Roger Corman, PIRANHA, PIRNHA 3D, and MEGA PIRANHA (film comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

[Philip De Parto]

The following commentary is reprinted with permission from

THE MT VOID
04/24/26 -- Vol. 44, No. 43, Whole Number 2429

= = = = = = = = = =

Roger Corman, PIRANHA, PIRNHA 3D, and MEGA PIRANHA (film
comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

This started as a review of ROGER CORMAN: THE POPE OF POP CINEMA
(2021), a documentary about Roger Corman, but it turned into more
than just that.

Let me start by saying that Roger Corman didn't make great films,
but Roger Corman made great filmmakers.

This is not to say that his films aren't enjoyable, but he didn't
make films like THE GODFATHER, or TAXI DRIVER, or APOLLO 13, or
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, or TITANIC. Those were done by Francis
Ford Coppola, and Martin Scorsese, and Ron Howard, and Jonathan
Demme, and James Cameron--all of whom got their start as directors
under Roger Corman.

If you want to see their directorial debuts under Corman, these
are DEMENTIA 13 (Francis Ford Coppola), BOXCAR BERTHA (Martin
Scorsese), GRAND THEFT AUTO (Ron Howard), CAGED HEAT (Jonathan
Demme), and PIRANHA II (James Cameron).

Not to mention John Sayles, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Gale Ann
Hurd, Robert Towne, and Talia Shire, who got starts as writers,
actors, and producers.

And Ron Howard relates what Corman told them (or at least him):
"If you do a good job you'll never have to work for me again."

One well-known director (I cannot recall which one) noted that a
big difference in a Corman set and a Hollywood studio set of the
time was that on a Hollywood studio set you might see two or three
women working "behind the camera" (as crew or staff rather than as
actors). On a Corman set it was closer to half-and-half (although
the crew was much smaller than a Hollywood studio film would have.

(I'm not sure that's entirely accurate. Some study seemed to show
that when presented with a large group of people, an observer
tended to see their "group"--men, whites, short people, etc.--as
being a smaller percentage than they actually were. This was true
the one time I tested it. Someone (male) at a computer conference
said that about half the attendees were women. I went back and
counted through the list of attendees; if I recall correctly, it
was closer to a third, or perhaps less. Well, it was thirty years
ago; my memory isn't perfect.)

Anyway, back to Corman. The stories of how he made such films as
THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (shot in two days with sets left over
from A BUCKET OF BLOOD), DEMENTIA 13 (shot using cast and sets
left over from THE YOUNG RACERS), TARGETS (using stock footage
from THE TERROR and two days of shooting with Boris Karloff, who
owed Corman another two days on his contract from THE TERROR), and
HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD (which used footage from many previous Corman
films) are both amusing and enlightening. (Robert Rodriguez didn't
work with Corman, but his "10-Minute Film School" extras on his
DVDs give an idea of how Corman worked.)

If you get the impression that Corman believed in "Use it up, wear
it out, make it do, or do without," you're on the money. One of
the jokes in an episode of "Mystery Science 3000" for a Roger
Corman was that the fur piece on one of the actresses was Corman's
poodle that had died: "He re-uses everything!" But it was to a
great extent true. When mark and I were first in California, we
went over the Christmas holidays to a Roger Corman/Edgar Allan Poe
quintuple feature in an old San Jose theater. I can't recall
exactly the films; they were five of the non-anthology Poe films
(HOUSE OF USHER, THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM, THE PREMATURE BURIAL,
THE RAVEN, THE HAUNTED PALACE, THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, and
THE TOMB OF LIGEIA). At any rate two things stick out. First, at
least four of them had the same wine glasses and wall
sconces--hence why I say Corman did re-use everything. And second,
in between the films they played Jose Feliciano singing "Feliz
Navidad" over the speakers. That song is indelibly linked with
Corman-Poe films in my mind.

(One of the IMDb's trivia points for THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS
was: "Howard R. Cohen learned from Charles B. Griffith that when
the film was being edited, 'there was a point where two scenes
would not cut together. It was just a visual jolt, and it didn't
work. And they needed something to bridge that moment. They found,
in the editing room, a nice shot of the moon, they cut it in, and
it worked. Twenty years go by. I'm at the studio one day. Chuck
comes running up to me and says, "You've got to see this!" It was
a magazine article--eight pages on the symbolism of the moon in
THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS.")

Corman's films were also successful; THE WILD ANGELS made $23,000
in one day at one drive-in, breaking all records there, even of
major Hollywood films. THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS became a stage
musical and was later re-made. Corman also made money from selling
THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS and DEATH RACE 2000 names to what became
successful franchises. And Vincent Canby of the New York Times
said in his review of JAWS, "What is JAWS but a big-budget Roger
Corman film?" Alas, Corman didn't make any money off that one, but
he did make a low-budget rip-off, PIRANHA, which had a sequel and
a remake, which in turn had two more sequels. See my comments
below.

ROGER CORMAN: THE POPE OF POP CINEMA is highly recommended, as is
Corman's memoir HOW I MADE 100 MOVIES AND NEVER LOST A DIME,
although in the documentary he does admit to losing money on THE
INTRUDER, a 1962 film about race relations shot in southeastern
Mississippi. The crew had been getting death threats and the last
scene, a KKK rally, was shot at night after the crew had checked
out of the motel and loaded everything on their cars and trucks.
As soon as they finished shooting, they jumped in the cars, and
drove straight through to St. Louis without stopping. What Corman
didn't mention was who the star was: William Shatner.

Released in France 19 January 2021.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14046398/reference>


THE BEAST WITH A MILLION EYES (1955): THE BEAST WITH A MILLION
EYES has a great credit sequence artwork and fantastic music. So
far as I can tell from various sites, Paul Julian did the artwork,
but was uncredited. The music was by Shostakovich, Prokofiev,
Verdi, Wagner, and other notables, and is far too high quality,
not to say too over-dramatic, for this film. The art direction was
by Albert S. Ruddy, who went on to win two Academy Awards (for
producing THE GODFATHER and MILLION DOLLAR BABY). There's a lot of
voice-over, and of dialogue from off-screen characters or those
facing away from the screen.

What's the explanation?

Corman had a contract to do four films for $100,000 each, but by
the time he got to THE BEAST WITH A MILLION EYES, he had only
$29,000 left. So the music was all public domain record library
cues of classical music. The film was shot non-union. This was
Ruddy's only film as art director. The dialogue was done in such a
way that for a lot of the post-production looping, they didn't
have to worry about matching the lips.

It gets a 3.8/10 in the IMDb, which puts it ahead of MEGA PIRANHA
(see below).

Released theatrically 15 June 1955.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048991/reference>

What others are saying:
<https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_beast_with_a_million_eyes>


And then I watched PIRANHA (1978) twice, once with commentary,
PIRANHA (2010) twice, again once with commentary, and MEGA PIRANHA
(2010). PIRANHA (2010) was originally called PIRANHA 3D, was shot
in 3D, and was a reboot of PIRANHA (1978), while MEGA PIRANHA
(2010) was an Asylum film. For those unfamiliar with Asylum Films,
they are an independent studio who makes low-budget "mockbusters"
that copy major studio releases, and beat them to the theaters.
MEGA PIRANHA was released four months before PIRANHA (2010). Other
examples are in 2005 when Steven Spielberg released his version of
WAR OF THE WORLDS, they released H. G. WELLS' WAR OF THE WORLDS,
and they also did SNAKES ON A TRAIN and THE DA VINCI TREASURE in
the appropriate years.

(The DVD release of PIRANHA 3D was not in 3D, and was labeled just
"PIRANHA" on the case, the physical DVD, and the film itself.)

Anyway, Corman's 1978 PIRANHA was a lot of fun, along with being
very gory--although the gore was tempered by the low budget, so it
was mostly red bubbly water, or rather fuzzy shots of carnage. The
2010 authorized remake took itself more seriously and had a bigger
budget, so the gore was more graphic, but the humor just wasn't
there. Instead there were a lot of mammary glands and buttocks in
motion to fill the time. (And I'm sure in 3D they were
impressive.) It was the first to postulate a giant piranha. MEGA
PIRANHA picked up on this idea and ran (or swam) with it. As an
example of their production values, the geographic coordinates one
character gives for the piranha in Venezuela actually point to
Quebec. And as evidence of the quality of the film, it gets a
2.4/10 in the IMDb.

My recommendation is to watch the Corman classic and skip the
remakes, sequels, and rip-offs.

PIRANHA (1978):

Released theatrically 03 August 1978.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078087/reference>


PIRANHA 3D (2010):

Released theatrically 20 August 2010.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0464154/reference>

What others are saying:
<https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/piranha_3d>

MEGA PIRANHA (2011):

Released theatrically 10 April 2010.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1587807/reference>

What others are saying:
<https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mega_piranha>


[-ecl]