Top Ten Corman – Part Four, Connections with Australia - FilmInk

by Stephen Vagg

Roger Corman had a lot of fans in Australia, to put it mildly, and his movies did well here, so far as I can gather, but if truth be told, he didn’t have a lot do with the country, at least not in terms of making films. He did have a little, enough to compile this top ten, but I am aware some of these are stretching it. Still, this is an Australian film magazine so here we go…

He planned to make She here

In 1958, Corman announced that he would direct a version of H Rider Haggard’s novel She in Australia the following year for AIP, in collaboration with Ray Films, an independent distributor based in Sydney headed by Ray Rushmer. This sounds odd – particularly a proposed budget of $750,000 – although there was a little bit of Hollywood activity in Australia at the time (On the Beach, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, The Siege of Pinchgut). I get the feeling that Corman mostly made this announcement in order to claim a ‘round-the-world trip he took at this time as a tax deductible expense – he also announced films to be shot in Singapore, Hong Kong  and India, none of which were made, but, I’ve got to say,  maybe it was genuine – She, the femme driven fantasy, would have been a natural for Corman.

Ignoring Aussies in Von Richthofen and Brown (1971)

Corman’s last film as director for nearly two decades was a biopic of The Red Baron, focusing on his conflict with pilot Don Brown who, in Roger’s version, shot down the German air ace… ignoring the beloved claim that it was actually Aussie soldiers on the ground! Boo! Ah, look, I get it. And it’s not a bad movie. Just a shame that he couldn’t have given the film to some aspiring Aussie filmmakers and had them add fifteen more minutes to make it Von Richthofen and Brown and Some Aussies on the Ground. I’m only 65% joking about that.

Michael Hutchence in Frankenstein Unbound (1990)

Corman’s last feature film as director was this gothic horror that no one really likes, but it does star Aussie singer Michael Hutchence as Percy Shelley, during that brief period when the INXS front man was into acting (eg Dogs in Space).

New World releases Breaker Morant (1980)

Corman’s New World Pictures gained fame for distributing arty foreign films in the ‘70s and early ‘80s – works from Bergman, Truffaut and so on. They picked up the Bruce Beresford-directed Breaker Morant and it became New World’s most successful foreign film ever, earning $5 million in rentals and receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Film. Beresford says that every important Hollywood executive saw it, and the film launched his Hollywood career. I’m surprised that New World didn’t release more Aussie stuff in the late ‘70s… maybe it wasn’t quite trashy enough or arty enough. I’m also guessing Corman didn’t offer a lot of $$$.

The Cars that Ate Paris (1974) inspires Death Race 2000 (1975)

This early Peter Weir feature was seen by Roger Corman in Cannes, who announced that he had bought it for US distribution, but then seemingly changed his mind and the film wound up being released in the US, not very widely, by New Line. It’s been claimed that Corman’s Death Race 2000 borrows ideas from Cars, particularly production design. Possible. The films – both excellent – are years apart in terms of tone, attitude and fun.

Manu Bennett stars in Death Race 2050 (2017)

Manu Bennett, star of Corman’s not particularly memorable Death Race 2050, was actually an Aussie – he started his car as Jon Bennett and had a number of roles here, including a long stint on 1990s Gold Coast soapie and Tony Hayes’ launchpad, Paradise Beach.

George Lazenby pops up in Saint Jack (1979)

One of the best movies Corman ever produced was this Peter Bogdanovich effort, a fascinating drama about a brothel owner in Singapore. Australia’s own George Lazenby pops up in the third act as an American senator who is (SPOILERS) cruising for gay sex. I’ve never been able to discover how on earth Lazenby wound up in this film – it may have been his recent casting on US television in Evening in Byzantium or Hawaii Five-O. It’s one of the best things – if not the best thing – Lazenby ever did outside of Bond, as well as one of the best movies Corman, Bogdanovich and Hugh Hefner (who co financed) ever made.

Richard Norton in Raiders of the Sun (1992)

Another Aussie turns up in a Corman film, in this case, action man Richard Norton, the post-apocalyptic Raiders of the Sun, the sort of movie that’s available on Tubi. On the topic of the apocalypse, Corman also had money in the New Zealand shot classic Battletruck (1982).

Corman features heavily in Machete Maidens Unleashed (2010) [main image of Corman is from the doco]

Oz-made doco from Mark Hartley about the Philippines film boom in the ‘70s, much of it driven by Corman. Made with love and affection, it’s great fun.

Antony I. Ginnane as Australia’s Roger Corman

Prolific film producer Ginnane was sometimes classed as Australia’s Roger Corman. He had a similar fondness for low budget genre (contrary to his own tastes) and dislike of unions, and made films that were key early works from major filmmakers (Simon Wincer, Richard Franklin, Rolf de Heer). Ginnane wasn’t a director, apart from Sympathy of Summer (1969) – he’s closer to being Australia’s Robert Lippert – but he’s probably the closest to the title (although some make this claim for Brian Trenchard-Smith).