A Bucket of Blood

Roger Corman was legendary for his "one-week wonders," productions that were not only rapidly shot on the smallest of budgets, but also often clever and fun. A Bucket of Blood (1959) is one of the best of those B-movies, a black comedy set in the beatnik coffeehouse culture of poets, artists, and performers, where schlemiel busboy Walter Paisely (reliable Corman regular Dick Miller) dreams of artistic greatness. Walter is all thumbs until he accidentally kills his landlady's cat and covers it in clay: a grotesque study in death that becomes the talk of the community. Unfortunately, he has to keep topping himself, which includes turning a model into his newest masterpiece. Meanwhile, an undercover narc (future game show host Bert Convy) is also sniffing around for the drug dealing pipeline that is centered on this hip hangout. The sets are thrown-together and the film locations sparse, but Corman's madhouse of beatnik poseurs, drug-dealing lowlifes, and poetry-spewing bards has become a cult movie thanks to the gallows humor and crazy 'daddy-o' dialogue, and it's notable for being the only film in which character actor Miller had a leading role. Remastered for Blu-ray, this is recommended. (S. Axmaker) [DVD Review—June 12, 2018—Olive, 66 min., not rated, DVD: $14.959—Making its latest appearance on DVD, 1959’s A Bucket of Blood features a nice transfer with mono audio, but no extras. Bottom line: still waiting for a Blu-ray release for this cult classic, but this DVD edition is the best the film has looked yet on home video.] [Blu-ray Review—Sept. 24, 2019—Olive, 66 min., not rated, Blu-ray: $39.99—Making its second appearance on Blu-ray, 1959’s A Bucket of Blood features a fine transfer with a DTS-HD 2.0 soundtrack. Extras include audio commentary by filmmaker Elijah Drenner, an archival audio interview with screenwriter Charles B. Griffith (20 min.), a 'Call Me Paisley' featurette with star Dick Miller and wife Lainie Miller (12 min.), a prologue from the German release (10 min.), the Super-8 'Digest' version of the film (8 min.), a 'Creation Is. All Else is Not' featurette with director Roger Corman (8 min.), a 'Bits of Bucket' visual essay (7 min.), an essay by author Caelum Vatnsdal, and a photo gallery. Bottom line: a handsome edition of a Corman classic.]