The Secret Of The Sacred Forest (1970)

1970 - The Secret Of The Sacred Forest (William Copeland Productions/[uncredited] Sark-Marok Productions/Shermart Distribution/AFTRS)  

[US production filmed in the Philippines around October 1967, eventually released in Biloxi on 26th June 1970. Also known as “Sacred Forest”]  

Director Michael DuPont Writer/Producer William Copeland Cinematography Vincente Sempio Music Herschel Burke Gilbert Orchestration/Arranger Ernest Hughes Songs "Has Any One Seen Chris" by William Copeland & Herschel Burke Gilbert, "Filipina Filipina" by William Copeland & Angel Pena Singer Maurice Santa Lucia Editor Tony DiMarco [as Anthony DiMarco] Sound Demetrio Carrianga  

Cast Gary Merrill (Mike Parks), Jon Provost (Jimmy Carpenter), Vic Silayan (Commander Ramos), Leo Martinez (Bayani de la Cruz), Henry Duval (Garcia), Michael J. Parsons [as Mike Parsons] (Chris Carpenter), Laurie Agudo (Annie), Dave Harvey (Brownie), Rolf Bayer (Captain Kram), Mona Morena (Mother), Lola Boy (Grandmother), Luis Florentino (Sergeant), Joseph de Cordova (Police Chief), Carol Varga (Rosa), Bruno Punzalan (Colonel Romero), Poch Apostol (Priest), Fred Viray (Dispatcher), Don Smith (2nd Mate), Zenaida Amador (Nun), Gami Virray (Pirate), Vicente Sempio (Hotel Manager), Cristina Ponce Enrile [as Christina Ponce-Enrile] (Fely)

ADVENTURE  

COMING SOON!

Gary Merrill (Mike Parks)

Jon Provost (Jimmy Carpenter)

Vic Silayan (Commander Ramos)

Leo Martinez (Bayani de la Cruz)

Henry Duval (Garcia)

Michael J. Parsons [as Mike Parsons] (Chris Carpenter)

Laurie Agudo (Annie)

Dave Harvey (Brownie)

Rolf Bayer (Captain Kram)

Mona Morena (Mother)

Lola Boy (Grandmother)

Luis Florentino (Sergeant)

Joseph de Cordova (right - Police Chief)

Carol Varga (Rosa)

Bruno Punzalan (Colonel Romero)

Poch Apostol (Priest)

Fred Viray (Dispatcher)

Don Smith (2nd Mate)

Zenaida Amador (Nun)

Vicente Sempio (Hotel Manager)

Cristina Ponce Enrile [as Christina Ponce-Enrile] (Fely)

THEATRICAL

USA - screened around the US from its premiere screening in Biloxi on 26th June 1970 to 1975

AUSTRALIA - a 16mm print was submitted for a G rating in February 1975 but there is no evidence so far of a commercial release

VIDEO

UK - released on VHS in 1987 via the Network Channel as "The Sacred Forest" 

- UK VHS, mp4 file

Blood Thirst (1965/71)

1965 - Blood Thirst (Journey Productions/[uncredited] Nemours Productions)  

[US production filmed in the Philippines in 1965, eventually released in 1971. Also released as "The Blood Seekers"]  

Director/Producer Newt Arnold Story/Screenplay N.I.P. Dennis Executive Producer Michael DuPont Cinematography Hermo U. Santos Choreographer Haroun Tootikian Editing Supervisor Tony DiMarco Editor Cielito Santillan Chief Sound Engineer Manuel Daves Production Manager Romy dela Rosa Makeup Artist Andrea Manahan Set Decorator Sergio Manalang Post-Production Supervisor Lee Osborne Sound Effects Editor Bernard F. Pincus   

Cast Robert Winston (Adam Rourke), Katherine Henryk (Sylvia Ramos), Yvonne Nielson (Serena), Vic Diaz (Inspector Miguel Ramos), Vic Silayan (Calderon), Eddie Infante (Herrera), Bruno Punzalan (Moreno), Judy Dennis (Theresa), Max Rojo (Antonio Munoz), Ching Tello, Minda Morena (Maria Cortes), Isidro Francisco, Felix Marfil  

HORROR   

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]

Karate Sa Karate (1965)

Image courtesy of Simon Santos and his Video 48 blog

1965 – Karate Sa Karate (BB Productions/Tagalog Ilang-Ilang Productions)  AGENT 707 #?/AGENT 69 #4

[Release date 28th September 1965]  

Director George E. Rowe Producer Bernard Bonnin Music Polding Silos  

Cast Bernard Bonnin (Agent 707), Alberto Alonzo (Agent 69), Lyn D'Amour, Bessie Barredo, Ely Ramos Jr, Johnny Stuart, Margie Tanquintic, Vic Silayan, Max Alvarado, Lorretta Rocco, Jose Garcia, Jose Vergara, Philipp Coo, Eddie Baydo, Carlito Varca, Joe Cunanan, Ben Datu, SOS Daredevils, Gorgonio “Dagul” Se  

SPY THRILLER/KARATE ACTION  

NOTE: This is part of a long-running series of Agent 707 films starring Bernard Bonnin, as well as the fourth film for Alberto Alonzo as Agent 69. The film is currently considered lost.

Kill...Tony Falcon (1966)

Image courtesy of the Video 48 blog

1966 - Kill...Tony Falcon (Arguz Productions/Regina Productions)  

[Release date 11th November 1966]  

Director/Producer Armando de Guzman  

Cast Tony Ferrer (Tony Falcon, Agent X44), Marlene Dauden, Willie Sotelo, Vic Silayan, Lito Garcia, Gabriel Paile, Danilo Jurado, Suzanne Machele, Liza Grey, Ric Bustamante  

SPY/ACTION   

NOTE: This is the twelfth 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. 

Image courtesy of the Pelikula Atbp blog

THEATRICAL

PHILIPPINES - released 11th November 1966