50's Ed Wood

BRIDE OF THE MONSTER
(1955)
Overall: MEH

The first in Ed Wood's unofficial Kelton Trilogy was Bride of the Monster.  Never again would Wood have such a modest, (yet still relatively small), budget at his disposal and never again would he come close to making a borderline competent, "real movie".  The dialog is silly yet not altogether embarrassing, the acting occasionally stiff yet mostly acceptable, the pacing slow yet not detrimentally so, and the script which was revised by Wood after screenwriter Alex Gordon had initially worked on one by the title "The Atomic Monster" is as half-baked as any other schlocky, Poverty Row film of its era.  Make no mistake, there is still plenty of, well, mistakes such as a laughably ineffective, giant squid monster, poorly used stock footage, (what Wood film would be complete without that?), and a lack of continuity editing.  Still, all of these ingredients were much more integral with other works in his filmography.  Bela Lugosi in his last speaking role is understandably uneven given such goofy material, bouncing between being surprisingly moving to accidentally ridiculous often in a single scene.  Speaking of unexpected, Wood actually gets some actual intended laughs here or there, though the unintentional ones naturally reign supreme.

PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE
(1959)
Overall: MEH

The most famously bad movie ever made and the one that Ed Wood's legacy is most unavoidably synonymous with, Plan 9 from Outer Space is the benchmark of unintentional hilariousness and filmmaking 101 ineptitude.  So much has been written and said about Wood's ultimate anti-masterpiece that it has become the stuff of Hollywood legend and in that regard, the insurmountable hype surrounding its terribleness is both fully warranted and worthy of some dispute.  Some of the most obvious technical mistakes such as visible microphones and accidental, visible props are actually due to the aspect ratio being changed when Wood had initially framed his shots accurately for theatrical, widescreen purposes.  As half of the actors are competent ones, (meaning those who are not part of Wood's inner circle of weirdos who had never acted before), their performances are fine and there is certainly something admirable to be said of Wood's far-reaching, genre mash-up intentions.  The execution of his ideas combined with his complete inability to disguise the microscopic budget though are what make it such a laughably enduring trainwreck.  The dialog, pacing, costumes, sets, "special effects", editing, and mish-mash of random stock and Bela Lugosi footage, (let us forget his ridiculous fake Shemp stand-in), are what truly make it the laughing stock that it is.

NIGHT OF THE GHOULS
(1959)
Overall: MEH

The last horror movie Ed Wood was ever allowed to make and to date the last one released, (it did not see the light of day until 1984 when the film lab that owned the print was finally paid off), Night of the Ghouls acts as a somewhat official sequel to Bride of the Monster and to a lesser extent Plan 9 from Outer Space.  It features many of the same actors, some of whom are playing the same characters or variations of them, and tone-wise it is as technically inept and bizarrely scripted and presented as the rest of Wood's outrageous material from the era.  He is still using stock footage and cobbling together scenes from other projects of his, (the unused TV pilot The Final Curtain in this case), he still has no idea how to maintain even a moderately acceptable pacing, still feels the need to have almost incessant narration that further emphasizes his specific knack for comically asinine dialog, and a fair number of scenes look as if another take or two where necessary to iron the kinks out.  With Ed Wood movies, the most memorable moments are always such because of unintended reasons and Night of the Ghouls could have the most hilariously on drugs seance scenes ever filmed with toy skeletons sitting at the table, someone in a white bed sheet making spooky noises and swaying side to side, a trumpet on a string, and a random black guy making googly faces while an actor in a coffin fools his loved ones into thinking he actually is their loved one.  It is still way too slow to really recommend, but otherwise it is Wood firing on all cylinders.