All language subtitles for Fear and Delirium in Cinecittà - Edit of an archival never-before-seen archival interview with actor Mickey Hargitay (2023)

(swinging '70s music)

- Well, you know, that
was a very interesting

period of my life, because
that all happened in 1964.

Previously, I was in Rome and did a film,

The Loves of Hercules.

I did this in 1960, I believe,

about 35 years -- no,
even '59, '60, I believe.

So I knew Italy and since
you do some film beforehand,

they're kinda aware that you
exist and all this, et cetera.

So what actually expired as
American International Films

signed me for five motion
pictures at the time.

And it was all supposed to be --

and it was the Hercules type of film,

some of these mythological characters.

I played the leading parts of

Hercules and different situations.

So it was a quite interesting period,

becausellefi

(phone rings)

Los Angeles sometime in
'64, late part of '64.

So I was kinda geared for it
to remain in Italy for a while,

so I kinda established
myself as a resident there

and then I started doing films.

And as I completed the first two films,

one Italian producer approached me on it,

"Westerns have become
very new and very popular

to shoot in Italy and you
would be great for a Western,

but only problem is you're too muscular.

You got muscles and all
this, it is gonna be tough."

So he said, "You think you
could lose some weight?

You have 'til next summer to do that film

and you can lose some weight and go down,"

and said, "I want you to
look lean and hungry."

So it intrigued me enormously,
because number one,

since I'm not a native American --

- Sure.
- You see.

I was born in Budapest, Hungary,

and I immigrated to United States in 1946,

after the war, '46, '47, after the war.

So it was a kinda nostalgia
to me as a child growing up,

seeing American Westerns, seeing
John Wayne to Gary Cooper.

I mean, all these guys, you
know, and watching their films.

So it was -- I remember when I was a kid,

I used to play cowboys and Indians.

- - [Interviewer] This is when
you were living in Budapest?

- Yes, yes.
- You see these movies

in the cinema there as a boy?

- Oh, definitely. It was very popular.

You know, American
Westerns was very popular,

and a matter of fact,

I go back much farther than John Wayne.

I go back to Hopalong Cassidy, Tom Mix,

and some of those films were showing

for the kids, it gives a great --

and a singing cowboy, who was that?

- Was it Gene Autry?
- Gene Autry, yeah.

And so I had a great desire
ever since I was a kid

that one of these days, I'm
gonna do some Westerns movies,

or at least go to the set.

- - [Interviewer] Yeah.

- So when I immigrated to
America a few years after,

you know, from out of
different circumstances,

I brought into show business
and brought into Hollywood.

It was almost an impossibility for me

with my Hungarian accent to get in a movie

and start making American westerns.

So it came like a gift
from heaven, you know,

that this man approached me

and it didn't make a
difference to him my accent,

it made absolutely no
difference in Hollywood then

because, you know, they said,

"Well, you know, it
won't sound right if..."

- - [Interviewer] This
is because they would

dub you with a voice after your part.

Is that right?

- Exactly.

You see that the Italians,
what they actually did,

they have made the films
and they dub your voice.

Whatever language, whatever
country they show it,

they dubbed in and they were
one of the great pioneers

to dub a full motion pictures.

So what happened is, as I
was sick of pink, you know

to have play, play a cowboy,

as well as diverts me back to childhood.

And I'm capable to do that.

And so I was just elated.

So anyway, to cut the story
short, I went on a diet,

I completed my Hercules films
and those gladiator films.

- Yeah.
- And I said,

"Well, that's it."

So I trimmed down, I lost about 20 pound,

25 pound of body weight,
I was a little over 200.

And ironically, you know,

I kept this body weight ever
since, for the last 30 years.

- [Interviewer] Oh, right.
So the trimmed down-

- Yeah. I came down to, I came down.

And it was a good thing I did

because it needed to, you know?

I was very muscular and you
can't keep a muscular body

for all you life, because
it is a lot of work.

You know, you don't wanna be flat looking

or fat looking or whatever.

So, it was extremely
interesting that I trim down

and when this director see me, he said,

"I couldn't believe it. You perfect."

So he give me a script
in Italian you know.

- Italian?
- Yeah Italian.

So he said, "Well we haven't got

an American translation yet."

So my Italian was improving
and it was getting very good

but not in a point that I could understand

a full impact of the
motion picture or a script.

So what happened is he explained it to me

what the film's all about

and this and that and the other.

Perfect. So I signed a contract,
I did my first western.

- [Interviewer] What
was the title of that?

Do you remember?

- The title was "Uno
Straniero A Sacramento,"

"A Stranger from Sacramento."
- Right, right.

- And they had the fellow
named Frank Letterman.

I never forget the guy.

I met him personally, you know,

and he's the one who dubbed me.

And he had a deep voice, you know,

he is talked like, he's delivered a line.

He's the really good guy like,

you know, not like I would have.

But I did my part all in English

because they have completed a

- Translation?
- A translation.

So I did it in English.

So they have dubbed me.

And it was, the first was kinda,

yeah it didn't sound like me, you know,

and a lot of people know
who knew me, that they,

but anyway so that was
my dream was achieved

by doing a film and being a western hero.

So I did several afterwards
because the film was successful.

And I had, I went through
all kinda experiences.

Well, you had to, you
know, in a gladiator films,

you use your strength more in a body.

And when you fight,

you fight with your fist or
you fight with the sword.

And you know, when you big and

you have this feeling right away that you,

like I played Hercules, you know,

I mean, I picked up a piece of wood

and I knocked the door
down and people followed.

And your feeling is different
because you feel strong,

you feel big, and you have this strength,

a strength of what this
mythological characters had.

When you fighting with the lions,

and you're doing all this,

you know, your strength,
you use your strength

and it's just a different movements.

And if you are cowboy,
if you play a western,

then you kinda sit back, and
you look at the situation,

and you tell a guy very quiet,

"Look, your time is up."

And if he does a move, you draw.

- [Interviewer] Right, right.

- And it's just a different
motives of feelings,

especially when you're
skinny like I am now too

and then was, you know, you felt better.

You could handle the situation.

And thanks God, that
it all happened to me,

because I'm in a tremendous shape,

I'm feeling great, you know?

I weigh only about 170
pounds compared to 200,

over 200, I used to be.

But a difference is quite different

because the strength is in a gun.

- [Interviewer] Sure.

- I recall one incident and
was very, very interesting.

I did the film as one of those Ringo film,

"Justice from Ringo"
or "Justice for Ringo."

And I did this Ringo series to one,

another one with "3 Colpi
Di Winchester from Ringo"

as in three shot from
a Winchester for Ringo.

And what actually,

my first experience with
the multi nationality film,

that on this particular
film, they did co-production.

You see, they got different actors

in from different countries.

Now, we had a German, we had a French,

we had certainly Italian,
and we had Spanish,

and they had American, which is me.

- Right
- So, therefore

I find out when we begin to start the film

that most of those parties
who was starring in a film

or in a film, they don't
speak English at all.

So that was very interesting because,

and a matter of fact was so amusing

because a director who directed it,

Emimmo Salvi, his name,

and he wanted to get into American market.

So this film is gonna get
me an American market.

So he wanted everybody to
have a dialogue in English.

So they give them a English dialogue

and to learn to study it for next day.

But it just didn't work

because they just couldn't quite study.

The pronunciation was wrong.

So one day, I never forget,

that I had a scene with this girl

and she couldn't get her lines out at all.

And she was upset with me

because I was escorting
another girl in a film

and she was supposed to be
very violently mad at me.

- Yeah.
- Because I,

she finds out that I have
another girl on the line.

So anyway, a director said,
"Well, she was upset,"

said, "Well, listen,
can you count English?"

And she said yes. "Okay, count."

She said, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10."

So he said, "Okay, what
you have to do now,

you do the dialogue, but you
count mad, you have to be mad."

So here's a girl says "1,
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10!"

And it came off just great.

So when they dubbed her,
it's come off perfectly.

They come off perfectly because
of syllables in English.

You know, you can see if
you watch a dubbed film

then now they perfected it

to a point that that's much better.

But, you know, 30 years
ago it was very important

for mouth moves are going.

So anyway, so that's kinda
episodes I went to every day.

So it was pretty, you know,

had to be really a good actor.

I don't say that I'm a great actor.

I'm just, I think anybody is a good actor.

Life is acting, you know,
you're acting every day.

So it was, it was giving
me a different perspective

because I had to know their dialogue,

I had to know their response.

You couldn't really react on it

like you would hear your own language.

- [Interviewer] Right.

-And so, but anyway, her
dialogue wasn't that great.

Not huge dialogue and not
complicated dialogues.

So that kind of things
happen all the time.

And a matter of fact,
I did here in America,

very first film I did here in America.

I used my own voice and I
played a union heavy guy.

I'd taken place in 1954, I believe,

before I become Mr. Universe.
- Really?

- Right around about then.

And I did it with Richard Egan

was a leading movie star in it.

And become good friends with Richard.

And I did this film that my voice was in,

and shortly after, maybe not so shortly,

maybe a few years after I
did several other films,

but I used my own voice.

And a matter of fact,

all American films I
did I used my own voice.

And you know, I am so pleased
for Arnold Schwartzenegger

that he's using his own voice.

And you know, I truly believe

that when he has played my personality

in one of the CBS-

- [Interviewer] I saw that.
"The Jayne Mansfield Story".

He played you, yeah.
- Right, right.

He played me.
- Yeah.

- And I was insisted at
the time with the producers

and Lansbury people that
who produced the film.

And I told `em, I said,
"You gotta use Arnold.

There's nobody can play me but Arnold,

Arnold has the accent."

And if you noticed it, Arnold
had a much thicker accent.

- Yes.
- It's 15 years ago,

you know, when he did that.

- Yes.
- You won't believe it,

but if you go in Rome
you still find my picture

in Via Veneto where they promoted

one of the films what I did.

I don't recall exactly which one.

They promoted it and they blocked off

a whole street of Via Veneto
and we staged a bank robbery,

actually not a bank robbery,
a stage coach robbery,

right on Via Veneto.

And I with a white horse
went into Via Veneto,

Cafe de Paris with the horse.

And it was such a front
page success all over.

So, you know, they just created

an enormous interest in Europe.

And I enjoyed it as I said, you know?

It was my childhood dream to do that.

Gordon Mitchell is a dearest friend,

and a matter of fact,
I did a film with him.

I did more than one film with him.

Gordon Mitchell is a dear friend.

He lives here in California,
Southern California.

And he's, he did quite a
few, and a matter of fact,

I believe he did one of the most films.

He spent 10 years of his life.

I spent only about three
of my life in Italy.

- Where are the deeds?
(tense music)

- You find them.

- Wanna play a game for the deeds?

- What's your stake?

- My life and the gold.

- I'm not interested in
gold. Name your game.

- I have met a lot of guys,
a lot of American actors,

a lot of non-actors, a lot
of guys who just came in

because they just came in and
they put `em in the movies.

And life was so different
than what it is today.

And a matter of fact,
I believe Fellini did

"La Dolce Vita" and it
was, it showed everything.

I believe Anita Ekberg
was played a leading part

and it showed just like it
was, and life was tremendous.

You know, and Elizabeth
Taylor just shortly before

finished a marathon movie of Cleopatra.

- Yeah.
- And it was,

it was just a different life.

You know, it was such a glamour existence.

The music, it was fabulous.

It was easy going and great.

The prices were different.

The restaurants were fabulous, you know?

Not that they're not fabulous
today, today is good too.

But, you know, going back to Rome

and thinking of period
what I went through,

it was really a cream of
the crop time of my life

and it was excellent.

I grew up with a dream
to come to Hollywood

and we meet the big movie
stars, and fortunately,

most of this movie star, big
movie stars, become my friend.

- Yeah.
- So that was enough

satisfaction for me.

I didn't had a dream in now.

Okay, just like I become
Mr. Universe, you know,

Mr. Universe was a different thing.

- [Interviewer] Sure.

- I had to do that.

It's my personal reason I had to do it

and I was fortunate that I won in 1955,

which is 40 years ago.

So to me it was, we were
laughing about we get together

and you know, we were big shots in Rome.

We were big shots in Italy.

You know, people come
to get your autographs.

And I drifted back to here in America too,

and I said to the guys,
"You know, it's very funny.

Nobody knocked our door down
to come back to Hollywood."

And Clint Eastwood came back

and he start doing all
of big flicks and all.

And then he did many, one
after another, big success.

So we classified, ourselves,

we classified Rome as a graveyard.

(laughing)
- Oh, really?

- So, you know, as a graveyard
of the American actors

because everybody went there.

I don't had a mentality in looking,

"Oh, I guess film's gonna
make me a superstar or that."

I had fun doing it. I enjoy doing it.

It's like, you know,
the guy running a race,

you're running a marathon
and you start looking at it

you know, or enter into
Mr. Universe contest.

And you came out first.

And a guy asked me, "What do you think?

How would you feel if you
would've been second?"

And I said, "I would've
been a first loser."

Like's the guys look at me
and said, "What do you mean?"

I said, "Well, look, I
entered in a contest to win.

That's what I entered into.
To win Mr. Universe contest.

So to me, a second place would have been,

I'll be a first loser."

So this is the same mentality
I used diverted backwards

because I was doing a film in Hollywood,

I mean, in Italy, to not
to become a superstar,

just to do it, just to do it,

just to do it to my own enjoyment.

So when you enter in
a Mr. Universe contest

you glad if you just entered.

- Yeah.
- It's a different thought.

I had fun with every one of 'em.

I can't really pinpoint one movie.

I think each had their characteristic

of something which I liked

and it's intrigued me when I read it.

And you believe me, I mean,

they had script what I wouldn't have done

for a million years.

- Sure.
- Because I just

didn't like it.

I liked the character in
the "Bloody Pit of Horror"

because he was confined to himself

and he lived a life of way before

and he was following a
Marquis de Sade doings

and he had a torture
chambers in his own castle.

And his intruders came into the castle

and he killed them all.

(gentle music)
- At the mercy of

the twisted perversions of a
madman who satisfies his lust

by torturing his victims
with the bone breaking rack.

- So I was a murderer, you know?

I sent 'em on all kind
of torture away and all,

it is kinda like, it was
kinda kinky you know?

And then certainly I did
a movie and I was a lover,

which was a difference, you know?

- [Interviewer] I heard,
there was one I read about

the other day called, early
'70s, called "Delirium",

where you were a guy
strangling people or something.

The touch of the killer
is always the same, doctor.

So weird, all these murders
follow the same template.

Atemplate which has been ingrained
in a human mind by an absurd sickness.

- It's amazing that you
recall some of this? Yeah.

I was, I wish I have a copy
of these films, but I don't.

I did this at the time and I did it

and now if I probably saw it,
I'd be embarrassed about it.

(laughing)

And it was fun, but the "Delirium" was,

it was like a love affair of a guy

who's went through Vietnam

and then he came back to America

and the whole thing is a dream
sequence and he become a,

kinda murderer again, and
it was a fact of Vietnam.

('70s electric organ music)

I did this in a, I
believe, could be a '70s.

- [Interviewer] I read
that it was '72, but-

- '72. Yeah.

It's probably, yeah,
it's probably be right.

- [Interviewer] Which is
probably one of the first

of those bizarre Vietnam films.

- Right, and a matter of fact,
it was the very first one.

It was so bizarre that
they didn't do anything

in a box office.
- Right.

- Yeah.

And it was foreign because
this Vietnam veteran was me

- Yeah.
- Who came back and tried to

rehabilitate and it was
become a killer and a murderer

and killed his lover and girls.

And then all this, so,
so there was for that,

and then diverted back to
the helicopter scene with

when, you know he just dies.

And it was all explained at the end.

He just dreamed this.

- Oh.
- And you know, afterwards,

I have seen Vietnam films
very much on the same,

- Ah!
- About 10, 15 years after

I saw Vietnam films and "Killing Fields"

and some of this stuff, you know,

and it all dealt with the same subject

but it was too premature when it was done.

- [Interviewer] And they were shot shot in

photographed in Europe, weren't they?

Where they shot?
- Yes, yes, yes.

And they used some
stock footage of Vietnam

and they camouflaged Vietnam

with the tropical scenes and places.

So the helicopter scene,
which I mentioned,

you know I did helicopter scene

and it was the most fantastic way done.

And I was supposed to be in a helicopter

and the way they mastered
this whole thing,

it was done so cleverly, only
three people were around.

A cameraman, a director and
somebody who looked after me.

And that's that.

And the cameraman, the
cameraman had one assistant

who set the lighting up
and they simplified it

and a matter of fact that
let's say you can do in Italy

a full motion picture back on those days

with a dozen people.

And over here you need three dozen.

Hyena! Stop this, Herbert,
you are nothing but a hyenal

Enough with that, Herbert! You are a hyena!

I stopped film in '66, I believe

and then I returned
back for here and there.

I did a road show.

I did, I traveled with the
roadshow for some time.

And in between I quit show business

because I've remarried and
with my wonderful wife, Ellen,

I raised our three children.

And so then I kinda got
away from show business.

I played a low profile.

I even read some articles,

"What happened to Mickey Hargitay?"

Some people thought I was
already dead, you know?

And, but I was around
and I didn't do anything

for the quite a while, quite a few years.

I was in a different field.

And a matter of fact, I
was in real estate building

and which is very creative.

I love to do it and I enjoyed it.

But just recently, about six years ago,

a gentleman from Hungary,
and a matter of fact,

his name is quite well recognized,
director Gyorgy Szomjas.

He approached me to do a film.

He wanted to do, Mr. Universe,
titled "Mr. Universe"

and I liked the concept, what he did.

I played just a very little part in it,

but basically was dealt
with some of my doings

in the past 10 years.

And they released that film in America,

and a matter of fact, it
was quite well received.

They showed it in a film festival

and then they received awards

and different acknowledgements
and et cetera.

But basically it got wound
up as a small budget film.

I think they spent
$250,000 in the whole film.

And the film was good. Was good.

And that's the last thing
I did five, six years ago.

I have some ideas in the
future to do produce.

And in a matter of fact,

I'm in the process of doing
a script, a screenplay now.

And I like it very much
as such a great story

that I don't let many people read it.

- [Interviewer] Sure.

- And I haven't registered,
so I eventually I'll probably

find the right people
and the right channels

- [Interviewer] Yeah.

- To, you know, you gotta find your niche.

- [Interviewer] Definitely.

- And then you go for it.

Then you do-
- So you still, in a sense,

you haven't really given up
films and motion pictures?

- Oh, no, no, no.

It's in your blood, it's
in creative, you know,

it's a creative thing.

I mean, I didn't give up motion pictures

when I built my own house.

I built it as a movie set.

If you can go through
the house and you see it,

I mean, that's a movie set.

I built a movie set.

I live my life in a movie set every day.

And you know, I picked the spot,

fortunately up in the hills.

And so I think life, life is a movie.

I mean, your life, my life,
everybody lives is a movie.

I don't care who you
are. You act every day.

I How many times when
told "Don't humor me" .P

.r How many times we can never see .r

I How many people understand
what's inside the heart of man .r

I All the secrets you can weigh I

I All the walls which never say I

(upbeat music)

I How many times we've told
and told them, "Wait" I

(smooth wah-wah music)