Roger Corman is today best known as the producer who nursed many future giants of American cinema into maturity. But his own achievements as writer and director are somewhat obscure, hardly known outside small circles of cult cinema aficionados. This could be partially explained by the fact that many of Corman's films happened to be shot with laughably low budgets and in just a few days, and such circumstances naturally affected the quality of Corman's work. On the other hand, some of those films later earned cult status among lovers of B-cinema. The best known among them is the 1960 black comedy Little Shop of Horrors, which had the honour of being turned into a Broadway musical and a mainstream Hollywood remake. One year earlier, Corman made another, somewhat lesser-known but even better black comedy, A Bucket of Blood.
The film begins in a bohemian café frequented by beatniks, pretentious artist wannabes, drug dealers and undercover police officers. Walter Paisley (played by Dick Miller) is a young, nerdy busboy who has two dreams in life: one is to become a great artist and fulfil ideals expounded in beat poetry by one of the café's regular guests, Maxwell Brock (played by Julian Burton); the other is to impress Carla (played by Barboura Harris), a beautiful girl who frequents the café with her artistic crowd. Unfortunately, Walter lacks the talent, and pursuit of his dreams only gets him into trouble with his boss Leonard Di Cenzo (played by Anthony Carbone). One fateful night, however, Walter's luck changes when he accidentally stabs his landlady's cat. In order to cover his deed, he wraps the cat's remains in plaster, but the result is mistaken for genuine sculpture by the artistic crowd in Di Cenzo's café. The sculpture known as "Dead Cat" is praised for its realistic details, and Walter is suddenly heralded as a talented young artist. Everyone, including his boss, pressures him to continue making similar works of art. Unfortunately, Walter still lacks the proper talent, so he again must use unconventional methods to produce sculpture and, as a result, people start disappearing.
A Bucket of Blood could easily be described as "the best film ever made in less than five days". In some other cases, this phrase would indicate not-so-enviable quality of the film, but in the case of Roger Corman, this is the ultimate compliment to his talent. Despite time constraints and low budget, this legendary filmmaker managed to produce one of the most entertaining B-films of all time, but his ingenuity didn't manifest only in the quantity of macabre humour but also in managing to transcend the limits of cheap exploitation cinema by taking a satirical approach to some amusing realities of the present-day world. His view on the Beat phenomenon is something more than a satirical comment on subcultures of 1950s America; his approach towards individuals who want to rise above their sad, meaningless existence by following popular cultural trends could be applied to many similar subcultures that emerged before and after. Furthermore, in the character of Paisley we might find Corman's very unflattering self-portrait – a hack filmmaker with high, unreachable artistic ambitions.
Corman's long-time collaborator and talented screenwriter Charles B. Griffith supplies the film with easily drawn but memorable characters, as well as sharp and memorable lines. One of the most hilarious examples could be found in the poems by Maxwell Brock. The poetic monologue, recited by Julian Burton while Paul Horn plays saxophone in the background, is not just one of the most effective movie openings, but also a great text (some of my friends learned it by heart, just like the fans of Pulp Fiction know Jules' sermon by heart). The acting is also excellent and surpasses that of Little Shop of Horrors. Dick Miller, one of the most recognisable character actors in American cinema, is great in his only lead role. His co-stars also shine – the late Barboura Harris transcends love interest stereotypes by making a believable impression of a true art lover; Anthony Carbone creates a lot of laughs in scenes of macabre humour and, finally, Julian Burton is excellent as a true representative of beatnik royalty.
Unfortunately, A Bucket of Blood has some problems with a less than inspired ending, but this should probably be explained by shooting schedules rather than by Griffith's or Corman's lack of talent. The jazz music by Fred Katz is great, including guitar numbers that give a surreal atmosphere to this film. All in all, A Bucket of Blood is probably one of the best, albeit underrated, black comedies ever made.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on July 19th 2000)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/41666-the-wrong-man Critic: AA
