Samuel Z. Arkoff

The Story of X takes you to the earliest days of adult films when men peddled stag reels and projectors out of the trunks of their cars, then through the movie house years to the arrival of the home video business, and now the Internet. Meet the men behind the camera, such as "King of Sexploitation" Dave Friedman and the preeminent breast man Russ Meyer. Considered pariahs at the time, they're now hailed as pioneers in the fight against censorship. The Story of X visits the 60s when women's rights, not nudity, became the issue and recounts porn's arrival in Hollywood, led by director Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris. In the 70s, several groundbreaking films, including Behind the Green Door featuring Marilyn Chambers and Deep Throat featuring Linda Lovelace, took the genre to a new level.

A nostalgic, informative history of drive-in movie theaters, featuring extensive archival photographs and interviews with Leonard Maltin, John Bloom, Samuel Z. Arkoff, Barry Corbin and many others... Drive-In Movie Memories is a film celebration of America's greatest icon of youth, freedom and the automobile. What began as an auto parts owner's business venture to make some easy money accidentally became a magical place where romance, fun and a sense of community flourished. This film chronicles the drive-in's birth and development, its phenomenal popularity with audiences of all ages, its tragic decline, and its inevitable comeback as a classic form of Americana.

A woman working in the B movie industry begins examining the industry and the damaged, desperate people who work in it.

A Canadian documentary featuring two young filmmakers attending the Toronto Film Festival to pitch a film concept to various celebrities. Their film idea, titled "The Dawn", concerns a Mafia don who goes for a hernia operation but gets a sex change instead. During the 1996 Toronto Fest, they approach Roger Ebert, Norman Jewison (at a packed press conference), Eric Stoltz (leaving a limo), Al Pacino, and others without much success. On a roll, they leave Toronto for Hollywood, getting advice from Arthur Hiller and Neil Simon and finding an agent who expresses interest in their pitch.

After Mary tells her boyfriend she's pregnant, he enrolls in the Army and skips town, leaving her to fend for herself. With her friends Angie and Laura by her side, Mary steals a car, fakes a kidnapping and heads down to San Diego to chase her errant beau. It's a bumpy ride, however, as the girls are pursued by corrupt cops and homicidal hillbillies, not to mention their own flabbergasted parents.

A comprehensive story of Hollywood's horror and science fiction films of the 1950s, told by the people who made them.

Hollywood is a town of tinsel and glamour; but there is another Hollywood, a place where maverick independent exploitation filmmakers went toe to toe with the big guys and came out on top.

Director Garry S. Grant’s insightful documentary celebrates the work and legacy of auteur filmmaker Mario Bava, the grand master of Italian horror and the man known by many as “the Italian Hitchcock.”

From THINGS to BODY SNATCHERS to CREATURES FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, sci-fi monsters dominated 1950s horror. Take a ride to an era of drive-ins, Red Scares, low budgets and big bugs with SPACE INVADERS AND DRIVE INS.

A 60-minute salute to American International Pictures. Entertainment lawyer Samuel Z. Arkoff founded AIP (then called American Releasing Corporation) on a $3000 loan in 1954 with his partner, James H. Nicholson, a former West Coast exhibitor and distributor. The company made its mark by targeting teenagers with quickly produced films that exploited subjects mainstream films were reluctant to tackle.

Gangster Zac Cotton and his two henchmen, Mitch and Sonny, try to get a boat to get off a tropical island after a botched robbery heist.

A video documentary/road trip that celebrates the drive-in movie theater's impact on the United States, and pays homage to the people who keep the few remaining ones fully operational. Features interviews with horror movie maker John Carpenter, movie critic John I. Bloom (aka "Joe Bob Briggs"), Michael Wallis, author of "Route 66: The Mother Road," and others.

A 30 minute infomercial that originally aired on Comedy Central in 1993. The idea was that by purchasing Troma Inc. movie products you could better yourself as a person.

Behind the scenes of Hollywood's low-budget movie industry. It is a powerful portrait of the fragility of fame and the cost of stardom. B-pictures have long been the spawning ground of today's and tomorrow's stars. They started the careers of Jack Nicholson and Sylvester Stallone among many others, as well as now super star directors Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich, Ron Howard and James Cameron. The film examines the evolution of starry-eyed newcomers arriving in Hollywood and discovering the harsh reality of getting into pictures.

Samuel Z. Arkoff, along with James Nicholson, founded the immensely successful American International Pictures. AIP discovered an untapped audience in the American teenager and proceeded to turn independent filmmaking on it's head as they churned out drive-in double features overflowing with misunderstood teen heroes, horrific monsters, reform school girls, and leather-jacketed tough guys. Many titles were notable for their spectacular poster art, still highly sought by collectors today. Arkoff, with his unerring eye for talent, helped launch the careers of Roger Corman, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola, Jack Nicholson, Robert Deniro, Michael Landon and Dennis Hopper. Midnight Marquee, Longthrow and Alpha are proud to honor the legendary Samuel Z. Arkoff, a perfect subject for the FANEX Files documentary series.

This documentary celebrates the work of illustrator Reynold Brown, whose colorful and compelling art graced over 300 movie posters during the 1950s and '60s, ranging from star-studded westerns and studio epics to sensational creature features and low-budget B-movies. Art historians, writers, and movie producers discuss Brown's art within the context of the post-war social climate and an ever-changing movie industry.

Two years after the Westworld tragedy in the Delos amusement park, the corporate owners have reopened the park following over $1 billion in safety and other improvements. For publicity purposes, reporters Chuck Browning and Tracy Ballard are invited to review the park. Just prior to arriving, however, Browning is given a clue by a dying man that something is amiss.

World War II, 1943. Mallory and Miller, the heroes who destroyed the guns of Navarone, are sent to Yugoslavia in search of a ghost from the past.

A white dropout struggles to become a cartoonist and filmmaker, drawing inspiration from the harsh, gritty world around him. Still sharing his rundown apartment with his middle-aged parents, an oafish slob of an Italian father and a ditzy nutcase of a Jewish mother, he's ridiculed and looked down upon by his friends, hypocrites who run with violent gangs and the Italian Mafia, and a shallow Black girl who makes her living downtown with the pimps and pushers. The cartoonist gets a chance to pitch a film idea to a movie mogul, but the story proves too outrageous: a far-future Earth, depleted by war and pollution, where a mutant antihero challenges and kills God.

An undertaker who hasn't had any 'customers' in a long time is forced to pay one year's back-rent. To get money he starts to kill people, which brings absurd results.

An artist grows distant from his new wife as an irrational fear of premature burial consumes him.

A Martian teenager sent to prepare for an invasion falls in love with an Earth girl.

Young orphan Heathcliff is adopted by the wealthy Earnshaw family and moves into their estate, Wuthering Heights. Soon, the new resident falls for his compassionate foster sister, Cathy. The two share a remarkable bond that seems unbreakable until Cathy, feeling the pressure of social convention, suppresses her feelings and marries Edgar Linton, a man of means who befits her stature. Heathcliff vows to win her back.

A spaceship is sent to Mars after an alien distress signal is picked up. They find one survivor, but when a crew member is found drained of blood it's evident they have rescued a bloodsucking monster. Uses footage from Encounter in Space (1963).

A millionaire sets out to prove his theory that his pet chimpanzee is as intelligent as the teenagers who hang out on the local beach, where he is intending to build a retirement home.

The 18th-century French marquis recalls his sadomasochistic experiments and goes to jail for lewd behavior.

A demented widow lures unsuspecting children into her mansion in a bizarre "Hansel and Gretel" twist.

Mad scientist Dr. Goldfoot has invented an army of bikini-clad robots programmed to seek out wealthy men and charm them into signing over their assets. Secret agent Craig Gamble and millionaire Todd Armstrong set out to foil his fiendish plot.

A student poet seduces his college president's wife, daughter, and girlfriend over lost financial aid.

Musician Max Frost lends his backing to a Senate candidate who wants to give 18-year-olds the right to vote, but he takes things a step further than expected. Inspired by their hero's words, Max's fans pressure their leaders into extending the vote to citizens as young as 15. Max and his followers capitalize on their might by bringing new issues to the fore, but, drunk on power, they soon take generational warfare to terrible extremes.

Dr. Henry Armitage, an expert in the occult, goes to the old Whateley manor in Dunwich looking for Nancy Wagner, a student who went missing the previous night. He is turned away by Wilbur, the family's insidious heir, who has plans for the young girl. But Armitage won't be deterred. Through conversations with the locals, he soon unearths the Whateleys' darkest secret — as well as a great evil.

Verden Fell is shattered after the death of his lovely wife. But, after an unexpected encounter with Lady Rowena Trevanion, Fell soon finds himself married again. Nevertheless, his late wife's spirit seems to hang over the dilapidated abbey that Fell shares with his new bride. Lady Rowena senses that something is amiss and, when she investigates, makes a horrifying discovery -- learning that Fell's dead wife is closer than she ever imagined possible.

Recently diagnosed with a terminal illness, a man returns home to Australia to die in the wilderness. His plans become complicated when he comes across a young boy whose parents have been killed and decides to take him under his wing.

A nice young couple move into an eerie house located in a small Louisiana town, unaware of its violent history.

Video game developer Clayton Software enlists the talents of a misfit group of programmers to develop the scariest computer combat game: EVILUTION. With four weeks to bring the game to market and a million-dollar bonus on the line, they utilize a telemetry suit to render a 3-D version of the onscreen player. But when a power surge gives the hard drive a mind of its own, the suit comes to life to play the game for real and the programming team find themselves in the middle of a chilling virtual nightmare beyond their wildest imagination.

A plastic surgeon and his nurse join a bizarre circus to escape from the police. Here he befriends deformed women and transforms them for his "Temple of Beauty". However, when they threaten to leave, they meet with mysterious accidents.

A college professor who discovers that his wife has been practicing black magic for years forces her to stop but soon learns the true power of the occult.

A space expedition to Uranus is menaced by a giant brain that can make illusions come true.

A writer of murder mysteries finds himself caught up in a string of murders in London.

In seventeenth century England Lord Whitman wages unending war on what he sees as the ever-present scourge of witchcraft, and many local villagers have suffered at his hands. But one victim uses her occult powers to curse his family, enlisting unknowing help from one of the household.