This cult favorite from legendary filmmaker Roger Corman knows it’s ridiculous, so it makes that ridiculousness part of the fun. Dick Miller, who would become a cult figure of his own after this film, stars as Walter Paisley, an impossibly inept wannabe artist who clears tables at a coffeehouse for beatniks. While ‘true’ artists recite their poetry and unveil their paintings all around him – Corman’s send-up of Beat culture and artistic pretension is delectable – Walter cowers in shame. At least until he encases a dead cat in clay, brings it to the coffeehouse and is praised as a master of realism. Naturally, people become his next subject. Aside from Corman’s satirical jabs, A Bucket of Blood offers plenty of unintentional laughs, starting with the props (Walter’s cat statue looks about as real as one of those giant chocolate Easter bunnies).
