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| Detail from a vintage travel poster that I thought was neat. It has no direct connection to Ed Wood. |
My recent 2022 Ed-Vent Calendar series, which you can read here, was meant to be spontaneous, informal, and off-the-cuff. For the most part, I did not plan the articles in advance, nor did I do any intense research for them. They were more like journal entries. That definitely applies to Day 15, a brief little blurb about how Ed Wood's movies were marketed in Spanish-speaking countries. It's a topic about which I know very little (as the article attests) but which does interest me.
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| A poster for Aranas Infernales. |
Well, that post received a very informative response from a reader from México named Jordan. I'd like to share his email with you now.
Hello, Joe.
I am a B-movie fan from México and I have been reading your blog for several months now. As a legitimate Ed Wood fan I must say that I loved it. It's great to have people dig out more and more information about the man, even if it's something small.
What inspired me to message you is your post about the Spanish lobby cards and posters for some Ed Wood movies. Wood has had a virtually irrelevant presence in México and Latin America and most people were not even aware of his movies until the 1994 Tim Burton movie, which played often on cable. However, there are some small things to discuss.
In your post, you speculated that Plan 9 from Outer Space probably had a Spanish dub. This is probably not the case. Movies around that time were not actually dubbed into Spanish, at least not for the most part. Mexicans had to watch movies subtitled, in their original language or just go to a similar-looking Mexican production. There is speculation regarding a possible Spanish dub of Plan 9, there are several accounts of people who swear they watched a Spanish version of the film. Supposedly, there was a dub made for it around the 1990s and the last time it was shown on TV was around the early 2000's in both Peru and Puerto Rico. I have seen the movie on Mexican public television but it was always subtitled.
There is an entry for Plan 9 in a wiki database for the dub industry in Mexico, in the entry, only Bela Lugosi is credited to have a dub actor. As you can see this is a problem because he doesn't talk in the film! So there's obviously no dubbing credit attributed to his character. The rest is empty.
As of now, the dub is considered lost media and there's no real way to confirm its existence. The closest thing we have to a Plan 9 Spanish dub was a clip from Night of the Creeps (1986) that showed the movie and the dubbing of the Tim Burton movie. Among Spanish speakers, dubbing is a big deal. We worship our dubbing actors. Not only that, but Spanish dubs made in Latin America are hard to come by when it comes to cult movies or even classic older films. These are often considered treasures.
We hope that the Plan 9 dub is eventually found. Weirder things have happened. We recently discovered two Larry Buchanan pictures in Spanish. Who knows what we will find in the future?
As a bonus, I will add that the Mexican horror/sci fi/wrestling movie Arañas Infernales (1966) features shots taken directly from Plan 9 from Outer Space, the flying saucer shots, and basically a whole scene from Teenagers from Outer Space (1959) (the dog scene). It's a fun film that I recommend to B-movie fanatics. You probably already know this but I thought I should mention it, just in case.
Thanks a lot for your work. I will certainly be looking forward to another entry in your blog.
Jordan later sent me an addendum concerning Peliculas Coloso (Colossal Films), the company that distributed Plan 9 in México. In my original article, I speculated that Plan 9 must've been the company's only release, but Jordan has evidence to the contrary. He says he's found Spanish lobby cards for Adventure Island (1947), Midnight Manhunt (1945), Double Exposure (1944) and La malquerida (1949), all from Peliculas Coloso.
Fascinating stuff, no?