A few years back, I saw a bunch of interviews with people who’d been involved with Ed Wood in one way or another. Reverend Lemon was one of them ,and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by his demeanor. He laughed a lot, and seemed highly amused by the whole affair and his own small part in its making.
The only person interviewed who DIDN’T have fond memories of Ed Wood was Bela Lugosi Jr., who regarded Wood as a talentless idiot who took advantage of his father. Which is probably true… though it’s not like anybody else was offering the old man better jobs.
Having written, produced, and directed a radio production with absolutely no resources, I feel very impressed by Ed Wood, and I have a lot of respect for what he did. it’s like that story about the studio executive who applauded every film he saw, simply because it got made.
And Ed Wood did this not just once, but multiple times. And you can still get his stuff. This is no small achievement. Try getting copies of some random B-movie from the 1950s.
And, of course, his stuff may be bad, but it’s entertaingly bad. I’ve shown it at Bad Film Festivals. I’d never do that with, say, The Star Wars Holiday Special
As goofy and enjoyable as **Plan 9 **is, I wish that The Sinister Urge had been his big hit. It was closer to his heart in that it dealt with porn and cross-dressing and had more entertaining bad acting (with all respects to Dudley Manloves scenery chewing in P9).
This is it. Most awful movies you have to leave after ten minutes but Plan 9, for all its flaws, entertains.
Ed Wood always struck me as a guy with so many ideas in his head that he would still shoot only one take, no matter how much money he had, because he needed to move on to the next idea.
Have you seen the SWHS? After you watch Malla and Itchy and Lumpy you can come and talk to me about how cute Wookiies are (no Ewoks in the SWHS). And how lame,
Life Day – my Og!