Wonder Women (1973)

1973 - Wonder Women (General Film Corporation)

[working title “The Terrible Transplants of Dr Tsu”; also released as “The Deadly And The Beautiful”, “The Chinese Puzzle”, “Women of Transplant Island” and in France as “Ongles Rouges et Cuisses d’Acier”]

Director Robert “O’Neil”/Vincent O'Neill Screenplay Lou Whitehill Adapted by Robert “O’Neil”/Vincent O'Neill Producer Ross Hagen Executive Producer Donald Gottlieb, Ronald Remy Cinematography Ricardo M. David Music Carson Whitsett Song "Wonder Women" Charles May Vocals Annette Thomas Editor Richard Greer Art Director Ben Otico Makeup Artist Ernie Carvajal Executive In Charge Of Production Arthur Marks In Charge of Production Nilo Saez Assistant Production Manager Gerry Gerena Sound Elpidio Salvador Special Effects Jessie Sto. Domingo Action & Stunt Coordinator Erik Cord Stills Mike Alejandrino, Beau Marks Script Supervisor Bert Amazan Jr Wardrobe Designer Jerry Bailon Nancy Kwan’s Wardrobe Lumen David Women’s Wardrobe Elcorte Ingles Assistant Cameramen Rodolfo Bautista, Manolito Cuenco Schedule Master Vic 'Basing' Costelo Additional Photography Michael Neyman

Cast Nancy Kwan (Dr. Tsu), Ross Hagen (Mike Harber), Maria De Aragon (Linda), Roberta Collins (Laura), Tony Lorea (Paulson/Lorenzo), Sid Haig (Gregorious), Vic “Dias”/Diaz (Lapu-Lapu), Claire Hagen (Vera), Shirley Washington (Maggie), Gail Hansen (Gail), Eleanor Siron (Mei-Ling), Bruno Punzalan (Nono the Fisherman), Joonee Gamboa (Won Ton Charlie), Rick Revere (Paulson's attendant), Rudy DeJesus (The Boy), Wendy Greene (The Swimmer), Leila Benitez (Lillian Taylor), Ross Rival (Ramon the Jai-Alai Player), Jesus Ramos (The Crabman), Phred Kaufman (The Beggar), Beau Marks (The Blind Athlete), Joe Conners (Joe the Athlete), Logan Clarke (The Attendant), Victor Vematsu (The Servant), Moises Sia (Paulson's attendant), Sal Vaca (The Desk Clerk), [uncredited] Marilyn Joi

Michael J. Weldon’s review from Psychotronic Video Magazine #30 (1999) p.12

Mike Carver (Hagen), a macho mercenary ex-CIA agent in leisure suits, is hired to investigate the disappearance of several athletes. Dr. Su (Nancy Kwan) has had them kidnapped to her private island for use in brain transplant experiments. Except for her assistant (Sid Haig with hair), all her agents are machine gun firing females in mini skirts. The fu fighting Maria De Aragon (from the director's BLOOD MANIA) has the most screen time and there's also blonde Filipino drive-in movie vet Roberta Collins and Afro hair Shirley Washington (DARKTOWN STRUTTERS). An eccentric cab driver (Vic Diaz) becomes Carver's guide and translator, so you get to see a lot of Manila (and a slo/mo cock fight). The General Films release substitutes "brain sex" for the expected skin scenes (it must have been rated PG), but pays off when Su's mutant failures escape from their cells. The score is typical funky wacka wacka wha wha music. Arthur Marks was the exec. in charge of production.

Michael Weldon’s review in Weldon (ed), The Psychotronic Encyclopedia Of Film, New York, Ballantine Books, 1983, p.790

Flower Drum Song star Nancy Kwan is the evil Dr. Su, whose all-female army kidnaps the world's top athletes to dismember and use for spare parts. Their organs are sold to aging millionaires. An insurance investigator arrives at the doctor's island fortress to stop the lady cutups. Producer Ross Hagen gave himself the hero role. With some pitiful monsters and Sid Haig.

The Big Doll House (1971)

1971 - The Big Doll House (New World Pictures)

[also released on VHS as "Women's Penitentiary", "Women's Penitentiary III"]

Director Jack Hill Screenplay Don Spencer Executive Producers Eddie Romero, John Ashley, [uncredited] Roger Corman Producers Jane Schaffer, [uncredited] Cirio H. Santiago Music Hall Daniels Cinematography Fred Conde Editor Cliff Fenneman Production Design Ben Otico

Cast Judy Brown (Collier), Roberta Collins (Alcott), Pam Grier (Grear), Brooke Mills (Harrad), Pat Woodell (Bodine), Sid Haig (Harry), Christiane Schmidtmer (Miss Dietrich), Kathryn Loder (Lucian), Jerry Franks (Fred), Gina Stuart (Ferina), Jack Davis (Dr Phillips), Letty Mirasol (Leyte), Shirley de las Alas (Guard), Myrna De Vera, Siony Cordona, Kathy McDaniel

Review by Andrew Leavold [a much shorter version was published in the Australian version of Empire magazine, March 2008]

Roger Corman had toyed with independent film distribution since his Filmgroup days with brother Gene in the late Fifties, while simultaneously feeding product to his direct rival American International Pictures. By 1971 Corman was increasingly dissatisfied with the manner AiP were handling his films – his apocalyptic 1970 counterculture comedy Gassss-s-s-s-s was reportedly butchered beyond belief - and he decided to become a full-time independent film mogul. Thus New World Pictures was born, and having already made the John Ashley/Eddie Romero/Cirio H. Santiago connection in the Philippines, a lucrative partnership was sealed.

These Filipino drive-in films are a sub-genre unto themselves, with their own unique exotic flavour (admittedly an aquired taste) and skewed internal logic. I call it the “Hooters with Shooters” category, in which uninhibited Russ Meyer-esque beauties run around unspecified Banana Republic hell-holes in halter tops unloading machine guns. They have the four essential B’s – breasts, blood, black actors and banana trees – that make them quintessential B pictures, and along with Corman’s Nurses cycle and assorted cheerleader and stewardess films, they encapsulate Seventies drive-in exploitation.

Their real raison d’etre is simple: they made money. An exotic potboiler could be made outside the States for a fraction of the cost, with only a few economy class airfares to cover. The buildings were probably already there in the Philippines, as was the jungle not more than an hour’s drive from Manila, and the film-obsessed President Marcos’ army on permanent stand-by as uniformed extras. I should not neglect to mention their secret weapon: the local cast and crew, drilled to world-class standards by the relentless Tagalog-language film industry and, via Eddie Romero and Cirio H. Santiago and various pioneering foreign producers, by the thriving export market.

The Big Doll House was New World’s first foray into the “Chicks in Chains” cycle, and under Jack Hill’s assured direction it confidently sets the much-imitated template for future jungle prison adventures. All the now-familiar elements are there: the obligatory shower scenes, cat fights (in mud, no less), and the “New Fish”, here played by Judy Brown as Collier, a not-so-innocent thrown into prison somewhere in Latin America run by a cold Teutonic wardeness named Miss Dietrich (Christiane Schmidtmer, and my first choice in the lead role of Ilsa She-Wolf Of The Philippines). Collier finds herself waist-deep in the cell block’s twisted sexual politics, caught in a cell between angry blonde Alcott (Roberta Collins) and man-hating hooker Grier (third-billed Pam Grier in one of her earliest roles), much to the dry horror of Grier’s hopeless addict girlfriend Harrad (Brooke Mills).

Days are spent cutting cane in what look like fluro pink smoking jackets and, if unlucky, spending the night with Assistant Commandant Miss Lucien as one of her many torturous “experiments”, ostensibly to uncover political information, but we suspect more for her pleasure (and ours). United in their hatred for Miss Lucien, the jailbirds overcome their various power struggles and plan a bust out with the help of Harry (Sid Haig), an opportunist and privateer who does the cell block rounds with drugs hidden in fruit carts, and gets golden one-liners like “Don’t let your alligator mouth take over your hummingbird ass!”

The Big Doll House was an enormous drive-in hit thanks to the perfect balance of cheese and sleaze in a snappy script from Don Spencer (The Student Nurses, Sweet Sugar). Even the Dolls are colour-coordinated, which Corman would perfect to a scientific formula, with just the right balance between blondes, brunettes, redheads and afros. Almost immediately there were imitators. From Dimension Pictures - Corman’s former associates at New World, Charles S. Swartz and his wife Stephanie Rothman - came two faux-Filipino prison films Sweet Sugar (actually filmed in Puerto Rico) and Terminal Island. Jack Hill’s former producer in Switzerland, Erwin C. Dietrich, assigned the ubiquitous Jess Franco to direct a series of ceaselessly vile jungle-bound exploitation pictures, while Corman himself commissioned Joe Dante and Allan Arkush to send up the entire Filipino cycle (as the hilarious film-within-a-film “Machete Maidens of Moratau”) in the New World self-parody Hollywood Boulevard (1976).

The Big Bird Cage (1972)

1972 - The Big Bird Cage (New World Pictures)

Director/Writer Jack Hill Producers Jane Schaffer, [uncredited] Cirio H. Santiago Executive Producer [uncredited] Roger Corman Music William A. Castleman, William Loose Cinematography “Philip”/Felipe Sacdalan Editors Jere Huggins, James Mitchell Art Direction Ben Otico Set Decoration Marshal Henry Makeup Artist Ray Solomon Production Supervisor Carl B. Raymond Second Unit Director Sid Haig Assistant Director Paul Maclang Sound Recordist Willie Arce Special Effects “Sam Hilary”/Santos Hilario Assistant Camera Narcissus Makalius Wardrobe Department “Felice Sacedo”/Felisa Salcedo

Cast Pam Grier (Blossom), Anitra Ford (Terry), Candice Roman (Carla), Teda Bracci (Bull Jones), Carol Speed (Mickie), Karen McKevic (Karen), Sid Haig (Django), Marissa Delgado (Rina), Vic Diaz (Rocco), “Andy”/Andres Centenera (Warden Zappa), Rizza Fabian (Lin Tsiang), Subas Herrero (Moreno), Wendy Green (Gertie)

Review by Andrew Leavold

Jack Hill returned to the Philippines in 1972 with an evolutionary step in WiP films, the more playful and, one can argue, more experimental The Big Bird Cage. This time Hill wrote the script and amplified the elements in The Big Doll House that worked best: black humour to balance the nastiness, crass and deliriously absurd one-liners delivered with stone-faced conviction, and the unmistakable chemistry between Pam Grier in Sid Haig, who shared some memorable exchanges between the bars in their previous effort. In The Big Bird Cage, Sid and Pam return as a Symbionese Army version of Ozzie and Harriet, or in this case Django and Blossom, tearing around the Third World countryside inflicting their swinging brand of revolution. They attempt to kidnap Terry (Anitra Ford), a bored American thrillseeker who’s been schtupping half of the government, but it goes horribly wrong, and instead Terry is sent down the river – literally - to keep her quiet.

In a remote jungle location she enters a womens’ compound ruled with an iron fist by the angry gnome Warden Zappa (Eddie Romero regular “Andy”/Andres Centenera), constantly on the point of exhaustion screaming “Punishment! Punishment!” His two homosexual guards (one played with tittering, fruity menace by Vic Diaz) escort Terry past the Big Bird Cage itself, an intricate bamboo sugar mill used more often than not as an instrument of punishment, its victims crushed between its giant cogs. As the “New Pig”, she expects to be released any moment, but instead finds herself strung up by her hair and left as a warning. Blossom, meanwhile, botches an assassination attempt and finds herself in the same hell-hole, and immediately tries to take over as Top Dog (“It’s MISS Nigger to you!”). Django decides to liberate Blossom and the other caged birds – for the Revoution, you understand – and minces past the love-struck guards in uniform. Before you can say “Than Franthithco” he’s unleashed a prison full of willing revolutionaries who, in the ultimate twisted expression of sexual liberation, rape Vic Diaz at knife point.

The Big Bird Cage sees the Filipino drive-in movie click into top gear: fast paced, lines dripping double entendres, the twin ‘fro action of Grier (finally receiving top billing) and fellow wiry jailmate Carol (Abby) Speed, and a raging inferno of a climax in which the film literally melts onscreen.

Black Mama White Mama (1972)

1972 - Black Mama White Mama (Four Associates Ltd/American International Pictures)

[also known as Chained Women, Chains Of Hate, Hot Hard And Mean, Women In Chains]

Director Eddie Romero Story Jonathan Demme Screenplay H.R. Christian Producers John Ashley, Eddie Romero Executive Producer David J. Cohen Music Harry Betts Cinematography Justo Paulino Production Design Robert Formoso

Cast Pam Grier (Lee Daniels), Margaret Markov (Karen Brent), Sid Haig (Ruben), Lynn Borden (Matron Densmore), Zaldy Zshornack (Ernesto), Laurie Burton (Warden Logan), Eddie Garcia (Captain Cruz), Alona Alegre (Juana), Dindo Fernando (Rocco), Vic Diaz (Vic Cheng), Wendy Green (Ronda), Lotis Key (Jeanette), Alfonso Carvajal (Galindo), Bruno Punzalan (Truck driver), Ricardo Herrero (Luis), Jess Ramos (Alfredo), Carpi Asturias (Lupe)

The Woman Hunt (1972)

1972 – The Woman Hunt (Four Associates Ltd/New World Pictures)

[also known as Escape (UK), The Highest Bidder]

Director Eddie Romero Screenplay David Hoover Story David Hoover, Jack Hill Producers Eddie Romero, John Ashley Executive Producer David J. Cohen Music Jerry Dadap Editors Ben Barcelon, “Joe”/Joseph Zucchero Cinematography Justo Paulino

Cast John Ashley, Pat Woodell, Sid Haig, “Laurie Rose”/Jennifer Brooks, Charlene Jones, Lisa Todd, Alona Alegre (Sam), Eddie Garcia, Ken Metcalfe, Liza Belmonte, Lotis Key, Alfonso Carvajal, Ruben Rustia, Don Lipman, Tony Gosalvez, Paquito Salcedo

Beyond Atlantis (1973)

1973 – Beyond Atlantis (Dimension Pictures)

[also known as Sea Creatures]

Director Eddie Romero Story Stephanie Rothman Screenplay Charles Johnson Producers Eddie Romero, John Ashley Executive Producer Charles S. Swartz Music Ed Norton Cinematography Justo Paulino Editor Andrew Herbert Production Design Robert Formoso

Cast Patrick Wayne (Vic Mathias), John Ashley (Logan), Leigh Christian (Syrene), Sid Haig (East Eddie), Lenore Stevens (Dr Katherine Vernon), George Nader (Nereus), Vic Diaz (Manuel the Barracuda), Eddie Garcia (The Mate), “Andy”/Andres Centenera, Ken Warren, Gil Arceo, Kim Ramos, Angelo Ventura

Savage Sisters (1974)

1974 – Savage Sisters (Cinema Projects International/American International Pictures)

Director Eddie Romero Writers H. Franco Moon, Harry Corner Producers John Ashley, Eddie Romero Executive Producer David J. Cohen Music “Bax”/Les Baxter Cinematography Justo Paulino Editor Isagani Pastor Production Design Robert Formoso

Cast Gloria Hendry (Lynn Jackson), Cheri Caffaro (Jo Turner), Rosanna Ortiz (Mai Ling), John Ashley (W.P. Billingsley), Sid Haig (Malavael), Eddie Garcia (Capt. Morales), Rita Gomez (Matron Ortega), Leopoldo Salcedo (General Balthasar), Vic Diaz (One-Eye), Dindo Fernando (Ernesto), Angelo Ventura (Punjab), Romy Rivera (Raul), Alfonso Carvajal (Rutz), Robert Rivera (Rosso), Subas Herrero (Victor), John Plater (Peyley), Bruno Punzalan (Smiling Jake), Joonee Gamboa (Subas), Max Rojo (Hawk), Johnny Long (Juekal)

Sid Haig interview

Sid Haig interview with Gary Hertz

From Psychotronic Video Magazine #3 (Summer 1989) pp.25-26

In late ‘70, Sid flew to the Philippines for what was to be the first of six features over three visits. “George Montgomery had done four or five pictures there, and Roger had just produced a war picture with Monte Hellman and Jack Nicholson there. He realized it was a cheap place to make action movies, so he sent Jack Hill there.” Hill and Sid filmed The Big Doll House in three weeks. “The State Department didn’t know we were there. Our liason was the local constabulary or base commander. We just greased whoever was the top person in the region. They were happy to have us.” When Doll House opened in ‘71, its per screen average was higher than that of Summer Of ‘42, the big hit at the time. “Roger bought ads in Variety to rub their noses in it,” Sid laughed.

Haig and Hill soon returned to the Philippines for a couple of months to film a sequel, The Big Bird Cage, on which Sid was also 2nd Unit Director. He returned to the US for a small role in The Don Is Dead, then returned to the islands for six months. “I was the longest-staying guest in the history of the Intercontinental Hotel. The staff threw me a party. We did four pictures back to back, sometimes on top of each other. Eddie Romero had me working on Beyond Atlantis during the day and Black Mama White Mama at night. Wonder Women was written and shot while we were down there. The others, like Woman Hunt, were usually written before we left the States and rewritten once we got there.”

The Philippines features also introduced Pam Grier. “I did Pam’s first six films,” Sid says with pride. “She had no acting experience when she started. She was a back-up singer and a receptionist at American International. She was an extremely striking woman and we thought if she could walk and read a line, she’d be okay. On The Big Doll House, I would go over the script with her every night, sort of as an acting coach. She’s turned out to be quite an actress. I’d love to work with her now.”

Sid still speaks fondly of the hospitality and genial production conditions of the Philippines pictures, but regrets that the situation there has changed irrevocably. “Coppola ruined the Philippines for filmmaking,” Sid says bluntly. “Everybody knows that the worst thing that you could possibly do is let a film crew into your home, because they may trash the place. On Apocalypse Now, Coppola trashed the Phillipines. His attitude was, ‘Just buy it, we’ll trash it’. He ruined a lot of agriculture. When you start digging six mile gasoline trenches through the country, you’re bound to destroy some people’s cornfields.”