Films
a look at apar
APAR FILMS FOR SALE
I am happy to announce that you can now own a piece of APAR FILMS.
What's an APAR? I never knew – except part of my misspent youth was misspent with Christian Doherty, Alan Saly, Tom Sinclair, and Evan Jones creating Apar Films productions. They usually involved a chase, a gun, and sometimes a girl -- which is my clever way of referencing the documentary I made about the 25 or so movies I made with the aforementioned Doherty, Saly, Sinclair, and Jones (which was called A CHASE, A GUN, AND SOMETIMES A GIRL). After seeing it, one viewer, Rafi Regeur, wrote me these nice comments:
Tom, I am speechless. This documentary was truly fabulous. I feel wistful about a past that isn't my own. Makes me wish I had been a part of the Apar legacy. But the actual documentary itself is terrific--the visuals, the use of clips, the interviews, the pacing. I had to laugh at the faux British accent you used for the narration, but I really, really enjoyed this. It may not be Ants in his Pants (1933), but this was great and OT seems like it was a labor of love for you.
The Apar Films library is now being made available on DVD. The DVDs include the original films from 1971-74 directed by Doherty, and also feature the new movies he shot during 2010 and 2011 (comedies, a drama, a horror flick, and a new spy adventure).
Additionally, the release includes the documentaries I produced since 2009: A CHASE, A GUN, AND SOMETIMES A GIRL, THE WHOLE CATASTROPHE (a memorial to my father), REMEMBERING EFFIE (a memorial to my mother), THE APAR FILMS DOCUMENTARY COLLECTION, and THE ROAD TO ITHACA: TRAVELS IN GREECE 1958-2003. For more information, click here.
Hope you check them out and enjoy them. I think they'd make good holiday gifts. But then again, I'm a bit biased.
December 16, 2011
Apar Films for Sale
THE APAR FILMS SERIES
Action, horror, comedy, documentary -- Apar has them all. Apar Films was founded by director Christian Doherty in 1968 to create movies that followed his unique vision. From 1971 to 1974, he directed about 25 movies, with leading roles played by Alan Saly, Tom Sinclair, Tom Soter, and Evan Jones. The company disappeared and resurfaced in 2009 with new product. We are pleased to make some of the films available here. Click on the cover of the desired DVD for ordering information, or click on title from list at the bottom of the page.
ANATOMY OF A NIGHTMARE
ANATOMY OF A NIGHTMARE
The Making and Remaking of THE PLACE
They were all going to make a horror movie – but instead they made a mess. The sort-of-true story of Christian Doherty's THE PLACE.
A film by TOM SOTER and CHRISTIAN DOHERTY. Starring TOM SINCLAIR, CHRIS GRIGGS, STEVE TICHENOR, CAMILLA SALY, CRAIG WOLLMAN, KRISSY GARBER, ROSEMARY HYZIAK, TOM SOTER, and CHRISTIAN DOHERTY.
$4.99 + $3.00 P &H
FLOWERS ARE FOR FUNERALS
FLOWERS ARE FOR FUNERALS
Cast: CHRIS GRIGGS, TOM SINCLAIR, TOM SOTER, DAVE KENNEY, MIRIAM SIROTA, JACK MONTALVO, KRISSY GARBER, and EVAN JONES as Floyd. Screenplay by TOM SOTER and TOM SINCLAIR. Produced and edited by TOM SOTER. Main title theme by JORDAN SIWEK, performed by MIRIAM SIROTA. Directed by CHRISTIAN DOHERTY.
$9.99 + $3.00 P&H.
Producer/co-star TOM SOTER reflects on the movie:
There we were again – Tom Sinclair, Evan Jones, and I – getting instructions from director Christian Doherty as he stood talking to us about the next scene we were about to shoot.
“I want you all to look terrified – raise your arms above your heads in horror because you know this guy is the toughest, baddest dude around! Then, turn and run. And you, Henry,” he said addressing the star of the movie, “you look confident. Smile knowingly.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” I said to Sinclair. “Why would we stalk him and then run in terror when he turns and looks at us? How menacing does that make us?”
“This is an Apar film,” Sinclair said to me quietly. “What does logic have to do with it?”
It was like old times – 40 years ago this September to be exact – when Tom Sinclair and I (Evan Jones joined us in 1972) faced off against superspy HenrySorelli in Wishing You Were Dead, the first of six action movies starring AlanSaly as Sorelli. (The other five were Gun for Henrty, Blue (I Am Invisible), We Have All the Time in the World, The Man With the Golden Bullet, and Don’t Live for Tomorrow.)
In a way we were fulfilling a promise made to any fans of the movies when the last Sorelli picture closed with a title card that said our superspy would be back in Flowers Are for Funerals.
But that was then and when you’re 16 or 17, it’s a lot easier to mount a low-budget film than when you’re 53 or 54.
The reunion had its roots in the release of the original films (and re-edited versions creating a new 10-part plotline) on YouTube, where they developed a new fan base (much larger than their original screenings in high school auditoriums). That led to the production of my documentary, A Chase, A Gun, and Sometimes a Girl: The Apar Films Story. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYY63MZL5sc&feature=channel_video_title
Although Christian had not made a movie since 1975, he returned to filmmaking in 2010 with a dramatic story that was all-talk and no violence, Is This Love?(starring Laurel Sturrock and Apar veteran Evan Jones). That was followed by four short Eric Rohmer-stylecomedies (that were re-edited into the 70-minute film, The Hugh Chronicles.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEHkwskKa6s).
Through it all, Doherty regained is confidence as a filmmaker. But while the director was photographing love stories, he seemed to long for a return to form. He talked to me about action movies and jumped at the chance to remake his 1972 horror flick, The Place. Although the movie was not wholly successful artistically, we did learn a valuable lesson. We tried to do too much shooting a movie in one day when it would be better off done in three or four.
That brings us to Flowers Are for Funerals. Back in February or March, when Saly, Sinclair, Doherty, and I were together, I raised the possibility of doing another Henry movie. At first, it was treated as a big joke – the three of us would try to get out of our chairs to face off, but had become too old and fat to do any damage (we would just make threats). Another Henry movie! You must be joking!
Later, Sinclair and I were talking about the current political scene, especially Facebook comments by Apar associate Jack Montalvo. A“birther,” he went on in a long tirade about President Obama not being born in this country. That led Sinclair to suggest we do a political thriller, and he even had the name of the villain, The Super Patriot (never mind that Marvel Comics had a thriller with that name some years ago). He then wrote a scene in which the Super Patriot garots a young liberal named Stinky Greene, who is offering him that liberal magazine, PIG. (That was later changed to death by lethal flowers.)
Inspired by this, I wrote out a treatment involving Henry’s battle against the SP and also Dr. Life and Dr. Death, fromThe Man With the Golden Bulletand Floyd from Don’t Live for Tomorrow. Great! Except Alan Saly wanted nothing to do with his former alter-ego.
Unphased, I reworked the treatment to make the hero, Henry Sorelli, Jr., fighting his father’s old foes, as well as the Super Patriot. Then Sinclair and I chose scenes from the treatment and worked them up into a script. We also had a subplot in which Herry, Jr. is searching for his missing dad.
For the new Henry Sorelli, Doherty and I chose Chris Griggs, who had been successful as the anti-hero in The HughChronicles.We reassembled many of the old cast and added some faces from the new Apar stock company – Dave Kenney as the Super Patriot, Krissy Garber, Amy Bettina, Lawrence Cioppa – and some new faces to the Apar world –JessAnn Smith, Miriam Sirota, Jack Montalvo, AlanBraunstein, Jordan Siwek, and Frank Lovece. There may even be a cameo by a former big Apar star.
We have been doing the movie at a leisurely pace, starting production, appropriately enough, on July 4, 2011. The movie is now about halfway done, and we’re very pleased with the results so far. We hope you enjoy it when it is released later this year. Until then, you can check out the preview currently running on YouTube.
GOLDEN BULLET MAN
MAKE A WISH
MAKE A WISH
DIRECTED BY CHRISTIAN DOHERTY SCREENPLAY BY CHRISTIAN DOHERTY & TOM SINCLAIR, BASED ON CHARACTERS CREATED BY TOM SINCLAIR. PRODUCED BY TOM SOTER. FILMED: 1973/COMPLETED: 2008 WITH CHRISTIAN DOHERTY, TOM SOTER, LESLIE PARKER, CATHY CRAMER, LESLIE SMITH, AND ALAN SALY AS “THE BIG GUY” Filmed and edited in 1973, this gem from director Christian Doherty sat unfinished until 2008 when, at the instigation of Apar archivist Tom Soter, Tom Sinclair provided a scriptful of words to match the silent action that occurs on screen. Sinclair, who actually created the hero of this movie, Jason Rogers, in a series of short stories in the 1970s, said he "had a blast" writing the dialogue for this absurd thriller and trying to make sense of the jigsaw puzzle of images Doherty had left (Doherty himself could no longer remember the plot). Using the sort of emotionally charged dialogue for which Doherty was known, Sinclair does a fine job of recreating the Apar style - a lot of colorful language and simple-minded plot explanations. The story involves a character known as Bob the Bastard (Soter), out for revenge against detective Jason Rogers (Doherty), who arrested his brother years before. There's a lot of great action, leading off with a ridiculous precredits scene in which Rogers and Bob fire off rounds of ammunition at each other without connecting once, and there are also three women (four if you count the uncredited Marina Saly in a truly bizarre part), all of whom are abused in one way or another by Rogers, a nutcase with a badge. Alan Saly has a memorable turn as Rogers' chief, "The Big Guy." DVD EXTRAS INCLUDE: “MAKING MAKE A WISH”” “REMAKING MAKE A WISH(THE DUBBING SESSIONS)” AND FOUR EPISODES OF THE JASON ROGERSRADIO SHOW! |
$9.99 + $3.00 P & H
No longer available on YouTube, this comedy thriller features Christian Doherty as the nutcase with a badge Jason Rogers.
SPY GUY!
SPY GUY!
THE COMPLETE HENRY SORELLI
FILM COLLECTION, VOL. 1
$9.99 + $3.00 P & H
For the first time on DVD, the first five original HENRY SORELLI spy films, complete and unedited! Not the YouTube re-edits – here are the initial Sorelli movies as they were originally seen in 1971! With new introductions by Apar Films writer/performer TOM SOTER.
Includes:
WISHING YOU WERE DEAD
GUN FOR HENRY
BLUE (I AM INVISIBLE)
WE HAVE ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN BULLET
STRANGE HAPPENINGS
THE PLACE
THE PLACE
Cast: STEVE TICHENOR, AMY BETTINA, KRISSY GARBER, EILEEN COLE and CHRIS GRIGGS.
Screenplay by TOM SOTER, based on a story by CHRISTIAN DOHERTY.
Produced by TOM SOTER and STEVE TICHENOR.
Directed by CHRISTIAN DOHERTY. 2011.
$9.99 + $3.00 P&H
Producer/screenwriter TOM SOTER on THE PLACE:
It was Christian Doherty's first film in black-and-white and his first horror film with a plot (1971'sVisual Horror, a series of horrific and ludicrous images has a great title but not much else going for it). It was based on a story wrtitten by Doherty writing as "Fred Daper" (one of a dozen nom-de-plumes he would assume in a prolific teenage writing period). We shot it in two weekends, one afternoon at my parent's house and one evening in Riverside Park, on a particularly cold night, at Grant's Tomb on 121st Street. The tomb substituted for Harrap's cave, and the drive became "Old Mayberry Road." We took the essence of the story – the hermit, Harrap (Tom Sinclair) was now a homeless man (though back then we called them "bums"), and (because we knew few girls at the time) grandma became Uncle Silas (Alan Saly), who still told horror-filled stories (in this case, lifting text from another story, "He Had All He Wanted"), and placed a curse on young Harrap for discovering Silas's dread secret ("Uncle was a warlock.") That discovery scene was our most spectacular sequence to that date. We put lighter fluid in three or four ashtrays and placed them around the room. We then set flames going in each and when Sinclair entered, he found Saly raising his arms to Satan as the flames burned around him (needless to say, when we extinquished the flames with cool water, the glass ashtrays cracked apart). The final touch came when Saly dipped his finger in rubbing alcohol and lighter fluid and set it on fire as he pointed the flaming finger for a few seconds (that was all he could take.) The offbeat horror story – Doherty's expressionist take on a Twilight Zone-style tale – is a fascinating and bizarre portrait of a man on the edge of madness, all set in a castle in Mayberry! No chases, no guns, a lot of long takes, and, of course, some crazy violence. It was more influenced by Caligari than Callahan and was the most unusual film in Doherty's oeuvre.
Cut to 2010. The director had recently returned to filmmaking after a 36-year hiatus. He had been avoiding his trademarks – absurd violence and equally absurd-but-exciting chases – and instead been concentrating on drama (Is This Love?) and a trilogy of comedies (Hugh & I, A Girl Like You, All the People). After warming up on these films, he asked me to help him create a horror movie. Since all old Apar Films players and fans admire The Place, we agreed that it might be time to make a new version of the classic (which had a new life thanks to webcasts of it).
I went back to the original tale and concocted a new screenplay based on some of the ideas in it (and even lifted some of the dialogue), and in early December we went out and shot the new version of The Place. Tichenor plays Johnny Powell, the man in search of the truth (Jones in the original story and film), and we added traditional horror film staples: two women in peril, here named Nora and Myrna (the naming of the three characters was my little joke: referencing William Powell and Myrna Loy – and the character she played in The Thin Man series, Nora Charles; Loy often played the perfecrt wife, a far cry from either the Myrna or the Nora in The Place). As a nod to the original film, Sinclair has a brief cameo as Harrap,
We tried to make it spooky, and I think the cast – Tichenor, Chris Griggs, Amy Bettina, Krissy Garber, Eileen Cole, Larry Cioppa, and Rosemary Hyziak – all do bang-up jobs in their performances. Does it hold up to the original Place? Let's say it's different, like Chinese duck is different from Russian caviar. But you can love them both.
THE PLACE is now available in a deluxe DVD which includes:
THE PLACE (2011)
THE PLACE (1972)
THE HOUSE OF HORROR (the color re-edit of the 2011 remake)
ANATOMY OF A NIGHTMARE (a documentary about the making of both versions of the movie)
DELETED SCENES
A PHOTO GALLERY
A PROMO
CAST INTERVIEWS
ALL FOR ONLY $9.99 + P & H ($3.00)
Elysian Fields
ELYSIAN FIELDS
Directed by Christian Doherty. Cast: Tom Soter, Evan Jones, Christian Doherty. Filmed: 1974/Completed: 2009.
Recently rediscovered and completed by Tom Soter (who wrote dialogue for Doherty's random images), this haunting film doesn't reveal its origins: a collection of bits and pieces from uncompleted projects, home movies, and other sources. It stars Soter as a man apparently reflecting on his life though to give it that much linearity is misleading. It is Doherty crossed with Bunuel and Welles, by way of Sam Peckinpah.
Flowers Are for Funerals
HENRY SORELLI IS BACK – OR IS HE?
There we were again – Tom Sinclair, Evan Jones, and I – getting instructions from director Christian Doherty as he stood talking to us about the next scene we were about to shoot.
“I want you all to look terrified – raise your arms above your heads in horror because you know this guy is the toughest, baddest dude around! Then, turn and run. And you, Henry,” he said addressing the star of the movie, “you look confident. Smile knowingly.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” I said to Sinclair. “Why would we stalk him and then run in terror when he turns and looks at us? How menacing does that make us?”
“This is an Apar film,” Sinclair said to me quietly. “What does logic have to do with it?”
It was like old times – 40 years ago this September to be exact – when Tom Sinclair and I (Evan Jones joined us in 1972) faced off against superspy Henry Sorelli in Wishing You Were Dead, the first of six action movies starring Alan Saly as Sorelli. (The other five were Gun for Henrty, Blue (I Am Invisible), We Have All the Time in the World, The Man With the Golden Bullet, and Don’t Live for Tomorrow.)
In a way we were fulfilling a promise made to any fans of the movies when the last Sorelli picture closed with a title card that said our superspy would be back in Flowers Are for Funerals.
But that was then and when you’re 16 or 17, it’s a lot easier to mount a low-budget film than when you’re 53 or 54.
The reunion had its roots in the release of the original films (and re-edited versions creating a new 10-part plotline) on YouTube, where they developed a new fan base (much larger than their original screenings in high school auditoriums). That led to the production of my documentary, A Chase, A Gun, and Sometimes a Girl: The Apar Films Story. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYY63MZL5sc&feature=channel_video_title
Although Christian had not made a movie since 1975, he returned to filmmaking in 2010 with a dramatic story that was all-talk and no violence, Is This Love?(starring Laurel Sturrock and Apar veteran Evan Jones). That was followed by four short Eric Rohmer-style comedies (that were re-edited into the 70-minute film, The Hugh Chronicles.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEHkwskKa6s).
Through it all, Doherty regained is confidence as a filmmaker. But while the director was photographing love stories, he seemed to long for a return to form. He talked to me about action movies and jumped at the chance to remake his 1972 horror flick, The Place. Although the movie was not wholly successful artistically, we did learn a valuable lesson. We tried to do too much shooting a movie in one day when it would be better off done in three or four.
That brings us to Flowers Are for Funerals. Back in February or March, when Saly, Sinclair, Doherty, and I were together, I raised the possibility of doing another Henry movie. At first, it was treated as a big joke – the three of us would try to get out of our chairs to face off, but had become too old and fat to do any damage (we would just make threats). Another Henry movie! You must be joking!
Later, Sinclair and I were talking about the current political scene, especially Facebook comments by Apar associate Jack Montalvo. A “birther,” he went on in a long tirade about President Obama not being born in this country. That led Sinclair to suggest we do a political thriller, and he even had the name of the villain, The Super Patriot (never mind that Marvel Comics had a thriller with that name some years ago). He then wrote a scene in which the Super Patriot garots a young liberal named Stinky Greene, who is offering him that liberal magazine, PIG. (That was later changed to death by lethal flowers.)
Inspired by this, I wrote out a treatment involving Henry’s battle against the SP and also Dr. Life and Dr. Death, from The Man With the Golden Bulletand Floyd from Don’t Live for Tomorrow. Great! Except Alan Saly wanted nothing to do with his former alter-ego.
Unphased, I reworked the treatment to make the hero, Henry Sorelli, Jr., fighting his father’s old foes, as well as the Super Patriot. Then Sinclair and I chose scenes from the treatment and worked them up into a script. We also had a subplot in which Herry, Jr. is searching for his missing dad.
For the new Henry Sorelli, Doherty and I chose Chris Griggs, who had been successful as the anti-hero in The Hugh Chronicles.We reassembled many of the old cast and added some faces from the new Apar stock company – Dave Kenney as the Super Patriot, Krissy Garber, Amy Bettina, Lawrence Cioppa – and some new faces to the Apar world – JessAnn Smith, Miriam Sirota, Jack Montalvo, Alan Braunstein, Jordan Siwek, and Frank Lovece. There may even be a cameo by a former big Apar star.
We have been doing the movie at a leisurely pace, starting production, appropriately enough, on July 4, 2011. The movie is now about halfway done, and we’re very pleased with the results so far. We hope you enjoy it when it is released later this year. Until then, you can check out the preview currently running on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgvVmtiKMS4&feature=channel_video_title
Henry Sorelli Returns Again
Henry Sorelli returned to the big (or shall we say moderate-sized) screen on November 11, 2011 (that's 11.11.11 to you) in the new tongue-in-cheek spy movie, Flowers Are for Funerals, at the Producers Club. Although a traffic snarl caused my late arrival, we started the film by 7.20 and I was thrilled with the audience reaction in the packed room. Laughter, boos (when the bad guy got the better of someone), and cheers (and applause) when the good guy triumphed. The 90-minute film was followed by a brief making-of documentary (which also got its share of laughs), and that was followed by one of the film's stars, Miriam Sirota getting the audience to join her in a singalong (of the chorus) of the title tune. The director, Christian Doherty, offered some heartfelt words, and I offered a few anecdotes about the cast members in the audience. A splendid time for all.
Well, we hope to repeat the magic on December 2 and December 3, this time at the Soter-Lee Theater at 236 W. 78th St. at 8 P.M., when we offer two more screenings of Flowers Are for Funerals. The movie had its roots in a talk my old friend Tom Sinclair and I had about the current political scene; that led Sinclair to suggest we do a political thriller, and he even had the name of the villain, The Super Patriot, a crazy conservative who goes about knocking off liberals. For the hero, Henry Sorelli (the part originally played by Alan Saly in a series of six spy films Sinclair and I made with Saly and Doherty between 1971 and 1973), Doherty and I chose Chris Griggs, who had been successful as the anti-hero in Christian's The Hugh Chronicles. We reassembled many of the old Apar cast (Jones, Sinclair, and me) and added some faces from the new Apar stock company (who had been featured in the "Hugh" movies and the remake of The Place (Dave Kenney as the Super Patriot, Krissy Garber, Amy Bettina, and Lawrence Cioppa) and some new faces to the Apar world (JessAnn Smith, Miriam Sirota, Jack Montalvo, Alan Braunstein, Jordan Siwek, and Frank Lovece). There is even be a substantial appearance (which everyone is raving about) by a former big Apar star whose initials are A.S. We shot the movie at a leisurely pace, starting production, appropriately enough, on July 4, 2011. We finished principal photography on October 4, and the last shots were done on October 8. We’re very pleased with the results, which involve all kinds of low-budget action and romance in the best Apar tradition.
If you missed our premiere at the Producers Club, on Friday, November 11, we hope you can join us on December 2 or December 3 at the 78th Street theater at 8 P.M. Many cast members will be on hand, and we will have a few surprises on hand that we didn't have at the first screening. There will also be memorabilia for sale (including a soundtrack album for the new movie). Hope to see you there!
Cast members get in free; everyone else, $12 with a reservation (call 212-353-7716), or $15 at the door. You can see a pair of previews by clicking here and here and go to these two links to learn more about Sorelli's past and the history of Apar Films, the studio behind Sorelli.
November 17, 2011
Jerzee Brew Promo
Click here to see a promotion, shot by Christian Doherty, edited by Tom Soter, with photos by Soter and Dave Kenney, for the upcoming web series.
Make a Wish
Memories of Our Movies
Act Naturally
My Life and Apar Films
Part I: Beginnings
(Clayton Rogers and the Parfarganian Menace, 1969)
When I was 14, I was a movie star. Of sorts. It was 1969 and my friend Christian Doherty – a wild kid who was very quick-witted and amusing with an encyclopedic knowledge of action films – asked me if I wanted to be in a movie he was making. It was purportedly based on a short story by another friend of mine, Tom Sinclair, and had the improbable name of Clayton Rogers and the Parfarganian Menace (the original tale dealt with the “Palfarganian” menace – note the “l” replacing the “r” – such subtle differences are what movie adaptations are all about).
It turned out that it wasn’t much of a movie, more an opportunity to play chase games. In fact, it wasn’t a feature film at all, but a “serial,” based on the old Flash Gordon sci-fi serials of the 1930s – short installments with a cliff-hanger ending.
.jpg "Our inspiration: Flash Gordon")
The way the cliff-hanger worked was simplicity itself: our hero (Clayton Rogers, played by Tom Sinclair) would find himself in a precarious situation (like hanging off a cliff – hence the name cliff-hanger) – only to be resolved in the following week’s chapter. The solution was often a cheat: in Flash Gordon, a spaceship carrying Gordon might explode at the end of one chapter, with no possibility of Flash escaping. In the subsequent chapter, however, we’d see a scene that we somehow missed the previous week, where Flash conveniently jumps out of the spaceship with a parachute (or whatever they wore in space) moments before the blast.
It was a convention we tried to ape, but with our limited budget, all we could manage was, for instance, falling off of a cliff (in our case a big rock in Riverside Park), and in the subsequent chapter, finding our hero landing on a ledge that wasn’t shown in last week’s installment.
We made a five-minute chapter every Saturday for five or six Saturdays. This being the Super-8 pre-digital era (hell, it was the pre-everything era – pre-minicam, pre-VHS, pre-Beta), we’d shoot a chapter one week, the film would be sent to Kodak in Rochester. N.Y., for development, and then we’d reassemble the following week for a screening just before we’d shoot the new chapter.
The scripts were improvised (sometimes using incidents from the Sinclair short story) and widely improbable, often straining our limited special effects: I recall that at the end of one chapter, a villainous warlock (Alan Saly) caused an explosion that rocked Clayton’s world. Saly brought along his chemistry set and managed to create a puff of smoke; we magnified its seriousness by shaking the camera every which way but loose. It was a cool effect; not Flash Gordon, but close.
We made many other movies – all much better than Clayton Rogers – but first love is always the most memorable, and that was our first love, a movie that has been lost in the mists of memory. Perhaps it’s just as well, though. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and I hardly think that our poor Parfarganian Menace would smell as sweet today as it did to those fresh-faced 14-year-olds of long ago.
December 31, 2010
The Place Revisited
Act Naturally
My Life and Apar Films
Part 2: Horror
(The Place, 1972, 2011)
The Place was Christian Doherty's first film in black-and-white and his first horror film with a plot (1971's Visual Horror, a series of horrific and ludicrous images has a great title but not much else going for it). It was based on a story wrtitten by Doherty writing as "Fred Daper" (one of a dozen nom-de-plumes he would assume in a prolific teenage writing period). Here is the surviving fragment (the ending – another few paragraphs – is missing):
In a lonely spot by Old Mayberry Road, there lived a hermit who called himself "The Devil of Mayberry Road. He was very nice, which lots of people told me. Even though he was nice, at times, he could be a scary sort of chap.
Mayberry Road, I should say, is famous for ghost stories. People came from miles around to see the so-called spirits that are rumored to hang around. The hermit was a great teller of ghost-stories, and that's where most of them got started.
My name is Jones, and I went to investigate the hermit, whose name was Harrap, a strange sort of name. He lived on a mountain which was surrounded by large trees. I gathered the hermit did not like visitors. I went up to a strange-looking cave, which was the wrong thing to do, for the hermit rushed me out with the muzzle of a gun aimed at me,
"Are you Harrap?" I said, starting off a conversation.
No answer.
"Then I shall be leaving," I said in the most unbelievable voice.
"Cone here," the hermit said suddenly.
"Yes," I answered.
"Why did you come?" he asked.
"I am interested in how you hermits live. I came for an interview."
"What would you like to talk about?" I gathered from his speech that he had a cockney accent.
"Just tell me about yourself. "
"I don't have to say a word," his speech surprised me, for it was pure American.
"Well, what about your life?"
Suddenly, he said, "Come here," and I followed him into the cave.
He told me to sit down and get comfortable, because he was going to tell me a short story. "I might as well tell it to someone," he began.
"A long time ago, before you were born, I would go to my grandma's house every Saturday. We used to talk together and laugh a lot. There was one thing unusual about her, though, She just loved to tell ghost stories."
I listened on, with growing interest, although it was still not very exciting.
"Her ghost stories were very exciting and I used to love 'em. They sounded so real, almost as if she had been a witch herself. One day, my mother came in and heard my grandma telling me one of her stories. I never could see my grandma again, after that. My grandmother was furious and even got mad enough to put, a curse on my mother and father, saying that they would die when the sun rode. The next morning they were dead."
He paused, as if thinking. He went on.
"Well, I thought it was jus·t a coincidence and cried for my parents and all the usual rot. But I could not help thinking. After that, I again to see grandma regularly. But she wasn't the same old grandma. She had changed a great deal. Her hair was always a mss, and sometimes she would get furious for no reason at all and bawl me out. I did not like her any more. I left one day and was very discouraged because she had yelled at me and even threatened to beat me."
I was very interested in the hermit's story and I begged him to continue.
"I had forgotten my briefcase for school at her house and I vas afraid to go back and get it. I went back and at the door I stopped and listened. Through the door I heard a conversation, It was with a man.
"The conversation went as follows: 'Darby, come here,' said my grandma. 'Go into the woods and get me some wood.' I ducked behind a tree and saw the man whom I presume was Darby come outside. A minute later he returned to the house.
[The story concludes with grandma putting a curse on Harrap, who, the narrator tells us, died soon after he told this story.]
Doherty wrote this simple, bizarre non-story in 1969 when he was 13 (there's not much to it, except for curses being placed on various people – a teenage power wish, born out of frustration with parental controls?) and two years later decided he wanted to make it into a horror film, in black-and-white, no less.
We shot it in two weekends, one afternoon at my parent's house and one evening in Riverside Park, on a particularly cold night, at Grant's Tomb on 121st Street. The tomb substituted for Harrap's cave, and the drive became "Old Mayberry Road." We took the essence of the story – the hermit, Harrap (Tom Sinclair) was now a homeless man (though back then we called them "bums"), and (because we knew few girls at the time) grandma became Uncle Silas (Alan Saly), who still told horror-filled stories (in this case, lifting text from another story, "He Had All He Wanted"), and placed a curse on young Harrap for discovering Silas's dread secret ("Uncle was a warlock.")
That discovery scene was our most spectacular sequence to that date. We put lighter fluid in three or four ashtrays and placed them around the room. We then set flames going in each and when Sinclair entered, he found Saly raising his arms to Satan as the flames burned around him (needless to say, when we extinquished the flames with cool water, the glass ashtrays cracked apart). The final touch came when Saly dipped his finger in rubbing alcohol and lighter fluid and set it on fire as he pointed the flaming finger for a few seconds (that was all he could take.)
The offbeat horror story – Doherty's expressionist take on a Twilight Zone-style tale – is a fascinating and bizarre portrait of a man on the edge of madness, all set in a castle in Mayberry! No chases, no guns, a lot of long takes, and, of course, some crazy violence. It was more influenced by Caligari than Callahan and was the most unusual film in Doherty's oeuvre.
Cut to 2010. The director had recently returned to filmmaking after a 36-year hiatus. He had been avoiding his trademarks – absurd violence and equally absurd-but-exciting chases – and instead been concentrating on drama (Is This Love?) and a trilogy of comedies (Hugh & I, A Girl Like You, All the People). After warming up on these films, he asked me to help him create a horror movie. Since all old Apar Films players and fans admire The Place, we agreed that it might be time to make a new version of the classic (which had a new life thanks to webcasts of it).
Steve Tichenor, an actor in one of my improv classes, offered the use of his restaurant, The Clam Hut. Located in the Highlands on the New Jersey shore, it was closed for the winter and had a suitably spooky atmosphere for a ghost story. I went back to the original tale and concocted a new screenplay based on some of the ideas in it (and even lifted some of the dialogue), and in early December we went out and shot the new version of The Place. Tichenor plays Johnny Powell, the man in search of the truth (Jones in the original story and film), and we added traditional horror film staples: two women in peril, here named Nora and Myrna (the naming of the three characters was my little joke: referencing William Powell and Myrna Loy – and the character she played in The Thin Man series, Nora Charles; Loy often played the perfecrt wife, a far cry from either the Myrna or the Nora in The Place). As a nod to the original film, Sinclair has a brief cameo as Harrap, his part in the 1972 version.
We tried to make it spooky, and I think the cast – Tichenor, Chris Griggs, Amy Bettina, Krissy Garber, Eileen Cole, Larry Cioppa, and Rosemary Hyziak – all do bang-up jobs in their performances. Does it hold up to the original Place? Let's say it's different, like Chinese duck is different from Russian caviar. But you can love them both. Watch for The Place, coming soon.
December 31, 2010
THE PLACE
The Photographer
THE PHOTOGRAPHER
Produced by Tom Soter. Directed by Christian Doherty. Screenplay by Doherty and Soter. Distributed by Apar Films/Savoy Productions. Running time: 5.30. Filmed: 1973/Completed: 2009. Photographer: Tom Soter. Man in White Coat: Alan Saly. Girl (uncredited): Vicky Parker.
Filmed on location in London, this strange little gem features Tom Soter as a photographer/tourist who may or may not be paranoid. Is someone following him or not? The movie was shot in 1973 but remained unedited for over 30 years, Doherty being dissatisfied with its skimpy plot. Finally, Soter and Doherty got together in 2009 to assemble the footage. Agreeing that the plot was a little thin, Soter concocted a method to add another character and a deeper meaning to the story: he used footage from Don't Live for Tomorrow of Alan Saly and Vicky Parker in London and from The Sandman of Saly and Soter together to give the photographer a guilty secret a reason for his paranoia and a possible pursuer (all of which would strengthen the initially very predictable surprise ending). At the end of the 2009 editing session, Doherty proclaimed the film was "very dark" and now one of his favorites.
The Place
Directed by Christian Doherty. Filmed: 1972.
With Tom Sinclair, Alan Saly, Tom Soter
This offbeat horror story - Doherty's expressionist take on a Twilight Zone-style tale – is a fascinating and bizarre portrait of a man on the edge of madness, all set in a castle in Mayberry! No chases, no guns, a lot of long takes, and, of course, some crazy violence.
Visual Horror
You Made Me Hate Myself
You Made Me Hate Myself
Directed by Christian Doherty. Filmed: 1973.
One of Doherty's most bizarre – and disturbing – movies. It features the frequent star of the director's later movies, Evan Jones, as a maladjusted serial murderer of his wife (Emily Gould), a prostitute, and various other women. It is unusual because of its lack of the regular Apar cast (Tom Soter is the nominal hero, Alan Saly has a bit part, and Tom Sinclair is nowhere to be seen) and its obsession with violence against women. It's no longer spy movie stuff but an attempt at somethig psychologically deep. Best sequence: the party.