Herman Cohen
Encyclopedia
B-movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
s during the 1950s, who helped to popularize the teen horror movie
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
genre with films like the cult classic
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
I Was a Teenage Werewolf
I Was a Teenage Werewolf
I Was a Teenage Werewolf is a 1957 horror film starring Michael Landon as a troubled teenager and Whit Bissell as the primary adult. It was co-written and produced by cult film producer Herman Cohen, and was one of the most successful films released by American International Pictures...
.
Cohen began his career in show business as a gofer
Gofer
A gofer or go-fer is an employee who is often sent on errands. "Gofer" reflects the likelihood of instructions to go for coffee, dry cleaning, or stamps, or to make other straightforward or familiar procurements. The term gofer originated in North America...
and later an usher at the Dexter Theater in Detroit, starting he was just 12. By 18, he was managing the Dexter. From there he went on to become assistant manager of the Fox Theatre
Fox Theatre (Detroit)
The Fox Theatre is an ornate performing arts center located at 2211 Woodward Avenue in downtown Detroit, Michigan, near Grand Circus Park. It was originally completed in 1928 as the first movie palace in the world to have sound systems for films. It was listed on the National Register of Historic...
(also in Detroit) — a theater featuring 5200 seats. After a tour of duty with the Marines
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
, Cohen became sales manager for Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
in the Detroit Area and moved to Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
to work for the publicity department of Columbia in the 1940s. In the 1950s he started producing films, first working as assistant (and later associate) producer for Jack Broder and Realart Pictures
Realart Pictures Inc.
Realart Pictures was a motion picture re-releasing organization started in 1948 by Jack Broder and Joseph Harris. It had no relation to the silent pictures Realart Pictures Corporation that handled Paramount releases...
on such films as Bride of the Gorilla, Battles of Chief Pontiac (featuring Lon Chaney, Jr.
Lon Chaney, Jr.
Lon Chaney, Jr. , born Creighton Tull Chaney, was an American character actor. He was best known for his roles in monster movies and as the son of famous silent film actor, Lon Chaney...
), Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla and Kid Monk Baroni
Kid Monk Baroni
Kid Monk Baroni is a 1952 American film directed by Harold D. Schuster.The film is also known as Young Paul Baroni in the United Kingdom.- Plot summary :From the NY Times:...
(featuring a 21-year-old Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. Nimoy's most famous role is that of Spock in the original Star Trek series , multiple films, television and video game sequels....
as a street kid turned boxer). He later worked for Allied Artists and United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
producing such films as Target Earth, Magnificent Roughnecks (with Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
), and Crime of Passion (with Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
and Raymond Burr
Raymond Burr
Raymond William Stacey Burr was a Canadian actor, primarily known for his title roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside. His early acting career included roles on Broadway, radio, television and in film, usually as the villain...
). Cohen also wrote the stories and/or screenplays for at least nine films, co-writing with pal Aben Kandel
Aben Kandel
Aben Kandel was an American screenwriter, novelist, and boxer. He was screenwriter on such classic B movies as I was A Teen-Age Werewolf, Joan Crawford's final movie Trog, and one of Leonard Nimoy's first starring vehicles, Kid Monk Baroni.Kandel had an earlier scandalous success with his gritty,...
and sometimes using one pseudonym - either "Ralph Thornton" or "Kenneth Langtry" - between them (Kandel also wrote solo for Cohen on Kid Monk Baroni and, using the Thornton moniker, on Blood of Dracula).
Cohen really struck it big in the mid 50s though, with a horror film for American International
American International Pictures
American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...
— I Was a Teenage Werewolf
I Was a Teenage Werewolf
I Was a Teenage Werewolf is a 1957 horror film starring Michael Landon as a troubled teenager and Whit Bissell as the primary adult. It was co-written and produced by cult film producer Herman Cohen, and was one of the most successful films released by American International Pictures...
which he both wrote and produced. The film cost about $100,000 to make, but earned more than $2 million in box office receipts. He also discovered young Michael Landon
Michael Landon
Michael Landon was an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He is widely known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza , Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie , and Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven...
, cast in the lead role for I Was a Teenage Werewolf. Cohen followed this success by writing and producing more teen horror films, such as I Was a Teenage Frankenstein
I Was a Teenage Frankenstein
I Was a Teenage Frankenstein is a film starring Whit Bissell, Phyllis Coates and Gary Conway released by American International Pictures in November 1957. It is the follow-up to AIP's box-office hit I Was a Teenage Werewolf released less than five months earlier...
, How to Make a Monster
How to Make a Monster (1958 film)
How to Make a Monster is a 1958 American horror film released by American International Pictures. The film is a follow-up to both I Was a Teenage Werewolf and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein. Like Teenage Frankenstein, a black & white film that switched to color for the final moments, How to Make a...
, and Blood of Dracula. In a 1991 interview with Tom Weaver, Cohen reflected, "I have always felt that most teenagers think that adults — their parents, or their teacher, anyone who was older and who had authority — were culprits in their lives."
Cohen also occasionally appeared in his own films, usually as an uncredited extra. He played the director in the projection room in How to Make a Monster, and can also be seen in I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Konga, Black Zoo, Crooks and Coronets, and Trog.
In the 1960s and 1970s, he began producing horror films in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, working with such stars as Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
in Berserk! and Trog and Jack Palance
Jack Palance
Jack Palance , was an American actor. During half a century of film and television appearances, Palance was nominated for three Academy Awards, all as Best Actor in a Supporting Role, winning in 1991 for his role in City Slickers.-Early life:Palance, one of five children, was born Volodymyr...
in Craze. In 1961, he returned to his roots in Detroit purchasing the Fox Theater he had worked for in his youth. By the late 1970s, Cohen was working more in writing and distribution than in film production. He founded Cobra Media, a domestic distribution company, in 1981. Cohen died of throat cancer June 2, 2002.
Filmography as producer
- The Bushwhackers (1952)
- Kid Monk BaroniKid Monk BaroniKid Monk Baroni is a 1952 American film directed by Harold D. Schuster.The film is also known as Young Paul Baroni in the United Kingdom.- Plot summary :From the NY Times:...
(1952) - Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn GorillaBela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn GorillaBela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla is a 1952 comedy film directed by William Beaudine and starring horror veteran Béla Lugosi and nightclub comedians Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo in roles approximating Martin and Lewis.-Plot:...
(1952) - Battles of Chief PontiacBattles of Chief PontiacBattles of Chief Pontiac is an American quasi historical film directed by Felix E. Feist. The drama features Lex Barker, Helen Westcott and Lon Chaney Jr..-Plot:Conflict between Ottawa Native Americans, led by Chief Pontiac, and the British....
(1952) - River BeatRiver BeatRiver Beat is a 1954 British crime film directed by Guy Green and starring John Bentley, Phyllis Kirk and Leonard White. A river police inspector faces a moral dilemma when a woman he knows gets caught up in jewel smuggling.-Cast:...
(1954) - Target EarthTarget earthTarget Earth may refer to:* Target Earth, the video game also known as Assault Suits Leynos* Target Earth , a 1954 Science Fiction B-Movie*Target Earth is also a 1998 TV-Movie starring Christopher Meloni and Marcia Cross...
(1954) - Magnificent Roughnecks (1956)
- Dance with Me HenryDance with Me HenryDance with Me, Henry is a 1956 film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. It is the final film that they starred in together, although Costello went on to star in one more film before his death, The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock.-Plot:...
(1956) - The Brass Legend (1956)
- Crime of PassionCrime of Passion (1957 film)Crime of Passion is a 1957 American crime film noir directed by Gerd Oswald and written by Jo Eisinger. The drama features Barbara Stanwyck, Sterling Hayden, Raymond Burr and Fay Wray, among others.-Plot:...
(1957) - I Was a Teenage WerewolfI Was a Teenage WerewolfI Was a Teenage Werewolf is a 1957 horror film starring Michael Landon as a troubled teenager and Whit Bissell as the primary adult. It was co-written and produced by cult film producer Herman Cohen, and was one of the most successful films released by American International Pictures...
(1957) - I Was a Teenage FrankensteinI Was a Teenage FrankensteinI Was a Teenage Frankenstein is a film starring Whit Bissell, Phyllis Coates and Gary Conway released by American International Pictures in November 1957. It is the follow-up to AIP's box-office hit I Was a Teenage Werewolf released less than five months earlier...
(1957) - Blood of Dracula (1957)
- How to Make a MonsterHow to Make a Monster (1958 film)How to Make a Monster is a 1958 American horror film released by American International Pictures. The film is a follow-up to both I Was a Teenage Werewolf and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein. Like Teenage Frankenstein, a black & white film that switched to color for the final moments, How to Make a...
(1958) - Horrors of the Black MuseumHorrors of the Black MuseumHorrors of the Black Museum is a British horror film starring Michael Gough and directed by Arthur Crabtree.It was the first film in what film critic David Pirie dubbed Anglo-Amalgamated's "Sadian trilogy" , with an emphasis on sadism, cruelty and violence , in contrast to the supernatural...
(1959) - The Headless Ghost (1959)
- Konga (1961)
- Black ZooBlack ZooBlack Zoo is a 1963 American horror film produced and co-written by Herman Cohen. It is a violent, gore-filled tale directed by Robert Gordon.- Plot :Michael Conrad is a private zookeeper who owns Conrad's Animal Kingdom...
(1963) - A Study in TerrorA Study in TerrorA Study in Terror is a 1965 British thriller film directed by James Hill and starring John Neville as Sherlock Holmes and Donald Houston as Dr. Watson...
(1965) - Berserk!Berserk!Berserk! is a 1967 British Technicolor thriller film starring Joan Crawford, Ty Hardin, and Judy Geeson in a macabre mother and daughter tale about a circus plagued with murders. The screenplay was written by Herman Cohen and Aben Kandel, and the film directed by Jim O'Connolly...
(1968) - Django il bastardo (1969)
- Crooks and CoronetsCrooks and CoronetsCrooks and Coronets is a 1969 British crime comedy film and/or heist movie written and directed by Jim O'Connolly. It starred Telly Savalas, Edith Evans, Warren Oates, Cesar Romero and Harry H...
(1969) - TrogTrogTrog is a 1970 science fiction horror film starring Joan Crawford in a story about the discovery of a caveman. The screenplay was written by Peter Bryan, John Gilling, and Aben Kandel, and the film directed by Freddie Francis...
(1970) - Craze (1973)
- Gatto dagli occhi di giada, Il (1977)
Filmography as writer
- I Was a Teenage WerewolfI Was a Teenage WerewolfI Was a Teenage Werewolf is a 1957 horror film starring Michael Landon as a troubled teenager and Whit Bissell as the primary adult. It was co-written and produced by cult film producer Herman Cohen, and was one of the most successful films released by American International Pictures...
(19571957 in filmThe year 1957 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 21 - The movie Jailhouse Rock, starring Elvis Presley, opens.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue-Awards:...
) (with Aben Kandel, both credited as Ralph Thornton) - I Was a Teenage FrankensteinI Was a Teenage FrankensteinI Was a Teenage Frankenstein is a film starring Whit Bissell, Phyllis Coates and Gary Conway released by American International Pictures in November 1957. It is the follow-up to AIP's box-office hit I Was a Teenage Werewolf released less than five months earlier...
(19571957 in filmThe year 1957 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 21 - The movie Jailhouse Rock, starring Elvis Presley, opens.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue-Awards:...
) (with Aben Kandel, both credited as Kenneth Langtry) - How to Make a MonsterHow to Make a Monster (1958 film)How to Make a Monster is a 1958 American horror film released by American International Pictures. The film is a follow-up to both I Was a Teenage Werewolf and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein. Like Teenage Frankenstein, a black & white film that switched to color for the final moments, How to Make a...
(19581958 in filmThe year 1958 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 16- "In the Money" by William Beaudine is released on this date. It would be the last installment of The Bowery Boys series which began back in 1946....
) (with Aben Kandel, both credited as Kenneth Langtry) - Horrors of the Black MuseumHorrors of the Black MuseumHorrors of the Black Museum is a British horror film starring Michael Gough and directed by Arthur Crabtree.It was the first film in what film critic David Pirie dubbed Anglo-Amalgamated's "Sadian trilogy" , with an emphasis on sadism, cruelty and violence , in contrast to the supernatural...
(19591959 in filmThe year 1959 in film involved some significant events, with Ben-Hur winning a record 11 Academy Awards.-Events:* The Three Stooges make their 190th and last short film, Sappy Bull Fighters....
) - The Headless Ghost (19591959 in filmThe year 1959 in film involved some significant events, with Ben-Hur winning a record 11 Academy Awards.-Events:* The Three Stooges make their 190th and last short film, Sappy Bull Fighters....
) (with Aben Kandel, both credited as Kenneth Langtry) - KongaKongaKonga is a locality situated in Tingsryd Municipality, Kronoberg County, Sweden with 508 inhabitants in 2005....
(19611961 in filmThe year 1961 in film involved some significant events, with West Side Story winning 10 Academy Awards.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:* Atlantis, the Lost ContinentB...
) - Black ZooBlack ZooBlack Zoo is a 1963 American horror film produced and co-written by Herman Cohen. It is a violent, gore-filled tale directed by Robert Gordon.- Plot :Michael Conrad is a private zookeeper who owns Conrad's Animal Kingdom...
(19631963 in filmThe year 1963 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* June 12 - Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison and Richard Burton premieres at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City....
) - Berserk!Berserk!Berserk! is a 1967 British Technicolor thriller film starring Joan Crawford, Ty Hardin, and Judy Geeson in a macabre mother and daughter tale about a circus plagued with murders. The screenplay was written by Herman Cohen and Aben Kandel, and the film directed by Jim O'Connolly...
(19681968 in filmThe year 1968 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 30 - The film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, debuts.* November 1 - The MPAA's film rating system is introduced.-Top grossing films :- Awards :...
) - Craze (19731973 in filmThe year 1973 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces his second wife, Barbara Blakely. Blakely would later marry actor/singer Frank Sinatra....
)