Ed Wood

[Guamsst]

A film about one of my favorite directors. It isn't that Ed Wood made great movies or that he even made entertaining movies. But, he believed in the crap that he made.

The movie Ed Wood is a psuedo biography of his film making career. It is Black and White and stars Johnny Depp and a few notables. While not 100% accurate, it is mostly realistic and does a good job capturing his personality and enthusiasm. I found it extremely entertaining though.

I watched the documentary The Haunted World of Edward D Wood Jr right after the movie. The thing I thought was crazy and just a myth was when he talked about being a crossdresser in the movie and when asked if he was a "Fruit" He said he was a Marine and fought in WW2 but he wore a red bra an panties under his uniform. The Documentary backed this up and true or not, it appears to be an accepted part of Ed Wood mythology. It's really hard to imagine though that being one of about 300 uninjured survivors from the 4,000 Marines on Tarawa that he had his teeth knocked out in a bayonet charge and then bayoneted the Japanese soldier so many times they had to pull him off of the dead Jap......all while wearing a Red bra and panty set....LOL

His movies, their budgets, scripts and actors are worthy of note on their own but when you add in his enthusiasm, funding methods and personal life it really is "interesting" as most who knew him described him.

Oddly enough, despite being awarded "Worst Director of All Time" I have seen movies worse than PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE.

If you enjoy awful movies I suggest Ed Wood which is a great movie about awful movies and The Haunted World of Edward D Wood Jr. which attempts to set the record straight.

[Johnny in Texas]

+1 Ed wood is an intersting odd ball with a lot of the American drean in him

[Guamsst]

I was surprised after watching the documentary to see how much of Ed Wood was actually real. Vampira did ride a bus tto the studio in full costume and makeup, not because she always dressed like htis, but because the "studio" wasn't equipped well enough to support costuming so it was easier for her to do it herself at home. Tor Johnson really was Baptised in a swimming pool because he was so big at 400lbs. The funding for Plan 9 did come from his landlord who wanted to do Bible pictures.

[blackhawknj]

Tor Johnson's son Carl-one of the policemen in Plan 9 said of Ed Wood "He wanted to make movies in the worst way possible-and that's exactly how he made them!" I agree, there have been a lot of big budget bombs and stinkers-my personal nominee is Heaven's Gate -I watched the first twenty minutes on video, then turned it. How could they spend so much money on THAT! Plan 9 is of course so bad it's funny.

[Guamsst]

Blackhawk, I have seen allot of terrible movies in my day and honestly, Ed Wood turned out some highly polished turds. I watched the MST3K version of The Violent Years last night and it was just as good as plenty of other movies of the time. Amazingly thought it had great audio and the camera work was great......except for the stock footage that was spliced in....LOL

[Guamsst]

There is a movie called something like "Darkness" about a child who survives a cult sacrifice and comes back to the house where the sacrifice was botched and is supposed to sacrifice his child. The movie was terrible. People were shouting at the movie, people were calling their friends to tell them how bad it was and no one cared. Heck, some kids were drinking and kicked over a beer bottle and you could hear it rolling down the floor and no one person even huffed. Most of us were entertained by how far it rolled before it hit anything.

Ed Wood himself would have complained about this movie and that was about 10yrs ago.

[Guamsst]

"Night of the Ghouls" and "Bride of the Monster" are available for free on YouTube. Lots of fun.

If you want the whole story of Ed Wood's cross-dressing see "Glen or Glenda"

I think I bought Glen or Glenda and I just bought Bride of the Monster.

[Guamsst]

I had forgotten about Joe Bob Briggs... I am a collector of bad cinema so maybe that is why I don't think Ed Wood Jrs movies are all that bad.