American International Pictures - The Films of The 1950s

The Films of The 1950s

Having recognized that other filmmakers were ignoring the lucrative teenage drive-in market, AIP focused on producing scores of low-budget, youth-oriented films. They exploited the emerging juvenile delinquent genre with movies like Daddy-O, High School Hellcats, Female Jungle, Reform School Girl, Runaway Daughters, and Girls in Prison.

Many of AIP's "wild youth" features also catered to the teenage obsession with cars and drag racing in films such as Hot Rod Gang, Hot Rod Girl (with Chuck Connors), Road Racers, Drag Strip Girl, and the 1959 horror-hybrid The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow – the sequel to 1958's Hot Rod Gang.

Movies centered around rock 'n roll music such as Shake, Rattle & Rock! and Rock All Night was another untapped area mined by AIP. But one of their most unique innovations was the creation of teen-themed horror films with eye-catching titles like: I Was a Teenage Werewolf (starring Michael Landon), I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, and Roger Corman's science fiction film Teenage Cave Man, with Robert Vaughn.

AIP also capitalized on the popularity of war films with releases such as 1958's Tank Battalion. Tank Battalion managed to cast Edward G. Robinson, backstopped by a bevy of female nurses and barmaids in case the combat scenes failed to interest moviegoers. Made as usual on a very tight budget, the costs of casting meant that the producer could only afford the rental of a single tank for the so-called 'Tank Battalion', and the action scenes were written with this limitation in mind, focusing primarily on the tank's crew and their love interests.

Science fiction and horror films, many directed by Roger Corman and written by Lou Rusoff, were a staple at AIP with titles like It Conquered the World (with Peter Graves and Lee Van Cleef), The She Creature, and War of the Colossal Beast.