d. Eddie Romero (1972)
Edgar ‘Eddie’ Romero was a legend of the Filipino film industry. Working from the late 1940s up until 2008 (he died in 2013, aged 88), Eddie produced, wrote and directed dozens of films and TV shows, eventually attaining a respectability and artistry that few non-auteurs achieve. For the narrow purposes of this weblog, we’ll concentrate on the hugely entertaining English language exploitation films he made in the 1970s, specifically his shoestring take on The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Twilight People.
The film stars John Ashley, a recurring presence in Romero films of the period. Ashley had been a minor teen idol and even more minor pop star, playing eternal youths in AIP horror and beach films well into his thirties. He happily relocated to Manila when US roles dried up, eventually working behind the scenes of Apocalypse Now for an extended period: he was the guy who arranged to borrow the helicopters. Here he plays Matt Farrell, a slightly pudgy playboy and renaissance man who is kidnapped by a mad scientist who wants to splice his superior genes with wildlife, thereby creating a super race of human-animal hybrids that he believes will form the next stage of evolution.
It’s not working too well so far, as all he’s managed to do is to create a menagerie of unhappy freaks: apart from his mad, mutated wife, he has a man bat (disturbing), a goat man (perplexing), a monkey boy (randy and annoying) and a young woman who has a very furry face who I eventually realised was supposed to be part dog. Oh, and he also has a constantly miaowing Panther Woman, played by the magnificent Pam Grier (underused). It’s all a bit disorganised and deeply unethical, and Farrell is the sort of straight up guy who inspires confidence, so he very quickly turns the mad scientists daughter against her Father and breaks out the hybrids, who make their way into the jungle in search of freedom, closely pursued by the scientists hired thugs, led by a peroxided sadist who only drinks milk.
As you might expect, the film is no masterpiece but it is surprisingly well written, well directed and mainly well-acted, as well as being shot in a number of interesting locations. For all its quiet competence, however, it is sometimes marred by abrupt edits, as if material has been removed or added at the last minute, leading to jarring and sometimes noisy transitions. The monster make up is okay (lots of stick on fuzz and silly teeth), and the special effects, including spurting blood and some animation, are about right. In the end analysis, it’s a cheaply made but ambitious film about strange and fantastic things, kept from tipping into silliness by a matter of fact and professional approach - which sounds slightly dull but actually never is.
Edgar ‘Eddie’ Romero was a legend of the Filipino film industry. Working from the late 1940s up until 2008 (he died in 2013, aged 88), Eddie produced, wrote and directed dozens of films and TV shows, eventually attaining a respectability and artistry that few non-auteurs achieve. For the narrow purposes of this weblog, we’ll concentrate on the hugely entertaining English language exploitation films he made in the 1970s, specifically his shoestring take on The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Twilight People.
The film stars John Ashley, a recurring presence in Romero films of the period. Ashley had been a minor teen idol and even more minor pop star, playing eternal youths in AIP horror and beach films well into his thirties. He happily relocated to Manila when US roles dried up, eventually working behind the scenes of Apocalypse Now for an extended period: he was the guy who arranged to borrow the helicopters. Here he plays Matt Farrell, a slightly pudgy playboy and renaissance man who is kidnapped by a mad scientist who wants to splice his superior genes with wildlife, thereby creating a super race of human-animal hybrids that he believes will form the next stage of evolution.
It’s not working too well so far, as all he’s managed to do is to create a menagerie of unhappy freaks: apart from his mad, mutated wife, he has a man bat (disturbing), a goat man (perplexing), a monkey boy (randy and annoying) and a young woman who has a very furry face who I eventually realised was supposed to be part dog. Oh, and he also has a constantly miaowing Panther Woman, played by the magnificent Pam Grier (underused). It’s all a bit disorganised and deeply unethical, and Farrell is the sort of straight up guy who inspires confidence, so he very quickly turns the mad scientists daughter against her Father and breaks out the hybrids, who make their way into the jungle in search of freedom, closely pursued by the scientists hired thugs, led by a peroxided sadist who only drinks milk.
As you might expect, the film is no masterpiece but it is surprisingly well written, well directed and mainly well-acted, as well as being shot in a number of interesting locations. For all its quiet competence, however, it is sometimes marred by abrupt edits, as if material has been removed or added at the last minute, leading to jarring and sometimes noisy transitions. The monster make up is okay (lots of stick on fuzz and silly teeth), and the special effects, including spurting blood and some animation, are about right. In the end analysis, it’s a cheaply made but ambitious film about strange and fantastic things, kept from tipping into silliness by a matter of fact and professional approach - which sounds slightly dull but actually never is.
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