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.

Ed Wood documentaries: Three early ones

LOOK BACK IN ANGORA

This is the only Ed Wood documentary, besides The Incredibly Strange Film Show, I am aware of to feature Ed’s wife Kathy Wood in interview segments. That alone makes it a valuable piece of Ed Wood history. Produced by Rhino Home Video in 1994, the documentary takes sound bites and images from Wood’s films and uses them to give the film a humorous narrative.

The opening gives us Kathy Wood commenting on how no one really cared much about Ed Wood until his death in 1978. Now, ironically, there is a renewed interest in his films and life. Ed’s marine buddy Joseph Robertson is also interviewed, and describes Ed’s fascination for wearing women’s clothing, even under his army outfit.

Robertson produced such 1960s cult classics as: The Crawling Hand and The Slime People. He went on to direct the adult feature entitled Love Feast, also known as The Photographer and Pretty Girls All In A Row (see my review of Love Feast on this website.).

This documentary also borrows segments of Conrad Brooks’ interviews from On The Trail of Ed Wood (see my review in this post.). The documentary is presented in segments that use Wood’s name in a clever way, such as: Drift Wood, Holly-Wood, Wood’s Stock Company, and Dead Wood.

THE ED WOOD STORY: THE PLAN 9 COMPANION

Of all the Ed Wood documentaries that have been released, I would have to say that this one is the best.

Not only because it carefully examines the career and films of Ed Wood, but also because it highlights the lives and careers of the key actors of Plan 9 From Outer Space: Bela Lugosi, Vampira, Tor Johnson and Criswell. This documentary also has informative insights and humorous commentary by famous fans of Ed Wood and Plan 9 From Outer Space, such as: Sam Raimi, Drew Friedman, Harry Medved, Bill Warren, Joe Dante, Forrest J. Ackerman and Wood’s biographer, Rudolph Grey.

Of great interest is the segment of Conrad Brooks taking the viewer on a tour of the old Quality Studios in Hollywood where Plan 9 was filmed. The first time I viewed the Plan 9 Companion, my heart raced with excitement in being able to see what Quality Studios looks like today. Conrad even reenacts a famous cemetery scene that was shot there with his co-star Carl Anthony.

Lee Harris, the host and narrator of The Plan 9 Companion, also takes us on a tour of the old cemetery location used in the opening shots of Plan 9. Director Mark P. Carducci produced the film with Harris in 1994 and released it to MPI Home Video. Vampira fans will also be pleased with this documentary, since Maila Nurmi offers many insights into her own career and the career of Ed Wood. 

ON THE TRAIL OF ED WOOD

Although the title of this documentary informs us of being on the trail of Ed Wood, perhaps a better title would have been: On The Trail Of Conrad Brooks. I say this only because the entire fifty-six-minute documentary is from the point of view of Conrad Brooks being interviewed in his home, unlike so many other Ed Wood documentaries that interview many of Wood’s stock actors and friends. I got the feeling that the producer Buddy Barnett and director Michael Copner did not have the time or budget to include other Ed Wood actors and friends in this documentary, or perhaps they weren’t interested in anyone else’s views about Wood?

However, there are some informative aspects of this documentary. Conrad takes us on a tour of Ed Wood’s Yucca apartment complex in Hollywood, the last apartment complex he lived in before his death at Peter Coe’s apartment in 1978.

The tour also takes us to the KFWB soundstage in Hollywood, which was Ted Allen’s studio in the 1950s when Bride of The Monster was filmed there. Conrad explains in the documentary that Tor Johnson demanded double his $100.00 salary for his acting roles in Wood’s films. According to Conrad, Wood almost reconsidered using Johnson in his films because of this demand.

He also claims that Ed took a job as a cab driver in the 1970s to make ends meet. Copner and Barnett, both contributing writers and founders of Cult Movies Magazine, released this documentary in 1990. If Copner or Barnett happen to read this article, we would greatly appreciate it if Cult Movies Magazine was back in publication. The magazine is a valuable resource.

-- Steve D. Stones