Today, you have tons of people making bad movies. Mostly, they make them because that's what the market demands (Deuce Bigalow 2, anyone?). But Ed Wood was different. Wood believed passionately in every movie he made, even though he managed to make some of the worst. Such devotion is to be admired. And laughed at. But we'll get to that in a minute.
Wood's first film was an odd little TV-movie released in 1951 called The Sun Was Setting. The plot? A woman who is dying wants to go out for a night to Chinatown (was Paris closed?). But she dies before she can get out of the apartment. Oh, well. Life sucks like that.
After that film, you'd think the doors of opportunity would be sealed shut, but no. Wood got another chance--this time on the silver screen yet!--with the autobiographical Glen or Glenda? The plot is difficult to eke out amidst all the stock footage and nonsensical ramblings, but the gist of it is a transvestite wants to tell his wife--played by Wood's real-life girlfriend Dolores Fuller--he likes, um, to, you know, dress up in ladythings.
In this film, Wood (in character) makes a telling comment about his state of mind.
"My mind is in a muddle. Like... thick fog. I can't make sense to myself sometimes."
At least he's honest.
Wood went back to TV for a bit, made a short and came back in full force with Jail Bait. The plot's inventive--a criminal blackmails a plastic surgeon into changing his face. Steve Reeves makes an appearance. And the dialogue?
"This afternoon we had a long telephone conversation earlier in the day."
His best film was The Violent Years, a movie about a teen girl gang, that was surely an influence for later films like the classic Switchblade Sisters. The plot would be shocking even by today's standards. A group of young girls dress up like men, rob gas stations, rape unsuspecting men; make a girl take her clothes off and hold sex--okay, makeout--parties while the parents are away. Good times. Good times.
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Article comments
1 - Eric Berlin
Nice job Gena, and welcome!
I can dig that Wood was a crappy director, but you seem to enjoy kicking dirt on what is an admittedly poor reputation.
Any particular reason?
2 - DrPat
If any director alive or dead deserves dirt-kicking, it's Ed Wood. Passion cannot excuse the tripe he foisted on an unsuspecting movie-going public, nor can his own cluelessness about its poor quality.
The wonderful film with Johnny Depp as Wood (Amazon ASIN B0000VD04M, in case you want to add it, Gena) makes it clear why his movies are such abyssmal junk -- Ed Wood was a visionary, but his visions were petty, vague and muddy, and ADD-fleeting. Watch Glen or Glenda, or Plan 9, and you see only the result.
Gena's review gives Wood exactly the due he has earned. Lucky Fins, indeed.
3 - Gena
Yeah, Eric, I know I'm kicking an already poor reputation. I don't know. It wasn't so much about saying "He's bad" as saying why he's bad--the dialogue, bad casting choices, etc. And my point, which I think few people know, is that Wood actually thought he was good. I mean, you figure a guy making films this bad would be in on the joke--that he couldn't possibly think he was making high art--but Wood really thought he was like Welles, which just amazes me. At any rate, thanks for the question and making me think a little deeper about my review. Mind feels muddled now...must go away
4 - Eric Berlin
I wasn't offering an admonishment or anything, I was just honestly curious.
5 - Taloran
Plan 9 is so stunningly horrible that you can't take your eyes off the screen - it's like watching a plane crash. Cardboard graveyards (couldn't Wood have found a real one?), Lugosi's replacement hiding behind his black cape so you can't tell it's not the real thing (yeah, like that worked), pie tins on obvious strings representing the flying saucers, horribly staged action sequences, the most wooden dialogue imaginable, and paper plates set on fire for the final flying saucer scene - it's marvelous!
Rented it several years ago and watched with my kids (then about 11 and 7) and even they thought it was unbearable. So truly hideous, everyone should watch it once.
If there is an overall worse movie, I'm unaware of it, and that is a stunning event in the history of cinema.
6 - Taloran
The DVD I rented has interviews with the cast, fans (how they could be fans is beyond me), collectors, and other whackjobs who share Wood's belief that he was a visionary director.
7 - Eric Berlin
Sounds pretty great, actually -- I'd love to see it.
8 - Taloran
Eric, it truly is a juggernaut of the cinematic world. It cannot be adequately described. "Worst film ever made" barely does it justice.
Think of Titanic, Return of the King, Lawrence of Arabia, Children of a Lesser God, or Room With a View. None of those films is anywhere near as good as Plan 9 is bad.
9 - Eric Berlin
I'm depressed at the moment that I've never seen this film.
I'm even more depressed that I'm at work at the moment and find my way to the nearest video rental establishment that might possess a copy of this masterpiece.