The actress who plays Moriarty’s love interest, Kathy, appears to be dubbed.
Yeah, she is. Laurene Landon dubbed her voice. That actress didn’t have much experience, but she looked right for the part. She also had these teeth that I kind of liked. I thought she had good teeth for a vampire.
Andrew Duggan, in his final role before his death on May 15, 1988, essays the part of Judge Axel, the leader of the vampire society. Was he your first choice for the part?
Originally, I had tried to get Richard Widmark for the Judge. Widmark had worked with Sam Fuller on a number of movies at 20th Century Fox, like Pick Up on South Street and the submarine picture Hell and High Water. I already had Sam in the movie and I thought it would be fun to reunite them together. Widmark actually resided in New England at that time and I felt there was a chance I could get him to be in the film because he was living nearby. I thought he could just drop by and do it, but by then Widmark had retired and expressed no desire to come out of retirement for me. I was pleased that Andy could then take the part because he was a dear friend and that marked the last time we worked together. I don’t think Andy liked performing under all that rubber and greasepaint when the Judge transformed into the monster at the end, but I tried not to keep him in the makeup for too long. For his sake, we shot those scenes in the minimum amount of time and efficiency that was possible.
Judge Axel expresses his distaste for human blood that is tainted with “drugs, alcohol, hepatitis, and that AIDS thing.” Interestingly, this is one of the first acknowledgements of the AIDS virus in a horror film, if not the very first.
Yes, I believe so. That was a time in our history when AIDS was still this mysterious and terrifying thing. People were somewhat reluctant to acknowledge it, but I thought that moment was apropos. It seemed perfectly logical that vampires would be appalled at having such impurities in their food. Blood is their thing. They want and need blood, but now they suddenly have to be concerned about catching some fatal disease. So, in spite of their longevity, they must now be careful in their dealings with humanity. No wonder they are turning to cows for their nourishment!
Which brings me to my next question: am I right in assuming that you drugged the cattle for those feeding scenes?
Yeah, we did. We had a veterinarian come in and put them to sleep. Unfortunately, he put one of these animals to sleep in the wrong place. We then had to have nearly the entire crew drag this unconscious cow across to the proper place so we could shoot the scene. I must say that moving an unconscious cow took quite a considerable effort. I think it took as many as fourteen people just to slide this animal across the ground from one area to another in a pouring rainstorm. Despite the inconvenience, it was rather hilarious to observe.
The idea of the “drones” — the human workers and protectors of vampires during the daylight hours — is, of course, an old one in vampire movies.
Didn’t Bela Lugosi have Renfield do that job for him in Dracula? Renfield was basically Dracula’s human helper, and I’ve always liked the idea of subservient humans working for the vampire cause. In this case, they are being bred specifically for that purpose. It was another effort on my part to create the new legend of vampires — the new Bible of rules. Everybody else seems to be doing it in movies and books, and often in disappointing and uninteresting ways, so I figured I was also entitled to contribute to this evolving mythology. If Bram Stoker could create his own rules for the vampire, and people like Stephen King could play off them, then why couldn’t I? Also, the idea of vampires breeding human beings simply to be their life-long servants seemed pretty creepy to me. It’s like being born into captivity.
What vampire movies have worked for you? Which ones have you enjoyed?
I liked the original Dracula, if only for Bela Lugosi’s iconic performance. Today, it’s easy for people to forget just how incredibly menacing and provocative he was in that part. Lugosi defined the way a vampire should be played on screen for generations to come. I also think some of the Hammer films with Christopher Lee as Dracula are good, although if you only saw one of them that would be enough. I’ve always felt that a lot of the sequels Hammer later made were derivative of their first Dracula film. [6] I’ve seen the original versions of Nosferatu, which was good, and Fright Night, which was okay. I also thought that Interview with the Vampire with Tom Cruise was enjoyable. But I’m not the kind of person who runs out to see every vampire movie as I find the repetition of ideas and elements tiresome. As I told you, I didn’t even sit through the whole of Salem’s Lot — and I made the sequel!
What about vampire fiction? Did you read anything for research?
I’ve never read any vampire fiction. Oh, I did once read an annotated version of Dracula. [7] It had notes and pictures in it, but even then I don’t believe I finished the whole book. I did listen to the original radio production of Dracula that Orson Welles did with The Mercury Theater, which was very good, but nothing else really.
An interesting twist is having Judge Axel threatening to pound a stake through a human child’s heart to demonstrate how terribly inhuman and painful it is.
I don’t think I’ve seen that in any vampire film before. That really was new. Again, I tried to put things in there which were original, rather than adhering to the same old conventions of vampire movies that audiences had already seen. But there are some ideas in there that draw from other kinds of pictures I like. For instance, the Nazi-hunter that Sam plays was based on the same character that Edward G. Robinson played in The Stranger. In that film, Robinson is a Nazi-hunter who arrives in this New England village looking for a Nazi fugitive. He finds Orson Welles, who is in fact the war criminal he has been searching for and has now assumed a new identity. I always enjoyed that movie and decided to take Robinson’s character and do a little variation on it. Sam then became a Nazi-killer rather than a Nazi-hunter, which is a different beast altogether. What’s interesting is that Sam’s character is not really that different from the vampires. He’s not operating under the morays of society either. He is simply going to hunt down Nazis and execute them in cold blood. There will be no trial or appeal. If he finds a Nazi he is going to kill them, so he exists outside the rules and regulations of civilisation, just as the vampires do.
In response to a question about who will believe that vampires ever existed, Van Meer declares, “In 500 years who will believe there were Nazis?”
That’s right. If you look at the enormity of what the Nazis did and their whole philosophy and syndrome, it moves so far beyond the scope of normal behaviour that it approaches Biblical proportions. You can easily imagine that hundreds of years from now people might look back and think that those terrible events must have been embellished or were even made-up. Surely nobody could have possibly been that demonic and destructive? How could one individual like Hitler have inspired a whole nation of people with such an extreme sense of evil? It really is like something out of the Bible, it’s so huge and excessive! If all the historical documents and film footage of the Nazis was destroyed and there was no evidence or witnesses to talk about their atrocities, and you only heard this story from legend, people would think that it was entirely fictionalised. They would assume that it’s like Nebuchadnezzar or something, you know, it’s that big! It’s just not feasible that this could have happened in the recent history of human behaviour, but of course, we know that it did.
What is the significance of having Judge Axel impaled on the Stars and Stripes at the climax?
Oh, I just thought that was a Larry Cohen touch. After all, it was a pole with a point on the end of it so why not? The American flag seems to work better than just having an ordinary stake go through his heart. The Judge is obsessed with his patriotism and is proud that he came to a country where vampires have had the freedom to flourish without persecution. They came to America for survival, and using the very symbol of Americanism as the instrument of his destruction seemed a very fitting and perverse end. I just felt that things had now
come full circle, as in a way these vampires considered themselves to be the original Americans.
Am I right in thinking you imported several shots of a burning house from the original Salem’s Lot miniseries for the sequel’s fiery climax?
I don’t think so. I might have got those shots from the Warner Bros. stock library. Unless, of course, Tobe Hooper acquired the footage from the same place. It may be that Tobe didn’t originate that footage himself either and borrowed it from the library. I don’t know. They were both Warner Bros. productions, so we both had access to it.
Do you have any final thoughts about A Return to Salem’s Lot?
Only that I was — and still am — very pleased with the picture and glad that I made it. I had a good time working with Moriarty, Sam, Evelyn, June and everybody else in that cast. Once again, I would have liked a little more money for the special effects, but I still think we did a good job. I remember that when Sam finally saw the finished film, he remarked that it was “very well put together.” Coming from the great man himself as those words did, I considered that quite some compliment.
When was the last time you saw Sam?
I last saw him after he gave up his place in Paris and came back to California. Sam had suffered a stroke and wasn’t able to speak coherently. Of course, that still didn’t prevent him from talking non-stop! Nobody could understand a word of what he was saying, but he would just babble on, constantly telling stories and relaying anecdotes. One evening, they organized a little tribute to Sam at the Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, and a lot of people who were old Sam Fuller veterans, friends, and family, came out to pay homage to him. One of the attendees that night owed Sam an interesting debt of gratitude. Back in the 1950s, Sam had been making the Western, Run of the Arrow, which starred Rod Steiger. Steiger’s leading lady in that film was the Mexican actress Sara Montiel, but her voice was not usable and Sam needed to dub her. Sam had found this young secretary, whose voice he liked. He asked this girl if she thought she could dub the dialogue and she came in to give it a try. She dubbed Montiel’s voice, and Sam liked what she had done. This secretary was also very beautiful, and so Sam decided to cast her in his next picture, China Gate. That young girl was Angie Dickinson. That was how Angie got her start in the business, and she went on to make some great pictures and have a successful career. [8] Of course, Angie showed up for this event and sat with Sam to show her appreciation. Sam talked and talked and talked, and nobody could understand him, but we all just sat there and listened. Then we ran Sam’s Western, I Shot Jesse James, and I talked a little about the influence the movie had had on me, since I’d basically acquired elements of it for Branded. In I Shot Jesse James, John Ireland is branded a coward for having shot Jesse James in the back and a song is sung commemorating this deed: “The dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard.” We had a similar song in Branded: “Branded, marked with a coward’s shame.” As you know, that song is what people remember most about the show and I got that from Sam’s picture. That night, I also talked about making A Return to Salem’s Lot with Sam and the wonderful time we spent together in New England. Afterwards, when the tribute was over, we walked to Sam’s car so he could go home with his wife and daughter. I kissed him goodnight and watched the car drive away and that was the last time I ever saw him. [Emotional] Anyway, he …he was a dear, dear fellow, and, when you talked to Sam, he’d always tell you his stories. He’d grab you by the arm, dig his nails into your wrist, and wouldn’t release you until he was finished telling his tale. It was as if he thought you were going to run away, and that if he didn’t hold onto you, you were never going to hear the end of his story. What a great old guy he was! I loved him, and I’m very happy to be living in his house. For me, this will always be Sam Fuller’s house, and I’m right here now, in his bedroom, talking to you on the phone. So, there you go.
Maniac Cop Trilogy (1988-1993)
How did the idea for Maniac Cop first come to be?
I was attending the Los Angeles Film Festival — one of the very earliest ones that were held — and I met William Lustig there. Bill said that he was a big fan of my movies, and we ended up having lunch together. As we were talking, Bill mentioned that he was looking for something to do as his next picture. I think he was having a little trouble coming up with a good idea. I knew that Bill had directed a horror film called Maniac, [1] which I hadn’t seen and still haven’t. For some reason, I then said, “Well, you’ve already done a movie called Maniac. What if you do another movie about a maniac that is a combination of a horror film and a police thriller? Only this time the maniac isn’t some sleazy psychopath; he’s actually a uniformed cop. Think how interesting that could be. We could even call it Maniac Cop.” Then, we both laughed, but Lustig immediately responded to that title. I was clearly on a roll that day because the very next words out of my mouth were, “Hey, I even have the ad campaign we could use: ‘You have the right to remain silent …forever!’” I could see how excited Bill was getting over this. He thought the idea was great. He said, “Would you do that with me?” I said, “Sure,” and then I forgot all about it. I never thought I’d ever hear from him again, but then a few weeks later, he called me. Bill said that he’d raised the money to make the picture and he hoped — and expected — that I would keep my word and write the screenplay. I didn’t want to let him down, so I wrote Maniac Cop, and very shortly afterwards the picture got made. And that was it. I probably wouldn’t have got myself involved with the project if I thought it was going to go forward. I wrote it simply as a courtesy to Bill. I was being nice to somebody.
What did you make of the cast that Lustig pulled together for the film?
I was very impressed with the casting. There were some excellent actors in there, such as Tom Atkins, [2] who is always very good, and Richard Roundtree, with whom I’d worked with previously. Then there was Sheree North, who played the Maniac Cop’s crippled girlfriend. I was very pleased to see her in the film as she had once been a very big contract star at 20th Century Fox. In fact, back in the mid-1950s, she was being groomed by the studio as a potential threat to Marilyn Monroe’s status as Hollywood’s blonde bombshell. It didn’t quite work out that way, but Sheree had done a number of big movies in which she’d played the lead. She was a solid actress and continued to work throughout her career up until her death. [3] I must say, I didn’t know Bruce Campbell [4] very well but he was certainly very good in the part of the heroic young cop. I only ever met Bruce once, when we were recording the commentary narration for the release of Maniac Cop on home video. We met at the recording studio, and he seemed to be a very humorous fellow.
You’ve never been particularly reticent in expressing your displeasure at the choice of Robert Z’Dar for Matt Cordell, the Maniac Cop. Why exactly?
Oh, I never liked him for the part. I’ve always been very clear about that. I thought the casting of Robert Z’Dar was a mistake. He was basically this big lug with a thick neck and a large head. Frankly, when they put the makeup on him, he looked ridiculous. He just resembled this big, cumbersome float that was coming down a parade. Z’Dar moved rather awkwardly and I always thought that since the Maniac Cop didn’t speak, he should move with considerable physical expression and menace in order to compensate. They should have hired a stuntman for the role, someone who possessed a great deal of agility and flexibility. Unfortunately, Bill would never listen to me and my suggestions. He kept using Z’Dar in picture after picture. He should have hired somebody for the part that allowed the makeup artists to build an impressive makeup on. Of course, the makeup changed from one movie to the next, but at least it got a little better in Maniac Cop 2 and Maniac Cop 3 as Cordell got progressively more decayed and monstrous-looking. There’s no question about it, the makeup was dreadful in the first film. Lustig had a pretty good movie, up until the moment the Maniac Cop’s face was revealed on screen in close-up. As soon as I saw that, I went, “Oh, no! Please, no!” I mean, the ridiculous expressions that Z’Dar was making in
those final scenes! It was just bad! That upset me to some degree, I must say. I thought they blew the whole movie just by having that one awful makeup job.
Were you hoping that the Maniac Cop would become an iconic horror character?
I always thought he had that potential, certainly. When you create a monster for a movie, you hope to come up with some kind of iconic look. The Maniac Cop was obviously dressed in a police uniform and had the nightstick-knife, but every monster still needs to have a great look, like Karloff as Frankenstein’s Monster and Lugosi as Dracula. In the horror movies that were around at the time of Maniac Cop, there was Freddy Krueger with his burned face and razor glove, and there was also Jason in the Friday the 13th movies whose hockey mask became iconic. As soon as the audience saw the visual aspects of those characters, they immediately knew exactly who and what they were. That level of recognition also means that these characters become extremely marketable. Masks and costumes are manufactured for the fans to wear; parodies appear on television and cartoon illustrations appear in newspapers. Suddenly, an iconic monster is born that has some kind of cultural impact, but the Maniac Cop never achieved that. That’s why the three pictures never crossed over as some of the other horror movies have. They were always held back somehow. Even though some of the Maniac Cop movies were fairly well done, they never really caught on like A Nightmare on Elm Street or Halloween. The reason is that our monster was a disappointment. When you finally saw Cordell, you just said, “Geez, look at his face! It looks like a bunch of school kids did it over the weekend for an 8mm film in their backyard!” I mean, it looked amateurish, when it should have been frightening and powerful.
Larry Cohen Page 48