Wood on TV?

 

 (youtube)

FINAL CURTAIN-1957-In an empty theater, the lead actor (Duke Moore) in the play "The Vampire" investigates the spirit world which is supposed to exist after the living have left. He thinks about various spooky things and screams when he hears the cries of a cat. Later he decides to explore. In one room he finds a life like mannequin (Jenny Stevens; also in NIGHT OF THE GHOULS) which seems to come to life. Eventually, he finds what he's looking for. 

This short film (22 minutes) was produced, written and directed by Ed Wood Jr. as a pilot for a planned TV series “Portraits in Terror”. If the scenes with the mannequin seem familiar, most of it (probably Wood's best work) was used in his NIGHT OF THE GHOULS (1959). The bombastic desperate out of control (but typical Wood) narration is by Dudley Manlove.

Once thought to be a lost film, a copy was discovered by the great grand-nephew of Paul (Kelton the Cop) Marco.

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Happy Halloween!

 

 (amazon.com)

PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE-1959-When I first saw Plan 9 in 1976 at The NYC Comic-Con I agreed it was probably one of the worst movies ever made. But if that was true why is it that after it ended I couldn't wait to see it again? (It was about four or five years later. In between I bought the "soundtrack" album which was simply the whole audio portion of the film transferred to a record. It also sported liner notes purportedly penned by Ed Wood Jr. himself shortly before his death in 1978). 

 (medium.com)

Not the worst movie ever made (Hollywood has churned out far more crap on 100 times the budget), it is one of of the best bad movies ever made that you'll enjoy watching over and over! Bela Lugosi's scenes had been filmed a few years before and sat on a shelf until Wood devised Plan 9 with the help of big Tor Johnson, a retired pro wrestler in his second of three Ed Wood outings, who spouts more dialogue in this than in all his other movie appearances combined, Vampira, a trend setting TV horror hostess, Criswell, an outrageous pseudo-psychic who among other things predicted the world would end in 1990 and a drag actor named John "Bunny" Breckenridge who makes no bones that he's reading his lines from papers on his desk! There are some "legit" actors in it too. Lyle Talbott, Tom Keene, Gregory Walcott and Joanna Lee (who later became a successful TV writer and producer). Not to forget Dudley Manlove who played Eros the alien, a guy who was mostly an announcer but also appeared in another low budget wonder "The Creation of The Humanoids"! I've also seen him on two episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". Rounding out the cast are Duke Moore (who's entire film credits are roles in Ed Wood's movies), Conrad Brooks (who appeared in other low budget productions and many years later made his own "movies"), Paul Marco (who played the dumb cop named Kelton in three Wood movies) and rotund Ben Frommer, who became a TV character actor. 

 (wikipedia)

And of course, chiropractor Dr. Tom Mason the "fake Shemp" who stood in for the late Lugosi but looked nothing like him! Much of what's said about the goofs in certain scenes is exaggerated and the scene of Tor rising from the grave is well done. Ok so the tombstone falling over is pretty cheesy....

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Andy Warhol's Favorite Movie..They Say...

CREATION OF THE HUMANOIDS-1962-After a nuclear war, the human race has dwindled. They've created robots (humanoids) to help out. They are green, bald and have no emotions and are called "clickers" by people who dislike them. Due to the weird looking Dr. Raven (Don Doolittle) some robots are getting more emotional. Another scientist Cragis (Don Megowan) sees the robots as threats to humanity and heads the "Order of Flesh and Blood". His sister is having a "relationship" with a clicker named Pax (David Cross, who was in Bert I. Gordon's THE MAGIC SWORD around the same time). Dudley Manlove (Eros in PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE) is one of the lead clickers.

There's not much action in this Technicolor wonder that has bad acting, funny Ed Wood like dialogue and strange Art Deco sets.

COTH was directed by former child actor Wesley Barry who made other movies but was mostly an assistant director on movies and TV shows. Co-writer Jay Simms wrote the screenplay for PANIC IN THE YEAR ZERO the same year.

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