Shakespeare in performance works were plundered for these scenes. Among the drolls taken from Shakespeare were "Bottom the Weaver" (Bottom's scenes from "A Midsummer Night's Dream") and "The Grave-makers" (the gravedigger's scene from "Hamlet"). At the Restoration in 1660, Shakespeare's plays were divided between the two newly licensed companies: the King's Company of Thomas Killigrew and the Duke's Men of William Davenant. The licensing system prevailed for two centuries; from 1660 to 1843, only two main companies regularly presented Shakespeare in London. Davenant, who had known early-Stuart actors such as John Lowin and Joseph Taylor, was the main figure establishing some continuity with
Gas-s-s-s and he only made one more movie before a twenty-year sabbatical. " A great deal of care went into what I was saying and how I was going to say it," he said of "Gas-s-s-s". "The finished picture does not evidently make all these points. It discourages me and so for a little while I prefer to step away ... Directing is very hard and very painful. Producing is easy. I can do it without really thinking about it." Corman did, however, go on to produce "Boxcar Bertha" for AIP. "Gas-s-s-s" found a fresh audience on late night television in