man, The Missouri Breaks, Heaven Can Wait, Crimson Tide, and more.

Related Robert Towne says all Chinatown prequel episodes are written… So where is it?

Towne first...

Robert Towne, who won an Oscar for his Chinatown original screenplay and was nominated for his Shampoo, The Last Detail and Greystoke scripts, died Monday at his home. He was 89.

PR firm McClure & Associates announced the news on behalf of Towne’s family.

Towne also earned BAFTA, Golden Globe and WGA awards for Chinatown, the L.A.-set 1974 thriller starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. It was one of three Writers Guild Awards he won during his career, along with Shampoo and the drama series Mad Men, on which he was a consulting producer during the final seventh season. He also was nominated for The Last Detail (1973) and Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1985). He was honored with the guild’s Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement in 1997.

Thoughtful and soft spoken, Towne was a perfectionist who hated studio meetings and script notes and famously would disappear for...

Writer-director Robert Towne, an Oscar winner for his original script for “Chinatown” and an acknowledged master of the art of screenwriting, has died. He was 89.

Towne died Monday at his home in Los Angeles, publicist Carrie McClure said in a statement.

During a long career that began in the 1960s, when he went to work as an actor and writer for B-movie director Roger Corman, Towne became one of the most sought-after script doctors in movie history, called on time and again to solve structural problems and create great moments for other people’s films.

Towne came to prominence in the 1970s with three critical and commercial hits released within a 14-month period: “The Last Detail” (1973), “Chinatown” (1974) and “Shampoo” (1975). All three screenplays were Oscar- nominated, with “Chinatown” winning in its year.

Hired as a “special consultant” by Warren Beatty for 1967’s “Bonnie and Clyde,” Towne restructured the picture to dramatize the outlaws’ impending doom.

When the news of Roger Corman’s passing was announced, the online film community immediately responded with a flood of tributes to a legend. Many began with the multitude of careers he helped launch, the profound influence he had on independent cinema, and even the cameos he made in the films of Corman school “graduates.”

Tending to land further down his list of achievements and influences a bit is his work as a director, which is admittedly a more complicated legacy. Yes, Corman made some bad movies, no one is disputing that, but he also made some great ones. If he was only responsible for making the Poe films from 1960’s The Fall of the House of Usher to 1964’s The Tomb of Ligeia, he would be worthy of praise as a terrific filmmaker. But several more should be added to the list including A Bucket of Blood (1959) and Little Shop of Horrors...

Roger Corman, a legendary filmmaker, has died at age 98, leaving behind a legacy of groundbreaking independent films. His work includes horror classics like Little Shop of Horrors, but almost more significantly, he was responsible for developing the careers of many future Hollywood icons. Corman remains beloved by cinephiles and filmmakers everywhere, and his impact on the art cannot be understated.

It's an inevitable but nonetheless mournful moment for cinema tonight, May 11, as the groundbreaking filmmaker and producer Roger Corman has died at the age of 98. The director was still working right up to the end, and never truly stopped over the past 70 years. Corman directed roughly 50 movies and produced literally hundreds, and was a trailblazer for independent film, often working outside the Hollywood system to produce wild, subversive, or nasty movies beloved by many. As a director, he's perhaps best known for his unique horror movies.

Born April 15, 1926, Roger Corman...

Legendary B-movie king Roger Corman, who directed and produced hundreds of low-budget films and discovered such future industry stars as Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, has died. He was 98.

Corman died May 9 at his home in Santa Monica, Calif., surrounded by family members, the family confirmed to Variety.

“His films were revolutionary and iconoclastic, and captured the spirit of an age. When asked how he would like to be remembered, he said, ‘I was a filmmaker, just that,’ ” the family said in a statement.

Corman’s empire, which existed in several incarnations, including New World Pictures, and Concorde/New Horizons, was as active as any major studio and, he boasted, always profitable. He specialized in fast-paced, low-budget genre movies — horror, action, science fiction, even some family fare — and his company became a work-in-training ground for a wide variety of major talents, from actors like Nicholson (“Little Shop of Horrors...

Roger Corman's 1960 feature films "House of Usher" was the first film in a long series of Edgar Allan Poe-based movies at American International Pictures. From 1960 to 1964, Corman directed eight Poe films, with all but one of them starring Vincent Price. After "House of Usher," Corman made "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Premature Burial," the anthology film "Tales of Terror," "The Raven," "The Haunted Palace," "The Masque of the Red Death," and "The Tomb of Ligeia." Technically, 1963's "The Haunted Palace" isn't a Poe movie. It was named after Poe's 1893 poem but was in fact based on the 1927 short novel "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" by H.P. Lovecraft. Poe, it seems, was a bigger marquee name than Lovecraft, so the latter author's story was merely folded into Corman's short-lived but well-remembered Poe subgenre. 

Fans of gothic horror would do well to marathon all eight movies. They're all...

One of the great unsung traditions of horror is a character’s external environment reflecting their internal state. It has found its way into films as diverse as Repulsion (1965), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994), and Relic (2020) to name just a few. Edgar Allan Poe was hardly the first to use the device, it had been a feature of the Gothic romances popular in the decades before him, but Poe moved it from character-deepening subtext to overt metaphor in his short story “The Fall of the House of Usher.”

Roger Corman’s 1960 film adaptation of the story latches onto and expands this and several of Poe’s obsessions into what has become a classic of slow-burning terror. The Fall of the House of Usher is the first in what has come to be called the Corman Poe Cycle. These eight films produced between 1960 and 1964 are among the most stylish,...

Boris Karlov, Peter Lorre, and Vincent Price in The Raven.Image: Film Publicity Archive (Getty Images)

For almost as long as the medium has existed, filmmakers have been turning to the works of Edgar Allan Poe for inspiration. The earliest adaptations of his stories date back to the silent era.

It was more than a little heartening to see Roger Corman paid tribute by Quentin Tarantino at Cannes’ closing night. By now the director-producer-mogul’s imprint on cinema is understood to eclipse, rough estimate, 99.5% of anybody who’s touched the medium, but on a night for celebrating what’s new, trend-following, and manicured it could’ve hardly been more necessary. Thus I’m further heartened seeing the Criterion Channel will host a retrospective of Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptations running eight films and aptly titled “Grindhouse Gothic,” though I might save the selections for October.

Centerpiece, though, is a hip hop series including Bill Duke’s superb Deep Cover, Ghost Dog, and numerous documentaries––among them Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest, making Michael Rapaport a Criterion-approved auteur. Ten films starring Kay Francis and 21 Eurothrillers round out series; streaming premieres include the Dardenne brothers’ Tori and Lokita,...

From 1960 through 1964, legendary producer Roger Corman‘s company American International Pictures went through what’s known as “The Poe Cycle”, releasing eight films based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. There was The Fall of the House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, Premature Burial, Tales of Terror, The Haunted Palace, The Raven, Masque of the Red Death, and The Tomb of Ligeia – and the making of each one of those films is covered in the new book Corman/Poe! Copies of the book can be purchased at This Link.

Sporting the full title Corman/Poe: Interviews and Essays Exploring the Making of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe Films, 1960-1964, this book comes to us from author Chris Alexander and features a foreword by Corman himself. Here’s the description: Produced on modest budgets for American International Pictures, Roger Corman’s adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories...

The legendary Corman-Poe Cycle gets a comprehensive spotlight in the brand new book Corman/Poe: Interviews and Essays Exploring the Making of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe Films, 1960-1964, which is Now Available from Headpress Books.

Written by Chris Alexander with a foreword by Roger Corman, the book is illustrated with dozens of photographs and stills, many of which have never been published before.

Produced on modest budgets for American International Pictures, iconic independent film director Roger Corman’s adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories were popular in their time as escapist horror cinema. Most starred horror icon Vincent Price and were written (and “freely adapted”) by the likes of Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont and Robert Towne. Today the series is recognized as unique and sophisticated, one that delivers decadent Gothic chills while exploring ideas of faith, sexuality, psychology and the supernatural.

The Corman/Poe Cycle includes classic horror...

Lock the doors. Turn on the lights. Check under the bed. Crank up the volume. It’s time for another Halloween Parade!

Please help support the Hollywood Food Coalition.

Click here, and be sure to indicate The Movies That Made Me in the note section so Josh can finally achieve his dream of showing Mandy to his wife!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Scream Blacula Scream (1973)

Mandy (2018)

Carnival of Souls (1962) – Mary Lambert’s trailer commentary

Night Tide (1961) – Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

A Bucket Of Blood (1959) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s DVD review, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Dementia 13 (1963) – Mick Garris’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Region B Blu-ray review, Glenn Erickson’s director’s cut Blu-ray review

The Godfather (1972) – Ernest Dickerson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings

The Godfather Part II (1974) – Katt Shea’s trailer commentary

The Conversation (1974) – Josh Olson...

Though I was lucky enough to have seen the original Elvira film, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, in theatres, the second adventure of the "Mistress of the Dark" escaped me in the early 2000s. Thankfully, Scream Factory (Shout! Factory's rad horror imprint) has us all covered with their brand-new restoration of Elvira's Haunted Hills. The million-dollar production was filmed in Romania, where the money went far and where local crew built some incredible interior sets. As I watched Elvira's Haunted Hills, I discovered that the film was a spoof on the beloved Edgar Allan Poe adaptations by Roger Corman, starring Vincent Price --- particularly House of Usher, The Tomb of Ligeia, and The Pit and the Pendulum --- with a healthy dash of humor ala Young Frankenstein. [There's a particular...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

“f you believe, my dear Francesca, you are… gullible. Can you look around this world and believe in the goodness of a god who rules it? Famine, Pestilence, War, Disease and Death! They rule this world.”

Vincent Price is gold in his hometown of St. Louis. Don’t miss the upcoming screening of the local hero’s best films. Vincent Price in director Roger Corman’s Masque Of The Red Death (1964) will be showing Wednesday, October 20th at 8 pm. Tickets are $5 each The Arkadin is located at 5228 Gravois Ave, St Louis, Mo 63116. Films are currently showing on the Backlot Patio (Enter through the Heavy Anchor) and bringing extra lawn chairs is strongly encouraged. The Arkadin Cinema site can be found Here

The famous Aip Corman-Poe series of films concluded with a great one-two punch: The Masque Of The Red Death and The Tomb Of Ligeia, both released in 1964. Corman had...

Hello, everyone! We have a brand new assortment of horror and sci-fi headed home this week, and there are plenty of offerings that should undoubtedly make for great additions to your Halloween season viewing plans. Universal is showing some love to a trio of classics, as it is set to release John Carpenter’s The Thing as well as Rear Window and Vertigo from Alfred Hitchcock all on 4K Ultra HD today. Kino Lorber has put together new Blu-ray presentations for both The Tomb of Ligeia and Theatre of Blood, and if you’re looking to catch up with some newer horror, both Great White and Slaxx arrive today courtesy of Rlje Films.

Other Blu-ray and DVD releases for September 7th include Lawnmower Man 2: Jobe’s War, Hellbox, Witches of Blackwood, Skinwalker, and War of the God Monsters.

Great White

A blissful tourist trip turns into a nightmare for five...

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By Hank Reineke

I turned age three one month prior to the January 1965 U.S. release of Roger Corman’s The Tomb of Ligeia. The film had been first released in England in November 1964 - which was only fair - since both The Tomb of Ligeia and its predecessor The Masque of the Red Death (also 1964) had been shot at Shepperton Studios and in the neighboring English countryside. I’m guessing that I only became acquainted with Corman’s octet of Poe adaptations when the films were televised on New York City’s 4:30 Movie in the mid-1970s.

I didn’t know quite what to make of the Aip Poe films at first. These were horror films without monsters and, at age fifteen, I had no particular interest in - or understanding of - “psychological horror” pictures… I wanted rubber-suit monsters sporting...

Corman/Poe By Chris Alexander Coming in 2022 from Headpress Books: "Toronto, Canada, March 19, 2021 - Filmmaker, magazine editor and writer Chris Alexander announced today that he is in production on a new book centering on a classic film series that stands among the most fascinating and enduring of all time.

Corman/Poe: Interviews and Essays Exploring the Making of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe Films, 1960-1964 will be published by Britain's Headpress Books and released in early 2022.

"No other film series means as much to me as those iconic eight pictures collectively referred to as Roger Corman's 'Poe Cycle'," says Alexander.

"I've spent decades thinking about them, obsessing over them, re-watching them and writing about them. Corman/Poe is my passion project; a collection of my thoughts and observations mixed with extensive, in-depth interviews that I've conducted with Roger over the years. I'm thrilled that Headpress has taken a chance on this book.

[This Halloween season, we're paying tribute to classic horror cinema by celebrating films released before 1970! Check back on Daily Dead this month for more retrospectives on classic horror films, and visit our online hub to catch up on all of our Halloween 2019 special features!]

There are few horror blankets warmer to me than the Roger Corman Poe adaptations the director made with star Vincent Price in the 1960s. More than the familiarity of Hammer horror, more than the delicious junk food that is the slasher genre, the Corman/Poe cycle feels like October. Not even my beloved Universal Monsters offer the same amount of comfort, the same sense of seasonal mood. These are movies that I turn to every year to set the tone for October.

Because his name has become so synonymous with penny-pinching schlock—cheap movies shot on the quick, minimum investment for maximum return—it’s often overlooked that Roger Corman was a great director. For evidence of this, look no further than his Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, a series of eight films Corman made between 1960–1965, beginning with House of Usher and culminating with The Tomb of Ligeia. Though the films vary a little in quality,...

“The boundaries which divide life from death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends and where the other begins?” This is a quote of course from Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Premature Burial, but ends up in the end credits of The Tomb of Ligeia (1964), Roger Corman’s final film in his Poe cycle for Aip, an eerie and fitting conclusion to a beloved series. (And doesn’t starting with a poetic quote make me sound fancy?)

Released by Anglo-Amalgamated Film Industries in the UK in November with a January rollout stateside from Aip, The Tomb of Ligeia was the least profitable of Corman’s Poe films, and he felt they had run their course, despite good reviews. Far be it from me to argue with the King of the B’s, but as a wave goodbye to the works of Poe,...

Ah, Andrew Fleming's The Craft, such fond memories! If you would like to revisit this movie or anything else playing on Comet TV this month, read on for more details! Also in today's Highlights: release dates revealed for The Lodgers, Still/Born, Black Creek, and Before We Vanish, Creepy Co.'s new apparel, and a look at the Frightfest Glasgow Film Festival 2018 lineup.

Comet TV January Schedule Revealed: “Airing On Comet in January

You Don’T Need A Subscription To Watch These Great Movies…

They’Re Airing For Free On Comet!

The Craft (1996)

Teen movies might want you to believe that high school was all about keggers and beautiful cheerleaders, but we prefer The Craft’s version of events. Featuring a quartet of angsty teens who turn to witchcraft in the face of personal high school horrors, The Craft casts a spell that leaves you wishing you had an...

Mark Harrison Oct 31, 2017

Want to enhance your horror movie? Make sure you sign up a cat...

This feature contains broad spoilers for several horror movies featuring cats, including Alien, Cat People, Drag Me To Hell, Fallen, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, Pet Sematary and The Voices.

The relationship between humans and cats over time has given way to a number of cultural impressions and outright superstitions. Ancient Egyptians associated them with gods. In the Middle Ages, they were linked with witches and killed en masse, which probably hastened the spread of the Black Plague through the rodent population. And in the modern day, it's interchangeably lucky or not if a black cat crosses your path.

Like anything with such a wide array of symbolic links, movies have presented cats as characters in different ways over the years. It's their abiding association with the supernatural – whether as an omen...

At this past weekend’s Overlook Film Festival, Roger Corman was on hand to receive the “Master of Horror Award,” presented by Mick Garris. There are few people in the movie industry that have had the long lasting effect that Roger Corman has, and I was honored to speak with him during the festival to get his thoughts on modern filmmaking, seeing his older films digitally restored, and he also gave his advice to young filmmakers looking to stand out from the pack.

Congratulations on receiving the Master of Horror Award at the Overlook Film Festival. It’s such a great team behind the festival and I’m happy to see you as the first in hopefully a long line of “Master of Horror” recipients.

Roger Corman: I'm very pleased because I know the festival. I know this is the first time it's been held here, but I've known Mick Garris for many years,...

To celebrate the release of Tower of London – out Dual Format 13th Feb. 2017 – we are giving away a copy courtesy of Arrow Video!

Having made their mark on American horror cinema with three colourful adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe – The Fall of the House of Usher, Pit and the Pendulum and Tales of Terror – Vincent Price and director Roger Corman enjoyed a brief hiatus from the macabre author with Tower of London. Shot in black and white, the film was loosely based on the Universal horror picture of the same name as well as two Shakespeare plays: a dash of Macbeth and a dollop of Richard III.

Price plays Richard of Gloucester, brother to a dying king and eager to take his place on the throne. When he is overlooked in favour of their sibling, the Duke of Clarence, things take a murderous turn. Richard goes on a murderous rage,...

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, and Tom Stockman

Happy 9oth Birthday to a legend! Roger Corman has directed more than 50 low-budget drive-in classics, produced and/or distributed 450 more, and helped the careers of hundreds of young people breaking into the industry. A partial list: Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Irvin Kershner, Monte Hellman, Peter Bogdanovich, Gail Ann Hurd, James Cameron, Jonathan Kaplan, Joe Dante, Robert Towne. Considering Corman’s own films, Jonathan Demme has stated. “Roger is arguably the greatest independent filmmaker the American film industry has seen and probably ever will see.” And he’s still going strong, currently producing the upcoming actioner Death Race 2050. We Are Movie Geeks has taken a look at Corman’s career and here are what we think are the ten best films that he has directed:

Honorable Mention. The Premature Burial

The Premature Burial (1962) is the ‘odd man out’ among the...

By Hank Reineke

Though this welcome Scream Factory issue marks the first time Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971) and The Dunwich Horror (1969) have been made available on domestic Blu-ray, both films enjoyed a previous release on DVD as part of MGM’s long-suspended “Midnite Movies” series. Rue Morgue was first paired with Cry of the Banshee (1970) in 2003, with Dunwich and Die Monster Die! (1965) following in 2005. Though both of these earlier sets are now technically out-of-print, copies remain generally available. Regardless, the more discerning horror-film aficionado would be well advised to seek out this new Blu edition. Not only does Scream Factory’s HD master offer a significant upgrade in visual presentation, the studio has also restored bits of censored footage missing from the Y2K releases.

H.P. Lovecraft’s short story The Dunwich Horror was written in the summer of 1928 and first published in the April 1929 issue of the appropriately titled Weird Tales magazine.

Kurt Walker in the background of Hit 2 Pass / Gina Telaroli making her way to the foreground in Here's to the Future!As has been previously reported, Here's to the Future! and Hit 2 Pass, new feature films from Notebook contributors Gina Telaroli and Kurt Walker, is starting its roll out this month. Following an open call for screenings the films will be playing at New York's Spectacle Theater (starting this Thursday November 5th), Toronto's Mdff (November 4th), Philadelphia's public access channel (starting November 13th), and more. The open call for screenings is in conjunction with an online release being done independently by the filmmakers themselves on their own website starting November 9th: http://h2phttf.tumblr.com The release, online and in real life, is a follow-up to Telaroli's grassroots release of her 2011 feature film Traveling Light (done in conjunction with the Spanish film journal Lumière). The following is...

Born in St. Louis on May 27, 1911, iconic actor Vincent Price retained a special fondness for his place of origin, and that love was reciprocated with Vincentennial, a celebration of his 100th birthday in his hometown back in May of 2011 (for summary of all the Vincentennial activities go Here). One of the guests of honor at Vincentennial was Vincent Price’s daughter Victoria Price. Because of their close relationship and her access to his unpublished memoirs and letters, Victoria Price was able to provide a remarkably vivid account of her father’s public and private life in her essential book, Vincent Price, a Daughter’s Biography, originally published in 1999. .In 2011, her biography of her father was out of print. but now it’s been re-issued and Victoria will be in St. Louis this weekend (October 9th – 10th) for three special events. In addition to the biography, she will also be signing...

The Riverside Drive-In Theatre presents its annual Monster-rama film festival with all 35mm presentations of horror classics. The two-night event takes place September 11-12. The fiendish agenda for this year's festival includes some irresistible flicks:

Three Vincent Price classics: "Masque of the Red Death", "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Tomb of Ligeia".   Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in "Horror of Dracula" Vincent Price in "The Haunted Palace" Polanski's "The Fearless Vampire Killers"  Christopher Lee in "Dracula Has Risen From the Grave" "Son of Dracula" with Harry Nilsson and Ringo Starr

Plus vintage shorts, trailers and intermission classics!

 

 For details click here. ...

One of Daily Dead's favorite horror events is Drive-In Super Monster-Rama. Taking place in September, the lineup this year includes a restored Dcp of The Pit and the Pendulum, 35mm screenings of The Haunted Palace, Horror of Dracula, and more.

Spanning two nights and comprising eight films, Drive-In Super Monster-Rama 2015 takes place Friday, September 11th and Saturday, September 12th at the Riverside Drive-In Theatre in Vandergrift, Pa.

Friday night's lineup includes the screening of a restored Dcp (digital cinema package) of Roger Corman's The Pit and the Pendulum (based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story of the same name and starring Vincent Price and Barbara Steele), followed by 35mm screenings of The Masque of the Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, and The Haunted Palace.

Saturday evening is "British Vampire Night" at the Riverside Drive-In Theatre, featuring 35mm screenings of the Christopher Lee-starring Horror of Dracula and...

British actress Elizabeth Shepherd is best known for her dual performance as the strong-willed Lady Rowena and the ghostly Lady Ligeia opposite Vincent Price in director Roger Corman’s The Tomb Of Ligeia in 1965. Ms Shepherd has enjoyed a long career in movies and in British television since 1959 and her most recent big screen role was as Hillary Swank’s mother-in-law in the 2008 Amelia Earhart biography Amelia. However, it’s the stage is where she most loves to perform and that’s where we caught up with her for this interview as she was preparing for her role in an upcoming production of the play Pygmalion in Houston. We had invited Ms Shepherd to be a guest of honor at Vincentennial, the Vincent Price 100th Birthday Celebration in May of 2011 here in Price’s hometown of St. Louis, but she had committed to the play and was unable to accept our invitation.

What will horror fans be watching this Christmas? Nick's got some ideas

The phrase “camp as Christmas” seems the only appropriate way to describe this month’s festive special as we take a look at the Blu-ray release of six Edgar Allan Poe adaptations combining the formidable talents of the great Vincent Price and the glorious “King of B-Movies”, Roger Corman.

Filmed relatively early in Corman’s incredibly prolific sixty-year career (over 400 movies produced, more than fifty films directed and he’s even starred in thirty-odd to boot!), this month’s Six Gothic Tales boxset covers all but one of his and Price’s early 60s Poe-themed Aip productions, from the morose The Fall Of The House Of Usher right through to 1964’s UK-based The Tomb Of Ligeia.

The first thing to note is the difficulty in believing the man responsible for Inhumanoid, Subliminal Seduction and the upcoming Sharktopus...

Christmas is almost here and Arrow Video have a present for horror fans (though you’ll have to buy it of course). Vincent Price in Six Gothic Tales is a box set of the Roger Corman Edgar Allan Poe films starring not only Price but some of the most iconic horror actors. Just mentioning the names Barbara Steele, Peter Lorre, Lon Chaney Jr., Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone in the same review as Vincent Price should have you getting your money ready straight away…and let’s not forget a young Jack Nicholson making an appearance too. All this movie history in just one box, and that’s before we even look at the special features included for each movie.

Roger Corman’s Poe movies are strange beasts though, normally taking only the name and basic plot they sometimes have little connecting them to the actual source material, yet as fans we love them anyway.

Scream Factory gave many classic horror film fans a Halloween treat with the release of The Vincent Price Collection II, and now Arrow Films is looking to sate the viewing appetites of Price fans in England with Six Gothic Tales, due out on December 8th. Comprised of six Roger Corman movies based on Edgar Allan Poe’s works and starring Vincent Price, Arrow Films has unveiled their collection’s special features:

Press Release - “From the Merchant of Menace, Vincent Price, and the King of the B’s, Roger Corman, come six Gothic tales inspired by the pen of Edgar Allan Poe. Arrow Video is thrilled to announce the limited edition release of this Six Gothic Tales box set. Limited to a run of just 2000 copies, this much-anticipated release will include The Fall of the House of Usher, Tales of Terror, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Raven, The Haunted Palace...

This week we don’t have as many new releases, but there’s still some great titles coming out. I’m particularly excited for the second Vincent Price Blu-ray collection which includes “House on Haunted Hill.” Who doesn’t love sassy billionaire playboy Vince Price? Here are your Blu-ray releases for Tuesday the 21st:

The Vincent Price Collection II. United States. The Last Man on Earth / The Comedy of Terrors / Dr. Phibes Rises Again / Tomb of Ligeia / The Raven / Return of the Fly / The House on Haunted Hill. Shout Factory. 1959-1972.

From the press release:

Scream Factory, the horror-thriller offshoot of independent film distributor Shout Factory, has detailed The Vincent Price Collection II. The box set set is scheduled to arrive on the market on October 21.

Additional special features for this collection:

The Raven

Introduction and parting words by Vincent Price

New Audio Commentary with author/film historian Steve Haberman...

The first Vincent Price collection from Scream Factory was a pure treasure. When October rolls around, almost nothing puts me in the Halloween mood like a constant stream of Vincent Price films on my TV. Never did I think that Scream could improve upon their original price collection, but when the films that would be included in this new set were announced, I was shocked. The first Vincent Price Collection has some really solid Price films, mostly of a Poe nature, and it was one of the most exciting releases of the year for fans of classic horror. The second set, drops the Poe theme(mostly), and includes some of Price’s most famous, well-regarded films, including a couple of my favorites. The list of films is impressive, and there are extras on most of the films. The packaging is consistent, and equally pleasing to the eyes. Scream Factory’s...

Welcome back to This Week In Discs! If you see something you like, click on the title to buy it from Amazon. The Vincent Price Collection II A duel between magicians leaves one man transformed into a bird in The Raven. An undertaker takes matters into his own hands in an effort to increase business in The Comedy of Terrors. A widower finds new love complicated by an obsession with his dead wife in The Tomb of Ligeia. A scientist is the last normal human alive after a plague turns others into vampire-like creatures in The Last Man on Earth. The abominable Dr.Phibes rises again in Dr. Phibes Rises Again. The son of the first film’s scientist begins some experiments of his own in The Return of the Fly. A millionaire offers a cash reward to five people if they’re willing and able to spend a nigh tin his home in House on Haunted Hill. Vincent Price...

For the third week of October, genre fans have several new and classic titles coming out this week on DVD and Blu-ray to look forward to, including The Vincent Price Collection II, Snowpiercer, Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort, See No Evil 2 and the badass follow-up to last year’s box office home invasion hit, The Purge: Anarchy.

Several notable indie titles are being released this Tuesday as well, including Play Hooky (the first title to come out under Pollygrind’s new distro label), To All a Good Night (directed by the late-great David Hess), Life After Beth and The Scribbler, the film adaptation of Daniel Schaffer’s wildly popular graphic novel.

Spotlight Titles:

The Purge: Anarchy (Universal Home Entertainment, Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD & DVD)

The New Founders of America invite you to celebrate your annual right to Purge. The Purge: Anarchy, the sequel to summer 2013’s sleeper hit that opened to No.

We’ll be celebrating the 5th year anniversary of Super-8 Movie Madness at The Way Out Club in St. Louis on Tuesday October 7th with an encore performance of our most popular show. It’s Super-8 Vincent Price Movie Madness in 3D, the show that we took on the road to promote Vincentennial back in 2011. We’ll be honoring the hometown horror hero by showing condensed (average length: 15 minutes) versions of several of Price’s greatest films on Super-8 sound film projected on a big screen. They are: Master Of The World, War-gods Of The Deep, Pit And The Pendulum, The Raven, Witchfinder General, Tim Burton’s Vincent, Two Vincent Price Trailer Reels, Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein and The Mad Magician in 3D (We’ll have plenty of 3D Glasses for everyone)

The non-Price movies we’re showing October 7th are The Three Stooges in Pardon My Backfire...

One of my favorite horror movies of all time, and required Halloween viewing at my house, is 1959’s House on Haunted Hill, directed by William Castle and starring the legendary Vincent Price. This October, Scream Factory is releasing the movie to Blu-ray in The Vincent Price Collection II, which also includes The Return of the Fly, The Comedy of Terrors, The Raven, The Last Man on Earth, The Tomb of Ligeia, and Dr. Phibes Rises Again. Here’s a look at a clip from the high-definition version of House on Haunted Hill, along with the original trailer:

“On October 21, 2014, collectors, classic film aficionados and horror enthusiasts will relish the 4-Disc Blu-ray™ release of Scream Factory’s The Vincent Price Collection Volume II, perfectly timed for Halloween and this year’s holiday gifting season. This extraordinary collector’s set is an essential movie collection for every home entertainment library and brings...

It’s impossible for me to hide the fact that Scream Factory is one of my favorite boutique media labels. As far as content goes, they give me the type of films that I really want to see on the Blu-ray format. They’ve had a strong first couple of years, and I see no signs of them slowing down anytime soon. Two of the biggest… neigh, The two biggest releases of the 2014 Halloween Seasons is coming from these guys. I’m speaking, of course, about the Director’s Cut of Nightbreed, as well as the Complete Halloween Collection. But you’ve already heard about those, and pre-ordered them, right? Well, here is their entire fall(Sept/Oct… And some November, cause shut up.) lineup, in case a few have slipped by you.

September 9, 2014 Pumpkinhead (Collector’s Edition) Srp $29.93 Bd

Scream Factory has announced a September 9 Blu-ray release of a...

Last year we fell crazy in love with Scream Factory's The Vincent Price Collection Blu-ray box set. Now the purveyors of all that is spooky cool are back with another round of classic horror goodness featuring the man himself in The Vincent Price Collection Volume II. Read on for details.

From the Press Release

On October 21, 2014, collectors, classic film aficionados, and horror enthusiasts will relish the 4-Disc Blu-ray™ release of Scream Factory’s The Vincent Price Collection Volume II, perfectly timed for Halloween and this year’s holiday gifting season.

This extraordinary collector’s set is an essential movie collection for every home entertainment library and brings together Seven Vincent Price masterpiece classics, featuring the first-ever Blu-ray movie presentation of The House On Haunted Hill (1959), The Return Of The Fly (1959), The Comedy Of Terrors (1963), The Raven (1963), The Last Man On Earth (1964), The Tomb Of Ligeia (1964), and Dr. Phibes Rises Again...

The Vincent Price Collection Volume II is one of the most eagerly-awaited sets of the year for me. Today, Scream Factory broke down what's going to be enclosed in this presentation when it arrives on October 21st.

This 4-disc collector’s set is an essential movie collection for every home entertainment library and brings together seven Vincent Price masterpiece classics, featuring the first-ever Blu-ray movie presentation of The House on Haunted Hill (1959), The Return of the Fly (1959), The Comedy of Terrors (1963), The Raven (1963), The Last Man on Earth (1964), The Tomb of Ligeia (1964), Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972).

The post Scream Factory Unveils Vincent Price Collection II Details appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

The Blu-ray release I’m most excited for this year is The Vincent Price Collection II, a follow up to last year’s Scream Factory collection with seven more Vincent Price movies making their debut on Blu-ray, including The House on Haunted Hill. Here’s a look at the official list of bonus features:

“On October 21, 2014, collectors, classic film aficionados and horror enthusiasts will relish the 4-Disc Blu-ray™ release of Scream Factory’s The Vincent Price Collection Volume II, perfectly timed for Halloween and this year’s holiday gifting season. This extraordinary collector’s set is an essential movie collection for every home entertainment library and brings together Seven Vincent Price masterpiece classics, featuring the first-ever Blu-ray movie presentation of The House On Haunted Hill (1959), The Return Of The Fly (1959), The Comedy Of Terrors (1963), The Raven (1963), The Last Man On Earth (1964), The Tomb Of Ligeia (1964) and Dr. Phibes Rises Again...

The first Vincent Price collection that was released by Scream Factory is a thing of beauty. It was announced recently that they would bringing us a second collection of Vincent Price films on Blu-ray, and I couldn’t be any more excited about it than I already am. Well, maybe I can be, because Scream Factory just released the full details of the set, and it’s going to be a good one. Check out the press release below, and please click here to pre-order your own copy of this collection, which streets on October 21. Man, October is really upon us, isn’t it?

The Vincent Price Collection II

Featuring The First-ever Blu-ray™ Presentation Of

The House On Haunted Hill (1959), The Return Of The Fly (1959),

The Comedy Of Terrors (1963), The Raven (1963),

The Last Man On Earth (1964), The Tomb Of Ligeia (1964),

And Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972)

In Stores Everywhere On October...

B movie king Roger Corman was honored this year at the Guanajuato International Film Festival (Giff). A selection of both Corman-directed and produced films were screened during the festival, at such venues as the city's Teatro Juarez, the graveyard, and the university. Corman presented all of them in Guanajuato Capital (one of the two cities that hosted the festival), staying up late to visit the graveyard where such films as The Tomb of Ligeia and The Pit and the Pendulum were shown. I arrived late to the celebration but still just in time for the main homage and the master class. On Friday, August 1, the festival's official homage to Corman happened at the Teatro Juarez. It began with a video that introduced Roger Corman to the...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

As the undisputed king of American gothic, Vincent Price holds a unique position regarding his association with British horror. From the mid sixties, nearly all his films were made in the UK, and while not as distinguished as The House of Usher (1960), Tales of Terror (1962) and The Raven (1963), they are not without interest. As an actor perfectly suited to English gothic, Price’s output includes two career-defining performances. In a nutshell, he had the best of both worlds.

Masque of the Red Death (1964)

The British phase of his career began with a bang. After directing all of Price’s Poe chillers for American International Pictures, Roger Corman wanted to give the formula a fresh approach by making his next film in England. Aip’s Samuel Z Arkoff and James H Nicholson had already produced several European films, so the next step was to establish a London base with Louis M Heyward in charge.

Cinema is a kind of uber-art form that’s made up of a multitude of other forms of art including writing, directing, acting, drawing, design, photography and fashion. As such, film is, as all cinema aficionados know, a highly collaborative venture.

One of the most consistently fascinating collaborations in cinema is that of the director and actor.

This article will examine some of the great director & actor teams. It’s important to note that this piece is not intended as a film history survey detailing all the generally revered collaborations.

There is a wealth of information and study available on such duos as John Ford & John Wayne, Howard Hawks & John Wayne, Elia Kazan & Marlon Brando, Akira Kurosawa & Toshiro Mifune, Alfred Hitchcock & James Stewart, Ingmar Bergman & Max Von Sydow, Federico Fellini & Giulietta Masina/Marcello Mastroianni, Billy Wilder & Jack Lemmon, Francis Ford Coppola & Al Pacino, Woody Allen & Diane Keaton, Martin Scorsese & Robert DeNiro...