The Search for Coleman Francis! Part 2

[onionhat]

Ray Dennis Steckler?!! Wild! One of the best things about MST3K is how much genuine interest it brought to artists struggling in obscurity.

[cwhitney]

May be something you've already seen, but did you watch the No Dialogue Necessary: The Making of the Beast of Yucca Flats, which was a Ballyhoo extra on the MST3k Beast of Yucca Flats dvd?

That had a couple interviews with people who knew Coleman, Bob Burns and Lee Strosnider. The latter did a lot of the camerawork for Beast of Yucca Flats and Skydivers. He's since passed but he did supply a lot of interesting commentary. There was also another short on the dvd, the title of which I'm blanking, and which does not appear on Strosnider's Imdb information, which was exclusively an interview with him about Coleman Francis. It's not very substantial but he did mention that the last time he saw Coleman, Coleman was trying to get him to give him money to make a new film.

Not sure how easy Tom Hanson would be to find, but I believe he's still around and is willing to talk about the films he made. He played Chastain in Red Zone Cuba. He was also in Hellcats, which had a large number of connections to the earlier Francis films. Who knows if you could shake something out of that.

[AllenManor]

I am a Coleman Francis aficionado as well. Shocked to learn that my daily commute drove me past his home on Saticoy St. in Van Nuys. I have probably driven past it thousands of times.

Years ago I tracked down Anthony Cardoza. He was living in Frazier Park, California (a very odd mountain community) and was married to an Asian woman. I emailed him a few times and she responded, though she was very cagey with information because she said Cardoza was in the process of writing his memoir and did not want to "give any good stuff away". He was not interested in talking to me but she agreed to ask some questions for me. I wrote her several but all I got out of him was that the bar in Skydivers was on Lankershim Blvd. in Sun Valley, CA and that the airport scenes in Red Zone Cuba were shot at Agua Dulce Airfield (an area best known for its unusual rock formations featured in Star Trek several times). He also shared that The Skydivers airfield was in Quartz Hill, near Palmdale, California. The airfield has since been covered with a housing community.

I did a quick search on www.searchpeoplefree.com and there is a Ronald A. Francis, aged 79, listed in Van Nuys, California as well as in nearby Moorpark, CA. You have to pay for contact information though. I would be willing to bet that he is Coleman's son. I hope you do a follow-up video sometime soon.

[AA-inso]

Really fascinating stuff, it's always cool to see overlooked figures in film, especially b-movies, get some attention and biographical insight. Excellent video!

[jacobschweitzer]

I feel so bad for Coleman francis.
Shame his life ended the way it did

[SukkaPunch]

This and your blog is such a gold mine! I’m learning so much I didn’t know about Coleman before. It’s so comparatively easy to be a film maker now vs the 50s and 60s. Coleman and his contemporaries had guts.

[cinemalover]

He had a great sounding and distinctive voice. I love his narrative in “The Thrill Killers.”

[beardsleyaubrey]

Coleman Francis is mentioned in the recent biography of Criswell. Apparently, Francis had a starring role in a film about the King of the Hobos by Titus Moede, a friend of Steckler. There's a picture of Francis as a hobo riding a train in the book. Francis also starred in 2 of Steckler's Lemon Grove Kids films, once as a gangster, and another time as a homeowner kidnapped by aliens. Francis also did some of the screen narration at the beginning of Steckler's The Thrill Killers. If you look at the plot of Steckler's Thrill Killers, it is very similar to Francis' later film Night Train to Mundo Fine (aka Red Zone Cuba), so maybe Francis was inspired by Steckler in making that film.

[kevinbahr]

Just discovered this because I'm debating whether or not to write a full essay on Coleman Francis in my minimalist cinema class, arguing that his works create a stark mood and tone not dissimilar to some of the great minimalist auteurs like Bresson and such, only because his films played at drive-ins, they were released to an audience that was only disappointed it didn't meet their genre fare expectations.

I'll be doing research of my own to try and get more of a sense of who he was as a man to see how much of his films' tone can be intentional and how much was chalked up to him not knowing what he was doing, but regardless, I'll be watching the rest of your journey with bated breath!

[mshotz]

This Island Earth was featured in MST3K, The Movie. So Coleman made four appearances on the show!

[simonblack]

"You fellas want to want to play some galloping dominoes? "

[samuelstephens]

I hate Coleman Francis's utterly sluggish films, but that doesn't mean I haven't watched them multiple times with MST3K, and this video about his life was fascinating! And, I should at least say he made three films while I have made none (to speak of).

[Peter-pvxx]

Killers from space was riffed by mst3k alumni Mike bill corbet and Kevin Murphy as themselves in the show entitled the film crew, it's here on YouTube the movie starred Peter Graves, I'm surprised they didn't mention Coleman Francis was in it.

[lovecat_zeta]

Wow thanks for this great video! I've always found the the Coleman Francis films weirdly fascinating and had no idea how much work he'd been in. It's interesting to see him in so many other roles and modes, really changed my view of his acting ability. And man I would LOVE to see Francis in Hamlet.

Appreciate the research you did for this :)

[MeinGott]

thank you so much for this Old Man Jeff!

[JustJohnForNow]

This is fascinating! I used to be obsessed with Coleman Francis and Ray Dennis Steckler and Ed Wood and even Doris Wishman, all of whom are interconnected in various ways. They all made B-movies with a personal touch that made you wonder about their lives, so I don't blame you for making the effort to investigate this so thoroughly. Thank you so much! Now I gotta check out part one.

[simonblack]

WOW I JUST FINISHED WATCHING PART ONE AND MADE THE SAME COMMENT ABOUT STECKLER! I didn't watch part 2 yet, but I sure will now!

[davidtalon]

Wow! he was good !!! very solid actor, from different roles very sad for Coleman! R I P .

[georgewilson]

Interesting. I didn't know he was friends with Steckler.

[wnewfmer]

Thanks for all your research... Well done...