TALES FROM THE TRENCHES 2019 EPISODE 9 FANTASY (SHOUT TV)

Roger Corman and his wife Julie talk about some very interesting films here.

The program starts off with "Sorceress" and how it was made to cash in on the tremendous success of other Sword and Sorcery films Corman had produced. He also taks about "Deathstalker" and how there was so much fan mail for a supporting actress named Lana Clarkson that he decided to make films starring her, and thus her legend was born. Smart move on his part.

"Warrior and the Sorceress", "Deathstalker 2" and "Wizards of The Lost Kingdom" are discussed next and even though all made a lot of money, Corman decided to stop making those kinds of films as he felt they were becoming repetitive.

Next is "Magic Voyage Of Sinbad" back in 1962 in which Corman took a Russian film and re-dubbed it for American release. It is a charming and colorful film that Corman's Filmgroup company turned out in the early 60's and it played on TV for years.

Julie Corman then talks about "The Dirt Bike Kid" and how Roger warned her that a family film would not be successful, and he was right, but it's release when VHS became popular made it a huge hit on cassette. Another made for VHS entry was "A Very Unlucky Leprechaun" which was another family film. Corman shot this in Ireland for the tax credit.

Lastly Roger talks about "Sting Of The Black Scorpion" which was a huge success and spawned a TV series for Showtime. The movie was shot for Showtime when Corman saw that there was a shrinking market for the distribution of low budget films.

All in all a very interesting episode.