All of the following films were either written, produced and/or directed by the Roger William Corman. And while they might be decidedly lo-fi, they've much more going for them than the mass of multiplex movies.
i) X: The Man With X-Ray Eyes (1963) - Corman was in the director's chair for this science-fiction tale about a scientist (the Welsh-born Ray Milland) who develops eye drops that give him x-ray vision. Of course, everything goes horribly wrong with the man in the white coat developing powers that threaten to shred his mind. A personal favourite of Stephen King's, the ending is incredibly unsettling, although it might have been more disturbing still had Corman not cut the final lines - "I can still see!"
ii) The Masque Of The Red Death (1964) - Corman made six movies based on Edgar Allan Poe stories, all of which were shot in the United Kingdom. Red Death stands out from the crowd thanks to committed performances from Vincent Price and Jane Asher, the glorious cinematography of Nic Roeg (later the director of Performance and The Man Who Fell To Earth) and a dream sequence that's impossibly troubling but was only included in the movie to pad out the running time.
iii) The Wild Angels (1966) - West Side Story's George Chakiris was meant to star in Corman's biker picture, but the dancer couldn't ride a motorcycle. Enter Peter Fonda, son of Henry, brother of Jane, and a dedicated rev-head desperate to ditch his clean-cut image. With the director hiring real-life Hell's Angels, filming was often put on hold to accommodate fist fights. And if Fonda's speech about freedom sounds familiar, it might be because it provides the opening to Primal Scream's ‘Loaded’.
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