Larry Cohen

:"For the bridge player, see" Larry Cohen (bridge player)."

Larry Cohen (born Lawrence G. Cohen on July 15, 1938fact|date=July 2008 (or 1941 [“Biography of Larry Cohen,” "The Stuff" (1985). DVD. Englewood, Colorado: Anchor Bay/Starz Entertainment, 2000.] ), in Kingston, New York, [“Biography of Larry Cohen,” "The Stuff" (1985). DVD. Englewood, Colorado: Anchor Bay/Starz Entertainment, 2000.] USA) is an American film producer, director, and screenwriter. Although he writes and produces for others, he is best known for directing his own low-budget, satirical, and inventive horror films and thrillers that are laced with scathing social commentary about modern society. Cohen moved to the Riverdale section of the Bronx at an early age, eventually majoring in film at the historic City College of New York.

Biography

Cohen started his career in television, writing on many shows and creating the cult classics "Branded" and "The Invaders". He wrote, produced, and directed his first feature film, "Bone", in 1972. He came to prominence with "It's Alive" (1974), a horror film about a mutant killer baby. Though cheaply produced, it is notable for its satirical black humor (the hero's son slaughters the medical staff at birth) and for its exploration of the parents’ dilemma: the hero, who has fathered one of the creatures, at first disowns it but later tries to protect it despite its obvious anti-social tendencies. "It's Alive" is also noted for being scored by Bernard Herrmann. Cohen made two sequels, "It Lives Again" (1978) and "" (1987).

Cohen's films are full of quotable dialogue. In "Full-Moon High" (1981), a teenage werewolf puts off his girlfriend's advances with the excuse that it's “his time of the month.” In "Q" (aka "The Winged Serpent", 1982), the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl is resurrected and flies about New York City snatching human sacrifices off the skyscrapers. Cohen was able to employ the talents of Michael Moriarty, David Carradine, and Candy Clark, and the film is one of his most sophisticated, but it still manages to include such lines as “Maybe his head got loose and fell off.” and "I want a Nixon-type pardon!" "The Stuff" (1985) concerns a parasitic goo from beneath the Earth's crust that manages to get itself marketed as a dessert. The film's hero announces proudly at the beginning, "Nobody" could be as dumb as "I" appear," and later delivers the maxim "Everybody has to eat shaving cream once in a while."

Perhaps Cohen’s most complex film, as well as his darkest, is "God Told Me To" (aka "Demon", 1976), in which a troubled Catholic detective is faced with an epidemic of murders carried out by apparently normal people who claim, with quiet satisfaction, that God told them to do it. The film mixes science fiction and horror with religious satire.

In 1987, Cohen made an unofficial sequel to Stephen King's "'Salem's Lot". With typical chutzpah, Cohen threw out all of King’s characters and kept only the basic premise of a small American town inhabited by vampires. "A Return to Salem's Lot" starred Michael Moriarty (a Cohen regular) and Samuel Fuller, and satirizes small-town snobbery and hypocrisy: a little old woman vampire refers coyly to her drinking problem while the evil king vampire is shown to be, at bottom, little more than a rather nasty conservative politician.

Besides monster movies, Cohen has also made thrillers such as "The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover" (1977), which portrays the FBI chief as a sexually repressed and paranoid megalomaniac; "Special Effects" (1984), the twisted tale of a policeman, a murderous film director, and the woman who gets turned into the double of his leading lady; and "The Ambulance" (1990), a Hitchcock-style entertainment in which Eric Roberts investigates the sudden disappearance of a young woman.

Because of their frequently hurried guerilla production style and their bargain-basement budgets, Cohen's films are sometimes murkily shot or messily edited, but Cohen’s freewheeling approach (and complete independence from studio interference) enables him to attack a number of satirical targets that often get off lightly in the mainstream—for example, ruthless food companies in "The Stuff". In the third film of the "Alive" trilogy, Cohen even manages to work in some telling swipes against the American demonization of Cuba.

Cohen was influenced by director Samuel Fuller and now lives in a house formerly owned by Mr. Fuller. In recent years, Cohen has curtailed his directing and producing activities, and has focused mainly on writing. His work was primarily for low-budget films and television until 1998, when Cohen's spec script "Phone Booth" triggered active interest and aggressive bidding from major Hollywood players. Joel Schumacher directed the resulting 2002 film, which starred Colin Farrell. Cohen was also credited with the story for the 2004 release "Cellular", another thriller with a telecommunications theme. However, in 2006, Cohen returned to directing briefly with the episode “Pick Me Up” of the Showtime series "Masters of Horror".

= "Cast of Characters" Vs. "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" lawsuit =

In 2003, Cohen, together with production partner Martin Poll was at the center of a lawsuit against 20th Century Fox, claiming the company had intentionally plagiarized a script of theirs titled "Cast of Characters" in order to create the Sean Connery-starring "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" film in 2003. According to the BBC, the lawsuit alleged "that Mr Cohen and Mr Poll pitched the idea to Fox several times between 1993 and 1996, under the name "Cast of Characters".""Gentlemen lands Fox in $100 million lawsuit," Saturday, September 27, 2003. "Calcutta Telegraph".] "Producer and Writer File $100 Million Lawsuit Against 20th Century-Fox," September 25, 2003. "Business Wire".] cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/3141720.stm|title=Studio sued over superhero movie|date=26 September, 2003|publisher=BBC|accessdate=2008-05-16 [http://www.webcitation.org/5XrcV3T8s Archived] on 2008-05-16.]

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was an adaptation of the 1999 published comic book series by Alan Moore and artist Kevin O'Neill. The lawsuit alleged that Fox had solicited the comics series "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" from Moore as a smokescreen for its intent to produce a movie plagiarizing "Cast of Characters". It also claimed that both films shared similar public domain characters, including Tom Sawyer and Dorian Gray, characters who did not appear in the comic-book series. [Barber, Nicholas, "Notices: Cinema opening this week." "The Independent on Sunday" (London); Oct 26, 2003; p. 39] Although Fox dismissed the lawsuit as "absurd nonsense," the case was ultimately settled out-of-court, a decision which Moore, according to the "New York Times" "took...as an especially bitter blow, believing that he had been denied the chance to exonerate himself." [cite news|title=The Vendetta Behind 'V for Vendetta'|last=Itzkoff|first=David|date=March 12, 2006|publisher=New York Times|accessdate=2008-05-16]

Partial filmography

* "Captivity" (2007)
* "Masters of Horror"—"Pick Me Up" (2006)
* "": A documentary (2004)
* "Phone Booth (film)" ((2003))
* "Original Gangstas" (AKA Hot City) (1996)
* "As Good As Dead" (TV Movie) (1995)
* "The Ambulance" (1990)
* "Wicked Stepmother" (1989)
* "Deadly Illusion" (1987)
* "" (1987)
* "A Return to Salem's Lot" (1987)
* "The Stuff" (1985)
* "Special Effects" (1984)
* "Perfect Strangers" (AKA Blind Alley) (1984)
* "Q" (aka "The Winged Serpent") (1982)
* "See China and Die" (AKA "Momma the Detective") (TV movie) (1981)
* "Full Moon High" (1981)
* "It Lives Again" (1978)
* "The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover" (1977)
* "God Told Me To" (AKA "Demon", AKA "God Told Me to Kill") (1976)
* "It's Alive" (1974)
* "Hell Up in Harlem" (sequel to "Black Caesar") (1973)
* "Black Caesar" (AKA "The Godfather of Harlem") (1973)
* "Bone" (AKA "Dial Rat for Terror", AKA "Beverly Hills Nightmare", AKA "Housewife") (Starring Yaphet Kotto) (1972)

References

External links

*imdb name|id=0169540|name=Larry Cohen
* [http://www.searchmytrash.com/articles/larrycohen(8-08).shtml Larry Cohen biography on (re)Search my Trash]
* [http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/cohen.html Senses of Cinema Great Directors profile (profile by Tony Williams)]