Directed by:
Mark HartleyScreenplay:
Mark HartleyCinematography:
Karl von MollerComposer:
Jamie BlanksCast:
Roger Corman, John Landis, Allan Arkush, Joe Dante, Dick Miller, Jonathan Kaplan, R. Lee Ermey, Sid Haig, Jack Hill, Jonathan Demme, Colleen Camp, Steve Carver (more)Plots(1)
In the 1960s and 70s, drive-in movie theaters and big city grindhouses were eager to book the wildest and most action-packed fare they could find, and low-budget producers were always on the lookout for something unique to offer their viewers. Many of them found it in the Philippines, a country full of exotic locations, cooperative officials and folks willing to work cheap. Local producer Eddie Romero began exporting his cut-rate horror and crime pictures to American distributors in the 60s, and before long U.S. filmmakers were traveling there to shoot crazed jungle epics, women in prison thrillers, bloody horror stories and violent wartime dramas. It certainly helped that Philippine extras and technicians would work hard for low pay, and that local stuntmen didn't seem to worry much about risking their necks for a good shot; as one producer put it, "Human life was cheap, film was cheap -- it was a great place to shoot a movie!" Filmmaker Mark Hartley, who shared the crazed true story of the Australian exploitation movie scene in his documentary Not Quite Hollywood, shares the inside scoop on the wild and wooly world of filmmaking in the Philippines in the 1960s and 70s in Machete Maidens Unleashed! (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Jan Merlin
USA
Best movies:
Take the Money and Run (1969)
Illegal (1955)
Hell Bent for Leather (1960)
Lenore Kasdorf
USA
Best movies:
Columbo (1971) (series)
Starship Troopers (1997)
Marilyn & Bobby: Her Final Affair (1993) (TV movie)
Alan Birkinshaw
New Zealand
Dean Tavoularis
USA
Best movies:
CQ (2001)
Carmen Argenziano
USA
Best movies:
The Godfather: A Novel for Television (1977) (series)
The Godfather: Part II (1974)
Crazy Mama (1975)
Fred Roos
USA
Celeste Yarnall
USA
Best movies:
Columbo: Ransom for a Dead Man (1971) (TV movie)
Columbo (1971) (series)
Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963)
Brian Trenchard-Smith
UK
Best movies:
The Man from Hong Kong (1975)
Martin Scorsese (a.f.)
USA
Best movies:
Raging Bull (1980)
Pavlova: A Woman for All Time (1983)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Peter Fonda (a.f.)
USA
Best movies:
Easy Rider (1969)
3:10 to Yuma (2007)
Split Image (1982)
David Carradine (a.f.)
USA
Best movies:
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
North and South (1985) (series)
Ron Howard (a.f.)
USA
Best movies:
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
American Graffiti (1973)
The Shootist (1976)
Bobby A. Suarez (a.f.)
Philippines
Weng Weng (a.f.)
Philippines
Best movies:
For Y'ur Height Only (1981)
D'Wild Wild Weng (1982)
The Impossible Kid of Kung Fu (1982)
Vic Diaz (a.f.)
Philippines
Best movies:
The Boys in Company C (1978)
Live by the Fist (1993)
Naked Fist (1981)
Samuel M. Sherman
USA
Best movies:
Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971)
Leigh Christian
USA
Best movies:
Beyond Atlantis (1973)