Unforgettable: Gerry de Leon

as told to Juaniyo Arcellana

Yun ang aking most unforgettable person. He married a sister of a classmate of mine. He left Sampaguita Pictures before the war and set up a company with Rogelio dela Rosa as actor/producer. He heard that I wrote scripts but the problem was I didn’t know any Tagalog. Gerry said he was the one who was going to translate it. So I did "Ang Maestra" for RDR Films that had RDR and Rosa del Rosario. Many years later, Gerry would make a film called "Ang Bagong Maestra."

Although he was 11 years older, I never called him Manong. Walang manong manong sa’min. We were not really barkada because of the huge age gap. But it was Gerry who inducted me into the fast life.

Para na rin akong Ilagan, I was like part of the family. His father Hermosisima Ilagan was one of the great zarzuela impressarios. I worked with all of them, as writer, as director.

Sometimes we would be working overnight in my father’s house in Singalong, on C. Aragon Street, and Gerry would sleep in a small baby bed, wih his feet sticking out.

Old fashioned? I don’t think so. In terms of technique Gerry was a master of composition...of light and shadow. The story and characters may have been zarzuela-influenced, but to this day I cannot think of a director equal to Gerry when it comes to composition and lighting.

There were no film schools then, panay kami oido.

I remember Gerry had an accident in 1948, when he was with his wife in a taxi. He bent down to tie a shoelace when a six-by-six wheeler truck bumped them from behind. He spent a year in traction because of the accident.

In hospital he was visited by a former teacher of his, Dr. Leopoldo Pardo, one of the famous neurologists at the time, and he gave Gerry a good dressing down. "Ayan, buti nga sa’yo, pa artista artista ka pa kasi, kung nagpatuloy ka sa pagka-duktor ’di mayaman ka na ngayon!"

Remember, Gerry was a medical doctor before he became a director.

But Gerry made some of his best pictures after the accident, including "Sisa."

And when he is directing, you can’t talk to him, he doesn’t hear you. He’s just there going about his work and won’t even notice you. Unlike me, I can be interrupted and am easily annoyed.

Once we were filming on the walls of Intramuros and the scene called for a huge procession to pass just below that section of the wall near Letran, and I told Gerry I would stay in front by the camera, while I asked him to stay back.

Most of the stories I know about Gerry I don’t want to be attributed to me. He was a real ladies’ man. Masyadong hilig sa chicks.

They’re a strange family, the Ilagans. Just like the Ejercitos. There are some who are ladies’ men, and others who are very formal and straightlaced.