Roger Corman: Blood-Sucking Vampires, Flesh-Eating Cockroaches, and Driller Killers

This fascinating "biography" is really a savvy "how to" book that belongs on the shelf of every screenwriter, aspiring producer, director, and development executive -- and everyone else who loves films and craves to know the secrets of Hollywood's most colorful mogul. I found it fun to read as a realistic "behind the scenes" glimpse of what it takes to be a profitable mogul, such as the way Corman hired young cheap "promising" talent instead of going for experience. Directors fresh out of film school reading this book, for example, can get a good feel for the mindset and financial situation of producers they interview with. Screenwriters will learn how Corman and team (Gray had been his development executive) managed to write and produce so many successful films quickly. Few books reveal the inner machinations of a successful producer so intimately. Gray, a screenwriting teacher at UCLA, has done a spectacular job of showcasing the life story of an intruiging man through more than eighty interviews and via her own experience.

I have to agree with the other five-star reviews. "Roger Corman: Blood-Sucking Vampires, Flesh-Eating Cockroaches, and Driller Killers" is the best book on the subject, the subject being the most unique American studio head in film history. Beverly Gray really paints a nuanced picture of Corman and never panders to the fans, the haters, or her old boss Corman himself. Though it's impossible to pull back the curtains entirely and see into a man's soul, Gray seems to have at least pulled back one side, giving us as much a glimpse as is possible without telepathy. Storywise, Corman is, as always, fascinating, and Gray's perfectly detailed retelling of his story is the best yet written.

I really enjoyed Beverly Gray's new book, Roger Corman, An Unauthorized Biography of the Godfather of Indie Filmmaking. The story is exhaustively documented and chockfull of interesting tidbits. It is written in an easygoing, readable style and offers a fascinating look at the world of moviemaking.

Roger Corman is a Hollywood movie making legend in his own lifetime. What is sometimes overlooked is that he was also responsible for launching the film making careers of such luminaries as Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, John Sayles, James Cameron, Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, and Sylvester Stallone. Roger Corman: An Unauthorized Biography Of The Godfather Of Indie Filmmaking is the thorough, informative, illuminating, at times inspiring life of a unique, one-of-a-kind film directors who has fifty low-budget movies to his credit, and who has producers almost five hundred more! This is one well-written, meticulously researched Hollywood biography that is a "must read" for all movie fans, film buffs, and show business historians.

Usually, these unauthorized bios of entertainment industry figures are either slick, superficial rehashes of newspaper articles cobbled together by pseudo-writers or vicious hack-jobs by bitter ex-employees out for blood. Not this one. Beverly Gray's book is a wonderfully written, methodically researched, indepth look at a movie-making legend, written by an ex-employee who manages to portray her former boss with warmth, wit and surprising objectivity. Gray's background in academia really comes through, not in the dry, textbook writing usually associated with scholars, but in the intelligence and smoothness of her prose. This book is as educational as it is entertaining, marked by exceptional reporting and insightful anecdotes from her first-hand experience as Corman's right-hand woman. You'll learn far more about Roger Corman from her book than the one he wrote about himself. Highly recommended for anyone interested in movie-making...and the business behind the business.