Ed Wood and the Lost Lugosi Screenplays more Scripts From the Crypt reading

Review by Doug Gibson

The more devoted fans of Ed Wood's years with Bela Lugosi have long salivated for more information on scripts Wood wrote for Lugosi that he just couldn't get to the screen. The main reasons were money and clout; Wood had neither with even second-tier producers at Allied Artists or the then-new American International.

I count myself among those who long wished to read the scripts of "The Ghoul Goes West" and "The Vampire's Tomb." "Final Curtain" intrigued us for years, even if James "Duke" Moore played Lugosi's role, but we finally got to see that a few years after the one-man "Twilight Zone" wannabe pilot was re-discovered and restored.

In fact, "Final Curtain" joins "The Ghoul Goes West" and "The Vampire's Tomb" in the latest BearManorMedia's Scripts in the Crypt offering, "Ed Wood and the Lost Lugosi Screenplays," If you're a fan who loves the minutia presented in an easy-to-read style, get this book. It will satisfy your needs; the lion's share of the book is the three scripts, presented in the wonderfully nostalgic manner of copying Wood's own copies. It's kitschy but cool to see Wood's notes, misspellings, typos, scribbling, and even planned cast members' names for "Tomb", including Lyle Talbot, Loretta King, Dolores Fuller, the aforementioned Moore, etc.

Before we get to the scripts there are are several essays, all entertaining, informative, and at times poignant for genre fans. Lugosi biographer Gary D. Rhodes, in the most historically valuable essay, reviews the ultimately unsuccessful efforts to get "Ghoul" and "Tomb" produced. Besides Wood, his then-partner Alex Gordon was pitching the scripts. Originally, talk was for a three-picture deal, including a film called "Dr. Voodoo." Studio reps from Allied Artists and AIP would eventually kill these deals, asking for changes, an executive producer, fewer films, and script rewrites before ultimately saying no.

Rhodes has gathered an impressive history of press release puffs for "Ghoul" and "Tomb" that made it into trade pubs and newspapers. They would announce stars, then filming dates, and after that date passed the PR process would repeat itself. According to Rhodes' research, Boris Karloff was ready to do a single film with Lugosi. But Steve Broidy, Allied Artists' head, passed on everything. 

A real treat for readers is a reproduced review of "Plan 9 From Outer Space" from a San Diego newspaper. It's very interesting reading a viewpoint that didn't consider "Plan 9" one of the "all-time worst films." 

Tom Weaver does his usual great job in providing a synopsis of the films, with various comments on plot inconsistencies, a dose of snark, and pointing out other films that served as inspiration for the scripts' plots. (More on that later).

ED WOOD IN OBSCURITY

Leo Eaton, a former writing colleague of Wood's when both were churning out adult fiction in the early 1970s, and Robert Cremer, author of "The Man Behind the Cape," an official Lugosi biography, provide two short but powerful reminisces of Wood when he was an impoverished alcoholic. Eaton's tells of his condescending relationship with the middle-aged Wood, who would disapprove of the writers at the porn house wasting time with games. Eaton admits he didn't take Wood's claims of working with Lugosi seriously. 

The short introduction shows that Wood, even in the twilight of his career, took his work seriously. Several years ago, a low-circulation press published a collection of Wood's later, adult fiction. It was more gory adult than sex; perhaps a re-publishing is merited? 

Cremer's essay is the more powerful. It recounts 36 hours of paid interviews he conducted with Wood in preparation for "The Man Behind the Cape." (I'd sure like to see the complete transcript.) There are surreal moments of Wood's ups and downs, how a wad of bills lifts his spirits and he becomes the man who can entertain and buy the booze, and the crashes, where the penniless man sitting in an empty apartment with a wife usually in bed, regrets doing the interviews because he is the one who knew Lugosi best, and should be writing the biography.

Wood's late-life personality is captured well, when he giggles about upsetting grave markers for a "Plan 9" shoot and stealing shots without permission. In the most interesting section of he essay, Wood invites Cremer to watch his copy of "Plan 9," which he filched from a university library, with several of the stars, including Vampira, Talbot, Criswell and Paul Marco. 

They view the film with proprietary love, frequently congratulating a beaming Wood on scenes, ignoring any inconsistencies. At one point, to Cremer's amazement, Marco is impressed with the realism of the air jet's cockpit. While watching the film, they talk eagerly of more films; the elephant in the room -- the money to do so -- is not mentioned. By the next morning, the once-high, now dissipated Wood is back in the blues.

I want to note that despite his personal and professional descent, Wood was prolific to the end. He never stopped writing. His last screenplay, "I Awoke Early the Day  Died," was produced only a generation ago. He was working on a Lugosi biography, which is apparently lost. Wood-scripted films keep popping up, the latest is "The Revenge of Dr. X" "Venus Fly Trap).  Frankly, I think a lot of Ed Wood scripts and films are yet to be discovered.

Wood never gave up. He wrote, even if it was porn. And he always harbored comeback dreams. According to Rudolph Grey's Wood oral biography "Nightmare of Ecstasy," the late John Reynolds claims Wood was submitting films, and seeing them rejected, to major studios. 

From what's in this book, it's clear we need a more comprehensive, traditional biography of Wood. We need to track his descent through the 1960s and 1970s, falling further off the Hollywood road despite the frantic writing of scores of books, thousands of short stories and many scripts.

THE SCRIPTS

Someone once said that there are only seven plots and books and films follow them in some variation. "The Ghoul Goes West" and "The Vampire's Tomb" are derivative of other films, but they are smart, even lean mystery programmers (I think "Tomb" might have gone less than an hour.) I enjoyed reading the scripts, particularly "Ghoul," although "Tomb" is the deeper read. 

I won't give the exact plots away, but as Weaver notes, there's a lot of "Bride on the Monster," in concept more than specifics, in "The Ghoul Goes West." But it's primarily a poverty-row "oater" western dressed up as a mystery/horror with Lugosi as mad scientist undertaker, Dr. Smoke, trying to create giants he can control. As Weaver notes, and I agree, that it's a western makes the dialogue a little more relaxed, even snappier. Wood was having fun, you can tell.

Much has been said that Gene Autry was supposed to star in "Ghoul" and backed out, killing the project. I have to say, if Autry had done the film, I don't think he'd have disgraced himself. It's a pleasant time-waster with some genuine twists. 

I wonder if Wood gave a rueful smile when the "Curse of the Undead" western/horror was released by Universal in 1959, or when Circle Films' horror oaters featuring Dracula and a Frankenstein monster were released in the mid 1960s.

"Tomb of the Vampire," as Weaver correctly notes, is a sort of remake of Browning's "London After Midnight" and "Mark of the Vampire." Weaver adds that there's a lot of "The Cat and the Canary" and I'd add "The Old Dark House and "The Monster Walks" as inspiration as well.

There's more of the Wood melodrama in "Tomb," with characters anguishing, scheming, regretting, and killing. Lugosi has a great part as "Dr. Acula," a sinister detective rather than a fake vampire. The fake vampire was to be played by an actress named "Devila." No one knows who Wood had in mind; we only know Vampira wasn't interested. 

Lugosi's Dr. Acula" is a crackerjack part. He has great lines and takes on a Van Helsing type of role. The conclusion allowed rooms for sequels with Dr. Acula and it would have been an intriguing TV series. 

I'll digress here to opine that Lugosi's stint in rehab and subsequent poor health may have also played a role in the inability of these films to get made. To me, it's debatable he had the strength in 1956 to play anything other than the mute Casimir in "The Black Sleep."

TOO LATE FOR POVERTY ROW

Reading these scripts shows that Wood, had he been born 10-plus years earlier, would have been perfectly capable of settling into a screenwriter on poverty row, maybe graduating to B major studio films and perhaps even becoming a director. Both "The Ghoul Goes West" and "The Vampire's Tomb" would have been very acceptable productions for Monogram or PRC before 1946 or so. 

Wood was writing films in the 1950s that were no longer popular. Maybe if Lugosi had been healthier, Wood's youthful enthusiasm and prolific writing talents might have gotten Lugosi roles, perhaps a studio would have budgeted "Ghoul" or "Tomb" without Wood as director. After Lugosi died, alcohol likely tightened its vise on Wood after "Plan 9." "Night of the Ghouls" would not be released in his lifetime. His last mainstream directing job was "The Sinister Urge."

I have meandered on long enough for this review. Buy the book; what's in it is worth the price. I'll mention that Lee Harris, an accomplished veteran of the entertainment industry who narrated "Flying Saucers Over Hollywood," one of the first "Plan 9" docs, has an interesting essay on the discovery of "Final Curtain." He points out that "Final Curtain" was earlier screened in 1981 at a film festival in Southern California.There's also the screenplay of the short, TV pilot included. 

Rhodes and Weaver do their excellent research and observations and Eaton and Cremer, as mentioned, provide more information on Wood's final years. I'd still love to see the transcripts of the 36 hours of interviews with Ed Wood, Mr. Cremer.

'Final Curtain' Ed Wood does 'The Twilight Zone'

By Doug Gibson

Those who have read the recent BearManor Media book "The Cinematic Misadventures of Ed Wood" are reminded that a previously thought-lost Ed Wood film resurfaced about three years ago (thank heavens it wasn't another porno). It is "Final Curtain," a film that had long tantalized Wood fans due to its partial inclusion in "Night of the Ghouls."

In "The Cinematic Misadventures of Ed Wood," there is an interview with the pair who resurrected "Final Curtain," Jason Insalaco (nephew of Wood actor Paul Marco), and Jonathan Harris. After Marco died, Insalaco discovered production papers from the film in the late Marco's home. The interest led him to search for the film, eventually buying the decaying film from a collector. With Harris' assistance, it was restored and premiered at a film festival. Shortly thereafter it was bootlegged and placed on YouTube. That's where I saw it, although Insalaco and Harris say their original is a far better print.

It's an intriguing, odd film, an episode of a Twilight Zone-type series, "Portraits in Terror," that Wood failed to sell. It stars James Duke Moore, a perennial Wood star, as an aging actor trolling through a deserted theater in early AM after the troupe's last performance. Shot by William Thompson, it looks well on the computer screen, with appropriate shifts between light and dark. The film is all narration, done in emotional but unintentionally campy style by Dudley Manlove, Eros in "Plan 9 From Outer Space." Moore, a limited actor, is not too bad aping the moods and fears expressed in the narration.

The creepiest sequence is the complete scene of Moore encountering a vampire mannequin (played by Jeannie Stevens) in a closet who comes to life, flashing a sinister smile and beckoning the aging actor. This scene is also in "Night of the Ghouls." Stevens is creepy effective in the small role and it's the scene that comes closest to igniting any terror in the film. (Wood apparently made a second episode of "Portraits in Terror," the lost "The Night the Banshee Cried," and it's a safe bet that scenes of Stevens' character by a cemetery in "Night of the Ghouls" is what's left of "Banshee.")

In the new book, Insalaco, misstating Stevens' name as "Janet," claims that she's a mystery and that nothing is known about her. It's true little is known about her, but Rudolph Grey's Wood oral history, "Nightmare of Ecstasy," has a newspaper photo, from 1948," that shows Stevens and her sister, Suzi, pictured, listed as cast members of a Wood play, "Casual Company."

Many have criticized or lampooned Manlove's narration as overly melodramatic, and it is, but it's important to remember that Manlove was a radio announcer, skilled in that medium. It'd be interesting to just hear "Final Curtain" as a 30s or 40s radio show. It might have worked. Also, Harris notes that when viewed sans sound, it has a creepy element. It would also be interesting to re-show "Final Curtain" with mood music substituting for narration.

The final scene is fairly effective as Moore's character lifts the lid of a coffin. When it drops he is unseen, having entered the coffin for an eternal rest.

A rumor, more or less debunked, is that Bela Lugosi was reading the "Final Curtain" script when he died in 1956. However, it is accurate that Wood wrote "Final Curtain" with Lugosi in mind. Had Lugosi been alive and healthy enough to star and narrate, "Final Curtain" would undoubtedly be a lot better and may have made it to at least local Los Angeles TV 58 years ago. As it stands now, it's a worthy addition to Wood's body of work and we can be grateful to Insalaca and Harris for finding it and restoring it for viewers.

A comparison between Ed Wood the film and Ed Wood the book

By Doug Gibson

Tim Burton's wonderful film, Ed Wood, recently was chosen as one of the "new classics," by Entertainment Weekly. It's a worthy selection. Burton's black & white tale of Hollywood in the 1950s is a romanticized fairy tale. Johnny Depp's exuberant, ceaselessly optimistic Wood carries the day with a triumphant Plan 9 from Outer Space premiere at the Pantages. (That didn't happen, of course. Plan 9 was screened once at the tiny Rialto and then sat on the shelf for three years). When Plan 9 was put into general release, Wood didn't see a cent.

Later, before the credits to Burton's film roll, the epilogue tells us Wood descended into alcoholism and pornography. It's appropriate that not be shown in Burton's film. It is, as mentioned a fairy tale, of optimism and perserverance. In a general sense, it is accurate. Wood battled tremendous odds in the 1950s. He filmed Glen Or Glenda, Jail Bait, Bride of the Monster, Plan 9 From Outer Space and Night of the Ghouls with virtually no money. He managed to attract a diverse and eccentric collection of well-known and semi-known cast names, including Dolores Fuller, Criswell, Kenne Duncan, Steve Reeves, Bud Osborne, Timothy Farrell, John Carpenter, Harvey Dunne, Lyle Talbot, Vampira, Herbert Rawlinson, Gregory Walcott and, of course, Bela Lugosi. It appears Wood's enthusiasm was contagious, and many thought he might make it. That he didn't have a long career at least in directing low-budget thrillers must be attributed to his alcoholism, which made him unreliable. Even near his death, his writing was amazingly prolific. More than one friend recalls him writing a screenplay in a day. He wrote hundreds of paperback novels.

The following are some inconsistencies between Burton's Ed Wood, the romanticized, fairy tale film, and Grey's often gritty absorbing oral biography account of Wood's short rise and long descent. One day I'll add to this as time goes on. Here are inconsistencies by film:

Glen or Glenda: In the book, George Weiss is shown as short and trim. In the film he is an overweight slob; It is doubtful that Wood's gay friend Bunny Breckenridge auditioned transvestites for the film. By the way, actor Bill Murray does a great job portraying Breckenridge. The film set for G&G though, matches it as described in the book. Lugosi was not divorced, as the film depicts him. He was still with his wife, Lillian, although she left him soon after. In fact, Grey reports that Lillian pushed Lugosi to take the film. It is also very doubtful Wood gave G&G to a major producer to watch, as the film shows. Also, the film shows Depp's Wood as unhappy that the film was not reviewed in LA. Obviously, Wood would have known where the film was debuting and not checked the LA Times for a review. Burton's scenes of Wood's company stealing shots on LA streets are accurate, according to Grey.

Jail Bait: This film is not even mentioned in Burton's Ed Wood (probably for time and continuity reasons) so let's give it some ink. It's a crime thriller that involves a hood (Farrell) pressuring a plastic surgeon (Rawlinson) and his daughter (Fuller) to make him a new face. Interesting co-stars were Reeves (in his pre-muscleman days) and then-top model Theodora Thurman. Also in the cast are Wood regulars Mona McKinnon, Don Nagel and Bud Osborne. The film's score, which is a bit grating, was taken from Mesa of Lost Women. Howco Films released the film, which likely mostly played the southern drive-in circuit. It's too ambitious for its budget, but is not a bad hour-long time waster. According to Grey, scenes were stolen at an LA motel. (Scene stealing is shooting at private and public locations without permission) Grey, and many rumors, claim that ex-silent film star Rawlinson died the morning after his scenes were shot. Lugosi was slated to play the plastic surgeon, but was either exhausted from his recent Las Vegas gig, too addicted to morphine, or perhaps just had a better offer.

Bride of the Monster: Burton's scenes in LA's Griffith Park of Wood filming in the early AM the finale to Bride are accurate to Grey's description with one exception: Lugosi never got in the water to tangle with a rubber octopus. That was handled by his stand-in, stuntman Eddie Parker. Burton portrays Loretta King, who starred as a nosy reporter, as an airhead. Grey's depiction is fairer, and recent interviews support that she was a capable actress who got the job not for her supposed money, but for her skills. Dolores Fuller's anger at losing the role is accurately portrayed in both film and book. Also, Burton is very unfair to leading man Tony McCoy. He is portrayed as borderline retarded. Wood calls him the worst he ever had in Grey's book. But a viewing of Bride of the Monster shows McCoy to be a very average but capable actor. He certainly knew his lines and can be personable on screen. In fact, McCoy and King were both handled by agent Marge Usher, who supplied Wood with several actors.

Plan 9 From Outer Space: First, although it is a marvelous scene in Burton's Ed Wood, Wood and his idol Orson Welles never chatted at a Hollywood bar. That scene is fiction. By the way, Wood's friend and actor Conrad Brooks plays the bartender in that scene. Also, Burton has Vampira and Kathy Wood being baptized as a Baptist with other Wood regulars to get funding for the film. I don't believe Vampira would have done it, and Kathy Wood says in Grey's book she wouldn't get baptized. It is doubtful Wood would have been angry at Gregory Walcott being cast in his film, since he was a minor name actor at the time. Also, Wood never agreed to his film, Grave Robbers From Outer Space, being changed in title to Plan 9 From Outer Space, as Burton's film show. A minor point; but Ed and Kathy Wood did not meet at Lugosi's hospital, as the film shows. In later interviews, Kathy Wood said they met in a bar. The film was not premiered at the Pantages, and certainly wasn't the elaborate affair as Burton's film shows. In fact, Wood sold the rights to Plan 9 to his Baptist financier, J. Edward Reynolds, for $1 (as Grey recounts) and the film received a minimal release from a small firm, Distributors Releasing Corporation of America. It opened as a second bill to a now-obscure British film called Time Lock.

Night of the Ghouls: Again, not mentioned in Burton's Ed Wood, this film was a sequel to Bride of the Monster, as it involved Tor Johnson's giant Lobo, and a semi sequel to Plan 9 as it had Paul Marco's Patrolman Kelton and Duke Moore's Lt. Daniel Bradford in the cast. It involves a phony medium (Duncan, in a role obviously intended for the late Lugosi) and his young squeeze (Valda Hansen) ripping off elderly fools in an old house. The tables are turned on the pair as the police close in on them and the dead really do start to awake. It has Criswell, narrating from a coffin as he does in Plan 9 and having a brief acting role as well. (Let me digress and say that Jeffrey Jones was brilliant as the late psychic in Burton's film). As mentioned, Tor Johnson's Lobo shuffles around menacingly. The film is intermixed with scenes from an unreleased Wood film called Final Curtain. That sequence, which stars Moore and actress Jeanne Stevens, is quite creepy. After years of not being available for viewing, Final Curtain finally had a screen showing and was released to YouTube a while back. You can see it here and we have embedded it below. Night of the Ghouls was premiered but Wood ran out money, couldn't pay a lab bill and the film was seized for about a quarter of a century before Wood fan Wade Williams paid the bill and it was released. The film's budget is threadbare and dirt-cheap. A cut out picture of Ed Wood is posted on a police wall. The police commander's office has no doorknobs. Obviously, Wood planned more editing and shoots before he lost control of the film. Night of the Ghouls was the first in a planned sequence of films that Wood wanted to make.

At long last, found, Ed Wood's "Final Curtain"

The Ed Wood short film, Final Curtain, was previously thought lost. Portions of it had turned up in the Wood film, Night of the Ghouls. It's been found and premiered at a film festival last month in Florida. It's now on YouTube, in its entirety, and we share the bit of film history with our Plan9Crunch fans. Enjoy. I watched the film and it's quite a treat. The narration, provided by Dudley Manlove (Eros in Plan 9 From Outer Space) captures the unique, cultish, muddled, mysticism of Woodian dialogue. And the entire film is Wood's narration. Moore does a good job portraying an aged actor losing his grip on reality as he treks through a deserted theater at midnight. It's a creepy trek thanks to William C. Thompson's cinematography skills. Jeanne Stevens is suitable creepy as a vampire dummy who might have come to life. Perhaps it's due to the short running time, but suspense actually builds as Moore heads toward the climax. "Final Curtain" has the opportunity to provide for Ed Wood what "Vapors" did for Andy Milligan --- the chance to boast of a technically above-average film. -- Doug Gibson