079 - A Bucket Of Blood (1959)

DVD Box

A Bucket Of Blood is the story of an aspiring artist who creates clay models from his murdered victims.

Walter Paisley (Dick Miller) is a waiter at a café that often hosts some of the finest artists around. He is heavily influenced by poet Maxwell Brock and aspires to be a great artist like him.

One night at home his landlady informs him that her cat is missing and, upon hearing it in the wall he tries to free it. He accidentally kills the cat but spots an opportunity and covers it in clay.

He shows the artists at the café and they appreciate his work. Upon hearing such applaud, Walter continues his artistic streak by creating clay models of human victims.

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Source: Wikipedia

A Bucket Of Blood typifies everything about the art world - albeit in a dark way. It goes to show that even in the most obvious of circumstances - Walter names his first human piece "Murdered Man" - some people will find any work attractive.

Deep down the film is mostly about one boy's attempt to fit into the society around him. Having been seen as the underling who is only fit to serve such great minds, it is easy to empathise with Walter after he gets his first big break. Dick Miller plays the role exceptionally well and correctly never moves into portraying Walter as anything more sinister than a naive wannabe.

Despite its relatively short run-time by today's Lord Of The Rings-esque films (at only 64 minutes), it is still able to pack in a lot of interesting material that makes it a film that should be in anyone's top 500.

• Empire Review
• Internet Movie Database
• Wikipedia
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