From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Larry Buchanan (born Marcus Larry Seale Jr.) (January 31, 1923 – December 2, 2004) was a film director, producer and writer, who proclaimed himself a "schlockmeister". Many of his titles have landed on "worst movie" lists, but all at least broke even and many made a profit. Buchanan was born in Mexia, Texas. He was orphaned as a baby, and was raised in Dallas in an orphanage. It was while growing up there that he became fascinated with the movies which were shown in the orphanage's theater. He considered becoming a minister, but visited Hollywood and landed a job in the props department at 20th Century Fox. He made movies for the United States Army Signal Corps during World War II. In the early 1950s, Buchanan began producing, writing, editing and acting in his own movies. The first was The Cowboy in 1951. He is perhaps best known for exploitation, science fiction, and other genre films, including Free, White and 21, High Yellow, The Naked Witch, The Loch Ness Horror, and Mistress of the Apes. Among Buchanan's work, eight direct-to-television films he wrote, produced, and directed under his own Azalea Films production entity in the mid- and late-1960s, for American International Pictures, still generate a good degree of fan adoration. The titles — The Eye Creatures, Zontar, The Thing from Venus, Creature of Destruction, Mars Needs Women, In the Year 2889, Curse of the Swamp Creature, Hell Raiders, and It's Alive! — were largely remakes of AIP films from a decade earlier. Buchanan's instructions from AIP were We want cheap color pictures, we want half-assed names in them, we want them eighty minutes long and we want them now. In 1964, Buchanan created The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, which presented an alternate history in which John F. Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald both survived Kennedy's assassination. In 1984 he produced Down on Us, which charged that the United States government was responsible for the deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin. Buchanan's autobiography is entitled It Came from Hunger: Tales of a Cinema Schlockmeister. After he died in 2004 in Tucson, a long obituary in the New York Times summarized his work thus: "One quality united Mr. Buchanan's diverse output: It was not so much that his films were bad; they were deeply, dazzlingly, unrepentantly bad. His work called to mind a famous line from H. L. Mencken, who, describing President Warren G. Harding's prose, said, 'It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it.'" Description above from the Wikipedia article Larry Buchanan, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Biography from TMDB.
- January 31, 1921
- December 2, 2004 (aged 83)
- Lost Prairie, Texas, USA
- Director, writer, producer and editor
- 8 on MovieCove · 30 credits in all
What are Larry Buchanan's films like?
Across their 7 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Survival and Morality.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 0 · Wry 1 · Earnest 6
Light 4 · Serious 2 · Dark 1
Grounded 6 · Stylized 1 · Heightened 0
Gentle 4 · Charged 3 · Intense 0
Steady 7 · Shifting 0 · Whiplash 0
Straight-faced 3 · Some laughs 3 · Funny 1
Slow burn 7 · Even-paced 0 · Relentless 0
Casual 6 · Engaged 1 · Full focus 0
Easy watch 6 · Affecting 1 · Heavy 0
Resolved 6 · Open-ended 0 · Ambiguous 1
Moods and endings
- Happy1
- Bittersweet2
- Tragic1
- Ambiguous3
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch Larry Buchanan's films?
As of October 24, 2026, all 8 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service, most on Tubi (5).
Subscription and free streaming for Larry Buchanan's titles on MovieCove; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
30 credits, 8 with a MovieCove page.
Goodnight, Sweet Marilyn (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1989)
Down on Us (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1984)
The Loch Ness Horror (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1981)
Mistress of the Apes(1979)
Midcredits score: 1st percentile of all films
Hughes and Harlow: Angels in Hell (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1978)
Goodbye, Norma Jean (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1976)
Strawberries Need Rain (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1971)
A Bullet for Pretty Boy(1970)
Midcredits score: 13th percentile of all films
Sex and the Animals (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1969)
It's Alive (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1969)
Hell Raiders (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1969)
In the Year 2889(1969)
Midcredits score: 1st percentile of all films
Mars Needs Women(1968)
Midcredits score: 2nd percentile of all films
The Other Side of Bonnie and Clyde (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1968)
Midcredits score: 1st percentile of all filmsComanche Crossing (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1968)
Midcredits score: 2nd percentile of all films
The Eye Creatures (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1967)
Creature of Destruction (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1967)
Sam (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1967)
High Yellow (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1965)
Midcredits score: 16th percentile of all films
Under Age (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1964)
Naughty Dallas (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1964)
Free, White and 21 (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1963)
Common Law Wife (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1961)
The Naked Witch (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1960)
Grubstake (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1952)
The Cowboy (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1951)
The Gunfighter(1950)
Midcredits score: 97th percentile of all films
Career shape
A full career of 30 titles from 1950 to 1989.
Film career
- 1950Screen debut· The Gunfighter
By role
Counts from TMDB across their full career, self appearances out; a title counts in every role they held on it. The ring is the typical Midcredits score (the median percentile) of the role's titles that are on MovieCove, shown from 5 scored.
How do Larry Buchanan's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 2nd percentile, the median of all 8; across their 7 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 5th percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up1
- Below 25th7
Shape of the crowd
4 of their 8 titles are Universally Panned.
- Universally Loved1
- Universally Panned4
- Mixed3
Reviewers score the atmosphere 31/100 and the pacing 20/100 in their films, across 7 reviewed titles. The element that speaks to their work as a director.
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on MovieCove; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Midcredits score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their MovieCove titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.
Who does Larry Buchanan work with?
People who share at least 2 of Larry Buchanan's MovieCove titles, grouped by what they did on them; Tony Huston shares the most, 4.
Writers
- Tony HustonShared titles: A Bullet for Pretty Boy (1970), Curse of the Swamp Creature (1968), Mars Needs Women (1968), Zontar: The Thing from Venus (1967)See all 4 shared titles with Tony Huston
- Harold HoffmanShared titles: In the Year 2889 (1969), The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald (1964)See all 2 shared titles with Harold Hoffman
- Lou RusoffShared titles: In the Year 2889 (1969), Zontar: The Thing from Venus (1967)See all 2 shared titles with Lou Rusoff
Actors
- Bill ThurmanShared titles: A Bullet for Pretty Boy (1970), In the Year 2889 (1969), Curse of the Swamp Creature (1968), Zontar: The Thing from Venus (1967)See all 4 shared titles with Bill Thurman
- Jeff AlexanderShared titles: A Bullet for Pretty Boy (1970), Curse of the Swamp Creature (1968), Zontar: The Thing from Venus (1967)See all 3 shared titles with Jeff Alexander
- Neil FletcherShared titles: In the Year 2889 (1969), Mars Needs Women (1968), Zontar: The Thing from Venus (1967)See all 3 shared titles with Neil Fletcher
- George EdgleyShared titles: Mars Needs Women (1968), Zontar: The Thing from Venus (1967), The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald (1964)See all 3 shared titles with George Edgley
Cinematographers
- James R. DavidsonShared titles: A Bullet for Pretty Boy (1970), The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald (1964)See all 2 shared titles with James R. Davidson
- Robert JessupShared titles: In the Year 2889 (1969), Mars Needs Women (1968)See all 2 shared titles with Robert Jessup
Producers
- Edwin TobolowskyShared titles: In the Year 2889 (1969), Curse of the Swamp Creature (1968), Mars Needs Women (1968), Zontar: The Thing from Venus (1967)See all 4 shared titles with Edwin Tobolowsky