Last of the American Hoboes: A review

 

Review by Doug Gibson

The actor above is the late Titus Moede (also known as Titus Moody). It's a still from the film "The Last American Hoboes," which has a date of 1967, but I don't believe it premiered until at least 1969.  View a trailer here.

I used to read about this film in the pages of Cult Movies Magazine. Moede occasionally contributed for the pub, either as interviewee or interviewer. He was active in the film industry for 40-plus years. Early in his career he was a TV actor. He moved toward low-budget cinema in the '60s, working for Coleman Francis and Ray Dennis Steckler. My favorite Moede film is "Rat Pfink a Boo Boo." 

Like some of his peers, Moede gravitated to adult cinema. His tasks included directing and photography. But "Last of the American Hoboes" was a passion project of his. Over the course of several years, Moede, along with script writer/actor Gordon Barclay, gathered film for this pseudo documentary that included a healthy dose of filmed dramatic inserts. Moede and Barclay moved from skid row streets to railroads, to "hobo jungles," to flophouses, cheap late-night diners, skid row, country homes, old trees, and many roads of middle America and the American West. The film has a lot of atmosphere with the relaxed outdoor hobo camps, and trains, and the different, cramped, oppressive life in downtown skid row. It culminates in Britt, Iowa, where a hobo convention is held and a hobo king crowned.

The film includes a few low-budget cult names of the era, besides Moede and Barclay. Genre fans will notice Coleman Francis and Bruno VeSota. The cast includes hoboes of the 1960s, including contenders vying for the title of hobo king.

I am really surprised this film never made it to the now-canceled TCM Underground movie series. Or maybe I missed it. But I doubt it. It also seems like a film that public television of that era might have been interested in airing.

I always wanted to see this film, and could have bought it thirty years ago. The magazine had ads for it. But it was an era when I was yet to solidify a career and couldn't easily part with the cash. But every few years I would casually scan the Internet for the entire film, but no luck. It had been a few years but recently I looked for it again and lo and behold, it's currently free to watch on Tubi.

 

The film also released an album of songs (see cover below). These are songs of the road and hobo history. The film boasts of covering 70 hears of hobo life. I enjoy the songs a bunch and will probably haunt Ebay to find a reasonably priced copy of the album. I was surprised a reviewer of the film on IMDB.com panned the songs. They are actually quite cool. 

So, after finally viewing it, what's my take on "Last of the American Hoboes?" Thumbs up. It's far from a great film. The low budget hampers it. Often scenes are shot silent and voices dubbed in. I would have liked to have seen more action in Britt, Iowa, and less inserted drama. The actors are earnest but limited. Also on IMDB.com a reviewer recalls being in the film as a child. She has nice things to say about Moede.

But those are really minor quibbles. This a fascinating film, a deeply personal endeavour from Moede and Barclay, who clearly have love and passion for the subject. Just the locations they moved into, and the unique individuals, as well as points of view that are inserted in the film, make it remarkable. Without condescension, the lives of hoboes, tramps and stationary homeless individuals are treated with respect. The film recreates history, including the unfair, sad state of the Depression-era Bonus marchers and the criminal trial and execution of IWW "Wobblie" labor leader Joe Hill.

The best acting is from Barclay, who portrays a traveling hobo. With his haunted, gaunt, unshaven face, and old clothes, he conveys effectively the frustration, and impotent anger of a man who understands all too well he's getting the short straw in life. His accounting of a man's suicide in a flop house is moving.

Moede is prominent later in the film as a bearded traveler riding the roads to the convention. 

I have no idea if this film played theaters. Our newspaper archive expert in Long Beach, Calif., David Grudt, found some newspaper clips for the film, which shows it garnered publicity in southen California. Rumor has it Moede garnered awards for the film. Late in his life, Moede received a career achievement award at a Cult Movies Magazine convention. He died in 2001. 

Below is a snippet of a Hollywood Citizen-News column in 1971, from Criswell, plugging the film. It's from the last edition Cult Movies magazine published.

Below are David's clips from, in order, The San Francisco Examiner, June 13, 1969; Ventura County Star, Aug. 15, 1971; Redding Calif., Record Searchlight, May 21, 1975; and finally, two small clippings from The Los Angeles Times that ran roughly 25 years apart! Same notice, Sept. 2, 1972 and Aug. 28, 1997. (I would have enjoyed a serving of Moede's hobo stew!). The film was sold for a long time at the now-gone Mondo Video a Go-Go in Los Angeles.

Criswell the mystic local advice columnist, 1949-1951

Dead2Rights Ed Wood Wednesdays, that wonderful blog from Joe Blevins that provides in-depth analysis on all things Ed Wood, has a detailed, informative blog post on Criswell, predictor of the future, star of two Wood films and occasional Johnny Carson TV guest.

The blog post notes accurately that Criswell's sojourn with a measure of fame began around 1953. However, I am from Long Beach, Calif., and very long ago my now-deceased mother, while enduring a Plan 9 From Outer Space viewing with me, remarked, "I know that Criswell guy; he used to write a column in the (Long Beach) Press-Telegram. I saw it when I was barely a teen."

I often wondered about that, and recently I have become captive to the addiction of searching old newspaper clips. So, having signed up for Newspaper Archives, I searched for Press Telegram clips of that era. And lo and behold, Mom was right.

In his pre-salad days, Criswell penned a local column for the Press-Telegram. Here is a JPG of his column on Dec. 24, 1949. There he is in the upper left (smaller picture)

I am aware it is unreadable, and I hope to correct that soon. The thing is, unlike Newspapers.com, Newspaper Archive is more expensive, and very cumbersome to use, at least for this novice. I hope to post the column in readable clips soon. I just gotta learn. Newspaper Archive also does not automatically convert to JPG. Clicking on the JPG helps with reading, particularly the second column clip, below.

I have transcribed a small part of the article. Here is the Editor's Note: (not in caps)

EDITOR'S NOTE: THIS NEW PRESS-TELEGRAM FEATURE FROM J.K. CRISWELL HAS DRAWN SUCH A RESPONSE FROM READERS THAT SPACE THIS WEEK LIMITS PUBLICATION OF ALL THE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. THE OTHERS WILL BE USED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

And here are a couple of questions, and answers from Criswell:

Q. Will this marriage last? Will my husband go into business for himself? Will I get that job that I have been after? A. Reader.

A. Both you and your husband have a definite mind of your own, and it is this creative quality in both of you that is causing the friction. I do not sense a break up of the marriage at the present time. Your husband will go into business for himself late in 1950. You will get that job only there will be a delay. You will always manage to come out rather nicely.

Here is another Q and A:

Q. My husband drinks too much and spends almost all he earns. Will he ever change or do you advise a separation? Should I seek employment? Will I be able to contact my son soon? Mrs. N. V. E.

A. Your husband will never change to any great extent and you must expect his periodic lapses from time to time. Later, you will change residences. You will work at a job you like during this coming year. You will hear from your son very soon.

Above is another JPG, of Criswell's Long Beach Press-Telegram column for Feb. 18, 1950. You'll note this is a Criswell Predicts now over the headline, which reads, Columnist Answers Readers' Questions. I do have this clipped to show only the column in its three columns. He has a longer introduction which notes his "record of predictions ... has been considered outstanding."

Here's is a couple of Q and As for our readers' enjoyment:

Q. What happened to my husband, Joe? Mr. J. L. C. 

A. I sense that Joe is out of your life.

Another one:

Q. Several years ago I married my boss, taking him from his wife. Now problem is to keep him as this new secretary of his is trying the same thing that I did. I have a lovely home and an easy time of it and don't want to give it up. What should I do? I married him to get out of secretarial work and now this immoral girl wants to do the same. Mrs. H. L. S.

A. The best thing for you to do at the present time is to suggest that you come back into his office as his secretary. You will be safe this time. See that the next secretary he hires is a man. He has wanted to take that trip to Europe and whether you like that a boat ride or not take that trip.

(I like the last sentence of Criswell's response because it seems him adding a prediction to his answer, unless it's a typo and should have been part of another answer).

At the top of this page is an old clip of from I think the Long Beach Independent, Sept. 26, 1950. This is for a Criswell personal appearance. Of the two clips below, one is an ad for a personal appearance, in the LB Independent for March 31, 1950. Note that Criswell did his show in between, or before movies playing at the theaters. That's a blast from a long-gone era.

The other is a what's-on-radio grid listing from May 30, 1950, same newspaper, and it's fascinating because it notes that Criswell, at that time, had a daily 15-minute radio program on KGER 1390.

(Thanks to my friend, David Grudt, for compiling these clips via Newspapers.com). I hope readers enjoy this looks at the work of folks around the Ed Wood circle. I love doing it.

Criswell: The narrator from the coffin

“And now I tell a tale of the threshold people. So astounding that some of you may faint!”
-Criswell from “Night of The Ghouls” and “Orgy of The Dead.”

By Steve Stones

Like so many of Ed Wood’s entourage of stock actors, Criswell had a very unique personality all his own. Born Charles Geran Criswell King in 1907 to an Indiana mortician, as a red-haired, freckled-face young boy growing up in Indiana, Criswell developed an interest in how future events were going to turn out. Like so many young boys growing up, his mind was looking to the future, not to the present or the past. In Criswell’s own words, he describes his family labeling him as a “freak” when he was just a boy. “And perhaps a freak I have remained.”

Prior to his appearance in Ed Wood’s cult masterpiece Plan 9 From Outer Space, Criswell began his career as a radio newscaster in New York. Criswell also had a successful career as a newspaper columnist. He once appeared on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show and the Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin shows. He later established a reputation as a clairvoyant able to predict the future in very entertaining and strange ways on his television show broadcasted in Los Angeles. His TV show and syndicated column were appropriately called: Criswell Predicts.

Some of his strangest predictions included an influx of cannibalism across America, and seven women serving on the U.S. Supreme Court. Other predictions included a Black Plague to hit the Midwest, the ghost of Napoleon being seen near his tomb in Paris, a secret graveyard being discovered near Denver, and the successful and inexpensive operation to change a woman into a man with the simple transplant of the sex organ.

Perhaps this prediction was fueled by Wood’s Glen Or Glenda, a film dealing with the subject of a man transforming himself into a woman by a sex change, and the rejection of transvestism in modern society. Glen Or Glenda was a film way ahead of its time in the early 1950s. His predictions were chronicled in two books he wrote: Journal of The Future and Your Next Ten Years. Criswell claimed that 86 percent of his predictions were accurate, when in fact they were seldom correct.

Criswell’s appearance in three Ed Wood films: Plan 9 From Outer Space, Night of The Ghouls, and Orgy of The Dead, remain as some of his most interesting and bizarre. His trademark “spit curl” hairstyle and black bow tie make him a recognizable character in contemporary popular culture.

“You are all interested in the unknown, the mysterious, the unexplainable, for that is why you are here,” Criswell states while reading a cue card in the opening of Plan 9 From Outer Space while atmospheric library music plays in the background. A sequence of Criswell rising from an opened coffin in Night of The Ghouls remains a personal favorite of mine. He rises from the coffin and tries desperately to keep his head looking forward, not to give the impression that he is reading a cue card in front of him, which is quite obvious to the viewer.

Criswell crossed over to the land unknown in 1982. In the future I predict that Criswell and Plan 9 From Outer Space will continue to entertain fans for generations to come. See Criswell on Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show below.

Notes: Criswell’s coffin was used in Wood’s adult film, Necromania; a Web site on Criswell is here.

Night of the Ghouls

Night of the Ghouls, 1958, B&W, about 68 minutes. Directed by Edward D. Wood, Jr. Starring Kenne Duncan as Dr. Acula. Valda Hansen as the White Ghost, Tor Johnson as Lobo, Duke Moore, Paul Marco, and Criswell. (Also known as Revenge of the Dead) Schlock-Meter rating 7 stars out of 10.

By DOUG GIBSON

Night of the Ghouls is a lot of fun. It features a bizarre plot, weird characters, ridiculous special effects and actors who -- like all Wood films -- take the convoluted plot very seriously. Narrated by Criswell (in a coffin, of course) It involved a fake medium (Duncan) and his girlfriend (Hansen) who have inhabited the old mansion that Bela Lugosi's mad scientist lived in in Bride of the Monster. The hulkish Lobo (Johnson) is still hanging around as well.

As with any Wood film, plot holes are a mile wide, so it's best to just sit back , don't think much, and enjoy the chaos onscreen. Two cops from Plan 9 From Outer Space, Moore and Marco (who was also in Bride), eventually team to stop the scam artists. It's not very scary stuff, but it's a pleasure to watch if you're a Wood fan, particularly since it's the only horror film Duncan ever made for Wood and the only Wood film Hansen starred in.

The director was thrifty and used anything he could to add to plot and save cash. Here's an example: Wood used scenes from his completed short, Final Curtain (starring Moore) and inserted it in the middle of Night of the Ghouls. The only problem was Moore is wearing a tuxedo in the Final Curtain clip. No problem for Wood, of course! He just has cop Moore, early in Night of the Ghouls, all dressed up in a tux, ready to leave the station house and go to the theater! Of course, Moore is asked to work overtime and visit Dr. Acula, so he takes right off, still wearing his tux! Sometimes you just have to admire Ed Wood's ingenuity ... or his just plain gall! Watch a scene below!

A Tribute to Criswell

“And now I tell a tale of the threshold people. So astounding that some of you may faint!”
-Criswell from “Night of The Ghouls” and “Orgy of The Dead.”

By Steve Stones

Like so many of Ed Wood’s entourage of stock actors, Criswell had a very unique personality all his own. Born Charles Geran Criswell King in 1907 to an Indiana mortician, as a red-haired, freckled-face young boy growing up in Indiana, Criswell developed an interest in how future events were going to turn out. Like so many young boys growing up, his mind was looking to the future, not to the present or the past. In Criswell’s own words, he describes his family labeling him as a “freak” when he was just a boy. “And perhaps a freak I have remained.”

Prior to his appearance in Ed Wood’s cult masterpiece Plan 9 From Outer Space, Criswell began his career as a radio newscaster in New York. Criswell also had a successful career as a newspaper columnist. He once appeared on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show and the Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin shows. He later established a reputation as a clairvoyant able to predict the future in very entertaining and strange ways on his television show broadcasted in Los Angeles. His TV show and syndicated column were appropriately called: Criswell Predicts.

Some of his strangest predictions included an influx of cannibalism across America, and seven women serving on the U.S. Supreme Court. Other predictions included a Black Plague to hit the Midwest, the ghost of Napoleon being seen near his tomb in Paris, a secret graveyard being discovered near Denver, and the successful and inexpensive operation to change a woman into a man with the simple transplant of the sex organ.

Perhaps this prediction was fueled by Wood’s Glen Or Glenda, a film dealing with the subject of a man transforming himself into a woman by a sex change, and the rejection of transvestism in modern society. Glen Or Glenda was a film way ahead of its time in the early 1950s. His predictions were chronicled in two books he wrote: Journal of The Future and Your Next Ten Years. Criswell claimed that 86 percent of his predictions were accurate, when in fact they were seldom correct.

Criswell’s appearance in three Ed Wood films: Plan 9 From Outer Space, Night of The Ghouls, and Orgy of The Dead, remain as some of his most interesting and bizarre. His trademark “spit curl” hairstyle and black bow tie make him a recognizable character in contemporary popular culture.

“You are all interested in the unknown, the mysterious, the unexplainable, for that is why you are here,” Criswell states while reading a cue card in the opening of Plan 9 From Outer Space while atmospheric library music plays in the background. A sequence of Criswell rising from an opened coffin in Night of The Ghouls remains a personal favorite of mine. He rises from the coffin and tries desperately to keep his head looking forward, not to give the impression that he is reading a cue card in front of him, which is quite obvious to the viewer.

Criswell crossed over to the land unknown in 1982. In the future I predict that Criswell and Plan 9 From Outer Space will continue to entertain fans for generations to come.

Notes: Criswell’s coffin was used in Wood’s adult film, Necromania; a fan Web site on Criswell is at http://www.evil-pumpkin.com/jake/criswell/