A Bucket of Blood (1959)

Great Film overall

Admirable film.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

" . . . it will leave crumbs all over the floor." A BUCKET OF BLOOD takes this one step further, with a story line which can be summarized as "If you give a Rat a kiss, he'll want to strangle you and pose your naked corpse for the whole wide world to titter at." When A BUCKET OF BLOOD is about half full, "Maxwell" the Beatnik Poet Laureate proclaims "One of my greatest innovations in Modern Verse is my elimination of Clarity." Certainly this constitutes a prophetic paraphrase of the Prime Directive under which America's first KGB-installed Game-Show-Host-in-Chief currently operates: "One of my greatest innovations in statesmanship is the elimination of Common Sense." Seen in this light, A BUCKET OF BLOOD portends that "Mad Vlad," Red Commie Czar of our beleaguered USA Homeland, is about to make a lewd display of 80 million or so traitorous Quisling fellow traveler "Core Supporters" stripped down to their birthday suits, and left twisting in the wind for the whole world to see. To parody a Real Life rhyme-smith who preceded the Beatniks by a century or two, "Ask not for whom A BUCKET A BLOOD DRIPS: it drips for YOU!!"

If you're cruising through the cable channel listings and see this title pop up, how can you give it a pass? Especially when the station presenting it is Turner Classics - they know an awful lot about movies, don't they? This turned out to be another Roger Corman directed, shoestring budget film that's just off-kilter enough to make it a minor cult classic.I thought Dick Miller was perfect for the role of Walter Paisley, trying hard but never succeeding in the beatnik art world until he produces an eye catching sculpture courtesy of his landlady's dead cat. It was pretty convenient that when feline Frankie was pulled out from behind the wall, rigormortis had already set in after only the couple of seconds it took to break through it. I'm pretty sure we're not supposed to wonder how the cat got in there in the first place.Well the Yellow Door Café got it's new artistic wunderkind and it wouldn't take long for the astute viewer to figure out how Walter would make an even bigger splash on the beat scene. If the murders weren't so gruesome, this story could have been an episode on any number of anthology shows of the era like 'The Twilight Zone', 'Thriller' or even 'Way Out', though the better venue might have been 'Tales From the Crypt' a few decades down the road.

As is often the case, when you sit through a whole number of cheesy, cheap and poor-quality movies, you'll generally find one diamond in the rough. One classic in the otherwise forgettables. A BUCKET OF BLOOD is such a film, which is miles above the earlier schlocky sci-fi/horror flicks that Corman either produced or directed in the late '50s, before colour and Edgar Allan Poe came along. The saving grace here is the great sense of humour in the production, from the often satirically witty script to the depictions of the most amusing "beatnik" culture. Even the murders and deaths which are a major part of the film have an element of black, macabre comedy to them and the film as a whole is a hoot.Dick Miller stars as Walter Paisley, a mild-manner and put-open waiter, immediately a type you feel sorry for. When he actually kills a cat which is stuck in his wall, he decides to cover its body in plaster and immediately wins the respect of his peers. It's not long before he becomes unhinged and human victims suffer for his art, and inevitably he is found out, hunted down and... well, I won't spoil the ending, other than to say it's totally expected but still exciting and done with style. Miller is a real strength as Paisley, and it's kind of a shame his career dwindled in the doldrums before Joe Dante found himself and gave him a new lease of life. You get the idea from this that Miller is a real nice guy, just like his character, and despite the many murders he commits you can't help loving him.A BUCKET OF BLOOD, despite the title, isn't really a horror film. It's a comedy with horrific overtones, for instance in the macabre statues that Paisley makes or the murders themselves, which whilst offscreen are still suitably gruesome. The film is also about a loner trying desperately to fit into society and being driven to extreme lengths in his desire to do so, and as such can be applied to many real-life situations. In this way it can also reach out and touch the audience. Although the black-and-white subtracts somewhat in a film desperately crying out for colour, this is a well-shot, well-directed movie, even if it was made on the cheap in however many days. Many "horror as art" style movies and unofficial remakes have followed, but so far none have equalled this short, straightforward cinematic gem.

Walter Paisley (Dick Miller) is a dim-witted busboy at the beatnik café The Yellow Door. He tries to make a clay sculpture at home. He hears Frankie the cat in his wall. He tries to get him out using a knife and accidentally kills him. He covers the cat with clay and he becomes the toast of the club with his amazing cat 'sculpture'. This sets him off on a serious of killings and cover-ups using his clay.It has some hilarious stuff with the slow innocent Walter. Director Roger Corman is making fun of the beatnik culture. Actually I don't find the beatnik stuff that funny and the music rather annoying. I guess you have to experience it at the time to truly feel the jokes. Walter turning evil isn't scary but it is good solid old-fashion horror. This is relatively well made despite its low budget.