Movie schlockmeister Larry Buchanan, 81
Posted: Sunday, December 19th, 2004 3:15 am
Larry Buchanan, 81, a film director who went from making inspirational films for Oral Roberts to turning out a spate of lurid, awful B movies, among them “Zontar, the Thing From Venus,” “The Eye Creatures” and, most famously, “Mars Needs Women,” died Dec. 2 in Tucson, Ariz. The cause was complications of a collapsed lung, his wife, Jane, said.
Working in Texas with budgets that often measured in the mere tens of thousands of dollars, Mr. Buchanan anticipated by many years today’s flourishing independent film scene.
His nearly 30 pictures, many of which went directly to TV, spanned genres from horror and science fiction (”Curse of the Swamp Creature,” 1966) to biopics (”Goodnight, Sweet Marilyn,” 1989) and conspiracy-theory films (”The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald,” 1964).
In 1996 he wrote a memoir, “It Came From Hunger! Tales of a Cinema Schlockmeister.” … Read full obituary
