Larry Buchanan
Directing
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Larry Buchanan (born Marcus Larry Seale Jr.) (January 31, 1923 – December 2, 2004) was a film director, producer and writer, who proclaimed himself a "schlockmeister". Many of his titles have landed on "worst movie" lists, but all at least broke even and many made a profit. Buchanan was born in Mexia, Texas. He was orphaned as a baby, and was raised in Dallas in an orphanage. It was while growing up there that he became fascinated with the movies which were shown in the orphanage's theater. He considered becoming a minister, but visited Hollywood and landed a job in the props department at 20th Century Fox. He made movies for the United States Army Signal Corps during World War II. In the early 1950s, Buchanan began producing, writing, editing and acting in his own movies. The first was The Cowboy in 1951. He is perhaps best known for exploitation, science fiction, and other genre films, including Free, White and 21, High Yellow, The Naked Witch, The Loch Ness Horror, and Mistress of the Apes. Among Buchanan's work, eight direct-to-television films he wrote, produced, and directed under his own Azalea Films production entity in the mid- and late-1960s, for American International Pictures, still generate a good degree of fan adoration. The titles — The Eye Creatures, Zontar, The Thing from Venus, Creature of Destruction, Mars Needs Women, In the Year 2889, Curse of the Swamp Creature, Hell Raiders, and It's Alive! — were largely remakes of AIP films from a decade earlier. Buchanan's instructions from AIP were We want cheap color pictures, we want half-assed names in them, we want them eighty minutes long and we want them now. In 1964, Buchanan created The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, which presented an alternate history in which John F. Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald both survived Kennedy's assassination. In 1984 he produced Down on Us, which charged that the United States government was responsible for the deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin. Buchanan's autobiography is entitled It Came from Hunger: Tales of a Cinema Schlockmeister. After he died in 2004 in Tucson, a long obituary in the New York Times summarized his work thus: "One quality united Mr. Buchanan's diverse output: It was not so much that his films were bad; they were deeply, dazzlingly, unrepentantly bad. His work called to mind a famous line from H. L. Mencken, who, describing President Warren G. Harding's prose, said, 'It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it.'" Description above from the Wikipedia article Larry Buchanan, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
The fastest gun in the West tries to escape his reputation.
The Gunfighter
The last seven survivors of a nuclear war barricade themselves against the outside world. Beyond a dense mist, other survivors, radiated and mutant, grow hungry.
In the Year 2889
A biography of Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, a gangster who started his career at a young age after seeking revenge for his father's murder.
A Bullet for Pretty Boy
Tommy Kirk leads his fellow Martians to Earth on an interplanetary quest for females. Kirk proves that Martians have impeccable taste when one of his first conquests turns out to be sexy scientist Yvonne Craig.
Mars Needs Women
A student researching the German settlements of Central Texas unearths the grave of a reputed witch. The witch (who happens to be both beautiful and naked) rises from her grave and embarks on a campaign of seduction and murder against the descendants of her persecutors. It's up to the student to stop her bloody reign of terror-if he can resist the seductive powers of her evil beauty.
The Naked Witch
Jenny Neumann takes a group of men into the jungles of Kenya to look for her husband, and instead finds a tribe of caveman-looking "Near-Men" who all seem terribly attracted to her beautiful blond hair.
Mistress of the Apes
A misguided scientist enables an alien from Venus named Zontar to come to earth in order to "help solve man's problems". However, as soon as Zontar arrives on Earth, it quickly becomes obvious that the three-eyed, bat-winged, skeletal black creature has a hidden agenda.
Zontar: The Thing from Venus
Hunters set out to catch the legendary Scottish monster that has defied explanation and eluded capture since the 1940s.
The Loch Ness Horror
While searching for oil in the deadly swamplands of the Florida Everglades, members of a geological expedition meet an insane doctor who is working on an experiment to create a creature that is part man and part alligator.
Curse of the Swamp Creature
A teenager and his girlfriend must save the world from "eye" aliens after their attempts to convince authorities of an invasion fall on deaf ears.
The Eye Creatures
The supposed story of superstar Marilyn Monroe's death...as told by a "friend" of hers. Watch flashbacks from "Goodbye Norma Jean" as it leads up to the night when Marilyn Monroe died.
Goodnight, Sweet Marilyn
Cynthia Wood, a 17-year-old, light-skinned black girl, tries to pass off as white after getting hired of a wealthy movie magnate Mr. Langley who has family problems with his spoiled wife and his promiscuous teenage daughter and son.
High Yellow
A mad stage hypnotist Dr. John Basso reverts his beautiful assistant Doreena into the physical form of a prehistoric sea monster she was in a past life. Using this power he attempts to find fame and fortune by predicting a series of murders and then using the monster to carry them out.
Creature of Destruction
Tycoon Howard Hughes and actress Jean Harlow have an affair while making his 1930 "Hell's Angels."
Hughes and Harlow: Angels in Hell
The story of Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and Janis Joplin, and how their message for their generation made them targets of a US government plot.
Down on Us
The Dallas trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, President John F. Kennedy's alleged assassin, is enacted as it might have occurred. After the defense enters pleas of "not guilty" and "not guilty by reason of insanity," 23 witnesses for the prosecution testify. No verdict is returned.
The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald
A farmer traps three people in a cave with his pet prehistoric monster.
It's Alive
In Italy during World War II, an American headquarters is evacuated when German forces break through the front lines. A demolition squad is sent back to the abandoned headquarters to destroy valuable records that were left behind before they fall into German hands.
Hell Raiders
A small-town girl comes to Dallas to make it as a stripper.
Naughty Dallas
Norma Jean Baker finds her way to Hollywood and is turned into sex symbol Marilyn Monroe.