Burt Topper, 78; directed low-budget movies aimed at teens

Burt Topper, 78, who made such low-budget films as “Diary of a High School Bride” and “War Is Hell,” died Tuesday of pulmonary failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said his wife, Jennifer.

Starting in the late 1950s, Topper wrote, directed and produced films for Sam Arkoff’s American International Pictures, which was known for making movies aimed at a teen audience.

Topper shot “Diary of a High School Bride” (1959) in seven days for $80,000 -- and was too busy to ever sit in his director’s chair, he told The Times in 1998.

Maybe because Topper upheld the traditions of the low-budget 1950s exploitation picture into the comparatively more sophisticated 1960s, French film critics considered him “a near-genius,” according to the online All Movie Guide.

Among Topper’s better-regarded films were the 1968 thriller “Wild in the Streets” and the 1971 biker film “The Hard Ride.”

Born July 31, 1928, in Coney Island, N.Y., Topper moved to Los Angeles when he was 8. During World War II, he served in the Navy in the Philippines.