Dolphy interview (2007)

DOLPHY interview with Andrew Leavold, July 2007 (a full Dolphy filmography is HERE)

Born Rodolfo Vera Quizon, Dolphy was to become the Philippines' King of Comedy, a title he held until his passing in 2012. Back in 2007 I was fortunate to have a brief chat with Dolphy over coffee and cakes - his treat, of course, as he was a gentleman - at his favourite bakery in an older part of Manila, near his RVQ Productions office. I was constantly in awe of how generous he was with his time and energy, as was the rest of the Philippines which, when he passed, went into a kind of mourning reserved for Kings and legends. 

Much of the interview was about the films he made with Weng Weng, and is included in both my Search For Weng Weng documentary (2013) and book (2017).

Andrew Leavold: Let's start at the very beginning, at the start of your stage career.

Dolphy: My first was wartime during the Japanese occupation, I was already performing as a chorus boy, the chorus line. And then later on I was getting a part to do a solo, then the rest is history.

What kind of stage productions were you doing at the time?

During that time there were no movies or TV, but stage shows. Because it was occupied by the Japanese. So you could only see Japanese movies. Nobody was making local films. Anyway, the Americans came over, Liberation, we started doing the movies. The movies then were not so good yet, because there is no equipment. But later on we started making good movies. That's the time I started. My producers in the stage shows were also the ones producing the movies, so I was given a part in a movie, and then so forth and so on. I was given a big part. So many producers took me over, and gave me a good part in a movie. That's when I became "Dolphy".

The Fifties really was a Golden Age for cinema?

I was under contract. My former producer for the stage show was the father of FPJ [Fernando Poe Sr], but unfortunately he died of hydrophobia. During that time there was no medicine for hydrophobia, so he died at a very young age. I was taken by Sampaguita Pictures and they gave me a contract, but before that Bayani [Casimiro], another tap dancer, is also a producer and director, took me to a show - there was opening up a good musical show - and I said, "I will go with you, but please teach me how to dance." He said, "That's easy, I'll do it, but you should be more responsible for dancing." Because it's a really hard kind of dance, not like the Boogie Woogie or the Cha Cha or anything. "Yes, I'll try very hard." Later he taught me how to tap, and we became partners for a while. That's why I told everybody I was the first Japauki! [Filipino entertainers in Japanese bars] In 1951 we were in Japan. Japan was not as rich as it is now. After the war, '51, so me and Bayani, we stayed there for six months, and then next year another six months. I stayed there for three years, every six months. But then later on Sampaguita Pictures gave me a break to a movie which registered. They loved my acting, my comedy, so they signed me for a seven year contract. That's the start of giving me the good roles. 

I was given a break to do a gay role, that's the start of it - Jack And Jill [1954], it was a big hit. After that I was given a good part in a movie, and my salary went up and up. But Sampaguita closed for a while. I started shooting independently, but I was thinking of producing my own production. I was talking to Erap, the ex-President Joseph Estrada, he said you can produce, you can do it. All you have to do is, everything on credit. You don't pay the newspapers, you pay it drop by drop, in installments. The raw materials, you also don't pay by cash. Everything is in credit. So I started making my own movies. Fortunately I got a big hit. My first movie was Buhay Artista [1967], because we had a TV sitcom. I asked the producer, the owner of the network, if I produced the movie, he would give me the story and I'll make it into a movie. They gave it to me. It was a big hit, so RVQ [Productions] was built and established. And now my company is getting bigger every year. Television started first, before I produced. This is the Sixties. I started Buhay Artista in '64. But TV was already on in '62, I was performing as guest only, because they know me already in movies from the Fifties. They gave me a chance to do Buhay Artista, that started it all.

Even before Buhay Artista, in the early Sixties you were making five to ten films a year?

No, I was only given small parts in the movies, in Sampaguita when I had a contract. They gave me Jack And Jill, that movie really made me. That's the first time a gay role was introduced in the movies. At that time the gays were not recognized by everybody. It was a long, hard climb before I reached my goal.

So in the Sampaguita films you were mainly in supporting roles?

Yes, but in between I went to Japan. I stayed in Hong Kong also for a long time performing with Bayani. So, you name it. In radio I had five radio shows every week. I was there! Every medium.

Can you tell me about the Crazy Corporation?

I was not in this group. My group was with Bayani, Panchito - all my friends, and sometimes I co-starred with the. Teroy de Guzman, Don Angeles - the five of them, sometimes they put me in a show to mix with them, but I was not with the Crazy Corporation. But they're all good friends of mine. They all rest in peace.

But a very popular stage act?

Very popular at the time.

Was this also in the Fifties?

No, it was during the television time, Sixties and Seventies also.

When you formed RVQ Productions in the mid-Sixties, this must be the period you were making up to ten films a year.

No, I did four or five movies a year. Sometimes I did two movies outside when I liked the role.

A lot of these films were spoofs on Western pop culture - parodies of James Bond, Lone Ranger…

Anything that became a hit, we would do a parody of it.

This was very popular with Filipino audiences?

Oh yeah! During the James Bond time, Goldfinger was very popular. I made the movie Dolphinger! (laughs)

The first film of yours I saw was James Batman [1966]. You play not only James Bond but also Batman!

I don't even remember anymore that movie! I made a lot of them, sometimes I don't remember anything more. It's a case of "too many". Those are independent productions. I made Genghis Bond [1965], all kinds of titles!

And The 7 Faces Of Dr Si Bago [1966, a loose reworking of The Seven Faces Of Dr Lao]?

Si Bago. It means stupid!

I've also seen Darna…Kuno? ["Darna…Fake?", 1979]

I said, "Are you sure you want me to play this role? This is for a woman…" Maybe they want me to be gay. But in fairness to the writer of this Darna movie, he might get angry, he might not like it! But because he loved me, Mars Ravelo - he'[s a genius, he made Darna, Lastikman, Captain Barbell. It's also a parody of the heroes in the United States. Captain Marvel is Captain Barbell!

So Darna…Kuno? is a parody of a parody! But Mr Ravelo gave you his blessing?

Yes, because he also gave to me the part of Jack And Jill. That was very popular in the komiks. During that time komiks were very popular, everybody was reading komiks - you'd see people around always reading komiks.

So in the Philippines, movies were like moving komiks?

But not very good, the standard, when you compare them to the American cartoons.

I guess in every section of show business there was always a rivalry. Your rival was Chiquito?

Yeah. His brother Rene [Pangan], rest in peace - Rene was my partner during the time before I joined Bayani and Dolphy, we had a group of dancers called the Four Hot Shots, four guys and one woman. We were all dancing the Boogie Woogie. The brother of Chiquito was a friend of mine, and my partner before. Chiquito was the younger brother of Rene, which is the friend of my brother. So they were very close to me, even the family. And he's my friend also, and I loved the guy. But they died so young.

How would you characterize Chiquito's screen presence?

He's great, he's good. My advantage is I'm more goodlooking than him! (laughs) But he's really very talented. He can shake, he can dance very well. And he's a jack of all trades also. He's a jockey, a policeman, a motorcycle policeman, can also play a pilot. He's an all-around guy.

I saw him in a kung fu film too!

Because when you do a movie, you have to learn also the kung fu and all the martial arts. Basically, you know, and do some stuff in a comedy way. Like when you do this (holds hand up to his nose, Three Stooges style), I use only one finger!

I noticed you did a kung fu film called Dolphy's Angels [1980].

I made a movie, Fung Ku [1973], instead of Kung Fu.

So you played David Carradine? (laughs)

Yeah, but in a different way.

I thought Dolphy's Angels' director Luis San Juan mostly made kung fu films. I didn't know he did comedies?

He did a lot of my movies. All my movies basically, when I started, it was the James Bond thing. He was the one who took me to play James Bond, called Dolphong Scarface [1966]. That was Luis San Juan. It was all in black and white, it was in a film festival competing with so many color films. Tony Ferrer was so up there at the time, he was the King of Action then - of course Ronnie Poe was also there. Competing with all these color films, it was only black and white, but it made money, so that started the James Bond, everything. Even in Chinese, it was James Bond.

Tony Ferrer was doing it seriously, and you were…

Comedy, yes. Even the way you do your kung fu style.

Dolphy's Angels introduces a whole new generation of actresses; it's like you introduce the biggest actresses of the next few years, all four of your Angels [Carmi Martin, Yehlen Catral, Anna Marie Gutierrez, Liz Alindogan] become famous. Were they well-known before?

No. When we were planning to do that movie with Luis I said all these girls should be new faces that can act and with a good figure. Formerly there were all these lunchtime shows in big hotels, they had a lunchtime model show. So I went to all these places, I went with Luis, and I can spot this girl, OK, we will interview them, and I wanted to see how they will react, if she can do it. And they were so eager to do it! I saw Carmi Martin, because she's tall and really sexy, and then I saw Anna Marie Gutierrez, another sexy girl but a smaller one. All of them became so famous! The other one, Yehlen Catral, is from Luis; I said she looks sexy and good. She is now married to a prosecutor in the US - she became a lawyer. Liz Alindogan was the niece of my friend. She's the only one with a kid. But she's pretty! I did my friend a favour. Everybody became famous, they had their own movies, their own shows, everything.

It seems that not only are you an actor, but you are also a producer and therefore have an eye for talent, and could see the potential in all four.

Sometimes you get disappointed - sometimes you think "this is good", but…it's really not that good. But at least talented people are always quiet, they are better actors than the talkative ones!

One of my favourite actresses of the Seventies was a frequent co-star of yours, Lotis Key.

She was also an actress in Repertory Philippines. I gave her a part in one of my movies but she could not do it. So years passed by and then I saw her appearing in some movies. I took her for Fung Ku, and then we became good friends, and she became my girlfriend, he he, but unfortunately we broke up, '78 or '79. But she is a nice girl. She's in America now. Her father is American, her mother is Filipina. She had a very hard time speaking Tagalog. That's why I always talked to her in Tagalog - I'm having a hard time speaking English, so she'd try to speak to me in English!

RVQ Productions seems very much like a family - not just your employees, but actual members of your family!

It really is a family production. Because everything that I produce is also a family life, with comedy and action, the family is always together. So I made this production to help some people. Not only for myself but my relatives, my family and my friends, and some people who are down and want to put them up again.

When people think of a Dolphy film, they often think of Panchito, your regular co-star.

I put Panchito in a comedy in a radio show, because Panchito was portraying a  different role, he is portraying a character role, mostly a villain or an old man, the father of the woman or son, the snobbish guy. Only villain role. But he's funny without the camera - when you are with him and you talk to each other, he's really funny. 

Let’s talk about Weng Weng.

Weng Weng… (laughs) I loved that guy.

It would appear that Da Best In Da West was the first film Weng Weng starred in?

No. In my productions it was the second. The first one, I think, was The Quick Brown Fox. I play the role of an agent and WW is my sidekick. Because some of the goons and the masterminds are all foreigners, I’m the brown face who’s very fast in everything. So I am the one to be eliminated by the Racket. Weng Weng is my sidekick, he lives with me. (Laughs) He’s my right hand, you know? But he was killed by the goons, crucified in my room. He clicked in that movie because he knows martial arts and can jump very fast. SO that was his first.

How was Weng Weng introduced to you?

A friend of mine brought him to me.and said, “This is Weng Weng.” He appeared already in one of Luis San Juan’s movies. I said, “I’ll try to think of a place to put him in a movie.” During that time my productions were doing very well. So every time that I produced, everybody wants to be an agent.

Was that friend Pete Caballes?

Caballes, yes. I met him also with Luis San Juan. And his wife was a councillor here in Manila. I haven’t seen Pete and Cora for a long, long time.

So Pete approached Luis San Juan, who cast Weng Weng in a small role, then did The Quick Brown Fox for RVQ, then Da Best In Da West?

Yes.

And this was before he was cast as Agent 00?

Yes.

In Da Best In Da West, more than half the cast and crew seem to end up working on Pete’s Liliw films. Did you actively encourage him to make a feature film with Weng Weng?

No, I was thinking of a role for Weng Weng in the movie, because there’s so many in the cast. Lito [Lapid], now Senator Lito, wanted those guys to be in the picture, I said OK. Anyway this is action, we need those guys to do the fight scenes and choreography. Yehlen [Catral] was one of my leading ladies from Dolphy’s Angels, and I took this mestiza woman [Nina Sara] for Lito Lapid – her father’s Tony Carreon, she should be Spanish looking.

All the classic bad guys are in the film – it’s not just a parody of a western, but of a Pinoy western!

It was a very expensive movie, because almost all of the villains from the history of making movies are all there. Paquito Diaz, Romy Diaz, Max Alvarado, so many others. [Eddie] Nicart, and all the goons of Lito Lapid. And I had my own goons as well! It was part of my comedy.

It’s a celebration of Goon Cinema! Was it successful?

Yes, but we were competing with the first Superman that was showing here. You would see people watching Superman AND Da Best In Da West!

It was 1979?

No, 1981.

And The Quick Brown Fox was earlier?

Earlier. 19…80.

Back to Da Best…

We were shooting in Baguio, because it looks like a western place. At that time, not any more because there’s so many houses there. You can’t see the mountains anymore, there’s all residences there. And you can get some big horses in Baguio. They charged me more every day! So we had a contract for one week’s shooting. It looks like a western. And it’s action, and funny. I play the blacksmith who makes a gun that shoots backwards! So that was my bait – that they would pick up my gun and shoot themselves!

There’s an outrageous stunt where Lito Lapid rides a horse through a plate glass window…

We had a hard time doing that. The horses, they stop. So what we did was put a plank, the horse runs over it… In one shot we blindfolded the horse, but the horse can sense this! But we got the shot OK.

When I found Weng Weng’s brother and asked him about his favourite film, he said the one Weng did with Lotis Key. Did she make a film with him? [The film is most probably Silakbo (1975)]

This I don’t remember. Am I in the movie?

I don’t believe so.

So many people were getting Weng Weng for their movies after The Quick Brown Fox and Da Best In Da West. They say it was lucky, that Weng Weng’s lucky to have in a movie.

And not just because he was huge box office? He was a real superstar for a short period.

I remember putting Weng Weng with another girl – she was also a dwarf – in one of my movies, but I don’t know what movie… [it was 1981’s Stariray]

Were you the star?

Yes, I was in the movie. He was courting somebody, I go with him to court this woman and to ask her father for her hand. It’s a funny scene – the father is also a midget, and the house is so small, I have to bend down! (explodes with laughter) I always bump my head!

What are your memories of Weng Weng as a person?

Well, he’s really a toy, you know? Because he can do lots of things, because he’s a dwarf, and their brains are not smart. He had his own gun – he was an Agent, did you know that? I don’t know where Pete got this guy. All I know is that he died.

Somebody told me he had the mind of a ten year old.

I don’t know… I just heard he wasn’t with Pete anymore. Unfortunately we’re talking about old people who have already died! The other day I was thinking of a friend, and all of them are gone already. I have to make new friends!

 

Yehlen Catral interview (2017)

 

YEHLEN CATRAL interviewed by Andrew Leavold, February 2017 [published in full in Andrew’s 2017 book The Search For Weng Weng]

Of all of Weng Weng’s female co-stars, Yehlen Catral proved to be one of the most elusive. And believe me, I spent more than a decade attempting to track her down, as I suspected her story would be a colourful and revealing one. Born Mary Yehlen Antonette Palabrica Catral in Mindanao in March 1964, her affluent family soon moved back to Manila, where she became a model and teen beauty queen. Yehlen (the unusual moniker a playful mash-up of “Nelly”, her mother’s name) was discovered by Dolphy and launched into super-stardom in Dolphy’s Angels (1980). Her brief show business career included action films with Tony Ferrer, Ramon Revilla Sr, Tito, Vic and Joey, and three films starring Weng Weng – Da Best In Da West, For Y’ur Height Only (both 1981), and D’Wild Wild Weng (1982) – before graduating college and emigrating to the United States to pursue a law career. Notoriously private even amongst her closest friends, Yehlen rarely gives interviews, and so it was a small miracle that she agreed to talk about her life for this book. That ten year-plus wait was, in my humble estimation, more than worth it: hers is such an extraordinary story, I decided to publish our interview, via Skype from her home in Stockton, California, in its entirety. Ladies and gentlemen, Dolphy’s Angel herself, Ms Yehlen Catral!

YEHLEN: If you call growing up with four older brothers, and then after me THREE more brothers, and having them come with me wherever I went, even on filming, and if you call that fun, well, I guess I had the most fun! I went to Catholic School, I was with the nuns, I know what it’s like to be bopped on the fingers with a ruler. I grew up with brothers, then brothers, so that’s pretty much my interaction. Unless I’m at school, then I’m with my good friends. When I was six I did the Junior Broadcasting. They actually required nine years old into fourteen to do Junior Broadcasting, but the producer Jose “Pepe” Pimentel… That’s how I got started on TV, doing broadcasting and anchoring for a while. Then at fourteen I started modelling, before I even joined Miss Philippines. I modeled at the top of the Hyatt, the venue for all the haute couture collections. They had in-house models like Bessie Padilla, those were Gary Flores trained models, and that’s how I started modelling.

ANDREW: When you were a child, did you dream of being a performer?

Actually, until the night of the [Mutya Ng Pilipinas/“Muse Of The Philippines”] coronation, I was telling everybody that I was going to be a doctor like my granddad, my father’s father, because that was a deathbed promise. In fact, after I graduated from Law School, my great uncle – the brother of my granddad – was like, “Oh my God, you’re going to get haunted by your grandfather, watch out!” I come from a family of doctors more than lawyers, and so my grandfather had always wanted his sons to be doctors. My uncle is an eye surgeon, and my grandpa was a neurosurgeon, and so he wanted his eldest, who was my father, to also be a doctor. Of course my father didn’t do it, he rebelled, and so when my father had his first granddaughter he was like, “OK, you’re going to save face for your father.” And so, until the coronation night when I was interviewed on stage, “What are you going to be”, “I’m going to be a neurosurgeon like my grandpa!” I went to Law School instead.

I guess your life changed forever on the night of Mutya Ng Pilipinas?

It did. You know, it’s funny, everybody asks me the same thing - “Were you nervous? Were you expecting to win?” It’s never been written about how it actually happened, and you’re going to be the first one to know… It was a big joke! I was fourteen at that time and already five foot five (I never grew). But there was a bet amongst my close friends. They told me, “Hey, they’re going to be choosing the semi-finalists for the Miss Philippines today. Oh, I bet you could pass for an eighteen-year-old!” Because that was the minimum [age]. So what we did was, we cut classes, we got a cab, there were five of us. We went to the Philippine Village Hotel – Leandro “Biboy” Enriquez also owned the Mutya organization, and owns the Philippine Village Hotel and some other hotels in the Philippines. So we went, I signed up. Of course I put I was eighteen. And at that time, because they were only choosing the candidates for the semi-finals, they did not ask for a birth certificate. That was good – I got in! So we went in, I went through the semi-finals. The ones who sit there as judges are the sponsors, like Johnson and Johnson, Colgate, Palmolive. After the interview I changed back into my school uniform and then we were already out the door. But before we reached the door, Biboy was like, “Excuse me, Yehlen, where are you going?” “Uh, we’re going back to school.” And his eyes grew, because everybody in the Philippines knows what St Paul College’s uniform is, a VERY prominent Catholic school! “Wait a minute… Why are you wearing that high school uniform? You got into the semi-finals! You have to go back!” I said, “I know, but I’m not eighteen, I’m only fourteen.” “What are you talking about?” It was August at that time, so I was not even going to be fifteen until the following March. I said, “I’m sorry, it was a joke, it was a bet and I lost it, my friends won...Bye!” “Wait a minute, maybe we can do something about this, I can talk to the sponsors and see – wait for me.” The moment he went in, my classmates and I went, “Let’s go! Let’s sprint out of here!” We grabbed the first cab we saw, went back to St Paul, and by that time it was already dismissal time, so it was time for the driver to pick me up. I get home and my father was waiting for me – he was not supposed to be home at that time. “Did you have a good day at school?” “Oh yeah, I did.” “Really? Where did you go? What did you guys do?” I couldn’t even talk about the classes because we dropped class! “Who is this Biboy Enriquez? WHAT DID YOU DO?” “I did something...”

Biboy apparently had spoken to the sponsors, and they’d decided that they were able to lower the age minimum, but at the same time it would be understood that the highest that I could go would be the Mutya Ng Pilipinas Tourism, because going to Miss Asia and Miss World, they will not let me, I was WAY under-age, four years younger. So at that time the Minister for Tourism, [Jose] Aspiras, and the Minister for Trade, they were there amongst the judges for the semi-finals, and apparently Minister Aspiras said, “No, we’ll lower,” because the Mutya Ng Pilipinas Tourism is also going to be the Ambassadors of Goodwill to South-East Asia. And he apparently picked ME. But I was told this by Biboy only after the coronation was done. Minister Aspiras went up to me and said, “Young lady, your lies were good for me and my Ministry!” At that time we thought it was so funny, because apparently that night the judges that night were told that I was sixteen. Because everybody knew that Biboy Enriquez owned the Miss Asia Quest and the Mutya Ng Pilipinas Quest Inc, he could do something about Miss Asia lowering the minimum age, because they wanted me to represent the Philippines there. The judges said, “No, she’s too young. A fourteen year old can no way go to an international pageant – no, it’s  just not right.” So Minister Aspiras said, “OK, fine, give her the Tourism crown, and she can be an Ambassador of Goodwill.” It was supposedly a year contract with the Ministry of Tourism, but Minister Aspiras extended my Ambassador’s status for another year. I believe I was the last Mutya for Tourism, because Minister Aspiras did not want to sponsor that particular crown any more.

What was the experience like, traveling around South-East Asia?

It was fun! In the middle of all these diplomatic conferences, everybody was over forty and here I was, only fifteen years old! In fact there was one time, everybody was already there and I was running late. I finally made it to the ballroom, and everybody was looking around. And I thought, “Why are we so late in starting the conference?” The program director went on the microphone and said, “We’re just missing one Ambassador from the Philippines.” I go, “No, hello, I’m here…!” The Ambassador from Singapore was on my left, and he looked at me, “Are you crazy?” At that time the Philippines was one of the powerhouses of South-East Asia. That was around Marcos’ time and Imelda’s face-lifting of the Philippines, reclamation of the whole Roxas Boulevard, the Philippine International Conference Center and Folk Arts Theater, so Marcos was very prominent. It was really a good time for the Philippines. And there was this fifteen-year-old giving a speech for the Philippines! The fashion tours of course were fun. I love clothes and shoes – typical Filipina, and typical female! I got to meet a lot of designers, but by that time I haven’t grown from five foot five, and the other models were like five foot ten, so at fourteen I learned to wear six-inch heels – I had to! Because I was short compared to them. And that’s why until now it’s odd – I prefer to wear at least an inch or two, I walk awkwardly in flats. I just got used to it. It was actually fun.

I assume that combination of model looks and frightening brain would have been intimidating to most Filipino males?

Yes. Especially because a lot of times I don’t have filters with them. Some of them [are] very prominent men but they could not talk about something, or they would not speak grammatically correctly – that’s my pet beef! One time my daughter’s Christmas gift to me was a T-shirt: “Grammar Police. To correct and to serve.”

Do you remember the moment you caught Dolphy’s eye?

He actually got a hold, the manager at the time of Rio Locsin, Rey dela Cruz. Because Ray dela Cruz comes from the same town in Cagayan Valley North as my father. And Rey dela Cruz knew of my grandfather because my grandparents were prominent in their area of the province. He said, “You know, this Yehlen Catral, I think the father’s Ilocano.” Rey dela Cruz contacted me; he managed the first part of my career, the first year, and then Franklin Cabaluna, the editor of People’s Journal, he took over. Of course it was Dolphy, so it was fun! Oh, I was a brat too. Because they said, “You know he’s going to do a spin-off of Charlie’s Angels, but instead there are going to be four instead of just three.” My father said, “I’d rather you don’t do that, I don’t like you to go to the movies.” Of course my mother was all for it. “You decide,” that’s what my father said. At the time I believe I was fifteen and a half when Dolphy offered that, or had just turned fifteen, so I told my dad, “Even just for one movie, because I REALLY want to do this Dolphy’s Angels thing!” After that Dolphy invited me over for dinner together with Rey dela Cruz, who at the time was really managing stars in the Philippines, and I said, “OK, which of the four Angels is the lead?” I mean one of them is the lead for Dolphy, and the other three for Panchito and the others. He said, “Obviously you’ll be the leading lady for me.” And I said, “Well, no, I don’t care about being the leading lady for YOU, I want Farrah’s role!” (laughs) Because I was fifteen! And he said, “Well, that’s the role - that’s the one that’s playing opposite me.” I said, “OK then, I’ll be your leading lady.” That’s how it started. After that I wasn’t even sure if I would continue. I just wanted to be with Dolphy – I mean, Dolphy is Dolphy, right?

What was it about Dolphy that kept him the Philippines’ King of Comedy for so long?

I think... he was a very good person. He really was. He’s always helping out people, and he made sure that everybody, the stuntmen, the crew, got a personal bonus. And his comedy was his own. Not slapstick, not corny stuff. It was a cute, family kind of comedy – I think that’s it. But mostly I really think he earned the respect of a lot of people, because he came from nothing and he never forgot that. He always helped people in need. Some of his staff would say something about a poor child who’s sick in hospital, a child of a very poor family who needed an operation, he would personally go. There was one that he helped in the middle of filming Dolphy’s Angels, he personally went, then paid for everything. He went to meet the parents of the boy, he survived, but told the parents, “Please don’t tell anybody, I just wanted to come because the boy was a fan. I don’t like publicity about these things.” He’s been like that, he’s a very good person. Or was.

I know! I was in the Philippines when Dolphy passed away and got to witness the country’s outpouring of grief.

He touched everyone’s life. They did call me, his partner Zsa Zsa informed me, and asked if there was any way that I could go. Liz [Alindogan] also asked me, but I was in the middle of a trial for one of my cases. There were two reporters and one talk show that wanted to [talk] like this, so I could give my condolences to the family, but I declined that, because I don’t really give interviews, I never really did even when I was in the movies I rarely gave interviews. I called the family directly.

Can we talk about the other three Angels – Carmi Martin, Liz Alindogan, and Anna Marie Gutierrez?

They were nice, all three of them. I remember being very good friends with them. I’ve always been very private, so during breaks from the shoot I would go to my corner, sit and read. Carmi, in fact, was the prom date of my younger brother. He was quite popular! Liz, as you can see from my Facebook, we’re still very good friends. Anna Marie, we were friends too at the time, but I really lost touch with her. Besides I was only in the movies for less than three years, and then I left. Carmi is also a friend on Facebook but it’s Liz that I’m more in touch with.

How did the public reaction to Dolphy’s Angels change your life?

It was crazy! It’s one of Dolphy’s most successful movies, that and Da Best In Da West. The way it affected me was, I kinda withdrew, because it was amazing, when you go to a gathering and you hear the fans literally screaming and trying to get hold of you, touch you, even pull your hair and climb the cars when you get there. Not that it startled me, but it got to a point where at times I felt scared - “Oh, what’s going on?!” I could not go anywhere without being recognized - even in the middle of having a personal dinner with my parents, people would ask for an autograph or pull a chair and sit tight next to you. I guess when you become a public figure and quite well known, there’s a lot of sacrifice involved. That’s why I think I tended to not go to a lot of live TV talk shows or I chose which journalist that I spoke with. And that’s not because I don’t have respect for everybody; it’s just that I chose who I was comfortable in speaking with. A lot of the stories [when] they put me on the cover of magazines, it was always third-hand information. Except the ones that Franklin Cabaluna of Peoples Journal and Manila Bulletin, and Cris Belen, when they wrote about me they literally talked to me.

It seems that all four of you Angels experienced instant stardom. It seems that Dolphy’s deliberate ploy of creating four new superstars worked. Why do you think he did that?

I don’t know. At the time he was telling us that he wanted fresh, wholesome girls, because it was the time of everybody going bold, and everybody was getting popular by stripping their clothes off. He told us, “I want wholesome new stars and build them up.” It was his magic, I think, that made us big stars. It was because of him. And then after that movie, of course, we went on our separate types of acting. I started going towards the action ones.

Everyone was doing action films at the time – it’s the period of Goon films, of Ramon Revilla, Tony Ferrer and Lito Lapid – and you co-starred with all of them! Were producers deliberately building you up to be an action star?

Ramon, I call him Kuya Ramon – I think they wrote about me being his protégé. And yeah, there was that time, the last two years of my movie career, he did tell the producers that if they wanted to get him, it was like a package, he wanted me there. He did action movies based on true stories – he was very good, and he directed a lot of the movies I made with him. I don’t know, you’ll have to ask him why he chose me! But Tony Ferrer, of course, he did too. I think a lot of it too was because I did not want to join the bold wagon, so I guess when I got offered the movie contracts, I had very specific clauses there – no nudity, no this or that. They tended to treat me like their daughter!

You made at least six films with Ramon Revilla, that’s a great working relationship.

Yes, really. They didn’t become superstars for nothing. Yes, just like I said, there was a period of time where if it’s a Ramon Revilla movie, you know that the leading lady would be me. And I really had fun, because I was playing roles like the female leader of the New People’s Army. Most of my action movies really were because of Ramon Sr.

Do you remember much about the film you made with Tony Ferrer, Pagbabalik Ng Mga Tigre (1980)?

“Return Of The Tigers”. It was kind of a novel thing for me because I didn’t do any action in that. In fact I played the one who always needed Tony Ferrer’s help! I was like, “This is different.” There was attempted rape, and I couldn’t protect myself until Tony Ferrer, the lead man, came to my [rescue]. I thought, “Hell, this is a different Yehlen here, I was never THIS helpless!” I don’t even know if I’ve ever played “victim” or “helpless damsel in distress” in any of my movies except that one.

Who were the Tigers?

Robin Aristorenas, Jess Lapid Jr, Tony Ferrer… there were five of them. [also Val Iglesias and Rod Navarro Jr]

Was it a western?

Kind of. Spaghetti western! The very first time we filmed my scene, there was an attempted rape. My tendency was to fight back. “Cut! You are supposed to be HELPLESS!” It took me at least five takes before that sank in. It was quite difficult to get into the mindset of a helpless damsel.

Then of course the Angels are brought back several times – I remember in Dancing Master 2: The Macao Connection (1982), all four Angels suddenly appear during the final fight scenes!

Yes, whenever Tito Dolphy was in trouble, there we were! Even if it didn’t have anything to do with the story – who cares?

Let’s talk about Da Best In Da West, one of the biggest box office successes of the year, with old faces next to new ones as everyone sends up the Pinoy Western. And you play Dolphy’s love interest.

Yeah, I always played that (laughs) for some odd reason. When we were discussing that, when it was still on the drawing board, Tito Dolphy was telling me, and he was talking to the director, “OK, I want her character to be some sort of Calamity Jane.” So they worked around that, because I did my own stunts - when I was riding horses I did not have a double, and I was able to do that because I was a competitive equestrian in high school, in college. And that helped a lot with the plot. The other action films that I did, because I got to a brown belt in Tae Kwon Do, that’s why I did all my stunts. It was really neat because I think Dolphy gathered the whole stuntman population, it was a huge production, with Lito Lapid there – he was at that time at the peak of his superstardom. Everybody, we were like family, even the stuntmen. It was so nice because I worked with a lot of them during Dolphy’s Angels, and so when I got there they used to call me their baby! (laughs) And it was really neat, because they would just be there when there were rowdy fans, some people that would just mob us, they’d be there, they’d replace my brothers. They’d go, “OK, time to go inside! They’re coming!” And Tito Dolphy was very protective. He monitored my career. At times I would ask him about the kinds of movies and all that. He kept in touch – I’m sure he did too with the other three [Angels]. But he was very nice, he acted more like a Godfather.

In Da Best In Da West, Lito had his own fight director in Eddie Nicart, Dolphy’s usual fight instructors Jay Grama and Fred Esplana were there, and all those guys were SOS Daredevils. So SOS was really like an extended family – and these guys are your chaperones?

Oh yes, I know! In the beginning it used to be my four older brothers. And it was funny because every time they knew when I would be already on the set, because you’ve got these four – my eldest brother was six foot one, the second eldest was six foot two, the third eldest was six feet, and the shortest of them was the fourth one at five foot ten, not too short either! So they would come down first from the car. “Ah there are the Catral brothers, Yehlen will be following soon!” After that the SOS, they were so neat. They protected me, yes, they were the ones that looked after me. It was really a beautiful experience, working with Dolphy. So were the other superstars, Ramon and Tony.

Do you remember the first time you saw Weng Weng?

On Da Best In Da West, that was the first time I met him. You’d just die, he was so sweet! Very happy, very jovial person. And he had the biggest crush on Nina Sara, his co-leading lady paired with Lito. He’d go all shy whenever Nina was around. But he was a wonderful guy, I really enjoyed chatting with him. We’d usually just chat in the corner.

What kinds of things would you talk about?

He always made the comment, “I can’t believe you’re only fifteen!” And then when I made the movie For Y’ur Height Only with him, “I can’t believe you’re only sixteen!” He was just very sweet. I think that’s really an appropriate term.

Some say he was like a child, others say he was a complex little adult – what was your assessment?

Oh, I never considered him just a child. He had a very good grip of what was going on around him, and I even discussed politics with him. We discussed a lot about movie trends and why it’s happening. I think maybe they just had different topics of conversation. But whenever we talked – I wouldn’t say it was intellectual discourse or anything like that, but no, he was definitely not a child with me. I mean, we were discussing a lot of history of Philippine cinema! I don’t know what his relationship was with the others, but when we engaged in conversation, it was meaningful conversation. At the same time he has this really odd sense of humour, I don’t know if that’s what the other people were referring to? I had long and enjoyable conversations with Weng Weng, with Ernesto.

Would he ever talk about girls, or specifically about Nina?

Oh yes! “Oh my God, isn’t she so pretty?” I’d go, “Yeah, she’s really pretty… OK she’s there, go say hi Weng.” And he’d go, “Oh my God no, come with me...” So I’d go with him! We got close, because on For Y’ur Height Only, I think my part was shot in two and a half days, but they used me for all the posters! After that I did some other movies with him, and we were always close. He’d ask me, “Oh, what do you think of this actress?” He was just sweet. He would always tell me, “OK, OK, come with me, come with me.” And then I would go with him, say hi, hold his hand and introduce him to the other girls that he wanted to meet. But, unfortunately for me I guess, I never got that sense that he had the mind of a child. Not with me at least.

I suggest in this book that he was a blank canvas that people around him projected onto him what they wanted to see.

That’s the thing, I think that’s what happened. Some of the people never gave him the chance to have his own personality and character whenever they engaged him, probably. But I was never like that with him. I would ask him about the books he reads, and we’d discuss the classic old Filipino movies – that’s how we talked. A lot of people tend to do that anyhow. You have a presumption of how you want to project the person from your point of view. But I’ve never been like that, even when I was young. I don’t think it’s a wise thing to do, because you then don’t get to know the person.

What was it like working with Eddie Nicart?

There are directors who are quite rigid and go through it scientifically. It’s like, “This is how I want you to do it, this is how you say it at this point in your sentence, you raise your voice like this...” Eddie wasn’t like that, he gave us actors license as long as it doesn’t really stray far from the character. That was how he dealt with me, so it was fun. I could even suggest to him certain fight scenes, certain routines. I would say, “I don’t think this is right, a woman wouldn’t really do it that way, maybe this way?” And he allowed it. He was very good actually. And Weng was very… I wouldn’t say very close, but they got along well, as far as I can remember. I wasn’t that close to Eddie – again, it’s not him, it was me, I was a very private person so I tended not to be close with anyone.

The first time you were directed by Eddie was in For Y’ur Height Only. There’s one scene where you’re being shot at in a hotel car park…

(Laughs) I think we had to do a dozen takes, because either I would get startled or Weng Weng would, and we would end up laughing. “OK, cut! Take three...four...five...” before we’d stop laughing. Weng would say, “Ina [sister], stop getting startled! My concentration is lost!” Of course he was kidding. And then we’d all be serious, and HE’d get startled! That was my relationship with him, you know. That was so much fun, that movie. Only because, I think,  we got to see how Weng Weng really was, and he really enjoyed that movie a lot. And he was very open about enjoying it and having fun with everybody on the set.

His co-star in Caliber .357 (1984), Nelson Anderson, told me Weng Weng was aware that he wasn’t being paid fairly. What is your feeling about this?

The Caballes were producers, I never really got to engage them in conversations, they were just my producers for the films that I did with Weng Weng. We just socialized during functions and the premieres of the movies. I know it’s been covered by a lot of the tabloids, but I don’t really have any personal knowledge about it. The Caballes were very nice to me, and whenever we filmed I felt they were very nice to everybody. Their personal relationship with Weng Weng I really didn’t know.

You didn’t witness any on-set interaction between them?

No, and also because of what I said, I tended to keep to myself. And whenever I I did movies with Weng, it was usually just he and I chatting.

Did you ever train with the SOS guys?

Yes! They were showing me the moves and stuff, not only for the movies. They’d go, “OK, this is what you do when you’re getting attacked by men,” and stuff like that. The one who leads the group, Ric Bustamante, said, “Even if these martial arts students, no matter how well you’re trained, even if you’re a blackbelter or whatever, if you really are not a natural fighter, then you tend to forget anyhow.” So he taught me things, like when you fight, you always back against the corner, so nobody else is behind you, and everybody would be coming at you and you’d be ready for them. And then things like where to hit, so you can literally immobilize the guy who’s probably twice your height, twice your size. It was fun, working with them.

Was this at the SOS headquarters on A. Mabini St? I believe the building is no longer there.

Yes, exactly. They had sponsors, but unfortunately they lost funding so they were not able to maintain the building. They had these ropes from the rafters, and I got to use them. They even taught me how to swing, which part of my body to put weight on so I would swing. The only thing that I could not do was a round kick. I always got dizzy. Then [Ric] even tried to teach me how to kick on the wall so that you tumble backwards. I was able to do it only twice, and then after that I always fell on my butt. I never got to do that in a movie, because they were afraid the next thing I would hit would be my head! (laughs) I got training like that from him. And it wasn’t because I was doing movies with them, it was because he approached me – I was a like a tomboy then. “D you want to learn this and that?” I said yeah… But then he started giving me training, I went regularly to that studio. That’s why I didn’t have to get doubles.

Do you remember shooting part of For Y’ur Height Only at the SOS compound? I think it’s the scene where you and Weng Weng are screaming “Where is Mr Kaiser? TALK!” at Nonong de Andres.

I think we may have. The night scene – I think that was it. That was on the lot.

No-one in the Philippines has bothered to record the stuntmen’s stories.

I know, and it’s really a pity. Those people led meaningful lives, the SOS. We’re talking about a very close fraternity of brothers. They helped each other out - if somebody was sick, “Fine, I’ll take care of your wife.” It felt so good and very reassuring when they extended to me their protection. I felt so special!

You were a sister! I know there was also a female branch of the SOS, which included your For Y’ur Height Only co-star Linda Castro.

Yes! We’re talking about a superstar stuntwoman. She led the group. She amazes me, up until now, whenever I remember her. SO fast. I remember myself in awe of her whenever I watched her do her scenes, the way she choreographed fight routines. She wouldn’t take crap from the men. She told me to do the same! (laughs) So I got to play the spoiled brat amongst the big brothers.

What was the reaction to For Y’ur Height Only going global during MIFF ‘82?

It was crazy! Because I think we almost were more popular in Europe than we were in the Philippines! It was one of those things where, if you Googled Weng or my name, the first thing that would pop up would be For Y’ur Height Only – not Dolphy’s Angels, not Da Best In Da West. He became a sensation more so in Europe than in the Philippines, I think.

I also believe that his popularity at home went through the roof precisely because he went global. All of a sudden, newspapers wanted to interview him, he was performing stunts on his tiny motorbike on TV shows… 1982 was the Year of Weng Weng!

Yeah. I remember we had to be [at MIFF] almost every day for close to a month, because the international producers were always asking for him. Ramon Revilla was there, Fernando Poe Jr, all these major veteran superstars of Philippine cinema, and all these international producers and directors were looking for Weng Weng! (laughs) Not THE superstars there. And it was really fun. I remember whenever some international press member would corner him and say, “Can we get just a few minutes,” he would look for me, literally wherever I was: “Someone is going to interview me, come with me!” Very, very sweet.

Your next film with Weng Weng is D’Wild Wild Weng (1982). I don’t remember seeing too many of your scenes, as I believe they may have been trimmed from the two-hour Tagalog version? And those scenes may relate to you being Max Laurel’s love interest, which are absent from the export version?

Yes, that’s right. And I remember I also had to request to not do a lot of the scenes that were in the script because I had very strict clauses in my contract. So I ended up not being able to do certain scenes that they wanted me to do. I specifically said no, I won’t do that in a movie.

They wanted love scenes between you and Max?

Yes. And I never did those in my movies.

Do you have many memories of running around the high plains of Pampanga surrounded by goons in sombreros?

Yeah, it was fun! Whenever I was with the SOS guys it was always fun. We got to visit a lot of the watermelon farms, and Weng and I loved that, we could just eat that during the shoot. “Leave that to us and we’re fine, we don’t need food!”

I did the math – you’re one of three actresses who made the most films with Weng Weng. So did Nina Sara and Beth Sandoval.

Yes, Beth Sandoval. I believe the Caballes were building her up.

And I believe she passed away in the Eighties or Nineties, according to Eddie Nicart.

I didn’t know that. I only got to spend time with her whenever we had scenes together, and you would have observed that we really did not have many scenes together in the movies.

What about Nina Sara? It appears she went to ground soon after a very public rape case.

Yes, the daughter of the SM Malls owner, Henry Sy – the leader of the lesbian gang that raped her. When they finally let her go from a van, she was stripped naked, incoherent, and let go in the middle of wherever it was.

Do you know roughly when that happened?

I emigrated to the US in ‘86 so I was still there when it happened, it must have been early 80s. I did a lot of TV movies with Nina. She’s sweet, very soft-spoken. I know that she really enjoyed acting but I wasn’t sure that her heart was in it, in that I thought she mentioned that she wanted to do something else, go to college. That was really about it. She was very quiet – she almost kept more to herself than I did! She tended to clam up around people. And she was a very obedient child. Whatever the mother said, she’d do.

Her mother was her manager?

I believe she was. Remember the Filipino version of the Village People, Hagibis? One of them, I believe, became very close with Nina, and he knew a lot about her. But she was never the same after that unfortunate incident.

You could say that destroyed her career?

It destroyed HER. She was broken after that. I don’t see how anybody could have survived that, being gang raped by a group of lesbians. They were heartless, what they did to her. Dropping her on the highway naked, she was bleeding everywhere.

Would you say you were close to Nina?

No, I think we were a bit more than acquaintances. I was definitely not as close to her as I was with Weng. With Nina we were friends in the industry.

Your film career seems to end around the time you graduate?

I left the movies, then went to the University of the Philippines [in Quezon City] to take up Political Science and English. That was in ‘81, when I started university. I graduated in ‘85. I was already in my second year of Law School at Ateneo Loyola, the Jesuit College, then I took the LSAT, the Law School Admission Test, in Olongapo. Fortunately I scored really high, so I got all these offers of scholarships, and I chose Washburn University [in Kansas].

Did you always have your eye on a law career?

I think that was awakened in me when I enrolled at the University of the Philippines. I was going to major in English – not English Lit, English – and then I shifted majors when I was in second year. I made English my minor, and I got involved with Political Science because [of] the UP activists, and I got involved in that. And so Political Science to me became very interesting, history and lots of pork barrelling going on in the government! I thought I’ve got to understand how this thing goes (laughs). It was goodbye movies, and then after I graduated and got the Fulbright Scholarship offered, I was like, “Bye!” I wanted to be in a place where I could blow my nose without being conscious about it. Because people would say, “Oh my God, Yehlen Catral blew her nose in a restaurant!” Here I can do what I want and nobody cares.  

So moving to the US allowed you to shed your unwanted celebrity?

Yes. And everybody keeps asking me, “Why would you want that?” I guess it’s because basically I’m a very private person. I remember that Weng Weng was one of the few ones that I contacted to say “Bye, I’m going to Law School.” Tito Dolphy of course was one.

Want to bring us up to date?

Gaily [Yehlen’s daughter, born 1992], I’m so proud of her. She’s my world, my only baby. She’s now second year in Medical School.

So her great-grandfather’s wish has finally been fulfilled?

Yes, I know! And guess what, she wants to be a neuro-psychiatrist. A double speciality. That’s all she does, study, play the video games. The one thing that I never forget to mention is that she’s a MENSA-certified genius, 167 IQ. It’s so funny because Mike [Yehlen’s then-partner], they kinda think the same, and he has mannerisms, the way he thinks, and the way Gaily thinks… I have always been very choosy with friends. It’s very difficult to get me engaged in conversation – before five minutes is up I’m usually bored or sleepy, and I have insomnia!