Menahem Golan, prolific producer of schlocky films, dies at 85

Menahem Golan, prolific producer of schlocky films, dies at 85

I give him a thumb up for one film that I can recall immediately. I think The Last American Virgin is one of the best entries in the genre of "80s youthploitation films," right up there with Revenge of the Nerds, Risky Business, Better Off Dead, the original Porky's, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Unfortunately, I can't think of many more worthwhile films that I associate with Golan within his catalogue of more than 200 as director or producer, but Golan and Globus and their Cannon Films company made a lot of money in the movie business, following the same general penny-pinching B-film formula as Roger Corman, who was Golan's mentor back in the early 60s

When they weren't churning out cheapie flicks, Cannon films also produced some prestige films that only film nerds have heard of, like Cassavetes’ Love Streams, Altman’s Fool for Love, Zefferelli's Otello, Godard's King Lear and Barbet Schroeder’s Barfly.


SIDEBAR:

To give you an idea how far the Marvel film empire has advanced in the past quarter century, Golan produced an embarrassingly and hilariously low budget version of Captain America in 1990. It is rated a pathetic 3.2 at IMDb, backed up by a dismal 9% at Rotten Tomatoes. One point of interest: the patriotic shield-slinger was played by Matt Salinger, son of the famed reclusive author of Catcher in the Rye.