Bucket of Blood (1959)
Comedy | Horror | Thriller

Inside Every Artist Lurks…A Madman!

In a jumpin' java joint, filled to the brim with kooky beatniks, poets and hipsters, and artist wannabe discovers he has a talent for modern art...and murder. Dripping with blood, social satire and "sick, sick comedy" (The Film Daily) this film, according to critic Leonard Maltin, "nicely captures the spirit of the beatnik era" and zips along with vibes of counterculture creepiness.

Walter (Dick Miller) is a busboy overly impressed with the cool cats who hang out at The Yellow Door coffee house, and he wonders how to become "hip." When he accidentally kills his landlady's pet cat, Walter panics and covers it with clay. His prayers are answered, and before he knows it he's the "cat's meow" of the art world. His talent develops and -- surprise! -- he can sculpt humans the same way, too. Like so many artists, his real talent won't be discovered -- until he's dead.

User Comment: Coventry from the Draconian Swamp of Unholy Souls, 3 August 2005 • Not including almost every entry in the terrific Edgar Allen Poe cycle he did, "A Bucket of Blood" unquestionable is Roger Corman's best and most entertaining film. And – coincidentally or not – this movie also contains many references towards Poe (a walled-up cat!!), so maybe Corman simply needs the legendary horror author's oeuvre in order to deliver great movies? "A Bucket of Blood" is a truly slick and ingenious little quickie that terrifically blends the classic terror premise of "Mystery of the Wax Museum" with the typical psychotronic-humor that Corman largely invented himself. Corman regular Dick Miller (terribly underrated throughout his whole career) gives away a near-perfect performance as Walter Praisley, a clumsy waiter and wannabe artist whose biggest wish to get as famous as the talkative stars he serves coffee to every day. His dream accelerates rapidly and unexpectedly when he covers his landlady's dead cat in clay and people proclaim it an art-masterpiece. Walter naturally enjoys his easily earned artist-status but he also realizes that he'll have to move on to bigger (read: bloodier) projects if he wants to stay in the picture. Dick Miller's exhilarating acting together with Charles Griffith's wit scripting skills, makes this a very fun production that every cult-film fan will enjoy watching. Although chuckles clearly have the upper hand in "A Bucket of Blood", Corman doesn't ignore the horror entirely and some of the death-sequences are definitely more chilling than the ones featuring in other contemporary and "serious" horror movies.

Summary: Horror comedy of different clay!.

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