Runtime: 75 minutes
Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: William Campbell, Luana Anders, Bart Patton, Mary Mitchel, Patrick Magee
From: AIP
RIP Roger Corman
Like everyone else (well, except Paul Schrader but that’s not dwell on that) I was saddened to hear that he passed away at the age of 98. The fact that less than 6 weeks ago he was at that private screening of Coppola’s Megalopolis where Francis Ford was attempting to find distribution for his movie made the news surprising when I saw interviews w/ him in recent years and he was rather spry for his age. It is incalculable the impact he had on more than one generation of Hollywood with the number of legends & names who worked for him… everyone from Coppola, Jack Nicholson & De Niro to James Cameron, Bogdanovich and Jonathan Demme. It’s a shame that even with Hollywood’s numerous differences since the 60’s and 70’s, there’s no producer like Corman who can help nurture young talent to pay their dues before they made films with the big studios.
Out of all the films I could have chosen, Dementia 13 was chosen not just as an example of him giving Francis Ford a big break but it’s a film I had previously seen years before joining Letterboxd. Coppola worked for Corman for awhile and was in Ireland to assist in his directing 1963’s The Young Racers. Roger was famous for not wasting a nickel during production and was happy to make more than one movie with many if not all of the same set, actors & crew. Corman had money left over from The Young Racers and tasked FFC with creating a Psycho riff. With only a few days, a script was written and while there is stilted dialogue, the overall effort was still a fine 75-minute feature.
Louise is with her husband John in a rowboat. He has a bad heart so he dies of a heart attack after a dispute over his mother’s will. As Louise won’t receive a nickel if he dies first--she forges a letter saying he can’t make it to the annual ceremony of his young sister’s death at a castle in Ireland. She attends and has a scheme to acquire the family fortune but what misfortune that someone with an axe is about…
If given more time, Dementia 13 stood a satisfactory chance of being a better movie. As is, even as a rushed movie where some plot beats suddenly materialized, the movie had decent Gothic atmosphere (filming at an actual Irish castle was an asset) and I was engaged w/ the story, as predictable as it was in my opinion. For the record, I saw the original 75-minute cut that played in places like drive-ins across the United States rather than the shorter director’s cut that Coppola created (as he’s wont to do) several years ago.
Since I’ve been on Letterboxd I’ve viewed more than a few productions that involved Corman, whether it be as director or producer. I’ll be happy to do the same in the future. I do feel bad for Coppola that he loses the man who brought him into the industry soon after his wife (who apparently he met on the set of this film) dies. Also expect some FFC reviews later in the year, including hopefully Megalopolis.
No comments:
Post a Comment