"I've played Walter five times now, I think," says Dick Miller, the star of A Bucket of Blood, "I've lost count." In fact, Miller has played characters named "Walter Paisley" in no less than six additional movies besides A Bucket of Blood. As a new generation of filmmakers rose through independent director and producer Roger Corman's ranks (or felt otherwise indebted to his legend), they paid homage to his blackly comic classic by hiring Miller to play a Paisley in Hollywood Boulevard (1976), The Howling (1981), Heartbeeps (1981), Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), Chopping Mall (1986) and Shake, Rattle and Rock! (1994).
Corman missed a trick by not bringing back Miller in at least a cameo role in the misfired 1995 remake of A Bucket of Blood. For his Showtime series “Roger Corman Presents,” Corman commissioned director Michael James McDonald to rehash the 1959 film under the less evocative but more accurate title The Death Artist. Actor Anthony Michael Hall took over the "Walter Paisley" duties, denying fans of Miller's understated charm. His fellow co-stars included a promising cast: Justine Bateman, David Cross, Will Ferrell and Paul Bartel. Sadly, the remake lacks the original’s satirical perspective, proving not just anyone could capture Corman’s essence.
Part of Corman's impetus to remake the property was to reclaim ownership, to set right a bad business decision made long before. Back in the day, Corman focused entirely on the here-and-now with little regard for the future of his creations. Says Miller, "His thinking was, 'We're going to make this movie, it's going to play in a couple of theaters for a month or two, and then it's garbage.'" It was a shortsightedness shared by Corman's distributors at AIP (American International Pictures). Producer Samuel Z. Arkoff admitted, "When you come down to it, I don't think there are any of us in the film industry making anything today that will be of more than passing historical interest fifty years from now." And with such carelessness, AIP and Corman let many of his early works slide into the public domain, where they have been ruthlessly mistreated.
Back in 1959, AIP promoted A Bucket of Blood with its usual ballyhoo. They advised theater owners to set up a giant bucket, tipped slightly, "with the appearance of red fluid dripping" from it. To accomplish this effect, AIP's promotional advice suggested using "some art," or, failing that, to let the bucket actually drip red dye. Now there's a good idea!
Exhibitors were also urged to trail paths of the red fluid from various strategic points in the city to the theater entrance, where they recommended having the Red Cross conduct a blood drive. "How many 'Buckets of Blood' would a human be able to fill?" AIP offered as a slogan to promote the blood drive (and, in turn, to promote the film, natch). Patrons who managed to bring their own "bucket of blood" with them would be admitted for free - a marketing notion that could never be revived in today's more callously violent age.
"You'll die laughing!"
- AIP's ad campaign for A Bucket of Blood
SOURCES:
Alan Frank, The Films of Roger Corman, BT Batsford Ltd, London.
Beverly Gray, Roger Corman, Thunder's Mouth Press, New York.
Ed Naha, The Films of Roger Corman: Brilliance on a Budget, Arco Publishing Inc., New York.
John Charles, "A Bucket of Blood," Video Watchdog, Number 68, 2001, Cincinnati, OH.
John Charles, "The Death Artist," Video Watchdog Number 37, 1997, Cincinnati, OH.
Roger Corman, How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime, Dell Publishing, New York.
