For those unaware, the undisputed king of B-movies and cult cinema passed away on May 9, 2024 at the age of 98. I am of course referring to Roger Corman. The man managed to direct and/or produce nearly 500 movies in his lifetime (some of which I have previously covered). It’s a truly staggering achievement. Most of these films have fallen squarely in the “B-movie” category. They tend to be genre films (science fiction and horror were his specialty) with minute budgets and a flare for excess. I was going to hold a little Corman movie marathon shortly after learning of his passing, but then I had a better idea: why not marathon a few of the movies he’s directed that I’ve never seen and write out my thoughts here in a stream of consciousness style? Was this partially motivated by knowing that I was going to be spending four consecutive days at a hard rock and heavy metal music festival and would need a day to lay in bed all day watching movies to recover? Who’s to say? Here’s the obligatory spoiler warning because I am definitely going to spoil all of these movies. Without further ado, let’s get this party started!
It Conquered the World (1956)
Our first film on the list appears to be an alien invasion movie. That was a staple of the science fiction genre in the 1950s, so I’m hoping this one is fun. It’s available on YouTube for free, so that’s where I’ll be watching.
Lee Van Cleef is in this!
Great score from Ronald Stein already.
Van Cleef appears to be a scientist convinced that launching a satellite will cause advanced alien civilizations to declare war on Earth, and he’s trying to convince the government to abort a mission to launch a new satellite into orbit. I like the premise.
They did not listen.
Uh oh. Two bits of surely unrelated news: there are strange signals coming from Venus, and the satellite has vanished.
Somehow the satellite has returned.
Van Cleef has been secretly communicating with an alien from Venus. I predict that nothing bad will come from this.
The satellite has crashed to Earth in a less than convincing visual effect, and it has brought with it a stowaway. Probably fine.
Wow. The alien has apparently knocked out all electronics in the area via an electromagnetic pulse. Very Magneto of it.
Finally got a decent look at the alien design, and it’s pretty cool (you can see it on the poster). It also seems to have little flying scout creatures? Pretty creative.
One of the flying critters just said ACAB.
I think the flying critters have some sort of mind control capabilities?
Van Cleef is basically the ETO from The Three-Body Problem.
A mind-controlled military officer is blaming the power outages on communists to distract people from the real threat. Sounds about right.
A mind controlled cop just shot a guy for not complying with his orders. Sounds about right.
Van Cleef’s wife is less than thrilled about him collaborating with an alien invader to presumably rule all of humanity through mind control. Can’t imagine why.
So there are a total of nine aliens from Venus. One is now on Earth, and the other eight are still on Venus. That does not bode well for propagating the species.
I wish we saw more of the alien. There are only about thirty minutes left in this movie, and we’ve only caught one glimpse of the creature.
I forgot to mention that Peter Graves plays the hero of this story. He’s a fellow scientist, and now his wife has been mind controlled. Not ideal.
Whoa! Graves just shot and killed his wife. Didn’t see that coming. I guess the mind control can’t be reversed.
Damn. A couple of mind controlled scientists just murdered their colleague. Didn’t expect this high of a death count in this movie.
Van Cleef and Graves are having a bit of a heated discussion.
Van Cleef’s wife is gonna kill the alien herself. I now see why they haven’t shown it that much. Also, she did not succeed. RIP.
There has been a Latino soldier serving as comic relief in this movie, and it has not aged well.
Van Cleef has now turned on the alien, and he burned a man alive who was mind controlled.
The alien is going on a rather hilarious rampage killing a bunch of soldiers. Apparently it’s bulletproof.
Van Cleef just killed the alien by shooting a blowtorch in its face as it murdered him with its claws. So metal.
Graves delivered a monologue about humanity having to solve its own problems. Fair enough. The end.
That was much better than I expected. The budgetary constraints showed at times, but it took the material seriously and had some great acting.
On to the next one!
Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957)
If alien invasion movies are one staple of 1950s science fiction, then giant monster movies are the other. I have to assume that’s what we’re getting here based on the title. Crossing my fingers that radiation is involved somehow. This one is currently available on a bunch of streaming services like Tubi, Sling TV, FreeVee, and Amazon Prime Video if you’re in the United States.
Awesome score right off the bat courtesy of Ronald Stein.
Opening with quoting Genesis 6:7 KJV is not something I expected. Ominous.
We’ve got a group of people landing on an island. Not entirely sure what they’re doing.
Aaaaaaaaaand a man just got decapitated by a giant crab monster. This movie is wasting no time.
He fell off his boat into the water, got his head cut off, and then was retrieved by the others in the group without any questions being asked. Is this a common occurrence?
So it seems there was a research team on this island that vanished, and these new arrivals are investigating what happened. It’s a pretty large ensemble cast.
Great news! The previous research team was studying the effects of radiation on this island due to hydrogen bomb testing nearby. We’re gonna get some giant radioactive monsters!
A plane just got hit by lightning in midair and exploded. This movie rules.
Apparently the previous research team found five foot long worms on this island.
Time to go investigate some strange noises. Probably fine.
It actually was fine. It was a tree branch scraping against a wall.
Getting a nicely filmed underwater scuba diving scene now. Exploring a shipwreck.
Literally no one in this movie is wearing any kind of protective gear despite there clearly being unsafe levels of radiation.
A disembodied voice is now asking a woman for help as she sleeps? I have no idea what is happening.
Another guy heard it too, so he’s going down into a big hole to investigate. He immediately fell and broke his leg. Whoopsie.
A small group is now going to try and retrieve him by going through an elaborate network of caves that they think connect to the pit where he fell.
Crab monster! Well, it was a giant claw at least. The rest of it was out of frame. It was not in the cave but inside a building. Not sure how it got inside based on the size of the doors.
They are implying that the crab monsters are sentient.
The rescue team did not find the guy with the broken leg. My theory is a crab monster got him.
There is a scientist here who clearly knows what’s going on, but he’s keeping it a secret.
More people are hearing disembodied voices. Are these crab monsters telepathic or something?
People keep being lured into offscreen deaths. Occasionally we see a big claw.
The crab monsters are apparently absorbing the consciousnesses of the people they kill and then can communicate using their voices through metal objects. What?
Crab monster! We get to see one in all of its glory this time. They riddled it with bullets and killed it.
Another crab monster!
They look pretty good. Much better visual effects than It Conquered the World.
The crab monsters eat brains and absorb their minds. They can also adjust their atoms so that solid objects pass through them. Their weakness is electricity for some reason. This is entirely too complicated for a giant monster movie.
I am enjoying the look of these monstrosities. Really solid design.
Underwater chase sequence!
I like the pacing of this movie. There is rarely a dull moment.
It is not clear to me how many crab monsters there are. Is it just one that keeps coming back, or are there multiple? I thought they killed one earlier, but now it seems like it survived.
The lead scientist set up an electrical device to kill it, and he accidentally electrocuted himself in the process. Whoopsie!
The crab monster is sinking most of the island into the ocean to trap the remaining humans.
Things are looking pretty bleak for the three remaining humans.
One of the humans just brought down an electrical tower onto the crab monster, and they both died. The end.
I enjoyed this one more than the last one. Much more action packed. It was a bit overly convoluted, but it was fun.
The Wasp Woman (1959)
We’ve reached the last movie on this little Roger Corman marathon. My hope based on the title is that there is a woman who is half-wasp, but the poster makes it sound more like a werewolf (werewasp?) situation. This one is also available on Amazon Prime Video if you’re in the United States.
It opens with credits playing over B-roll of bees. It looks like the intro to Candyman. Feel like they should have chosen wasps instead.
This one is in color. Nice.
We have a guy walking around in a beekeeper outfit to start things off, and he has located a hornets nest. Hornets are technically wasps, so that’s an improvement.
Now he’s checking out some beehives. Enough with the bees! This isn’t called The Bee Woman!
This is a honey company apparently. The man we were following is a scientist paid to research royal jelly, and the corporate stooge here is not happy that he’s messing around with wasps.
“What’s this nonsense about wasps?!” That’s a real quote from this movie.
They fired the scientist for spending too much time with wasps.
The scientist is now talking lovingly to the wasps. He really likes wasps.
Now we’re shifting focus to a board meeting at a cosmetics company. Sales are plummeting. I suspect the chairman of the board will end up being the titular wasp woman.
She thinks royal jelly from a queen wasp with have rejuvenating effects if they put it in their cosmetics. Not so sure about the science of that. At least the scientist is about to find some new employment.
Oh he just showed up for a meeting with her. That was quick.
Apparently he has already been working for her. To show that queen wasp royal jelly actually does work as a fountain of youth, he injected some into a guinea pig and it “de-aged” into a rat. I guess they couldn’t find a baby guinea pig to swap out?
There is a 100% chance that she’s going to inject herself with queen wasp royal jelly and turn into a wasp woman.
The other board members think the scientist is either a conman or a quack. Understandable.
A receptionist said she got a call from some creep telling her that “Dr. Cyclops is on Channel 9.” Is that a euphemism?
They’re gonna inject the chairman of the board. As it was foretold.
She has now been getting these injections for three weeks without noticeable changes. She thinks the dose should increase. What could go wrong?
She’s doing it.
It worked! You can tell she’s younger because she’s no longer wearing glasses. All of the men think she’s hot now.
One of the scientist’s test subjects (a cute kitten) now has wings and attacked him. Probably nothing to worry about.
He just straight up strangled that kitten to death.
The scientist just walked into traffic and got hit by a car? Unclear if he did so intentionally or if this was just an accident.
Now she’s hiring a private investigator to find him? Did the driver of the car kidnap him or something? I’m very confused.
There are under thirty minutes left in this movie, and I have yet to see a wasp woman.
Oh. He’s just been in the hospital from the car accident, but he’s been unconscious and has no identification on him.
She’s giving herself more injections.
One of the other board members is trying to steal his work for himself.
Wasp woman! She’s wearing some prosthetics and just murdered the sneaky board member.
Now she’s back to looking human, so it appears that this is a werewolf type situation.
I think she just killed a security guard offscreen.
More wasp woman! The makeup and prosthetics actually look pretty cool. She bites her victims on the neck like a vampire for some reason.
I wish we got some transformation shots instead of just showing her already in her wasp woman form.
She’s on a rampage!
Oh snap. They threw a bottle of acid in her face, and then she fell out of a window to her death. The end.
This was definitely the weakest of the three. All of the action was crammed into the last twenty minutes of the film, but they were a fun twenty minutes. I get the feeling that this was made in order to cash in on the success of The Fly that released the previous year.
Well that was a fun way to spend the day. For as many Roger Corman movies as I’ve seen, it feels like there are a limitless number that I haven’t. Most of them are free on various streaming services, so do yourself a favor and track some of them down so you can revel in some B-movie bliss.