Charles B. GriffithFilmography

Wizards of the Lost Kingdom 2

Crew: Director

Actors: David Carradine, Bobby Jacoby, Lana Clarkson, Mel Welles, Susan Lee Hoffman

Synopsis: When a group of evil, power-hungry people take over a trio of kingdoms, it is up to a young magician to free his lands from their rule. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Not of This Earth

Crew: Screen Story

Synopsis: A deliberately campy remake of a Roger Corman low-budget sci-fi outing from 1957, this horror film tells the gruesome story of a bloodthirsty alien who comes to our planet looking to replenish his planet's declining food supply. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Smokey Bites the Dust

Crew: Director

Actors: Jimmy McNichol, Janet Julian, Walter Barnes, Patrick Campbell, Kari Lizer

Synopsis: Car chases abound in this youthful, comedy action outing that centers on the rivalry between a small-town Southern sheriff and a mischievous, but basically good-hearted kid who bedevils him by joy riding in stolen cars and then destroying them. As added insult, the sheriff's daughter, the boy's Read More

Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Oliver Reed, Sunny Johnson, Maia Danziger, Mel Welles, Virgil Frye

Synopsis: This is a crazy horror-film spoof in which the enthusiastic leads provide laughs just by the strength of their characterizations alone -- and because they are obviously having fun. Oliver Reed is Dr. Heckyl whose lumpy face is so ugly it has kept women away in droves. He works at a podiatrist's Read More

Up from the Depths

Crew: Director

Actors: Samuel Bottoms, Susanne Reed, Virgil Frye, Kedric Wolfe, Charles Howerton

Synopsis: A group of fishermen and seamen band together to fight a monstrous finny fiend that is terrorizing a resort. They are in humorous competition with hotel guests, who hope to win a prize by killing the beast. In one particularly grisly bit of humor, a dead fisherman's body is put to really good use. Read More

Hollywood Boulevard

Actors: Candice Rialson, Mary Woronov, Rita George, Jeffrey Kramer, Dick Miller

Synopsis: Allan Arkush and Joe Dante co-directed this campy spoof of exploitation films -- Roger Corman's schlock factory in particular. Candice Rialson stars as Candy Wednesday, a movie hopeful who wants to be a star. Her slimy agent Walter Paisley (Dick Miller) directs her to the portals of Miracle Read More

Eat My Dust!

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Ron Howard, Christopher Norris, Warren Kemmerling, Dave Madden, Robert Broyles

Synopsis: Charles B. Griffith, author of Little Shop of Horrors, was the writer/director of the low-budget Eat My Dust!. Ron Howard heads the cast as Hoover Niebold, the hell-raising son of rural sheriff Harry Niebold (Warren Kemmerling). The sheriff is forced to chase after his own son when Hoover and his Read More

The Swinging Barmaids

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Bruce Watson, Laura Hippe, Katie Saylor, Renie Radich, William Smith

Synopsis: In this thriller, a serial killer is freed and goes out to slaughter a string of cocktail waitresses. One hard-bitten cop attempts to stop the slaughter, but it isn't easy. The film was later renamed Eager Beavers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Death Race 2000

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: David Carradine, Simone Griffeth, Sylvester Stallone, Mary Woronov, Roberta Collins

Synopsis: Cult hero Paul Bartel directed this low-budget satire in which America's passion for cars, violence, and sporting events are finally brought together in one convenient package. In the not-so-distant future, the United States has become a totalitarian regime overseen by the charming but sinister Read More

Devil's Angels

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: John Cassavetes, Beverly Adams, Mimsy Farmer, Maurice McEndree, Salli Sachse

Synopsis: Big bad bikers butt heads with a small-town sheriff in this bargain-basement sleaze-fest. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Wild Angels

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Peter Fonda, Nancy Sinatra, Bruce Dern, Diane Ladd, Lou Procopio, Michael J. Pollard, Coby Denton

Synopsis: This biker gang exploitation picture from director Roger Corman and co-writer and editor Peter Bogdanovich earned critical respect in Europe for its gritty documentary style. Peter Fonda stars as Heavenly Blues, the leader of a wild, roving band of leather-clad bikers. When his best friend Loser (Bruce Dern Read More

Creature from the Haunted Sea

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: This early bit of "B"-movie fluff from Roger Corman and company is a hastily slapped-together melange of crime thriller and monster flick, laced with enough ham-fisted satire to make the entire mess enjoyable. The plot centers on a two-bit crook (Antony Carbone) who offers to transport a band of Read More

Ski Troop Attack

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Michael Forest, Frank Wolff, Wally Campo, Richard Sinatra, Sheila Carol

Synopsis: An American ski patrol schusses their way across the border into Germany to try and blow up an important railroad bridge in this WW II drama. They are lead by a tough old sergeant and an untried lieutenant. Along the way, they are given shelter by a pretty but treacherous German lass who tries to Read More

Atlas

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Michael Forest, Walter Maslow, Barboura Morris, Frank Wolff, Christos Exarchos, Andreas Philippides, Sid Savage, Miranda Kounelaki, Sascha Dario, Theodore Dimitriou, Roger Corman

Synopsis: Roger Corman directed this low, low budget sword-and-sandal epic as it chronicles the great Atlas' battle with the armies of Greece in order to save a princess in distress. The story was shot in Greece. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Beast From Haunted Cave

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Michael Forest, Sheila Carol, Frank Wolff, Richard Sinatra, Wally Campo

Synopsis: Director Monte Hellman (who would later direct a young Jack Nicholson on two low-budget westerns) earned his low-budget wings on Filmgroup's bizarre fusion of hostage/crime thriller and big-rubber-monster flick -- a quirky juxtaposition employed to similar effect 35 years later in From Dusk Till Dawn Read More

Little Shop of Horrors

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles, Dick Miller, Myrtle Vail, Laiola Wendorff

Synopsis: Perhaps the greatest movie ever shot in two days, Little Shop of Horrors was originally conceived as a followup to Roger Corman's black comedy A Bucket of Blood (1959). Jonathan Haze plays Seymour Krelboin, a schlemiel's schlemiel who works at the Skid Row flower shop of Mr. Mushnick (Mel Welles). Read More

Forbidden Island

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Jon Hall, Nan Adams, John Farrow, Jonathan Haze, Greigh Phillips

Synopsis: More noted in its day for its underwater photography than for any distinction in its script or characters, this simple crime drama evolves around the retrieval of a priceless emerald from a sunken ship. Stuart Godfrey (John Farrow) is the black-hearted leader of a diving expedition to get the gem. Read More

A Bucket of Blood

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Dick Miller, Barboura Morris, Anthony Carbone, Julian Burton, Ed Nelson

Synopsis: A fine example -- perhaps the best available -- of "B"-movie overlord Roger Corman's "Weekend Wonders" from the producer/director's early career (see also the original Little Shop of Horrors), this horror-comedy was also the first of beloved actor Dick Miller's dozen-odd portrayals of the Read More

Ghost of the China Sea

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: David Brian, Lynn Bernay, Jonathan Haze, Norman Wright, Harry Chang

Synopsis: In this actioner, set during WW II, the hard-bitten, cynical captain of the USS "Frankenstein" must escape a Japanese invasion. Unfortunately, the ill-fated cruiser is low on food, water, and fuel. When the foundering crew spies a ship (which they believe to be a Dutch cruiser) upon the horizon Read More

Rock All Night

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Abby Dalton, Robin Morse

Synopsis: Its title notwithstanding, Roger Corman's Rock All Night is a tense little hostage melodrama. Corman regular Dick Miller stars as Shorty, a much-maligned hanger-on at the Cloud Nine tavern. Shorty's hotheaded pugnaciousness comes in handy when a pair of gunmen (played by Russell Johnson--yes, "The Read More

Not of This Earth

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Paul Birch, Beverly Garland, Morgan Jones, William Roerick, Jonathan Haze

Synopsis: One of Roger Corman's finest science-fiction endeavors of the 1950s, Not of This Earth is an excellent film by any standards. Paul Birch stars as Johnson, a taciturn gentleman in a dark business suit who hires nurse Nadine (Beverly Garland) to care for him. Curious that Johnson needs constant Read More

Teenage Doll

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: June Kenney, Fay Spain, John Brinkley, Colette Jackson, Barbara Wilson, Ziva Rodann, Barboura Morris

Synopsis: The Teenage Doll in this Roger Corman-directed "J. D." opus is a little number named Barbara (June Kenney). Basically a good girl, she falls into bad company when she impulsively decides to rebel against her parents. It isn't long before Barbara accidentally kills her tough-babe romantic rival (Barboura Morris Read More

Naked Paradise

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Richard Denning, Beverly Garland, Lisa Montell, Leslie E. Bradley, Dick Miller

Synopsis: The lurid title of this Roger Corman production refers to the Hawaiian Islands, where the film was shot in its entirety. Richard Denning stars as Duke, skipper of a Hawaii-based schooner. Duke's vessel is chartered by Zac (Leslie Bradley), who claims to be a toy manufacturer. In truth, Zac is the Read More

The Undead

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Pamela Duncan, Richard Garland, Allison Hayes, Val Dufour, Mel Welles

Synopsis: Legendary shlockmeister Roger Corman and long-time collaborator Charles B. Griffith attempted to cash in on the popular 1950s surge in Bridey Murphy reincarnation mania with this confusing and throughly weird thriller. It begins with researcher Richard Garland hypnotizing streetwalker Pamela Duncan Read More

Flesh and the Spur

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: John Agar, Marla English, Raymond Hatton, Maria Monay

Synopsis: One of the least-known of the American-International "B" westerns of the 1950s, Flesh and the Spur offers the spectacle of the inimitable John Agar in a dual role. When his twin brother Mathew is killed, Luke Random goes gunnin' for his brother's murderer. Along the way, he teams up with Read More

Attack of the Crab Monsters

Crew: Associate Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Richard Garland, Pamela Duncan, Russell Johnson, Leslie E. Bradley, Mel Welles

Synopsis: A group of scientists arrive on a remote Pacific island to investigate what became of the previous team, which was sent out there as observers of American hydrogen bomb tests and disappeared without a trace. They island is uninhabited and devoid even of most animal life, except for a few land Read More

It Conquered the World

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Peter Graves, Beverly Garland, Lee Van Cleef, Sally Fraser, Charles B. Griffith, Jonathan Haze

Synopsis: Though Roger Corman was still new to sci-fi in 1956, he made up for lost time with the above-average quickie It Conquered the World. Peter Graves heads the cast as Paul Nelson, who suspects that his best friend, eccentric genius Tom Anderson (Lee Van Cleef), is up to no good. Sure enough, Tom has Read More

The Gunslinger

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: John Ireland, Beverly Garland, Allison Hayes, Martin Kingsley, Jonathan Haze

Synopsis: Produced by Roger Corman, Gunslinger stars Corman's then-sweetheart Beverly Garland as tough lady-marshal Rose Hood. Dance-hall girl Erica Page (Allison Hayes), Rose's bitterest enemy, hires gunslinger Cane Miro (John Ireland) to bump off the marshal. When he falls in love with Rose, Cane is faced Read More