Masquerade (1967)

1967 – Masquerade (BZ Productions/Emar Pictures)

[Release date 31st December 1967]

Director Danny L. Zialcita [as "DLZ"] Producer “BZ” [believed to be Danny's father Dr Benjamin Zialcita] Cinematography Mars Rasca Music Demet Velasquez Editor Teofilo de Leon Sound Supervision Luis Reyes Production Manager Max Rivera Assistant Director Fred F. Castro Special Effects Silvano Baligas Makeup Artist Rosita Dizon Unit Manager Emilio Ay-Ay Assistant Camera Jun Rasca, Arnold Alvaro Field Soundman Sebastian Sayson Chief Laboratory Technician Johnny Fornoles Printer Simeon Amado Assistant Editors Benigno de Leon, Ike Jarlego Jr Stillman Alejandro Forno? Titles Bert Nepomuceno 

Cast Bernard Bonnin (Philip Monteverde), Marlene Dauden (Veronica de Villa), Liberty Ilagan (Emily Verzosa), Ben Perez (Dr Hernando Marquez), Vic Salayan (Judge Dante Soriano), Alfonso Carvajal (General Dan Moreno), Martin Marfil (Telesforo), Vic Andaya (Allan Alindogan), Maria Hernandez (Matilde Africa), Eddie Arenas (“Rusty”/Rustico), Jack Davis (Jonathan Dreyfus) [also referred to as “Rayfus”], Eddie Fernandez, Perla Bautista, Nancy Roman, Elvie Gonzales, Eddie Mercado, Nel dela Ysla, Baby Alvarez, Paquito Benitez, Douglas Prieto, Bert Asuncion, Bert Samonte

THRILLER

Review by Andrew Leavold

[Special thanks go to SOFIA's Teddy Co and Monchito Nochon for providing a copy of the film, and to Video 48's Simon Santos for the poster and screen captures]

One of my favourite Bollywood films from the Sixties is the 1965 murder mystery Gumnaam, a rip-roaring plundering of Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians bathed in saturated Mario Bava-esque lighting and featuring a butler with a Hitler moustache (the late, great comedian Mehmood) and a musical number every twenty minutes. It’s not the first time Dame Agatha’s plot has been adapted by enterprising producers inside and out of the English-speaking film world, as it’s a hoary, occasionally effective device - a group of strangers with hidden pasts are brought together in an isolated environment, and are killed off one by one until the killer is ultimately revealed – which demands limitations budget, cast and locations, often requiring little more than a single studio set. For a competent filmmaker, a considerable amount of tension and any number of unexpected narrative twists can be wrung from meager resources.

Such a filmmaker is former cause celebre Danny L. Zialcita, a writer-director whose career trajectory bears more than a passing resemblance to the revered Celso Ad. Castillo. Both graduated in the public’s mind at some point in the Seventies from gifted, gimmicky populists to genuine auteurs. Like Celso Ad. Castillo, he started in the pulps, directing spy thrillers and lurid bomba dramas; his 1965 debut, a Bond riff titled Lady Killer, kickstarted a whole series by Zialcita which propelled Romano Castellvi to stardom, and he also helmed two popular spy films with Bernard Bonnin as secret agent Hammerhead (Hammerhead and Incognito [both 1967]). And like Celso, his films from the Seventies and Eighties were more of a Happening, in the Sixties’ sense of the word, than just a premiere. Celso’s peak has long passed, and it’s no doubt due in part to his relentless self-promotion that long-unseen films like Nympha (1971) are recalled with such clarity. Not so Zialcita, who only recently emerged after years of self-imposed exile (due, word on the street tells us, to a decades-long drug problem), and whose name continues to slip under the radar of many cineastes.

Masquerade, a 1967 mystery “inspired” by Ten Little Indians, is an odd duck, appearing at a time in Pinoy cinema during an avalanche of spy films, westerns, war films, karate actioners, Hollywood parodies, musical comedies and both teen and mature weepie dramas. Zialcita hides here behind his eponymous “DLZ”, as does the producer “BZ” (his rich father, perhaps?), and rounds up an impressive cast of top-shelf Pinoy names and character actors to play eight strangers tempted to a masquerade on secluded Diablo Island by an unseen benefactor known only as Mr X, and his enigmatic American proxy Mr Dreyfus (Jack Davis), a strange bird complete with brolly and bowler hat. Hammerhead’s Bonnin plays dashing celebrity and man-of-few-words Philip Monteverde; glamour comes in the comely shapes of Marlene Dauden as the manipulative Vera, and a lovely, if somewhat bedraggled, Liberty Ilagan as boozehound Emily. Veterans Vic Salayan, Alfonso Carvajal, Martin Marfil and Vic Andaya help round out the list of suspects which include a judge, a General, a nightclub singer, a doctor and industrialist playboy. None of them suspect a connection between each other; they are more interested in Mr Dreyfus’ offers of money, women and sport (and for more than one character, the three are inseparable).

As the ferry leaves the island and the eight guests are trapped in a sprawling mansion along with Dreyfus and two bemused servants, they all find themselves unwilling participants in, as one puts it, “a Masquerade…of DEATH!” One suffocates in a glass-topped coffin and another lands a cleaver in the face, while their hidden host plays upon each of their insecurities, suspicions and paranoias. No-one has been judged innocent, it appears, and their killer has stacked eleven funereal wreaths in the basement and published their death notices in the previous week’s newspaper. Eventually the characters are whittled down to just two, and still there’s no sign of an easy resolution. “Who could it be?” demands the narrator, as a ragged yet effective recap of the film’s murders swings the footage into negative stock. “You have been given ample time. Now be prepared for a SHOCK!”

Zialcita attended a 2010 screening of the film’s only surviving print from its distributor, JE Films’ Joseph Estrada, and during a Q&A session afterwards trashed his efforts as “short of rubbish”. I can understand why – I’m sure he prefers the post-bomba films he’s more famous for, in which he had found a far less forced voice, and a maturity in theme, form and technique. On the evolutionary scale of a filmmaker, Masquerade is the showy, self-conscious attempt by a young auteur-in-waiting at breaking out of the restrictions of local storytelling and attempting a more sophisticated, deliberately European-influenced or Welles-ian work. A telling sign is that almost half of the dialogue is spoken in English (delivered at a leaden pace for those less familiar with the language), which immediately sets the film apart from its Tagalog contemporaries. It’s also in the noir-ish lighting from below casting shadows on ceilings, in the deliberate framing, and perspective tricks. The film is certainly impressive for a young director working within such a rigid star system, audience expectations and formulaic genre, but Zialcita’s stylistic ploys are often forced and aggressive, and cry out for attention. It’s far from “rubbish”, however, and Mr Zialcita is either being unnecessarily humble or self-critical to the point of self-immolation. Masquerade is not great and, despite the nods to Welles, can in no way be considered his Citizen Kane. Instead it’s “clever” (and I mean that with no disrespect), zippy and intriguing, and crammed with shadows of films to come.

Bernard Bonnin (Philip Monteverde)

Marlene Dauden (Veronica de Villa)

Liberty Ilagan (Emily Verzosa)

Ben Perez (Dr Hernando Marquez)

Vic Salayan (Judge Dante Soriano)

Alfonso Carvajal (General Dan Moreno)

Maria Hernandez (Matilde Africa) and Martin Marfil (Telesforo)

Vic Andaya (Allan Alindogan)

Eddie Arenas (“Rusty”/Rustico)

Jack Davis (Jonathan Dreyfus) 

- mp4 file [in Tagalog with no subtitles]

Solo Flight (1967)

1967 – Solo Flight (Fe’Mil Productions) 

[Release date 19th February 1967]  

Director George Rowe Story/Screenplay Henry Cuino Producer Femy Rillo Music Tito Arevalo 

Cast Tony Ferrer (Tony Falcon, Agent X-44), Lucita Soriano, Rodolfo “Boy” Garcia, Prospero Luna, Bert Martinez, Lauro Delgado, Alfonso Carvajal, Lito Garcia, Alfonso Carvajal, Ben Peralta, Jeff Elechosa, Mat Lazaro, Arthur Villegas (Agent M-1), Rosario Del Pilar, Jill Hamilton, Zeny Buena, Vivian Lorrain, Brenda Del Mal, "Sancho", Charlie Mendez, Angel Casaje, Benny Mallare, Mar Quijano, Fred Cornelio, Ped Mesa, Pons Valero, Roger Saulog, Rudy Gaco, Jimmy Carillo, Antolyn Bordero, Carlos Diaz, SOS Daredevils  

SPY/ACTION  

NOTE: This is the fourteenth in a long-running series of Agent X-44 films starring Tony Ferrer. For a full filmography and detailed article on the X-44 series, click HERE. 

Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore (1965)

 

*1965 - Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore (Shaw Brothers) 

[Hong Kong production also partly filmed in the Philippines and Singapore, Hong Kong release date 15th September 1965. Released in the Philippines on 18th June 1967 by Asia Film Exchange as “Manila, Hongkong, Singapore”] 

Director/Screenplay Ching Doe** [=Doe Ching***] Producer Run Run Shaw Cinematography Shao-Yung Tung [=Charles Tung Shao-Yung] Music Eddie Wang [=Eddie H. Wang Chi-Ren] Composer: Theme Music Joseph Koo [=Joseph Koo Ka-Fai] Lyricist Hua Shen Editor Hsing-Lung Chiang [=Chiang Hsing-Lung] Sound Recordist Yung-Hua Wang [=Wang Yonghua] Art Director Johnson Tsao [=Johnson Tsao Chuang-Sheng] Assistant Director Shih-Ling Wen [=William Wen Shi-Ling] Makeup Artist Yuen Fang [=Fong Yuen] Credits Designer Ching Ou [=Au Ching] 

Cast [listed in opening credits] Peter Chan Ho/Peter Chen Hou** [= Peter Chen Ho] (Peter, aka Chen Pi Te), Landi Chang (Shirley), Angela Yu Chien (Yeh Feng), Maggie de la Riva (Lilia Ramos), Alfonso Carvajal (Lilia's Father, Mr Ramos), Chin Han/Han Chin** (Dana's Boyfriend), Chiang Kwang-Cho/Kuang-Chao Chiang** [=Chiang Kuang-Chao] (Shirley's Brother 7 Sha), Chao Sin-Yen/Hsin-Yen Chao** [=Chiu Sam-Yin] (Feng Hsiu Lan), Violet Pan Ying-Zi/Pan Yin-Tze/Yin-Tze Pan** (Stewardess Dana), [listed on IMDB and HKDB] Ming Chao (Shirley's brother 8), Feng Chin [= Chin Feng] (Chang Pao Lo), Yi Feng (Shirley's Brother 3), Li-Jen Ho [=Hao Li-Jen] (Shirley's 2nd Uncle), Fa-Hei Ka (Lilia's Father?), Ying Lee [=Li Ying] (Shirley's Father; HKMDB lists him as Shirley’s Uncle), Ming Lei [=Lui Ming] (Shirley's Brother 5; HKMDB lists character as “Shirley’s Uncle”), Kun Li (Shirley's Brother 12), Yunzhong Li [=Lee Wan-Chung] (Doctor), Ma Chi Lu [=Lui Ma-Kei] (Li Sha-Au), Xiaonong Ma (Shirley's Sister 2), Sha-Fei Ouyang (Shirley's Sister 6), Chin Pai (Wang Ting Li), Yu Pai (Yeh Feng's Maid), Lydia Shum [=Lydia Shum Tin-Ha] (Shirley's Sister 13; HKMDB lists character as “Shirley’s Aunt”), Feng Tien [=Tien Feng] (Shirley's Brother 1; HKMDB lists him as Shirley’s Father), Wei Wu (Shirley's Sister 4), Pak Kam (Wang Ting Li), Ng Wai (Shirley's Aunt), Lee Kwan (Shirley's Uncle), Fung Ngai (Shirley's Uncle), [listed on the Filipino ad but not elsewhere] Nestor de Villa, Eddie Mesa 

MUSICAL/ROMANTIC COMEDY 

*mp4 file [in Mandarin with no subtitles; credits are also in Mandarin, so these credits have been compiled from the IMDB and HKMDB]

**Anglicized spelling from the IMDB 

***Anglicized spellings in square brackets from the HKMDB]  

Manila A La Mod: The Pan-Asian Pop Pourrie of Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore by Andrew Leavold 

It took a long time to track down Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore (1965) but it was worth the effort. For me it was a missing piece in the story of the Philippines’ relationship with the rest of Asian film, as well as a fascinating artifact from the Golden Age of Pan-Asian cinema in general: a time when the Shaw Brothers owned theatres all over East Asia, were transporting their centre of production from their studios in Singapore to Hong Kong as well as beginning their move into cinemas in Hawaii and mainland USA, and were more synonymous with bright, breezy Technicolor musicals and romantic comedies than their later sword and martial arts extravaganzas. Films like Les Belles (1961) The Dancing Millionairess (1963) and The Lark (1964) were massive hits all over Asia, reflecting a colourful collision between Asian tradition and global monoculture.  

The Shaw Brothers were no strangers to the Philippines either. As far back at the late Fifties the Shaws, then based primarily in Singapore, were regularly using Filipino directors such as Lamberto V. Avellana, Ramon A. Estella and Rolf Bayer on their Malay productions, as they considered them amongst the greatest filmmakers in Asia. By the mid-Sixties, however, the over-all quality of Philippine films had slipped; the dominance of the Big Three studios (LVN, Sampaguita Pictures and Premiere Productions) was on the wane, their superior factory-crafted productions to be replaced with an avalanche of derivative spy films and westerns from hungry independent producers. Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore (or HKMS) finds both the Shaws and the Philippines at a crossroad: for the former, between the musical romances of the early Sixties, and action-centric films after the phenomenal success of their Come Drink With Me (1966); for the latter, in the midst of a kind of Dark Age before its cinematic Renaissance in the Seventies. And perhaps more than the Shaws’ other films, and certainly mirroring the company’s cross-border and cross-cultural inclinations, HKMS also sees the Hong Kong powerhouse at its most cosmopolitan.   

Cultural purists were still catered to by the Shaws with a large slate of period dramas and operas, untainted by the rest of the world’s decadent preoccupation with British rock’n’roll, American sports cars and European modular furniture. But those with a taste for the international and the hip, happening sights and sounds of NOW (followed by several exclamation marks!!!), there are those bright and bubbly musical comedies, of which HKMS is just one.  Directed by Ching Doe, one of the genre’s undisputed specialists, it features his regular Peter Chen Ho, Shaw’s gangly, endearingly awkward leading man in most of their musicals, as a Cathay Pacific pilot with a jet set version of “a girl in every port”. He leaves his tearful Filipina sweetheart Lilia (Maggie de la Riva) at Manila International Airport and flies into Hong Kong, to be greeted by his local squeeze Angela Yu Chien (previously opposite Peter in Ching Doe’s The Dancing Millionairess). Then he’s onto Singapore, and into the welcoming arms of Shirley (Landi Chang – also in The Dancing Millionairess), a singer in a rock group. Suddenly Lilia turns up in Hong Kong, as does Shirley, and all three women are at his door expecting a sparkly rock on their fingers.  

Most of the film’s at-times frantic, other times painfully thin farce is centred on Peter, with the help of his conspiratorial co-pilot Pao (Chin Feng), trying to keep the three women apart. There are some genuinely brilliant comedic moments from Peter being paraded in front of Shirley’s extended family, and dealing with Lilia’s millionaire father (Alfonso Carvajal) - the expression on Peter’s face after he shows him 8mm footage of a plane crash is priceless! But with all the running from one apartment room to another, not to mention one bed and one dolly bird to another, HKMS resembles an Oriental version of the Jerry Lewis-Tony Curtis comedy Boeing Boeing (released later in 1965), which gets a little tiring for everyone, and you start looking forward to the next musical number which, sadly, are few and far between. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly not out to denigrate HKMS. Being one of the Shaw Brothers’ mid-shelf contemporary musicals it’s brimming with all of the things that went “pop!’ in 1965. We’re talking bouffant hair, the dresses, the stunning mid-Sixties furniture and fittings, the ultra-modish bar and restaurant sets, the zippy jazz and Beatles-inspired beats alongside traditional Hong Kong love songs, as well as an animated credit sequence straight out of a Blake Edwards comedy, and the cumulative effect is a mildly intoxicating cocktail of East and West. It just needs more. More glimpses of the three countries’ scenery – the Philippines, for instance, is reduced to a few exterior shots of Manila International Airport, with the rest of the “Filipino” scenes filmed at Shaw Brother Studios – and most definitely more than its two musical numbers to liven up the single-minded (and simple-minded!) bedroom farce.

The Shaws certainly chose their Filipino cast well: Miss Manila, Maggie de la Riva, was a popular mestiza leading lady in Tagalog films from the early Sixties, and she certainly holds her own against the other two Hong Kong beauties. Sadly her career was tragically derailed in 1967 when she was abducted and raped by four rich kids. They were eventually executed in 1972, but only after an intense press campaign laying bare every sordid detail of the crime AND of Maggie’s life. She was finally dragged out of retirement by Carlo J. Caparas, a specialist in lurid tabloid biopics, after he directed The Maggie de la Riva Story: God...Why Me? (1994) and paraded in front of his cameras in another tasteless rape-recreation from the Sixties, The Anabelle Huggins- Ruben Ablaza Story Tragedy: Mea Culpa (also 1995). The Pinoy actor playing her father, Alfonso Carvajal, was also a recognizable character actor, perhaps best known outside the Philippines for his role as tribal chieftan in the Eddie Romero shocker Beast Of Blood (1970). Local box office giants Eddie Mesa and Nestor de Villa are also listed on the Filipino ad, which suggests its distributor Asia Film Exchange shot extra scenes for the Philippines only. If a print of “Manila, Hongkong, Singapore” is ever unearthed, I’m sure this mutant Filipino twin will be a revelation! 

Meanwhile its Mandarin counterpart, unlike most of its Sixties’ contemporaries, has yet to receive a physical release on either DVD or Blu-Ray, and only appeared once without English subtitles on a Shaw Brothers hard drive of its lesser-known titles. It must have been a reasonable success to inspire a virtual remake in 1968 called Three Swinging Girls, with Chin Feng (Peter’s co-pilot in HKMS) as the booby in the middle. But until the time that Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore is dusted off the shelf and given the deluxe treatment by the Shaws’ new owners Celestial Pictures, it will remain a minor but by no means substandard sparkler.  

Peter Chan Ho/Peter Chen Hou** [= Peter Chen Ho] (Peter, aka Chen Pi Te)

Landi Chang (Shirley)

Angela Yu Chien (Yeh Feng)

Maggie de la Riva (Lilia Ramos)

Alfonso Carvajal (Lilia's Father, Mr Ramos)

Chin Han/Han Chin** (Dana's Boyfriend)

Chiang Kwang-Cho/Kuang-Chao Chiang** [=Chiang Kuang-Chao] (Shirley's Brother 7 Sha)

Chao Sin-Yen/Hsin-Yen Chao** [=Chiu Sam-Yin] (Feng Hsiu Lan)

Feng Chin [= Chin Feng] (Chang Pao Lo)

Ying Lee [=Li Ying, seated] (Shirley's Father; HKMDB lists him as Shirley’s Uncle)

Yunzhong Li [=Lee Wan-Chung] (Doctor)

Yu Pai (Yeh Feng's Maid)

Feng Tien [=Tien Feng, left] (Shirley's Brother 1; HKMDB lists him as Shirley’s Father)

Violet Pan Ying-Zi [right] (Stewardess Dana) 

 

THEATRICAL

HONG KONG – released into Shaw-owned theatres from 15th September 1965 

TAIWAN – IMDB reports a Taiwan release on 31st December 1966 

PHILIPPINES – released as “Manila Hongkong Singapore”, possibly with extra Philippine-lensed footage, by Asia Film Exchange on 18th June 1967 [image courtesy of Video 48 blog]

HAWAII – released into the Shaw-owned American Theatre in Honolulu on 14th August 1968 

DIGITAL 

HONG KONG - released on a hard drive of vintage Shaw Brothers titles by Celestial Films around 2010 

 

- mp4 file [in Mandarin with no subtitles]