Steve Mitchell is, in a sense, a jack of all trades. He’s worked in comics, film journalism, as a screenwriter, and more. He’s worn many hats over the years and is now a documentary filmmaker. His latest project, Working Class Actor, funded on Kickstarter, will tell the story of everyone’s favorite DTV movie star, Wings Hauser.
In 2017, Mitchell delivered the superb King Cohen, which tells the story of cinematic genre legend Larry Cohen. It’s an amusing and surprisingly touching story of a renegade filmmaker who blazed a trail. The filmmaker is also one of the minds responsible for the cult classic Chopping Mall (1986), having been one of the screenwriters, along with director Jim Wynorski.
I recently talked with Mitchell about Wings Hauser: Working Class Actor, how the strikes will affect it, and using crowdfunding to finance a picture.
Horror Geek Life: You spent the first phase of your career working as a screenwriter before moving towards documentaries and the like. What was the trigger or inspiration that led you to move in that particular direction?
Steve Mitchell: I’ve had this sort of jack-of-all-trades career. I originally started out working in the comic book business working with DC Comics. I worked for Neal Adams, and if you know anything about comics, he was one of the most influential guys in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. I worked at his studio for a while, then became a freelance anchor working for DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, and anybody else who would give me a call. It was a safety net, while my other passion was movies. Even when I worked in comics, everybody knew I was a movie guy.
When I moved to Los Angeles, the whole idea was to see if I could crack the castle gates and get into film. I had comics to fall back on and actually did some animation writing before I did screenwriting. Eventually, I shifted my focus to doing film historian-type work. I also was a film journalist in New York. Then what happened was I learned you can’t depend on screenwriting as a way to make a living. I was doing DVD special features and producing commentaries, and then I started doing commentaries myself. I think I’ve done over 100, and I’m still working for Kino Lorber, Imprint in Australia, and occasionally others.
It was when I started working at Image and doing DVD special features, featurettes, and documentaries that I said I should take that passion and turn it into doing my own features as opposed to extras on other people’s work. I still write and want to do other fiction-related stuff. Currently, it’s a little tough, given what’s going on with the unions and the strikes, but it’s just tough to get anything off the ground.
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In the old days, people would fight over scripts. When I did Chopping Mall, we were asked to work up an idea for a project about teenagers being chased around in a shopping mall, a horror story, and we came up with the movie that we came up with. We sort of submitted an outline beat sheet kind of thing. We had the go-ahead in a week, but we didn’t even have a script. They gave Roger and Julie Corman a budget, so we wrote it. Things were a lot different then, so as the business changes, you have to make changes to go with it. Now I’m doing documentaries, which I really enjoy doing because I’m a very big fan of getting stuff on the record.
When I started doing DVD special features, I realized I was the audience for this stuff and decided I should try and get to people while I can. I started doing extras for the old Combat TV series, some people were alive, and within a matter of a short period of time, they weren’t. Most of the people I interviewed for those sets are all gone. I really wanted to get Larry Cohen’s story down, and I’m glad I got to Larry when I did for King Cohen. Here we are now doing the Wings Hauser project.
HGL: When did you first discover Wings Hauser?
Steve Mitchell: I became aware of Wings like pretty much everybody else did when they saw a Vice Squad. I remember Vincent Canby, the first string critic for the New York Times, gave the movie a rave review. I went because it was clearly a genre picture, and would have gone regardless of the Vincent Canby review. I went, and Wings just kind of exploded off the screen in that picture. I kept asking myself, “Who is this guy?” By the end of the movie, you’ll never forget him or that name. You know, once you hear the name Wings, that’s just something you never forget.
HGL: That is very true. I totally get why you’d want to see a whole film about him, I have my own reasons for wanting to see one. What specifically was it about Wings Hauser that made you feel like he needed a documentary?
Steve Mitchell: My King Cohen partners and I, along with a couple of other friends, would get together every month and have a double feature. It was just a way to hang out and have some fun. One of the guys had never seen Vice Squad, so we all agreed to introduce him to it. He couldn’t believe how great Wings was, and we started watching more of his work. This was right around the time COVID hit, and we became prisoners in our own homes. The idea of watching more Wings movies resonated for us, so we kind of created a movie club, if you will. We would find something that Wings was in, and we’d all watch it. We would get together and do a Zoom call talking about the pluses, the minuses, and stuff like that. We had a good time, and it was a way to be social. We did this for about a year, every Friday night.
Then the wife of this friend of mine, one of our executive producers Cyrus Voris, thought Wings should know about it. She used to be an agent and was sort of also involved with casting. She knew a casting director who knew Wings’ manager. Through this circular route, we set up a group phone call. Wings is not really a 21st-century kind of guy, so we couldn’t do a Zoom. We did a phone call with him, and at first, he seemed a little nervous or concerned. After about five minutes, he was relaxed, and he turned out to be this incredibly funny, articulate guy with great recall and tremendous anecdotes. My partner, Matt Verboys, who is quite the opportunist and entrepreneur, asked after the call, “Do you think there’s a movie with this guy?” And I said, “I think so.”
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We were able to set up a meeting with him, and he just really impressed us the way Larry Cohen had. He was just incredibly articulate, and as a guy who had just made a movie about one person, I realized the trick is the guy you’re making the movie about better be really interesting. The more we talked with Wings, the more interesting we found him to be. When we were talking, he just said in the course of just hanging out, “I’m a working-class actor.” I knew then that would be the title of the movie. That’s the spine of the movie, he worked in television, soaps, and in features. He worked in B features and was a movie star in the home video market. I mean, a lot of video stores used to have a Wings Hauser section.
We’ve watched maybe ninety-plus percent of everything he’s done, and I can tell you that there’s the good, there’s the bad, and there’s the ugly. What was consistent is that he was good and interesting in everything. He never phoned it in. I thought it might be interesting to tell his story about how he managed to carve out a career in spite of personal demons and personal landmines. I’ve always felt that people want to see interesting characters, whether it’s fiction or nonfiction. So yeah, that was sort of how it all came to pass.
HGL: I was surprised to hear Wings Hauser had released an album in the ’70s. Is this something that’s going to be explored in the film?
Steve Mitchell: Music is a big component of who he is. He started out wanting to be a professional athlete, and he was pretty good, primarily a football guy. He said he wanted to play for the Los Angeles Rams, and he banged his knees up. That got in the way of his being able to really go out and try and pursue a career as an athlete. He also had been doing some acting and performing.
The guy just loves to work. I mean, he’s just full of sports metaphors. He said to me once, “I just want to get on the field and play.” Acting seemed to be the one thing where he could do more work than in any other area. Music is still a big component of who he is, and he’s a very talented guitar player. He’s just done some stuff for us, and I will include it in the film.
HGL: You’ve already interviewed quite a few notable people. Can you talk a little about that and who else you may want to get? How has the actors’ strike affected that at all?
Steve Mitchell: The timing of our project was affected by COVID then the strikes happened. I don’t think I can get any actors while the strike is going on to be interviewed. Now, I already have a number of his co-stars on camera. We have Frances Fisher, Alexandra Paul, Darcy Thomas, and Kathleen Kinmont. We have a couple of his directors, writers, and even the guy who produced his soap. Michael Mann is somebody who passed at one point, but we’re going to go back and see if we can get him. Wings is so good in The Insider, and I think it’s important to have a good director saying this guy has the goods.
It’s similar to when we landed Martin Scorsese for King Cohen to talk about Larry, so there are one or two other directors I want to go after. I’d like to get a few more of his co-stars, but we do have a lot of stuff to work with. You can never have enough footage to cut away to. It’s one of the first things you learn in film school, and it applies to fiction and nonfiction as well.
HGL: I’m really interested in the projects he did for PM Entertainment. Will any of it be touched upon, in particular his work as a director?
Steve Mitchell: We interviewed Joe Merhi, who was the M in PM, and he has a lot of respect for Wings as an actor. Joe would sometimes be working with Wings, who would give him some tips on how to deal with actors, and Joe was very appreciative and decided to let Wings direct. Wings was a video store movie star, and when Joe let Wings star and direct, he was very impressed with the way he behaved himself and the way he dealt with actors.
The thing that was great about PM back then was those video stores needed the product, they wanted new titles, and it was easy to get those projects going. I think Wings benefited from that, and Joe benefited from it. I asked him why he went out of business which was maybe a question loaded with landmines, but I think he was just finished. They put out so many movies, and they were all lower budget, quick schedules, and Joe was overseeing all of it. His partner Richard Pepin was shooting a lot of them because he was a Director of Photography, and I think they just got to a point where they just they were done, which is interesting because you rarely ever hear that in the movie business.
HGL: When I spoke to Joe, I came to that same conclusion. You recently launched a crowdfunding campaign for the documentary. Why did you choose this route as opposed to the more traditional ways of funding?
Steve Mitchell: The simple answer is it’s available to us now. There’s a lot of pre-game work that you do before you launch, and you have to create incentives and rewards. It requires a lot of work with my partners, Matt Verboys and Dan McKeon; that’s kind of what they do. They were finding financing, so we started with regular financing. The problem with the movie business these days, and this is no secret, is money. You could go to a studio, and they would finance a picture, or you could go with a video company, and they would finance the picture. Now, very few companies want to finance anything they want to acquire.
I remember when I was working at Image, and I had the idea for the Larry Cohen project. They said, “Hey, it sounds interesting. When it’s done, maybe we’ll acquire it.” Acquisition is a big deal now because nobody wants to just be on the hook for the money. I think when Warner Brothers makes a Harry Potter movie, I think Warner Brothers pays the check. They know with a Harry Potter movie, they’ll make a zillion dollars. I think a lot of studios are trying to minimize the downside, and it’s just very hard to get money together for a project. It’s hard to get the money together for any kind of project, whether it’s a $20,000 project, $200,000 project, or $200 million project. In fact, it’s probably easier to get money for a $200 million project because everybody sees the potential upside at the theatrical box office.
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Right now, as you probably very well know or figured out, is that streaming is great for consumers. Who doesn’t want to get that much entertainment for so little money every month? It doesn’t matter who you subscribe to. Whether it’s Amazon, Netflix, Disney, Max, or whatever it’s called this week. For the cost of a movie ticket, you’re going to get a whole ton of stuff to choose from. Well, streaming was great until it became not great. It’s very hard to make any money now in the business because of acquisition and because of streaming, so Kickstarter, getting back to the origin of this question, is available for creative people to take advantage of.
It’s work, and it’s not easy. We’re promoting it and talking about it and sending out emails, doing Facebook things, Twitter, Instagram, all that stuff. It’s a campaign, it’s like running for office, but it is a way to generate investment dollars to get the project done.
HGL: I know you’ve touched upon it a little bit, but what are some of the pros and cons of taking this route?
Steve Mitchell: I don’t think there are any cons per se. If you can reach your goals, it’s a way to get money for your project. You have to believe in the project, and you want to get what’s necessary so people can listen. Nobody gets rich making a movie like this, but at least you should get paid to do the job. The movie business is now the one business in the world where people don’t want to pay you to do the work.
When you’re a creative person working low budget and independently, you do it big because it’s in your DNA. You have to do it. It’s part of who you are. But in terms of making a living, the same thing is true with being an author, a musician, or working in comics. I don’t know anybody who makes a living in comics these days, the rates are so low, but you used to be able to make a living doing creative work. Unless you are at a certain high-end level, on the elite list, and whatever your discipline is, it’s very hard to make a living.
So to me, there is no downside to crowdfunding. It takes time. It takes prep. It takes promotion. It takes interviews like this, but it is a way to help get your project on its feet and off the ground.
HGL: Is there a particular film of Wings Hauser’s that you feel best represents him and who he is as a performer?
Steve Mitchell: That’s an interesting question. For better or worse, I’ve seen ninety-plus percent of his work, maybe even 93% or 94% of his work. I think Tough Guys Don’t Dance is his most interesting picture for two reasons. One, it’s just a great, interesting part. Two, it just functions on a somewhat higher level. I think Ramrod in Vice Squad is one of the great debut characters. Wings made an impression in 1983 the way Alan Rickman made an impression in the later ’80s with Die Hard. I remember when I saw it for the first time, and Alan Rickman comes walking out of the truck, his coat flowing, almost like a cape. I literally said out loud, “Who the fuck is this guy?” No one knew who Alan Rickman was in America. He was essentially a Western British theatre actor. So he shows up, and we go, “Who’s that? Who’s this guy?” Well, that’s how I felt about Wings.
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With Tough Guys Don’t Dance, there’s a complexity to the character that I think he really runs with. It’s a real star-quality performance. I mean, there are scenes between him and Ryan O’Neal, who’s allegedly the star, where you can’t take your eyes off Wings. I’m sure Ryan O’Neal wouldn’t want to hear that because Ryan O’Neal is the star of the picture, but Wings is more interesting. I think that’s his secret, by the way. Regardless of what the movie is, the good, the bad, and the ugly, Wings is always interesting.
He was in this very odd picture, Rubber. It’s a nutty, from the planet Mongo kind of premise, and Wings just brings this really interesting layer to the part. Again, he’s not the star, but he’s really good in it. He’s really good in some of the crummy movies that he’s made as well. He’s really good generally when he’s a guest star on a TV series. I think one of the other parts I really liked him in was when he did an episode of Hunter in the first season. He plays a bounty hunter who is kind of on the dark side and the not-so-legal side of things. He was great in that! I think that’s my favorite episode of Hunter ever.
HGL: I know you still have a few obstacles to overcome with the strikes, but what are your plans for Wings Hauser: Working Class Actor once it’s finished?
Steve Mitchell: We have a distributor, and we want to roll the thing out to festivals. That’s what we did with King Cohen. The good news is I have a lot of footage already in the can. I have hours and hours with Wings alone, and he’s the spine of the picture. I’ve got quite a few people I can cut away to, but I still would like to get another handful of people. Because of the strike, I don’t know if it will happen.
If the strike goes on, let’s say, into next year, especially with the actors, I may have to make do with who I have. If who I have now is all I have to use to make the movie, I know I can make the movie and make it the way I want to make it. Wings is the star and the most interesting person, although a lot of people I interviewed were very interesting. Wings really is my spine, and I’ve got a ton of great stuff with him.
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Some of it is very frank, and I’m still figuring out how to use that in a good way because it’s dramatic. He said that when he got to town, he had $30 in his pocket, a baby daughter, and a box of Pampers living in a Volkswagen in somebody’s backyard. He’s a “from the ground up” success. Even though he was born in California, he still kind of had grassroots success. He nudged his way up the ladder to becoming a star.
At one point, some of his demons got in the way, but he never stopped working. He was always committed to working and having fun playing the game. He really loves acting. That’s an important story to tell since I think a lot of people in America become actors because they want to be famous or they want money. He wanted to act, and he really likes to work. There’s something very pure about him in that sense.
HGL: I know you’re still working on this project, but do you have anything else in the pipeline you can discuss?
Steve Mitchell: I always have a list of two or three things that I want to do. My partners and I are kind of involved with a potential HBO documentary project which we hope goes forward. Again, all these strikes may have an impact on a number of projects, but it’s a project that we’re executive producing. That’s not the same as making it, but it’s something that’s coming.
I have about three or four different projects I’d like to do, and the Wings project kind of came out of the blue. You also have to be very open to the idea of a new project. Maybe you’d like to make a movie about “fill in the blank,” then something will happen, and maybe you’ll find a movie in something else. The trick is to get the financing for the movie. However, you can is the best way to do it. Money is the fuel that gets these things made. Hopefully, you’ll get it seen, and maybe it’ll be successful.
HGL: It seems like it’s always an uphill battle.
Steve Mitchell: It is, but at this point in my life, one of the things I want to keep doing is to keep telling these stories. I’m a fan first. When I got into film journalism, I did it because I was a fan, not because I was somebody really highly dedicated to being a journalist. I kind of backed into it. One of the best things about interviewing, and one of the reasons why I think somebody like Howard Stern is such a good interviewer, is he’s nosy. He’s personally nosy and wants to know. I’m sort of the same way when I started doing all these DVD projects.
With the Combat set, I was a fan of the show. I watched that show with my dad, so when I got a chance to meet the people who worked on the show, it made me try to ask the most interesting questions I could. I wanted to know stuff that would interest me. If it interested me, I thought it would interest the fans. I met Richard Donner. We did a commentary together. I did two commentaries with Robert Altman. It was fascinating and, as a movie fan and a movie historian, so completely satisfying.
When you do projects like this, you’re creating a living history, whether it’s writing an article or a book, doing a commentary, or making a film, anything that can keep things alive is really worthwhile. I think film history and television history are, in many ways, the spine of our country’s pop culture. I think what you’re doing is worthwhile.
Working Class Actor is still funding on Kickstarter; click here to learn more.
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