Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 283: 'Edward D. Wood, Jr.: A Man and His Films' (1981) [PART 2]

Ed Wood (center, cowering) in the nightmare sequence from Glen or Glenda.

This time last week, we were talking about Edward D. Wood, Jr.: A Man and His Films, a surprisingly thorough 1981 chapbook about Eddie's strange life and career created by two very dedicated California fans, Randy Simon and Harold Benjamin. These young men conducted their research at a time when there were no books about Ed Wood on the market and Eddie's movies weren't even readily available on home video. The acknowledgements page suggests that Randy and Harold may have contacted some of Eddie's family, friends, and professional associates in assembling their booklet.

We'd only gotten as far as the book's capsule biography of Ed Wood, namely because I'd gotten bogged down in discussing how much of it was true and how much of it wasn't. But now, we get into the heart of A Man and His Films: a discussion of Eddie's filmography. The authors have divided this material into several sections: The Major Films (four movies), The Lesser Known Films (five movies), and The Lost Films (two movies, one unreleased and one unproduced). This gives you an idea of how well-documented Eddie's career was in 1981 and how much was still unknown to the public.

So what are Eddie's "major films"? The authors list just four: Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957), Bride of the Monster (1955), Glen or Glenda (1953), and Jail Bait (1954). (And, yeah, they're in that order for some reason.) Remember, at this time, Night of the Ghouls (1959) aka Revenge of the Dead had not been rediscovered and released on home video. So if you wanted some classic 1950s Ed, you really only had those first four features to go by.

A bottle of Pepto-Bismol.

Since the movies are not presented in chronological order, I have to assume Plan 9 from Outer Space is first because it's the one the authors were most eager to get to. A Man and His Films includes some cast and crew credits for the film—this information was not so easy to come by in 1981—and a one-paragraph synopsis of the story that the authors admit is more coherent than the film itself. This information is supplemented by three more sections: Plot Notes, Cast Notes, and Critical Reviews.

The Plot Notes are about what you'd expect. The authors mention Plan 9's infamous reputation and discuss whether or not it's deserved. They point out the film's "shabbiness" and single out some of the more egregious elements: the wobbly tombstones, the unconvincing airplane cockpit, the day/night continuity errors, and the spaceship set, described as "two wooden tables, a cardboard box, and a desk and chair complete with a pen set." This booklet also comes from the era when people thought the flying saucers in Plan 9 were hubcaps. 

In discussing the film's cast, Simon and Benjamin point out the numerous non-actors in Plan 9, such as John "Bunny" Breckinridge (who plays the Ruler) and David DeMering (who plays Danny). And they give an impressively factual account of how Bela Lugosi died after shooting a few test scenes for another Wood project, possibly The Vampire's Tomb. Wood later wrote a new script incorporating this old footage and used chiropractor Tom Mason as a stand-in to complete Bela's scenes.

Bride of the Monster is up next for dissection... er, discussion. Again, we are given some cast and crew credits, plus a brief plot synopsis, production notes from the authors, and a couple of critical quotes. Again, Simon and Benjamin have mixed feelings. They praise Bride for its relative normalcy and compliment actress Loretta King, but they criticize Lugosi's overacting, the "totally inept rubber octopus," and the absurd laboratory set. The authors point out one detail in that set I'd never noticed: an "ever-present bottle of Pepto Bismol." How had I missed it all these years? Well, that part of the lab is not clearly seen many times in the movie. About an hour in, I managed to snag this screenshot in which the Pepto is visible.

(from left to right) A bottle of Pepto Bismol and Tor Johnson.

We now move on to Glen or Glenda. Same template: cast, crew, synopsis, notes, reviews. The plot summary included in this booklet is so odd that I feel obligated to quote it in its entirety:

      The Spirit (God?) ponders the essence of Man. A transvestite has committed suicide because he has been arrested four times. Police Inspector Warren discusses the case with Dr. Alton who recounts the story of two cases:

      Glen, the young man who dresses as Glenda and dreads telling his fiancee, Barbara, about his problem; and

      Alan, who undergoes a sex-change operation after fighting in New Guinea.

     In between, we hear from the Spirit at random intervals and watch Glenda stroll by shop windows. We also learn all about transvestites from Dr. Alton.

I guess that covers most of it. Like David Lynch's Eraserhead (1977), this is a difficult movie to summarize accurately. I've never known where the stock footage in Glenda came from, so I don't know if it actually was shot in New Guinea as the authors claim. Someday, my pretties, I may have to do a deep dive into Ed Wood's stock footage, especially the WWII newsreels we see in Glenda.

Simon and Benjamin seem flummoxed by Glen or Glenda, comparing the movie to Bob Fosse's semi-autobiographical All That Jazz (1979) and describing it as "an endless series of drawing-room conversations, completely devoid of action." As I said last week, the authors of A Man and His Films were under the mistaken impression that Ed Wood and Dolores Fuller were married, and they repeat that assertion here. But they do mention that the film has played all over the world under various titles, and they mention Paramount's (aborted) plan to rerelease the film on a wide scale.

The last of Ed Wood's "major films" covered in this booklet is also the least-seen of his 1950s features: Jail Bait. I appreciated that, in compiling the cast and crew credits, the authors included the businesses that supplied the costumes: knitwear from Westwood Knitting Mills,  ladies' suits from Jerry Mann, dresses from Gene D. Evans, and lingerie from Chic & Pandora. In their notes, the authors mention Cotton Watts and Chick and how their routine was airlifted from another movie, Yes, Sir, Mr. Bones (1951). They also point out that the film's salacious title and lurid pressbook have nothing to do with the decidedly unsexy crime drama that Wood actually gives us.

Stuck in the mud.

The next section of the booklet is called Lesser Known Films and covers five additional features either written or directed by Ed Wood: The Sinister Urge (1960), Shotgun Wedding (1963), The Bride and the Beast (1957), Orgy of the Dead (1965), and The Violent Years (1956). These films still receive cast and crew lists and plot summaries, plus critical reviews (when available) and production notes (when applicable). What did I glean from this section of A Man and His Films? Some interesting tidbits:

• Shotgun Wedding was also known as Ankers in the Mud. In the commentary track that Greg Dziawer and I recorded for the film, I noted that the main character, Mr. Buford Anchors (J. Pat O'Malley) of Mudcat Landing, is a man whose boat is literally anchored in the mud. It's indicative of the fact that he has become stagnant in his life and needs to move on.

• The authors note that The Bride and the Beast features some angora sweaters and that the gorilla is named Spanky. These details, they say, are "definite Ed Wood touches."

• Yet another alternate title for Orgy of the Dead was Orgy of the Vampires. With its blatant suggestion of necrophilia, the original title prevented the film from being advertised in numerous parts of the country, so various alternate titles were devised.

• The Violent Years was reissued a full decade after its initial premiere under the mysterious title Female.

The main filmography concludes with a section devoted to the Lost Films. While Eddie had many abandoned and uncompleted film projects over the years, only two movies are covered here. The first is Revenge of the Dead aka Night of the Ghouls, which received a "preview showing" in 1959 but was not widely distributed until 1984, when it came out on home video. The authors recognize Revenge of the Dead as a sequel to Bride of the Monster and note that the film brings back Paul Marco as Officer Kelton. I'm not sure Simon and Benjamin had even seen the movie at this point—their plot summary is accurate—but they correctly note that "the film will undoubtedly see the light of day in the near future."

The other Lost Film included in the booklet is The Vampire's Tomb, which was never actually completed during Eddie's lifetime. In the decades since this booklet was published, filmmaker Andre Perkowski released his own adaptation of The Vampire's Tomb in 2013. Meanwhile, author Gary D. Rhodes included Wood's original script in Ed Wood and the Lost Lugosi Screenplays from Bear Manor Media in 2016. Simon and Benjamin give a brief plot synopsis and (intriguingly) a tentative casting list, including potential roles for Bela Lugosi, Loretta King, Dolores Fuller, Tom Keene, Lyle Talbot, Duke Moore, Mona McKinnon, Bud Osborne, and that shadowy figure known as Devila.

After this, there's a page devoted to Ed Wood's short subjects, though only three films are included: Final Curtain (1957), The Sun Was Setting (here called The Sun Also Sets) (1951), and Crossroad Avenger (1953). These are all made-for-television projects, and the authors admittedly have not seen any of them. Curtain and Sun are said to be "in the hands of a private collector," while Avenger is "available for rental." As of 2026, all three films are readily available to the public and have been discussed at length on this blog. Back in 1981, the authors only had "fragmentary information" about these movies. If Eddie's own resume is to be believed, his television work was fairly extensive in the 1950s and '60s, so there may yet be more short movies to discover. Indeed, a pilot for another unsold Tom Keene Western series surfaced several years ago.

This is followed by a page dedicated to, in the author's words, "Edward Wood's Erotica." This is a speed-run through Eddie's busy career in adult entertainment in the 1960s and '70s. As we've stated previously, this aspect of Ed Wood's work was extremely underreported four decades ago, so it's kind of amazing that Simon and Benjamin have included any of it. 

Is this Naked Bones?

The authors correctly observe that Ed Wood was extremely prolific and wrote under numerous pseudonyms, including Dick Trent and Angora Peters. Mr. Trent we are well acquainted with, but Angora Peters? This may be a contraction of Ann Gora and T.K. Peters. As for Eddie's books, they list several that I've already read and reviewed on this blog: TV Lust (1977), Killer in Drag (1963), 69 Rue Pigalle (1966), It Takes One to Know One (1967), Diary of a Transvestite Hooker (1973), Devil Girls (1967) and Hollywood Rat Race (published posthumously in 1998). 

There are two titles I didn't immediately recognize, however: And He Rode All Night and Naked Bones. The latter, according to most sources, is an alternate title for Side-Show Siren (1966). Eddie referred to this book as Naked Bones in an August 1966 letter to his then-agent, Forry Ackerman, but publisher Greenleaf Classics demanded a new name for the novel. And He Rode all Night is tougher to pin down. Eddie uses this exact phrase in his racially-charged novel Watts.. The Difference (1967), so perhaps it's just an alternate title for that book.

In regards to Eddie's X-rated film work, the authors name only two features, Necromania (1971) and Take It Out in Trade (1970), though their plot summaries are wildly off. That tracks because we are, to quote Crow T. Robot, "in the realm of myth and maybe." Simon and Benjamin were working with virtually no reliable information, just people's vague memories. And so, they declare Trade to be "a sex film centered around the garment industry and the gangsters which prey on it," while Necromania is said to feature Ed Wood himself as a wizard. None of that is true, but Eddie's character in Joe Robertson's The Love Feast (1969) does (falsely) claim to be a designer of women's clothing. The authors are also under the impression that Eddie's pornographic loops were made for "peep shows" and could be viewed for a quarter. In fact, they were made for mail-order and were quite pricey.

The softcore films Eddie made with Joe Robertson, including Love Feast, Nympho Cycler aka Misty (1971), and Mrs. Stone's Thing (1970). are completely absent from A Man and His Films. And, other than Orgy of the Dead, none of the films Ed made with Steve Apostolof in the 1970s is here either. So we get nothing about The Class Reunion (1972), The Snow Bunnies (1972), Drop Out Wife (1972), The Cocktail Hostesses (1973), Fugitive Girls (1974), The Beach Bunnies (1976), and Hot Ice (1978). Eddie's involvement in these movies must not have been recorded at the time, even though Hot Ice was only three years old when this booklet came out.

And that's where we'll leave things this week. Believe it or not, there is still more to explore in Edward D. Wood, Jr.: A Man and His Films. We'll wrap up this series next Wednesday. I promise.