In 1955, Roger Corman was a young independent producer with a couple cheap pictures under his belt: Highway Dragnet (1954) and The Fast And The Furious (1955). The latter, a low-budget crime picture starring John Ireland (who also directed) and Dorothy Malone, wound up being the first film released by American Releasing, run by Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson — a company that would evolve into American International Pictures.
American popular culture would never be the same.
Roger Corman: “The early days at American Releasing were pretty hectic. You always found yourself with no time and no money and a movie to shoot.”
Part of Corman’s arrangement with American Releasing was that The Fast And The Furious would become the first release of a three-picture deal. This deal made sure Corman had money to put into his next film, which turned out to be Five Guns West (1955).
Corman: “Although I had some advance money from AIP, the picture was financed primarily with my money.”
Going into this next one, the young producer wanted to try his hand at something else.
Corman: “After The Fast And The Furious, I felt I was ready to direct… I had been on the lot at Fox and seen how it was done in the big time. I had seen my two little pictures being made. And I did set up a few shot that one day on the beach… I had shot a one-day short subject… I felt, I can do this. If a young man came to me today with similar credentials there’s no way I’d hire him.”
Samuel Z. Arkoff: “He almost had to direct and produce to be able to get on the screen in a short period of time with the amount of money available. If he hadn’t been his own director, he couldn’t possibly have made them so fast. If he hadn’t been his own producer, he wouldn’t have known what he as the director wanted.”
Corman: “The story for Five Guns West was mine, but the structure and screenplay were Bob Campbell’s… Our collaboration became a model for countless future films: We discussed my idea and built a story structure. He wrote, we honed it together, and then I directed from the screenplay. I gave myself a nine-day shooting schedule and a $60,000 budget.”
The picture plays like a Civil War variation on The Dirty Dozen (1967). A group of Confederate prisoners are offered pardons for carrying out a dangerous mission, to journey across Indian Territory to find a Union gold shipment — and a Confederate traitor. Much of the action takes place at a way station, as the prisoners turn on their commander (John Lund) and try to have their way with Dorothy Malone.
Corman: “I only had the five men plus a few minor speaking parts… I offered John Lund and Dorothy Malone as much as I could and hired a young, rugged newcomer named Touch Connors. He later changed his name to Mike and became a TV star on Mannix.”
Mike Connors: “Roger was one of the few people around who gave inexperienced actors a chance. I got, I think, $400. But just working was a great thrill.”
The cast also included two actors who’d go on to memorable parts in other Corman films: Paul Lund, so effective as the alien in Not Of This Earth (1957), and Jonathan Haze (whose name is misspelled in the titles), Seymour in the three-day masterpiece Little Shop Of Horrors (1960). Writer R. Wright Campbell also wrote a part for himself.
Corman: “I was nervous, but I never doubted that I could pull it off. The film was almost all exteriors and I decided to shoot in the parched, rocky terrain at Iverson’s Ranch, on the far side of the San Fernando Valley near Chatsworth… I was also planning to shoot at Ingram’s Ranch, owned by cowboy actor Jack Ingram, because he had built a Western town there.”
Along with his ranch, Jack Ingram himself appears in the film.
Corman: “I had planned everything. Then I awoke on the first day of shooting and drove to the location through an incredible torrent of rain. This wasn’t possible. My first day! I hadn’t even started and I was already behind schedule! I got so worked up and tense that I pulled off the road and threw up. Then I just leaned against my car in the rain and pulled myself together. I made it to Iverson’s and after about an hour’s wait the rain stopped.”
Puddles of water and muddy boots can be clearly seen in the Iverson scenes. Part of the crew trudging around in the rain that day was Oscar-winning cinematographer Floyd D. Crosby, who’d won a Golden Globe for his work on High Noon (1951).
Floyd Crosby: “He needed a lot less coaching than a lot of other young directors. He knew what he wanted, he worked fast, and it was fun. Suddenly we were a team.”
This collaboration would result in excellent, and excellent-looking, pictures like Pit And The Pendulum (1961) and Tales Of Terror (1964). Eventually, Crosby worked on other films, for other directors, at AIP.
Corman: “He was a rarity. He worked fast, which is important to me, and yet his stuff was always good. No matter how fast I moved, Floyd kept right up, and he could light a setup in 10–15 minutes flat, or even faster if need be, and we’d go. That’s unusual—lots of people are fast, but you don’t want to see the results. With Floyd, you didn’t have that problem. Plus, he knew how to set up these really complicated dolly shots quickly. He was the best, and working with him was always a pleasure, professionally and personally.”
Making this first one, however, doesn’t sound like a pleasure at all. For starters, they worked 10-hour days.
Corman: “I’d shoot in the morning and then sit by myself with my eyes closed during our lunch break. I’d just sit there and envision the possible difficulties of the afternoon’s shooting. Throughout the film, I tried to do things like not collapse in front of the cast and crew.”
“After the first week went by and nothing awful happened, I felt a little less petrified. From that experience, I learned that all first-time directors are nervous. If they’re not, then they don’t have the artistry, creativity or sensitivity to be in this business.”
It’s hard to pull off a ride through Indian Territory when you’re got a cast of less than a dozen people. Here’s how Roger tackled it.
“I went to a stock footage library and bought what I needed for the Indians scenes. An audience sees a shot of Indians riding on horseback through the dust — who knows what film that actually came from? A soldier looks through binoculars from a hilltop — then I cut to the stock shot of 500 Indians racing by on horseback. “Okay, fellas,” he says, “the Indians are over there. Let’s head over there!” That was by far the cheapest way for them to travel through Indian Territory.”
Five Guns West stands as a pretty typical ultracheap 50s Western. Actually, it rises above its minimal budget fairly well. Some clumsy camera moves and under-choreographed fights show just how fast they were working. The performances from Lund and Malone are fine, while Connors, Haze and the others try a bit too hard. It was billed as being in “Wide Screen Color” — nothing more than Pathécolor and a 1.85 cropping.
But when you put Five Guns West up against later Corman films, it’s interesting that depending on the budget, cast and schedule—his direction is sometimes worse. Once you’ve seen Ski Troop Attack and Atlas (both 1960), his directorial debut plays like The Magnificent Ambersons.
Corman: “The pace never let up. Before Five Guns West came out, for example, I was already involved with Apache Woman, a Western they created and asked me to produce and direct from a completed script. It cost a little under $80,000.”
Corman: “I did four Westerns, all distributed by AIP. Two of them were my ideas and two were AIP’s ideas — the titles alone will tell you which were which. The two that were my ideas were Five Guns West and Gunslinger (1956). The two that were AIP’s ideas were Apache Woman and The Oklahoma Woman (both 1955).”
And while the budgets and schedules certainly got better, that’s pretty much the way Roger Corman’s directorial career continued.
Corman: “I think if I had been unemployed longer between films, I could have sat and thought a little bit about what I was doing.”
SOURCES: Roger Corman (with Jim Jerome): How I Made A Hundred Movies In Hollywood And Never Lost A Dime; Wheeler Winston Dixon: Collected Interviews: Voices From Twentieth-Century Cinema; Ed Naha: The Films Of Roger Corman; and J. Philip di Franco: The Movie World Of Roger Corman.
NOTE: A previous Corman post appeared on this blog: Gunslinger. More on the Roger Corman Blogathon here.
Toby,
WOW! This is my first introduction to your blog and I’m just sorry it took so long to find it and your fantastic writing.
I’m glad you chose an early Corman film and another one I haven’t seen then it being a ‘western’ I was anxious to see RC’s interpretation.
Your addition of RC’s comments throughout along with your well researched review was a fun read. Consider me a fan!
Well Done,
Page
Glad that you finally got your review up! These are the kind of articles that I can really sink my teeth into. I wish that you could have gone a little more in depth about the actual plot, but reading about the production hijinks was a pleasure enough!
This was definitely an early Corman and you can see the kinks in his skills shine through. But it was a valiant first effort…and one of his rare early films that stands up by today’s standards.
I want to personally thank you for participating in this blogathon! It was an honor to have you writing with us! It’s a shame that you’re blog is devoted strictly to 50s Westerns…I don’t think that any of our future blogathons will have opportunities for you to contribute! And that’s a shame! I don’t want to lose your voice!
Also, don’t forget to vote for the Readers’ Choice Award on Monday and to vote for the topic of our next blogathon by voting at the poll on my site’s home page.
Thanks for the kind words. Sorry it took me so long to get it finished and posted. Happened upon some extra material at the last minute.
I have a particular opinion about plots and synopses. I like enough to remind me what a film is about, or give me a working knowledge so the rest of the review/article/post will make sense. Beyond that, I feel like I’m either screwing it up for those who haven’t seen it, or boring people to death who have. It’s a fine line, and maybe I didn’t go far enough.
With some of my favorite film makers, I’d be happy to go beyond my current focus on 50s Westerns. Glad you’d like to have me do more.
Toby, I’ll bet if I had any question about any western, you would probably know the answer! My Corman knowledge is based mainly upon his horror flicks, the silly, fun bug movies, and especially his Poe movies with Vincent Price. I haven’t seen any of his westerns. Your article is really about the making of the movie, and I too would like to have known more about the plot. However, it is a unique way to show the behind-the-scenes history and thoughts about the film. I enjoyed it very much!
I’ve only seen out of Corman’s westerns Gunslinger>/b> (Beverly Garland as a sheriff? Try keeping me from watching it!) so I’m not as up to speed on Rog’s contributions to the genre as I should be. But hey, if Jack Ingram is in this deal me in–and since you mentioned the movie’s similarity to The Dirty Dozen I’m pretty much up to speed as to what the plot will be about. (Rog must have like the idea a lot because he also made The Secret Invasion, which predated Dozen by three years.) Splendid review, my friend…
Gunslinger is the best, I think, largely because of Beverly Garland. She’s (always) terrific, and does more for most films than they do for her.
The others certainly have their charm, but they’re really not very good.
Great read. Thanks. I’ve seen Apache Woman, but I’ve had this one in my Netflix Queue for awhile, and this makes me want to see it even more.
I really enjoy all the background information you provided and Corman’s commentary; I found it fascinating. Dorothy Malone seems like an ideal actress for westerns: beautiful, tough, and funny.
Such a great review, thanks! I thought Corman saying “Two of them were my ideas and two were AIP’s ideas — the titles alone will tell you which were which. The two that were my ideas were Five Guns West and Gunslinger (1956). The two that were AIP’s ideas were Apache Woman and The Oklahoma Woman (both 1955)” was really interesting, because a running theme through this blogathon has been Corman’s attitude toward women in his films. I don’t really know how to take what he said, because Gunslinger had Beverly Garland and played almost feminist in some respects, but it sure sounds like Corman was saying “I like guns more than I like women”!
Reading the other posts, I thought the same thing.
You couldn’t asked for a better woman’s role than Beverly’s in Gunslinger— especially in the 50s. And later pictures like Bloody Mama had strong female leads.
Maybe it comes down to which writer he was working with.
Bravo Toby! All the behind the scenes and production details are little nuggets of information that are great to know. I’ve actually never seen this one, but your piece has prompted me to just put in an order for a copy.
Wonder if MGM’ll give me a commission?
Thanks for the kind words. As a long-time Corman fan, I’ve learned that his early films are better appreciated when you know what he was up against trying to get it done.
For instance, A Bucket Of Blood is a cool little movie. When you know it was done in five days, it’s a minor miracle.