In these pages, Roger Corman, Hollywood's most successful independent filmmaker, recounts his experiences as a director and producer of classic low-budget films such as: "Attack of the Crab Monsters," "The Little Shop of Horrors," "The Raven," "The Man with the X-ray Eyes," "The Wild Angels," "The Trip," "Night Call Nurses," "Bloody Mama," "Piranha," and many others. He also discusses the distribution of films by Bergman, Fellini, and Truffaut, which later won Oscars in the Best Foreign Film category. Corman's graduates, such as John Sayles, Martin Scorsese, Jack Nicholson, Vincent Price, Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich, Peter Fonda, Joe Dante, and Jonathan Demme, contribute their memories, providing additional perspective to Corman's often humorous, always informative autobiography.