A Bucket of Blood
Dir: Roger Corman
1959
*****
A Bucket of Blood is overlooked as the horror/comedy masterpiece that it is. Not only is it an honest, undiscriminating portrayal of the many facets of beatnik culture, including art, dance and style of living, it is also a brilliant satire of Roger Corman's own films and teen films of the 1950s. I think it was a first – another reason why Corman should be regarded as one of the greatest film makers who has ever lived. It also features the first appearance of Walter Paisley. A Bucket of Blood was the first of three collaborations between Corman and Charles B. Griffith in the comedy genre, followed by The Little Shop of Horrors (which was shot on the same sets as A Bucket of Blood) and Creature from the Haunted Sea. One night after hearing the words of Maxwell H. Brock (Julian Burton), a poet who performs at The Yellow Door cafe, the dimwitted, impressionable, busboy Walter Paisley (Dick Miller) returns home to attempt to create a sculpture of the face of the hostess Carla (Barboura Morris). He stops when he hears the meowing of Frankie, the cat owned by his inquisitive landlady, Mrs. Surchart (Myrtle Vail), who has somehow gotten himself stuck in Walter's wall. Walter attempts to get Frankie out using a knife, but accidentally kills the cat when he sticks the knife into his wall. Instead of giving Frankie a proper burial, Walter covers the cat in clay, leaving the knife stuck in it. The next morning, Walter shows the cat to Carla and his boss Leonard (Antony Carbone). Leonard dismisses the oddly morbid piece, but Carla is enthusiastic about the work and convinces Leonard to display it in the café. Walter receives praise from Will (John Brinkley) and the other beatniks in the café. An adoring fan, Naolia (Jhean Burton), gives him a vial of heroin to remember her by. Naively ignorant of its function, he takes it home and is followed by Lou Raby (Bert Convy), an undercover cop, who attempts to take him into custody for narcotics possession. In a blind panic, thinking Lou is about to shoot him, Walter hits him with the frying pan he is holding, killing him instantly. Meanwhile, Walter's boss discovers the secret behind Walter's "Dead Cat" piece when he sees fur sticking out of it. The next morning, Walter tells the café-goers that he has a new piece, which he calls "Murdered Man". Both Leonard and Carla come with Walter as he unveils his latest work and are simultaneously amazed and appalled. Carla critiques it as "hideous and eloquent" and deserving of a public exhibition. Leonard is aghast at the idea, but realizes the potential for wealth if he plays his cards right. The next night, Walter is treated like a king by almost everyone, except for a blonde model named Alice (Judy Bamber), who is widely disliked by her peers. Walter later follows her home and confronts her, explaining that he wants to pay her to model. At Walter's apartment, Alice strips nude and poses in a chair, where Walter proceeds to strangle her with her scarf. Walter creates a statue of Alice which, once unveiled, so impresses Brock that he throws a party at the Yellow Door in Walter's honor. Costumed as a carnival fool, Walter is wined and dined to excess. After the party, Walter stumbles towards his apartment. Still drunk, he beheads a factory worker with his own buzzsaw to create a bust. When he shows the head to Leonard, the boss realizes that he must stop Walter's murderous rampage and promises Walter a show to offload his latest "sculptures". At the exhibit, Walter proposes to Carla, but she rejects him. Walter is distraught and now offers to sculpt her, and she happily agrees to after the reception. Back at the exhibit, however, she finds part of the clay on one figure has worn away, revealing Alice's finger. When she tells Walter that there is a body in one of the sculptures, he tells her that he "made them immortal", and that he can make her immortal, too. She flees, he chases, and the others at the exhibit learn Walter's secret and join the chase. Walter and Carla wind up at a lumber yard where Walter, haunted by the voices of Lou and Alice, stops chasing Carla, and runs home. With discovery and retribution closing in on him, Walter vows to "hide where they'll never find me". The police, Carla, Leonard, Maxwell, and the others break down Walter's apartment door only to find that Walter has hanged himself. Looking askance at the hanging, clay-daubed corpse, Maxwell proclaims, "I suppose he would have called it "Hanging Man" ... his greatest work." Never before has a film been so horrific, macabre and funny. Corman and Griffith developed the idea for producing a satirical black comedy horror film about the beatnik culture after American International Pictures approached Corman to direct a horror film with a $50,000 budget, a five-day shooting schedule and leftover sets from Diary of a High School Bride. Corman accepted the challenge but later said he was uninterested in producing a straightforward horror film. Griffith later claimed Corman was very uneasy at the idea of making a comedy "because you have to be good. We don't have the time or money to be good, so we stick to action.” Griffith says he talked Corman around by pointing out that since the film was made for such a little amount of money over such a short schedule, he could not fail to make money. Corman says that the genesis of the film was an evening he and Griffith "spent drifting around the beatnik coffeehouses, observing the scene and tossing ideas and reactions back and forth until we had the basic story.” The director says by the end of the evening they developed the film's plot structure, partially basing the story upon Mystery of the Wax Museum. According to actor Antony Carbone, "The production had a kind of spirit of 'having fun,' and I think Corman realized that while making the film. And I feel it helped him in other films he made, like The Little Shop of Horrors - he carried that Bucket of Blood 'idea' into that next film.” Actor Dick Miller was unhappy with the film's low production values. Miller was as stating that, “If they'd had more money to put into the production so we didn't have to use mannequins for the statues; if we didn't have to shoot the last scene with me hanging with just some gray make-up on because they didn't have time to put the plaster on me, this could have been a very classic little film. The story was good; the acting was good; the humor in it was good; the timing was right; everything about it was right. But they didn't have any money for production values ... and it suffered”. He is absolutely right but the film is much better than I think he realised. Miller has portrayed Walter Paisley seven times in total, A Bucket of Blood being the first. He would play a character with the same name (it is never confirmed whether it is the same person) nearly twenty years later in another Corman production, Hollywood Boulevard, directed by Allan Arkush and Joe Dante. Dante cast Miller as another character named Walter Paisley in the 1981 film The Howling. This time, Paisley is the owner of an occult bookshop. Two years later, the name popped up again for another Miller character, the owner of a diner in the third segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie. 1986's Chopping Mall featured a janitor named Walter Paisley, and the 1994 made-for-TV remake of Shake, Rattle and Rock! had Miller playing a character named Officer Paisley. Officer Paisley also appeared in Night of the Creeps. The theatrical marketing campaign was brilliant as it emphasized the comedic aspects of the film's plot, proclaiming that the audience would be "sick, sick, sick—from laughing!", a reference to cartoonist Jules Feiffer's popular Village Voice comic strip. So the film's poster consists of a series of comic strip panels humorously hinting at the film's horror content. I’m not sure the critics or audiences of the day really got the satirical nature of the film and looking at it now it was clearly ahead of its time. The last scene is pretty powerful, perhaps unfairly overlooked due to the low-budget production. It has since become a cult hit – like all great films ahead of their time. Dick Miller is one of the actors of all time and Corman is one of the greatest film makers of all time, end of story. The only terrible thing about the film was the promotion it had during its opening week: "If You Bring In A Bucket Of Blood To Your Local Theater's Management (Or Ticket Booth), You Will Be Given One Free Admission". As you can imagine, it didn't pan out too well for the poor cinema staff.