"Fire, Bert ."
This was actually said to me by Vittorio Romero, director on the set of the 'Firebird Conspiracy '1984. ( release 87)
At that point I realized that it was MY movie, nevermore will a direct order, including my name come closer to the film-title again. This is the M-60 MG that barbecued Mauricio's fingerprints.
I had the pleasure to play this tool again in "Born on the 4th of july"
And the Japanese cover of the bird. Click to see and recognize Maurice handling the M-60, and see me being executed on the back (top right), While Pita shows that she has nothing to hide.
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On the right: I got shot trough the mouth by Dick Israël.
The Firebird cast.Willie Williams, Nick Nicholson, Pita, Urs Hardegger, Paul Vance, Berto Spoor, Willie Moralez, Gabby and Lenny Urso.
Part 1/5 of full movie
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BAD LUCK AND AN ACCIDENT
I'll never forget what happened that day, it was somewhere in between Antipolo and Tanay, a road east of Manila on the northern side of lake Laguna.
We were shooting a film, titled:
” The Firebird Conspiracy”.
It rained, and quite some of it, cause monsoon time was on. We were on our trip back to Manila, leaving the set. It's a mountainous area with sneaky curves and deep ravines. And when it rains, it comes with mud, lots of it. We were sitting inside a jeepney, counting approximately ten guys, we got rugged and shaken and got wed as the jeepney was open on its sides. We were not even half way as the vehicle slowly started to glide to end up in a tiny ditch in an inclined position. The mud made the jeepney steer-less and we lost all grip. The driver, a Filipino, was steering and gassing and breaking like mad, but the bloody thing refused to move an inch. We dismounted. Most of us wearing no shoes but slippers, not for long however. This foot-wear sucked into the mud and got stuck, so we ended up pushing the damned jeepney bare feet. We were still dirty from shooting that day, so what the heck, some more of that stuff did not bother us.
We got the sucker moving and jumped aboard. It did not last long, there was a poor sight, lots of traffic and a speeding driver..
“The jeepney's in the Philippines are actually an extended version of the army-jeep but with its passenger entrance on the back side, en seats on both sides left and right. There are no windows, just a couple of vertical bars every half a meter. The spare tire is situated on the left hand side just behind the drivers seat”.
Exactly where I was sitting. My left arm outside, on top of the wheel, relaxed chatting with the guys around me. And then, all of a sudden there it was. For a moment I thought it was the big bang, but it appeared to be an oncoming jeepney bumping into our side.
The two spare-tires hit each other. The one I was holding my arm on got ripped of its bolts and jerked my arm along.
Holy shit, we all got mangled up, some of us really were confused and in pain, so was I. The first minute I had no feeling at all in my arm. But that changed for the worse. My fore-arm seemed to be on fire but still in one piece. My companions had similar injuries as black eyes and bruises. Nobody was to be hospitalized. We picked up the spare and continued our trip...
I had to slow down considerably to rest my arm, it took quite some time to heal. I couldn't do any stunts for over a week but the Direct seemed to understand our situation and did not push us, invalids, too much.
There were more incidents happening that were not written or mentioned in the script...
CHANGE THE PLAYERS
We (the G.I.Joe's ) had a contract for three weeks or so, but it would take for over a half year to shoot the whole damned movie.
I wasn't complaining as I was in it for over four months.....
A tension built up between June Gaillardo and one of the leading cast: Bruce Baron. This lad ( always wearing white gloves ) wanted to play first violin and constantly argued with the producers and other 'BoBo's'. Commander Beck was his part.
One time he was doing the wise guy again and June asked his advisers to come up with a plan to get rid of the guy. Nick suggested to kill him...
A mine field was prepared. Holy shit, I guess it was one or two too many, blasts allover, smoke, fire and a lot of noise. We was told to stay down for a couple of seconds and wait for clear view, Bruce was ordered to stay down just a little longer to wait the last smoke to disappear. “And cut”.
Shooting, blasting. Smoke, pain and noise..on the Japanese cover of the Bird.
June told us to take 5. We could use that to get something to drink, I mean when you're working at 40 degrees or more, (that's over 104 Fahrenheit) one needs to refill isn't it ? Of course we had noticed the friction but only realised what actually happened when Bruce got confronted with his own condolences. The script was revised and for sure, not for the last time...
June called it a wrap and we all went home. A couple of days later an new guy Steve Rogers showed up. He was suppose to be a look alike but as far as I'm concerned, he was far off. Anyway, Steve 'became' comm. Beck.
But it wasn't over yet. Vittorio Romero made his entrance, he was to direct a second unit. He and June absolutely didn't have anything in common. Anyway, he changed the script and added his view of porno. I'll remember into my grave his Hilarius performance while instructing us in his own gayish way how to react to gunfire and blasts. Like playing 'air-guitar' he acted holding a rifle while singing: Ratatatá, Ratatatá. It was funny.
Him performing a blast however almost got me one my knees as he was dancing a ballerina or fluttering a bird singing: 'Kabwow, Kabwow.' I was pretty close to wetting my fucking pants, so were the others I believe.
Later on as we were suppose to be in between two attacks, we were told to look quickly from left to right and back again while on one side a private was bambood to death and on the other side a guy got speared. O.K. I know it was to be edited, but at that very moment it felt like we were watching a tennis match. It was ridiculous.
Don't know why, but June got sacked too. I'd just started to like the guy and felt sorry. So we had to go on with Vit.
A new man showed up in Peter Barker, a good looking from England who was to play a C.I.A.-agent. I believe his character was invented that very day ! Pita Wittle, our American news reporter at large was with us from the beginning and didn't mind at all the appearance of Peter. I remember her to be very amiable.
It took some dollars for sure but Pita ended up swimming in the nude.
During one of my visits to Manila I walked in to Peter and Pita working on a Chuck Norris movie, they'd become a couple at that time and even got married not too much later.
As they wrapped early that very day I invited them to my place in Naic to spend the rest of the day at the beach. They couldn't resist. My old man, visiting me for a few months, never met 'Hollywood' before and thought himself a movie star in between Peter and Pita
The first time I met Nick Nicholson was during the takes in Fort Santiago, Intramuros.
As POW he was chained against the wall, facing the camera with his white naked ass. When the shoot was finished and Nick freed from his critical position, he turned around and showed us he was not in the nude completely. His manhood was wrapped into a handkerchief.
That's how I got to know Nick....As soon as we started shooting outside of Manila, especially in the jungle, I got to know him a lot better. 't Couldn't miss, the aroma of cannabis was covering him allover like an aura. His glassy smile told the rest.
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Being a weed lover myself I found a new mate joining (or is it jointing?) me in my smoking skills. Both we had our own home made weed pipe. Mine were two shells glued together, while his pipe was more disposable and constructed from the Marlboro aluminum cigarette foil. I also used to empty a cigarette for about half an inch and refill it with pure weed. I cannot remember ever to mix it with tobacco at that time. I do remember though Bugsy Davao, our AD, going bananas as he had to come down our place exhorting us to find an other spot to do our thing, cause the crew got stoned due to our smoke. No problem, Nick had enough “utang na loob” (credits) not to be sacked, I was pretty close to Bugsy ( I spend countless nights on his bench in Hollywood ). And Pio Lee, one of the producers, often got himself to a joint. So we were majority !!
At my last trip to Baguio I couldn't resist buying a bag of weed. I mean A BAG. So I got plenty to keep the boys going, even for half a year !!! It wouldn't surprise me at all, if after our stay at various exotic places some marijuana trees did sprout up, cause my stuff contained a lot of seeds.
I was surrounded by experienced men. Both, Nick and Willie were Vietnam-veterans and knew how to deal the scene. Willie Morales with prefix 'crazy', wanted us to believe that he originated from Mexico. He did his time in Korea and was running some chicken farm at one of the islands south of Manila at that time.
Some years later he got shot to death in Ermita by a hit and run.They never found the guy who did it. The rest of our (western)cast was less experienced. It was suppose to be a low-budget B-movie, no place for pricey stars.
Some cast were actually 'tourists' picked from the streets of Ermita. ( Sounds a nice title to a movie).
Gaby (meaning 'evening or night' in Tagalog) had a place somewhere in the RCA. We nicknamed him spaghetti a few days before he left us. You know, the food was real bad. I called it dog food and we complained about it all the time as it never got any better. One day Gaby suggested to make spaghetti the Italian way for our team.
All involved put some money to buy the ingredients and Gaby went cooking. That stuff was good, it smelled like heaven and tasted even better. Now I forgot if he didn't prepare enough food, whether we ate to much of it, but there wasn't anything left by the time Gaby wanted to serve-out.
As time went by our team got minimized. Danger was allover, behind trees, from above, from down below, everywhere VC.
Booby traps, bamboo frames with sharp pins, name it and it was there. I cannot complain about my execution. I was taken POW by the VC and brought ' to justice'. I had to eat the barrel of a hand gun and after being accused I got shot through the mouth.
The preparations for this 'shot' made me feel uncomfortable, let's say I felt some butterflies....
“My execution is filmed from different angles so it shows the bullet to exit my neck. A big plaster containing explosives and a little bag of blood is placed in my neck while a wire connected with a button runs down my pants to be pressed at the wright time. I curse, struggle and spit towards the camera while anger, hate and fear to death is to be expressed on my face.”
Well, I guess fear was there without acting as I wasn't happy at all with firecrackers in my neck. As a matter of fact it wasn't too bad, I got buzzing ears though and a good feeling afterwards.
I was infected with the movie fever
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