The Last Hunter (1980)

1980 – The Last Hunter (Flora Film/Gico Cinematographica)

[An Italian production shot in the Philippines, working title “Cacciatore 2”/”The Hunter 2”; released in Italian cinemas as “L'Ultimo Cacciatore”, in Britain as “Hunter Of The Apocalypse”, in France as “Les Heros de L'Apocalypse”, in Germany as “Jager Der Apokalypse”, in Pakistan as "War Kill" and in Argentina as “Apocalypse 2”]

Director “Anthony M. Dawson”/Antonio Margheriti Producer/Story Gianfranco Couyoumdjian Screenplay Dardano Sacchetti Director of Photography Riccardo Pallottini Editor Alberto Moriani Production Designer/Costume Design “Bartolomeo”/Mimmo Scavia Music Franco Micalizzi Assistant Director & Second Unit Director Edoardo Margheriti Special Effects [uncredited] Apollonio Abadesa Production Manager Pasquale Vannini Unit Manager Mauro Mariani Production Secretary Umberto Bellucci Administration Otello Tomassini Cameraman Mario Sbrenna Assistant Cameraman Luigi Conversi Continuity Marisa Calia Sound Alfonso Montesanti Boom Operator Guglielmo Smeraldi Makeup Massimo Giustini Assistant Makeup Artist Nicola Catalani Assistant Editor Massimo Cataldo Cutting Room Assistant Mario Recupito Stills Antonio Benetti Assistant Production Designer Antonella Margheriti Wardrobe Franca Celli Key Grip Sergio Profili Chief Electrician Fernando Massaccesi Sound Mixer Bruno Moreal

Cast David Warbeck (Captain Henry Morris), Tisa Farrow (Jane Foster), Tony King (Sergeant George Washington), Bobby Rhodes (Carlos), “Margi Eveline Newton”/Margit Evelyn Newton (Carol), John Steiner (Major Cash), Massimo Vanni (Phillips), “Alan Collins”/Luciano Pigozzi (Bartender), Dino Conti, Gianfranco Moroni, [uncredited] Jim Gaines (U.S. deserter), Miki Kim (Prostitute in bar), Romano Kristoff (Helicopter pilot), Edoardo Margheriti (Stinker Smith), Lawrence Morgant (Pot-smoking soldier), Gregory Snegoff (Drunken G.I.), Al Yamanouchi (Various Vietcong)

Antonio Margheriti on the set of The Last Hunter (from the official Antonio Margheriti website)

Scott Phillips’ review from the Film Vault website:

Another ass-whoopin' flick from Videodrome's favorite Italian director, Anthony M. Dawson (Antonio Margheriti)! Hunter is Margheriti's oddball melding of The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now, and it opens with a drunken brawl in a cheap bar that quickly turns into a bloody, suicidal rampage of mayhem and destruction that sets the stage for the downbeat (yet squeal-inducing) thrills to follow. Low-budget action king David Warbeck plays Captain Henry Morris, who sets out on more-or-less the same mission Martin Sheen was on in Apocalypse Now. Morris' chopper is blown out of the sky and the tough-as-nails soldier is the only survivor of the crash. Swimming to safety, he meets up with George Washington (the machine gun-toting black soldier, not the father of our country). Washington introduces Morris to his rag-tag platoon (which includes the big pimp from Demons), but Morris is cheesed by the presence of Tisa Farrow, courageous photojournalist (women in combat situations, y'know). They set out through the jungle, stumbling across decomposing paratroopers, pits filled with spikes, dead villagers, exploding babies--all the stuff that made Vietnam such a great place to be. The waif-like Tisa Farrow's presence in the midst of all this--especially when she's poundin' down whiskey with the boys--is a little hard to swallow, but then again, she wasn't much more believable as the waif-like daughter of the scientist in Zombie, and all she had to do there was look scared and avoid being eaten. Aww, I kid that Tisa Farrow. Anyway, as night falls, we find ourselves in New York harbor for a love-drenched dream sequence, but don't worry--it turns sour real fast. The entrails, gunplay and dope-addled soul-searching come fast and furious as Morris draws ever-nearer to the end of his mission, which you just know has gotta go wrong. Nobody does this low-rent action cheese better than Antonio Margheriti, who imbues his flicks with a funky, gritty feel that you just won't find anywhere else. Grab this one and Tiger Joe, and your Vietnam experience will be complete!

Review from the Eurowar website:

Director Antonio Margheriti’s Vietnam piece is bound to be loved by some audiences and hated by others. This is simply not a film for all tastes. On the surface, it looks like cruel exploitation of a controversial war; exploiting Vietnam was certainly a risky move in 1980. Dig a little deeper, though, and “The Last Hunter” becomes a brutal allegory on the futility of warfare.

Margheriti tells a straightforward tale, admittedly ripping off “Apocalypse Now”: Captain Morris (David Warbeck) heads into Cambodia with a small band of soldiers on a mission to find and destroy an enemy radio station which is broadcasting disgusting anti-American propaganda. Along the way, he encounters many people and situations which point to the ultimate insanity of warfare.

Margheriti begins his tale with one of the best opening sequences ever put to film. Morris tries to relax in a Saigon bar, making conversation with another GI whom he’s never met. Soft music plays in the background, providing a perfect tempo for the dialog. It’s not long, however, before Morris realizes that he escape the realities of the war outside. The music stops abruptly as the tone changes from quiet to tense: Steve has been aggravated by the aforementioned GI. He shoots him in the head, and then turns the gun on himself. As if on key, enemy sappers attack the city, and the bar is destroyed; only Morris escapes. A first-time viewer may see this scene as unnecessary, but the characters and themes will become crucial to the plot as Morris moves closer and closer to his objective.

Margheriti establishes a mood, theme and setting in these first few minutes; renowned “genius” Spielberg takes nearly a half-hour of “Saving Private Ryan” to introduce his main characters and get to the point. Margheriti does it more effectively in four minutes with only two graphic deaths. Here, they’re personal, emotional and pointless; in “Pvt. Ryan”, hundreds of men are killed brutally, but we get the point after only a few minutes. Everything Spielberg does with his three hour piece, Margheriti does just a little bit better in about 90 minutes. The characters are established faster, the action grittier and the pace quicker. Margheriti lets his characters wander around, but never loses sight of his true theme; Spielberg’s characters fight and die in search of a theme and the audience leaves the feeling with some sort of emotional response, but can’t quite define it. Spielberg’s film was considered “groundbreaking” by critics in its portrayal of combat. Tactics, perhaps – but level of violence? No. Spielberg uses graphic violence without restraint, so much so that within five minutes we’ve become desensitized.

In Margheriti’s film, we see a scene here, a slow-motion shot there – it’s quick, it’s shocking, and it’s burned into your memory. By the time “Pvt. Ryan” has ended, the graphic images have blurred into one big, disgusting mess.

With the mood established and the audience glued to the screen, Margheriti shifts his focus to the Cambodian jungle. Morris is escorted to the drop-off point by helicopter in yet another excellently shot sequence: Franco Micalazzi’s score comes out full force for just a few moments as the action builds, and then dies. Margheriti lets some great handheld camera action and excellent, fast-paced editing do the work. Shortly after touchdown, Morris hooks up with an American patrol, including George Washington (Tony King), Carlos (Bobby Rhodes) and photojournalist Jane Foster (the luscious Tisa Farrow). This scene will be followed by a number of quick, brutal action sequences: the discovery a rotting corpse and an ambush by a band of Viet Cong in a burned-out village. There is one slight lull in which Morris reaches his re-supply base, run by the unhinged Major Cash (John Steiner) and occupied by a band of dirty, unshaven and edgy American GIs who are harassed by sniper and mortar fire day in and day out. The pure insanity is hammered home as this raggedy band tries to rape Farrow’s character; in response, we are treated to a great sequence in which Massimo Vanni’s character is forced to run into the jungle under enemy fire to retrieve cocoanuts for Cash (John Steiner) as punishment.

The high point of this interlude is a Viet Cong raid on an underground American bunker complex, in which hordes of black-pajama-clad guerrillas emerge and a firefight ensues. For the most part, the American characters are drunk or stoned senseless and don’t seem to know what’s going on. This long sequence is shot in the dark with handheld cameras, features lots of cutting from action to reaction – all while a radio plays happy tunes in the background; as the assault ends, the propaganda announcer’s soothing voice encourages American soldiers to lay down their arms and cease a senseless struggle. Ironic, huh?

All of this builds to a pulsating surprise ending. Morris does find his radio station – the audience knows he will from the start; it’s no surprise in a film like this – but the voice of propaganda will come as a shock as all of the pieces laid out in the opening scenes and flashbacks come together. We’ve had some subtle hints and little suggestions as to who Morris is going to have to kill, but nobody will come to the conclusion until the character steps into frame. The result is a jaw-dropping scene with an outcome that goes completely against the norm. The final shot of the piece is one of confusion, awe and surprise – we never do get to find out what happens to an essential character. If the violence and pure insanity of most of the movie don’t shock you, the last few minutes surely will.

Some viewers will be turned off by Margheriti’s style. There are times when this plays like an exploitative horror film; it’s quite possibly the most graphic, profane and explicit war film I’ve seen to date. Slow-motion spurts of blood and rather graphic shots of dead bodies are definitely not for the squeamish; Margheriti coveys these sequences so casually that even the first time I watched this – having only seen polished (and overrated) gems such as “Platoon” and “Hamburger Hill”, I wanted to shut the television off and dismiss this piece as pure trash. This it definitely is not; the location photography excellently conveys a feel for lush, yet foreboding Cambodian jungles.

Admittedly, “The Last Hunter” is not a perfect film: basic plot aspects are lifted directly from “Apocalypse Now” – Morris’ character is a take on Martin Sheen, while Major Cash and his army seem to be loosely based on Marlon Brando’s guerrilla force. Instead of a trek upriver in a small boat, we follow a mixed group of soldiers through the sweltering jungles. (Only here, they’re too busy dodging booby traps to discuss heavy issues of morality). More blatantly, a sequence depicting Morris’ imprisonment in an underwater bamboo cage reeks of “The Deer Hunter”. Some of the special effects scenes come up a bit below par for a 1980s film: watch for a dummy which gets flamed during the village skirmish; superimposed rocket bursts around a helicopter; and there are a few cheesy miniatures. (On the other hand, the slow motion explosions are incredibly realistic. I yet to see another film featuring so many well-shot gasoline fireballs).

These are only minor flaws. “The Last Hunter” is an anti-war gem which can be enjoyed by fans of Italian exploitation (Margheriti said that he wanted to shoot the film seriously; the producers forced him to throw in exploitative content to draw in fans of his successful horror works). Any serious war film fans that can make it through the opening without dismissing this as graphic trash will not be disappointed. It’s not often that a director can make a great action picture that’s still considered an anti-war piece.

It’s important to note that most video versions are severely edited; the Region 2 Vipco disc offers a beautiful widescreen presentation and is missing only one, inconsequential 30 second scene. Watch for yourself and make your own decision – don’t take my word for it.

RATING: 5 Bullets

Review from the Eat My Brains website:

Captain Harry Morris is sent on a special mission to locate and shut off a subversive radio message in V.C. territory in 1973.

Rawshark: Taking it’s cue from Apocalypse Now, The Last Hunter opens in Saigon in a brothel where several US soldiers are relaxing under the ceiling fans. Suddenly an argument breaks out and blam! – soldier Steve kills the Vincent D'Onofrio look-alike before blowing his own brains out with proper gunfire light in the mouth and everything! Soon the whole place is being blown apart and David Warbeck, 'hero soldier', just manages to escape through lots of spectacular explosion action. "Starts really well…," said Zomblee.

It certainly does and carries on that way too, because as soon as the post-intro BIG RED CREDITS roll, we're thrust straight into the mission proper as David Warbeck is dropped off in the heart of the jungle from a helicopter (after an eye-spurting ground-to-air shoot out naturally). Unfortunately as Warbeck swims to the riverbank, he comes across a snake and after a brief fight (" Fight Dave! Go on Dave, fight that damn snake!" – Jim), Warbeck manages to lose not only the fight, but also his gun and all his kit in the process. Stupid fool.

Luckily he then meets up with his contact, Midnight and Tisa Farrow, a war photographer and off they troop to get involved in lots of incidents (baby bomb), and traps (gore!) before they reach a US base which seems to have been converted into a Nite Club. Here, Sergeant Moustache ("He likes saying ‘fat farts’" - Zomblee) listens to tape recordings of gunfire and allows his soldiers to kick back, smoke dope, drink beers and dream of women with red fingernails. Oh, and they also have to do the crazy suicidal coconut run - Benny-Hill-style - if they get caught trying to rape war photographers.

Eventually we find out what Warbeck’s mission actually is, Midnight is killed (quite horribly) and Warbeck and Tisa Farrow identify and destroy ‘Easter Egg’ and escape the clutches of the VC (Warbeck to Farrow - “If you see anything, just yell!” Jim – “Yeah, yell ye-yaa-laaa!”) before the film heads happily towards it’s half-happy ending. All in all, this film is great low-budget action fun that had Jim and Zomblee cheering Warbeck along all the way – “Good one Dave”, “Nice flame-thrower Dave!”” - with many a well-handled action sequence, extreme bloodshed and some very strange yet funny set-pieces. Definitely check it out.

“I know what they’re up to. I know exactly what they’re up to. I can see the writing on their balls.”

Jim: You know, it appears to me that all you need to make a cheapo Vietnam War flick is a load of explosives, a few guns, at least one military helicopter and a bunch of return tickets to the Philippines where they don’t mind if you blow up a load of stuff. You also need a charismatic lead and a black sidekick who’s obviously going to get killed although I suppose he’s optional, it’s mostly the charismatic lead you need, preferably one who’s so well known you don’t need to know the character’s name. “Like Charlton Heston – name one character Charlton Heston has ever played! Err, except Ben Hur. And Moses…” – Zomblee.

David Warbeck is such a man. He’s the kind of guy who doesn’t stress about losing all his gear in a fight with a minute killer snake because he’s so hard he doesn’t need it (a bit like Rambo), and one that only ever sports a pistol even when there are plenty of guns lying around next to all the dead bad guys he’s killed. He’s also the kind of guy who says things like “Cover me!” before running through a hail of Viet Cong bullets unscathed, performing a dodgy combat roll and shooting a couple of VC point blank range. Yes – with a pistol.

That happens a lot in The Last Hunter actually, tonnes of running around dodging bullet sprays and blowing things up. And I suppose the movie is better for it as it does keep your attention, although the plot does stray a tad when they get to the US base. The boss has a moustache (“He must be the boss, he has a moustache…” – Rawshark) and runs a nightclub in a cave called ‘Sector 7’, although it has “rubbish walls” (Zomblee) which leave it susceptible to VC attack. This not good news for that stoned guy in the corner (“Oh no – a really stoned guy!” – Zomblee).

Still, the ending picks up with a great last stand for Midnight, although as Rawshark says “This guy’s unlucky isn’t he? He’s had a flesh wound, a leg broken and all the skin bitten off his ass!” Then it’s just explosion, helicopter, shooting, death and repeat for ages, which is “nice editing, because it actually makes sense…” – Zomblee. Shame about that girl from Zombie Creeping Flesh having to ruin things for our man Warbeck, but I guess you can’t have everything.

“Where did you pick up you such a rotten, unchristianlike attitude?”

Zomblee: Yes, that's the highly awful Magrit Evelyn Newton from the highly awful Zombie Creeping Flesh, complete with crazy eyes and whatever that stuff is the make-up department slap over your face to make it look like you've been in the jungle for ages. She's the one responsible for sending out subversive, anti-war messages which order the US troops to go home. But why on earth would they want to go home when they have a chance of seeing the mighty, sweat-sheened David WARbeck in action. "Gather all the troops, you gotta see this - it's the zombie-fighting guy from The Beyond wrestling a snake!"

The Charlton Heston thing that Jim mentions above came from when Tisa Farrow (sister of the somewhat more successful Mia) first appears in the film and Rawshark said, "She's just... Tisa Farrow". Damn it he's right - she's as bland as they come folks, and nowhere near as attractive as her sis. I've always believed that Tisa and Al Cliver should've gotten hitched when they met on Zombie Flesh Eaters. They would make a great couple, passing their time by trying to figure out where they can acquire some charisma.

Big Al isn't in this film though, and if he were he'd sure have trouble negotiating all those fallen trees that carpet the jungle floor ("I love it when the troops have to step over big logs!" - Jim). More on that later. Al Cliver really has no place here - this jungle belongs to WARbeck and by God I think he's loving it. Where else would he get the chance to run about (jumping over those big logs) in macho-mode, pistol in hand and wearing tight green vest-themed army surplus whilst acting a bit like a more heroic version of Martin Sheen in that movie with the fat bald guy in the cave?

The Last Hunter is a great little film. It's a horror film fan's perfect war movie. As well as administration of some truly unpleasant gore content, Maghereti's flair for handling massive-scale (if you happen to be a miniature helicopter) explosions is genuinely impressive, which comes in handy when shooting in the Philippines where, as Jim says, they don't mind you blowing everything up. Some of the soldier characters on offer here are rendered more colourful with the aid of those silly lines they sometimes have to say but as you are all no doubt aware this is part and the Italian b-movie script experience.

As if the characters' lines weren't ridiculous enough, yours truly had to sit and listen to these two dead heads saying stuff like, "You'd have to be really good in Vietnam." (Rawshark) and "No way, I'd be way too busy getting wasted!" (Jim)

"Listen, sweetheart. I've been here too long. I don't know what's good or bad anymore, don't know who my friends or enemies are. But I don't enjoy it."

Robert Monell’s review from the DVD Maniacs website:

The essence of Italian exploitation was to cash in on successful Hollywood formulae. THE LAST HUNTER sets its sights on THE DEER HUNTER (title, opening brothel sequence and rat infested Vietcong water trap) by way of APOCALYPSE NOW (the journey down the river toward a hidden base to liquidate an American traitor spouting anti war propaganda). The difference is in the details, like Margit Evelyn Newton (HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD) taking on the Kurtz role as a Saigon Rose who broadcasts appeals to American GIs to throw down their arms and go home.

The late David Warbeck is terrific as Captain Harry Morris, the operative who is dropped into the jungle to execute the mission. As with his roles in Fulci's THE BEYOND and THE BLACK CAT, he has just the right amount of toughness mixed in with a genuine likeability. We want him to survive, and that's what makes the film so absorbing and the ending so powerful.

The film is wall to wall action, expertly staged by the director and his crew in the steaming jungles of the Philippine locations. It begins with a bang as a friend commits suicide before Morris' eyes as explosions rock the encampment. He barely makes it to shore when he has to fight off a very aggressive poisonous snake, losing his supplies in the river. Joining up with Tony King's GI bro George Washington (King was Bukowski's cannibal buddy in Margheriti's Vietnam allegory, CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE), they fight their way through many Vietcong ambushes. The film goes out of its way to show how women and children are employed by the Cong to get the soldiers off guard. The action is fast, furious, bloody; bodies are blown apart, dismembered and flayed as waves of blood engulf the viewer. Tisa Farrow, a veteran of Fulci's ZOMBIE, is on hand as a photojournalist who provides some romantic-sexual interest for Morris, while Newton is the "dark woman" from his past who turns out be his worst nightmare in the present. The ending is surprisingly downbeat, and very appropriate for the era as well as the film. Solid support is lent by Margheriti regulars King, John Steiner as the martinet Major Cash and the director's mascot, Alan Collins (Luciano Pigozzi) as a bartender in the surreal underground city which Warbeck visits.

David Warbeck interview

DAVID WARBECK Interview

Jason J. Slater introduction & interview in Harvey Fenton (ed.), David Warbeck: The Man And His Movies, Guildford, FAB Press, 1996 pp.5-49

I have always been fascinated by the main stars of these Italian movies. Mostly of British bloodstock, such as Ian McCulloch and Catriona MacColl, they fulfilled a short film contract of three-or-so movies before working in television. However, one exception who has worked consistently in Italian exploitation is David Warbeck. Born in Christchurch, New Zealand on the 17/11/41 he has proved a versatile actor who top-billed as a machine-gun-totin' commando in Antonio Margheriti's VULTIMO CACCIATORE, and as a family doctor against the living dead in Lucio Fulci's L’ALDILA - Warbeck has remained a consistent feature actor in Euro horror movies. He has remained a high profile actor, proving that it's not necessarily a career nose-dive to work within the European horror film and even the soft pom/sex film industry (for over a decade he was a reserve James Bond). Warbeck has broken many acting taboos in the process, including the old adage that you can't be both a model and actor. Even though David is best remembered for his action roles in Italian cinema, he has achieved higher financial rewards and profile through his modelling career, after being expelled from drama school (the main reason for changing his sumame from Mitchell to Warbeck).

Compared to his Italian acting career, where he eams approximately E4000 for each movie, David has made much more money through his modelling career, including E300,000 for two commercials, which he promptly invested. Model actors used to be a bit of a joke in the film industry, personalities like Michael Sopkiw - who made a handful of trash movies for Lamberto Bava and Sergio Martino - used to come and go after a short picture deal. However Warbeck has had his cake and eaten it, and proved himself a success and entrepreneur in a number of fields. While modelling, Warbeck (along with actors like Alain Delon and Franco Nero) also signed contracts for a number of photoromances. Thickly illustrated with a simple narrative thread, these photoromances have become extremely popular in South America (of all places!) and Warbeck has earned himself a cult status, much to his wry amusement.

Following a successful career and shrewd financial investment, everything had changed for the young Warbeck who had left New Zealand for England, and after failing his studies at drama school, had drifted into television roles before landing fairly decent parts in movies such as TWINS OF EVIL, THE SEX THIEF, BLACKSNAKE, CRAZE and VOICES in the early 70s. However, Warbeck's first taste of Italian cinema was Sergio Leone's excellent A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE, which finally put David's name on the Continent. Unfortunately, the movies that followed fell into video obscurity and Warbeck moved onto Gerry Anderson's UFO a moon-based cavalier who slid down tunnel and drove a tank-like vehicle for some reason or another. Warbeck also appeared briefly in a fistful of television cameos such as the highly successful Minder. Although Warbeck played mainly bit-roles he was in high demand. However, it was the Italian influence, and more importantly Giuseppe Perrone, who gave Warbeck the opportunity to work as a lead actor extensively in Italy. Warbeck's first contract package was to work with Antonio Margheriti, an imaginative veteran director who made Italy's first ambitious science fiction films, such as IL PIANETA DEGLI UOMINI SPENTI, which were sold to America in the 60s.

The first film to be released was L'ULTIMO CACCIATORE, an unrelated rip-off of THE DEER HUNTER which ironically owes more to the previous APOCALYPSE NOW. An absolutely wonderful inventive little action film shot in the Philippines, L’ULTIMO CACCIATORE was a huge success at the box-office and became an ideal vehicle for Warbeck's solid acting capability. In fact, director and star found the experience a valuable one as both worked as a creative team making the best of a low and restricting budget. The success of L'ULTIMO CACCIATORE prompted FUGA DALL’ ARCIPELAGO MALEDETTO, I CACCIATORI DEL COBRA D'ORO and I SOPRAVVISSUTI DELLA CITTA MORTA, a series of action adventure movies from the Margheriti and Warbeck stable. Although these movies were more impressive than the usual Cinecitta productions of the time, they didn't match the success and popularity of L’ULTIMO CACCIATORE.

Q: You made films in Japan?

Well no, these were all Philippine jobs. We did all those... THE LAST HUNTER and TIGER JOE, all that lot.

Q: I think that TIGER JOE is a weak picture compared to THE LAST HUNTER. It was promoted in some territories as a sequel of sorts but materialised as a poor unrelated action film.

Sort of, yeah... yeah.

Q: And Tony King came back for TIGER JOE. What was Tony like to work with on both films?

A pain in the butt! Sorry Tony (laughs). Tony was alright, he was abight, he photographed well and he was very keen and wanted to be terrific but sorry America, he had a lot of really stupid attitudes. It's not necessarily him or America, you get the Italians, the English, the whole lot and Tony sadly had this problem... how can I explain? I'll tell you the very first time I met him was on my first shot of THE LAST HUNTER and it was my first major Italian action movie in the Philippines. Whenever you do your first shot everyone dresses up in suits virtually and sort of shakes hands and it's all very formal to get the first shot in the can. Then everyone has a little drink and says "Well, we've got the first one, now can we get going for the next four weeks, two months or whatever". So I was muddied up because it was a shot in the middle of the film somewhere and we had everything set up, lighting and all that lot, and Margheriti, I think he was actually wearing a shirt and tie in all that heat... It was a shot between me and Tony. I went over to Tony and said "Shall we just run the lines so the guys know where to get the camera pauses?" and his immediate response was, to everyone's horror, "I don't do that kind of shit!" We all took our breaths and we all tried not to look at each other and I said, "Fine, what would you like to do?" and he said "I know you English actors are into that racket, it's crap and I don't do it!" So we thought "What would you like us to do?" and he said "I suggest you lay it on me man, and I'll come back.”. I looked at Margheriti and he said "Okay, why not? Everyone ready for the shot? Okay David and action”. It was all very polite so rhubarb, rhubarb to Tony and we wait for him to come back but he didn't so I waited and waited and there was a cut and the director, Margheriti said very politely to Tony, "Is there anything we can help you with here?", and Tony said "I don't like those lines anyway!" (laughs) That was the first shot! He was an idiot! (laughs) SO if you're reading this Tony... if you're still reading this, that's why you ended up on the floor. Sorry Tony King you are an arsehole! (laughter) I saw, of all films, CONGO the other day, because I like action, special effects and that stuff, but CONGO was appalling. In it the black guy says, "Who do you think you are, John Wayne?" to the girl, and in TIGER JOE, Tony King had to say that line "Who do you think you are, John Wayne?" and he said "I'm not saying that line!" So we said "What's the problem?" and he said "He was never good to our people!" Well, I couldn't quite get round what he was getting at so I think we ended up saying "Who do you think you are, Ginger Rogers?" or something. Just taking the piss (laughs). Do we say Ginger Rogers?

Q: I think you do! (laughs)

Well there you go. (laughs) I thought, I'll take the piss then. He was really into Black Power and all that crap. He was going around trying to be the mega-star; he had T-shirts printed up saying "I am Tony King"...

Q: Was this one of the first movies he'd made?

Oh, he's made a few, I think I've got the T-shirt around here somewhere... I had T-shirts made saying "I am the Tiger in TIGER JOE" (laughs) That was the front, but on the back of the T-shirt I had "The Tiger is a big pussy!" (laughs) which was terribly confusing! So we've had a few people like that... Oh boy!

Q: Was THE LAST HUNTER the first time you met John Steiner?

Yes.

Q: Tell us about hat amazing scene that opens THE LAST HUNTER, where you're all in the bar

Wow yeah, I'd forgotten about that!

Q: The pre-credits sequence where you walk out and the whole lot goes up behind you! Where was that shot, the Philippines, presumably?

No, you won't believe this story either! Francis Ford Coppola...

Q: Oh, the APOCALYPSE NOW sets!

We used all their sets! I had Marlon Brando's luxury suite! And the reason it was a luxury suite; this hotel had bare floors everywhere, it was crap! The reason it was a luxury suite was that it had a mat beside the bed that you could put your feet on!

Q: That’s what I call luxury!... A mat, rather than something that moved! (laughs)

Well yeah, but I'm sort of sending it up. It's a place in one of the tourist centres out of Manila. It's a couple of hundred miles out of Manila and we used most of their locations, it's where the helicopter crashed when it got caught in the wires and stuff. It's ironic that our plane was nearby for a later film, similar territory, anyway.

Q: Were most of the Filipino films done on these sets?

Yes, it's not so much the sets really, there were no sets as such, it was just jungle, the only bits of sets were the Godheads, but we faked some of those up anyway.

Q: I was saying before that one the things that drives me mad about Italian films is that they never have proper character lists at the end so you must learn to recognise people because you rarely get to know who they are unless you compare movies... quite often I wonder who various people are?

Yeah, I have the same problem sometimes... But that opening sequence in THE LAST HUNTER was fab! The business of the gun in the mouth, you know how they did that? Hang on, this is it guys, this is the essence of the Italian film industry, just the straight out sheer fucking fun of it all... that sequence is one of the most horrific sequences I've seen on screen and it still works a treat; we had people fainting in almost all the audiences I saw when he blows his head off. You don't actually see much, you see the mouth light up and the goo flying around but that's it.

Q: It’s actually the light that gets people because you can't believe it.

It was done like this... This really nice American guy, he's a student who didn't smoke, and before the shot (laughs), he took a drag on a cigarette, kept his mouth shut and on “Action!” he pointed the gun, and inside the gun was a torch, so he opened up his mouth, turned on the torch and the torch lit up the smoke! That was it!

Q: There was a whacking great big sound effect.

A big bang, that's it, and off you go, shot done! (laughs)

Q: I saw it again recently and I could not believe my eyes. I don't think that's ever been done in another film.

And then the snake in the water, that gets the audiences going as well, but the funniest one was the rats in the cage... You know what the rats were? They were dish mops! (laughs) You know, those furry dish mops!

Q: How could you keep a straight face?

We didn't! And you know the close-ups of the rats actually biting the stomach flesh. You know whose stomach that was? Margheriti's! (laughs) No one else would do it! He's got a bit of a gut! But I didn't finish telling you about this remote tourist centre where we were filming... it's got famous waterfalls, that's why everyone goes there, but it's got a darker side too. It's a very small jungle village and it's where all the old transvestites go to die. All the Filipino transvestites, and there's a lot of them in Manila. We used them to wash our socks and do our laundry and come and be extras. They were all terribly nice, and all their bras were made out of coconuts. All the Italian boys were always taking the piss and knocking on the coconuts and stuff. Real piss-taking stuff. One of the cruelest things that Margheriti has ever done was during TIGER JOE, it was the sequence where the refugees and nurses were running away from Khmer Rouge. We were going to be napalmed and bombed, so we divided into about five groups and it was like, Group One when we blow the whistle you die there and when we blow Group Two's whistle the bombs go off there and half of you escape and run this way and that way etc; it all had to be worked out and choreographed. It took almost a day setting up all the cameras. Off we went and we said the bombs are going to be this big, and we did a demo bomb so they weren't too scared, well most of the nurses were transvestites that we'd dolled up as Red Cross girls!

Q: Oh brilliant! You know we're going to go off and review all these films?! (laughs)

Every shot gets stories going behind it, because it's all made up, that's the fun of it, it's all just amateur stuff, which is where I'm from, New Zealand Amateur, you know there's nothing better to do than get together and do amateur dramatics... But you invent and this was the thing about the Italian stuff, you were always grabbing what you could to invent and so we had all these transvestites running around... So, on "Action!" off went the bomb for Group One and they all died, then number two, number three... and then the shot was over, "Cut, cut, cut!" The noise level after the cut was huge, with everyone very excited and tons of loud mad Filipino chattering, it was deafening. Margheriti was saying, OK, great, fantastic, have a break of about ten minutes and then we're going to do it one more time. And this is the cruelest part of Margheriti; he turned to me and said, now don't tell anyone, but we've put the charges up ten times! (laughter) It was going to be like the Atom Bomb going off and I said "Oh you can't, you can't, not with these poor old trannies, you'll blow their fucking ear drums out!" So when we came to "Everyone standing by!" they were all very excited again, more mad chattering because they've done it once and they're going to do it even better this time (laughs), when the first bomb went off, Group number One, not one of them died! They were all off like rockets! (laughs) Sheer pandemonium! So that was slightly malicious...

Q: I'm going to watch that scene again later on and have a bloody good laugh!

Look at TIGER JOE next time. The swollen river, that muddy swollen river was lethal, bloody dangerous, and those canoes we were in; we could have died any second and the thing about filming is you get carried away. One of the canoes did go over with the cameras and we managed to save things, and obviously we didn't die. So I eventually got to the shore with my boat crew of little Filipino guys and I saw this guy sitting on a chair. I noticed his entire skull was tattooed and I said "Oh, that's interesting", and there were lots of sheepish looks. Now, me being a dumb tourist, I was saying "Oh, how nice" you know. My instinct should have told me to shut up and look at the trees, and I found out later that this is the way in the Philippines... all the guys that were tattooed were murderers! They'd all been in for killing someone, and some of them had killed more than once, and when they were sent back into the jungle, part of the tattoo indicated their clan or their gang I suppose. The gangs kept very separate because of the drug deals and the gun-running, because a lot of that was going on under Marcos. But it was hair-raising stuff, the stories I could tell you; we were held up twice in the jungle with rifles!

Q: What, the entire crew?

Well, most of the crew had gone, but me being stupid again saying "Oh, I think I'll just stay in the jungle" (laughs) "...so I can be held up!" For fuck's sake... With Tisa Farrow. Tisa's got beautiful boobs and she is a magic girl... did you know she used to be a taxi driver in LA?... and she's got a glass eye; during that film she had to spy, look at the Last Hunter. There's a very important sequence where she has to look though the crack of a door, and Margheriti made her use the glass eye! (laughs) Isn't that bad, isn't that bad! I fell about! Sorry Tisa, sorry!

Q: Did you know that the shooting title for THE LAST HUNTER was THE DEER HUNTER 2?

Yeah, it was sold as that in South America, Argentina I think. My name was put as Jack Nicholson, according to the stories I've been told, I suppose if you're going to work under a pseudonym that's not a bad one! And you know, while we shooting THE LAST HUNTER, Tisa nearly got raped! Well, I'm not wanting to sound like I'm against Tisa or anything, but she flew direct from LA to the Philippines, and she came over with the Italian football team! (laughs) She had a wonderful time but after the flight she was totally exhausted. The first shot - if you look at THE LAST HUNTER, she is the reporter and we're being machine-gunned and I keep saying to her "Get down!", and I'm throwing her down and shooting over her - and she came straight from the plane to do that. I promise you she kept literally falling asleep, because you know by the time you've got the cameras and stuff set up it's just five minutes of grace and Boom! So when she had finally had some sleep she met one of the crew members and they had a really nice time together, but it was really odd because he almost sort of said to me "Is it OK if I go with the leading lady". I said "Oh, please!", now I think she's gorgeous but that's one thing I won't do on set, I've seen it go bad too many times! Anyway, one day she decided to go down to this local river for a bit of a morning dip and she came back a bit distressed, so I said "what's up", and she told me. I said, "Oh, you silly cow", because she was in fabulous shape and six guys came down to have a chat and things and it started to get a bit out of hand. She is a lovely girl...

Q: What about Bobby Rhodes?

Ah! Now Bobby Rhodes, he's an absolute sweet heart. He's an Italian black.

Q: Really? Does he speak English?

Oh, he speaks very good English. I bumped into him outside the railway station not so long ago. Great big guy.

Q: He’s massive isn't he? Looks like a killer!

He's a pussycat, he's so sweet.

Q: He’s always in Margheriti’s films... And he recently made that Western with Castellari, JONATHAN OF THE BEARS. He's dressed just in white and he’s big and powerful, on a horse, shiny black head. He looks so imposing.

Oh he's a sweet guy. He knows what to do and he's so modest, almost embarrassed all the time and quiet and gentle. He is a lovely guy, a real sweetheart. But one of the reasons I don't work in the States is because of the Tony mentality. I find them just so fucked up out there, just so staggeringly fucked up and I offend people so many times so quickly it's exhausting. I do come from the Colonies, you know that I was brought up in New Zealand so I am a Colonial but I haven't got a chip on my shoulder about it. But I think that there's this great American hang-up, that if they know or suspect you're from Europe - the font of all creativity and knowledge and talent and artistic know how - they feel that they're very second class citizens, struggling to catch up with us, who've got the quiet cool know-how. So this sets up this terrible sort of antagonism and God do I hate that! To this day they still have it. I just want to have a laugh and a good time. It's like poor old Hugh Grant, I don't know him at all but it's a pathetic scenario, I mean so fucking what?! It's a real American media circus and then you've got O.J. Simpson on the other channel for heaven's sake!

Q: With films like THE LAST HUNTER, how long does a movie like that take to make? I mean you're in virtually every shot. How many weeks were you out there?

I think it was about five, six weeks or something.

Q: Is that all?

Yeah, well most films take about six weeks now, unless of course you're doing big special effects films like JUDGE DREDD or something.

Q: You worked with Massimo Vanni on that movie as well, the guy that gets the coconut out of the tree... the one who has to run the gauntlet sort of thing, you know, you're all in the cave and John Steiner says, "Bennett get me that coconut!”

Yes, yes that's right, oh yes, good looking guy, oh yes. We shot that sequence on the beach in Rome!

Q: But there are palm trees everywhere!

Yeah, there a little bamboo grove. Well that's the magic of film really, and all that cutting around, it's wonderful, and these caves and big gods and things, well the Pope has a Summer residence up in a volcano behind Rome; the Pope's palace on a big lake, and opposite the Pope's palace are these caves and I don't know how many films I've shot in these caves, I forget what they're called...

Q: You also worked with Alan Collins.

Now, Alan Collins, he's magical.

Q: He’s Antonio's good luck charm it seems, he's in everything.

We've done a lot of things together and he is the sweetest guy. I'll tell you why Margheriti brings him along on all of his films; I've often made the joke about Italian movies that really the reason for them is to go and have an Italian picnic and take a camera along with a bit of film. (laughs) You see Alan's job is, he's got his own spaghetti maker and he knows how to make pasta and whatever kitchen of whatever grotty hotel we go to, Alan's job is to make these pasta feasts. The Italians - and I really do miss this - in the middle of the jungle, will still insist on having a really good pasta blow-out, and Alan is always managing to cook up something really good... Anyway, I just remembered I was going to tell you about Margheriti and the railway line! That's what I was going to tell you before I started jumping all over the place!... It sums up the Italian film industry, what it's all about... When we were making THE LAST HUNTER yeah, well we found this old railway siding. This railway hadn't been used for a hundred years, it was a bit rusty and stuff, so Margheriti himself got all the paint and actually painted it all silver on the strips so at night time you could see the track! Isn't that magic?!...