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Al Adamson
Albert Victor Adamson Jr. (July 25, 1929 – June 21, 1995) was an American filmmaker and actor known as a prolific director of B movie horror and exploitation films throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
The son of silent film veterans Victor Adamson and Dolores Booth, Adamson began his career in the film industry at a young age and began directing in the early 1960s, helming a total of 33 feature films. Many of his films, such as Psycho A-Go-Go, Blood of Ghastly Horror, and Dracula vs. Frankenstein, went on to gain cult status. He cast his wife, actress and singer Regina Carrol, in many of his films.
Adamson retired from filmmaking in the early 1980s to pursue a career in real estate. In 1995, he was murdered by a live-in contractor whom he had hired to work on his house, and he was subsequently buried beneath the floor in his bathroom. Adamson's death and the subsequent trial led to renewed publicity, and was the subject of several documentaries.
Albert Victor Adamson Jr. was born in Hollywood, California. His father was silent film star and producer Victor Adamson, also known as Art Mix and Denver Dixon, and his mother was actress Dolores Booth. Adamson was involved in the film industry from an early age, appearing in the low budget 1935 film Desert Mesa, directed by his father.
After assisting his father in making the 1961 western Half Way to Hell, where he served as an uncredited co-director, Adamson decided to work in the motion-picture industry himself full time. His father introduced him to a young aspiring film distributor named Sam Sherman in September 1962, and they worked together on various film projects during the 1960s. In 1969, Adamson and Sherman founded Independent-International Pictures (in partnership with Dan Kennis), which became the distributor for the many movies he directed, such as Blood of Ghastly Horror, Satan's Sadists and Dracula vs. Frankenstein.
Adamson and Sherman were early collaborators of cinematographers Vilmos Zsigmond and László Kovács, who would later find widespread mainstream success and acclaim as figureheads of the New Hollywood film movement. Adamson and Sherman hired Zsigmond, whom they nicknamed "Ziggy", because the young filmmaker owned his own equipment, including an 35mm Arriflex film camera and a Techniscope lens, which he carried around in a van. Zsigmond had an arrangement with his close friend Kovács where the two would recommend each other to directors, both claiming the other was the superior cinematographer. Their collaboration continued until 1971, when Zsigmond was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography for Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
Victor Adamson also introduced Sam Sherman to producer Irwin Pizor, and Pizor, in turn, introduced Sherman to Kane W. Lynn and Eddie Romero of Hemisphere Pictures, and working together over the years, they all achieved successful careers in film production and distribution. Al Adamson developed a repertory company as the years rolled on, with a lot of the same actors turning up repeatedly in his films, such as Scott Brady, Kent Taylor, Robert Dix, John Cardos, Gary Kent, John Carradine, Russ Tamblyn, and Paula Raymond, among others.
When a friend in the business sold Sherman the rights to an unfinished Filipino horror movie, he let Adamson shoot additional footage which was inserted into the film and starred Robert Dix, Vicki Volante, and John Carradine to pad out the running time. The film was re-titled Horror of the Blood Monsters, and noted comic book artist Neal Adams designed a lurid poster for it, which helped sell the film to drive-in theaters. Since the original film was in black-and-white, Adamson had the whole film tinted in various colors and advertised the film as being made in a new process called Spectrum X. Sherman also hired artist Gray Morrow to design a number of their horror film posters, all of which were very graphic and "over the top".
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Al Adamson
Albert Victor Adamson Jr. (July 25, 1929 – June 21, 1995) was an American filmmaker and actor known as a prolific director of B movie horror and exploitation films throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
The son of silent film veterans Victor Adamson and Dolores Booth, Adamson began his career in the film industry at a young age and began directing in the early 1960s, helming a total of 33 feature films. Many of his films, such as Psycho A-Go-Go, Blood of Ghastly Horror, and Dracula vs. Frankenstein, went on to gain cult status. He cast his wife, actress and singer Regina Carrol, in many of his films.
Adamson retired from filmmaking in the early 1980s to pursue a career in real estate. In 1995, he was murdered by a live-in contractor whom he had hired to work on his house, and he was subsequently buried beneath the floor in his bathroom. Adamson's death and the subsequent trial led to renewed publicity, and was the subject of several documentaries.
Albert Victor Adamson Jr. was born in Hollywood, California. His father was silent film star and producer Victor Adamson, also known as Art Mix and Denver Dixon, and his mother was actress Dolores Booth. Adamson was involved in the film industry from an early age, appearing in the low budget 1935 film Desert Mesa, directed by his father.
After assisting his father in making the 1961 western Half Way to Hell, where he served as an uncredited co-director, Adamson decided to work in the motion-picture industry himself full time. His father introduced him to a young aspiring film distributor named Sam Sherman in September 1962, and they worked together on various film projects during the 1960s. In 1969, Adamson and Sherman founded Independent-International Pictures (in partnership with Dan Kennis), which became the distributor for the many movies he directed, such as Blood of Ghastly Horror, Satan's Sadists and Dracula vs. Frankenstein.
Adamson and Sherman were early collaborators of cinematographers Vilmos Zsigmond and László Kovács, who would later find widespread mainstream success and acclaim as figureheads of the New Hollywood film movement. Adamson and Sherman hired Zsigmond, whom they nicknamed "Ziggy", because the young filmmaker owned his own equipment, including an 35mm Arriflex film camera and a Techniscope lens, which he carried around in a van. Zsigmond had an arrangement with his close friend Kovács where the two would recommend each other to directors, both claiming the other was the superior cinematographer. Their collaboration continued until 1971, when Zsigmond was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography for Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
Victor Adamson also introduced Sam Sherman to producer Irwin Pizor, and Pizor, in turn, introduced Sherman to Kane W. Lynn and Eddie Romero of Hemisphere Pictures, and working together over the years, they all achieved successful careers in film production and distribution. Al Adamson developed a repertory company as the years rolled on, with a lot of the same actors turning up repeatedly in his films, such as Scott Brady, Kent Taylor, Robert Dix, John Cardos, Gary Kent, John Carradine, Russ Tamblyn, and Paula Raymond, among others.
When a friend in the business sold Sherman the rights to an unfinished Filipino horror movie, he let Adamson shoot additional footage which was inserted into the film and starred Robert Dix, Vicki Volante, and John Carradine to pad out the running time. The film was re-titled Horror of the Blood Monsters, and noted comic book artist Neal Adams designed a lurid poster for it, which helped sell the film to drive-in theaters. Since the original film was in black-and-white, Adamson had the whole film tinted in various colors and advertised the film as being made in a new process called Spectrum X. Sherman also hired artist Gray Morrow to design a number of their horror film posters, all of which were very graphic and "over the top".