Susan Granger’s review of “IT CONQUERED HOLLYWOOD! THE STORY OF AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL PICTURES” on American Movie Classics-TV
When Sam Arkoff, a lawyer from Iowa, and Jim Nicholson, a theater chain manager from Nebraska, decided to make movies, their timing couldn’t have been better. True – they had only $3,000, no experience, no scripts and no stars, but it was 1955, when the film industry was in chaos after the Supreme Court ruled that studios had to sell their lucrative theater chains and a new phenomenon called television posed a serious threat. Arkoff and Nicholson realized that, if they could acquire films to distribute, they could create their own movie company – American International Pictures. They came up with the concept of low-budget entertainment, and their credo was “make ’em fast and make ’em cheap.” When studios were spending $4 million per picture, they budgeted $40,000 for a film, and theater owners were eager to book AIP films because they cost less to rent. But AIP’s best acquisition was a young filmmaker named Roger Corman with whom they made a three-picture deal. When AIP hit it big with rebellious, sexy teen films (“Hot Rod Girl, “Runaway Daughters,” “Shake, Rattle and Roll”), they realized they could create a catchy title and lurid promotional campaign to raise all the money they needed in advance. Through the ’60s and ’70s, they churned out the Frankie Avalon/Annette Funicello beach movies, Italian-made sword & sandal epics (“Hercules,” “Prisoner of Evil”), along with Roger Corman’s Edgar Allen Poe adaptations like “The Raven.” They launched biker movies (“The Wild Angels,” “Angels on Wheels”), counter-culture hippie flicks (“Psych-Out,” “The Trip”), and blaxploitation (“Foxy Brown,” “Blacula,” “Black Caesar”). On Tuesday night (May 1) at 10PM, American Movie Classics reveals the behind-the-scenes story, narrated by directed by Peter Bogdonovich, who launched his career at AIP, along with Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola, Richard Donner, Brian DePalma, Ivan Reitman and David Cronenberg. If you loved these AIP movies, you won’t want to miss