HISTORY OF RP MOVIES: FEAR AND FILM MAKERS FORTUNE (by Joe Quirino)

FEAR AND FILM MAKERS FORTUNE

by Joe Quirino

   

Source:  The Times Journal, June 24, 1974

               Vol. II, No. 246, 18th of a series

               "HISTORY OF RP MOVIES"

   

There's a current craze for horror photoplays, inspired, no doubt, by the international publicity spawned by Hollywood's THE EXORCIST.

Based on the controversial novel about demonic possession written by William Peter Blatty, THE EXORCIST, now breaking all international box-office records, is said to cause fainting and vomiting spells wherever it is shown in America because of its gripping scenes.

Selected local audiences who recently had the opportunity to view THE EXORCIST were impressed, but not extraordinarily moved by the movie.  For one thing, there has not been a single fainting or vomiting spell among Filipinos who have seen the movie.

This is not surprising because the Filipino moviegoer has always had a good dose of horror films produced locally. Straws in the dank wind of Filipino movie production has always shown an alarming boom in ghouls, vampires and other horrid creatures.

Indeed, what started as simple gothic films by the local movie pioneers six decades ago have spilled over into other aspects of Philippine life.

Radio stations that used to air nothing but soap operas and tearjerkers, air many programs exploiting shock entertainment.  Tales of dark deeds and ghostly doings are now being dramatized over the airlanes - to the delight of youngsters and the growing consternation of their elders.  What's more, even television is cashing in on the horror bonanza.

In 1960, the year of post-war demand for spooky movies started, about 20 horror photoplays were produced by Filipino moviemakers - all of them moneymakers.

The year before, three gothic films attracted long lines to the box office:  GABI NG LAGIM, KATOTOHANAN O GUNI-GUNI? and PAGSAPIT NG HATINGGABI.

GABI NG LAGIM (1960); KATOTOHANAN O GUNIGUNI? (1960); PAGSAPIT NG HATINGGABI (1960)

Before martial law was declared in the Philippines, local comic books specializing in horror and terror outnumbered the more sober publications.  Horror Komiks, for instance, was crammed with episodes as Horace Walpole (whose novel, CASTLE OF OTRANTO, set the style for spook literature in the 18th century); Anne Radcliffe (a genteel woman who dreamed up shivery romances that earned her the title of Queen of Terror); Mary Godwin Shelley (wife of poet Percy Bysshe Shelly and author of FRANKENSTEIN); Edgar Allan Poe, who wrote THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER and other horror classics all of which have been converted into photoplays; and Bram Stoker, creator of COUNT DRACULA.

The first horror films, produced in the Philippines were TIANAK and ANG MANANANGGAL, both made by Jose Nepomuceno in 1926 and 1927 respectively.

In an interview with this writer shortly before his death in 1957, Nepomuceno said:  "The setting of my horror movies were usually a desolate castle, a deserted manor house, or a haunted dormitory.  My conventional props included clanking chains, underground dungeons and creaking coffins.  Tiyanak, for example, had a bearded dwarf in the title role."

TIANAK (1932) (photo: Pinoy Kollektor)

The very first aswang in the Philippine movies was Mary Walter, who played the title role in ANG MANANANGGAL in 1927.  But the most unforgettable aswang was Patring (Monang) Carvajal, who graduated from comic into roles with her spine-tingling portrayal of the witch in ANG SUMPA NG ASWANG, released in the early 1930s.

Filipino movie pioneers displayed their ingenuity in the production of horror movies.

In one scene in ANG MANANANGGAL, for example, Mary Walter and her fellow witches appeared hovering disembodied before a coffin.  The actors and actresses who portrayed witches, therefore, were "shot" buried up to the waistline.

One of the classic horror films was DR. KUBA, an early talking picture, produced by Parlatone Hispano Filipino, and which starred Rosa del Rosario and Armando Villa (later to be known as Don Danon).  This movie created a sensation when it was shown at the Lyric theater in 1933.

The other memorable horror pictures in the 1930s were:  GAGAMBA, a psychological thriller, and MARIANG ALIMANGO, based on a Filipino legend.  The latter picture told the story of a woman who changed into a crap and was later saved and restored to her human form by the hero.

The first partial talkie in the Philippines - ANG ASWANG - produced by George P. Musser in 1932, was a horror movie.

ANG ASWANG (1932)

Since then, horror has been a regular staple of Filipino moviegoers.

Other pre-war movies that touch on the prepernatural were:  KAMAY NA BAKAL, about the adventures and misadventures of an invisible man played by Jose Padilla, Jr; IBONG ADARNA, a picture filled with giants, multi-colored birds and enchanted castles; and PRINSIPE TIÑOSO, a take-off from the Arabian Nights theme.

ANG KAMAY NA BAKAL (1938); IBONG ADARNA (1941)

After the war, Filipino moviegoers taking a cue from Hollywood, their nostrils ever aquiver for the public's moods, cranked out their own Frankensteins and Draculas, spider women, and wolfmen out of putty, crepe hair, and mountains of make-up.

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