Roger Corman's Shame With William Shatner
In the pantheon of directors and producers, in all the history of American cinema, very few have made contributions on the level of Roger Corman. Sure, he's primarily known as a schlockmeister, but let's not forget that he didn't just direct B movies, he defined them. Schlocky B movies were his bread and butter, how he supported his production house, and he owned that genre. Additionally, he used the money he made from these monster flicks and girly shows and used it to produce some real American classics. Shame is one of them, and belongs on your queue the next time you login to your movie download service.
Shame is a truly courageous film. It deals with the issue of racism in the south, but it did so at the dawn of the civil rights era. It was easy to make a movie about racism in the eighties or nineties. Making a movie about racism in the early sixties, that's another story entirely. Corman actually made this film in the south, in the early sixties, and he was constantly threatened and harassed by the populace of the small rural town where the film was set.
William Shatner turns in one of his finest performances as the charming villain, a political agent who has arrived in town for one purpose only: To incite racially motivated violence so as to sway the vote in favor of his segregationist employers. He enjoys doing this, and he uses his boyish good looks and innocent charm to deliver a villainous performance that really crawls under your skin.
The concept may have begun with Adolf Hitler. It seems odd that Corman would cast such a charismatic young man in such a seedy, nasty role as villain, but as Hitler made clear, you need charisma, you need charm, and you need a handsome face to sell ugly ideas. Shatner is just incredible in the film, and you can see exactly how he scams and cons the people of the small town to believe what they know in their hearts is not true.
Corman and his crew were run out of town by the local police when it became clear what sort of a film they were creating, and that it could mean trouble for segregationists. The final shots were literally filmed "on the run". As in, Corman was filming at one end of the street while a virtual lynch mob was closing in from the opposite end of the street, so Corman had to grab the shots and flee.
Corman is earning a lifetime achievement award at the Oscars in 2010, but there has been sadly little coverage of his life and times in cinema. For as much as he's contributed, Corman's Oscar is long overdue.
Yes, Corman made a name for himself as a schlockmeister, but he also directed some real American classics and he launched the careers of Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson and Martin Scorsese, to name a few. The modern cinematic landscape wouldn't be the same without Corman's incredible contributions to the industry.
If you still haven't seen any of Corman's good movies, start with this one, then check out X: The Man With The X-Ray Eyes. Yes, he made a lot of cheap monster movies, he made the sort of sci-fi flicks where you could see the zippers on the alien's suit, but he also made some true classics both in the horror and sci-fi genres, and outside of his familiar territory, and Shame is an example of what gifts the man has when he can step away from the marketable genres and really put his heart and daring into a project. - 2361
Shame is a truly courageous film. It deals with the issue of racism in the south, but it did so at the dawn of the civil rights era. It was easy to make a movie about racism in the eighties or nineties. Making a movie about racism in the early sixties, that's another story entirely. Corman actually made this film in the south, in the early sixties, and he was constantly threatened and harassed by the populace of the small rural town where the film was set.
William Shatner turns in one of his finest performances as the charming villain, a political agent who has arrived in town for one purpose only: To incite racially motivated violence so as to sway the vote in favor of his segregationist employers. He enjoys doing this, and he uses his boyish good looks and innocent charm to deliver a villainous performance that really crawls under your skin.
The concept may have begun with Adolf Hitler. It seems odd that Corman would cast such a charismatic young man in such a seedy, nasty role as villain, but as Hitler made clear, you need charisma, you need charm, and you need a handsome face to sell ugly ideas. Shatner is just incredible in the film, and you can see exactly how he scams and cons the people of the small town to believe what they know in their hearts is not true.
Corman and his crew were run out of town by the local police when it became clear what sort of a film they were creating, and that it could mean trouble for segregationists. The final shots were literally filmed "on the run". As in, Corman was filming at one end of the street while a virtual lynch mob was closing in from the opposite end of the street, so Corman had to grab the shots and flee.
Corman is earning a lifetime achievement award at the Oscars in 2010, but there has been sadly little coverage of his life and times in cinema. For as much as he's contributed, Corman's Oscar is long overdue.
Yes, Corman made a name for himself as a schlockmeister, but he also directed some real American classics and he launched the careers of Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson and Martin Scorsese, to name a few. The modern cinematic landscape wouldn't be the same without Corman's incredible contributions to the industry.
If you still haven't seen any of Corman's good movies, start with this one, then check out X: The Man With The X-Ray Eyes. Yes, he made a lot of cheap monster movies, he made the sort of sci-fi flicks where you could see the zippers on the alien's suit, but he also made some true classics both in the horror and sci-fi genres, and outside of his familiar territory, and Shame is an example of what gifts the man has when he can step away from the marketable genres and really put his heart and daring into a project. - 2361
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