Recently I was interviewed by Mount Vernon high schoolers Grant Tucker and Michael Covington for a classroom assignment.
Their topic: my recollections of the 1988 local filming of the comedy/parody movie Zadar! Cow From Hell.
Grant and Michael’s questions conjured up memories of that moment when Mount Vernon flirted with Hollywood fame.
The nationally renowned improvisational group Duck’s Breath Mystery Theatre served as the principal actors and authors of this low budget, high energy flick.
Duck’s Breath was formed by five University of Iowa theatre grads: Jim Turner, Dan Coffey, Leon Martell, Bill Allard, and Merle Kessler. The troupe’s manager, Steve Baker, was my college roommate at Iowa.
That personal connection helped bring Zadar! to Mount Vernon. (Other filming locations included Solon, Tipton and Iowa City.)
Yep, the movies came to hilltop. Dozens of locals were cast as extras.
Mount Vernon became the setting for this spoof about a giant, mutant cow which terrorized a small town named “Howdy, Iowa.”
Adorned with plastic cow horns, fake animal noses, and white sheets splotched with black spots (think Holstein), locals had fun in bit roles, such as strolling in Memorial Park, lining First Street, and transforming into mutant cows.
The sidewalk in front of Stoll’s Ben Franklin was the setting where a mutant cow ripped away the leg of an unwitting deputy sheriff, played by Jim Turner. Fake blood spewed everywhere. Eeeewwww!
Two ten-year-old kids sprinted around the Bauman’s corner yelling “the movies are coming!”
The newly constructed Memorial Park gazebo served as a focal point for the nighttime local premier of the movie, that is, within the movie. Almost a hundred residents stayed until the morning’s wee hours to get this scene correctly filmed.
The townspeople of fictional Howdy finally figured out that the filmmakers were frauds. A frantic foot chase ensued.
Circling the gazebo, Steve DeVries and I led a group of angry citizens who pursued the film’s bank-rolling shyster “Mr. Nifty,” played by Bill Allard.
We had to reshoot that scene five times, as Steve and I ran too fast and always caught “Mr. Nifty.” He was supposed to escape.
Filming was truly a small-town affair. Overhead shots were made possible thanks to Cornell College’s “loan” of its bucket lift truck.
Random noise from the Reihle household’s air conditioner interfered with sound recording. The fix: I trusted that the homeowners wouldn’t mind if I “adjusted” their thermostat. They didn’t! (I later confessed my action).
The United Methodist Church provided restrooms and dressing areas for the cast.
The movie was a satire stuffed with sophomoric, inside humor. Eagerly awaited and publicized statewide, Zadar! fell flat after its Hancher Auditorium premiere in Iowa City.
Des Moines Register art critic Joan Bunke’s scathing review panned Zadar! as “the sum of the parts as greater than the whole.”
The movie did have a smattering of truly genius and wryly funny moments. However, it ultimately fizzled at the box office. Fortunately, each of the Ducks Breath cast members have since enjoyed successful individual careers as writers, actors, producers, performers, and humorists.
For example, National Public Radio featured Dan Coffey’s successful run as the fact and logic twisting Dr. Science. Merle Kessler’s cynical satirist Ian Schoales also hit the NPR airwaves. Jim Turner co-starred in HBO’s comedy series Arli$$ as the lovable lout Kirby Carlisle.
For 30+ years Dyersville has benefited from being the Field of Dreams movie site, becoming Iowa’s mythical baseball capital.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show, for example, has become a Halloween theatre classic.
Zadar! could revive Mount Vernon as Howdy, Iowa.
Imagine if our town could become Iowa’s mutant cow capital. A local film classic opportunity awaits its showing.
Where better than here?
Bob Campagna is a local photographer and writer. His email is: [email protected].
In this contributed photo my father Allan and I sport our plastic horns and fake noses as we are transformed into mutant cows to terrorize the fictional Howdy, Iowa.