MovieChat Forums > Dr. Caligari (1989) Discussion > Insights from a cast member (Gene Zerna)...

Insights from a cast member (Gene Zerna) Les Van Houten

posted 17 years ago by gzerna
8 replies | jump to latest

Greetings all Caligarians! My name is Gene Zerna, and I played one of the lead roles in this art film, Les Van Houten (“… a walking argument for Thorazine.”). I am going to write about anecdotal and personal experiences in connection with the making of “Dr. Caligari”, because I sense there is a real hunger out there for someone to flesh things out.

To summarize some of what I have read: the film is shown annually at Burning Man, is on the midnight-movie circuit in Berkley, has been seen at some kind of “night club” in Minneapolis, and has driven at least one viewer on mushrooms into a psychotic state. In other words, the film is doing everything we intended it to do. When it premiered at the midnight-movie venue, the Nu-Art Theatre in West Los Angeles where it ran for some weeks, I used to show up at screenings with a different young “luuuve slut” or two on my arm each weekend, brushing by the ticket-taker with no tickets, just a brash, “I’m IN the movie!”. I don’t think he was authorized to let me in for free, but was so nonplussed every time I entered that he never tried to stop us.

The film was shot over a period of about three weeks in 1988 in a warehouse at the corner of La Brea and Melrose in Los Angeles (in case anyone wants to make a pilgrimage, build a shrine, etc.), except for a few days of pickup shots two months later we did at Fullerton Studios. This is where we shot the electro-convulsion- therapy (ECT) scene with cannibal Gus Pratt, after the producers had seen the first cut and decided to spend a little more money.

When I was offered the role of Les Van Houten, I was happy to learn that he would be the principal victim. First, his wife attacks him with a straight-razor. When Les goes to meet with Dr. Caligari she slips a little black cube of LSD into his coffee (this is right before the cake explodes into bloody tentacles). Then he is dragged to a cell where his wife displays her forearm transformed into a giant phallus, which she proceeds to ram up his butt. Later he is dressed up in a clown outfit and pilloried. Then he is threatened with castration. Then he is hunted down and raped by the sex-obsessed Gus Pratt (“You always hurt the one you love.”) And finally, he is barbequed on a rotisserie spit over a campfire. All in all, never a dull moment for this character.

A note on Special Effects (which not many people have commented on). If you look at the end titles you will see that Ken Diaz had a crew of 19 people busily operating these live-action effects (like the giant tongue emerging from the door). Ken went on to get an Oscar nomination the following year for his aging makeup applied to Jack Lemmon in “Dad”. He has since won an Emmy for the new Star Trek TV-series, and he did makeup for all three “Pirates of the Caribbean” films. “Dr. Caligari” has many many of his prosthetic devices (like the mouthless face he created for my silent screaming scene on the tv-monitor, from a mold he made of my face), oozing festering blisters, injections into bulging foreheads, amputations, etc. that go by very fast on film, but the very fact that you don’t take much notice of them shows how convincingly they are accomplished. (An anecdote on his makeup for “Dad”: Jack Lemmon, whom Ken had aged by some 30-years, stepped off the set to get a meal at the Columbia Pictures commissary (cafeteria). As a movie star working on the lot, he would never be expected to have cash on him to pay. When he moved down the line to the cashier, she rang up his bill, and Jack said simply, “Jack Lemmon”. The cashier laughed derisively, “Right! Sure you are! That’ll be nine-fifty, mister.”)

In conclusion, “Dr. Caligari” is no masterpiece. But it is a unique experience, and like anything of such singularity, it will be loved by some and hated by others. I will check here periodically, and try to answer any questions people may have. Please report here any “sightings” of the movie playing anywhere. (Some helpful person, forrestian, on the board below titled My Favorite Movie Of All Time has posted a source where the DVD can be purchased for a measly ten-bucks.) See it, play it, buy it, give it away—spread the word. Maybe it has taken the onset of mass-psychosis brought on by the Bush Administration for this movie to finally find a broader audience. “I know you’re watching me. I feel your eyes like wet fingers touching me in special places.”

[–] headofsnow 17 years ago

Ahoy, Mr Zerna!

Thank you for sharing your experience with this otherworldly film and also for your memorable performance in it.

I discovered Dr Caligari when I was 17 at a video store in Tulsa, OK and have been playing it for many people throughout the years. The film is so frighteningly potent and unnerving, it feels like a weapon in my home. A weapon of unbridled cool.

[–] moss_ryder-1 17 years ago

Beg to differ, sir, but i think its a masterpiece.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] gzerna 16 years ago

Maddy (Mad) Reynal? The first day on the set was the most shocking for all of us, seeing her in that black wig, because Maddy is a blonde! In rehearsals we had gotten used to seeing her long lovely straight blonde hair. I am sure her statuesque build and that indefinable accent (that belongs to her, she didn’t create that) had a lot to do with her being cast.

Casting for Les Van Houten? Well, my manager sent a picture and resume in from the casting notice. I think the casting notice just used the working title for the film—CIA. We thought we were making a submission for some kind of spy movie. Little did we know it stood for Caligari’s Insane Asylum. At the audition, I think Stephen, the director, liked that I had a lot of stage background (who would have thought years of training as a classical actor, including a season at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, would prepare me for a role like this?), because of course it was a very theatrical style of acting he wanted. Oddly enough, while we were still shooting CIA, I was cast as a KGB agent in my next movie.

[–] miket-14 16 years ago

Thanks for Posting Gene! Caligari is one of my favorites and i really thought Sayadian and cast and crew did a bang up job and made something truly unique in cinema. The dialog is hysterical and the sets are fantastic! Its a work of art pure and simple, and not many films can say that. It is a sad but expected thing when critics and humans alike fail to grok the simple essence of the film. Its nothing hard to figure out, you just have to let it go, let the pagan out and all that sort of stuff.

All of you cats are great in the film and John Durbin just floors me, both pre and post metamorphosis it is a site to behold.Great film Gene, despite the tide of ignorance and indifference towards Caligari, you were truly involved with something great!

Any plans for Caligari 2? If so, lmk I would gladly hop a plane (or hitch a train) to LA to be involved in such a project!

[–] torpedoboy4 16 years ago

Hello Gene,

Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. We truly appreciate it. I will continue to watch and re-watch your performance as Les, and continue to laugh when he professes his disgust for Sinatra.

You certainly pre-empted my question about the special effects. the oozing sores on the leg wase AMAZING!! The oversized tongue was insane as well!! There were some xxx rated posibilities that could have been exploited with that prop in particular.

Being a huge fan of 80s Rinse Dream, this was the final piece of the puzzle for me. I had seen his work on "NightDreams" and "CafeFlesh" and was expecting something equally surreal and stylish from "Dr. Caligari". The film certainly came through. It's great to hear a little bit more about his directorial style. Did you know of his previous projects when you got the part? "Dr. Caligari" is undeniably a sexy film. Did Sayadian want this film to BE a porno originally? It's just odd that it is flanked by his other projects which happen to be full on artistic/porn. I'm also interested in what you said about Sayadian wanting the actors to act as if they were on stage. This makes perfect sense when you look at the raw sets and examine the stilted language and staged poses. It's uber stylized and is sorta like watching those 80s Calvin Klein ads. What kind of research did he suggest for you guys(the actors)? Were there any relevent pop culture, film, and/or literary references he clued you in on? Do you have any idea where Sayadian is today?

thanks for talkin to us

a new "Dr Caligari" patient,
Trenton Doyle Hancock

[–] unabob 16 years ago

Thanks for the behind the scenes info!!
Just a quick technical geek question, was there much coverage shot for the scenes/multiple takes or was it just all really rehearsed fefore cameras rolled on the shot? Everything is just so wonderfully choreographed.
BTW, it did get a few midnight shows at the now gone Vogue Theater here in Louisville Ky when it came out. I've remembered it ever since and just last week a new girl at work had a DVD-R burned off her VHS, so now I can finally see it again!

Bob

"Tail slating" is nothing perverted.

[–] LiquidDrainerFilms 16 years ago

It's awesome that you're coming on IMDb to talk to fans like this! There definitely is far too little information available about this outstanding, truly unique movie (I think it definitely IS a masterpiece of cult cinema), and it's great to have one of the lead actors willing to answer fans' questions! I've been showing the movie to any of my friends who I remotely think might like it (I'm studying film and philosophy, so it's easy to find people who really like it!), trying to spread the cult following to as many new people as possible!
I also started a Facebook group in honor of the film, Patients of Dr Caligari, for anyone on Facebook who would like to join, and invite more people!

There are definitely some thing I'd like to know about production, Mr. Zerna: what was the general mood on the set like during production? For the most part was the whole cast and crew excited/enthusiastic about the artistry and insanity of it all, or were there conflicts during the production? It seems like a movie this unique must have come out of a very creative collaboration of artistic minds, and I'm curious if that is accurate.
Also, what was it like working with Jerry Stahl and Stephen Sayadian? What was Sayadian's style as a director like, and how was the on-set environment working with him? As an aspiring director myself, I'm very curious about this!

Finally, is there any hope that Dr. Caligari will get a legitimate DVD release, remastered with special features (a cast and crew commentary, perhaps)? I know there is the DVD available from Excalibur Films, but it still is not widely available to the public, and is only known about by serious fans of the film. It would be right at home in a special edition from Anchor Bay, Synapse, Blue Underground, etc. Is there any chance that this might happen, or anyone close to the movie trying to make it happen?

Thanks for talking to the fans like this- it is much appreciated!