TARGETS (1968) d. Peter Bogdanovich (USA)
1963’s THE TERROR, celebrating its 60th anniversary, is a legendary curiosity item from producer/director Roger Corman, more famous for its origins than the finished product. According to legend, when Corman wrapped shooting on The Raven ahead of schedule, he took advantage of Boris Karloff’s two extra contracted days to slap together this tale of a reclusive baron with a dark secret.
With the sets for the previous film being torn down around the actors’ ears, Corman and others shot all of Karloff’s scenes back to back, then composed the rest of the movie to fit. Relative novice and Raven co-star Jack Nicholson stars as a Napoleonic officer whose beachside encounter with a beautiful young woman leads him to reclusive Karloff’s castle sanctuary and the ghostly haunts that lie within.
Five years later, those mysterious two extra days that Karloff supposedly owed Corman showed up again when the latter approached neophyte writer/director Peter Bogdanovich with a proposition of using 20 minutes of footage from The Terror, shooting 20 minutes of new footage with Karloff, and filling out the rest with… whatever else Bogdanovich could come up with.
Against all odds, the rookie auteur spins a fantastic yarn with TARGETS, juxtaposing the real-life horror of a Charles Whitman-like assassin against Karloff’s fading brand of Gothic frights, with the 80-year-old veteran rendering one of the finest roles of his long career.
We've assembled another fantastic panel (David Lee White, Jon Kitley, Gavin Schmitt) primed to chat about these two examples of environmental filmmaking (i.e. reduce, re-use, recycle), so bring your popcorn and enjoy the conversation about these excellent Karloff showcases!
**If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to the H101wDrAC channel - you won't want to miss what we have coming up next!**
Keep Searching, Keep Exploring, and, most of all, Keep Sharing the Scare!
1963’s THE TERROR, celebrating its 60th anniversary, is a legendary curiosity item from producer/director Roger Corman, more famous for its origins than the finished product. According to legend, when Corman wrapped shooting on The Raven ahead of schedule, he took advantage of Boris Karloff’s two extra contracted days to slap together this tale of a reclusive baron with a dark secret.
Five years later, those mysterious two extra days that Karloff supposedly owed Corman showed up again when the latter approached neophyte writer/director Peter Bogdanovich with a proposition of using 20 minutes of footage from The Terror, shooting 20 minutes of new footage with Karloff, and filling out the rest with… whatever else Bogdanovich could come up with.
Against all odds, the rookie auteur spins a fantastic yarn with TARGETS, juxtaposing the real-life horror of a Charles Whitman-like assassin against Karloff’s fading brand of Gothic frights, with the 80-year-old veteran rendering one of the finest roles of his long career.
We've assembled another fantastic panel (David Lee White, Jon Kitley, Gavin Schmitt) primed to chat about these two examples of environmental filmmaking (i.e. reduce, re-use, recycle), so bring your popcorn and enjoy the conversation about these excellent Karloff showcases!
**If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to the H101wDrAC channel - you won't want to miss what we have coming up next!**
Keep Searching, Keep Exploring, and, most of all, Keep Sharing the Scare!
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