James H. Nicholson

Birth : 1916-09-14, Seattle, Washington, USA

Death : 1972-12-10

Movies

It Conquered Hollywood! The Story of American International Pictures
Himself (archive footage)
A 60-minute salute to American International Pictures. Entertainment lawyer Samuel Z. Arkoff founded AIP (then called American Releasing Corporation) on a $3000 loan in 1954 with his partner, James H. Nicholson, a former West Coast exhibitor and distributor. The company made its mark by targeting teenagers with quickly produced films that exploited subjects mainstream films were reluctant to tackle.
Dirty Mary Crazy Larry
Producer
Down-on-their-luck racers Larry and Deke steal from a supermarket manager to buy a car that will help them advance their racing chances. Their escape does not go as planned when Larry's one-night stand, Mary, tags along for the ride.
Dirty Mary Crazy Larry
Story
Down-on-their-luck racers Larry and Deke steal from a supermarket manager to buy a car that will help them advance their racing chances. Their escape does not go as planned when Larry's one-night stand, Mary, tags along for the ride.
The Legend of Hell House
Executive Producer
A team consisting of a physicist, his wife, a young female psychic and the only survivor of the previous visit are sent to the notorious Hell House to prove/disprove survival after death. Previous visitors have either been killed or gone mad, and it is up to the team to survive a full week in isolation, and solve the mystery of the Hell House.
Blacula
Executive Producer
An 18th century African prince is turned into a vampire while visiting Transylvania. Two centuries later, he rises from his coffin attacking various residents of Los Angeles and meets Tina, a woman who he believes is the reincarnation of his deceased wife.
Dr. Phibes Rises Again
Executive Producer
The vengeful Doctor rises again, seeking the Scrolls of Life in an attempt to resurrect his deceased wife.
Boxcar Bertha
Presenter
"Boxcar" Bertha Thompson, a transient woman in Arkansas during the violence-filled Depression of the early '30s, meets up with rabble-rousing union man "Big" Bill Shelly and the two team up to fight the corrupt railroad establishment.
Boxcar Bertha
Executive Producer
"Boxcar" Bertha Thompson, a transient woman in Arkansas during the violence-filled Depression of the early '30s, meets up with rabble-rousing union man "Big" Bill Shelly and the two team up to fight the corrupt railroad establishment.
Baron Blood
Executive Producer
A young man, Peter, returns to Austria in search of his heritage. There he visits the castle of an ancestor, a sadistic Baron who was cursed to a violent death by a witch whom the Baron had burned at the stake. Peter reads aloud the incantation that causes Baron Blood to return and continue his murderous tortures.
Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?
Executive Producer
A demented widow lures unsuspecting children into her mansion in a bizarre "Hansel and Gretel" twist.
Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?
Producer
A demented widow lures unsuspecting children into her mansion in a bizarre "Hansel and Gretel" twist.
Bunny O'Hare
Executive Producer
Bette Davis handles the title role in this highly offbeat crime comedy about two aging hippies who elect to rob a bank to restore Bunny O'Hare's financial affairs after she's been unjustly evicted and rendered homeless. When that heist ends up paying off, rather than take off for the border, Bunny opts for a life of crime with her new partner, Bill Green, played by fellow Oscar-winner Ernest Borgnine.
Murders in the Rue Morgue
Executive Producer
In Paris, in the beginning of the Twentieth Century, Cesar Charron owns a theater at the Rue Morgue where he performs the play "Murders in the Rue Morgue" with his wife Madeleine Charron, who has dreadful nightmares. When there are several murders by acid of people connected to Cesar, the prime suspect of Inspector Vidocq would be Cesar's former partner Rene Marot. But Marot murdered Madeleine's mother many years ago and committed suicide immediately after.
The Abominable Dr. Phibes
Presenter
Famous organist Anton Phibes is horribly disfigured in an automobile accident while rushing to the side of his sick wife and presumed to be dead. Once Phibes learns that his wife died on the operating table, he is convinced the doctors are responsible and begins exacting his revenge on all those involved.
The Abominable Dr. Phibes
Executive Producer
Famous organist Anton Phibes is horribly disfigured in an automobile accident while rushing to the side of his sick wife and presumed to be dead. Once Phibes learns that his wife died on the operating table, he is convinced the doctors are responsible and begins exacting his revenge on all those involved.
Up in the Cellar
Producer
A student poet seduces his college president's wife, daughter, and girlfriend over lost financial aid.
Bloody Mama
Executive Producer
Sexually abused as a young girl, Kate "Ma" Barker grows into a violent and powerful woman by the 1930s. She lovingly dominates her grown sons and grooms them into a pack of tough crooks. The boys include the cruel Herman, who still shares a bed with Ma; Fred, an ex-con who fell in love with a fellow prisoner; and Lloyd, who gets high on whatever's handy. Together they form a deadly, bizarre family of Depression-era bandits.
The Dunwich Horror
Producer
Dr. Henry Armitage, an expert in the occult, goes to the old Whateley manor in Dunwich looking for Nancy Wagner, a student who went missing the previous night. He is turned away by Wilbur, the family's insidious heir, who has plans for the young girl. But Armitage won't be deterred. Through conversations with the locals, he soon unearths the Whateleys' darkest secret — as well as a great evil.
An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe
Executive Producer
A collection of four Poe stories narrated by Vincent Price: 1) The Tell-Tale Heart, 2) The Sphinx, 3) The Cask of Amontillado, and 4) The Pit and the Pendulum.
De Sade
Producer
The 18th-century French marquis recalls his sadomasochistic experiments and goes to jail for lewd behavior.
Three in the Attic
Executive Producer
In the swinging sixties three girls discover they have the same boyfriend who has been playing around with them all while vowing fidelity to each. To teach him a lesson he won't forget, the trio contrive to lock him up and continually favour him with their attentions in turn.
Wild in the Streets
Producer
Striking a zeitgeist nerve, Wild in the Streets stars Christopher Jones (Ryan's Daughter) as Max Frost, rock singer and poster boy for the counterculture revolution of the '60s. While performing with his band, The Troopers, at a political rally for Senate candidate Johnny Fergus (Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild), Max seizes the opportunity to spout his own political philosophies which include, among other things, that the voting age should be lowered to 14. And thus begins the tale of Max's meteoric rise. But as he moves further and further into uncharted waters, first as a voice for the youth movement (or is he just a mouthpiece for opportunist politicians?) and then as a nominee for President of the United States, Max will not bend to the will of the old guard. Instead he begins implementing his own ideas of what would make a better world, including re-education camps for those over the age of 35 along with a liberal dosing of LSD.
Thunder Alley
Executive Producer
Stock car racer Tommy Callahan is forced to join Pete Madsen's thrill circus after his blackouts cause a fatal accident that gets him thrown off the circuit.
What's Up, Tiger Lily?
Presenter
In comic Woody Allen's film debut, he took the Japanese action film "International Secret Police: Key of Keys" and re-dubbed it, changing the plot to make it revolve around a secret egg salad recipe.
Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs
Executive Producer
The scheming mad scientist Dr. Goldfoot (Vincent Price) plots another mad scheme to take over the world by killing off the major military leaders of every country; to that end, he creates in his secret lab a bevy of bodacious girl bombs; full-length, life-size robots that explode when embraced.
Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs
Story
The scheming mad scientist Dr. Goldfoot (Vincent Price) plots another mad scheme to take over the world by killing off the major military leaders of every country; to that end, he creates in his secret lab a bevy of bodacious girl bombs; full-length, life-size robots that explode when embraced.
The Wild Angels
Executive Producer
A motorcycle gang arrives in a small town in search of a motorcycle that has been stolen by a rival gang; but, pursued by the police, one of its members is injured, an event that will cause an orgy of violence and destruction.
Fireball 500
Producer
Stock car racer Dave Owens plays into the hands of whiskey runners by agreeing to drive in a cross-country road race.
The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini
Producer
A corpse has 24 hours to mastermind a good deed without leaving his crypt, to go "up there" and have his youth restored.
The Big T.N.T. Show
Executive Producer
Live performances by some of the top rock-and-roll acts of the mid 60s. Includes Ray Charles, The Byrds, Joan Baez, Ike and Tina Turner, Donovan, The Lovin' Spoonful, and several more.
The Wild Weird World of Dr. Goldfoot
Presenter
Dr. Goldfoot schemes to use his Bikini Machine to kidnap a young man with infinite information stored in his head by the government.
Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine
Story
In this campy spy movie spoof Dr. Goldfoot (Vincent Price) has invented an army of bikini-clad robots who are programmed to seek out wealthy men and charm them into signing over their assets. Secret agent Craig Gamble (Frankie Avalon) and millionaire Todd Armstrong set out to foil his fiendish plot.
Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine
Producer
In this campy spy movie spoof Dr. Goldfoot (Vincent Price) has invented an army of bikini-clad robots who are programmed to seek out wealthy men and charm them into signing over their assets. Secret agent Craig Gamble (Frankie Avalon) and millionaire Todd Armstrong set out to foil his fiendish plot.
Die, Monster, Die!
Executive Producer
A young man visits his fiancé's estate to discover that her wheelchair-bound scientist father has discovered a meteorite that emits mutating radiation rays that have turned the plants in his greenhouse to giants. When his own wife falls victim to this mysterious power, the old man takes it upon himself to destroy the glowing object with disastrous results.
Planet of the Vampires
Executive Producer
After landing on a mysterious planet, a team of astronauts begin to turn on each other, swayed by the uncertain influence of the planet and its strange inhabitants.
Sergeant Deadhead
Producer
An astronaut goes into space with a chimpanzee. When they return to Earth after their orbit, it is discovered that the chimp has the brains of the astronaut, and the astronaut has the brains of the chimp. Complications ensue.
Frankenstein Conquers the World
Executive Producer
During WWII, Germans obtain the immortal heart of Frankenstein's monster and transport it to Japan to prevent it being seized by the Allies. Kept in a Hiroshima laboratory, it is seeming lost when the United States destroys the city with the atomic bomb. Years later a wild boy is discovered wandering the streets of the city alone, born of the immortal heart.
How to Stuff a Wild Bikini
Producer
When he's stationed in Tahiti, a sailor hires a witch doctor to keep an eye on his girlfriend.
Ski Party
Co-Executive Producer
Remember the beach movies of the sixties? They're back! Well, not quite, but since Avalon, Hickman, and even Funicello appear in this one, it sure feels right. This time, though, read snow instead of sand and you got it. Ski lodge, to be precise, and though the plot is somewhat inane, with the boys cross-dressing to discover the secret of a friend's success with the girls, it's still a somewhat fun outing.
Beach Blanket Bingo
Producer
In the fourth of the highly successful Frankie and Annette beach party movies, a motorcycle gang led by Eric Von Zipper kidnaps singing star Sugar Kane managed by Bullets, who hires sky-diving surfers Steve and Bonnie from Big Drop for a publicity stunt. With the usual gang of kids and a mermaid named Lorelei.
The Tomb of Ligeia
Executive Producer
Verden Fell is shattered after the death of his lovely wife. But, after an unexpected encounter with Lady Rowena Trevanion, Fell soon finds himself married again. Nevertheless, his late wife's spirit seems to hang over the dilapidated abbey that Fell shares with his new bride. Lady Rowena senses that something is amiss and, when she investigates, makes a horrifying discovery -- learning that Fell's dead wife is closer than she ever imagined possible.
Pajama Party
Producer
A Martian teenager sent to prepare for an invasion falls in love with an Earth girl.
Bikini Beach
Producer
A millionaire sets out to prove his theory that his pet chimpanzee is as intelligent as the teenagers who hang out on the local beach, where he is intending to build a retirement home.
Muscle Beach Party
Producer
Local beach-goers find that their beach has been taken over by a businessman training a stable of body builders.
The Comedy of Terrors
Producer
An undertaker who hasn't had any 'customers' in a long time is forced to pay one year's back-rent. To get money he starts to kill people, which brings absurd results.
Beach Party
Producer
Anthropology Professor Robert Orwell Sutwell and his secretary Marianne are studying the sex habits of teenagers. The surfing teens led by Frankie and Dee Dee don't have much sex but they sing, battle the motorcycle rats and mice led by Eric Von Zipper and dance to Dick Dale and the Del Tones.
X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes
Executive Producer
A doctor uses special eye drops to give himself x-ray vision, but the new power has disastrous consequences.
Operation Bikini
Producer
The film takes place aboard an American submarine in the Pacific during World War II. The sub's commander is ordered to stop and pick up an underwater demolition team led by Lt. Hayes, whose mission is to locate and destroy a US submarine sunken in a lagoon off Bikini Atoll before the Japanese are able to raise it and capture the advanced radar system on board.
The Raven
Executive Producer
A magician who has been turned into a raven turns to a former sorcerer for help.
Panic in Year Zero!
Executive Producer
While on a fishing trip, Harry Baldwin (Ray Milland) and his family hear an explosion and realize that Los Angeles has been leveled by a nuclear attack. Looters and killers are everywhere. Escaping to the hills with his family, he sets about the business of surviving in a world where, he knows, the old ideals of humanity will be first casualties.
Tales of Terror
Executive Producer
Three stories adapted from the work of Edgar Allen Poe: 1) A man and his daughter are reunited, but the blame for the death of his wife hangs over them, unresolved. 2) A derelict challenges the local wine-tasting champion to a competition, but finds the man's attention to his wife worthy of more dramatic action. 3) A man dying and in great pain agrees to be hypnotized at the moment of death, with unexpected consequences.
The Pit and the Pendulum
Executive Producer
Francis Barnard goes to Spain, when he hears his sister Elizabeth has died. Her husband Nicholas Medina, the son of the most brutal torturer of the Spanish Inquisition, tells him she has died of a blood disease, but Francis finds this hard to believe. After some investigating he finds out that it was extreme fear that was fatal to his sister and that she may have been buried alive!
Master of the World
Producer
A mad genius tries to bomb the world into peace.
Alakazam the Great!
Producer
A monkey king who learns the secrets of magic goes on a spree and causes no end of aggravation for the gods, who finally imprison him. In order to make up for all the trouble he's caused, he is sent on a mission to accompany a prince who is the son of the gods on a journey through a land filled with dangers, monsters, cannibals and demons.
House of Usher
Executive Producer
After a long journey, Philip arrives at the Usher mansion seeking his loved one, Madeline. Upon arriving, however, he discovers that Madeline and her brother Roderick Usher have been afflicted with a mysterious malady: Roderick's senses have become painfully acute, while Madeline has become catatonic. That evening, Roderick tells his guest of an old Usher family curse: any time there has been more than one Usher child, all of the siblings have gone insane and died horrible deaths. As the days wear on, the effects of the curse reach their terrifying climax.
Tank Commandos
Producer
A demolition squad searches for how the Germans are getting tanks across a river. An Italian boy leads them to a bridge under the surface of the water.
Paratroop Command
Producer
Charlie becomes a paratrooper, but, while serving in North Africa, he mistakenly kills one of his fellow U.S. soldiers, who is masquerading as a Nazi in order to wipe out a nest of the enemy. Shunned by his fellow soldiers, including his childhood friend Ace, Charlie is forced to prove himself when it is left up to him to transport a generator across an open road in full view of Nazi attackers.
Terror from the Year 5000
Executive Producer
Prof. Erling and his financial backer Victor build a prototype time machine to snatch objects from the past. Latest find, a statuette, radiometrically dates to 5200 AD! When this draws colleague Richard Hedges to the island lab, Erling reveals that 20th-century objects put in the machine seem to be "traded" for analogous future objects by intelligent life. And on the sly, Victor's been trying to get a living visitor. Does the future need help, or is the present in danger?
Earth vs. the Spider
Executive Producer
Teenagers from a small town and their high school science teacher join forces to battle a giant mutant spider, living in a cave nearby and getting hungry.
Hot Rod Gang
Presenter
A kid who wants to enter his car in the drag races joins a rock band to make enough money to do it.
Teenage Cave Man
Executive Producer
Roger Corman's post-holocaust quickie about an adolescent tribesman who dares to explore the feared "forbidden zone."
How to Make a Monster
Executive Producer
When master monster make-up man Pete Dumond is fired by the new bosses of American International studios, he uses his creations to exact revenge.
War of the Colossal Beast
Executive Producer
Glenn Manning, "The Amazing Colossal Man," believed dead after falling from the Hoover Dam, reemerges in rural Mexico, brain damaged, disfigured, and very angry.
The Bonnie Parker Story
Producer
In the 1930s, amoral blonde tommy-gun girl Bonnie Parker cut a swath of bodies across the South-West. Starting out on gas stations and bars with side-kick Guy Darrow she graduated to bank hold-ups with Darrow's brother and, after bloodily springing him, her jailed husband. But there was never any doubt who was in charge.
Machine-Gun Kelly
Executive Producer
George Kelly is angry at the world and scared to death of dying. A career bank robber, Kelly gets his confidence from his Thompson SMG and his girl Flo. After a botched robbery, Flo, Kelly and his gang try their hand at a more lucrative job: kidnapping.
The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent
Executive Producer
A group of Viking women build a ship and set off across the sea to locate their missing menfolk, only to fall into the clutches of the barbarian Grimolts who hold their men captive and worship the sea serpent which overturned their ship.
The Amazing Colossal Man
Executive Producer
Lt. Col. Glenn Manning is inadvertently exposed to a plutonium bomb blast and although he sustains burns over 90% of his body, he survives. Then he begins to grow, but as he grows he starts losing his mind. By the time he stops he is 50 ft tall, insane and is on the rampage.
Sorority Girl
Executive Producer
A poor-little-rich-girl feels alienated by her mother and enacts a string of revenges on her fellow pupils at a girls' boarding school. However, she is outcast when one of her stunts nearly drives a girl to suicide.
Reform School Girl
Executive Producer
A teen girl is thrown into reform school for refusing to squeal on her delinquent boyfriend where she ends up meeting his ex-girlfriend and the jealous tempers fly.
Invasion of the Saucer-Men
Producer
A teenage couple making out in the woods accidentally runs over an alien creature with their car. The creature's hand falls off, but it comes alive, and, with an eye growing out of it, begins to stalk the teens. Meanwhile, Joe the town drunk wants to store the body in his refrigerator, but some of the alien's buddies inject alcohol into his system, and Joe dies of an overdose.
Voodoo Woman
Executive Producer
Deep in the jungles a mad scientist is using the natives' voodoo for his experiments to create an indestructible being to serve his will. When a party of gold seekers stumbles upon his village, the scientist realizes that Marilyn the expedition's evil leader is the perfect subject for his work.
Rock All Night
Executive Producer
Cloud Nine, the local teen hangout, has been taken over by a pair of escaped killers, who hold the local teens hostage. The bartender realizes it's up to him to save the kids.
Naked Paradise
Executive Producer
Gangster Zac Cotton and his two henchmen, Mitch and Sonny, try to get a boat to get off a tropical island after a botched robbery heist.
It Conquered the World
Executive Producer
An alien from Venus tries to take over the world with the help of a disillusioned human scientist, as his wife, his best friend and the friend's wife try to intervene.
Girls in Prison
Producer
An inmate is persuaded to take part in a breakout by cellmates anxious to cash in on loot they believe she has hidden.
Female Jungle
Presenter
Alcoholic detective investigating the murder of an actress starts getting worried when all fingers begin to point at him.
Female Jungle
Executive Producer
Alcoholic detective investigating the murder of an actress starts getting worried when all fingers begin to point at him.
The Oklahoma Woman
Executive Producer
After six years in jail Steve returns to claim a ranch left him in a will. The town is in the middle of a rough election masterminded by saloon owner Marie. Steve is soon on the side of the opposition candidate and his pretty daughter. The town's tough sheriff is on no-one's side, least of all Steve's
The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues
Executive Producer
A marine biologist and a government agent investigate mysterious deaths and rumors of a sea monster in a secluded ocean cove, and find themselves involved with a marine biology professor conducting secretive experiments, international spies trying to steal his secrets, a radioactive light on the sea bottom, and the malevolent thing which guards it.
Apache Woman
Executive Producer
A government agent ventures west to look into reports that Apaches are behind a recent wave of frontier attacks. Begins to suspect a set-up.