Movies: A Salute to Roger Corman, King of the B-Movie

Last week, we lost a true giant of independent film, Roger Corman:

While Corman directed and produced hundreds of flicks, he is probably best know for giving some of Hollywood's biggest names, including legends like Martin Scorsese and James Cameron, their starts in the movie business. The guerrilla filmmaking techniques you saw in Taxi Driver and The Terminator were products of the "Roger Corman film school," delivering memorable scenes on a shoestring budget (Corman famously shot all of Boris Karloff's scenes in The Terror in two days, using leftover sets and crew from another movie).

As a lifelong MST3K fan, I probably have a different perspective on Roger Corman than most, in that I have actually seen and suffered through many of Corman's B-movies.  The giant cucumber from It Conquered the World, the lovely Beverly Garland from The Gunslinger - they're not great movies, but memorable nonetheless (apparently Corman was not a fan of the show, which isn't surprising).