Ed Wood Extra: What exactly is a "bad" movie, anyway?

Ed Wood faced two clear options in the 1950s.

NOTE: I had intended to continue my coverage of The Erotic World of A.C. Stephen (1999) this week, but I was so bogged down with other projects that I found I did not have sufficient time to do justice to this remarkable compilation video. And so, Part 2 of my series about that film will have to wait until a later date. In the meantime, rather than post nothing at all this week, here's a brief, extemporaneous (read: no research) essay about Ed Wood.

"So bad, it's good!"

Even now, that four-word phrase defines the Ed Wood cult. It's the reason you're here. It's the reason I'm here. It's the reason Eddie's movies are remembered at all. As a society, we have determined that his films, especially the sci-fi/horror ones he made in the 1950s, have attained such a level of technical incompetence that we find them entertaining. Paradoxically, their "badness" makes them "good." So we still watch them and obsess over them, all these decades later. 

Meanwhile, many so-called "good" movies that won awards and received critical praise when they were new have fallen by the wayside. We may still respect them, but we rarely watch them outside of college classrooms. Is this fair? Many critics have argued that it is not. In his book Cult Movies 3 (1988), author Danny Peary begins his essay about Ed Wood's Glen or Glenda (1953) with this observation;

There are so many good, poorly distributed films waiting for discovery that it's somewhat regrettable so much attention has been devoted in recent years to celebrating cinema's clinkers. Particularly annoying are the Medved-spawned "Worst Film Festivals" that are geared to smug "hip" viewers (the equivalent of self-pleasing sports fans who do "the Wave") who think that a mediocre, average, or decent film is awful simply because the sponsors say it's awful, and respond accordingly.

I can remember that, when Tim Burton's Ed Wood (1994) was first released, several critics groused that a lavish biopic had been made about a man who made such disposable, drive-in junk as Bride of the Monster (1955) and Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957). Shouldn't we be praising the makers of "good" movies instead? 

Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 146: Is there such a thing as TOO MUCH Ed Wood?

This reminds me, I need to catch up on my reading.

Ladies and gentleman, I might need to take a month off from work just to catch up on all the Ed Wood-related chores I have to do. I am so far behind on my Ed Wood homework, it's ridiculous. The trouble is, my day  job actually pays me money and this blog doesn't, so the blog inevitably loses. And, believe me, I've tried to monetize my misadventures in Woodology numerous times, but it's never been a success.

Soon to be reviewed by me? Maybe.

It's not that I'm burned out on Eddie. Far from it. Just watch my recent appearance on The Ed Wood Summit Podcast for proof. I think that's the most enthused I've been about anything in a while. Luckily, that video was recorded the day after Presidents' Day, so I had plenty of time to prepare. It was great delving into one of Ed's most unhinged "nonfiction" texts, the infamous Black Myth (1971), with two other dedicated Woodoholics. 

But there's so much more I need to get to. For instance, Edwin Lee Canfield recently published Fact, Fictions, and the Forbidden Predictions of the Amazing Criswell, the first-ever biography of the famed futurist and Ed Wood repertory player. I've gotta review that, right? And speaking of books, after seeing Greg Dziawer and Rob Huffman interview author Jean Marie Stine, I had to snag a copy of Jean's book, Ed Wood: The Early Years (2001). So throw that one on the pile, too, along with a couple of Wood-based manuscripts I'm supposed to look at.

Oh, god, I just realized I've never written much about the two Ed Wood Scripts from the Crypt books by Gary D. Rhodes and Tom Weaver. I mean, I've mentioned them from time to time, but I've never actually reviewed either one, and those books are several years old by now. Shame on me.

And for some reason, I must've felt I didn't have enough Ed Wood-adjacent text to plow through, so I had my local library track down a copy of Joanna Lee's out-of-print autobiography, A Difficult Woman in Hollywood. It includes a few absolutely scathing pages about Ed Wood, so I felt it merited at least a response from me. I've started writing a review of that in my head, but I haven't actually typed anything. Sorry, Joanna, you'll have to wait. That article should be a doozy, though, if it ever happens.

I'm still sticking to my promise to deliver a new Ed Wood Wednesdays each week in 2023, either by me or by Greg. But the last few that I've written have been articles that required virtually zero research and could therefore be completed very quickly. Last week, for instance, I wrote about watching a livestream of Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff (aka The Mads) commenting on Night of the Ghouls (1959). I have an update about that, by the way. Trace and Frank's version of Ghouls is now available on its own or as a three-movie collection with Glen or Glenda (1953) and Bride of the Monster (1955). Check it out if you're so inclined.

For right now, I just need you to be patient with me as I figure out how to get to at least some of these projects. Who knows? I might just get lucky and be horribly injured on the job. Then, I could go on disability and spend my days writing articles for this blog. A man can dream, huh?