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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Ed Wood: Adviser

 

 (bleeding skull)

THE ASTOUNDING SHE MONSTER-1957-Wealthy socialite Margaret Chaffee (Marilyn Harvey) is kidnapped and taken to a hideout in the San Gabriel mountains. A "visitor beyond imagination" lands on Earth around the same time the two kidnappers (one is Keene Duncan) along with their "moll" (Jeanne Tatum), a drunken floozy and Chaffee, hold up in the isolated cabin of a geologist (Robert Clarke). The rather voluptuous radioactive alien (Shirley Kilpatrick) walks around the forest, kills a dog and later a bear. She kills one kidnapper then terrorizes the rest who flee into the woods. They try to set her on fire but that fails. They run back to the cabin. They do this several times. 

This black and white cheapie was made by Ronnie Ashcroft who had been assistant director on Ed Wood's NIGHT OF THE GHOULS (which starred Duncan). It's said Wood was the movie's “adviser” and his influence is all over it. Loud out of place music, more talk than action, characters spouting quasi-philosophical dialogue. Soon after this Ashcroft produced the short “Trick Shooting with Keene Duncan”.

 “She Monster” Shirley Kilpatrick had a successful career as a model but her only movie after this was an un-uncredited role in THE GENE KRUPA STORY in 1959. After several troubled marriages, she became a psychic! Unfortunately, at age 38 she died of a drug overdose in 1971.

 

Shirley with Jack LaLane

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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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Wood Back in Hollywood

 

 (imdb)

THE SINISTER URGE-1960-Lt. Carson (Keene Duncan; the phony swami in NIGHT OF THE GHOULS) and Sgt. Stone (Duke Moore; Lt. Harper in PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE) try to stop the pornography ring run by Johnny Ryde (Carl Anthony; also in PLAN 9) and Gloria Henderson (Jean Fontaine). Mr. Romaine (Wood regular Harvey B. Dunn), a small business operator complains that the police are too concerned with "smut" than crime. Johnny says "I look at this slush and try to remember at one time I made good movies". The chief porno photographer is a German named Jaffe (Harry Keaton). 

Meanwhile a psycho named Dirk (Dino Fantini) (who's on Gloria's payroll) hangs around and kills a woman in a park pond (in some prints there's a topless scene). The organization decides Dirk must go. Johnny arranges for Dirk to be killed in a car crash but that fails. Dirk goes for revenge. He tries to kill Johnny who convinces him Gloria planned his killing. Johnny botches it and Dirk kills him. Gloria shoots Dirk but she thinks she's shot Johnny and winds up incriminating herself when she calls the cops.

"Pornography. A nasty word for a dirty business" says Lt. Carson. 

A scene of Ed Wood fighting Conrad Brooks was actually filmed earlier for an aborted project. This is a typical “morality crime tale” written and directed by Ed Wood Jr. a year after the release of PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE. Strangely, though this movie treats porn as a serious moral and criminal offense (and makes a connection to violence toward women) this would be Wood's last attempt at mainstream cinema. The rest of his output would be exploitative soft core sex films....

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Ed Wood In Japan?

 

 (imdb)

VENUS FLYTRAP (aka BODY OF THE PREY)-1967/1970-Dr. Bragan (James Craig) an overworked NASA scientist with an interest in botany is convinced by his Japanese colleague to take a vacation in Japan. While driving in the back woods he has car trouble. A greasy snake handler offers to fix his car. Looking at the handler's snake collection he notices a Venus flytrap and goes into the surrounding swamp to get one of his own. Later he goes to Japan and meets his assistant's friend, Atsuko Rome (Noriko Hanamura) who takes him to her father's remote resort near an active volcano. There he experiments with the flytrap and Atsuko assists him. He's kind of grouchy and doesn't like the feeble caretaker and his dog. He wants to cross a Venus flytrap with a local Japanese plant, trying to prove man is decedent from plants. Like Dr. Frankenstein he uses lightening to achieve this. He's very rude to his assistant. He creates a plant thing with flytrap hands that needs blood instead of water to live. Eventually it grows bigger and starts walking around terrorizing the local village. When he sees that it's killed he decides to destroy it. He lures it to the volcano with the promise of a baby goat. They both fall into the active lava but the goat survives. 

Many stories abound about the creation of this movie. It's based on a screenplay Ed Wood Jr. wrote in the 1950's but director Norman Earl Thomson heavily re-wrote it. It's director's credit is sometimes even given to VENUS FLYTRAP's editor Kenneth G. Crane who directed the slightly similar Japan-US co-production THE MANSTER in 1960. Also known as THE REVENGE OF DR. X, some prints list the credits for the Philippines lensed horror film THE MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND!

Quotes from the doctor:

"I refuse the word impossible".

 "A plant as human as the human element itself".

"I will destroy my creation. My work of genius".

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(flashbak.com)

Wood Bait

 

 (imdb)

JAILBAIT-1954-Weird guitar & piano music is the only soundtrack. Police arrest Don Gregor (Clancy Malone, a former delivery boy in his one and only movie) for carrying an unlicensed gun. His sister Marilyn (Dolores Fuller) bails him out and defends him against the warnings of Inspector Johns (Lyle Talbot) and Lt. Lawrence (Steve Reeves). "How can a great doctor have such a jerk for a son?". Their father is Dr. Gregor (Herbert Rawlinson), a famous plastic surgeon, who doesn't seem too concerned despite knowing sonny is involved with gangster Vic Brady (Timothy Farrell). He does get upset when he finds Don has taken his gun. Later Don and Brady rob a movie theater for its payroll and Don kills the night watchman (Bud Osbourne) while Brady shoots a female employee (Mona McKinnon). Later the dumb but deadly duo hideout at the home of Loretta (Tedi Thurman), Brady's girlfriend. Don's conscience gets the best of him and he confesses everything to dad and promises to give himself up. After Brady kills Don he sort of forces the doctor to give him a new face which he does. One that ensures he'll be captured by the police. 

Wood regulars Don Nagel and Conrad Brooks have small roles but Timothy Farrell steals the show as the sleazy Brady who says thing like “You're a dumb dame” and “Shut up you”. Herbert Rawlinson was suffering from advanced lung cancer during the production and died just a few days after it's completion. The flamenco guitar and piano soundtrack was taken from MESA OF LOST WOMEN (1953). Some versions feature a black face routine dance number also from another film.

Ed Wood's next film would be BRIDE OF THE MONSTER!

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Ed Wood on TV?

It's usually interesting to see un-aired TV pilots especially if they were made for a series that later made it to one of the networks. GILLIGAN'S ISLAND and THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW were two that featured different cast members but were never shown. The pilot for LOST IN SPACE was never aired but scenes were incorporated into an early episode after the series began.

But then there are TV pilots, some aired, some not, whose story was never sold. What happens to them? Well, thanks to modern age video tape, DVDs and e-Bay many of these unseen shows are surfacing. Most have at least something to offer: an unusual plot, one or two known (or soon to be known) actors, a future director, whatever....

Ed Wood made a TV Western pilot (in color) called CROSSROAD AVENGER in 1953. It featured former cowboy star Tom Keene as "The Tucson Kid", an Old West insurance investigator who is framed for the murder of a local sheriff by a corrupt saloon owner (Wood regular Lyle Talbot). The whole production is pretty sub-par with the actors spouting typical Wood dialogue while guided by Ed's lackluster "get it done quick" direction. A stand out scene is when "The Kid" and a prospector are caught in a night ambush. Instead of taking cover they stand out in plain sight in front of the bad guys and return fire until the prospector is shot dead!

Another ex-cowboy star Tom Tyler (who also played the banaged lead in 1940's THE MUMMY'S HAND) is the not so hip deputy. It would be his last role as he died the following year. He kind of looks like Patrick Stewart to me!

Several other "Wood veterans" are on hand: the always entertaining Harvey B. Dunn (he plays the police chief in BRIDE OF THE MONSTER) plays the talkitive prospector and Keene Duncan and Bud Osbourne round out the cast. Wood even gives himself the small role as a Pony Express rider at the begining....

Supposedly Wood filmed a sequel and combined the two into an hour adventure. Some feel if this had sold Wood's no budget "classics" would never had been made...

CROSSROADS AVENGER isn't much unless you're an Ed Wood completist but it looks like a masterpiece compared to the next "lost" pilot.......

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