Born | Edward Davis Wood Jr. October 10, 1924 |
---|---|
Died | December 10, 1978 (aged 54) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Other names | Daniel Davis, Ann Gora, Edward D. Wood Jr., Adkov Telmig |
Occupation | Filmmaker, author, actor |
Years active | 1947–1978 |
Spouse(s) | (annulled) Kathy O'Hara (m. 1959–1978) |
Military career | |
Allegiance | United States |
Service/branch | United States Marine Corps |
Years of service | 1942–46 |
Rank | Corporal |
Battles/wars | World War II: |
- Necromania A Tale Of Weird Love (1971)torrent Video
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Edward Davis Wood Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978) was an American filmmaker, actor, and author.
In the 1950s, Wood directed several low-budget science fiction, crime and horror films, notably Glen or Glenda (1953), Jail Bait (1954), Bride of the Monster (1955), Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959), Night of the Ghouls (1959) and The Sinister Urge (1960). In the 1960s and 1970s, he transitioned towards sexploitation and pornographic films, and wrote over eighty pulp crime, horror and sex novels. Notable for their campy aesthetics, technical errors, unsophisticated special effects, ill-fitting stock footage, eccentric casts, idiosyncratic stories and non sequitur dialogue, Wood's films remained largely obscure until he was posthumously awarded a Golden Turkey Award for Worst Director of All Time in 1980, renewing public interest in his life and work.[1]
Following the publication of Rudolph Grey's 1992 oral biography Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood Jr., a biopic of his life, Ed Wood (1994), was directed by Tim Burton. Starring Johnny Depp as Wood, the film received two Academy Awards.
- 1Early years
- 2Career
- 3Personal life
- 6In popular culture
- 8Collaborations
- 10References
Early years[edit]
Wood's father, Edward Sr., worked for the U.S. Postal Service as a custodian, and his family relocated numerous times around the United States. Eventually, they settled in Poughkeepsie, New York, where Ed Wood Jr. was born in 1924. According to Wood's second wife, Kathy O'Hara, Wood's mother Lillian would dress him in girl's clothing when he was a child because she had always wanted a daughter.[2] For the rest of his life, Wood crossdressed, infatuated with the feel of angora on his skin.[3][4]
During his childhood, Wood was interested in the performing arts and pulp fiction. He collected comics and pulp magazines, and adored movies, especially Westerns, serials, and anything involving the occult. Buck Jones and Bela Lugosi were two of his earliest childhood idols. He often skipped school, in favor of watching motion pictures at the local movie theater, where stills from that day's movie would often be thrown into the trash by theater staff, allowing Wood to salvage the images, and to add to his extensive collection.
On his 12th birthday, in 1936, Wood received as a gift his first movie camera, a Kodak 'Cine Special'. One of his first pieces of footage, and one that imbued him with pride, showed the airship Hindenburg passing over the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie, shortly before its disastrous crash at Lakehurst, New Jersey. One of Wood's first paid jobs was as a cinema usher, and he also sang and played drums in a band. He later fronted a singing quartet called 'Eddie Wood's Little Splinters', having learned to play a variety of string instruments.
Military service[edit]
In 1942, Wood enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, just months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Assigned to the 2nd Defense Battalions, he reached the rank of corporal before he was discharged. He was involved in the Battle of Tarawa, among others, and during the entire war, he lost his two front teeth to a Japanese soldier's rifle butt and was shot several times in the leg by a Japanese machine gunner (as shown in The Unknown War of Edward D. Wood Jr.: 1942–1946 by James Pontolillo). Wood later claimed that he feared being wounded in battle more than he feared being killed, mainly because he was afraid a combat medic would discover his secret due to wearing a bra and panties under his uniform during the Battle of Tarawa.
Career[edit]
Directing and screenwriting[edit]
In 1947, Wood moved to Hollywood, California, where he wrote scripts and directed television pilots, commercials and several forgotten micro-budget westerns with names such as Crossroads of Laredo and Crossroad Avenger: The Legend of the Tucson Kid. In 1948, Wood wrote, produced, directed, and starred in Casual Company, a play derived from his unpublished novel, which was based on his service in the United States Marine Corps. It opened at the Village Playhouse to negative reviews on October 25.[5]
In 1952, Wood was introduced to actor Bela Lugosi by friend and fellow writer-producer Alex Gordon, Wood's roommate at the time, who was later involved in creating American International Pictures. Lugosi's son, Bela Lugosi Jr., has been among those who felt Wood exploited the senior Lugosi's stardom, taking advantage of the fading actor when he could not refuse any work,[6] while most documents and interviews with other Wood associates in Nightmare of Ecstasy suggest that Wood and Lugosi were genuine friends and that Wood helped Lugosi through the worst days of his clinical depression and addiction. Lugosi had become dependent on morphine as a way of controlling his debilitating sciatica over the years, and was in a poor physical state.[7]
Wood billed himself under a number of different pseudonyms, including Ann Gora (in reference to Angora, his favorite female textile) and Akdov Telmig (the backwards form of his favorite drink, the vodka gimlet).
Glen or Glenda[edit]
In 1953 Wood wrote and directed the semi-documentary film Glen or Glenda (originally titled I Changed My Sex!) with producer George Weiss. The film starred Wood (under the alias 'Daniel Davis'), his girlfriend Dolores Fuller, and Lugosi (in voiceover) as the god-like narrator.
Jail Bait[edit]
Wood directed and produced a crime film, Jail Bait (1954, originally titled The Hidden Face), along with co-writer Alex Gordon, which starred Lyle Talbot and Steve Reeves (in one of his first acting jobs). Bela Lugosi was supposed to play the lead role of the plastic surgeon, but was busy working on another film project when filming started and had to bow out.
Bride of the Monster[edit]
Wood produced and directed the horror film Bride of the Monster (1955, originally titled Bride of the Atom), based on an original story idea by Alex Gordon which he called The Atomic Monster.[8] It starred Bela Lugosi, Swedish wrestler Tor Johnson, and Loretta King.
Plan 9 from Outer Space[edit]
Serial number revit 2015. In 1956 Wood produced, wrote, and directed the science fiction film Plan 9 from Outer Space (originally titled Grave Robbers from Outer Space), which featured Lugosi in a small role (his final film role; Lugosi died during production), Tor Johnson, Vampira (Maila Nurmi), Tom Mason (who doubled for Lugosi in most scenes), and the Amazing Criswell as the film's narrator. Plan 9 premiered (as Grave Robbers) at a very small screening in 1957, was only released theatrically under the title Plan Nine from Outer Space in 1959, and was finally sold to late night television in 1961, thereby finding its audience over the years.
It became Wood's best-known film and received a cult following after 1980, when Michael Medved declared this film 'the worst film ever made' in his book The Golden Turkey Awards.
The Violent Years[edit]
In 1956 Wood wrote and produced the film The Violent Years (originally titled Teenage Girl Gang) with director William M. Morgan, starring Playboy model Jean Moorhead.
Night of the Ghouls[edit]
In 1958 Wood wrote, produced, and directed Night of the Ghouls (originally titled Revenge of the Dead), starring Kenne Duncan, Tor Johnson (as 'Lobo' from Bride of the Monster), Criswell, Duke Moore, and Valda Hansen. The film may have been released marginally in March 1959, and then promptly vanished from sight for a quarter century. For many years, it was thought to be a lost film but it was rediscovered and finally released on home video in 1984. (In 1958, Wood also co-wrote the screenplay for The Bride and the Beast (1958), which was directed by Adrian Weiss.)
The Sinister Urge[edit]
Wood wrote and directed the exploitation film The Sinister Urge (1960),[9] starring Kenne Duncan, Duke Moore, and Carl Anthony. Filmed in just five days, this is the last mainstream film Wood directed, although it has grindhouse elements. The film contains an 'eerily prescient'[10] scene, in which Carl Anthony's character states, 'I look at this slush, and I try to remember, at one time, I made good movies'.
The scenes of teenagers at a pizza place had been shot in 1956 for Wood's unfinished juvenile delinquency film Rock and Roll Hell (a.k.a. Hellborn)
Orgy of the Dead[edit]
In 1963 Wood wrote the screenplay for Shotgun Wedding (an exploitation film about hillbillies marrying child brides) and his 1965 transitional film Orgy of the Dead (originally titled Nudie Ghoulies), combining the horror and grindhouse skin-flick genres. Wood handled various production details while Stephen C. Apostolof directed under the pseudonym A. C. Stephen. The film begins with a recreation of the opening scene from the then-unreleased Night of the Ghouls. Criswell, wearing one of Lugosi's old capes, rises from his coffin to deliver an introduction taken almost word-for-word from the previous film. Set in a misty graveyard, the Lord of the Dead (Criswell) and his sexy consort, the Black Ghoul (a Vampira look-alike), preside over a series of macabre performances by topless dancers from beyond the grave (recruited by Wood from local strip clubs). The film also features a Wolf Man and a Mummy. Together, Wood and Apostolof went on to make a string of sexploitation films up to 1977. Wood co-wrote the screenplays and occasionally acted. Venus Flytrap (1970) aka The Revenge of Dr. X, a US/Japan horror film, was based on an unproduced Ed Wood screenplay from the 1950s.[11]
Necromania[edit]
In 1969, Wood appeared in The Photographer (a.k.a. Love Feast or Pretty Models All in a Row), the first of two films produced by a Marine buddy, Joseph F. Robertson, portraying a photographer using his position to engage in sexual antics with models. He had a smaller role in Robertson's second film, Mrs. Stone's Thing, as a transvestite who spends his time at a party trying on lingerie in a bedroom.
In 1970, Wood made his own pornographic film, Take It Out in Trade. The following year, he produced, wrote, and directed Necromania (sometimes subtitled A Tale of Weird Love) under the pseudonym 'Don Miller'. The film was an early entry to the new subgenre of hardcore pornographic film. Thought lost for years, it resurfaced in edited form on Mike Vraney's Something Weird imprint in the late 1980s, then was re-released on DVD by Fleshbot Films in 2005.
Throughout the 1970s, Wood worked with friend Stephen C. Apostolof, usually co-writing scripts, but also serving as an assistant director and associate producer. (Together they had made Wood's Orgy of the Dead in 1965.) His last known on-screen appearance was in Apostolof's Fugitive Girls (a.k.a. Five Loose Women) in 1974, where he played both a gas station attendant called 'Pops' and a sheriff on the women's trail.
Books and novels[edit]
Beginning in the early 1960s up until his death, Wood wrote at least 80 lurid crime and sex novels in addition to hundreds of short stories and non-fiction pieces for magazines and daily newspapers. Thirty-two stories known to be written by Wood (he sometimes wrote under pseudonyms such as 'Ann Gora' and 'Dr. T.K. Peters') are collected in Blood Splatters Quickly, published by OR Books in 2014. Novels include Black Lace Drag (1963) (reissued in 1965 as Killer in Drag), Orgy of the Dead (1965), Devil Girls (1967), Death of a Transvestite (1967), The Sexecutives (1968), The Photographer (1969), Take It Out in Trade (1970), The Only House in Town (1970), Necromania (1971), The Undergraduate (1972), A Study of Fetishes and Fantasies (1973) and Fugitive Girls (1974).
In Nightmare of Ecstasy, Maila Nurmi said she declined Wood's offer to do a nude scene sitting in a coffin for the film version of his Necromania, claiming she was recovering from a major stroke at the time.[12]
In 1965, Wood wrote the quasi-memoirHollywood Rat Race, which was eventually published in 1998. In it, Wood advises new writers to 'just keep on writing. Even if your story gets worse, you'll get better', and also recounts tales of dubious authenticity, such as how he and Bela Lugosi entered the world of nightclub cabaret.
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How to read autocorrelation table. Watson test statistic value is 0.24878. We want to test the null hypothesis of zero autocorrelation in the residuals against the alternative that the residuals are positively autocorrelated at the 1% level of significance. If you examine the Savin and White tables (Table A.2 and Table A.3), you will not find a row for sample size 69, so go to.
Personal life[edit]
Relationships and marriages[edit]
Wood had a long-term relationship with actress and songwriter Dolores Fuller, whom he met in late 1952. The two lived together for a time and Wood cast Fuller in three of his films: Glen or Glenda, Jail Bait, and Bride of the Monster. Fuller later said she initially had no idea that Wood was a crossdresser and was mortified when she saw Wood dressed as a woman in Glen or Glenda. The couple broke up in 1955 after Wood cast another actress in the lead role of Bride of the Monster (Wood originally wrote the part for Fuller and reduced her part to a 1-minute cameo) and because of Wood's excessive drinking.[13]
While making Bride of the Monster in late 1955, Wood married Norma McCarty. McCarty appeared as Edie, the airplane stewardess in Plan 9 from Outer Space. The marriage was annulled in 1956.[14]
Wood married his second wife, Kathy O'Hara, in 1959. They remained married until Wood's death in 1978.[15] Kathy died on June 26, 2006, having never remarried.[15]
Cross-dressing[edit]
In Wood's 1992 biography Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood Jr., Wood's wife Kathy recalls that Wood told her that his mother dressed him in girls' clothing as a child.[2] Kathy stated that Wood's transvestism was not a sexual inclination, but rather a neomaternal comfort derived mainly from angora fabric (angora is featured in many of Wood's films).[16] Even in his later years, Wood was not shy about going out in public dressed in drag as Shirley, his female alter ego (who also appeared in many of his screenplays and stories).[17]
Death[edit]
By 1978, Wood's depression had worsened, and he and his wife Kathy had both become alcoholics. They were evicted from their Hollywood apartment on Yucca Street on Thursday, December 7, 1978 in total poverty. The couple moved into the North Hollywood apartment of their friend, actor Peter Coe. Wood spent the weekend drinking vodka. Around noon on Sunday, December 10, Wood felt ill and went to lie down in Coe's bedroom. From the bedroom, he asked Kathy to bring him a drink, which she refused to do. A few minutes later he yelled out, 'Kathy, I can't breathe!', a plea Kathy ignored as she later said she was tired of Wood bossing her around. After hearing no movement in the bedroom for 20 minutes, Kathy sent a friend to check on Wood, who discovered him dead from a heart attack. Kathy later said, 'I still remember when I went into that room that afternoon and he was dead, his eyes and mouth were wide open. I'll never forget the look in his eyes. He clutched at the sheets. It looked like he'd seen hell'.[18]
Wood was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at sea.[19]
Legacy and homages[edit]
In 1986 in an essay paying homage to Wood in Incredibly Strange Films, Jim Morton wrote: 'Eccentric and individualistic, Edward D. Wood Jr. was a man born to film. Lesser men, if forced to make movies under the conditions Wood faced, would have thrown up their hands in defeat'.[20]
In 1994 director Tim Burton released the biopic Ed Wood, starring Johnny Depp in the title role and Martin Landau, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Bela Lugosi. It also won an Academy Award for Best Makeup for Rick Baker. Conrad Brooks appeared in the movie, in a cameo role of Barman. The film received mass critical acclaim, but did poorly at the box office. It has since developed a cult following.
In 1996 Reverend Steve Galindo of Seminole, Oklahoma, created a legally recognized religion with Wood as its official savior.[21] Founded as a joke, the Church of Ed Wood now boasts more than 3,500 baptized followers. Woodites, as Galindo's followers are called, celebrate 'Woodmas' on October 10, which was Wood's birthday. Numerous parties and concerts are held worldwide to celebrate Woodmas. On October 4[22]–5, 2003,[23]horror hostMr. Lobo was canonized as the 'Patron Saint of late night movie hosts and insomniacs' in the Church of Ed Wood.[22][23]
In 1997 the University of Southern California began holding an annual Ed Wood Film Festival, in which student teams are challenged to write, film, and edit an Ed Wood-inspired short film based on a preassigned theme. Past themes have included Rebel Without a Bra (2004), What's That in Your Pocket? (2005), and Slippery When Wet (2006).[24]
In popular culture[edit]
From 1993 to 1994, three of Wood's films (Bride of the Monster, The Violent Years, and The Sinister Urge) were featured on the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000, which gave those works wider exposure. Producers of MST3K considered including Plan 9, but found it had too much dialogue for the show's format.
In 1998, Wood's previously unfilmed script I Woke Up Early the Day I Died was finally produced, starring Billy Zane and Christina Ricci, with appearances by Tippi Hedren, Bud Cort, Sandra Bernhard, Karen Black, John Ritter and many others. Outside of a brief New York theatrical engagement, the film did not receive a commercial release in the United States, and was only available on video in Germany due to contractual difficulties.
In 2001, horror film director and heavy metal musician Rob Zombie released The Sinister Urge, which is titled after Wood's film.
In 2002, American horror-punk supergroup Murderdolls released the album Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls, which features the single 'Dead in Hollywood' and makes a reference to Wood with the lyrics, 'You can knock on Ed Wood, but it won't do you no good/Cause all of my heroes are dead in Hollywood.'
Necromania A Tale Of Weird Love (1971)torrent Video
In 2005, the Plan 9 cast were lampooned in an episode of the television series Deadly Cinema; the following year, clips of this episode were featured in the documentary Vampira: The Movie.[25]
In 2006, MST3K head writer and host Michael J. Nelson recorded an audio commentary track for a DVD release of a colorized version of Plan 9 from Outer Space.[26] In 2009, Nelson and fellow MST3K alums Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett mocked Plan 9 again in their very first RiffTrax Live event, coinciding with the film's 50th anniversary.
In 2012, director John Johnson announced plans to film a remake of Plan 9 From Outer Space, released straight-to-DVD in 2015.
In 2017 'Dreamer- the Ed Wood musical' was produced by award-winning composer Rick Tell.
Necromania A Tale Of Weird Love (1971)torrent Full
Documentaries[edit]
- Flying Saucers Over Hollywood: The Plan 9 Companion, was released in 1992. This exhaustive two-hour documentary by Mark Patrick Carducci chronicles the making of Plan 9 from Outer Space and features interviews with Maila Nurmi (Vampira), Paul Marco, Conrad Brooks, et al. In 2000, Image Entertainment included the documentary on the DVD reissue of Plan 9 from Outer Space (in a two-disc set with Robot Monster).
- Ed Wood: Look Back in Angora, released in 1994 by Rhino Home Video, is a one-hour documentary on Wood's life and films. This includes rare outtakes and interviews with Dolores Fuller, Kathy Wood, Stephen Apostolof, and Conrad Brooks. Gary Owens narrates; Ted Newsom wrote and directed.
- The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood Jr., written and directed by Brett Thompson, came out in 1995. This documentary about the life and films of Ed Wood features interviews with Wood's friends and co-workers and closely resembles Wood's own style, albeit with slightly better miniatures.
- The Incredibly Strange Film Show presented by Jonathan Ross.
Lost films[edit]
Wood's 1972 film The Undergraduate is considered to be a lost film, as was his 1970 film Take It Out in Trade. An 80-minute print of Take It Out In Trade was later discovered and publicly exhibited at Anthology Film Archives in New York City in September 2014.[27][28] Silent outtakes from the film were released by Something Weird Video.[1]
Wood's 1971 film Necromania was also believed lost for years, until an edited version resurfaced, at a yard sale in 1992, followed by a complete unedited print in 2001. A complete print of the previously lost Wood pornographic film, The Young Marrieds, was discovered in 2004. It was released as a part of the four DVD set, The Lost Sex Films of Ed Wood Jr., by Alpha Blue Archives in July 2014.[28]
Collaborations[edit]
Actors[edit]
Glen or Glenda | Crossroad Avenger | Jail Bait | Bride of the Monster | Final Curtain | Plan 9 from Outer Space | Night of the Ghouls | The Sinister Urge | Take It Out in Trade | Crossroads of Laredo | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Criswell | 2 | |||||||||
Carl Anthony | 2 | |||||||||
Conrad Brooks | 6 | |||||||||
Kenne Duncan | 3 | |||||||||
Harvey B. Dunn | 4 | |||||||||
Timothy Farrell | 2 | |||||||||
Dolores Fuller | 4 | |||||||||
Tor Johnson | 3 | |||||||||
Tom Keene | 2 | |||||||||
Bela Lugosi | 3 | |||||||||
Dudley Manlove | 2 | |||||||||
Paul Marco | 3 | |||||||||
Tom Mason | 2 | |||||||||
Duke Moore | 6 | |||||||||
Bud Osborne | 4 | |||||||||
Lyle Talbot | 4 | |||||||||
Ed Wood | 6 |
See also[edit]
- William C. Thompson was Wood's cinematographer for all but Take It Out in Trade.
- Frank Worth composed music for Bride of the Monster and Plan 9 from Outer Space.
References[edit]
- ^ abCraig 2009, p. 276.
- ^ abGrey 1994, p. 16.
- ^Benshoff 1997, p. 157.
- ^Weaver 2004, p. 358.
- ^Grey 1994, pp. 23–24.
- ^Thompson, Brett (1996). The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood Jr (Documentary). Wood-Thomas Pictures.
- ^'10 Absurd Facts About the Worst Director of All Time'. Retrieved August 14, 2016.
- ^'Alex Gordon'. Autry.com. Retrieved November 9, 2013.
- ^Craig, Rob (2009), 'The Sinister Urge (1960)', Ed Wood, Mad Genius: A Critical Study of the Films, McFarland & Company, ISBN978-0786454235
- ^Craig 2009, p. 208.
- ^Weldon 1996, p. 464.
- ^Grey 1994, p. 135.
- ^McLellan, Dennis (May 11, 2011). 'Dolores Fuller dies at 88; actress dated director Ed Wood'. latimes.com. Retrieved June 4, 2013.
- ^Holman, Jordyn (August 18, 2014). 'Norma McCarty, Actress and Wife of Ed Wood, Dies at 93'. variety.com. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
- ^ ab'Kathy Wood'. Variety. July 16, 2006. Retrieved September 25, 2011.
- ^Grey 1994, p. 141.
- ^Craig 2009, p. 108.
- ^Ford 1999, p. 81.
- ^Grey 1994, p. 160.
- ^Morton 1986, p. 158.
- ^'Oh My God?: God Is the Producer of Our Lives But We Are the Directors'. Huffpost Entertainment. November 18, 2009.
- ^ ab'ABOUT MR. LOBO'. Cinema Insomnia. Archived from the original on March 28, 2010. Retrieved July 20, 2010.
- ^ abReverend Steve Galindo (December 23, 2003). 'Lesson 19: The First Saints of Woodism'. Church of Ed Wood. Retrieved July 20, 2010.
- ^'USC Events Calendar'. Web-app.usc.edu. Archived from the original on December 15, 2012. Retrieved November 9, 2013.
- ^'Cast of Vampira: The Movie'. Vampirathemovie.com. Retrieved November 9, 2013.
- ^'Plan 9 from Outer Space: In Color (with Mike Nelson Commentary) : DVD Talk Review of the DVD Video'. Dvdtalk.com. Retrieved November 9, 2013.
- ^'Film Screenings/Film Calendar (September 2014)'. anthologyfilmarchives.org.
- ^ abPiepenburg, Erik (August 28, 2014). 'Wild Rides to Inner Space'. nytimes.com. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
Bibliography[edit]
- Benshoff, Harry M. (1997). Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and the Horror Film. Manchester University Press. ISBN0-7190-4473-1.
- Craig, Rob (2009). Ed Wood, Mad Genius: A Critical Study of the Films. McFarland. ISBN0-7864-5423-7.
- Ford, Luke (1999). A History of X: 100 Years of Sex in Film. Prometheus Books. ISBN1-61592-631-3.
- Gerstner, David A., ed. (2006). Routledge International Encyclopedia of Queer Culture. Routledge. ISBN0-415-30651-5.
- Grey, Rudolph (1994). Nightmare Of Ecstasy: The Life and Art Of Edward D. Wood Jr. Feral House. ISBN0-922915-24-5.
- Hoberman, J.; Rosenbaum, Jonathan (2009). Midnight Movies. Basic Books. ISBN0-7867-4700-5.
- Morton, Jim (1986). Juno, Andrea; Vale, V. (eds.). Incredibly Strange Films (1 ed.). San Francisco, California: RE/Search. ISBN0-940642-09-3.
- Weaver, Tom, ed. (2004). It Came From Horrorwood: Interviews With Moviemakers In The Science Fiction And Horror Tradition. McFarland. ISBN0-7864-2069-3.
- Weldon, Michael (1996). The Psychotronic Video Guide. Titan Books. ISBN1-85286-770-1.
Further reading[edit]
- Conway, Rob (2009). Ed Wood, Mad Genius: A Critical Study of the Films. McFarland. ISBN978-0-7864-3955-3.
- Medved, Harry and Michael (1980). The Golden Turkey Awards. Perigree Books. ISBN0-399-50463-X. p. 168, 169, 176-181, 204-208, 211, 217
External links[edit]
- Ed Wood on IMDb
- The Hunt for Edward D. Wood Jr. Exhaustive guide to Wood's films and their commercial releases.
- Ed Wood Jr.'s magazine work (Includes adult images)
- Ed Wood at Find a Grave
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ed_Wood&oldid=903427319'
I am a lover of 'Trash Cinema', including some other Wood movies (i.e. Plan 9, Glen or Glenda..) but this one disappointed me. I bought the copy of the film offered by Something Weird Video with high hopes. As another review posted here said, this was supposed to be an erotic movie, but it is almost anti-erotic. The soft core sex scenes go on for way too long and not too much goes on in between them either unfortunately. It is not a complete waste of time for true trash movie fans or die hard Ed Wood fans but I wouldn't go out of my way to see it either.. My rating is 5 out of 10Crew
Director/Producer – Don Miller [Edward D. Wood, Jr], Based on the Novel The Only House by Edward D. Wood, Jr. Production Company – Cinema Classics
Cast
[All Uncredited] Rene Bond (Shirley Carpenter), Ric Lutze (Danny Carpenter), Maria Arnold (Madame Heles)
Plot
Danny and Shelley Carpenter go to stay at the home of Madam Heles, who claims to be a necromancer who is able to fix sexual problems. What Danny and Shelley do not tell the others in the house is that they are only pretending to be a married couple. They are told that Madam Heles does not rise from her coffin before midnight. As they wait for the midnight hour, they are drawn into a series of sexual trysts with the others in the house.
Edward D. Wood Jr probably needs no introduction as the world’s worst director. He was proclaimed such in Harry and Michael Medved’s The Golden Turkey Awards (1980), which loudly and luridly played up the story of his legendary ineptitudes and gaffes, highlighted his purple prose and made a big joke out of the quirks of his private life. The corner piece of the Edward D. Wood Jr story is of course the legendary Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959). The contrary thing that the Medveds’ book served to do was create a cult fascination around Edward D. Wood Jr. All of his more obscure films were revived, there were several biographies and documentaries about him, culminating in the Tim Burton biopic Ed Wood (1994). (See below for the other Edward D. Wood Jr films).
In one’s quest to track down all of the Edward D. Wood Jr obscurities, one eventually finds a copy of Necromania: A Tale of Weird Love. It is a film I had heard mention of for years but was regarded as one of Wood’s lost obscurities. Wood apparently shot the entire film in only three days on a budget of $7000 but the prints subsequently went missing. It is based on Wood’s novel The Only House (1971) – although some sources also state that the book is actually a novelisation of the film. An edited print of the film was rediscovered in a yard sale in 1992 and this version was released on video. Rudolph Grey, author of the Wood biography Nightmare in Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1992), was responsible for an exhaustive search that in 2001 finally uncovered the full 54 minute print (seen here), which contains eight minutes of hardcore material missing from the earlier release.
Finally watching Necromania, one expects another typical Edward D. Wood Jr film – filled with hilarious bad acting, cast with the usual Wood freakshow, more of Wood’s bizarrely overwrought prose and all the hilarious technical howlers and ineptitudes that became his trademark. The great disappointment is that Necromania is lacking in any of that. You could even argue that it is Wood’s most competently made film due to the lack of almost all of the above. There is some bad acting but you hardly tend to notice that as very little focus is placed on the dialogue – the reason for this being that Necromania is a pornographic film and consists of no more than a sequential series of sex scenes. Contrarily, in that the film lacks the usual bizarreness of an Edward D. Wood film and is nothing more than porn for 95% of the running time, it also makes for one of the least interesting films in Wood’s oeuvre. (Although Wood is unable to refrain from throwing in a homage to his idol Bela Lugosi, who by then been gone for more than a decade – when Ric Lutze enters the house and is given to comment “I expect Bela Lugosi to pop out any moment.”)
Necromania needs to be placed in some context. Edward D. Wood’s career as a director began to fade in the 1960s (not that he had ever had one that was anything more than a bottom feeder of the industry) and so he turned his dubious talents to writing a sense of lurid sex novels and produced more than forty such books between 1963 and his death in 1978. His previous genre film Orgy of the Dead (1965) had been a nudie but by the time of his last three films as director, Take It Out in Trade (1970), Necromania and The Young Marrieds (1971), he was making actual pornographic films. One must remember that the 1970s was the era when pornography suddenly became legitimate or at least out in the open with the success of Deep Throat (1972) and other works.
Necromania has been conceived as a weird hybrid where a standard pornographic film has been thrown together with a plot that jumps aboard the interest in matters occult sparked by the success of Rosemary’s Baby (1968). There is no necromancy in the film – Wood seems unaware of what the term necromancy means and construes it as a form of sexual healing magic, whereas the term actually means a form of magic that involves raising or talking to the dead. Madame Heles seems more a cult leader – although there is one strange image where we see an orgy through a prism effect and are told they are condemned souls, as well as a peculiar ritual where Madame Heles’ chief assistant caresses a skull over her naked body. Madame Heles does eventually rise from her coffin at the end and takes Ric Lutze into it with her for a bout of sex.
The sex scenes are nothing remarkable – never anything more exotic than standard penetration shots, mostly lots of blowjobs and cunnilingus. All of these are strung together with an incredibly vague plot. We are also told in the early scenes that Ric Lutze and Rene Bond are only pretending to be a married couple but we never find the significance of why they want to keep this a big secret. Most of the plot is centred around the fact that everyone is waiting for Madame Heles to rise from the tomb at midnight and so have sex because they are bored. As a premise, this contains zero dramatic momentum – cut out the sex scenes and the amount of dialogue spoken would be condensed into about a five-minute film. In fact, aside from the aforementioned sex in the coffin scenes, it is a misnomer to subtitle the film A Tale of Weird Love when it fact what we have is A Tale of Fairly Ordinary Love.
Edward D. Wood Jr’s other genre films are:– the transvestitism pseudo-documentary Glen or Glenda? (1952); the mad scientist film Bride of the Monster (1955); the script for the ape-human love saga The Bride and the Beast (1958); Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959); the fake medium film Night of the Ghouls (1960, released 1983); and the script for the nudie horror Orgy of the Dead (1965).
Necromania | |
---|---|
Directed by | Ed Wood |
Produced by | Ed Wood |
Written by | Ed Wood |
Starring | Maria Arnold Rene Bond |
Edited by | Ed Wood |
Distributed by | Stacey Distributors |
51 min. (R-rated) 54 min. (X-rated) | |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $7,000 |
Necromania (sometimes subtitled A Tale of Weird Love) is a pornographic film by Ed Wood, released in 1971.
Production and rediscovery[edit]
Ed Wood produced, wrote, and directed the film under the pseudonym 'Don Miller'.[1] The title seems to imply necrophilia, but the content implies an obsession with Death.[1] The film was based on the novel The Only House (1970), also written by Wood. Rob Craig observes that certain elements of the original story were 'slavishly' adapted, while others were altered or removed in their entirety.[1] For example, in the novel the rituals of sex magic are depicted in detail, and the Carpenters are not lovers posing as a married couple. They are in fact married.[1]
The film was shot on a budget of US$7,000.[1] According to Charles Anderson, a Wood collaborator, the director himself played a role in the film. Anderson recalled this role to be a wizard or an evil doctor. However, no such role appears in the finished film. Craig suspects it was in a deleted scene.[1]
The film was an early entry to the new subgenre of hardcorepornographic film. The pioneers of the subgenre were films such as Mona the Virgin Nymph (1970) by Howard Ziehm and Sex USA (1970) by Gerard Damiano. The subgenre went on to enter the mainstream with Deep Throat (1972).[1] The idea of graphic sex as an integral part of an adult-oriented narrative was further explored in Last Tango in Paris (1972) by Bernardo Bertolucci, Sodom and Gomorrah: The Last Seven Days (1974) by Artie Mitchell, and The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1976) by Radley Metzger. As a narrative-driven film, Rob Craig argues that Necromania can also be considered part of the Golden Age of Porn, along with these films.[1]
Thought lost for years, it resurfaced in edited form on Mike Vraney's Something Weird imprint in the late 1980s, then was re-released on DVD by Fleshbot Films in 2005. Opening titles indicate 'Produced & directed by Don Miller. Our cast wish to remain anonymous.'
Plot[edit]
Before the credits, the film opens to an image seen through a prism. It depicts a group of naked, writhing bodies in the process of group sex. The prism replicates the image, so several versions are seen in a single frame.[1] The credits are followed by a scene opening in a suburban area of California. A car is seen driving around, the passengers presumably looking for something. They stop before an old mansion, then the camera shifts to the image of a door knocker depicting a lion's head. The young couple knocks first, then enters through the unlocked door. They bicker over the decision to enter unannounced. The young man then jokes about the creepy location, saying that 'Any minute, I expect Bela Lugosi as Dracula' to appear.[1]
They next enter a room decorated with occult-related items and containing a coffin. There, the young couple is greeted by Tanya, and identified as Danny and Shirley Carpenter. Tanya herself is dressed only in a red negligee. They are there to see necromancer Madame Heles (pronounced 'heals') for a witchcraft solution to Danny's erectile dysfunction. Tanya leads them to a room prepared for their stay. A dildo serves as the ringer of the room.[1] When left alone, the Carpenters resume bickering over their sexual dysfunction. They fail to notice feminine eyes watching them through the holes in a nearby painting—Tanya's eyes.[1]
Tanya ends her surveillance and returns to the room with the coffin. She picks up a skull and uses it to rub her body. Besides achieving sexual stimulation, this is implied to be a ritual of sex magic. Speaking to the coffin, Tanya informs someone that their suspicions were correct. The Carpenters are not married. The significance of this information is not explained.[1] Tanya leaves the room and encounters a man called Carl, who demands to have sex with her, claiming that he paid plenty to be the first to have her. Tanya makes clear that she does not have to service him, but out of pity for his need, she chooses to do so anyway. An explicit sex scene follows.[1]
Back in their room, the Carpenters have their own sexual session, perhaps in an attempt at self-healing. Danny fails to have a full erection, though, leaving Shirley unsatisfied. She wears her own negligee and leaves the room, going in search of something to satisfy her needs. She is startled by the presence of a stuffed wolf in the corridor and admits to nearly peeing herself from fright.[1] At this point, another young woman in a nightgown approaches Shirley and explains that this wolf died of rabies. The woman introduces herself as Barb, an 'inmate' of Madame Heles. She compliments the beauty of Shirley and starts petting her. This petting opens a scene of lesbian sex between the two young women.[1]
In the bedroom, Danny wakes up from a nap to find himself alone and his penis at rest. He decides to head out to search for Shirley. Elsewhere, Barb and Shirley have moved their lovemaking to another bedroom. Danny instead meets Tanya, who leads him to yet another bedroom and seduces him. Two parallel sex scenes follow. The lesbian one is depicted as mutually satisfying, while the heterosexual only manages to benefit the male partner.[1] Following that, Tanya leads Danny to a window. Once again, group sex is seen through a prism. Tanya explains that not all people react to 'the treatment' successfully. The people depicted through the window are those who will never find satisfaction in their sexual lives, as some want too much and others too little. Suddenly self-conscious, Danny realizes that his own reaction to the treatment was not the proper one.[1] Tanya assures him that he is not like them, since they are lost forever. They can never return to a world which will reject them.[1]
Next, Tanya and Barb lead their lovers to the room with the coffin. Danny and Shirley seem hostile to each other, implying that their relationship is doomed.[1] Tanya and Barb kneel before the coffin and then strip each other. They engage in sex before their audience. In reaction, Shirley swoons, while Danny groans in displeasure. The sexual ritual summons Madame Heles from her coffin.[1] Heles asks about the progress of her two newest students. Barb praises the learning of Shirley in sex, in response, Heles proclaims that Shirley will henceforth live for sex alone. Barb explains that Shirley has graduated.[1]
As Shirley walks away with Barb, Danny is left behind. Tanya declares that they still have some work to do on him. In response, Heles proclaims that he needs her personal sex teachings. While she waits in her coffin, Barb and Karl enter the room. They help Tanya restrain Danny and strip off his clothes. They force the young man to enter the coffin of Heles and then depart. At first, Danny screams, but then he is seen enjoying his healing session with the attractive Heles. The film ends.[1]
Cast[edit]
- Maria Arnold as Madame Heles
- Rene Bond as Shirley
- Ric Lutze as Danny
Analysis[edit]
Wood probably included the reference to Bela Lugosi as a tribute to an old friend.[1]
The front door is decorated with the image of a trident. Rob Craig suggests that it can also be seen as the pitchfork of a devil.[1]
Necromania A Tale Of Weird Love (1971)torrent Quotes
The spying eyes, seen through a painting are part of a trope derived from films featuring haunted houses.[1]
Craig sees the group sex sessions seen through the prism as a depiction of the then-ongoing sexual revolution.[1]
Behind the scenes[edit]
A coffin owned by The Amazing Criswell is seen in the film, the second of Wood's films (after Night of the Ghouls) in which such a coffin appears.[1] Criswell's family was in the mortician business. The coffin used in Necromania, however, looks antique. According to cinematographer Ted Gorley, this was the result of a misunderstanding. Criswell had meant to donate his own coffin, but the crew of the film borrowed the wrong coffin. The one used in the film was a relic dating to the presidency of Abraham Lincoln (1861–1865).[1]
In Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr. (p. 135), Maila Nurmi, who played Vampira on TV and in Plan 9 from Outer Space, tells how she declined Wood's request for her to do a nude scene sitting up in a coffin in the role of Madame Heles.[1]
Rediscovery[edit]
The film magazine Cult Movies (issue #36) printed a detailed article about the rediscovery of Wood's Necromania and The Only House in Town. The piece was written by Rudolph Grey, author of the Wood biography Nightmare of Ecstasy.
References[edit]
- ^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaabacadCraig (2009), pp. 242–251
Sources[edit]
- Craig, Rob (2009). 'Necromania—A Tale of Weird Love (1971)'. Ed Wood, Mad Genius: A Critical Study of the Films. McFarland & Company. ISBN978-0786454235.
- Rudolph Grey, Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1992) ISBN978-0-922915-24-8
- The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1996), documentary film directed by Brett Thompson
External links[edit]
- Necromania on IMDb
- Necromania at AllMovie
- Necromania at Rotten Tomatoes
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