ROGER CORMAN (April 5th, 1926 – May 9th, 2024) – Many words have already been said about the passing of this film industry legend and I’m sure many, many more are yet to be said. From the 1950s to the current year – and with projects still in production – Roger William Corman was a Hollywood fixture.
I’m in no way qualified to give a comprehensive overview of the impact of this entrepreneur or his influence on some of the biggest directors, producers and actors in American cinema. Most people at first think you’re exaggerating when you mention the exhaustive list of people who figuratively learned at the knee of this Grand Old Man or who were given their first shot via a Corman Production. Often in one of his B movies!
Roger was never known as someone who lacked talent, he was just in it for the money most of the time, and therefore kept his budgets tight and his schedules tighter. From 50s monster movies to Raging Youth films to whatever horror trends were ascendant to big-screen soap operas that could be more explicit with their content, Roger Corman was there, raking in bucks and working with future giants of the industry.
Francis Ford Coppola, John Carpenter, John Sayles, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Joe Dante and countless others got some of their earliest directing experiences on Corman productions. Screenwriters like Robert Towne got early “real industry work”, as did actors like Jack Nicholson, Sally Kirkland, Bruce Dern, Sylvester Stallone, Pam Grier, Peter Fonda, etc. When you watch just about any theatrical release from America made over the last several decades the chances are at least one of the professionals involved got their start working on a Corman picture. Continue reading
BATTLE ROYAL – The WARNER UNIVERSITY ROYALS clashed with the WEBBER INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY WARRIORS. 
AND AT THE OTHER EXTREME … – The THOMAS UNIVERSITY NIGHTHAWKS were anti-drama in their game against the REINHARDT UNIVERSITY EAGLES (should be the Rottweilers). 
This weekend’s light-hearted and escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog is a Double Feature. The main event is a look at the early adventures of Marvel’s neglected hero El Aguila (the Eagle). 
EL AGUILA 
Through trial and error, Alejandro found that long, slender metal objects were the best conductors for his bioelectricity and gave him the most accuracy with his energy blasts. He began using a sword through which to shoot his rays but to conceal his mutant nature publicly pretended his swords contained micro-generators that accounted for the rays he projected. 
THE VIOLET FLAME (1899) – Here is another of the science fiction works written by THE Frederick Thomas Jane, of Jane’s Guides fame. Previously, Balladeer’s Blog reviewed Jane’s works 
FRANCOIS VILLON PART SEVEN – We pick up this time in 1460, as Villon’s roaming career as a highwayman and armed burglar among the Coquillards was fast approaching its end, though the poet seems not to have realized it. None of his poetry from 1458 and 1459 has survived, unfortunately.
GAME ONE – The MILLIGAN UNIVERSITY BUFFALOES took on the LIFE UNIVERSITY RUNNING EAGLES. 
I will add my own note to anti-Trump psychopaths like this – Try reading a little bit of history and/or stop trying to self-aggrandize by pretending that your irrational and unhinged remarks about Trump are somehow equal to fighting Hitler. Deniro would likely be fearfully hiding from the real Hitler or helping him round up victims. Gutless phony. Deniro forgets that he lives in a pathetic world of make-believe, and his lips would be trembling and his eyes welling up with tears in any REAL LIFE conflict. 
It’s been years since Balladeer’s Blog tried a post like this. I’ve had a few people saying I should weigh in on a certain situation but I’ve been maintaining that said situation is way too “Inside Baseball” for anyone to care. Hell, I’m barely interested in it myself. 
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