Sam Sherman Interviews

Sam Sherman and I at Sam's Independent International vault (with the face from Dracula vs Frankenstein!), New Jersey, June 2008

“Sam Sherman and The Bloody Brain Monsters of Ghastly Horror!”

[Sam Sherman interview with Michael Weldon in Fangoria #29 (1983), pp.38-39]

Before Sherman and Al Adamson got their own company going, Sherman became associated with Hemisphere Pictures through his friendship with Hemisphere president Irwin Pizer. Pizer's partner, Kane Lynn, was a highly decorated naval officer and pilot in the Pacific theater during World War II. As a result of Lynn's familiarity with the Phillipines, Hemisphere was able to pioneer the use of the island republic as a film location - thereby paving the way for umpteen New World cheapies and Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. Prior to Sherman's association, Hemisphere had made mostly war pictures, one notable exception being 1959's Terror Is A Man, an effective leopard-man movie starring Francis Lederer. Fairly bloody for its time (it was set on "Blood Island"), the Dr. Moreau-inspired thriller was promoted with a warning buzzer gimmick to alert the audience of shocking scenes.

"I kept telling them to go into horror, go into horror and stop making war pictures, and induced them to do it," recalls Sherman. "They took Terror and retitled it Blood Creature, billed it with The Walls of Hell (a Phillipines-made war movie) and got their first taste of horror; the bill did very well. As a result of that, they purchased another picture from the Phillipines called Blood Drinkers, by the same director as Terror, Gerry DeLeon, a very clever, creative director. That was teamed with a black and white film from Texas called The Black Cat."

So, 10 years after Terror is a Man was made, it spawned what is now known as "the Blood Island trilogy." John Ashley, formerly a teen star (Frankenstein's Daughter, Eye Creatures and several A.I.P. beach movies), lit up the screen in Brides of Blood (1968), Mad Doctor of Blood Island (1969) and Beast of Blood (1970), gory hits produced by Kane Lynn and directed by Eddie Romero. For over a decade to come, these same films would resurface constantly at drive-ins and on TV under myriad titles (for instance, Brides of Blood was reissued by Motion Picture Marketing as Grave Desires).

One of Sherman's favorite tasks was creating outrageous ad campaigns and clever promotional gimmicks. For instance, the opening of Mad Doctor was a title card that led the audience in the reading of a blood oath. The patrons would then be told to swallow the packet of gelatin-based green "blood" that each had received. Though the blood was formulated to be quite safe, the very thought of consuming the viscous food was sufficient to produce a few casualties at each screening.

Eddie Romero directed yet a fourth John Ashley film, Beast of the Yellow Night, which was to have been Hemisphere's fourth in the Blood Island series, however, the Kansas City backers who had financed the previous three films had a falling out with the producers at Hemisphere, and negotiated a release through the brand-spanking-new company New World Pictures, allowing Roger Corman to enter the burgeoning field of "Blood Island Mania." Sherman's own distribution company was finally off the ground at this time. Larry Woolner, Corman's original New World partner, then bought theatrical rights to the Klaus Kinski import Creature With The Blue Hand from Sherman (Sherman says that he had bought the film on the strength of Kinski's acting, though no-one had heard of him at the time). So it was that the Beast and Creature double-bill became the very first New World release.

Filipino caveman film from 1956 later re-edited by Sherman and Al Adamson into Horror Of The Blood Monsters (1970)

Sam Sherman, “Digging Up The Beast Of Blood”

[from Screem Magazine #4 (1994) pp.5-6]

I had a long association with Hemisphere Pictures, starting in the year of the company's inception, 1963. This involvement led from my being a consultant, doing advertising and promotion and eventually producing one of their horror films - Brain Of Blood. The principals of the company consisted of longtime distributor Irwin Pizor (President), Kane Lynn (Executive Vice President) and Eddie Romero (Vice President in charge of Production). The three were also the company's sole original stockholders.

By 1970 when Beast of Blood came along, Hemisphere had already established itself as an important horror film distributor through its earlier releases. Beast Of Blood was to reach the widest audience, through doing most business of any Hemisphere horror picture. Was the film superior to others? Perhaps not. However, the company was building to this movie and the timing was right.

Hemisphere’s so-called Blood series, was a group of individual films generally unconnected by anything except the titles. We were always trying to find some link between the pictures, to tie something new in with the previous film that had some measure of success. That was done with the titles selected, the print ads, the trailers and radio and television spots. In the case of Beast Of Blood, that was the one and only Hemisphere horror title that had any real connection to one of the previous films, as it was a genuine sequel to Mad Doctor Of Blood Island.

Why it was a sequel is an interesting story in itself . That was due to the efforts of the late Beverly "Bev" Miller. He was a former theatre owner in the Kansas City, Mo. exchange territory, who operated a regional distributorship known as Mercury Fihns, which represented Hemisphere in several mid-westem areas. He had done well with horror pictures and developed a good relationship with Kane Lynn. Having some previous involvement in production, he wanted to take a more active role in filmmaking.

The success of Mad Doctor Of Blood Island prompted him to write a sequel story and carve out a nice role for himself as the old Captain. In this capacity he got a free vacation to Manila, and could engage in mock war heroics, shooting automatic weapons and downing the heavies. Being a non-actor, the role made no great demands on his dramatic skills and at the time his performance was criticized, as I recall. He may not have been a screen veteran, but he sure looked like one. I showed a still of him to some friends years ago in his Captain role and they were sure that they had seen him in many old Hollywood movies, which of course wasn't true. But, Bev Miller looked right in the role and in re-screening the film recently I felt he gave the role just what was needed, apart from enjoying my seeing an old friend again.

Bev Miller's involvement spelled the end for Hemisphere's production of films in the Philippines. He brought with him three new funding groups and their differences with Hemisphere led to Eddie Romero joining with them and John Ashley and making motion pictures for other comparnes, i.e. Beast Of The Yellow Night (New World) and Twilight People (Dimension). But for a brief moment there was Camelot. Hemisphere's Blood group existed for a short period of time and were marketed well, exceeding the results and reputation of the other films. These pictures had a quirky horror quality at the instance of Irwin Pizor and Kane Lynn, which were in their scripts, casting and marketing. The later non-Hermsphere productions gained in polish and budgets, but lacked in cult appeal, which is why horror fans are still interested m the Hemisphere films.

Mad Doctor Of Blood Island followed Hemisphere's Brides Of Blood (Island), with Kane Lynn taking my suggestion of dropping the last word as being an inactive one. John Ashley was hired by Lynn to go to Manila and play the nominal hero role in this production, and he fell in love with the Philippines. Along with Bev Miller, he took an active part in the Philippines productions which lasted into the post-Hemisphere era. He cut that involvement short after having his life threatened by guerrillas with machine guns while on a location scouting trip in the jungle.

While Brides and Mad Doctor had little in common plot-wise, Beast Of Blood (Island) did connect to Mad Doctor. After bringing “Island” back into the title, Kane Lynn once again followed my advice and dropped it for a second time, although Blood Island was actually a part of the story.

Mad Doctor Of Blood Island (1969) told the story of a scientist, Dr. Bill Foster, who arrives at the Jungle-like Blood Island at the same time as heroine Angelique Pettyjohn, who is searching for her lost father. The mysterious Dr Lorca, played by Ronald Remy, star of a previous Hemisphere film The Blood Drinkers, is conducting the “green blood” experiments. Lorca, in trying to cure an old friend (Don Ramone) of a terminal illness, instead creates a horrible monster, known to the natives as 'The Evil One". At the same time, Lorca is also having an affair with Don’s wife. That sets up the forces in motion in the film. Various natives are used for experiments, get green blood contamination and the picture ends in a big fire with Don Ramone and Doctor Lorca apparently killed. A tag scene in the boat leaving the island with Ashley and Pettyjohn suggested the monster might still be alive.

This now sets up the action for Beast Of Blood. Ashley retums as Dr. Foster on a boat heading back to Blood Island, with “The Evil One” secretly aboard. The monster attacks Foster and hte crew and the boat goes up in flames during the melees. Foster survives, clinging to some wreckage and the monster crawls to the shore on the island.

After the release of gore and sex loaded Mad Doctor, the ratings system came in and these elements had to be toned down in Beast Of Blood, which was more of a mystery film and jungle action picture than straight horror fare. For these reasons, the plot of Beast Of Blood unfolds slowly, as Dr. Foster and reporter Myra Russell (Celeste Yarnell) trek through the jungles to find Dr Lorca still alive quite late in the movie's running time. Lorca, disfigured in the fire which ended Mad Doctor, is played by Eddie Garcia, who has captured Don Ramone and restrained him in a most unusual way. Ramone's head is kept alive apart from his body, attached to sorne kind of chemicals and lab machines. The same for the body kept alive without a head. Several attempts of Lorca's to graft native heads on to Ramone's body fail in the surgery. However, some unstated psychic connection still exists between the body parts, over which it has some control.

Eventually Ramone's head directs the body to attack and kill Lorca, which leads to the destruction of the lab in a violent fire and explosion. At the end, when Foster, Russell and company trek off from Lorca's domain into the jungle, a native is shown carrying an unusual large wooden box which one might assume contains something that will prompt another sequel. Alas, no green blood drips out and these thoughts only remain in the mind of the viewer.

Eddie Romero directed Beast Of Blood in straight forward narrative and professional technique. The jungle and action scenes didn’t suffer from the limited budget, and set design, lab machines and such, were generally well done. Gone were the shaky zoom effects from Mad Doctor, which I liked, and many others did not. This was the artistic touch of Romero's co-director Gerry De Leon, who pioneered many techniques in Philippine production.

When the next Hemisphere movie Beast Of The Yellow Night went instead to Dimension Pictures, Al Adamson and I made Brain Of Blood for Kane Lynn in Los Angeles. We hired Kent Taylor, star of Brides Of Blood, shot Hemisphere-type lab gore scenes and crafted a story that matched the "Blood" series plots. With the sets and locations selected carefully and using the original background music by Tito Arevalo from Mad Doctor, we created a film that fit the series, and which many thought was a sequel to Beast Of Blood and just another Hemisphere Philippine production.

Brides Of Blood (1968)

1968 – Brides Of Blood (Hemisphere Pictures/Independent International Pictures Corp)

[also known as Brides Of Blood Island, Brides Of Death, Brides Of The Beast, Island Of The Living Horror, Orgy Of Blood, Terror On Blood Island]

Directors Eddie Romero, Gerardo de Leon Producer Eddie Romero Executive Producer Kane W. Lynn

Cast John Ashley (Jim Farrell), Kent Taylor (Dr Paul Henderson), Mario Montenegro (Esteban Powers), Beverly “Hills”/Powers (Carla Henderson), Eva Darren (Alma), Oscar Keesee [Jr] (Captain Macbee), Ely Ramos Jr, Bruno Punzalan (Goro), Andres Centenera (Arcadio), Pedro Navarro, Carmelita Estrella, Quiel Mendoza, Willie Tomada, Ben Sanchez, Angelita Alba

Review by Andrew Leavold

The lure of the Philippines throughout the 60s and 70s was intoxicating for low-budget filmmakers - you could produce an exotic potboiler with genuine tropical locales for a fraction of the cost in America. With Hemisphere’s successful rerelease of the 1959 Terror Is A Man - Eddie Romero and Gerry de Leon’s reworking of Island Of Dr Moreau - as “Blood Creature”, producer Kane Lynn wanted more “Blood”, and so instructed Romero and de Leon to co-direct an even sleazier jungle shocker.

And so begins Brides Of Blood. On a steamboat are Peace Corps volunteer Jim Farrell (former matinee idol John Ashley), the radiation expert Dr Henderson (Kent Taylor) and his frustrated wife Carla (played by a former stripper with the unlikely but appropriate name Beverly Hills), a top-heavy B beauty with a shroud of hairspray around her polyethylene hair mountain and who manages to walk through a jungle without soiling her white shoes.

They land on Blood Island, a so-called tropical paradise literally crawling with mutant plants and with a native burial seemingly every 10 minutes. The group take refuge in the mansion of the elusive Estaban Powers, an ageless patriarch whose bald, disfigured and bug-ugly manservant Goro whips his small army of semi-naked dwarves (again with the dwarves!). Dr Henderson notices alarming levels of radioactivity in the island’s maneating plants; the trail of green radioactive slime leads from the mansion through fog-shrouded jungles to a giant grotesque stone idol where virginal village girls are sacrificed to a lecherous (not to mention ludicrous) monster on the prowl. Ever the lover boy, super-suave Ashley tries desperately to save a native girl from her fateful honeymoon as one of the “brides” of Blood Island.

Female patrons in its numerous drive-in runs were offered plastic wedding rings so they would be promised to the monster. Cheesy, yes, and old-fashioned even for 1968, but so successful was its exploitation hyperbole that Ashley, Romero and de Leon returned the following year with Mad Doctor Of Blood Island - not strictly a sequel, but a repeat of the formula with more flesh on display, a less laughable mutant creature on the prowl, and more green and red ooze in equal measures. Then came Beast Of Blood in 1970, completing the so-called “Blood Island trilogy” and setting the benchmark for the crimson-streaked wave of made-in-Philippines exploitation films to follow.

Mad Doctor Of Blood Island (1969)

1969 – Mad Doctor Of Blood Island (Hemisphere Pictures/Independent International Pictures Corp)

[also known as Blood Doctor, Grave Desires, Tomb Of The Living Dead]

Directors “Gerry”/Gerardo de Leon, Eddie Romero Writer Reuben Canoy Producer Eddie Romero Executive Producer Kane W. Lynn Associate Producer Beverly Miller Cinematography Justo Paulino Music Tito Arevalo

Cast John Ashley (Dr Bill Foster), Angelique Pettyjohn (Sheila Willard), Ronald Remy (Dr Lorca), Alicia Alonzo (Marla), Ronaldo Valdez (Carlos Lopez), Tita Muñoz (Mrs Lopez), Tony Edmunds (Willard), Alfonso Carvajal (Ramu), Bruno Punzalan (Razak), Edward D. Murphy (Captain), Johnny Long, Paquito Salcedo, Felisa Salcedo, Quiel Mendoza, Ricardo Hipólito, Cenón González, Nadja

Review by Andrew Leavold

Brides Of Blood, starring former American teen heartthrob John Ashley and a bevy of naked virgin beauties being sacrificed to a green oozing monster, must have been the heady cocktail of sleaze and tropical breeze that caught the imagination of the drive-in audience; Brides... would be rerun a number of times and create enough buzz for directors Eddie Romero, Gerry de Leon and producer Kane Lynn to return to Blood Island to make a pseudo-sequel, this time with more sleaze, more ooze, more salsa on the enchilada.

The result was Mad Doctor Of Blood Island, and Hemisphere Pictures had an even bigger hit. John Ashley is back as Dr Bill Foster, investigating the outrageous claim that some of the inhabitants have green blood. Along for the ride is notorious 60s sexploitation star Angelique Pettyjohn as Sheila Willard, looking for her lost father who’s now the island barfly. Ashley stumbles on the ghoulish vivisection antics of Dr Lorca (played by Ronald Remy, who you may remember as the suave bald-headed vampire doctor in The Blood Drinkers); Lorca’s experiments have been turning the locals including his own wife into crusty green-skinned chlorophyll freaks craving blood - and more!

Mad Doctor Of Blood Island is your quintessential drive-in experience from the late 60s: so much blood, so much flesh, so much cheese, and so many zoom effects it feels like it was filmed in throb-o-vision. Always with an eye for exploitation, Hemisphere filmed a prologue “Oath of the Green Blood”, where movie patrons were instructed to repeat the sacred words and drink from a plastic sachet of green muck that was supposed to be lime syrup, but was in fact a toxic gel that reportedly made publicist Sam Sherman sick for days!

Now you can duplicate the drive-in experience in your own home: grab a bottle of undiluted lime cordial and repeat after me...

"I, a living, breathing creature of the cosmic entity am now ready to enter the realm of those chosen to be allowed to drink of the Mystic Emerald fluids herein offered. I join the Order of Green Blood with an open mind, and through this liquid's powers am now prepared to safely view the unnatural green-blooded ones without fear of contamination."

JUST RELEASED! MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND CD from Elysee Productions

From Elysee Production's website: "Elysee Productions is pleased to present its first original soundtrack release. Now available for the first time in any form is Tito Arevalo's amazing score for the cult horror fave, MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND. Mastered from the original session tapes (recorded in full track mono at 15-ips), CD includes an 8-pg. full color booklet with liner notes and composer bio by Tim Ferrante. It's limited to 1,000 pressings. There are 34 tracks running 50 mins. 41 secs. Price: $19.99

"The music for MAD DOCTOR was composed by Tito Arevalo (whose real name is Eustacio de Leon Ilagan), older brother of co-director Gerardo de Leon. Arevalo was both an actor and composer whose career was as heralded as de Leon's. MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND came during the slowing years of his film music assignments, the last of which was Cirio H. Santiago's A TIME FOR DYING (1983). Tito Arevalo is virtually unknown in America, yet many cult film fans know his Blood Island sound. This composition uses unique orchestration that's influenced by the composer's Filipino culture and remains consistent in its tonal environment. So whether it's the deranged Don Ramon on a rampage or a romantic encounter, Arevalo never lets us forget that we're trapped in the jungle landscape of Blood Island. It is horror film music as never heard before.

"The events that lead to this original soundtrack CD began four decades ago when 23-year-old Samuel M. Sherman met with a gentleman by the name of Irwin Pizor in the latter's Hemisphere Pictures' Manhattan office. Hemisphere Pictures was one of countless independent production and distribution companies feeding ozoners and hardtops (film industry lingo for drive-in and traditional movie theatres) with low-budget exploitation fare.

"As a result of the meeting, a friendly association had begun and Sherman was introduced to Daniel Q. Kennis and Kane W. Lynn, Pizor's business partners. Kennis was one of the original investors in Hemisphere and Lynn was executive vice president. A third partner, Eddie Romero, was based in Manila and served as vice president of that office. Sherman had plenty to offer the cost-conscious group in that he could write copy (he wrote the one sheet hyperbole above), edit film and create marketing strategies better, faster and cheaper than National Screen Service. He was also tapped into the youth market through his work at Warren Publishing Company (Famous Monsters of Filmland, Eerie and Creepy magazines). Sherman's advice to Hemisphere's owners was simple: Start making horror films!

"In March of 1969, Lynn, upon returning from one of his trips to Manila, handed a cardboard box to Sherman. "Don't say I never bring you anything," he joked. Inside were three 1/4-in. audio tape reels; the master recordings of composer Tito Arevalo's scoring session for the company's newest production, MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND. Sherman liked Arevalo's music from the moment he heard it and went to work writing and producing the film's theatrical trailer and radio and TV spots. The MAD DOCTOR campaign, aided by the Arevalo's unique sound, proved to be a winner with '60s filmgoers. Thanks to the film's incredible success a sequel, BEAST OF BLOOD, hit theatres in 1970 grossing even more at the boxoffice than its predecessor. Since that time, MAD DOCTOR has been seen worldwide via TV, videotape and now DVD.

HEAR THE MUSIC! CLICK HERE

Beast Of Blood (1970)

1970 – Beast Of Blood (Hemisphere Pictures/Independent International Pictures Corp)

[also known as Beast Of The Dead (US TV), Blood Devils (UK), Horrors Of Blood Island, Return To The Horrors Of Blood Island]

Director/Screenplay/Producer Eddie Romero Executive Producer Kane W. Lynn Story Beverly Miller Music Tito Arevalo Cinematography Justo Paulino Editor Ben Barcelon Production Design Ben Otico

Cast John Ashley (Dr Bill Foster), Celeste Yarnall (Myra Russell), Eddie Garcia (Dr Lorca), Liza Belmonte (Laida), Alfonso Carvajal (Ramu, tribe leader), Bruno Punzalan (Razak, lead henchman), Angel Buenaventura, Beverly Miller (The Captain), Johnny Long

Review by Andrew Leavold

Beast Of Blood, an indirect followup to the 1968 Brides Of Blood and direct sequel Mad Doctor Of Blood Island (1969), reunites Hemisphere Pictures producer Kane Lynn, Filipino director Eddie Romero, and the velvet Elvis Presley of drive-in sleaze John Ashley for a third and last outing to Blood Island. Taking up the action on the boat where Mad Doctor... left off, the hideous chlorophyll experiment of Dr Lorca is loose and destroys the ship; miraculously both Dr Foster (John Ashley) and the creature survive, and Ashley heads back to Blood Island with suspicious female reporter Myra Russell (Celeste Yarnall) in tow to uncover its secrets - and secretions - once and for all.

Of course it doesn’t take Ashley long to unearth Dr Lorca. Now played by Eddie Romero’s favourite bad guy Eddie Garcia (Curse Of The Vampires, Beast Of The Yellow Night) and crippled, badly scarred, and left with one eye after his experience as the Mad Doctor Of Blood Island, Lorca is continuing his ghastly experiments in green blood-soaked transplants in a secluded underground lair. More like a Bond villain than a scientist, he instructs his goons to kidnap the reporter then dresses her in a bikini, trades one choice amoral line of dialogue after the other with Sean Connery substitute Ashley (“I’m madder than EVER!”), before watching a cut-rate rescue mission by Ashley’s jungle raiders dissolve his lair in one explosion after another. All that’s missing is a tank full of angry piranhas, and you have an evil sanctuary Blofeldt would be proud of.

Luckily the chintzy would-be 007 touches don’t overshadow the film’s raison d’etre. Always considerate of the wants - no, NEEDS - of its drive-in audience, Beast Of Blood ups the ante on the previous Blood Island epics by offering more sleaze, more cheese and much more over-the-top gushing of the red red vino, particularly during the brutally realistic surgery sequences. Of particular note is Lorca’s creature, a vast improvement on the previous two creatures of Blood Island - this time it looks like its bones are on the outside, and its head spends much of its time separated from its body - a head, by the way, which taunts Lorca from its saucer full of chlorophyll with lipless teeth and perfect diction. Have you tried saying the word “mammoth” without lips? This creature is AMAZING, and could be the spearhead of a future ventriloquist revival.