King Cohen (2017)

Written & Directed by Steve Mitchell

This is a nicely done, cheerful, documentary about legendary TV/movie writer/director/producer Larry Cohen.

It is cheerful because it tends to focus on the joy, the fun, of filmmaking on the hardscrabble indie edge in the 1970s and early 1980s.
It is also NYC centric. Cohen, classic 1970s movies are set in the city.

We are told and shown examples of Cohen’s knack for stealing location shots in the city. This is when a stripped down, fast moving, production crew just shoots stuff on the streets without establishing permission through the city authorities, such as today’s Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, or informing bystanders and pedestrians who happen to be there.  Cohen also did not put a lot of planning into stunt coordinating. Fred Williamson, star of Cohen’s 1973 Black Caesar, tells some interesting fun stories about this mode of working with Cohen. He contradicts Cohen’s claim of performing a stunt of jumping from a moving cab before his star agreed to do it. “He’s lying.” says Williamson, smoking a big cigar. It’s very amusing.

Those familiar with Cohen classic 1970s-80s indie feature work, such as It’s Alive (1974) and it’s sequels and Q (1982) might be interested in learning through this documentary that Larry Cohen did a lot of TV writing of popular shows in the 1960’s when very young, in his 20s. These include The Fugitive, The Defenders, and being the creator of Branded (“Scorned as the one who ran, What do you do when you’re branded and you know you’re a man?”), and The Invaders. 

Larry Cohen is interviewed in the movie. He is an interesting personality that only NYC could have produced, likes to talk, is proud of his work. He likes to focus on the positive end of a very difficult business that he managed to succeed in way beyond most others who attempt it.

This is a very entertaining fast paced documentary filled with enthusiasm and joyfulness in the creative process.  
It could serve as an inspiration for young moving image storytellers.