Larry Buchanan (January 31, 1923 − December 2, 2004), born Marcus Larry Seale Jr., was a
film director, producer and writer, who proclaimed himself a "
schlockmeister". Many of his extremely low-budget films have landed on "worst movie" lists or in the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...
, but all at least broke even and many made a profit. Most of his films were made for television and were never shown theatrically.
He is perhaps most famous for his AIP films ''
In the Year 2889'', ''
The Eye Creatures'', ''
Zontar, the Thing from Venus'', ''
Curse of the Swamp Creature'', ''
Creature of Destruction
''Creature of Destruction'' is a 1967 American made-for-television film produced and directed by Larry Buchanan. It is an uncredited color remake of the 1956 movie ''The She Creature'' directed by Edward L. Cahn.
Plot
Suave, silver-haired stag ...
'', ''
It's Alive!'', and ''
Mars Needs Women'', all of which were released directly to late night television.
Early life
Buchanan was born in Lost Prairie, Texas, on Jan. 31, 1923.
[
] He was orphaned as a baby and was raised in
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
in an
orphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or ab ...
. It was while growing up there that he became fascinated with the movies which were shown in the orphanage's theater. He considered becoming a minister early in life, but got into the movie industry instead.
Career
Buchanan visited
Hollywood and landed a job in the props department at
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
. It was while working here that his acting career got off the ground. He played some bit parts in movies, and the studio gave him the stage name "Larry Buchanan", which he used for his entire career.
He enlisted in the
United States Army Signal Corps
The United States Army Signal Corps (USASC) is a branch of the United States Army that creates and manages communications and information systems for the command and control of combined arms forces. It was established in 1860, the brainchild of Ma ...
in order to learn how to direct movies. He was based in New York, which allowed him to act in stage plays in the evenings.
[Goodsell p 62]
In the early 1950s, Buchanan began producing, directing, writing, editing, and acting in his own low budget movies. The first was a
one-reeler, ''The Cowboy'' (1949), which he shot back in Dallas for $900. His first feature film was ''Grubsteak'' (1952); he knew
Stanley Kubrick from working in New York at this time and Kubrick offered to be his cinematographer on ''Grubsteak'', but he wanted more money than Buchanan could pay.
Buchanan worked as an assistant to director
George Cukor on ''
The Marrying Kind'' (1952).
Buchanan is perhaps best known for
exploitation,
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
, and other genre films, including ''
Free, White and 21
''Free, White and 21'' is a 1963 movie by self-proclaimed "schlockmeister" director Larry Buchanan. It was based on the true story of the controversial trial of a black man accused of raping a white woman in Dallas, Texas in the 1960s. The title ...
'' (1963), ''
The Naked Witch
''The Naked Witch'' is a 1964 American horror film produced by Claude Alexander, and written and directed by Larry Buchanan. It stars Libby Hall, Robert Short and Jo Maryman. The film was shot in 1960 and has a copyright date of 1961 but was not r ...
'' (1964, made for $8,000), ''
High Yellow'' (1965), ''
A Bullet for Pretty Boy'' (1970), ''
Goodbye, Norma Jean'' (1976), ''
Hughes and Harlow: Angels in Hell'' (1977), ''
Mistress of the Apes'' (1979), ''
The Loch Ness Horror'' (1981) and ''
Goodnight, Sweet Marilyn'' (1989).
Among Buchanan's work, several direct-to-television films which he wrote, produced, and directed back in Dallas under his own "Azalea Films" imprint in the mid-to-late-1960s for
American International Pictures
American International Pictures (AIP) is an American motion picture production label of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing fi ...
, still generate a good degree of fan attention today. The titles − ''
The Eye Creatures'' (1967), ''
Zontar, the Thing from Venus'' (1967), ''
Creature of Destruction
''Creature of Destruction'' is a 1967 American made-for-television film produced and directed by Larry Buchanan. It is an uncredited color remake of the 1956 movie ''The She Creature'' directed by Edward L. Cahn.
Plot
Suave, silver-haired stag ...
'' (1967), ''
Mars Needs Women'' (1968), ''
Curse of the Swamp Creature'' (1968), ''
In the Year 2889'' (1969), ''
Hell Raiders'' (1969), and ''
It's Alive!'' (1969) − were largely color remakes of AIP films from the 1950s. Buchanan's instructions from AIP were: "We want cheap color pictures, we want half-assed names in them, we want them eighty minutes long and we want them now".
[
]
In 1964 Buchanan created ''
The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald'', which presented an
alternate history in which
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963.
Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at the age of 12 fo ...
was not killed by
Jack Ruby and stood trial for the
assassination of John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was in the vehicle with ...
. In 1984 he produced ''
Down on Us'', which charged that the
U.S. government was responsible for the deaths of
Jimi Hendrix,
Jim Morrison
James Douglas Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was an American singer, poet and songwriter who was the lead vocalist of the rock band the Doors. Due to his wild personality, poetic lyrics, distinctive voice, unpredictable and err ...
and
Janis Joplin.
Among the notable features of Buchanan's movies were:
* Monsters with eyes literally made from ping-pong balls
*
day-for-night
Day for night is a set of cinematic techniques used to simulate a night scene while filming in daylight. It is often employed when it is too difficult or expensive to actually shoot during nighttime. Because both film stocks and digital image sen ...
footage "with a blue gel slapped across the camera lens with the noonday sun clearly visible on surfaces of water, car bumpers, etc."
[Goodsell, Greg, "The Weird and Wacky World of Larry Buchanan", ''Filmfax'', No. 38 April/May 1993 p 64]
* Extremely low production values
* One reasonably well-known (if over-the-hill) lead actor (such as
John Ashley or
John Agar
John George Agar Jr. (January 31, 1921 – April 7, 2002) was an American film and television actor. He is best known for starring alongside John Wayne in the films ''Sands of Iwo Jima'', '' Fort Apache'', and '' She Wore a Yellow Ribbon''. In h ...
).
Later life, death, and legacy
Buchanan died in Tucson, Arizona on December 2, 2004 at age 81. He died of complications from a collapsed lung, according to his wife, Joan Buchanan (they were married for 52 years). Buchanan left behind his wife,
one daughter and three sons.
After his death, a long obituary in ''The New York Times'' summarized his work thus: "One quality united Mr. Buchanan's diverse output: It was not so much that his films were bad; they were deeply, dazzlingly, unrepentantly bad. His work called to mind a famous line from
H. L. Mencken
Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...
, who, describing President
Warren G. Harding's prose, said, 'It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it.'"
He left behind an entire career of poorly made films, many of which have become
cult films for being "so-bad-they're-good". Buchanan chronicled his unusual life in his 1997 autobiography, ''It Came from Hunger: Tales of a Cinema Schlockmeister.'' This only authoritative record of Buchanan's life has recently been reprinted as a softcover book available on Amazon, the story of Buchanan's arduous journey from Texas orphanage to Hollywood director, and a look inside the wacky world of low budget filmmaking.
The AIP TV Movies
* ''The Eye Creatures'' (1967) - remake of ''Invasion of the Saucer Men'' (1957)
* ''Zontar, the Thing from Venus'' (1967) - remake of ''It Conquered the World'' (1956)
* ''Creature of Destruction'' (1967) - remake of ''The She-Creature'' (1956)
* ''Mars Needs Women'' (1968) - an original script by Buchanan
* ''Curse of the Swamp Creature'' (1968) - loose remake of ''Voodoo Woman'' (1957)
* ''In the Year 2889'' (1969) - remake of ''Day the World Ended'' (1955)
* ''
Hell Raiders'' (1969) - remake of ''Suicide Battalion'' (1958)
* ''
It's Alive!'' (1969) - adapted from the
Richard Matheson
Richard Burton Matheson (February 20, 1926 – June 23, 2013) was an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres.
He is best known as the author of '' I Am Legend'', a 1954 science fictio ...
story "Being"
[Palmer, Randy (2009). Paul Blaisdell, Monster Maker: A Biography of the B Movie Makeup and Special Effects Artist. McFarland & Company. p. 246. ISBN 978-0786440993.]
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
*Goodsell, Greg, "The Weird and Wacky World of Larry Buchanan", ''Filmfax'', No. 38 April/May 1993 p 60-66
External links
*
Obituaryat
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buchanan, Larry
American male screenwriters
People from Dallas
1923 births
2004 deaths
Film directors from Texas
People from Limestone County, Texas
Screenwriters from Texas
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American screenwriters
Respiratory disease deaths in Arizona
Deaths from pneumothorax
Science fiction film directors