To me Cyborgs are magic - Interview with Sam Firstenberg

This interview was first published at Cinema Nocturna. This was a couple of years ago and my English was probably even shittier then, sorry for that. So, here's the interview:

To me Cyborgs are magic. Ninjas are magic. Cannon-productions are pure magic. So the only thing to do was to talk to one of the most productive directors in Hollywood, Sam Firstenberg, the creator of such classics as Revenge of the Ninja (the best Ninja-movie ever?), Cyborg Cop 1 and 2, American Ninja, Ninja III and many more.

Sam started his movie career in 1973 when he met the legendary producer Menahem Golan. He started with serving coffée, cleaning and driving. Or just being a runner. But the magic was there. Sam was on a movie set! After many hard, but funny, years as a assistant director and also director for his own short movies he finally was offered the directors chair for Revenge of the Ninja. So let?s talk with Sam about his long career in movies, and of course we begin with Ninjas!

Fred Anderson: In 1983 you directed in one of the biggest cultmovies ever, Revenge of the Ninja starring the notorious Sho Kosugi How did you get involved in a Ninja-movie?

Sam Firstenberg: The company that bought my student film "One More Chance", Cannon Films, had just finished a movie called Enter the Ninja. They were looking for a director for the sequel and asked if I would be willing to take on the project, to make an action movie. The truth is that I had never before heard the word "ninja" in my life, but being young and eager I did not want to pass on such an opportunity so I faked my way in by letting them think that I knew what it was all about. After watching the original movie, and two books later, I was knowledgeable enough to get started, and then I was introduced to Sho Kosugi, the star of the movie, and he took me under his wing, so to speak, and gave me an in-depth introduction into the subject. I then realized that all we had to do was make a good action movie with a ninja twist.

FA: Im not sure, but Revenge of the Ninja should be the first of your works for Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. Tell us about these legendary producers. Where they easy to work with?

SF: I have known Menahem and Yoram for many years, in fact many years before I directed Revenge of the Ninja - I worked as an assistant director on many of their films, even one that Menahem Golan directed (Diamonds with Robert Shaw). The way they worked was that Yoram Globus was in charge of finances, and had little input on the creative side; Menahem Golan was the creative producer, involved in all the stages of making the movies. His main interest was in the script and in the editing. During the shooting I was basically left alone. I would say that in this sense, it was very easy to work with them, as long as we did not go over budget or exceed the schedule - which I never did. They trusted me and we had a very good relationship.

FA: I?m not familiar with Breakin? 2, but was it a success? Wasn?t this at the end of the breakdancing-era?

SF: First, I think the movie was at the height of the breakdance era. The first movie to come out was Breakin' and then a movie called Beat Street, but "Breakin'2-Electric Boogaloo" topped them all and became a national and world-wide immediate hit with the young audience. It was 1985 and even today, I still get fan mail from people who say that this movie influenced them as teenagers. Incidentally, two weeks ago it came out on DVD.

I have been told that on e-bay original posters and laser discs go for about $200- $300 apiece! It became an icon of the 1980's.

FA: In Ninja 3 you worked for the second time with actress Lucinda Dickey. How was it working with her?

SF: Coming from a dance background, she easily adapted to the ninja moves. Lucinda was not a martial artist, but she quickly caught on. Ninja 3 was the first time I worked with her; Breakin2 was the second movie.

FA: Talking about Ninja 3, is this the weirdest ninja-movie ever made?

SF: Yes! And the only one with a ninja hero that is a woman.

FA: I canät say Michael Dudikoff is one of my favorite actors but I always enjoys American Ninja 1 and 2. How was it working with mr Dudikoff and what's your personal opinons on these movies?

SF: Michael was the perfect American Ninja teenage idol type, with his James Dean demeanor. The first American Ninja is definitely one of my favorites with a wholesome and reluctant hero and with an innocent love story. It has very juicy villains. The second American Ninja does not have as good a story as the first movie. It would have been better if it had continued the themes of the first movie, but unfortunately it did not.

FA: Haven?t seen Avenging force, but friends tell me that it?s one of the most solid movies in Dudikoffs career. Can you tell me more about making this movie and working with Dudikoff?

SF: Not only is it a solid movie for Dudikoff, but it is a solid action movie period. Michael is great, the action is magnificent, the visuals are terrific. The story takes place in New Orleans so the atmosphere is charged with mystery and the lead villain, John P. Ryan, is the best villain ever! When it came out the movie got some great reviews - too bad it is not as famous as American Ninja.

FA: I always love productions from Nu Image and also, of course, the Cyborg Cop-series. In the first one John Rhys-Davies played the bad guy. He's a solid actor and is now more famous than ever after appearing in the Lord of the rings-trilogy. How was it working with him and David Bradley in Cyborg Cop. Was it and it?s sequel big hits?

SF: John Ryhs-Davies is the greatest! Such a nice person to work with and extremely talented, full of creative ideas, and very accommodating to the director. He is a classically trained British actor. David Bradley is less of an actor but more of a martial artist so he brought this talent to the movie. The Cyborg movies did not reach the success of the American Ninja series in popularity.

FA: Most of your movies, at least the Ninja- and cyborg-movies have been very violent and sometimes genreated moral panic in countries with harder censorship rules. What do you think about the graphic violence in your movies and the censorship?

SF: I would like to know in which countries the movies created a moral panic. but on a more serious note, there is an audience for all types of entertainment. I always try to keep the violent action in a cartoon-like atmosphere so that we don't confuse what we see on the screen with reality. I stay away from sadistic themes, and never have violence against women or children, and always stay in the realm of "movie-land." In principle I am against censorship and the rating system should provide viewers with guidelines to the content of the movie so that the viewers can make the choice whether to see the movie.

FA: You worked as a second-unit director on Crocodile, once again for Nu Image. Was it easy to work with Tobe Hooper and what do you think of the movie?

SF: Tobe and I are good friends; I know him for many years, since we both worked at Cannon Films where he directed the movie Life Force. Tobe entrusted me with all the action-y sequences of the Crocodile movie and basically I did my best to accommodate his movie.

FA: I actually hold a dvd of Spiders 2 in my hand this weekend, but I was broke right then and couldn't afford buying it, so I haven't had the pleasure of seeing it yet. Are you happy with the final result?

SF: Spiders is a complex movie from an optical effects standpoint. It has 160 optical effects. One thing I learned is that when you work with a low budget you don't get the same quality of results that the big budget movies get. But yet, it is a considerably scary and tense horror picture.

FA: To be honest, I first thought it was something for April Fools Day, but you are nowdays co-director with Ed Wood? Appearently, after reading at your official site, the raw material for an unknown Ed Wood-movie has been found and you have directed an additional 30 minutes of scenes and now completed this movie. When can we see this movie? Will hope for a nice dvd-release with lot's of extras :) I?ve only seen pictures from the new scenes, is there any pictures from the old material and have you been able to identify the orignal actors and actresses?

SF: A lot of information concerning your question is coming soon on our website surplusmale.com. I believe you will find all the information as the updates and pictures are posted and the site develops. This is an extremely exciting project but we do not yet have a release date. It might go to sci-fi festivals first, so stay tuned.

www.surplusmale.com

FA: A final word to our readers?

SF: The greatest satisfaction of my work is to know that there are people all over the world who enjoy the movies that I have directed. This is the reason I make movies - to entertain audiences, and take them into a 90 minute journey of fantasy, thrill, and excitement. If all of this works, then I am grateful.

Please visit Sam Firstenbergs official site.

French Sex Murders (1972)

This could probably be one of the trashiest and wackiest giallos ever made, French Sex Murders. It has always been close to my heart and last night I decided to revisit it after quite some time. Everything I remember from it was true: trashy, funny, cheap gore and Anita Ekberg with huge hair, not to mention a bunch of the world’s ugliest men (except for always mega-cool Howard Vernon) and Robert Sacchi, the famous Humphrey Bogart-impersonator in one of the leads.

At Madame Colette’s (Anita Ekberg) massage institute life is a blast. Rich men come there to buy sex from happy young prostitutes. One day the extremely jealous boyfriend Antoine Gottvalles (Pietro Martellanza) visits his girl and hits her brutally and runs away. Moments later she’s found dead, beaten to death by a lamp. Of course everyone suspect Antoine, who after a while is arrested and sentenced to death. He swears that he’s innocent and that he will come back from the grave to take his revenge and find the killer…

And guess what? One by one our fine ensemble of nice people is killed of in gory fashion by a hooded murderer!!!

Now, this movie is lit like a porn movie for most of the time, especially in the scenes at the bordello. The rest of the flick looks quite crappy too, except a few nice shots here and there. It’s like a Eurociné-production but with a lot more money, gore and talent! I really don’t like using the word “trash” with something I like, but FSM is trashy. It’s made to show people naked (including hairy male butts), very cheap gore by Carlo Rambaldi and a few well-known actors earning a quick pay check spending time in Paris. And nothing is wrong with this, it’s still art because it’s made with passion and a sense of self-aware. The actors do the best they could do, obviously had a good time. Best is, as usual, Howard Vernon who gives it all. Damn, that man had a lot of talent! One of the sleaziest talents is Rolf Eden, a German playboy and multimillionaire that plays a big part here. He gives sleaze a name, and generated some headlines a couple of years ago for… well, read it yourself!

They gore is primitive, either just that thick pain we love in these movies, or papier maché heads falling to the ground. Every murder is also repeated in psychedelic colours at least three times! Stuff like this wanna make be go back in time and experience the making of movies like French Sex Murders myself, it seemed so free. Not the Hitler-style kind of filmmaking that they teach the kids in film school nowadays. If you have a camera you can make a movie, fuck the rest!

French Sex Murders is a lot of details, lots of nonsense, but together to be a very entertaining movie. From cameos by producer Dick Randall and an early part from Mike Monty (both IMDB and the cover claims that Gordon Mitchell makes a cameo, but I couldn’t see him), to cheesy special effects, hilarious twists, chases and funky music, this is hardly a well-written serious movie, but it’s one fine piece of exploitation.

The Resurrected (1992)

It’s a damn pity that Dan O’Bannon only directed two movies in his life, because the guy obviously had a unique style and knew what his audience wanted. His scripts, or just rewritings of other scripts, are among the best I’ve ever seen. But I was a bit worried when The Resurrected unfolded in front of my eyes. It felt sloppy, a bit chaotic – almost like O’Bannon didn’t care what he was doing. Could that be the truth? I was wrong as usual.

I don’t know if I’m corrected, but it seem like O’Bannon really wanted to surprise us, because the style of the movie becomes less sloppy and more coherent the further it goes. The odd performance by Chris Sarandon feels more and more thought-out, even if he still chews the scenery like no one before him. The private dick-storyline is uninspired from the beginning, but when the detective finds interested in the case – we’re also there with him.

The scene where the police break into Wards country-house, arresting him and the Chinese is almost documentary in feeling, and it’s from that moment that the movie shift gear and into something more darker and bizarre. The road to his house and to the underground lair is not only physical, it’s a trip into a very strange mind. Down there in the darkness O’Bannon also gives us a brilliant horror sequence, which Neil Marshall many, many years after used in his masterpiece The Decent: complete darkness.

Down in the catacombs, they suddenly don’t have any good light. They are forced to use matches, and at the same time absurdly bizarre monsters are stalking them from the sides and from below, from the holes made to keep them trapped. Before that O’Bannon made us, the audience, feel more and more claustrophobic – which in the end gives us one of the coolest horror sequences I’ve seen in years.

It’s not a gory film, but it’s filled with incredible make-up, mutated humans and scary monsters. Yes, there is a head-ripping, but O’Bannon stays away from the really graphic stuff. The Lions Gate DVD is in fullscreen, acceptable quality. But I would like to see this in a proper special edition release – why not blu-ray, now when the most obscure movies are released in this wonderful format!

Rest in peace, Per Oscarsson...

I’m gonna begin 2011 with a sad note, Per Oscarsson died yesterday – his house burned down and he, together with his wife Kia Östling died in the fire. I can’t state how important Per Oscarsson has been for the film- and theatre legacy in Sweden. He had a very special acting style which became odder and odder over the years, easy to imitate – but impossible to look down at. He was one of the most famous actors in Sweden, up there with Max Von Sydow and Erland Josephson.

Oscarsson was a true international actor and did his fair share of bigger productions, far from the Swedish borders. Often as the baddie, or Russians or Germans – the typical characters a Swedish actor with an accent gets. Sam Peckinpah’s TV-movie Noon Wine, Anthony Mann’s A Dandy in Aspic, The Last Valley (1971), The Night Visitor from the same year, the excellent Agatha Christie-movie Endless Night, The Blockhouse with Peter Sellers, the monster in Calvin Floyd’s Victor Frankenstein (he worked with Calvin Floyd’s 1981 movie The Sleep of Death) and a couple of early Mats Helge Olsson-productions. He was the co-producer of Olsson’s boring historical comedy Sverige åt Svenskarna, which made him go bankrupt. For you Stieg Larsson-fantastics out there, he also starred in The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

A personal favourite of mine is Arne Mattsson Vaxdockan, a surreal and controversial thriller where he plays a man falling in love with a mannequin doll.

But he might be most famous for the biggest TV-scandal in Sweden during the sixties, when he started a striptease during a monologue. It was at Hylands Hörna, the most popular family-show in Sweden (probably the only one), and EVERYONE that had a TV was watching that show. People demanded his head on a stick after seeing Oscarsson in only his underwear – and Oscarsson forever was connected to the wonderful Fuck You-attitude that he in a gentle way learned Sweden.

When me and Markus Widegren made Kraftverk 3714 some years ago I wrote to Per Oscarsson to ask him if he wanted a role in our movie. I got a hand-written letter back, with a very polite “no thanks”. I need to dive in to my old archive and dig that up, so I never will loose it.

Rest in peace, Per. You won’t be forgotten.

Jack's Back (1988)

I have a fondness for thrillers from the eighties, and it’s weird that I’ve never seen Jack’s Back until now. The title is silly and takes away some of the seriousness of the movie, but if you manage to look beyond the goofy title this is one helluva fine movie with lots of excellent actors, twists and turns.

James Spader (who some hetero’s I know, would go gay for) is a medical student working for a local help centre. But there’s trouble in an already troubled neighbourhood – a serial killer is running around copying the murders of Jack the Ripper! Our hero starts to suspect one of his co-workers, but everything is turned upside down when… ah, I won’t tell you!

Listen to me, before you watch Jack’s Back and you haven’t seen it before – don’t look at IMDB, don’t read to much about it (there won’t be any spoilers in my text), just find it and watch it. This movie has a couple of surprises that is much more effective if you don’t know them. I didn’t know, and it was a blast watching the twists coming from every corner. You just have to look at the credit list at IMDB to get one major spoiler, so don’t.

This is a nice mix between Hitchcock and De Palma (which always hangs together), with that typical and cool eighties feeling. It’s colourful and almost arty, because this was a time when commercial thrillers was allowed to be a bit arty, a bit odd. The ensemble of actors is fine, especially James Spader and Robert Picardo. I know it’s a tired thing to write, but Spader’s quest to find the killer and Picardo’s psychiatrist could both be characters from some neo-noir… maybe this is a noir, but masked to look like a serial killer thriller from 1988?

Don’t expect any gore, but it’s a quite violent movie with some wonderful fist fights and a lot of tension. But watch it for the script, which is such a beautiful creation of red herrings and well-written characters that some modern directors and writers should be ashamed of themselves for even thinking about doing movies (no names here, I want to be a bit polite).

The UK DVD is fullscreen, probably open matte because in one sequence a detail is spoiled because it probably should be out of frame (but it just don’t matter) and looks quite soft, but still very acceptable and worth purchasing for you that would like to own this awesome little movie.

Monster Dog (1984)

If you want to have some fine cheese, go to your local delicatessen and get your fix. I you want some OK cheese, just relax and let Monster Dog do the work for you. I have no idea who popular Alice Cooper was in 1984, but somehow he felt he just needed to star in a movie directed and written by the legendary shlockmeister Claudio Fragasso, and even put some of his songs in it. For conservative horror- and Alice Cooper-fans this is probably a terrible thing, but for us who appreciates a good slice of Italian camp-o-rama, this is a highlight!

Mr Cooper is Vince Raven, “the world’s hottest rock ‘n’ roll star” who goes together with his crew and entourage to his old hometown to shoot a new, cool music video. Of course strange things starts to happen at once, for example the pack of wild dogs running around terrorizing the villagers. We also learn that Vince’s father was killed by the rednecks, mistaken for being a werewolf! Talk about kinder trauma! Nothing really happens, except some dream-sequences, some kills and a long shoot-out with the rednecks until we understand that someone we know very well is a… WEREWOLF (or Monster Dog as the title suggests)!

The movie starts with a very silly music video, and from there it just gets better and better. Everything is unclear, people are doing unnatural stuff, has amazing dialogues about nothing and in-between is some quite good tracks by Cooper. It’s very eighties with smoke machine, strong colours and even more colourful characters. The old man of warning showing up all the time is crazier than ever and getting more and more bloody for each time.

After more than half of the movie a gang of rednecks show up to lynch Vincent and his crew, and suddenly it becomes more of a western movie than anything else, and ends in a nice and cheap gore-scene when one of the baddies is getting the top of his head shot off in graphic fashion! Most of the other gore is just the aftermath after kills, and nothing else. Maybe it’s cut, I have no idea. I own the UK DVD which is fullscreen, VHS-quality – but the head-shot are there and is obviously uncut. Maybe someone can enlighten me about the gore-status in Monster Dog? Amazingly enough this was also broadcasted in HD on some US channel, in very good quality too. I need to download that version to see how it looks, because I would love a DVD or blu-ray in better quality.

Be also prepared for a very crappy transformation-scene. But at least they tried, which is half the idea with a movie like this. And by the way, who is Lou, the named mentioned on the poster?

Monster Dog is absurdly cheesy, and another of Claudio Fragassos eternal classics. Get it, or Vince Raven will eat you! (Oops, was that a spoiler?)

Mutiny in Outer Space (1965)

Mutiny in Outer Space is an interesting movie, made in the sixties but feels to 100% like something from the late fifties. This is of course a good thing, even if it lacked the fungus-action I expected. Because this is a story about a space station attacked by a fast-spreading fungus! Originated from an ice cave on some planet and brought back to the station by some brave wide-cheeked astronauts! When they discover the fungus on one of the astronauts legs they quickly quarantine him – but it’s too late and soon the fungus is growing everywhere, especially on the outside of the space station. Slowly drifting to earth, someone has to stop it from entering the earth’s atmosphere and spread the fungus all over the world!

Directed by Italian cinematic shapeshifter Hugo Grimaldi and financed and distributed by the legendary Woolner Brothers Pictures, the movie is way more ambitious than it probably could afford to be. We’re treated to some of the worst wobbling spaceships I’ve seen, a ridicoulous spacestation-miniature that looks like it was made in ten minutes and the usual flat sets with old office chairs transformed to space-chairs. But what saves this movie is intelligent and imaginative direction by Grimaldi, who uses the whole screen to tell the story and often makes everything much more fun to look at with a nice camera-move and the use of depth. I can’t really complain about the actors either. They do what they’re told to do and do it fine, with out sleepwalking thru their parts.

The whole scientific mumbo-jumbo talk sounds (and is) silly, but I’ve learned to love that with many of these movies. It’s not as absurd like Ed Woods work, but with a little less work it could have been. Now it sounds like I don’t like Mutiny in Space, but I do. It’s a nice little sci-fi with lots of entertainment, but the biggest disappointment is that they focus more on the talking and less on the “funging”. It should have been more fungus-attacks, more fungus-infected people, more fungus crawling around trying to kill people. I guess the obviously very low budget played its part here, but come one! Give me fungus! If it had more fungus it should have been called Space Fungus instead by the way.

I own the German DVD from X-Rated. It’s a nice version with quite good quality. It’s a bit soft, and is probably taken from a very good mastertape – so it’s not from the original negatives. It also includes the German version of the movie, shorter and with German language and the 20 minute short Super-8 version! The cover is awsome and it has a proud place in my collection.