Phil Tucker (May 22, 1927 – November 30, 1985) was an American film director, producer, writer, and editor. While Tucker directed his first six feature films in the span of two years (while still in his mid-20s), he is best known for his first film, the science fiction

B movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature ...

Robot Monster ''Robot Monster'' (or ''Monster from Mars'')

'', often considered an example of "so bad it's good" film-making in the

Ed Wood Edward Davis Wood Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978) was an American filmmaker, actor, and pulp novel author. In the 1950s, Wood directed several low-budget science fiction, crime and horror films that later became cult cla ...

vein, and for the

Lenny Bruce Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), known professionally as Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-wheeling, and critical style of comedy which ...

movie ''

Dance Hall Racket ''Dance Hall Racket'' is a 1953 American film directed by Phil Tucker starring Lenny Bruce (who also wrote the script) and his wife Honey Harlow. Plot A gangster who operates a sleazy dance hall uses a sadistic bodyguard to keep his girls afr ...

'' featuring Bruce's wife Honey Harlow. In 1952, he was reportedly offered $300,000 to make a sympathetic biopic about

Lucky Luciano Charles "Lucky" Luciano (, ; born Salvatore Lucania ; November 24, 1897 – January 26, 1962) was an Italian-born gangster who operated mainly in the United States. Luciano started his criminal career in the Five Points gang and was instrumen ...

. In December 1953, he attempted suicide in response to the poor reception of ''Robot Monster'' and his subsequent inability to find work. According to ''Keep Watching The Skies!'' by Bill Warren, his attempted suicide was actually fueled by depression and a dispute with the film's distributor, who had allegedly refused to pay Tucker his contracted percentage of the film's profits. There are further claims that after 1955, Tucker was blacklisted within the film industry, though he did go on to direct a number of other productions, including 1960's ''

The Cape Canaveral Monsters ''The Cape Canaveral Monsters'' is a 1960 independent-film, independent United States, American black-and-white science-fiction film, produced by Lionel Dichter and Richard Greer, and written and directed by Phil Tucker. It stars Katherine Victo ...

''. By the 1970s, Tucker had established himself as a formidable film editor, finally escaping the stigma of his early directorial work. He contributed to such well-known films as ''

Orca The orca or killer whale (''Orcinus orca'') is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is the only extant species in the genus '' Orcinus'' and is recognizable by its black-and-white ...

'' and the 1976 remake of ''

King Kong King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...

'', and remained in post-production throughout the rest of his career. In addition to his love of film, Tucker had an avid interest in all things mechanical. He invented a

rotary engine The rotary engine is an early type of internal combustion engine, usually designed with an odd number of cylinders per row in a radial configuration. The engine's crankshaft remained stationary in operation, while the entire crankcase and its ...

known as the '' CT Surge Turbine'' (CT stood for Carnot/Tucker) for which he was granted a US patent. Tucker built and operated a prototype of the engine which he tried, unsuccessfully, to sell to the automobile industry as a more efficient alternative to the conventional internal combustion engine. In 2010, Zed Fest Film Festival named a top award after Phil Tucker. The Phil Tucker Spirit Award is given out to encourage and support independent filmmakers that work in the horror, suspense, science fiction, drama, action, adventure, and art house genres. The event is held annually every November in North Hollywood Arts District.

Filmography

References

External links

* American film directors 1927 births 1985 deaths {{US-film-director-1920s-stub