Targets (1968)

 Targets (1968) 

Director: Peter Bogdanovich 

Writing Credits:

Peter Bogdanovich ... (screenplay)

Polly Platt ... (story) and

Peter Bogdanovich ... (story)

Samuel Fuller ... (co-screenwriter) (uncredited) 

Boris Karloff as Byron Orlok 

Peter Bogdanovich as Sammy Michaels 

Roger Corman explains in his autobiography that he handed this "spec" project to the up-and-coming Bogdanovich primarily because he could basically pay the kid peanuts. Bogdanovich understood Corman's economic sensibilities well, and cut as many corners as he could. He uses Cormans regular bit-players as well as plenty of Jack Nicholson footage from 1963's "The Terror" - another Corman B-movie. Corman's specifications for the film were simple: make a cheap film referring to the recent Charles Whitman shootings at the University of Texas, and make it fast. The script draws heavily from the real-life Whitman story; the all-American boy gone bad kills his wife and mother, and then proceeds on a killing spree, shooting anyone in his sights from a snipers nest. This story is intertwined with that of Byron Orlocks ageing horror legend nearing retirement; here Boris Karloff plays himself, for all intents and purposes. Bogdanovich plays a major role in the film himself, and there is obvious affection between the young director and Karloff in the scenes they share. (IMDB  cpetro1)