This is a very entertaining look at the output, life and career of Robert L. Lippert, a prolific producer of mostly B movies from the forties to sixties. The book is divided into four chapters or sections -- Screen Guild, Lippert Pictures, Regal Films and Associated Producers, Inc -- which examine different periods in Lippert's career. Genre films Lippert produced include The Lost Continent, Unknown World, The Quatermass Xperiment, The Fly (one of his most famous and successful pictures), The Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price, The Earth Dies Screaming, and The Horror of It All with Pat Boone; he also did non-genre films such as The Steel Helmet and The Baron of Arizona, also with Price, and many westerns. Lippert started out in the business by owning a chain of theaters, then decided to fill the theaters with his own productions. He entered into an association with 20th-Century Fox to make black and white cinemascope productions that didn't carry the Fox name and were released under the Regal banner. His various companies also released many films that were major money-makers, such as Rocketship X-M. Margia Dean [Sins of Jezebel], who appeared in many of Lippert's movies, was apparently cast so frequently because she was his mistress. Lippert frequently claimed that he gave audiences what they wanted and was more concerned with profit than artistic merit. Still, he was responsible for some memorable films throughout his long Hollywood career. Appendices list every film that Lippert had any kind of association with.
Verdict: An engaging and informative trip down B Movie Memory Lane. ***1/2.
No comments:
Post a Comment