American International Pictures

American International Pictures was formed in 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff, dedicated to releasing independently produced, low-budget films, primarily of interest to the teenagers of the 1950s. Nicholson and Arkoff served as executive producers while Roger Corman and Alex Gordon were the principal film producers and, sometimes, directors. Writer Charles B. Griffith wrote many of the early films, along with Arkoff's brother-in-law, Lou Rusoff. Later writers included Ray Russell, Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont. Floyd Crosby, famous for his camera work on a number of exotic documentaries and the Oscar winner, High Noon, was chief cinematographer. His innovative use of surreal color and odd lenses and angles gave AIP films a signature look. The early rubber monster suits and minatures of Paul Blaisdell embodied the best of Fifties Science fiction films.

Trivia

Along with its original productions, AIP also released many foreign films (dubbed into English) in the US that other, larger studios were afraid to handle; these included Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita and Roger Vadim's And God Created Woman, starring then-wife Brigitte Bardot.

Related Topics:
Foreign films - Dubbed - Federico Fellini - La Dolce Vita - Roger Vadim - And God Created Woman - Brigitte Bardot

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1963's The Terror was largely improvised by the cast, during a weekend left over from another movie shoot, and on the same sets before they were taken down.

Related Topics:
1963 - The Terror

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Roger Corman continues his work as the head of New World Pictures, which also has a long history of independent production and distribution of foreign-made movies.

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The widow of Nicholson has been very active since the 1990s attempting to assert copyright ownership over many of the 50s AIP titles, to the point of sending representatives to film conventions to prevents showing of 16mm prints of the titles she believes she is entitled to control.

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The son and daughter of Arkoff attempted a short-lived revival of AIP as a producer of TV movie remakes of some other 50s titles for showing on Showtime.

Related Topics:
TV movie - Showtime

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