Ed Wood (1994) Dark Comedy Bio Neo Noir

"Noir Happens!!!"

Directed by Tim Burton (Frankenweenie, Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Mars Attacks, Sleepy Hollow). 

Written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski and  based on Rudolph Grey's book "Nightmare of Ecstasy " the definitive biography of the cult filmmaker. 

The excellent B&W cinematography was by Stefan Czapsky (Last Exit To Brooklyn, Edward Scissorhands), and Music was by Howard Shore.

Here, Noir happened again, Noir Visual Style with un-conventual subject matter that never would have been approved by the old MPPC or Legion Of Decency. Ed Wood has an abundance of Visual Style to easily tip Noir for me, bringing it solidly into the Black Comedy Neo Noir fold. 

If you are a visually perceptive person you will definitely pick up on the vibe, mood, or atmosphere the excellent cinematography created. 

The film stars Johnny Depp (Dead Man, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Pirates of the Caribbean, Sleepy Hollow) as Director Ed Wood. Martin Landau (North By Northwest, Johnny Staccato TV series, Outer Limits TV series,  Twilight Zone TV series, Mission Impossible TV series) as Bela Lugosi, Sara Jessica Parker (Sex And The City TV Series) as Dolores Fuller, Patricia Arquette (True Romance, Lost Highway) as Kathy O'Hara. Jeffrey Jones (Amadeus, Beetlejuice, Sleepy Hollow) as The Amazing Criswell. George 'The Animal' Steele as Tor Johnson. 

Johnny Depp as Ed Wood

Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi

Sara Jessica Parker as Dolores Fuller

Patricia Arquette as Kathy O'Hara

Jeffrey Jones as The Amazing Criswell

George 'The Animal' Steele as Tor Johnson.

With G. D. Spradlin as Reverend Lemon, Vincent D'Onofrio (Full Metal Jacket) as Orson Welles, Lisa Marie (Mars Attacks!) as Maila Nurmi / Vampira, Bill Murray (Groundhog Day, Ghostbusters) as Bunny Breckinridge, Mike Starr (Millers Crossing, Crime Story TV series, Last Exit To Brooklyn, Goodfellas, Billy Bathgate) as George Weiss. Max Casella as Paul Marco, and Brent Hinkley as Conrad Brooks. Juliet Landau as Loretta King. Ned Bellamy as Dr. Tom Mason, Stanley DeSantis as Mr. Feldman, Rance Howard (Cool Hand Luke, Chinatown, Nebraska) as Old Man McCoy, Korla Pandit, as "Indian musician," cameos from actors who actually worked with Wood on Plan 9 from Outer Space, Conrad Brooks (as a barkeep) and Gregory Walcott (as a possible backer).

Lisa Marie Maila Nurmi / Vampira

Juliet Landau as Loretta King

Ed Wood was born in Poughkeepsie, NY in 1924, and yes his mother would occasionally dress him up as a girl when he was a toddler because she always wanted a girl. As a kid he collected comic books and pulp magazines, listened to radio shows and loved going to movies i.e., Westerns, Monster and Sci-Fi  movies and serials were his favorites. Buck Jones and Bela Lugosi were two of his earliest childhood idols. On his 12th birthday he received a Kodak "Cine Special" and one of his first shorts was of the zeppelin Hindenburg as it flew over Poughkeepsie on its way to Lakehurst NJ, and infamy.

Bardavon Theater on Market St. Poughkeepsie

One of his first jobs was as a theater usher, possibly at the Bardavon on Market St., just a twelve minute walk from his house. He habitually raided the theater trash for posters and lobby cards. He also sang, played string instruments, drums, and formed a quartet called "Eddie Wood's Little Splinters"

After serving in WWII's Pacific theater he was discharged at 21 years old in 1946, and moved to Hollywood in 1947 where in the next eight years, he wrote plays, scripts, and even directed some early television pilots, shows (Criswell Predicts (1953-61 TV series (a daily show of 5m duration))) and lots of commercials. This film picks up the story in the early 1950s. 

Story

The opening credits are a recreation of the typical kitschy opening sequences of Ed Wood's films including an opening monolog by The Amazing Criswell. 

Criswell: [First lines] Greetings, my friends! You are interested in the unknown. The mysterious. The unexplainable. That is why you are here. And now, for the first time, we are bringing you the full story of what happened. We are giving you all the evidence based only on the secret testimony of the miserable souls who survived this terrifying ordeal. The incidents, places. My friends, we cannot keep this a secret any longer. Can your heart stand the shocking facts of the true story of Edward D. Wood Jr.?

This segues into a shot of the Hollywood sign in the rain and then backs out displaying the City of Angels, and then to the exterior of a small NoHo theater called The Village Playhouse. 

It is a West Coast equivalent of an off-off Broadway venue playhouse, in a style that makes it look like a converted one story garage. Its 1948, The marquee reads "The Casual Company."  

Bill Murray as Bunny Breckinridge

Pacing out in the rain is Ed Wood waiting for a theater critic to show. Through the lobby door emerges John "Bunny" Breckinridge a drag queen friend of Ed's. Bunny tells Ed that they can't hold the curtain.  any longer. 

We cut to the stage and see two men in combat uniforms sitting in a foxhole they are Paul Marco and Conrad Brooks. As they say their lines we see a soaked Ed watching and mouthing their lines. At the finale a deus ex machina angel Dolores Fuller descends on a swing appearing to the soldiers. 

Max Casella as Paul Marco, and Brent Hinkley as Conrad Brooks.

Cut to the rainy exterior of Bordener's a cocktail bar. Inside, sitting in a booth are Ed, Dolores, Bunny, Paul and Conrad. 

They are anxiously awaiting the early morning addition of Variety with the critics review. When a paper is finally acquired they all huddle over it and read the review. 

A bust, but Ed not phased, points out that at least the critic mentioned the accuracy of the uniforms that Paul and Conrad wore. That's a positive.

Edward D. Wood, Jr.: [Reading the review] Look, he's got some nice things to say here. "The soldiers' costumes are very realistic." That's positive!

Bunny Breckinridge: Rave of the century.

Later that morning Ed and Dolores are in bed. Ed is having second thoughts, questioning whether he has any talent and stating the fact that he is 30 years old and Orson Welles his inspiration, made it at 27. 

Dolores expresses words of encouragement and after getting out of bed she walks to the closet and flips on the light to choose what she is going to wear for the day, and remarks that she keeps loosing her clothes angora sweater. Ed turns over away from her and we see some apprehension on his face. 

We jump ahead a few years and Ed is now working as a greensman for a studio, there he makes useful acquaintances and contacts. 

One contact of which is the studio film editor / librarian who shows Ed interesting footage on a moviola. Ed tells him that he could create a whole film based around the stock footage.

Edward D. Wood, Jr.: Why, if I had half a chance, I could make an entire movie using this stock footage. The story opens on these mysterious explosions. Nobody knows what's causing them, but it's upsetting all the buffalo. So, the military are called in to solve the mystery.

Editor on Studio Lot: You forgot the octopus.

Edward D. Wood, Jr.: No, no, I'm saving that for my big underwater climax.

One day when dropping a palm off in a office he overhears a couple of women laughing over an article  in Variety about a producer named George Weiss at a studio named Screen Classics attempting to buy the rights of the Christine Jorgensen Story. 

Ed feels that he's perfect person to direct the film. he has Dolores act like his secretary and calls Weiss on the phone and hand it to Ed. Ed tells him he's the perfect director for the project. 

 When Weiss asks him why, he tells him that it's best that he tells him that in person.

Ed then he hops in his 1940 Plymouth De Luxe and heads over to Screen Classics. 

When he meets Weiss he discovers that the Jorgensen project fell through and that Weiss is stuck with already printed posters with the title "I Changed My Sex." 

Edward D. Wood, Jr.: Is there a script?

Georgie Weiss: Fuck no. But, there's a poster.

Ed tells Weiss that he is especially qualified to write and direct because he secretly likes to wear woman's clothes and that he knows what it's like to live two lives. 

Edward D. Wood, Jr.: I like to dress in women's clothing.

Georgie Weiss: You're a fruit?

Edward D. Wood, Jr.: No, not at all. I love women. Wearing their clothes makes me feel closer to them.

Mike Starr as George Weiss

Georgie Weiss: You're not a fruit?

Edward D. Wood, Jr.: No, I'm all man. I even fought in W.W.2. Of course, I was wearing women's undergarments under my uniform.

Weiss throws him out.

Ed dispirited gets drunk in Boardner's lounge until he runs out of cash. Then while on his way to the De Luxe he passes The Hollywood Mortuary a funeral parlor with a coffin display and spots Bela Lugosi laying in a coffin. 

He walks in and stands by the coffin. Bela opens his eyes.

Bela Lugosi: This is the most uncomfortable coffin I've ever been in. Your selection is quite shoddy. You are wasting my time.

Eddie tells Bela the he was his favorite star.

Edward D. Wood, Jr.: Mr. Lugosi, why are you buying a coffin?

Bela Lugosi: I'm planning on dying soon.

They start walking down the street on the sidewalk.

Edward D. Wood, Jr.: Boy, Mr. Lugosi, you must lead such an exciting life! When is your next picture coming out?

Bela Lugosi: I have no next picture.

Edward D. Wood, Jr.: You gotta be joking, a great star like you? You must have dozens of them lined up!

Bela Lugosi:  Back in the old days, yes... Now, no one gives two fucks for Bela.

Edward D. Wood, Jr.: But you're a big star!

Bela Lugosi: No more. I haven't worked in four years. This business, this town, it chews you up, then spits you out.

[pauses]

Bela Lugosi: I'm just an ex-boogeyman.

When Lugosi stops at the bus stop, Eddie is surprised that he doesn't drive and offers him a lift.

The gist of the sequence is that Eddie realises that Bela is broke and could use the money and that he can use Bela as star power for the Weiss film. 

When he finally gets home he tells Dolores that something wonderful happened, she thinks he got the job but Eddie explains he met Bela Lugosi. 

Eddie goes back to Screen Classics and Georgie Weiss.

Georgie Weiss: So, what was the important news you couldn't tell me on the phone, again?

Edward D. Wood, Jr.: Well, I started thinking about what you were saying about how your movies need to make a profit. Now, what is the one thing, if you put it in a movie, it'll be successful?

Georgie Weiss: Tits.

Edward D. Wood, Jr.: No, better than that. A star.

Georgie Weiss: Kid, you must have me confused with David Selznick. I don't make major motion pictures; I make crap.

Edward D. Wood, Jr.: Yes, but if you take that crap and put a star in it, then you've got something.

Georgie Weiss: Yeah. Crap with a star.

It starts going Noirsville for Eddie and Dolores when he makes her go into the bedroom to read his finished script for the Weiss picture.

When Dolores is finished, she opens to door and standing there in the middle of the room is Eddie in drag, wearing a blonde wig, her angora sweater, slacks and heels. Additional complications arise when Eddie discovers Bela's a geezer , with a morphine junkie habit.

Noirsville

Rance Howard as Ols Man McCoy

Korla Pandit, as "Indian musician,"

This is a very entertaining Bio Noir not only about Ed Wood but it also can be extrapolated to reflect similar stories for all exploitation films. John Waters and his weird counterculture friends as his cast comes to mind immediately.

In the late 1950s and 1960s all an exploitation film had to do to make all its money back was to play two weeks in a grindhouse theater. 

Burton and Czapsky do a great job recreating what exploitation film production was all about, with a cast that gives us very convincing performances. Bravo! 10/10