Conference bookie::movies

    
    from what I've read and seen it looks original and the cast
    looks great. I just rented "Plan 9 from outrt Space" 
    
    only because I had to see it for myself...($3.00) won't make me
    broke. It seems he lead a sad & pathetic life. The movie is 
    suppose to get into his cross-dressing, drug addiction, etc...
    Martin Landau does look like Bella, his daughter is in it too.
    	camp, camp, camp!

    I caught this at a midnight preview showing - a suitable environment,
    made more so by the film breaking on two different occasions and being
    partly out of focus through much of the middle of the movie. [Ed would
    have said it was "Perfect!" ;-)]
    
    This is definitely one quirky movie - which is to say, it's a Tim
    Burton movie. It's funny, but at times it's too painful to watch; it's
    good-hearted, but at times it treads a very thin line between "laughing
    with" and "laughing at", leaving it up to the viewer to choose which
    side to be on. In the Hollywood tradition, it occasionally plays fast
    and loose with the facts, omitting characters where they would muddy
    the storyline or, perhaps, weaken the pathos that's been generated to
    date. And Johnny Depp looks more like John Waters than Ed Wood - but in
    a weird way, that seems rather fitting...
    
    Details aside, my first reaction to the film was delight. The whole
    tone and mood of the film evokes shoddy B-movies, and is (to those of
    us who love the genre) a delight to watch. The soundtrack included an
    impressive collection of schlock-classic theme music, and the visuals
    are a marvelous evocation of cheesy black and white at its best. [No, I
    see no contradiction in discussing the "best" of "cheesy black and
    white". You gotta problem wid dis?]
    
    The movie starts with a classic horror-movie opening, dark-stormy-
    night and all, and is presented as if it's being recounted by the
    people who participated in it - as if it's an Ed Wood film itself.
    (This can be seen as justification for any omissions or glossings-over;
    we're seeing things roughly the way Ed saw them, or would have dearly
    loved to see them...) I'm a sucker for Jeffrey Jones, who plays the
    pseudo-psychic Criswell and does the opening intoning while seated in
    a casket, so I was tickled from the beginning. 
    
    It's a wee bit slow while setting things up, but as soon as we get to
    the actual film-making we're in for a treat. Segments of three of
    Wood's best-known epics are re-staged in the movie: "Glen or Glenda,"
    "Bride of the Monster," and of course "Plan Nine from Outer Space". The
    recreations are remarkably accurate - but when one considers the budget
    Wood had to work on in the first place, one realizes that anybody with
    enough cardboard and spare time could reconstruct any of his sets. ;-)
    Still, it's lovely to watch, and hysterically funny.  And whoever did
    the casting deserves mega-praise; somehow they found the perfect actors
    to play Vampira and the inimitable Tor Johnson. [The rest of Wood's
    entourage, including his girlfriends ("So _that's_ why my sweaters are
    always stretched out!") are also well played; watch for the earnest
    little guy in the background.]
    
    Depp's Waters - I mean, Wood - is bouncy and irrepressible, giving way
    to melancholy only for the briefest of moments before coming up with a
    solution to each problem, be it the lack of a big-name star to lend his
    efforts some credibility or the lack of enough money to finish each
    picture. [It's this "unsinkable" quality that seems to have been Wood's
    strongest point; if he had ever believed for a moment that his work was
    as awful as everybody told him it was, I don't think he could have made
    another film, but he seemed to be able to ignore all that and continue
    doing what he wanted to do. This overwhelming optimism on his part is
    probably what has made him legendary; after all, lots of people have
    made execrable movies, but few have made as many, against such great
    odds, with such abiding hope...And whatever he may really have felt
    about it all, we don't get the feeling that we'd be hurting his
    feelings by guffawing at his masterpieces. But it is a delicate
    balance, and for anyone who tends to empathize with the main character
    in a story, there are going to be places where you're squirming on his
    behalf.]
    
    Aside from the offbeat viewpoint, the excellent grade-B look, and
    Depp's bright-eyed depiction of Wood, this movie's got a supporting
    performance that will knock your socks off, courtesy of Martin Landau.
    Remember him in "Mission: Impossible"? He had the cushiest role: he was
    supposed to be a master of disguise, so he'd make himself up as some
    other actor's character, and then *the other actor* would play the role
    for most of the show! At the end, Landau would show up and pull some
    latex and spirit gum off of his face, and get credit for the whole
    performance! Such a deal...

    But it turns out that he actually can do a dead-on impersonation of
    somebody else, heavy makeup and all, as evidenced by his performance as
    Bela Lugosi in this film. Now, I've been a Lugosi fan for as long as I
    can remember, I've seen most of his movies a number of times, and I saw
    "Bride of the Monster" very recently, courtesy of MST3K, so I had
    plenty of material for comparison; and in most of the scenes I could
    have sworn that the guy in "Ed Wood" really was Lugosi, look for look,
    gesture for gesture, accent for accent. It's a remarkable performance,
    even allowing for the wondrous makeup (courtesy of Rick Baker, I
    believe). 
    
    A remarkable performance and a human one. Count Dracula has become a
    tired old man, addicted to morphine, running out of money, and no
    longer in demand at the studios. He's befriended by Ed Wood, who sees
    him as the "big name star" that he needs, and soon they're working
    together on Wood's first major production: "Glen or Glenda?". The
    chance to work seems to revive Lugosi, who shows occasional flashes of
    his Draculoid over-the-top style even while delivering Wood's pompous
    (and often nonsensical) lines. Landau's Lugosi is crochety and
    foul-mouthed, bitter and lonely and frightened; he's also almost
    childishly pleased to be performing again, even when it's clear that
    Wood's productions are low-low-budget, and (as depicted here) Lugosi
    seems to buy in to Wood's view of his own efforts. [There's a wonderful
    scene at the premiere of "Bride of the Monster" which involves Wood and
    his entire cast, including the elderly Lugosi, beating it out the door
    a few steps ahead of the mob... Well, I won't spoil it, but watch for
    Lugosi's line!]
    
    The movie isn't an all-out comedy, but it's not (quite) a sordid
    Hollywood expose, either. There are moments so pathetic that they're
    hard to watch, and yet Life Goes On, as they say. The film actually
    ends at what for Wood was a high point, just after "Plan Nine"
    premiered (and before the reviews were written!); the only reference to
    his eventual downward slide and early death comes in the textual "where
    are they now" bits before the closing credits. As it stands, I find it
    a lovely, sometimes painful look at somebody who wants something he
    can't have, and yet manages to get closer to it than anyone would have
    believed possible...

    -b

Is this a movie that people who don't know who Ed Wood was or what is being
parodied(?) or lauded(?) will understand?
From Beth's review, it sounds like a 110 minute "in-joke."

- tom]

    Hmmmm. I was wondering that myself... I think people who don't know the
    B-movie genre at all won't get some/most/all of the jokes (how funny
    was "Young Frankenstein" to somebody who'd never seen the Karloff
    version?), and those who don't know Wood's truly, um, unique story
    might see it as poking cruel fun at a bunch of unbelievably pathetic
    characters. [Those who never saw Bela Lugosi will definitely miss a
    lot, as they won't be awed by Landau's performance.] However, I think
    there's enough setup for the story that it might win through anyway...
    So, any Wood-neophytes out there who've never seen a schlocky black and
    white horror movie? Would you care to go see "Ed Wood" and report back?
    
    -b

Wasn't Johnny Depp on one of Fox's first TV shows, "21 Jumpstreet"???

I want to say he is, but so far everyone I've asked can't remember...
it's starting to really bug me!

/Scott

Yes he was, but I can't remember the character name.  His character used to
be involved with Lorri Petty's character on 21 Jumpstreet.

    
    re:note .5
    I couldn't agree more. The characters are brilliantly portrayed,
    there was a sneak preview in Revere last Sat. A friend went,
    said it was great. Luckily his movies are on video tape. 
    I'm seeing it this w/e when it opens....Good Schlok(sp?)!!!!!!!!!!
    

Well - I saw this movie last night... It was great!

Burton has the best story to work with this time. Depp was great as Wood,
but Landau(sp?) was absolutly incredible as Bela! I have "Bride of the
Monster" on tape (a MST3K version and the normal version) and he did a
great job...

I also had to laugh of the "Glen or Glenda" scences they showed being
filmed. I remember them from "It Came From Hollywood".

Bill Murray has a great small role in it. It was riot when he was baptized.

Overall, I'd give it a 9 out of 10, or an A-, or 3 1/2 stars, or however
you wanna rate it...

It won't make any money, however. I don't think there is enough interest
in Ed Wood to make this film a hit. However, Landau should win (at the least,
be nominated) for his role as Bela.

/Scott

    I have a feeling it will do well on video, since people who love Wood's
    type of movies are big video hounds.

    I saw this film and I am not familiar with Ed Wood movies or Bela
    Lugosi movies.  I was totally in the dark and felt that way about the
    film.  It was depressing although I thought expertly filmed in black
    and white and probably true to form of Ed Wood's style.  I wanted to
    know a lot more about Ed Wood and felt the film was just a character
    sketch.  The critics love this movie so they must have done something
    right.

    
    Cinemax had a documentary on Ed Wood. A bizarre character, but he
    never gave up until the booze did him in.
    
    The end was sad, turns out he got into making sex (porno) films and
    it appeared he acted in them.
    
    
    
    

>    The end was sad, turns out he got into making sex (porno) films and
>    it appeared he acted in them.
    
Are you sure it was porno films??? I thought he started making films like
"Orgy of the Dead" where the whole movie was basically women dancing around,
but not really naked or having sex... that movie made "Plan 9" look like
"Citizen Kane"!!! 

/scott

    
    Well, they called them "sex" Flicks in the documentary. The scenes
    were pretty close to porno. I cannot remember the name of the one
    film or films they took the scenes out of for the documentary. But
    they were fairly explicit. Naked girl on bed with Ed, but then
    they cut it when he goes to do something. Ed running around house
    with a bunch of 60's girls stripping, while Ed's pants are down
    around his ankles. 
    So due to the editing for the documentary it was hard to tell if
    it was porno, but todays' standard. But the cuts were pretty 
    sleazy and deemed "sex films".
    
    
    I've seen Orgy of the Dead, definitly not porno. 
    
    Dave
    

    I think the confusion here is the 'started making' reference. Wood
    started out making low budget sci-fi, horror, JD, western, genre
    films. Toward the end of his career/life, he was involved in the
    aforementioned 'sex flicks'. He was a full-blown alcoholic and
    pretty much destitute at this point in his life -- not to infer
    that he didn't enjoy making them . . .

    
    This documentary that air'd, had a cut from a film I found laughable.
    They were talking about how the scripts would never make any sense
    and how Ed would inject sexual comments. So this one flick shows
    a character talking to a lady with a hefty bosom. The character is
    staring at the wall, but then speaks. "That's a really nice pair".
    Then the actress responds, "They do have a nice point to them".
    
    One is really not sure what they are doing.sort of......
    
    The guy had enthusiasm and energy that's for sure.
    Dave
    
    
    Dave
    

    I'm here in central Massachusetts. Does anyone know of a video rental
    store that has any of Ed Wood's movies?
    
    -P
    

    Empire in Leominster - intersection of Rts. 2 & 12 
    - at least they have "Plan 9 from Outer Space".

    A local (SF Bay Area) PBS station had a scheduled broadcast of 
    "Plan 9 from Outer Space" and "Glen or Glenda?" (uncut, even) on 
    Sunday evening.
    
    The next morning's papers ran an obituary for San Francisco resident 
    Lyle Talbot, who appeared in both these films at perhaps his career's
    ebb. He had died Sunday night.
    
    Judging from the two films, I would say he probably died of shame. :^)
    
    - Dave
    
    P.S.  Le Video (aka "The World's Greatest Video Rental Emporium") in
    San Francisco, not only has the complete "legit" Ed Wood filmography,
    but also carries his later "porn" films.