Welcome back to the wonderful world of Roger Corman, where today we take a look at one of his greatest creative successes: 1959’s “A Bucket of Blood,” starring Dick Miller.
Walter (Miller) is a tad on the slow side, working as a bus boy in a beatnik club to make ends meet while forever dreaming of being an artist himself; he rents a room from an old woman, but he otherwise lives a solitary existence. A transitional moment occurs in his life, however, when his landlady’s cat accidentally gets caught in the apartment wall. Walter tries to help the cat escape by thrusting his knife into the wall to cut a hole in the plaster…but, unfortunately, his aim proves a bit too precise, and with his one, quick motion, he realizes that he’s stabbed the cat dead! (The dark humor of Walter’s horrified query after he hears the cat’s abrupt squawk – “You alright, Frankie?” – is straight out of a Farrelly Brothers movie…well, one of the earlier, funnier ones, anyway.)
Taking life’s lemons and making them into lemonade, Walter proceeds to wrap the kitty corpse in clay, knife and all, and is pleasantly surprised to find that his work is praised by the patrons of the club. Unfortunately, he impresses one woman so much that she gives him the gift that keeps on giving – that’s heroin, baby! – and the “transaction,” as it were, is witnessed by an undercover cop. Frantic to escape from the clutches of the law, Walter hits the cop over the head with a frying pan and, voila, he’s got a new piece of art on his hands: “Murdered Man.”
Beatnik #1: Hey, that’s a pretty far-out name for a statue!
Beatnik #2: I saw a statue once. It was called, “The Third Time Phyllis Saw Me, She Exploded.”
Beatnik #1: Man, what kind of a statue was that?
Beatnik #2: I don’t know, but it was made out of driftwood and dripped in fluoric acid. It was very wild.
And, yes, that really is dialogue from the film.
