By Quin
A few years ago, when Edward Scissorhands was was having its 20th anniversary, I remember thinking at the time, “Yep, that sounds about right.” Now four years later, as Tim Burton’s Ed Wood turns 20, I find myself feeling really old and wondering where the time went. It’s so strange how two films being released four years apart can seem so far apart – but for me, it was the difference between being 13 and 17, between being a child and a bigger child. But most importantly, at 17, I became a licensed driver – a child with a car. As a high school student with no job, but a weekly allowance that made it possible for me to get from one end of town to the other and buy tickets to screenings and various events, the world had become my oyster as far as I was concerned.
The early 1990’s was a pivotal time for me. On top of having my own transportation, my interest in film took a turn for the weird around that time. I was pretty much born drawn to the movies. But as a younger kid, my favorites were always dumb comedies or summer blockbusters (oh, things like Crocodile Dundee and Lethal Weapon 2…I’m not proud.) Upon starting to rent titles from the Cult section of the local video store, I began to realize that there was a whole sub-genre of films that were so bad they were great! There must have been something in the air or water at the time, because I clearly wasn’t the only one discovering these gems. It turned out that there had been this television show where robots make fun of these movies in hilarious ways, and it had been on since the late 80’s. My ridiculous cable company didn’t offer the Comedy Central network in the 90’s, so I really wasn’t properly introduced to Mystery Science Theater 3000 until Netflix. I had seen a few episodes and loved it, but was never able to see it regularly or even semi-regularly. The rest of the initiated had MST3K fever. I had it too – I just didn’t know it yet.
There were cable channels at the time (like TNT and USA – my cable provider did offer those) that would show older B-movies late Friday and Saturday nights. These shows had catchy names like Up All Night and 100% Weird, and used interesting personalities to introduce the films like Playboy Playmate Rhonda Shear and comedian Gilbert Gottfried. They showed unwatchable stuff like Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death, as well as some really great and nuanced Atomic Age stuff like The Manster. It didn’t matter what they were showing, I wanted to see it, and I taped it every weekend so I could watch it during the day. I still have a few VHS tapes with these movies complete with vintage commercials for diet pills and ThighMasters as well as 1-900 party hotlines filled with visions of tube tops and lots of hairspray.
I don’t know for certain if this was where it started for me, but I seem to remember reading about a long dead director named Ed Wood in the pages of the newly resurrected magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland. I had seen Forrest J. Ackerman on an awards show that was televised a couple of times and filmed at Universal Studios in Hollywood (Well, Universal City, but whatever). It was called the Horror Hall of Fame and I remember being sucked in by the fact that it was hosted by Robert Englund. They were honoring classic horror films, as well as advertising newer ones. But it was all great. I think both of them are still on Youtube if you are interested in taking a look. At one point during one of the broadcasts, they talked about this old man who had Dracula’s cape and the Mummy’s ring and he started this horror/sci-fi/fantasy magazine called Famous Monsters of Filmland. He lived in L.A. and owned the largest collection of horror/sci-fi memorabilia in the world and even allowed fans to come to his house to see his stuff. This blew my mind and I filed it away for future reference. Fast forward a couple years to 1993, Forry Ackerman resumed publication of the magazine after a ten year hiatus and started putting on annual conventions. He had certainly picked up a new fan and reader in me.
As I said, Famous Monsters had articles about all kinds of monster movies, but mostly classic ones. And I do believe it was here where I first read about Edward D. Wood Jr., supposedly the worst director of all time. As my obsession with horror grew and I became more interested in the writers that dissected the films, I started reading Michael J. Weldon’s Psychotronic (including his Encyclopedia of Film), John McCarty and David J. Skal. Between them, they covered all aspects of everything I loved about the horror genre. But nobody talked about Ed Wood’s career and movies with such reverence and respect as Famous Monsters of Filmland.
When I first heard that Tim Burton was going to be doing a biopic of Ed Wood, I was ecstatic. I had been a huge Tim Burton fan since Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure and now he was going to be bringing Ed Wood back to life on the big screen. The Los Angeles Times was following the production closely because it was being shot on location in L.A., so in a pre-internet world it was pretty easy to follow the updates on the progress of the film. I didn’t find out until years later that Tim Burton was originally only going to produce the film and Heathers director Michael Lehmann would direct. Due to a scheduling conflict, Burton took over as director and I’m glad he did. It doesn’t have quite the Burtonesque stylized look that most of his other films have, but it definitely has a feel that only a Tim Burton movie can have. He made it a bit differently than his other films; he didn’t feel the need to storyboard the scenes and shots because he wanted it to be a more spontaneous process. Disney had also given him complete creative control, so he decided to make it feel like Ed Wood was in one of his own films; shooting in black and white would give it that feeling. Cinematographer Stefan Czapsky had worked with Tim Burton on the highly stylized and super dark Batman Returns, as well as several Errol Morris documentaries, which are way more visually stylized than most documentary films. But Ed Wood has the look of a classic Hollywood picture with the zany flair of the average B-movie of the era.
Before I get too far ahead of myself, I want to tell you about my experience of seeing Ed Wood for the first time and then the second time. When it was originally released, the newspaper said that it would have a limited engagement. This meant that I had to venture out of the area to find a place to see it. I think it was only playing at two or three theaters when it opened. Still being a new and not very confident driver, I convinced my mom to come with me to see it in Century City. It was a Friday afternoon and I either had the day off school or we had a half day, my mom and I got in the car and went to see Ed Wood. It was wonderful from start to finish. At the time I would have told you I thought it was perfect. Again, being in the days before internet, relying on a newspaper for movie times was the norm, although it seems maddening now. The following week, the paper informed me that Ed Wood would be opening wide and there would be a midnight screening pretty close to my house. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance to see it again. This time with a rowdy midnight crowd, and free shirts were promised to the first 100 people. I didn’t realize that the crowd would be there so early. When I arrived, there were well over 100 people and the shirts were gone. Fortunately the show wasn’t sold out. I got my ticket and got in line. I met a very nice person in line who was not an Ed Wood fan at all and asked me if I wanted her free shirt. I gladly accepted and I still have it to this day. It’s a pretty cheap print of the film poster on a white t-shirt. The image has Ed in a director’s chair wearing an angora sweater. I wore it a lot, so it’s now faded to a grey rectangle. But I’m glad I ended up getting one and that girl was nice enough to give hers to me. I have no idea who she was, but I sort of like that I can publicly thank her here all these years later for her kindness.
This midnight screening was great. It was at the old South Bay Galleria, a theatre where The Rocky Horror Picture Show played every Saturday at midnight with a live cast. I think it was the same crowd that showed up for Ed Wood, because they were loud and they appreciated it on a level I didn’t experience the week before in Century City at lunchtime on a Friday afternoon. It was loud and energetic – exactly the way a screening of this movie should be.
If you’ve read this far, chances are you are already aware of Ed Wood’s legacy and you’ve probably already seen the biopic. But for the one or two of you who have just found interest in my story of what lead me to Ed Wood, but have yet to see the film, let me tell you a little about it. When we first meet Ed, he is already a struggling playwright. He has managed to put together a stage production consisting of friends of his. The acting and writing is atrocious, and when the camera cuts to the audience, we see a lot of empty seats, a sleeping old lady and a leaky ceiling. This is pretty much how Ed’s entire career and life go – empty seats and leaky ceilings – metaphorically speaking of course. He soon talks his way into getting a job directing a low budget film called I Changed My Sex, which is supposed to be based on real trans woman Christine Jorgensen who was the first person to have sex re-assignment surgery. Ed tells producer George Weiss that he is most qualified to shoot the picture, because he enjoys wearing women’s clothes. We find out that this is the first time Ed has ever told anybody about his secret, which he kept all during his time in the Marines while serving during WWII.
He conveniently and perhaps serendipitously meets Bela Lugosi and convinces him to be in his movie. Bela becomes a close friend, but also a bit of a bargaining chip. He will use him in anything, even if there is clearly no place for him, like say Glen or Glenda. During shooting, Bela asks him, “What kind of picture is this, Eddie?” As you might guess, I Changed My Sex becomes Glen or Glenda, much to the dismay of Weiss. He’s already printed the posters and tells Ed if he ever sees him again, he’ll kill him. The making of Glen or Glenda also serves as a way for Ed to tell his girlfriend Dolores about his transvestism. She doesn’t handle it well at first, but gets over it. It is suggested that the making of the movie was a bit of a catharsis for both of them.
From there, we meet the rest of Ed Wood’s regulars – a psychic named Criswell, Bunny Breckinridge, and Brent Hinkley (who is actually a fictitious combination of Conrad Brooks and Paul Marco – two of Ed’s real friends). We get to see Ed making movies, and the movie wisely and brilliantly recreates classic scenes from his films. We also get to see how Ed worked constantly. He was always hustling in some way and thinking ahead so he would be able to do what he wanted as cheaply and quickly as possible. Along the way wrestler Tor Johnson is added to the cast of regulars, and then T.V. horror hostess Vampira reluctantly agrees to be in Plan 9 From Outer Space as long as she doesn’t have to say anything. The film ends with what appears to be a successful premier with Ed feeling like he finally made it. Plan 9 From Outer Space was going to be his Citizen Kane.
Apart from an American Graffiti style montage at the end of whatever became of so-and-so, there is no other mention of Ed Wood’s real life descent into poverty and alcoholism, which led to his untimely death of a heart attack at age 54. The film also stays away from him moving from B and Z grade films to sexploitation (Orgy of the Dead) and ultimately pornography (although most of it pretty soft core, some of it has been released through Something Weird Video.) The optimistic view is what really makes this film a love letter to a man who made movies the way he wanted to. He had unwavering belief in his abilities and he knew he was destined for greatness.
There is a completely fictionalized scene in Ed Wood where he meets his hero Orson Welles in a bar. They bond over making their first film at such a young age, and the Welles tells Ed, “Visions are worth fighting for.” This is exactly what Ed Wood did and even if he was technically inept at making movies, he did it and even long after his death he is admired by serious film makers as well as fans of the genre. Too bad he died in obscurity and probably felt irrelevant at the end. He never got to see the interest in his films hit its peak.
The cast of Ed Wood is an ensemble of big name movie stars and recognizable character actors. Some work better in their roles than others, but over all the film is very well cast. Bill Murray as Bunny Breckinridge is hilarious, but underused. Real pro wrestler George “The Animal” Steele plays the late great Tor Johnson; his voice is much deeper, but he looks exactly like him. The weakest performance is Lisa Marie as Vampira, but having done some research on Vampira, I’m not convinced that her character in Ed Wood is very well written. (I guess if Tim Burton had waited a few years to make Ed Wood we probably would have had Helena Bonham Carter as Vampira.) A few of these characters just seem like they were thrown into a stew. It works, but they could have gone deeper.
Johnny Depp as Ed Wood is amazing to watch. He physically looks like him and while he had done serious acting before, this was his first transformative role, which is something he has become known for. We’ve all heard how he picks real people to model his characters after – for instance, he chose Michael Jackson as inspiration for Willy Wonka and Keith Richards as inspiration for Captain Jack Sparrow. He has said that his version of Ed Wood was a combination of Ronald Reagan, Mickey Rooney and Jack Haley as The Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz. He also used Casey Kasem’s voice as inspiration. Knowing this, if you go back and watch it you can see and hear all of these people in his portrayal of Ed Wood.
And finally, even though this movie is called Ed Wood, as far a I’m concerned, it all belongs to Martin Landau. He even won a Best Supporting Oscar for his portrayal of Bela Lugosi. The makeup team consisting of the great Rick Baker, Yolanda Toussieney and Tim Burton regular Ve Neill also won Oscars for transforming Landau into Bela. The makeup is mostly just over the nose and upper lip. Landau captured the soul of Bela Lugosi and you can really see it in his eyes. It is some damn fine acting.
In the summer of 1995, I attended the Famous Monsters of Filmland convention at the Universal City Sheraton Hotel. It is still one of the best days of my life. It was the day I met Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen for the first time. I also got to meet Al “Grandpa Munster” Lewis, as well as John Landis and Joe Dante. But so many people who were associated with Ed Wood were still alive at the time. They were all there too. I talked to Forrest J. Ackerman for a few minutes. He gave me a business card and told me I should make an appointment to see his collection (I never did, and I regret that.) I asked him what he thought of the movie Ed Wood, since he was friends with Ed and Bela. He said he didn’t care for it much, mostly because Bela would never talk the way he did in the film. He felt the swearing was unnecessary and unfair to his memory. I can appreciate this opinion, but some of that profanity laced dialogue provides some of the movies biggest laughs, like “Karloff? Sidekick? Fuck You! Karloff doesn’t deserve to smell my shit!” and “Let’s shoot this fucker!” I guess the screenwriters thought that it was more interesting if there was some fake rivalry between Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, but Forrest Ackerman assured me that they were friends. I briefly said hi to Maila Nurmi (Vampira) as she walked past me. But I had some great conversations with Conrad Brooks and Paul Marco who played Police Officers in Plan 9 From Outer Space.
I also talked to Dolores Fuller for about ten minutes. There was no one at her table and she was really friendly and talkative. If only I had known that I had been sent from the future to interview her for Brutal As Hell, but alas I was only an 18 year old guy and mostly clueless. I did have the good sense to ask her what she thought of the movie Ed Wood. She had mostly good things to say about it, but pointed out that they had some of the facts wrong and she could not stand Sarah Jessica Parker’s performance. This was pre-Sex in the City. I really loved the things Sarah Jessica Parker did in the 80’s, but she’s pretty unlikeable as Dolores Fuller. Over the course of the film she goes from clueless to bitter. I can tell you first hand that Dolores Fuller was a sweet lady. Apparently she was a hard worker too. She worked in television production before Ed Wood ever made a movie, essentially supporting the both of them. After they broke up she had a successful songwriting career that included “Rock-A-Hula Baby” for the Elvis movie Blue Hawaii. I have a signed 8X10 photo of Dolores Fuller where she’s wearing the famous angora sweater. She wrote “To Quin, Don’t stretch this one out. Love, Dolores Fuller.” Pretty awesome!