MOVIE TALK

One of my hobbies is collecting Hollywood movies made in or about the Philippines. Examples are: Back to Bataan, Too Late the Hero (Filmed in Laguna) No Man is an Island ( Jeffrey Hunter starred with a few excellent Filipino thespians like Bert Avellana, Ronald Remy and a very young Barbara Perez one time dubbed as the Audrey Hepburn of the Philippines )..My recent purchase is a John Wayne DVD called THEY WERE EXPENDABLE..The action took place in the Philippines during the war and the movie ended with the fall of Bataan. Although it was not mentioned in the final credits, I have a feeling the movie was shot in Guam in 1945.

The movie started a few days before the bombing of Pearl Harbour. The opening scene showed a dance attended by Navy officers. The band was playing a good rendition of the Filipino song called ZAMBOANGA, one of the songs taught to us during our elementary years.

The next scene however shocked me..There was this sing-along by some drunken sailors. It's the same song Zamboanga, but the opening words were "Oh the monkeys have no tails down in Zamboanga.." I read that the song is a deregatory tribute to the Filipinos during those days.True or not, there is nothing we can do about it now.

The film has its merits, in fact Leonard Maltin a noted movie critic gave it an excellent rating. The movie among other things, showed the excellence of the PT-Boats ( very fast, very hard to shoot and it can carry the lethal torpedo which could sink bigger and slower ships ). John F. Kennedy was one of the PT Boats skippers during his wartime service in the Pacific. The movie, as it went on to a stirring climax showed the group of Americans hiding from the ever nearing Japanese hordes in some of the Visayan Islands. Although the movie was filmed in black-and-white one would appreciate the scenery of coconut groves, nipa hut villages reminiscent of our country. Another Hollywood movie along this line is AN AMERICAN GUERILLA IN THE PHILIPPINES which unfortunately is not available in VHS or DVD presently. But this one is in color and it featured cameo roles of famous long gone movie stars like Cris de Vera playing a Japanese commander, Rosa del Rosario ( the original DARNA star ) plus several citizens of Leyte where the shoot took place. Its main star is that well known handsome movie idol Tyrone Power.

They don't make movies like theseabout the Philippines anymore. Sad!