“Life is an obscure hobo, bumming a ride on the omnibus of art"
Last night we watched A Bucket of Blood, which Roger Corman made in five days in 1959. It's a comedy-thriller that satirizes the beatnik scene. Walter Paisley (Dick Miller) is a socially retarded busboy who wants to impress all the arty beatniks at the cafe where he works. Almost any further explanation of the plot could be construed as a spoiler.
I love movie beatniks!
L-R: Two scenesters - dig their headgear - who get most of the funny lines; nice girl Carla (Barboura Morris); snooty cafe owner Leonard (Antony Carbone); hapless chump Walter before his artistic transformation. I told Jon he should start dressing like Leonard and he said, "OK!"
After you become an artiste, you're issued a beret, cigarette holder, paisley scarf and smoking jacket.
Walter tries to impress Alice, a beatnik pin-up who just came back from a trip to Big Sur to look for Henry Miller (she didn't find him).
This was the first part of a black comedy triptych that Corman made between 1959-1961 (Little Shop of Horrors and Creature from the Haunted Sea followed). Originally released by American International Pictures, it now appears to be in the public domain. Note that there is no actual bucket of blood in A Bucket of Blood.
I love movie beatniks!
L-R: Two scenesters - dig their headgear - who get most of the funny lines; nice girl Carla (Barboura Morris); snooty cafe owner Leonard (Antony Carbone); hapless chump Walter before his artistic transformation. I told Jon he should start dressing like Leonard and he said, "OK!"
After you become an artiste, you're issued a beret, cigarette holder, paisley scarf and smoking jacket.
Walter tries to impress Alice, a beatnik pin-up who just came back from a trip to Big Sur to look for Henry Miller (she didn't find him).This was the first part of a black comedy triptych that Corman made between 1959-1961 (Little Shop of Horrors and Creature from the Haunted Sea followed). Originally released by American International Pictures, it now appears to be in the public domain. Note that there is no actual bucket of blood in A Bucket of Blood.
posted by Maija at
8:58 AM
4 Comments:
You will know the answer to this. What's the name of that Jimmy Stewart movie where he falls in love with a witch who hangs out at a beatnik bar.
I thought you were dead on with your assessment of that one. Those beatniks were very believable, weren't they? We'll have to get together for a beatnik movie watching night. We could even make it a dress up night--tee hee!
I didn't know what movie this is, and more amazingly neither did Jon. But it's Bell, Book & Candle, starring Kim freakin' Novak as the witch! Also made in 1959. That must have been the high-water mark for beatniks in the popular imagination.
You forgot to mention that Walter in his artist gear is holding a "zen stick".
Huh? I thought that you were the one who told me that Bell, Book & Candle had a very "realistic" beatnik scene! The movie isn't that great, but as usual, Kim is a total fox and her clothes are awesome.
WTF? A zen stick?
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