Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 80: A new edition of 'Married Too Young' (1962)

Artwork from the new DVD release of Married Too Young.

      

The new DVD release.

Married Too Young (1962) has long been one of the more neglected titles in Ed Wood's filmography, especially among his early, pre-porn movies. And, to be fair, it's not difficult to see why. Wood didn't actually direct the film, for example. That duty was performed by Ukrainian journeyman George Moskov. Ed doesn't receive screen credit for coauthoring the script either. Nathaniel  Tanchuck is the film's only official screenwriter, as confirmed by his daughter Heather. Some Wood fans may doubt that their hapless hero had anything to do with this production, even though Married Too Young is duly covered in Rob Craig's Ed Wood, Mad Genius (2009) and Andrew Rausch and Charles Pratt's The Cinematic Misadventures of Ed Wood (2015).

Back in 2014, I gave the film an exhaustive 4,800-word review, calling it "lugubrious" and "sluggish." I guess I wasn't much of a fan at the time. Maybe I was just disgruntled about overpaying for a grainy bootleg from The Video Beat. I already did a rundown of the film's plot and characters in that article, so if you have never seen Married Too Young, I suggest you start there instead of here.

Filmmaker Fred Olen Ray, who attempted to work with Ed Wood very late in the doomed director's life, obviously wants to bring new attention to Married Too Young and elevate this overlooked film to its rightful place in the Wood canon, alongside Plan 9 and Glen or Glenda. His company, Retromedia, has just issued a splashy new DVD release of Married Too Young, paired with The Violent Years on a disc called The Forgotten Ed Wood. In addition to a "23.98 progressive scan" of a widescreen 35mm print of the film, it also contains: trailers for both Married Too Young and The Sinister Urge; a complete copy of The Violent Years; and a pair of extremely brief but informative featurettes, "A Tale of Two Endings" and "Ed Wood and Married Too Young." (I'm guessing Ray himself narrates the former.)

This is a disc long in the making. Fred Olen Ray has been promising a Retromedia edition of Married Too Young since at least 2014, and there were supposedly plans for an official release of this film back in the 1990s, in the wake of Tim Burton's Ed Wood. But now, it's easily available on Amazon for a mere $9.66. If you're an Ed Wood fan with $10 burning a hole in your pocket, you could do worse.

Let's talk about those special features first. "Ed Wood and Married Too Young" lasts 30 seconds and consists of a letter dated August 25, 1994 from Dale Gasteiger of Headliner Entertainment Group to Greg Luce of Sinister Cinema. Gasteiger says that he and Roy Reid bought Ed Wood in "to finish writing [Married Too Young] for us." He contends that Wood's "contribution probably amounted to roughly 25% of the finished script." In their book, Rausch and Pratt quote Fred Olen Ray as saying he has even more documentation of Wood's authorship.

A letter from Dale Gasteiger concerning Ed Wood.

As for "A Tale of Two Endings," it's even more interesting. Previous to this, I had no idea there were alternate endings for Married Too Young. The narrator of the featurette explains:

"In the original 35mm cut negative of the movie, Tommy and his girlfriend go over the cliff in a stock shot. As you can see, the car turns over and shows its underside and then explodes. And it goes directly to the courtroom scene, where I'm sure everyone was amazed to find out that Tommy only hurt his arm and his girlfriend didn't get a scratch. Maybe because of TV or some complaints, later, another sequence was put in with a different stock shot. 

This time, the car does not flip over. It goes straight down, and it fades out before you can see it, and it's followed by a series of newspapers coming off of the presses explaining that somehow or another Tommy and actress Jana Lund somehow miraculously weren't killed in this crash. I'm not exactly sure why they did this, but I suspect it may have been for a television sale where they thought that perhaps there was no way that those kids could've lived through that and that people watching the movie would be upset and then incredibly surprised."

In terms of picture quality, this DVD is a major improvement from the previous edition. To illustrate that, I'll give you a few selected images from the Retromedia disc, and I'll intersperse those with corresponding screen grabs from the previous Video Beat version that I purchased in 2014.

Here's a moment from the opening race, for instance. In the new DVD, you lose a little visual information at the top and bottom of the screen, like the ankles of the actors in the front row, but you gain some ground on the left and right sides. And details are much clearer now, too. Note, for instance, the girl in the plaid dress at the left side of the frame. Can you even tell her outfit is plaid in the second picture? The facial expressions of the spectators are distinct in the Retromedia version but not in the Video Beat version.

Here are the main characters, Tommy and Helen, on a date. This gives you an idea of what the film's night scenes are like. Notice the fanciful details on Helen's sweater. You can even make out Harold Lloyd, Jr.'s individual front teeth.

For contrast, here's an indoor scene involving Helen and her parents. The Retromedia version offers far greater detail: the clock, the father's jacket, the purse, etc. You can see there is extra visual information on the left and right sides of the screen as well. Check out the banister behind the father for an example. But the grainy Video Beat version has some extra headroom and legroom. Look at the gap between the purse and the bottom of the frame.

Finally, I'd like to show a moment from the dream sequence, since this is the part of the movie that so impressed author Rob Craig and is the most blatantly Wood-ian in tone. With its layering of images, this might be the scene that benefits the most from a crisp transfer.

There is at least one more significant difference between these two versions. In the Video Beat DVD, the opening credits declare that the film was "produced by Headliner Productions." That's it. No human producer is listed, just the company. In the Retromedia DVD, the credits say that Married Too Young was "produced by Nathaniel Tanchuck." Both versions credit Nat Tanchuck with the story and screenplay. So, while my bootleg copy of the film has largely been supplanted by this new disc, the Video Beat edition is not exactly obsolete.

It remains to be seen whether Retrovision's Forgotten Ed Wood disc will revive interest in Married Too Young. I certainly haven't seen much publicity for this release yet. I only found it by accident while searching for other Ed Wood releases on Amazon. The cleaner, sharper transfer certainly makes the movie more enjoyable to watch, and the letter from Headliner Entertainment should satisfy those who have questioned the film's authenticity.

But, still, I can't imagine this turgid, preachy movie ever becoming another cult classic on the order of Glen or Glenda or Plan 9 from Outer Space, and it lacks the inspired lunacy of such Wood-written films as Bride and the Beast and Orgy of the Dead. Those looking for an Ed Wood "youth in crisis" movie will probably gravitate to The Violent Years or The Sinister Urge instead. Ultimately, this is one for the completists out there. If that's you, this DVD is ready when you are.

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Magazine Odyssey, Part 18 by Greg Dziawer

Things are getting dirty this week.

This series has previously ventured into unsavory territory, discussing Ed Wood's possible involvement writing for pornographic Swedish Erotica magazines in the latter half of the 1970s. This week, it's time to analyze another clipping from such a publication.

Rather than repeating the gory details about this final, sordid phase of Eddie's career, let's allow this text—which accompanied a photo feature in Swedish Erotica Film Review Magazine #2, circa 1977—to do all the talking.

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Loop Odyssey, Part 11 by Greg Dziawer

Who's that portraying a Mexican jailer in a '70s porn loop? You know who.

Ed in a sombrero.

Rudolph Grey's 1992 book Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr.  alerted the world to Eddie's participation in a 1970s pornographic loop in which he played a Mexican jailer, complete with "a dildo and a big sombrero." That intriguing film, identified by Grey only as The Jailer, seemed to have been lost to time. But readers of this column will remember that I screened and reviewed a copy of the obscure loop under the title Prisoners Lovemaking (aka Prisoner Love Making) back in August of 2017. The video was blurry and black-and-white, but it was an important part of Ed Wood history nevertheless.

If you'd asked me, even a week ago, if an original, full-color 16mm master of Prisoners Lovemaking would ever show up, I would likely have waived my hand at you and scoffed. Not that I am an asshole by nature, but such an event would have seemed immensely unlikely to me.

But then, last Friday night after work, I sat down at my computer, cracked open a beer, and relaxed. No sooner was my butt warm than I went to one of my favorite places, a private Ed Wood forum on Facebook, and saw that a miracle had occurred earlier that afternoon. A new member to the group, a movie fan and collector from Oregon, announced that he'd come into possession of a high-quality 16mm print of Prisoners Lovemaking. But how?

This collector graciously allowed me to share his incredible story here:

I bought this years ago for $1. I watched it once, set it on a shelf, and didn't make the Ed Wood connection until reading a piece by Will Sloan a few months back. Even then, I thought it was such a long shot that I didn't take the film out and give it another look until today. It's fate, I tells ya!

I'd actually already read your article today and loved it. I was a wee bit sad to find that the film had [already] surfaced online, but I felt better when I saw the other print. The copy I have is 16mm, in color and super-crisp. It looks great.

I bought this with a bunch of other films and was really looking more for more tame burlesque things, cheesecake reels, etc. I'd always wondered about the very remote possibility that Ed Wood might have been involved in some of these things, mainly because I believe one of them was put out by [Ed Wood's employer] Pendulum. It was set on an airplane, if I remember correctly. Mainly, I'm blown away by the weirdness of this happening. I mean, this thing had to be found by someone who had some interest in Ed Wood, had to live in Portland, had to have read articles by folks like you, etc., etc. The stars lined up or something.

I live in Portland, OR where we've always had our fair share of strip joints and adult bookstores. The place where I found this has since been demolished, but for most of my time in Portland, there was an especially terrifying porn shop downtown called Cindy's—The Adult Bookstore. So, years ago, maybe in the late '90s or early 2000s, I began to wonder if there was any chance that a store such as Cindy's would have any of its old 8mm stag films lying around. It didn't seem likely, but I was buying/selling a lot on Ebay at the time, and I was up for finding any type of collectible. 

The infamous Cindy's, once a landmark in Portland.

Also, I had bought a few 8mm films from an older gentleman who used to show up at antique shows in town. I'd picked up some older cheesecake/burlesque films from him: one by Russ Meyer, a Bettie Page film. Good stuff at amazing prices. So I knew that some of this stuff was out there.

So I convinced a friend to go with me to Cindy's but really expected nothing more than a sketchy experience. We walked in one night to find a crummy, low-rent joint with a grubby floor, too much light, and a scary biker-type guy working the counter. It smelled like Pine-Sol. Completely old school. But to my absolute amazement, sitting on the racks among the modern sex mags and DVDs were rows and rows of 8mm and Super 8 films. And they were priced at $1 each. 

A familiar smell.

I tried to play it cool and not come off as too excited, and I asked the scary biker guy if they were really a dollar each. He said they were. This was mostly your basic stuff—plenty of Swedish Erotica and lesser-known series. The biker guy was actually friendly enough, and when I asked him if they had any more, he said, "We got boxes of 'em in the back. You can look if you want." So why not? If you're invited to go to the back room of a terrifying porn shop, you can't really say no.

He took me and my pal to the back room where there were indeed boxes of old films. I began to go through them and spent maybe 10 minutes digging through and choosing things that looked interesting. I snapped up any burlesque stuff I found—not much—but really grabbed anything that looked interesting or collectible. The cheaply packaged films in white boxes with just a color photo glued onto the front. Super 8 films with sound. One from Pendulum specifically because I knew of the Ed Wood connection. There were just a few 16mm films, so I grabbed some of those, too.

So I took home my big box of films and began screening them, one by one. Nothing against the full-on porn stuff, but I was a little uncomfortable selling it on Ebay. I did sell quite a few of these things, but I just stashed several away and figured I'd sell them or toss them eventually. But one film that stood out just a little was the one set in a prison with a jailer wearing a very tall sombrero. I thought about selling it but just never got around to it, honestly. It sat in a box for years.

Then, just a few months ago, I was reading a little about Ed Wood online. I'd always wondered if he'd directed the Pendulum film I'd found. I didn't find any reference to that, but I did learn how involved he'd been with Swedish Erotica. I'd probably owned and sold films he made without even knowing it. But the bit I read that really caught my attention had to do with a lost film in which Ed played a Mexican jailer. I wondered if there was any chance that it could be the film I had, but considered it an extreme long shot. I figured I'd give it a look at some point, but it was months before I even bothered to take it out and screen it.

So that's the story! As I mentioned before, it's a miracle that this thing didn't end up in a dumpster by the early '80s, and I have no idea why it made its way to an adult bookstore in Portland. I'd bet that companies that made these films just didn't know what to do with their masters after a while other than to sell them off or throw them away.

I did go back to Cindy's a few times, so I made a fairly good haul. But the majority of the films I found were really just the sleazy version of white elephants. There are plenty to go around for collectors, and there seem to be very few of any real historical or monetary value. I knew that some of these were good finds but that most weren't. I also wasn't keen on having boxes of this stuff sitting around my house. And honestly, I did feel a bit unclean about going into Cindy's. Even by scuzzy old porn store standards, it was a scary hellhole of a place.

One of the last times I went there, the terrifying biker guy behind the counter informed me that someone had died there that day—some junkie shooting up in one of the booths. Note that I said it was "one of the last times." A really good find keeps you coming back well beyond the point of reason.

Quite a saga, don't you agree?

Interestingly, this rare loop is extant in two versions, both sourced from 8mm. One is in color, the opening loop in a VHS compilation from 1985, a treasure-trove of Cinema Classics loops very likely directed by Ed Wood. The other was drained of color, almost sepia-toned, and likely from a B&W source, also on a VHS-era comp. The loops were commonly sold in both color—fifty bucks, no drop in the bucket in the early '70s—and a more affordable B&W version. They were originally shot in color 16mm.

The discovery of this 16mm master of Prisoners Lovemaking promises to shine a new light on Woodology, and I'm confident my new friend from Oregon will diligently shepherd the film into accessibility at the highest quality by today's standards. The color and detail we'll see will finally and firmly ensconce Ed Wood in the world of early '70s West Coast porn loops, more vividly than I ever imagined.

Next: We'll delve into the VHS compilations in which Prisoners Lovemaking previously appeared and detail the Pendulum magazine photo feature with text accompaniment by Ed Wood that ran concurrent to the loop's original release. Yes, you read that right.

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Woodologist Odyssey, Part 2 by Greg Dziawer

Buried under that film is Keith Crocker, presumably.

There are casual Ed Wood fans, and then there are Woodologists, the true obsessives for whom an annual Halloween screening of Plan 9 from Outer Space simply will not suffice. But who are these strange people? Well, to reiterate what I said when I last visited this topic, a true Woodologist must possess the following traits:

• An abiding interest in Ed Wood, both the man and his work
• A strong desire to uncover previously unknown information about Ed
• (most critically) The willingness to act on that desire

Rare birds, these Woodologists, and few are more deserving of the title than cult cinema auteur, film professor and 'zine publisher Keith Crocker. A veritable Ed-vangelist, Keith takes Ed directly to the people, as a prolific community arts lecturer and presenter. And through his boutique label Cinefear, Keith has released two DVDs of Ed Wood's (alleged) 1970s pornographic loops, transferring these rare films from his own 8mm originals.

Recently, I sent Keith a modest questionnaire about his experiences as a Woodologist, and his answers were entertaining, enlightening, and occasionally startling. 

10 Questions With Keith Crocker

1. Have you ever worn an angora sweater? 

Keith Crocker

No, I have never worn an angora sweater. Not that per se I wouldn't wear an angora sweater, but my wife is allergic to angora. No joke, she breaks out just being near to it. And I doubt she's going to start allergy shots all over again if suddenly I decide to start sporting Ed Wood fashion. I'll leave well enough alone. 

2. You found loops likely involving Ed Wood in your basement, and ultimately committed to releasing two pioneering discs of these short pornographic films on your Cinefear disc label—now operating in its 29th year, one of the few surviving cult video boutique labels. How did you become so sure of Ed's involvement? 

Interesting story regarding how I ended up with so-called Ed Wood loops. The cameraman I used when I shot my film Blitzkrieg: Escape From Stalag 69 (2008) had a box of old porn loops in his crawlspace. He knew I was transferring old 8mm loops and selling them via Cinefear Video. So he offered me this collection and I took it, but other than transferring the titles that featured porn star John Holmes, I put the rest away and never really bothered to watch them.  

Flash forward at least ten years. I read Joe Blevins' article at Dead 2 Rights regarding Wood's involvement in the first 19 Swedish Erotica loops. When he listed the titles, it was like a lightning bolt had struck me. I had seen those titles; I even remembered the box art, but where and when?! Boom, I ran downstairs into the basement and there they were. The titles were in the collection I received from my cameraman. And a few of them had already been transferred for a John Holmes compilation I was offering at the time. 

Regarding how I was confident of Ed's involvement, it's actually very simple. The way those loops were staged is just about identical to the staging of the Ed Wood directed TV spots of 1949. At the point that I realized I had these loops, I had also recently seen his TV commercials. With the addition of hardcore sex, these loops were his commercials only with nude people. So it was the staging that really clued me in. Otherwise, everything Joe said in that blog was dead on, from props to wardrobe and of course the use of the "Owl Eyes" wall decor from Necromania (1971).  

Honestly, it was all laid out to see in one neat package consisting of the first 19 Swedish Erotica's, but certainly Ed didn't stop there. I believe he carried on with them a tad longer before launching off into other series such as John's Girls and Garter Girls.  

3. And what do you infer was his level of involvement? 

There is no question in my mind that he is the director/writer of these loops. How much writing actually occurred is in question. He may have made the scenes up as the loops went along, but he certainly wrote the subtitles and box summaries. Because he didn't have to worry about special effects or any of the "bells and whistles" associated with the more mainstream cinema he was associated with, a creativity came out of him and he took time to craft some fine 8mm loops.  

In fact, it's my belief that he actually shaped this particular genre of filmmaking. Prior to his involvement, there were no rules for what a loop was to show other than, of course, hardcore penetration. Wood took the time to try and bring a lyricism to these films. They featured dissolves, fades, and even split screen. In some cases they involved loving couples. In others there was rape, which quickly turned over to pleasure as so many of these sexual fantasies do in this type of film. Some deal with the supernatural.  

But they are all staged or shot in such a similar manner as to attest to the work of one man. That man being Ed Wood. In fact I'll go on record to say that the most original material Ed Wood ever offered us was those loops and, of course, Glen or Glenda (1953). Wood was the first example of a "fanboy" filmmaker. His horror films offer little in the way of originality; they are loaded with tropes from older films. While they do reflect the times they were made in, as a whole they regurgitate horror film rhetoric. However with the porn loops, no rhetoric was in place. Wood helped create a rhetoric that laid down an industry standard that many tried to imitate.  

4. Why Ed Wood? 

One of Ed's novels.

Wood, all his life, was grappling with sexual identity issues. Hence, so much of his imagery was steeped in fetish. In some way shape or form Wood was screaming out his confusion and obsession. Certainly his alcoholism did not help his career, but it isn't the sole reason Ed ended up working in pornography. The porn novels he wrote, and later the loops he worked on also provided an outlet for his obsessive sexual compulsions.  

I have no doubt that he felt he should have been in a better place as far as filmmaking is concerned, and if he could have managed his alcoholism, he might very well have achieved a better stardom. But his sexual compulsions are just as much of an example of addiction as was alcoholism. As we very well know, most folks in the porn business are addicted, to something: sex, booze, drugs, money. You already had Ed as a centerpiece of addiction, so the business he was in certainly suited his current situation.  

Yet, because Ed thrived in this type of environment, he had a far easier time working it rather than running around trying to find investors for his own films. That was fine when he was younger; as he got older it was easier to just be employed instead of creating your own employment. [Porn publisher] Bernie Bloom more than likely realized he had one of the best workers he ever had in Wood. Wood was a willing conscript. He wasn't a victim per se. 

5. If there is one mystery about Ed or his work that you would love to solve, what is it? 

Like all of us following the later career of Ed Wood, I want one of the people involved in the production of these loops to step forward and confirm 100% their memories of having worked with him on these films. A nice still photo of Wood on set directing would be fantastic! I'm confident that those working on these loops at that time had no clue just who the hell he was. Other writers working for Bloom didn't know who he was, and if they did, they felt he was delusional in his tales of having worked with Bela Lugosi. Certainly, if the late John Holmes was still alive, he'd be able to flat confirm what we all think we know. Certainly some of the actresses from those loops are still with us. The talent behind the camera, not so much. 

We really need closure on this. Some people love a mystery. These are the same type of people who never really want to know who Jack the Ripper was. Not me, I don't like open ends. 

6. You provided me the privilege of presenting what is likely Ed's last feature as writer/director, The Young Marrieds, from an original 16mm print, for a private audience in the late summer of 2017. You present and as a film professor teach Ed yourself. How do audiences generally react?

The group you presented to was a private film class that I teach out of my house. It's an advanced course on the history of horror, science fiction, and fantasy. I gave the class the option of seeing an Ed Wood adult motion picture and those who wished to see that side of Ed Wood's work came to attend. Historically, it fascinated them. In other ways, the film was far more prehistoric than his so-called "so bad they are good" films from the '50s. It was certainly less sophisticated than the loop work that was to follow.  

I offer a seminar on Ed Wood that questions the concept that he was "one of the world's worst filmmakers." He certainly wasn't. When I present that seminar at, say, a library or community center, I explain about his later career, but other than a clip from Orgy of the Dead (1965) I can't really illustrate more than that. I gave the presentation at a prestigious art cinema a few years back and I was able to show more salacious clips without going into hardcore. I also have a wealth of memorabilia that I use for examples.  

Audience attendance and reaction to these Wood seminars have been very good. I honestly believe more people leave respecting the man far more than when they first arrive. His story is fascinating, and it makes you wonder about so many other filmmakers whose career took a similar path but yet they fell between the cracks and we never really get a chance to appreciate their work. I look at all of this as archaeology. When I was a kid, I wanted to be an archaeologist. Now I am one. 

7. Sexploitation and vintage hardcore intersect with cheap gore films and low-to-no-budget sleaze. Why? 

Sexploitation, gory horror films, and ultimately hardcore porn were the last taboos to be broken. They were the last holdouts of the old Hayes Code, which at one time forced filmmakers to be more creative and actually make good films. That said, the later era filmmakers that broke these taboos in the early '60s tended to be the same filmmakers who got into hardcore porn in the later era of the '60s and '70s. Again Wood being one such example. Others being Dave Friedman and the Findlays and Joe Sarno.  

When the fanboys discovered their favorite trash film directors also did porn under pseudonyms, they ran out and tried to acquire the porn flicks because they wanted to see how their gore and sleaze heroes handled the XXX material. This was mostly during the early days of video when porn was king and tons of it was released to fill video store shelves.  

The first ever hardcore 8mm loop I had seen was a Swedish Erotica with John Holmes and Nanette Peters called "Lustful Shower" (SE #28). This had to be around 1978 or '79. I was the only kid on the block to have a 8mm projector, so people brought these types of films to me to see them projected. I was most likely 13 or 14 at the time, and that little loop had a profound effect on me. 

Cover for a Swedish Erotica loop.

At around the same time I was seeing films like Count Dracula and His Vampire Brides (aka The Satanic Rites of Dracula, 1973) in the theater, and that film also had nudity and eroticism. So somehow the two genres started to crossbreed. Porn and horror with the new gods of that decade. HBO and video brought it all into our homes in the early '80s. Both horror and sex films were thought of as easy genres to make and actually draw an income from. Folks from the horror and sexploitation world went hardcore when that was the new trend, and then later it was visa versa when horror went hot on video. 

8. Being your friend, I am admittedly biased, considering you Long Island's premier schlock-teur. But The Bloody Ape and the sadly little-known Valley Stream Slut were released a while back. Beyond Wood, what's next? 

DVD of The Bloody Ape.

Haaa! Greg, you make it sound so bleak. LOL. Actually I've been quite busy. For the past six plus years, I've been working on a documentary regarding Long Island grind houses. I've been interviewing projectionists who worked them, plus I have celebrity interviews with personalities such as Carter Stevens, Joel M. Reed, Jamie Gillis, and Gino Colbert.  

Bloody Ape was shot in 1993 but released on video in 1997. In 2009 it came out on a deluxe DVD. In between those years I made Blitzkrieg: Escape From Stalag 69, a WWII-based exploitation title that had theatrical play in 2008. It also had a deluxe DVD release in 2009. In fact both Ape and Blitz are slated for DVD re-release this spring. They are currently available from Wildeye Releasing, a company I help found.  

Now, of interest to Ed Wood fans, Conrad Brooks almost had a small part in Blitzkrieg. My co-creator Keith Marurro wanted to have a scene involving Winston Churchill working on a painting while thinking over military strategy. We were going to use Brooks as Churchill and have someone else dub over the thought narrative. I ended up nixing the idea because I didn't want to pay Brooks, who I thought was a lousy actor. In fact, I knew Brooks because my cameraman was also the coordinator of the Stoneybrook Icon festival held yearly on Long Island. Brooks and I were both guests there. Brooks was loud and obnoxious. He did have some great funny stories, but his whole gig was based on his threadbare connection to Ed Wood. On top of that he had done some lousy shot-on-video garbage, and in all honesty his name on a video insured that it was going to be crap. Hence why I didn't want his name on Blitzkrieg.  

In 2010 I shot promotional trailers for two upcoming films I hope to make: Three Slices of Delirium and Rasputin on Campus. In 2014, I did a mock trailer with my wife for a festival held in Boston. It's called The Librarian and it was actually very much inspired by Ed Wood's Night of the Ghouls (1959), which is actually my favorite Ed Wood horror film. The trailer advertises a fictitious film that's a lot like Night of the Ghouls only if it had starred The Marx Brothers.  

Now, regarding The Valley Stream Slut (1992). When the then-functioning Cinefear crew got out of college, we were all desperate for work. At the time, porn films were dying because the fear of AIDS had taken all the fun out of the films. The only porn that had fire was the amateur material. Made by couples and swingers, the sex in those videos was far more inventive than the sterile porn being perpetrated by the industry. So we decided to make an adult flick using amateur stars.  

Of interest, this video was supposed to have been videotaped by the legendary Joe Marzano, director of Venus in Furs and Cool It Baby (both 1967). Marzano wanted to be paid upfront instead of waiting for us to sell the project. This pissed me off and I kicked him off the film. In the long run, he was right. Also in the long run, his being involved in this would have made no difference for us, so we were right as well for kicking him out. Hence we broke even.  

Anyhow, this video, which was supposed to be the story of an oversexed widow and her husband who is now a ghost, had strong influence from Wood as well. By the time I got the project shot, some cast members got cold feet and pulled out. I drastically had to cut the video down. We sold the finished result to a company that specialized in amateur porn. In the short run, we made shit money. I was so pissed I tried selling it under a different title to another distribution company but I got caught in the process. If it looks like I have no respect for adult film distributors you're right, I don't. People in that industry are thieves, so I have no regrets about trying to hoodwink them. I just wish I had done it better and pulled it off. In the long run I made much more on that video selling it off my website. So good for me. LOL. 

9. The Wood loops were transferred from 8mm originals from your personal collection. Tell us about the process. 

I basically use what was once described as a "cinechain" process. Early on, my former cameraman used to do the transfers for me, and those were done through projecting the image and recording it with a video camera. For the past six plus years, I've been doing all the transfers with a similar process except that I record the image with my digital camera, the same camera I used to shoot Blitzkrieg, and I take the image directly into my computer, where I can do some editing and color correction if needed. I'm not looking to do too much clean up. I want the purchaser to feel like they are watching the loop like it was being projected in their own house. It may sound odd, but the most intimate experience is seeing it like it was meant to be seen, projected! 

Two discs from Cinefear.

  

10. Tell us about the 8mm Wood homage you are shooting this summer. 

Haaa! If my memory serves me right, a devious gentleman by the name of Greg Javer actually came up with the idea upon seeing my hot tub. Since many of the Wood loops involve pools or baths it was suggested I should shoot a tribute to Wood's loop work utilizing my hot tub. LOL. The fact that I have four rolls of sound super 8mm cartridges chillin' in my refrigerator made this all seem like a must do!  

Bear in mind that loops were shot on 16mm film, and while I do have a 16mm camera, truth be told shooting on 16 would be a waste. Now of course one would ask at this point, "What will you do with a super 8mm adult film made in the Ed Wood style?" Well, both Greg Javer and myself are hoping to make a documentary on the later adult film world of Ed Wood, and if we do make this documentary, this loop would be a fun little supplement to go with it. Yes, the concept is tacky but who cares? When it all goes down, the reader of this interview will wish he or she was myself and Greg. LOL.  

You know, of course, what the biggest headache will be in making this loop? Finding a dude like John Holmes and a gal like Barbara Barton. If any of the readers here feel they can fill these requirements certainly touch base with Greg or myself! LOL! 

The infamous hot tub.

Bonus Question: Glen or Glenda? I know you have an early VHS copy with the title I Led Two Lives on the cover. 

Ahhh, the old Video Dimensions tape I have of Glen or Glenda actually does bear the credit of I Led Two Lives. Now, I haven't studied this version yet, so I can't say if it contains any different footage, but it does contain the alternate title. In answer to my thoughts on this film itself, all I can say is it was perhaps his most personal film. It's not per se his best film, but it is so personal and about as up close to Ed Wood as anyone was ever going to get. It's an essential watch if you want to ascertain the man and not just know him for his horror/sci-fi output. Glen or Glenda is the real deal. 

***

POSTSCRIPT: I recollect discussing the loop homage differently. Keith mentioned shooting a vintage Wood-style loop on actual film in his hot tub, and I offered that it could include subtitles all actually penned by Ed, culled from the vast family of loops. Moot points, in the end. Some of our other favorite set decorations will be on hand! 

Screening The Young Marrieds with Keith's film class was one of the highlights of my Wood obsession. And we'll await Keith's dissection of that old VHS tape, a surviving print under that title a true rarity. Finally, it's worth noting that the Swedish Erotica loop "Lustful Shower" recollected by Keith featured a box cover summary that may have been written by Ed and subtitles that undoubtedly were. 

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood/Dziawer Odyssey, Part 10 by Greg Dziawer

Who's that man sitting at the bar?

Last weekend, I indulged myself in a common pursuit, slowly scanning through a film situated squarely within the orbit of Edward D. Wood, Jr., on a lark hoping to spot Ed. I scoured the backgrounds of a very busy 1949 variety musical B-feature called Square Dance Jubilee. A relatively early effort for editor turned director Paul Landres, Jubilee is mainly a showcase for country music acts of the day, including the infamous Spade Cooley, Smiley and Kitty, and The Broome Brothers. The film was co-written and co-produced by Ron Ormond (of Mesa of Lost Women and Yes Sir, Mr. Bones fame), and the cast includes cowboy actor Tom Tyler (from Crossroad Avenger).

At the 50:41 mark, during a performance of a novelty number called "Joan of Arkansas," there appears—for a few fleeting seconds—a character on the left periphery of the frame. He's seated at a bar, so his back is to us as he enjoys the music. But then, at 50:52, an old timer taps him on the shoulder, so he turns his head and gives us a profile view:

Who's that at the left? Is it Ed Wood?

There are myriad reasons why I was looking through this particular film in the first place, and we'll get to them in future installments. Until then, watch the film for yourself and see what you think. A vague resemblance? No way? Is this mysterious barfly our Eddie?

YOU BE THE JUDGE!

Another roundup of comics parodies by Joe Blevins

Remember these?

Well, folks, it's that time again. The long-running comic strip Mary Worth has just wrapped up another glacially paced story, so I figured it was time to do another assortment of comics parodies, takeoffs, and spoofs. I've accumulated quite a few of these over the last few months.

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Loop Odyssey, Part 10 by Greg Dziawer

Did Ed Wood's words wind up in a classic film from 1975?

A few days ago, in a private forum devoted to adult movies, someone asked the source of the loop excerpted in the 1975 Lee Frost feature A Climax of Blue Power. Forty-four minutes into this classic roughie, the main character—a psychotic security guard posing as a cop—spools up an 8mm loop in his bedroom. We can see that the loop is on a red plastic reel. That's consistent with the handful of 8mm loops produced by the Bloom family (Ed Wood's employers for most of the 1970s) that I have. For the next several minutes of Blue Power, we watch an excerpt from this subtitled loop, with a few cutaways back to the protagonist's reactions.

A moment from A Climax of Blue Power. Note the white box.

Until about 1973, 8mm pornographic loops were usually distributed in white boxes, exactly like the one seen in Blue Power. Each box would typically feature a photocopied image from the film and a text summary. The characteristically silent footage features a male-female scene shot on an indoor set. The visible subtitles, which give a pretty clear indication of what's transpiring onscreen, are as follows:

Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 79: The 10 Most Shocking Stories in 'Nightmare of Ecstasy'

Ed looks very pink on this book cover.

Lillian Wood and Rudolph Grey (1984).

Memories can be tricky bastards. Most of us can barely recall in precise detail what we were doing last week, let alone 10 or 20 years ago. Over time, our memories of the past get blurrier and blurrier. Plus, as we try to make sense of an often chaotic and unpredictable world, we tend to take the events of our lives and shape them into meaningful, coherent stories. Often, that means exaggerating, eliminating, or flat out inventing certain details. These stories may not bear much resemblance to the truth, but we tell them to others and to ourselves so often that they become somehow stronger than the truth.

Rudolph Grey's Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1992) is truly a book of memories. In compiling the first (and still only) full-length biography of notorious filmmaker Ed Wood, Grey assembled the book largely out of quotes from Ed's friends, relatives, and professional associates. Though Grey does not annotate his sources whatsoever, most of these quotes presumably came from his own extensive interviews. Since Ed himself was already deceased by the time this book was being assembled, his quotes derive from old letters and vintage interviews. 

Nightmare is a great source of raw data and provided the foundation of Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski's script for the 1994 biopic Ed Wood. Some passages from the book made it directly into the movie, almost word for word. But none of this means that Grey's book is factually accurate. The author was more interested in compiling colorful anecdotes about Eddie than in curating the objective "truth" about the man.

Which is to say that some of Nightmare of Ecstasy is likely bullshit. But it's bullshit that I haven't tired of reading and rereading, even though I bought my copy 25 years ago. In fact, while scouring its pages, I keep finding stories that shock me even today. Ed Wood, let's not forget, was an emotionally volatile alcoholic operating on the fringe of the movie business, so a little seediness is expected in a story like this. But there are a few anecdotes that are sordid even by the standards of this book, and those are the ones I'd like to highlight. These are the ugly, uncomfortable stories that didn't make it into Ed Wood.

These are presented in no particular order. And, again, if I haven't made it clear already, I am not declaring these stories to be true or untrue. But I can verify that each one appears in Nightmare of Ecstasy. Let's dive in.