Cesar and Espartaco during THE CASTILIAN

From: SO YOU WANT TO MAKE MOVIES

My Life As An Independent Film Producer

by Sidney Pink

These were only a few of the early problems that plagued us in our nineteen weeks of principal photography. VALLEY was the most difficult picture I worked on, but I learned what not to do, and the project had its compensations as well. Cesar Romero was a real delight. He is a gentle and intelligent man, and we spent many evenings together in quiet conversation over coffee and the fine Spanish brandy. He talked about his early days in the actor pool of 20th Century Fox with Tyrone Power, Don Ameche, Betty Grable, Alice Faye, and Rory Calhoun. I shall always like Cesar Romero, and in fact, he is one of the most loved and respected actors in Hollywood. It was he who got me to grow the first and only beard I have ever worn. The part of Jeronimo called for a full beard, so I suggested he grow a real beard to avoid the dawn makeup calls. He reluctantly agreed but only if I also grew one. I did so, and for those twelve weeks I wore it, I was miserable. As the weather warmed up and the beard grew longer, the discomfort increased, and we were both soon counting the days until the damned things could come off. I had the last laugh on him because he received an offer to co-star with John Wayne in DONOVAN'S REEF immediately after completing VALLEY, but he had to keep his beard, this time trimmed to an elegant Vandyke.

Cesar was loved in Spain, but unlike in other countries, his fans there never approached him for autographs nor did they molest him in any way. They just followed him wherever he went. He was quite a sight with his beautiful flowing white hair and magnificent beard, walking along the streets and dwarfing everything and everyone in sight. I am nearly six feet in height, but somehow I looked small when I was with Cesar. Those evening walks were a genuine pleasure for me after my daily battles with Espartaco.

I took a vow I would never again get involved with anyone like Espartaco Santoni. After the first few weeks of insecurity, when he allowed us to carry the ball and organized the confusion, his ego mounted daily with the knowledge the picture was back on schedule and moving well. He finally scored with Tere Velasquez, but his nightly visits with her did not make him any easier to live with. Even vainer that she, he constantly demanded our makeup woman between every scene; he carried a mirror with him to check his hair and make sure of his beauty.

He became one giant pain, but when he began to throw his weight about by abusing Cesar Romeo, all of the crew lost respect for him. To show his power, he ordered Cesar to be on the set every day even when he wasn't scheduled. During all of this Cesar remained his usual quiest and patient self, sitting quietly reading a book of talking with me. His forbearance soon won him the title of San (Saint) Cesar from the crew, and their dislike for Espartaco grew daily.

The stuff hit the fan when Espartaco decided he would not accept the lines of Jeronimo read by the script girl; he insisted they be read by Cesar personally. No one ever asked that of another actor unless the lines were needed for timing of were to be used in a direct soundtrack. It was like deliberately degrading that fine professional in front of the whole crew. When Cesar got up to do as requested, I blew my stack.

I had kept my cool because of Cesar, who refused to let it bother him. But now I told Espartaco in my best four-letter-word Spanish what I thought of him. I indicated that Cesar Romero and I, together with all of the American production team, were walking off the set. We would not return until he made a public apology in front of the whole crew, and we were prepared to take him to court to make certain the picture would never see the light of day. When I finished, there was a burst of spontaneous applause that must have reduced Espartaco to the pygmy he was. An hour later we were back on the set to receive his ill-given apology. From that day on, Espartaco Santoni and I shared a mutual hatred.

Luckily for us, Espartaco had no scenes with Frankie Avalon so he never even met him. Frankie's scenes turned out exceedingly well; Seto was content to let us control the way Frankie was presented. Espartaco had only one scene with Valli, and she treated him as if he wasn't there. He was on his best behavior with Tere, and he treated her as he would a real queen. By now his affair with Tere was public knowledge, even to Maruja. She appeared on the set for a weekend in Burgos but left a few hours later in tears.

Espartaco married Tere Velasquez after destroying Maruja, but that too had only a brief life. They had a child, but Tere could not stand his lies and infidelities, so she booted him out and went back to Mexico. I still can't understand what it is about showbiz that tolerates these kinds of parasites for as long as it does.

WINNETOU 1. TEIL

WINNETOU I.TEIL

Yugoslavia: VINETU 1

Italy: LA VALLE DEI LUNGHI COLTELLI

France: LA REVOLTE DES INDIENS APACHES

U.K.: WINNETOU THE WARRIOR

U.S.: APACHE GOLD

Director - Harald Reinl 1963

Cast: Lex Barker (Old Shatterhand), Pierre Brice (Winnetou), Mario Adorf (Frederic Santer), Marie Versini (Nscho-tschi), Walter Barnes (Bill Jones), Ralf Wolter (Sam Hawkins), Mavid Popovic (Intschu-tschuna), Branko Spoljar (Bancroft), Niksa Stefanini, Dunja Rajter (Belle), and Chris Howland (Jefferson Tufftuff).Husein Cokic, Demeter Bitenc, Vlado Krustulovic, Ilija Ivezic, Teddy Sotosek, Tomoslav Erak (Tangua), Hrvoje Evob (Klekih-petra), Antun Nolis, Vladimir Bosnjak, Kranjcec Ana.

Screenplay by Harald. G. Petersson

Based on the novel by Karl May

Director of Photography Ernst W. Kalinke

Cinemascope - Eastmancolor

Music by Martin Bottcher

Art Directors Frank Goslar, Dusko Ercegouic

Editor Hermann Haller

Production Manager Erwin Gitt

Second Unit Producer Josef Lulic

Second Unit Director Stipe Delic

Second Unit Camera Kreso Grcevic

Camera Eberhard Dycke, Egon Haedler, Milorad Markovic

Costumes Irms Pauli

Sound Editor Fedor Jeler

Make-up Walter Wegner, Gerda Wegner

Special Effects Erwin Lange

Bauten Vladimer Tadej

Assistant Director Charles Wakefield, Slavko Andres

Executive Producer Horst Wendlandt

Interiors CCC - Studios Berlin

A Co-production of Rialto Film (Hamburg), Ste Nlle de Cinema (Paris), and Jardan Film (Zagreb).

Actually the second of the series, WINNETOU 1. TEIL came out almost a year after DER SCHATZ IM SILBERSEE (U.S.: THE TREASURE OF SILVER LAKE), but was for many fans the best of the German Westerns.

What made this film special in the Winnetou series, was that it was the "origin" episode. Here, we saw how the future chief of the Apaches, and the White man who would become his blood brother, first met, and the physical trials which forged their bond.

Since the politicization of the cinematic presentation of Native American peoples, it was hard to see any movie about Indians without wondering, "What would Russell Means think about this?" How authentic was the film's depiction of the Mescalero Apache? Was the language used by the cinematic Indians correct? Did the costuming approximate how they really looked? Would these people really build their pueblo on a cliff overlooking a river valley? Such questions would probably be more appropriately posed to anthropological or historical scholars, and these scholars would probably point out that this film's portrayal of the characters from an European background wasn't authentic either. But, the filmmakers were not attempting a realistic study of the subject. They were presenting an adventure story which romanticized the Western expansion of the United States. In particular, they were portraying an idealized friendship between a Native American leader and an European American railroad surveyor, who happened to be good with his fists.

Action seemed to be the most important aspect of this project to the filmmakers, and they provided quite a few well-staged and well-produced sequences. There was the wagon train racing across the prairie pursued by the murderous Kiowa. There was the saloon punch-up after which Sam Hawkins christened the surveyor "Old Shatterhand". There was the battle of Roswell, during which the railroad workers attempted to arrest Santer for the murder of
the old White teacher who lived with the Apaches. And there was the attack on Roswell by the Apaches.

Unfortunately, among the action sequences were a number of preposterous bits. Particularly hard to swallow was the idea that workers could lay railroad tracks at night leading right up to the saloon without anyone in the saloon knowing about it. Also not quite convincing was that the villains trapped in the saloon, could, just overnight, build an underground tunnel through the floor of the drinking establishment across to a storehouse filled with dynamite.

Underground tunnels were an element unusual to American Westerns, but seemed okay to these German filmmakers. In DER SCHATZ IM SILBERSEE, a frontier stockade had a secret passageway down the well, which came out quite a distance outside the fort. However, in both films, the interior of the tunnels were never shown, so questions were never answered about their contruction.

Another unusual element found in the Winnetou Westerns was "trial by ordeal", which was very similar to the "feat of strength" found in Italian Epic films, and, of course, was a common element of most mythological tales. In DER SCHATZ IM SILBERSEE, Old Shatterhand had to prove his innocence by defeating an Indian chief in a duel using tomahawk and knife while both were tied around the waist with rope also attached to a totem pole. In WINNETOU 1. TEIL, Old Shatterhand must prove his innocence by reaching a totem pole in a leaky canoe while being
pursued by Winnetou's father.

As Bill Jones, Walter Barnes continued the trend, started with DRAKUT IL VENDICATORE, of getting roles with more stature than his earlier parts. The foreman of the railroad builders, Jones was a well-meaning man unaware that Santer had altered the proposed route of the track. Instead of going around Apache land, the track was now going right-through the heart of it, providing a cost saving that Santer was pocketing.

Later, after Santer and his men took cover in the saloon to avoid capture, Jones ventured out unarmed in an effort to halt the bloodshed. His effort to convince the villain to lay down his weapons was, not surprisingly, rewarded with a bullet. But the effort signified that Jones was a character of heroic virtue, and Barnes filled the role admirably.

However, the roles which really made WINNETOU 1.TEIL a success were those filled by American actor Lex Barker, as Old Shatterhand, and French actor Pierre Brice, as Winnetou. The roles were written in the style of classical heroes, and needed performers with strong physical charisma to pull them off. In Barker and Brice, the filmmakers got what they needed. Ralf Wolter as Sam Hawkins was a regular of the Winnetou films which featured Old Shatterhand, appearing in six out of seven; he wasn't in WINNETOU 2. TEIL. A comedic character, Hawkins was the old-timer who helped introduce Old Shatterhand to Winnetou, and was a good fighter in addition to providing humor. WINNETOU 1. TEIL did not include the moments from DER SCHATZ IM SILBERSEE which revealed that his eccentric hairstyle was actually a wig, to cover up his bald spot.

Following Herbert Lom's stint as the villain in the first of the series, German actor Mario Adorf brought to the film the forceful presence which made him an international star. As Santer, Adorf seemed to be at home in Western garb, which probably helped to convince American director Sam Peckinpah to cast him, a few years later, in MAJOR DUNDEE.

Casting Marie Versini as Winnetou's sister Nscho-tschi seemed appropriate; who better than a French actress to play the sister of a character played by a French actor? Versini brought sweetness to the role which was just about all the script allowed. Viewers of WINNETOU 1. TEIL may have been surprised to discover Versini also played Nscho-tschi in 1966's WINNETOU UND SEIN FREUND OLD FIREHAND (U.S.: THUNDER AT THE BORDER). However, Old Firehand was part of Winnetou's life before he met Old Shatterhand, so this story was kind of a prequel to the events of WINNETOU 1. TEIL.

All of the Winnetou movies used the same music by Martin Bottcher, which gave them a continuity, but also signaled the filmmakers unwillingness to change with audience tastes. The last installment of the series was released in 1968.

Bernie Glasser To The Rescue of THE CASTILIAN

From: SO YOU WANT TO MAKE MOVIES

My Life As An Independent Film Producer

by Sidney Pink

Actually, our major problem turned out to be lack of an experienced cutter and a producer who understood the requirements of this major production effort. No one at MD had the experience to comprehend the magnitude of preparation needed to make a giant film like VALLEY. The production demands we faced were akin to planning a giant military operation. The confusion lasted several days, until I took matters into my own hands and approached Espartaco. I made it clear that unless he was able to get the right production crew, we were lost and I was ready to pull out. We held a production conference, and I suggested we hire one of the American production managers from the Bronston company, whatever he might cost. Espartaco agreed.

We were able to get one of Bronston's key production unit managers on a lend-lease agreement. Bernie Glasser joined us in a few days, and he was worth every dime we paid him. In short order he organized all of the production personnel into teams, each one charged with a specific function. We had to feed thousands of extras on location, who, since they were needed all day, had very little time to spare for lunch or dinner breaks. Bernie was able to get the cook tents and tables so arranged that one day we fed 11,000 people in three hours. The rounding up of so many horses, equipment, and people into the hinterlands around Burgos necessitated dragging people from fifty miles away, while the horses had to be transported from all over northern Spain. We used railroad cars, vans, buses, and anything that moved when we got to those scenes. Bernie prepared everything so well in advance that almost everything went off smoothly.

The only hitches came when his carefully structured orders were not complied with literally. He then turned his attention to Seto and Pacheco, with whom he had some rather violent sessions. Seto realized his entire future rode on the outcome of VALLEY, so he agreed to follow Bernie's suggestions. He learned to preplan every scene and every camera move and to rely on Bernie's production expertise.

Pacheco, on the other hand, took it like the bantam rooster he resembled. He didn't like Bernie and he made not bones about it. His Spanish pride was being challenged by an upstart American, and he was not about to take advice from some damned gringo who had never turned a camera in his life. Mario was a superb cameraman and the stuff he had shot was spectacular, but he was spending too much time arguing with Seto and trying to get perfect lighting on every scene. We were six days behind in our first fifteen days of shooting and we could not afford temperamental fits.

Espartaco had no guts for this kind of battle, so he permitted us to cope with the situation. He kept his distance, and eventually the Spanish crews began to understand that we gringos had taken charge of the production of the picture. Mario was finally told in no uncertain terms that he had only one choice: Do it our way or get off the picture. Pacheco had no desire to be replaced, and so he began to cooperate. Sullen and reluctant at first, he began to see that the faster tempo was not affecting his art. Soon he began to enjoy the challenge of getting a scene prepared quickly, and he wound up with a reputation as the fastest cameraman in Spain.

WINNETOU UND DAS HALBBLUT APANATSCHI

WINNETOU UND DAS HALBBLUT APANATSCHI

WINNETOU AND THE HALFBLOOD APANATSCHI

Denmark: MASSER AF GULD

Yugoslavia: APANATSI

U.K.: HALFBREED

Director - Harald Philipp 1966

Cast: Lex Barker (Old Shatterhand), Pierre Brice (Winnetou), Gotz George (Jeff Brown), Ursula Glas (Apanatschi), Walter Barnes (Mac Haller), Ralf Wolter (Sam Hawkins), Ilija Djuvalekovski (Curly Bill), Mihail Baloh (Judge), Marinko Cosic (Happy), Nada Kasapic (Bessie), Petar Dobric (Sloan), Valdimir Leib (Pinky), Abdurahman Salja (Hank), Marija Crnobroi (Mine-Yota), Giancarlo Bastlanoni.

A Horst Wendlandt – Preben Philipsen Production

Screenplay by Fred Denger

Based on a novel by Karl May

Photography Heinz Holscher

Music by Martin Bottcher

Sets Valdimir Tadej

Editor Jutta Hering

Copyright 1966 Rialto Film Preben Philipsen

Eastmancolor in Ultrascope

Assistant Director Gundula von Seelen

Cameraman Rudolf Sandtner

Costumes Irms Pauli

Special Effects Erwin Lange

Production Assistant Charles M. Wakefield

Production Horst Wendlandt

Rialto Film (Hamburg) and Jadran Film (Zagreb).

Reusing elements from earlier installments in the Winnetou series, HALFBREED displayed ample evidence that these filmmakers were running out of ideas.

As in WINNETOU 1. TEIL (aka APACHE GOLD), the script involved a secret Apache gold mine, an attack by the railroad workers on a town wherein the bandit gang was barricaded; and again the bandit gang escaped from the saloon through a secret tunnel. What was different in this film was that the tunnel didn't have to be dug by the villains - it was already there, the interior of the tunnel was shown - it looked like the interior of a mine, and that the tunnel came out in the church cemetery not under a shack filled with dynamite.

Reunited again from UNTER GEIERN (aka FRONTIER HELLCAT) were Walter Barnes and Gotz George. Barnes didn't play George's father this time; he played George's future father-in-law. George again hopped and jumped around like a maniac, and again his character infiltrated the villainous gang. Uniquely, this time he played a trapper named Jeff who was obsessed with doing magic tricks. Unfortunately, George did not appear to have learned how to do the actual tricks for the editing obviously replaced the necessary slight-of-hand.

As Mac Haller, Barnes got to play another father. This time his wife was an Apache woman who bore him a daughter, named Apanatschi, and a son, named Happy. When he was a young man, Haller found gold on Apache land, but kept it a secret. He wanted to give the location of this gold to his daughter on her 21st birthday. Unfortunately, he didn't tell his son about the secret, so the boy didn't know better than to show Pinky and Hank, Jeff's two best friends, the nugget he found.

Gold, Winnetou noted later, drove White Men insane. As a story element, it seemed to have a similar effect on this film's writer for his plotting often went in circles and his characters seemed incapable of logical reasoning.

Fearing that Pinky and Hank might try to steal his find, Haller went off to town to finally file his claim. Already suspecting that two men were out to do him wrong, shouldn't Haller have considered that they might try to way-lay him on the road and perhaps have Jeff accompany him?

After Haller's death, only Winnetou and Apanatschi knew the location of the gold, so Hank and Pinky tried to kidnap her. Having failed, why would the two varmints go to a saloon filled with outlaws and buy everyone a round with a gold nugget unless they wanted Curly Bill to take an interest and torture them to find out where they got the gold?

Since the Haller children had already been kidnapped once at the Railroader's camp, why would our heroes allow Happy to venture off alone to go fishing outside the Apache camp unless they wanted him to get kidnapped again?

Why, after using the secret tunnel from the saloon to rescue Apanatschi and Happy, did our heroes not block the tunnel rather than allow the villains to fight their way to freedom from it? And why, after fighting their way to freedom from this tunnel did the villains want to return to the tunnel to hide the newly acquired gold? And why, after filling this tunnel with dynamite to trap the villains inside, did our heroes allow them to once again fight their way out into the open unless they wanted many from their side to be killed?

Even though this was made after the huge success of PER UN PUGNO DI DOLLARI (aka FISTFUL OF DOLLARS), this Winnetou film showed very little sign of Italian Western influence. A few of Martin Bottcher's music cues may have sounded similar to Ennio Morricone's incidental pieces, but the main theme remained the same. The fight scenes included more of the "carefully stalking around" action rather than the large battles with alot going on at once seen in WINNETOU 1. TEIL, but Old Shatterhand still shot guns out of bad guys' hands, and Winnetou took the trouble to dunk a burning outlaw into water to put out the fire. The villain came back swinging, and the noble Indian had to clobber him into unconsciousness, but the old-fashioned "let's try to take them alive" rationale was still operating.

While it was good to see Lex Barker, Pierre Brice, Ralf Wolter and Walter Barnes working together again, this film gave UNTER GEIERN competition as the worst of the series.

Newcomer Ursula (aka Uschi) Glas had appeared in an Edgar Wallace adaptation called DER UNHEIMLICHE MONCH (aka THE SINISTER MONK) prior to getting the female lead here. Unfortunately, the Winnetou filmmakers didn't give her much to do aside from looking cute and acting spunky.

On the other hand, Nada Kasapic as the saloon owner Miss Bessie suggested womanliness. It was unfortunate that her character disappeared from the script so soon. But the suggestion that she was more than just an acquaintance of Old Shatterhand humanized the hero more than anything else in the movie.

(Thank you to John Charles for a chance to see the excellent UFA DVD release. It's a region 2 PAL 16X9 anamorphic presentation in clear 2.35:1. There's an English and two German soundtracks available, with English subtitles for scenes not dubbed into English - particularly a family sing-a-long featuring Gotz on accordion. You could also watch the movie in German with English subtitles.)

The end of HORROR EXPRESS

From: HOLLYWOOD EXILE Or How I Learned To Love the Blacklist

by Bernard Gordon

What happened to the film in the U.S. and why didn't I become the king of horror filmmakers?Bobby Marmor's real estate operations in London suffered sudden and serious financial reversals. He could not come up with the money to repay loans from the Banco de Bilbao. All I knew at the time was that Ben Fisz kept hammering at me to get hold of the negative and send it to London so that release prints could be made. Sacristan kept dodging with one excuse after another, but we had a debt of $150,000 to the Banco de Bilbao, money for which Spaniards had signed. The Spaniards were Sacristan and our accountant, Ramon, who were both acting for their British and American backers. Nevertheless, when the money to repay the bank was not forthcoming from London, these Spaniards properly exercised theit rights to grab the negative, which was, of course, in the laboratory in Madrid. They had the legal right to do this since the negative was collateral for the loan. I was told nothing about this at the time, Typically, Sacristan would not tell the truth, dodging with one excuse after another. Our already strained relationship became aggravated.

Because of the financial stress in London, Fisz made a wretched deal to sell the picture to an American company for release in the States for something like $100,000. The company acquiring the film was getting it virtually free - thanks to a tax deal that was in effect at the time. Fisz took the beat-up, faded, miserable, work print, which was all he had in London, made an inter-negative from that, and proceeded to run off release prints! Friends of mine who went to the theater to see the film in Hollywood reported back to me that it was almost impossible to see anything on the screen - everything was dark and unintelligible. I was completely bewildered, because I knew from many hours of fighting for film quality at the Madrid laboratory that we had an excellent negative, one that had been photographed with care and skill. At that time, Yordon had not seen fit to fill me in on these complications. The film he later said could have been a real hit and a moneymaker was trashed.

In 1972, at an international festival of horror films held in Spain, HORROR EXPRESS was up for the grand prize. It lost to an American production, THE OTHER, directed by Robert Mulligan, but HORROR EXPRESS won the consolation prize for best story. This accolade went to Eugenio Martin, who had been listed, for nationality reasons, as the writer of the story - much to Julian's lasting irritation.

What might have been the start of a career I would really have enjoyed was, instead, finished. I may have had what it took to be an effective line producer, but I didn't have what it took to be a promoter. My own effort to promote an independent film in Spain was a dismal failure; I had lived comfortably under Yordan's umbrella too long, doing my share of writing and producing while he did his job of hustling, packaging, finding connections, financing, and distribution. The film operation in Spain folded. The studio was abandoned.

A Disastrous First Day On THE CASTILIAN

From: SO YOU WANT TO MAKE MOVIES

My Life As An Independent Film Producer

by Sidney Pink

I was soon up to my neck in a new set of problems. I was accustomed to the well-disciplined Dutch and American crews, who were always set up and ready for each shot before the director had finished rehearsing his actors. As a director, I knew the importance of being ready with a complete shooting plan for each day. The director has to set up his camera placement showing the cameraman the action he wants. Only then can the cameraman set up the required lighting. The sound engineers must also be prepared so that they can cover the set for sound no matter where the actors position themselves.

This complexity means that most of the time on a movie set is used in preparation. The actual shooting time of each scene is rarely more than six or seven minutes, but to get a complex six-minute shot can require two hours of preparation. They key to speed is a well-prepared director with a well-planned shooting script. In the States, they now make a story board that visually depicts each scene the director wants to film. In Spain, it seemed, no one is prepared. At least, that is the way we started out.

We arrived at 6 A.M. to begin shooting. For a first day, the scene selected was stupid. Taken from the middle of the script, it involved Fernan Gonzalez and a group of his followers standing on a hill overlooking the village of Covarrubias. They were discussing the next guerrilla raid against the Moors. It was a most complicated scene requiring horses, action, and a lot of dialogue. I was trained in the school of easy start, the first day being dedicated to doing easy scenes to give the cast and crew a chance to know each other and work out any possible personality problems. The makeup and wardrobe technicians need to learn their actors and their possible allergies before they became problems. It is just like a shakedown cruise wherein the crews and officers must learn each other's demands before they can reach any level of compatibility. That opening day was true chaos.

It became obvious that Seto and Pacheco had not discussed in advance the way this picture should be shot. While they worked together on many previous occasions, neither had ever undertaken such a gigantic project. Seto's experience was confined to small, intimate films that required very little production preparation. He was at a total loss when he saw the size of the crew and the huge expanse of the outdoor scenes that made up most of the picture. There were only a very few intimate scenes in this script, and his lack of experience in epic productions was evident to all of us. On that first day, he was unable to set up one camera shot, and he spend the whole morning with Pacheco trying to decide his first mastershot camera placement.

At the risk of sounding professorial, let me explain that norm of European production. Unlike Americans, European filmmakers would not depart from the customary under any circumstances. It was only after the American technicians arrived in full force that they learned to change their technique. Routine demanded that a master shot of the entire scene be made first; then you could move in to medium and close-up shots. If a master cold be shot in one take, then that was the way it was done. Techinque called for two medium shots, then close-ups. Action and movement needed for cutting all had to be shot later. The theory was based on using the master shot to set the tempo and overall feeling of the scene, and then other shots are cut in to accentuate the dramatic impact and round out the scene. Almost all conventional European directors shot their films in this fashion. No one thought of the realism of a hand-held camera; only the daring, unorthodox leftists like Rossellini, Fellini, and DeSica used their cameras in action like an additional actor. The use of the camera to indicate mood and suspense was not for Seto or any of the other journeyman directors. I knew we were in deep trouble.

Reaction to HORROR EXPRESS

From: HOLLYWOOD EXILE Or How I Learned To Love the Blacklist

by Bernard Gordon

Miller quotes reviews of HORROR EXPRESS from the British press in his book on Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. In the Evening Standard review, Alexander Walker noted, "It was made in Spain, had far more style and much, much more speed than the home-grown horrors but catches the national characteristics nicely." In the Evening News, Felix Barker proclaimed, "It is a rather splendid compound of old-fashioned melodrama." Reviewing the film for the Monthly Film Bulletin, Tim Milne praised the script: "[It] unwinds itself with sufficient cunning to keep interest alive, always one step ahead of the audience with a new revelation to come..."~Joe Dante, the esteemed American filmmaker and a director of excellent horror films, called HORROR EXPRESS one of his five all-time favorite horror films: "Cossacks, countesses, and mad monks abound, the plotting achieves astonishing complexity for a film of this type, and the level of humor is surprisingly sophisticated. Cushing and Lee are especially amusing... In short, it is a real treat."

Years later, in California, I was dragged out to speak about my science-fiction films and found myself next to Joe Dante on the platform. He turned to me and said how pleased he was to meet the producer of HORROR EXPRESS.