A Bucket of Blood
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the 1995 remake, see A Bucket of Blood (1995 film).
| A Bucket of Blood | |
|---|---|
 Cover of the official Region 1 DVD released by MGM, the current owner of the AIP film catalog. |
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| Directed by | Roger Corman |
| Produced by | Roger Corman |
| Written by | Charles B. Griffith |
| Starring | Dick Miller |
| Music by | Fred Katz |
| Cinematography | Jacques R. Marquette |
| Editing by | Anthony Carras |
| Distributed by | American International Pictures |
| Release date(s) | October 21, 1959 |
| Running time | 66 minutes |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $25,000 |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
A Bucket of Blood is a 1959 cult black comedy film directed by Roger Corman. The screenplay was written by Charles B. Griffith, who would later write another black comedy for Corman: The Little Shop of Horrors. In A Bucket of Blood, Dick Miller plays Walter Paisley, a nerdish busboy at a Bohemian café who becomes a success in the art world after accidentally killing his landlady's cat and covering the body in clay to hide the evidence.
The film was released theatrically by American International Pictures. It has since fallen into the public domain, and there are many unofficial DVD releases. When the film was originally released, newspaper advertisements had the text "If You Bring In A Bucket Of Blood To Your Local Theater's Management (Or Ticket Booth), You Will Be Given One Free Admission."
In 1995, Corman produced a remake called Bucket of Blood (also known as The Death Artist) for the Showtime network. The remake was directed by Michael McDonald and starred Anthony Michael Hall. It wasn't well-received, but it did help start the career of a young Will Ferrell.
[edit] Plot summary
One night after hearing the words of Maxwell H. Brock (Julian Burton), a poet who performs at the café The Yellow Door, Walter Paisley (Dick Miller) returns home to attempt to create a sculpture, in the face of Carla (Barboura Morris), a girl frequently hanging out where he works that he has a crush on. As much as he tries, he cannot form the clay to resemble a human face.
He stops when he hears the meowing of Frankie, the cat owned by his inquisitive landlady, Mrs. Surchart (Myrtle Vail), who has somehow gotten himself stuck in Walter's wall. Walter attempts to get Frankie out of there, but accidentally kills Frankie when he sticks the knife into his wall. Disgusted with himself, Walter cries himself to sleep and hears the poetry of Brock pour through his tormented mind, giving him a radical inspiration. Instead of giving Frankie a proper burial, Walter covers the cat in clay, even leaving the knife stuck in it.
The next morning, Walter shows the "thing I made" to Carla and his boss Leonard (Antony Carbone). When asked what the piece is called, Walter says "Dead Cat?" Though Leonard is dismissive of the oddly morbid piece, Carla insists "…It's tremendous! The anatomy is perfect!" The piece goes on display in the café, where Walter gets newfound respect from the beatniks and poets who hang out in the café. He is approached by an adoring fan, Naolia (Jhean Burton), who gives him a vial of heroin to remember him by. Not knowing what it is, he sticks it in his pocket, and is followed home by an undercover cop named Lou Raby (Bert Convy).
Walter arrives home with visions of fame, hopeful that his newfound art can win over Carla's heart. However, Lou knocks on the door and naive Walter lets him in. Lou attempts to intimidate into confessing being a narcotics mule by brandishing his gun. When Lou attempts to arrest Walter, Walter accidentally smashes his frying pan into Lou's head. The fracas alerts his landlady and Walter fast talks her out of the apartment as he tearfully tries to hide the body. Again, the poetry of his idol provides him an idea out of this awful mess.
Meanwhile, Walter's boss finds out the secret behind Walter's "Dead Cat" piece. The next morning, Walter uneasily works while plainclothes police case the coffeehouse, much to the chagrin of the stoners and barflies. Leonard starts sarcastically praising Walter until Carla and the others come to his defense. Walter haltingly tells them he has a whole new piece, which he calls "Murdered Man." "That's a wild name for a statue!" one of the barflies declares intrigued. Knowing Walter's secret, Leonard is horrified.
While attempting to call the police, Leonard is approached by an art collector who offers him $500 for "Dead Cat," and so, he hangs the phone up. At Carla's urging, he is brought to Walter's home to see his latest work. Carla is at first aghast, but finds it "hideous and eloquent, expresses modern man in all his self pity...Where on Earth did you find that in yourself, Walter?" Walter, clearly nervous before, start to calm down now with Carla's assurance.
Obviously knowing the secret of his work, Leonard nonetheless keeps a dismayed silence, seeing a way to cash in on this, if Walter could "stop making these horrible statues!" When he suggests Walter go abstract, Carla objects, "...With his talent for realism?! You must be joking!"
Walter realizes he is on the verge of hitting it big from their conversation and Leonard tries to ease the situation by giving Walter severance pay plus some incentive. He should take some time off from being a busboy to build up a collection then have a big show. Excited, Walter realizes he has made it. In his joy, he even shows off "Murdered Man" to Mrs. Surchart, who is at first skeptical that he could have any talent, and then horrified by his "creation."
The next night, Walter is treated like a king by pretty much everyone, except for Alice (Judy Bamber), who has been out of town for the last few nights. Dubbed "Alice the Awful" by the barflies, she struts in bold as brass to come right up to Maxwell and Walter talking. Despite being pinup gorgeous and pop-culturally savvy for the time (she drops the name of Henry Miller to answer where she has spent her time), it is clear she is not very much liked. Seeing Walter at the table with Brock, she wonders what the busboy is doing sitting with them.
As Brock explains that a great artist is in their midst, Alice goes mercenary and preens a bit at Walter, declaring her fee outright ($25/hr — in 1959, respectable money for the time — Bettie Page made that much). Carla suggests that Walter do a female figure to change from the morbid trend his first work has taken, even offering to model for him for free. Walter winces at the suggestion. The stoners do little good as they start to lasciviously saying, "Man, to be an artist, you gotta do nudes, nudes, nudes!" Taking this as a joke, Alice berates Walter until the conversation turns into a nasty argument that ends up driving the stoners away and angering him deeply.
Apparently storming out in a huff, Walter later follows her home. When he tries to apologize and gets the door slammed in his face, he persists. When he explains further that he wants her to be his model and is willing to pay her price, she is all ears and eager to work. When they come back, she takes off her clothes (off camera), and sits down in a chair. Walter suggests she put back on her scarf and, in a pretense of adjusting it to look right, uses it to strangle her.
The latest work is brought to Brock's house, where the gang is gathered for a sumptuous organic breakfast. Once unveiled, the statue of Alice renders them awestruck and Carla is so pleased that she kisses Walter on the lips. Brock is so impressed, he throws a party at the Yellow Door in Walter's honor. Costumed as a carnival fool, Walter is wined and dined to excess. Leonard keeps an eye on him, worried that he will make some mistake that will blow this deal.
Brock composes a poem especially for Walter that provides him more twisted inspiration. Walter later stumbles back home, realizing he has to make good on his promise to make more work. Still drunk and with his rage unleashed, he holds down a factory worker to cut his head off with a buzz-saw to create a bust. When he shows it to Leonard, with the word of a horrible decapitation in the neighborhood fresh off the press, his boss realizes he has to take care of things right away. He promises Walter his show to offload these "statues."
At an exhibit of Walter's works, he professes his love to Carla proposes to her. She rejects him, stating that she likes him for his work, but that she doesn't love him. Walter is distraught at her answer, since fame and fortune didn't bring him the love he sought after all. Yet, despite this, he offers to do a sculpture of her, and she happily agrees to after the reception. When they get back to the exhibit, however, she finds a chip in the "sculpture" of Alice.
She tells Walter that there's a body in one of the sculptures, and he says "Oh, that's Alice!," explaining that he "made them immortal," and that he can make her immortal too. She runs out of the exhibit, and he chases after her. Meanwhile, the others at the exhibit learn Walter's secret as well, and chase after them.
Walter and Carla wind up at a lumber yard where Walter, haunted by the voices of Lou and Alice, stops chasing after Carla, and runs home. He decides to "hide where they'll never find me." The police, Carla, Walter's boss, and Maxwell, find that Walter has hung himself. Maxwell comments "I suppose he would have called it 'Hanging Man'." Another calls it "his greatest work."
[edit] Notes
The music score for this film, written by Fred Katz, was also used in two other comedy films scripted by Charles B. Griffith for director Roger Corman - The Little Shop of Horrors and Creature from the Haunted Sea.
