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The American International Pictures Video Guide

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The American International Pictures Video Guide The American International Pictures Video Guide The American International Pictures Video Guide GARY A. SMITH Foreword by Mark McGee McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London ALSO BY GARY A. SMITH Uneasy Dreams: The Golden Age of British Horror Films, 1956–1976 (McFarland, 2000; paperback 2006) Epic Films: Casts, Credits and Commentary on Over 350 Historical Spectacle Movies, 2d ed. (McFarland, 2004; paperback 2009; 1st ed. 1991) Frontispiece: Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Smith, Gary A. The American International Pictures video guide / Gary A. Smith ; foreword by Mark McGee. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7864-3309-4 illustrated case binding: 50# alkaline paper 1. American International Pictures (Firm)—Catalogs. 2. Motion pictures—United States—Catalogs. 3. American International Pictures (Firm)—History. I. Title. PN1999.A6S65 2009 791.430973—dc22 2008055592 British Library cataloguing data are available ©2009 Gary A. Smith. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. On the cover: Poster for Dragstrip Girl (¡957) ©American International Pictures Manufactured in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 611, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com Dedicated to the memory of Tippi, 1988–2008 Acknowledgments Heartfelt thanks to my dear friends Mark McGee, Lucy Chase Williams, Howard Mandlebaum at Photofest, and Mike Mariano. And, most important of all, special thanks to my partner Michael Hirschbein for his love and encouragement. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgments vi Foreword by Mark McGee 1 Introduction 3 THE FILMS 9 Appendix 1: American International Television 175 Appendix 2: The Unfilmed AIP 185 Appendix 3: Prepackaged Features 191 Appendix 4: Title Changes 195 Appendix 5: AIP Comic Books and Paperback Novel Tie-Ins 198 Bibliography 201 Index 203 vii This page intentionally left blank Foreword I have been waiting for someone to write this book for a long time, and I was delighted that Gary Smith was the one to finally do it. His won- derful Epic Films was not only great fun but was most helpful to me when I was writing my own book on American International. That book was a history of the company, and this one is a history of their product. It’s a perfect companion piece, written by someone who loves and knows his subject. In other words, he’s done his homework. As ridiculous and as impossible as it sounds, he has actually seen each and every film he writes about from start to finish, often more than once! If there’s more than one version of the same title, he’s seen them both. Night after night, stone cold sober and for months on end he’s been watching these pictures and record- ing his thoughts. And as anyone could have told him (and he was warned many times, so don’t feel too sorry for him), it is my unhappy duty to report that it finally took its toll. It was, I believe, either Dragstrip Girl or She-Gods of Shark Reef that left him in a state of catatonic shock, and Gary is now in a home for the criminally insane. Better him than you, right? Mark McGee January 2009 Los Angeles Mark McGee is the author of Faster and Furiouser: The Revised and Fattened Fable of American International Pictures (McFarland, 1996). 1 This page intentionally left blank Introduction “Since its shoestring inception in 1954, American International Pictures has brought forth one unforgettable title—I Was a Teenage Werewolf—and some 180 forgettable, trivial, mindless and relatively innocent entertain- ments like I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, House of Usher, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, Bikini Beach, Muscle Beach Party, and Ski Party. None of these atrocities sounds innocent, but they were” (Newsweek, August 1966). “American International Pictures”: for a generation of baby boomers, the frequently changing logo on the front of a film usually elicited one of two responses: a shout of joy The American International logo in anticipation of the outlandish experience about to unfold on the screen or a groan of agony at the prospect of yet another cheesy low- brow production. It all depended on your point of view ... and it still does. The story of AIP has often been told, most notably in Mark McGee’s book Fast and Furious: The Story of American International Pictures. In short, AIP was the brainchild of two men: James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff. Nicholson was the general sales manager for Realart Pictures. Arkoff was a lawyer whose client, producer Alex Gordon, wanted to get one of his pictures distributed through Realart. Sam met Jim and, as they say, the rest is history. The two men formed American Releasing Corporation in 1954 with Nicholson as president and Arkoff as vice president. The first film they picked up for distribution was The Fast and the Furious (1954), produced by a young man named Roger Corman. The film was successful enough to encourage Nicholson and Arkoff to plan eight features, the first of which, Five Guns West (1955), marked Corman’s directorial debut. He would continue to work with AIP for the next fifteen years, directing some of their most memorable movies. On March 20, 1955, Nicholson addressed the members of Northern Central Allied Independent Exhibitors at their annual convention in Pittsburgh. In his speech he discussed the formation of American Releasing Corporation and the success of The Fast and the Furi- ous. Their second film, Five Guns West, was just about to be released and their third picture, The Beast with a Million Eyes was going to start shooting the following week. In May they would begin filming Apache Woman. He went on to say: “Later in the year we will release One Mile Below, Jungle Queen, Johnny Big Gun, and Day the World Ended ... all pictures which 3 4 Introduction the Exhibitor faction of American Releasing will book with the feeling that they will make a profit at the box office.” Nicholson was the idea man. He came up with a title, commissioned a poster to be made, and sent the artwork out to exhibitors before the filming had even started. This way, if there was no interest, there would be no movie. ARC’s first sci-fi-horror movie, The Beast with a Million Eyes (1955), was developed using this strategy. Theatre owners may have been disappointed that the many-eyed beast pictured on the poster somehow never made it into the film but the movie earned a respectable amount of money nevertheless. Nicholson and Arkoff soon realized that single features were not going to be as profitable for them as pre- packaged double bills. Their first double feature was to be Day the World Ended and The Phan- tom from 10,000 Leagues. The screenplays for both were written by Sam Arkoff’s brother-in-law Lou Rusoff. ARC put most of their resources into Day the World Ended, directed by Roger Corman in a widescreen process called SuperScope. They had also planned to make the picture in color but the budget wouldn’t allow it. With little money left over to finance the co-feature, Nicholson and Arkoff entrusted the making of The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues to brothers Jack and Dan Milner. The combo opened in January 1956 to huge box office returns. A month after its opening, ARC had to increase their regular print order by 100 to keep up with the bookings they had contracted. Producer Herman Cohen at the entrance to Ziv Studios, where an “American Interna- tional Studios” sign has been temporarily erected for use in scenes in Cohen’s How to Make a Monster. Introduction 5 In March 1956, Jim and Sam decided to give ARC the more expansive name of Amer- ican International Pictures. They continued to use the same formula which had become so successful for them. Once again Nicholson addressed the Exhibitors, saying: “Most of us here at American International are former exhibitors ... in fact, some of us still are. We know there has been talk about more product ... but with each announcement less pic- tures are actually made. We are not talking ... we are making pictures ... pictures which we feel have merit at the box office and can produce a profit for the exhibitor. This is our pol- icy.” As it was, most of these films were long on imagination but short on cash and aimed at the movie-going youth market. The first of their teenage horror pictures was I Was a Teenage Werewolf in 1957. Herman Cohen came to AIP with the idea of making a werewolf movie and Nicholson provided the title. Shot in seven days with a budget of $125,000, the picture went on to make over $2 million in less than a year. Although vilified by parents’ organizations and in the press, I Was a Teenage Werewolf showed Hollywood that AIP, the self-proclaimed “Infant of the Industry,” was a force to be reckoned with. Dr. Fredric Wertham, a psychiatrist who successfully engineered the demise of the “Horror Comics” in the early Fifties, now turned his misguided attention to movies. AIP’s horror films in particular were accused by Dr. Wertham of making “the average U.S. child indifferent to human suffering” and contributing to “the rise of crime by the young.” New York Times writer Richard W.
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