The Crippled Masters (1980) review

 

THE CRIPPLED MASTERS 1980 aka THE CRIPPLED HEAVEN (Chinese title: HEAVENLY CRIPPLE, EARTHLY DISABLED)

Shun Chung Chuen (Li Ho), Hong Chiu Ming (Tang Su Ting),  Lin Chang Kueng (Li Chung Chien), Chen Mu Chuan (Ah Po)

 

Directed by Joe Law (Lo Chi, Luo Chi)

The Short Version: One of Kung Fu cinema's strangest motion pictures is this uniquely shocking, independently made martial arts movie about people with deformities beating the hell out of one another. Arguably the most exploitative Kung Fu flick of the 1970s is little more than an armless and legless man being trained by a contortionist to defeat a disfigured madman with a humpback of death. The plot is basic, but you're coming for the sideshow atmosphere.

 

 

Lin Chang Kuen runs an escort business transporting goods. He has a top reputation around town but is actually a villainous person who robs his clients. Anyone who disobeys him is killed. One of his workers, Li Ho, has his arms cut off. Later, the man who ordered Li's double-arm amputation has his legs destroyed with acid. Lin, himself a disfigured man, eventually takes over the town and forces all the businesses to pay him protection money. Meanwhile, the two cripples learn to fight in spite of their deficiencies. They eventually meet an undercover officer looking to reclaim eight jade horses stolen by Lin, and together, they all take on Lin Chang Kuen and his lethal humpback style of Kung Fu.

Hong Kong martial arts movies went through multiple changes throughout the 1970s. Swordplay pictures were exceedingly popular from the mid 1960s till they were replaced by empty-handed, Karate-style action in 1972. Action films about actual Chinese Kung Fu styles, particularly those of the Shaolin Temple, took center stage in 1974, and excelled rapidly by 1976. Wuxia cinema came back in a big way in 1976, popularizing novelists Ku Lung and Jin Yong. Movies with actors pretending to be Bruce Lee surfaced in 1974 and hit a peak in 1976. These Bruce flicks were mostly poorly received in Hong Kong, but were made primarily for export where they were hugely successful. 

 

Then in 1978, the most budget-deprived trend yet, the Kung Fu comedy or, 'Bumpkin Kung Fu', took the genre by storm for roughly two years before being replaced theatrically by modern day crime films, gambling pictures and stunt-action comedies.

In the middle of that two-year period in 1979, filmmakers were seeking new ways to make the cheaply made, impoverished independent productions fresh again. The last gasp trend was Kung Fu flicks about fighters who were cripples, mentally ill, or had physical deformities. Virtually all of these were normal actors and martial artists who were made up to look disabled or were playing characters who were physically encumbered in some way. Joe Law's THE CRIPPLED MASTERS (1980) set itself apart by featuring real life cripples as its leading actors.

The following is both a review of THE CRIPPLED MASTERS and an article about its making; and its place in the genre during a period where these outdoor style of Kung Fu movies made for peanuts were about to lose their theatrical vitality.

THE CRIPPLED MASTERS touches all the bases of the Bumpkin Kung Fu movie template of the late 1970s while arguably being the most unorthodox film of its day. It was a risky endeavor for producer Shuai Yue Feng who had only been in the business for a little over a year and had already produced five films when this unusual picture was nearing completion.

 

Director Law Chi wasn't a stranger to tackling new ideas; such as in MONKEY KUNG FU (1980), aka MONKEY FIST, FLOATING SNAKE. In that one, it's the villain who must go and train to defeat the hero. The CRIPPLED co-star, Chen Mu Chuan, was the headliner, channeling Jackie Chan's bumpkin kid from SNAKE IN THE EAGLE'S SHADOW (1978); that being the film that birthed the final phase of the Kung Fu film before they became home video staples. They were replaced theatrically by romantic comedies and modern day crime pictures in the early 80s. Law Chi isn't a widely known filmmaker, but he was certainly not afraid to alter genre conventions to varying degrees.

 

The plot of THE CRIPPLED MASTERS is the standard revenge narrative. As is often the case in many of the indy KF features, there are major holes in the storyline. For example, we never know exactly what it is that Li Ho has done to have his arms severed from his body; it just happens. We also never know what problem Tang Su Ting had with Li Ho to gleefully order Li's maiming; it just happens. This is the nature of Hong Kong and Taiwan action cinema, and especially the lower budgeted, independent variety.

 

The film's Chinese title, HEAVENLY CRIPPLE, EARTHLY DISABLED, is a reference to the two main leads. Li Ho is the Heavenly Cripple with Tang being the Earthly Disabled. 

 

Director Joe Law (who is sometimes listed as Lo Chi), and whose real name is Lo Zu, came from a filmmaking family. One of his younger cousins, Law Kei, or Luo Qi, or Lo Chi Shi, was also a director. He helmed a handful of movies with bizarre characters and peculiar subject matter that--adding to the similarities in their names--could easily give one the impression both men were the same person. Joe Law directed films primarily in Taiwan whereas Law Kei did a lot of acting and directing work in Hong Kong. Law the younger appeared in numerous Shaw Brothers productions as an extra like THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN (1967) and GOLDEN SWALLOW (1968). His work as an extra extended to his older cousin's films like THE KILLER SWORD (1968) and the troubled THUNDERBOLT (1973) for Golden Harvest. 

 

Moreover, both men were friends with actor and martial artist Chen Kuan Tai, going back as far as Joe Law's WONG FEI HUNG: BRAVELY CRUSHING THE FIRE FORMATION (1970). Adding to the confusion, Law Kei was invited by Chen Kuan Tai and actor and comedian James Yi Lei, to direct the first film for their independent company, Tai Shen, founded in 1974; that film being THE CRAZY INSTRUCTOR (1974). The following year, Law Kei's THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE was released; not to be confused with the other THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE (1975), a Hong Kong-Thailand co-production starring Lo Lieh. 

To further distinguish the two relatives, Law Kei, Joe Law's younger cousin, was behind one of the wackiest and most creative Bruce Lee clone movies, THE DRAGON LIVES AGAIN (1977). Then there was BRUCE LEE THE INVINCIBLE (1978) that had nothing to do with Bruce Lee, but did have kung fu fighting gorillas. Law the younger then went back to Shaw Brothers to be a director on the bizarre, and outright terrible kung fu comedy, THE TIGRESS OF SHAOLIN (1979); or, as it's known in Chinese, THE LEPROSY FIST. This film, that starred Hui Ying Hung, Liu Chia Yung and Liu Chia Liang's sister, Liu Jui Yi, was one of a handful of deformity-cripple kung fu flicks that were in-production between 1978-1979; THE CRIPPLED MASTERS, directed by Joe Law, being among them.

 

Going back over a decade, Chang Cheh's THE ONE ARMED-SWORDSMAN (1967) initiated and popularized the disabled action hero wherein Jimmy Wang Yu lost an arm, had to overcome his handicap, avenge himself, and rescue his master's school from destruction by a rival gang of fighters. It was the first action film in Hong Kong to gross HK$1 million at the box office. Additional, similar pictures followed, like the 1969 South Korean imitation THE ARMLESS SWORDSMAN, and 1972s THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSWOMAN. 

 

Throughout the 70s, Jimmy Wang Yu was the sole proprietor of this style of action picture, playing single-digit swordsmen and boxers battling an assortment of bad guys. After 1975s THE ONE-ARMED BOXER VS. THE FLYING GUILLOTINE, audiences were tired of Wang Yu waving his arm around against a slew of opponents. After a few more of them, Wang Yu himself either got tired of tying one arm behind his back, or the continuing bad box office.

 

When Chang Cheh returned to Grand Guignol Kung Fu cinema with the 1978 hit, CRIPPLED AVENGERS, more cripple-fests followed like THE FOUR INVINCIBLES (1979) and SIX KUNG FU HEROES (1980). Director Chang Cheh began the amputee trend in 1967; no sooner had Chang revisited stories of heroes with disabilities in 1978, enterprising film producers took notice and ran with it. A year into its new Jackie Chan-influenced platform, the Kung Fu flick was already suffering from over-saturation and needed a new look.

 

The reason for the volume of mangled martial artists was only partially due to filmmakers jumping on a bandwagon; it was also the changing mood of the HK viewing audience--a side effect due to the exhaustive number of movies being produced in Hong Kong; there were so many of them. 

 

1978s SNAKE IN THE EAGLE'S SHADOW and especially DRUNKEN MASTER, rejuvenated the Kung Fu genre, but wore it out again several months later. Filmmakers had to once more find some new angle to spark interest and produce a new hit trendsetter. Coming up with weird fighting styles was no longer enough. Jackie Chan had captivated audiences with his comedy Kung Fu action that resulted in record-breaking box office. This also led to his health-endangering obsession with topping himself each time.

 

CRIPPLED AVENGERS was one of 48 Hong Kong films to gross over HK$1 million in 1978, becoming a top 20 hit. A group of disabled martial artists taking revenge was a novel concept, so why not mix that with the Kung Fu comedy?

 

 

1979 was the year bodily disfigurements became a major selling point in Kung Fu movies. In DRUNKEN ARTS AND CRIPPLED FISTS, Simon Yuen Siu Tien played a hunchbacked Kung Fu master teaching Li Yi Min what is essentially Arthritis Fist to defeat one his students gone rogue played by Lung Tien Sheng (FLAG OF IRON). Then there's CRIPPLED KUNG FU BOXER that showcased a hunchbacked main villain and a deformed kung fu style; there's even a swordsman with one arm. Back to Shaw Brothers again, there was the aforementioned LEPROSY FIST, aka TIGRESS OF SHAOLIN; and ROTTEN HEAD HO, aka DIRTY HO (1979); both films featuring disease-ridden, sideshow style characterizations.

One of the most bizarre, but entertainingly so, was 1979s KUNG FU VS YOGA. This one featured Dunpar Singh, an Indian contortionist possessing almost inhuman abilities to bend and stretch his body in the most jaw-dropping ways imaginable. This was produced by former Shaw Brothers superstar Paul Chang Chung for his indy production company, Chang Brothers. Much like Joe Law with THE CRIPPLED MASTERS, Paul Chang wanted to do a movie unlike the typical Kung Fu feature that had become so prominent; the only thing differentiating one from another was the new face leading the acting roster.

 

One ambitious producer was taking movies about fighters with  physical ailments or deformities a step further...

 

In old magazine articles of the time period, Taiwanese Producer Shuai Yue Feng was being hailed as a hot new film producer, noting his founding of Golden Tower Film Company in August of 1978 (SNAKE came out in March of '78). He was a savvy, and moderately successful movie producer in an industry where it was commonplace for an indy company to go out of business after a single feature. Another young producer, Cheng Lan Rong (Chen Lang Jung), co-produced the cripple cult classic with Shuai Yue Feng alongside Li Ying Jan. 

 

The idea of making a Kung Fu picture starring real life cripples was the brainchild of producer Shuai. For his main protagonists, Shuai wanted to cast non-actors. Chang Cheh had success with this industry model when he formed his 4th Generation of film stars, known outside HK as The Five Venoms. Director Sun Chung tried the same thing with TO KILL A MASTERMIND (1979). But instead of expending resources finding a multitude of new faces, Shuai Yue Feng settled on three.

 

The two leading actors chosen had never been in front of a camera before. Shun Chung Chuen (Shen Song Cun)  was born without his arms while his co-star, Hong Chiu Ming (Kang Zhao Ming) was born with a bone disease that made him incapable of walking. The two men knew each other and, despite their disabilities, taught themselves Kung Fu. Both men ran the Han Ming Martial Arts Academy in Taiwan. At the time they were recruited to star in THE CRIPPLED MASTERS, they reportedly had 40 students.

 

Starring as the Kung Fu master of the two cripples was a well known contortionist named He Jiu (also billed as Ho Chiu); a 75 year old martial artist whose performance at the Japan World Expo was part of the film's promotion. Nicknamed 'King of Soft Bones', this was the only film appearance of He Jiu.

 

According to articles from 1979, producer Shuai "spared no expense"  on this production. Indy Kung Fu films seldom had much money behind them; few if any actual sets, meager film crews, and sometimes there was no money to pay a scriptwriter. THE CRIPPLED MASTERS didn't have one. In cases like this, an outline is written with pages of dialog that are oftentimes written on the set each day. What script there was contained elements of Chang Cheh's CRIPPLED AVENGERS (1978) and THE MAGNIFICENT RUFFIANS (1979).

 

For this production, producer Shuai allowed director Joe Law to shoot a lot of footage over the course of 80 working days, which was a long time for a film with little to no actual production values. A reported 80,000 feet of film was amassed, amounting to over 14 hours of footage.

 

 

With so much random footage, the filmmakers still couldn't decide how to end the movie. As things play out, the two cripples and Ah Po (played by one of the choreographers Chen Mu Chuan) march to Li Chung Chien's home to take revenge. Po arrives with two coffins in tow with Li and Tang hidden inside of them. Po, wearing a blue jacket, engages Li Chung first. The cripples emerge from the coffins and begin fighting Li so Po runs off after Li's subordinate who earlier had tortured him; only now, Po isn't wearing the blue jacket and the scene plays out like it was meant for earlier in the movie. Then suddenly, the fight between the humpbacked villain and the crippled avengers has switched to their master's training ground out in the woods.

 

This continuity error is noticeable but not detrimental to the flow of the film; just that both the old master and Chen's character aren't seen again. 

 

Chen Mu Chuan was a monkey Kung Fu specialist and had the same monkey master as Chen Kuan Tai. When Chen Kuan Tai broke his contract with Shaw Brothers to make IRON MONKEY (1977), Liu Chia Liang was supposed to have designed the action for what was to have been the inaugural film for their newly founded independent company. When Liu bailed, Chen Mu Chuan stepped in to choreograph the action sequences.  

 

Filming for CRIPPLED MASTERS ended in November of 1979. The director and producer assembled what was described as an "uncut version"  for a test screening. A distributor who ran one of the biggest theater chains in Taiwan liked what he saw and bought the license for that territory. Taiwanese filmgoers got to see this strange new curio in January of 1980.

 

Critics in Hong Kong weren't kind to this style of Kung Fu flick, referring to them as the "Terminal Disease Kung Fu films". They found them to be in almost as poor taste as the Bruce Lee clone pictures. They blamed Shaw Brothers for birthing the short-lived movement, going so far as to mock them by stating films like 'Hemorrhoid Girl vs Syphilis Hero', 'Butt Punch', and 'Abortion Fist Against Athletes Foot'  would surely be the next big moneymakers. THE CRIPPLED MASTERS must've been a moderate success at least in Taiwan considering the few, unrelated sequels that followed.

 

New Line Cinema acquired US rights, and released it in America as THE CRIPPLED MASTERS. As often happened in those days, the two leads were given Americanized names. Shun Chung Chuen was called Frankie Shum while his co-star, Hong Chiu Ming, was renamed as Jack Conn. 

 

Producer Shuai Yue Feng felt he had something special; so he immediately began preparations for a sequel titled 'The Three Crippled Wanderers'. This followup was to have added a blind Kung Fu fighter to the mix. The actual sequel didn't surface till a year later and was titled FIGHTING LIFE (1981) wherein Shun Chung Chuen and Hong Chiu Ming take off to find a job in the big city. Shuai Yue Feng co-directed this unrelated sequel, but had no involvement in the next two films starring Shun and Hong.

 

Their time in the industry was brief, but they did two more movies together; starring again in TWO CRIPPLED HEROES (1982), which was another story-centered movie for the two men. Here, they protect a blind girl from a gang of local thugs. This film was released on VHS in the late 80s by Video Treasures, so it was the introduction to these crippled masters for a number of fans.

 

They appeared one final time in 24 SHAOLIN MOVES (1983), aka RAIDERS OF SHAOLIN TEMPLE and in Chinese as 24 SHAOLIN HORSEMEN. Shun Chung Chuen (who passed away in 2014) and Hong Chiu Ming are no longer the leads, but in cameo appearances as the teachers to Sonny Yu, a real life martial arts master who still possesses an amazing degree of agility in his old age. RAIDERS was a First Films Production.

 

As for the Two Crippled Heroes, their debut outing is the best of the quartet. It's a novelty film with a high degree of exploitation and entertainment value. To the Drive-in and 42nd Street crowd, it delivers plenty of cheap, even grotesque thrills. Sometimes you'll see so-called academics read things into these films that aren't there. Most of these movies were never intending for anything other than to grab an audiences attention and their money in the process. The filmmakers responsible for THE CRIPPLED MASTERS were aiming for something uniquely different, and succeeded, despite any technical handicaps.

 

This review is representative of the Film Masters blu-ray. Specs and extras: new 2K HD scan, 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen; English and mandarin language tracks; Kings of Kung Fu: Releasing the Legends documentary; commentary track; Kung Fu movie trailers; original 1982 trailer; new, re-cut trailer; before/after restoration; booklet; running time: 01:31:28  

Memories of Mummies in Cairo: An Interview with Actor Barry Sattels

"This was actually my second time being in Egypt. When I was into construction, mixing concrete and things I wound up traveling for a year all over Europe and the Middle East... Our hotel was opposite the pyramids, the major pyramids, and another 10 kilometers away was Saqqara... It's a strange place that's especially peculiar shooting nights there. I loved it there, a wonderful experience".

 

Barry Sattels is one of many Hollywood actors who never became a major name, but is a remarkably good and versatile performer still active in the entertainment industry. In the following interview, Mr. Sattels discusses in detail working on one of the 1980s most underrated and under-appreciated horror movies, the US-Egyptian co-production, DAWN OF THE MUMMY (1981). He also delves into his early theater work that molded his television and motion picture roles, as well as some of the other films he worked on. He also discusses his other interests and endeavors that reveal Mr. Sattels to be more than an actor, but a multi-talented man whose aptitude and skill level has built much more than a career in film and television. (Insert: Barry and company on MISFITS OF SCIENCE in 1986)

 

VENOMS5: What started your career as an actor?

 

BARRY SATTELS: I was in Philadelphia, which is where I'm from. I was in and out of college for about six years. I kept stopping at certain points and decided not to go back. After that I wound up meeting a guy who did landscaping; a real eccentric character. Oddly enough, he had a C-plane parked in front of his house by the Schuykill River that runs through Philadelphia. He did these really wild things with gardens. I worked with him, and simultaneously I was also working with a childhood friend of mine at the neighborhood Playhouse. He just came back from the Playhouse and he said he wanted to create something so that the actors have a common technique. He came from the same style of acting that Meisner teaches at the Playhouse in New York. So I said great. We'd actually done a few things before that. We'd done a play at the University of Pennsylvania and some other things. I got together with him and over the course of the next eight years, I was doing carpentry and various other types of construction; and in that time, I ended up being a teacher, the lead in practically all the plays we did, and from there I moved to New York where I worked on a soap opera. (Insert: Barry on SIMON & SIMON in 1983)

 

 

And after that, I ended up in California. A friend of mine from North Carolina, he moved out to Hollywood for years. He had a series on TV called CODE OF VENGEANCE (1986) and he brought me in to be on it. We shot in New Orleans. We did what they normally don't do which is a Roadshow; in other words, they picked up from New Orleans and went to shoot at some other location. They don't normally do that because it gets expensive for the studios to haul everybody and all the equipment here and there. It was a cool series, but it was canceled as the costs were too high... and DAWN OF THE MUMMY fits in between there, that movie was one of the first things I did out of New York. And when I came out here to California, I've been here ever since. (Top: Barry with Kate Jackson on SCARECROW AND MRS. KING in 1987; Insert: Rod Taylor, Barry and William Lucking on OUTLAWS in 1987)

V5: Were there any film actors that drove you to enter the film and television industry?

BS: At that moment, no. For me, it was about creating a common technique with the actors, it was about trying to create the greatest theater there ever was. I had my head set on that, and that had to do with my childhood friend, a man named Joe Alfred. We shared writing together, for many years, many artistic endeavors. It was a great union, it really was. And from there, my first on-camera work was on television doing a soap in New York, and guest starred on 40 different television shows out in California. I did do one film in Philadelphia, which was kind of interesting. I did some more theater, but once I started doing film work, I really got into it. It's a whole different experience because everything is new every time--the cast is new, the director is new, and so on. (Insert: Barry playing a stage actor on an episode of MASQUERADE in 1984)

 

V5: How did DAWN OF THE MUMMY come your way?

 

BS: I was cast for it in New York. It was a casting call. My agent told me about it and I went over and read for it. I was looking at the names connected with it, and I believe Mr. Agrama and his wife wrote the script. They gave me the role and told me, "You're about to go to Egypt" (laughs). I met the rest of the cast at the Hilton. We took a shuttle to the airport and off we went to Cairo. The first thing we did when we got there being the crazy actors we were, was go out and get some horses and we rode up to the pyramids (laughs)... which means we were out of it for two days at that point (laughs).

 

V5: Before you went to Cairo, what was your audition like?

 

 

BS: Sometimes you get a full script and sometimes you just get the sides. I think I only had the sides (script excerpts). The reason I got cast in it, which I reflect on once in a while... in the Repetition Technique, which is what they teach at the Playhouse, is that you just run with what you have. The guy who was working opposite me, he was up for the same part, but we were reading two different parts so they could watch us to choose who got the role. He kind of fumbled a bit, almost like he wasn't present. And I worked on that and ran with it, because that was the type of character I ended up playing; this photographer who's in charge of all these models so I did the audition like I was in charge and I got the part. 

 

 

So then, while I'm in New York, I called up three famous photographers. I said, "I'd love to come by and watch you shoot. I'm about to play a photographer shooting in Egypt", and they said for me to come on by. So I went to three different studios that night. All three were totally different. Some were really studious. One of them would play loud rock music the whole time. When he was finished shooting, when his camera was out of film, he would throw the camera up in the air and someone behind him would catch it and then hand him a camera loaded with film and he'd continue... (laughs), it was really wild (laughs)! So I tried to bring in some of the characteristics of all of them, although I'm not sure how much of it I was able to get in.

 

 

I remember the first day of filming was the three Bedouin's who enter the tomb. The cinematographer was Italian, Sergio Rubini and Frank Agrama, the director, was Egyptian. He ran Agrama Films, it was a big translating house. The Egyptians, they learned to speak English for business, French for entertainment, and they speak Farsi. They are intensely educated. This was actually my second time being in Egypt. When I was into construction, mixing concrete and things I wound up traveling for a year all over Europe and the Middle East. So I wound up in Cairo. I was in Luxor and Aswan and ended up there again filming DAWN OF THE MUMMY. It's a beautiful country and can be wonderfully exotic.

 

 

So Rubini, who supposedly worked with Fellini, is speaking Italian on the set; Frank Agrama is speaking Egyptian and English, and everybody else is speaking either English or Farsi. On the set, you'd hear two words a lot. One is just before you're about to shoot, you'd hear "Makesh", the Arabic word for "Makeup"; the same thing you'd hear on films in America when they call "Makeup", for the final touches they do before turning the camera on. And then as you're about to start filming, instead of saying "Shooting", they'd say "Sakoot", which is the Arabic equivalent. It's also the Arabic word for "Shut up".  

 

 

We shot in Saqqara. Our hotel was opposite the pyramids, the major pyramids, and another 10 kilometers away was Saqqara. You had to walk across the desert to get there. We did night shoots there for a week. In Saqqara they have what's called the Step Pyramids. It's a strange place that's especially peculiar shooting nights there. I loved it there, a wonderful experience. It's one of the great things about film, shooting on location. They treated you different there, too. They respected you because you were an American and they had great respect for American cinema. They took care of us over there. Shooting in Egypt has an ethereal quality about it, especially shooting at night. It was a great experience and a terrific film to work on over there.

 

V5: What was your impression of director Frank Agrama?

 

 

BS: Frank was great. He handled everything. A brilliant guy, he really was. I'd mentioned to you earlier about the husband and wife writing team. We had a different director in the beginning, a man named Armand Weston. After a day and a half of shooting we're told there's a delay over a contract dispute. I forget how long it lasted, but all of the actors are waiting at the hotel and we're told there's a contract dispute with the director. I don't know if things weren't happening the way he wanted, or what was agreed to, but he left the production; so Frank took over as director, and Sergio's behind the camera with him. After every shot, Sergio would say, "Good for me, good for you" (laughs). 

 

V5: Were there any difficulties during the filming?

 

 

BS: Just the logistics of shooting at night in certain places. I had to learn to drive a jeep sideways on a hillside. We had a lot of extras there, some of whom got hurt; production safety isn't that strong over there. Other than that it was great, it really was. I had a great time making it.

 

V5: The actor who played the Mummy remains the scariest mummy I've seen in these films. What are your memories of him?

 

 

BS: He was wonderful to work with. He had a disease that made him over seven feet tall. I don't think he lived very long. I had a great time working with him. For my death scene I had a prosthetic stomach made for me. It opened up and inside they put a bunch of rabbit guts and covered it with wax and put makeup on it. The mummy puts his hands on my throat, burning it before reaching into the stomach and pulling my guts out. They put a heating coil on his hand. So when he reached in it melted the wax and then he pulled out the rabbit guts.

 

V5: So you weren't buried partially in the sand at all? The appliance was attached to you?

 

BS: Yes, the only one that got hurt in the scene was the actor playing the Mummy. They didn't separate the coil from his hand, so it burnt the shit out of his hand. That was one of those stunts that got somebody hurt. He was a sweetheart of a guy. He'd been a freak all his life, so he had a quality about that. He was a very interesting guy.

 

V5: How long did it take to set up your death scene?

 

 

BS: It took a while. This was a night shoot. I was lying on the ground waiting while they were wrapping his hand with the coil in it. I laid there for about an hour. They eventually had to cover me with a blanket because it gets cold in the desert at night.

 

V5: Do you know if DAWN OF THE MUMMY played anywhere in America? It played everywhere else around the world.

 

 

BS: It played in New York, I believe on 42nd Street. I didn't go to see it when it was shown. I can't recall why I didn't go, or possibly I heard about it after it had played. The producers want their films to be shown so they can enter it in things. Kind of like how in some theaters they'll show a 15 minute short; that's to help somebody out so they can submit it for awards consideration, and to do so it has to have had a public viewing. Also, it's great press to say your film opened in New York.

V5: So after you finished DAWN OF THE MUMMY, you moved out to California and that's how you got back into television?

 

BS: I can't recall the name of the first series I did, but I worked on CAGNEY AND LACEY for two years. Having a character to regularly work with was great. We shot in a studio on 26th Street. We didn't shoot on a lot. Many TV programs are shot on a lot, and some location shots as well. CAGNEY AND LACEY shot a lot of their episodes at one studio in particular and they were the only program that shot there. It was this great old studio and they had it all to themselves, which was really cool. (Top: Barry with Sharon Gless and Stephen Macht on CAGNEY & LACEY in 1987; Insert: Barry as Tony Stantinopolis on C&L)

 

 

Another thing that was interesting about shooting there was working around the train schedule. The train was within 400 yards where the studio was. So they'd look at the schedule and say, "Okay, we've got the 11;05 coming in so we're gonna hold the shot... we're gonna hold". So you'd stand there and then you'd hear this "Woo Wooo Woooo" coming (laughs)... it passes and you'd hear "Okay, it's gone, let's go, let's go" (laughs). That was always fun. (Top and insert: Barry Sattels and Sharon Gless on C&L)

 

Also, we had a table reading each week. Everyone would sit around and read the script. The two girls, Sharon Gless and Tyne Daley would be there, the producer would be there, the director, and we'd all read it. It was like a family. And I was like an outsider in a way since you'd have all the cops there all the time and I was only there every four shoots, or whatever it was. I had a terrific time working on the show. (Top and insert: Barry as Tony Stantinopolis on CAGNEY & LACEY)

V5: What was the difference in shooting movies versus television?

 

BS: They're both wonderful. You're shooting the same way, basically. Sometimes when I was in a scene, talking out, or I was thinking, I'd look at someone out there and get this look back... (laughs) it was a good way to make you concentrate. So like I said, it's a lot of the same thing. Like a lot of films, you get back into a studio working on a set. Sometimes there's money crunches where you have to short-shrift things. (Top: Billy Drago and Barry in the racing thriller BANZAI RUNNER from 1987; Insert: Barry and Connie Sellecca in an episode of HOTEL from 1984)

 

 

I remember on one TV job... usually you come in and shoot a wide shot of a scene; and then get a close up on me and the other actors. You do a scene a few times, I'm giving him my lines, the other actor giving me their lines; they have all these close up shots they can cut to if they want to. I remember this one time they got so boxed in on time they shot everything that was on that side of the room, then turned the camera around and shot everything on the opposite side of the room, so they intermixed all the scenes (laughs). You're shooting your half of scenes 5,7, and 9; then all of a sudden it switches around and you're giving your lines to somebody else who's shooting the other side of 5,7, and 9. I can't recall the show, but I killed my father in that one, who played a Don... a famous actor. (Top: Barry and Randi Brooks in an AIRWOLF episode from 1985; Insert: Barry and Belinda Montgomery in an episode of FINDER OF LOST LOVES in 1985)

V5: Speaking of Don's, you played the main villain, a gangster character in a Cannon movie called NUMBER ONE WITH A BULLET (1987). What was it like working for Cannon at that time?

BS: Those guys were terrific. The director of that movie, Jack Smight... you remember I told you earlier about the friend of mine from North Carolina who was working on the CODE OF VENGEANCE (1986) series in New Orleans? Jack Smight was directing it. Jack was a great director, he liked me and he hired me to do the part in NUMBER ONE WITH A BULLET, working with Robert Carradine and Billy Dee Wiliams. I just saw Robert recently at a party about three weeks ago. 

V5: You were working with a lot of big names including Peter Graves and others in the main cast. Did you get to hang out much together?

 

BS: Peter Graves, no. Unless you bump into somebody having lunch or something, or you are doing a scene together, you don't always get time to mingle with them. Billy Dee was great. I was having trouble with a girlfriend at the time. I was down in the dumps one day. Billy Dee and I hadn't really spoken much and he comes by and says, "hey, what's up?"  I told him I had this going on and he listened to everything I said and gave his opinion on it... he's just a fantastic guy. A wonderful, big-hearted guy. I loved him.

 

We set up twice for my death scene and they wound up scrapping it for some reason, I can't remember what happened. I was supposed to be thrown from a building. It wasn't matching up due to bad weather so they had to re-shoot it. They didn't get the weather right the next night either because they were shooting from one side to the other side. At one point I was supposed to be taken out by a sniper. I do wish I had more scenes in the film. You needed to see my character doing things, more interaction with Billy Dee and Robert to make it more provocative. I remember they lost the film at one point, which may have been why they needed to do re-shoots and change things.

V5: You did a handful of erotic thrillers in the 1990s like THE PRICE OF DESIRE (1997). Did you have any apprehensions making films like that or was it like any other acting job?

 

BS: Like any other acting job. The director on that one, Paul Thomas, was connected with the biggest porn house in America located in Los Angeles. He made a lot of porn, Once a year he'd shoot a straight film, one that didn't have any hardcore sex in it. There were a lot of girls with their tits out, but no explicit sex; they'd get as close as they could, so that was the differentiation. Most everybody who worked on those films were all from the porn industry. A very interesting group of characters, they are. (Top: Barry in THE PRICE OF DESIRE [197]; Insert: Barry in LOVER'S LEAP [1995])

V5: You're married to actress Lisa London. You've worked together a few times. How did you two meet?

 

BS: We actually met through an actor named David Proval, who costarred with Robert De Niro in MEAN STREETS (1973). He was a teacher as well and is still acting today. We were both in the same class and that's how we met, initially. We married in 2001. (Top: De Niro and David Proval in MEAN STREETS; insert: Actress and Casting Director, Lisa London)

V5: Going back to DAWN OF THE MUMMY, have you seen it recently, and if so, how do you feel about it all these years later?

 

BS: The last time I saw it was a couple years ago. There are a few scenes I think to myself, "Hmmmm, I'm not sure if that worked or not" (laughs). Some of it I thought was pretty cool. It's interesting to go back to the day and remember a particular moment what I was thinking at that instance in time. You think about what could've worked differently, about what was happening around you. 

 

 

I met a guy once, I'd gone to his theater and was telling him I couldn't do a part because I had an audition for a TV show and he said he'd done 35 of them up to that time. At that point, I hadn't done many and I went "Wow", and he says, "Yeah... I never saw any of them" (laughs). How interesting is that? And I think of that because it's not about being critical of yourself, he just made a decision to not watch himself. It's common to not watch yourself on screen. When I'd first left Philadelphia I still had a lot of friends there who were interested in when I'd be on a show. What was great about that was because when I'd went back to Philadelphia and they'd seen me on TV last week they'd think I was around. It wasn't like 'here comes the guy from California who I haven't seen for 8 months'. That's one aspect of it, so I like revisiting for that reason.

V5: Have you seen any of your co-stars since you made DAWN OF THE MUMMY?

 

BS: John Salvo, I haven't seen for a while. We were great friends for a long time... I've not heard from John in quite a while. I've seen no one else in the cast in the years since so I don't know what they're doing now. Brenda... we got along great. George Peck... he was a bus driver in New York. They got all pissed off at him at one point, he wouldn't let people on the bus; he'd say "No you're not, no fare today". He was picking up people who were kind of destitute and letting them ride around the city for free... they got really pissed at him over that (laughs). Tough New Yorker, man... George. (Ahmed Rateb, Barry and John Salvo; Insert: Ellen Faison and George Peck)

V5: Do you have any other memories you'd like to share about making DAWN OF THE MUMMY?

 

BS: One memory was, I was talking about the three Bedouin's earlier, the ones who were coughing inside the tomb. I got to talking to one of them and found him to be an interesting personality. I discovered he was a stage actor who had just done King Lear on Broadway in Cairo. One evening he invited me to go with him into Cairo. Nobody else would go with me. So I went to Cairo to a cafe, watched people go by, and had a conversation with this guy who was a brilliant stage actor who'd made many Egyptian films who was now working on this American film playing a small part as a Bedouin coughing in a tomb.

V5: That was something of a happy accident--you being a theater actor and he being a theater actor having a conversation.

 

BS: It was interesting because I was there and nobody would come with me. Something else about working over there was you always had censors watching you in Cairo the entire time. They don't do it for their own films, just for foreigners shooting in Cairo. They were always around saying, "No, you can't do that". They make some really violent films in Egypt, but they approached nudity differently.

 

Another memory was we were invited to dinner by one of the major Egyptian cast members, an actor of note in Egypt. We were invited to his house, it was a traditional dinner; it might've been around 20 people there from the cast, and his friends were there. It was a lovely house in a large, wonderful room. At one point, the women got up and did their belly dancing. I think he already had some belly dancers there, but there were couples whose wives also danced. So when the wives got up and did their scarf dancing and things like that, which were very sexual movements, they then owned the entire room... they owned all the men. And when they went back to sit down they then went back to being a wife. You look at something like that--watching people having a handle on their culture. They know what their culture is and they respect its boundaries. And you suddenly feel like you're in this wonderful novel. In comparison, we get so confused in America about this and that.

V5: Are you still acting today?

 

BS: Yes, I am. I did a film about a month ago. They're doing a sequel so I'll be doing that one as well. I'm playing the same character. It's about this bunch of crazies who try to spook these people into not buying a house. It's a strange film and was a gas making it.

V5: I see you have another business, Los Angeles Landscapes?

 

BS: Yes, Los Angeles Landscapes. I design gardens. When I was doing construction for a while I was doing vertical concrete. Talk about dramatic, I loved doing that. I went back to doing landscaping. I also do CAD programs and work as a licensed landscape contractor and I also do architecture. I recently designed a house down at the beach. To build a house you have to know what it's going to look like. The style comes out of your choices, and your artistic temperament and all that. Aside from all the spaces and all the windows I specced out, there was this glass folding door that's ten feet across. It folds in on itself so you can open up the entire deck to the kitchen. I designed everything in the house. (Top: Barry with Linda Gray on DALLAS in 1985; Insert: Barry and Tom Selleck on MAGNUM, P.I. in 1987)

 

What else I do, the other aspect of that is you have to make sure the house will stand up and doesn't fall down; so I then take the design to an engineer who takes my drawings to the building department. They get the permits to start construction and that's how you build a house. (Top: Barry in his second AIRWOLF appearance in 1985, pictured with Art Hindle)

 

V5: Last question, how do you feel about horror cinema these days and do they appeal to you at all?

 

BS: I do like some horror films, but it was never a genre I followed very much. I'm not into the grisly style of horror so much. I'd written a script, which was sort of a horror film. I co-wrote it with a friend of mine who writes screenplays all the time. I'd taken a course in screenwriting at UCLA. You'd write a script by the time you got out. I had all the fundamentals down and I brought him in because he writes scripts all the time and he re-fashioned it. At one point we had somebody optioning it and then something happened with a similar film in the industry and he dropped it so we never resumed... that's the way it goes sometimes. (Insert: Barry as The Watcher, in the short-lived HBO thriller series, THE EDGE in 1989)

V5: Mr. Sattels, it's been a sincere pleasure discussing your life and career with you.

 

BS: Thank you. I haven't talked about these things, specific things, so it's been interesting looking back and thinking about what I was doing, putting it all into words and reminiscing of those moments.

An enormous Thank You to Mr. Sattels for taking time out of his schedule to do this interview. If you'd like to check out his Los Angeles Landscapes website, you can do so HERE.

If you've never seen DAWN OF THE MUMMY (1981) before, and you want to read a review, we have a newer, December 2024 write-up that you can read HERE.