Classic Horrors Club

Back in late November of 2020, I wrote an unplanned series on early Roger Corman films such as Beast from Haunted Cave, Creature from the Haunted Sea, Last Woman on Earth, and The Little Shop of Horrors. Missing from the group was A Bucket of Blood (1959.) If you recall, this was a transition period where Corman was making films like these as he was making the first of his Poe films, House of Usher and The Pit & the Pendulum.

There’s quite a contrast between the two styles of these films. However, like a bad sports team is sometimes brought up to the quality of play of a superior team, the quality of the “lesser” films is raised by Corman’s more “successful” films. I like each an every one of the movies I listed above, so it should come as no surprise that I liked A Bucket of Blood as well.

When you’re making movies one after the other, oftentimes with the leftovers of the previous one, and sometimes when you didn’t even plan to make one, there’s bound to be repetition. Therefore, you can view A Bucket of Blood as a variation of  The Little Shop of Horrors. Well, it would be the other was around, wouldn’t it, since A Bucket of Blood came first?

Anyway, both feature a poor schlub who inadvertently stumbles onto a creative success that brings him fame, even though it’s without its usual companion, fortune. If it’s not an exotic plant, it’s a clay sculpture. They have something in common, though. Both are the results of accidental bloodletting that leads to purposeful murder, and you almost cheer for the villain because he’s been so mistreated by circumstance.

Coincidentally, A Bucket of Blood also evokes another movie I watched for the first time during #countdowntohalloween, Color Me Blood Red. In Bucket, Walter Paisley (Dick Miller), busboy at a beatnik coffee shop, creates a sculpture out of a cat he accidentally killed. In Color, Adam Sorg (Gordon Oas-Heim), down on his luck painter, creates a painting out of blood when he accidentally cuts his finger.

Both creations bring their artists attention in the art world. Here, the circumstances are a little more believable (and a lot less gory.) In both, their patrons want more, and the people around them suffer. In A Bucket of Blood, undercover cop Lou Raby (Bert Convy), a random carpenter that works outside late at night, and “obnoxious” model Alice (Judy Bamber) become subjects for potential new works of art by Paisley.

The other common quality is comedy. It’s hard for me to think the primary goal of A Bucket of Blood or The Little Shop of Horrors (let’s drop Color Me Blood Red out of the equation for now) is to make people laugh. However, humor is part of the story and I found several parts of Bucket to be funny. It’s not only a spoof of the art scene, but also 1960’s counterculture. I frequently smiled.

I appreciate Dick Miller more than ever in this. He’s very good as Paisley and I wonder why he never had more leading roles. Sure, he found success as a character actor, but he carries A Bucket of Blood and I’d like to see more of what he could do. He subsequently criticized the production values, but if the movie gave us more, we’d want more. It’s imperfectly effective just the way it is.