The infamous director.
Why did he make those movies ?
Someone would have surely told him his movies suck .:dubious:
Because he wanted to, and he could.
And anyone who didn’t like his movies clearly didn’t appreciate his genius.
you are right !
I shoulld point out that the “genius” rationale was intended to be Wood’s, not mine (although I do love a bit of bad-movie kitsch).
He seemed to love what he did with his life, that’s not too bad.
Uwe Boll.
That is all.
Ed’s output may have been crap. But it was heartfelt, sincere crap. We all have our delusions, and Ed’s was that he was making cool sci-fi, horror, and detective stories. In drag.
Well, *someone *had to use up all that waste stock footage. He was just being environmental.
Give me a choice between some of the ponderous self-important films beloved by critics & award-ceremonies and an Ed Wood film fest, chances are I’ll go for the Wood! Why? Because they are by God entertaining!
As to how he kept getting investors for his movies, I suspect it was divided between investors looking to avoid taxes and investors who just wanted to be involved in making movies.
Typically, bad artists in any medium don’t realize how bad they are. They truly think their work is first-class. Some will take criticism to heart, but others merely figure the critics are wrong and that posterity will discover their work and appreciate it.
Certainly that happened with Ed Wood.
In any case, Wood did love making movies and really believed that what he was doing was good, competent stuff. And, really, you could do much worse than Plan 9, which, though hampered by all sorts of factors, tells a story that makes a certain amount of sense.
Because the people with whom he surrounded himself were just as delusional and bad as he was. They either had no idea what “good” was, or, like Bela Lugosi, were just so desperate to be in the movies (or BACK in, in Lugosi’s case), that they went along.
I think Ed Wood’s career served to answer an interesting question: What happens when you have the soul of a great artist, and none of the talent.
For a great double feature, show the Johnny Depp movie followed by Plan 9.
I’m sure, like any director, he was keenly aware of many ways in which the finished movies failed to live up to his artistic vision: budget, resources, equipment, actors, time – he always had to make do with what he could scrape together. He probably even had the occasional inkling that he was falling short in the talent department, too.
He kept going because it was what he wanted to do, and because he thought it was worthwhile. Not every film can be Citizen Kane, and not everyone gets to be Steven Speilberg – there’s room for lesser achievements, too.
Okay, so Wood’s were a lot lesser, but who’s to say he was wrong to make them? Here we are, thirty years after he died, still talking about him. People all over the world still watch his films with enjoyment, and one of Hollywood’s biggest stars played him in a major motion picture of his life.
That’s probably good enough.
Did any of his films make money for Mr Wood or his investors?
I just found out a interesting coinkydink!
OK, it was mentioned here & various places about the Jan 10, 2008 death of Maila Nurmi aka Vampira. What I did not know until today was who died five days later- the Rev. Lynn Lemon, pastor of the Hollywood Baptist church & financier of PLAN NINE!
I met him at the L.A. Nuart premiere of THE HAUNTED WORLD OF EDWARD D. WOOD JR.- he was a tall dignified gentleman with a deep resonant voice who spoke very respectfully & charitably about Ed’s spiritual quest. Also saw Paul Marco, Conrad Brooks, Delores Fuller, and Bela Lugosi Jr there. Besides Rev. Lemon, I also met & conversed with for the first of three times- Uncle Forry!
I would assume they did. The budgets were low (it looks like Plan 9 cost $60,000), so it didn’t take much to earn back an investment. If you got into 100 theaters and they made you $100 each, it would cover your costs easily.
Drive-ins loved movies like Plan 9, since much of their audience didn’t really care what was on the screen. Also, they could be packaged for TV for additional income.
None were blockbusters, of course, but I can easily see some of them making a profit.
I do remember seeing an ad for Plan 9 in its original run. I was 7, but I knew of Bela Lugosi and saw it being advertised as his final film.
In the “Ed Wood” movie, there’s a wonderful scene where Ed in director’s frustration, and also in drag, storms off the set of “Plan 9” and goes to a bar, where he meets his hero, Orson Welles. He talks to Welles and finds out that many of his moviemaking frustrations were pet peeves of Welles’ too. Newly inspired, Ed marches back to the studio, determined to finish his own personal Citizen Kane, and thus the world is gifted with “Plan 9 from Outer Space”.
If Ed Wood looked out for old man Lugosi in his declining days as has been portrayed, Mr Wood did a hell of lot more than many a folk have with their lives.
As others have said, he may or may not have had the talent, probably never had the budget, but he certainly had the heart, and probably a good type of heart, of a director IMO.
This is why Tim Burton made the movie about him. Ed was like the little kid who proudly presents a crappy, scribbled drawing to his mom for her approval. Tim Burton and the MST3K crowd are the refrigerator upon which we display it.
If you don’t mind losing 50 grand.