 This is the SF Productions podcast network Schlock visionary Edward D. Wood Jr. From the pop culture bunker. I'm Mindy, and I'm Mark You can check out our audio podcast how I got my way through comics and iTunes or on our website SFPodcastnetwork.com This is the second of our series covering classic purveyors of what is called Schlock Cinema films made on the cheap for maximum profit and minimal effort Edward is best known for what is considered to be the worst film of all time Plan 9 from Outer Space although there really are far worse films, but there's a lot more to him. His childhood, as you might suspect, was rather strange. His mother wanted a daughter So she put him in dresses which led to a fascination with Angora sweaters and cross-dressing which informed his later life He was also fascinated with film often skipping school to watch and rewatch movies at the local theater He was given a movie camera at age 17 and used it to shoot footage of the ill-fated Hindenburg before the crash Wood enlisted in the Marines shortly after Pearl Harbor and was involved in the Asian campaign losing two teeth to a Japanese soldier's rifle butt and getting shot in the leg by a machine gun After the war his love of the bizarre led him to a carnival freak show working as a bearded lady He later moved to Hollywood to make his fortune doing some work behind the scenes in early TV westerns and variety shows He also wrote directed produce and starred in an unsuccessful play about his Marine years The first film he directed was a quasi documentary loosely based on a big story of the time the sex change of Christine Jorgensen Glen or Glenda has both dramatic and realistic scenes taking us from a Philosophical narrative about life and private thoughts via the voice of Bella Lugosi To the suicide of a transvestite to a story within the story about a psychiatrist and a man named Glen who had a compulsion to dress up in women's clothing played by wood To a dream sequence involving a wedding with a stereotypical devil as a witness to scenes of Sino-masochism added by the producer later for titillation purposes to Glenn slash Glenda's wife accepting him even to the point of offering him her angora sweater to another Transvestite who kept his secret in military service later getting a sex change operation told mostly via stock footage So as you can see it's partly autobiographical It only had a limited release partly based on the bizarre content and partly due to its schizophrenic narrative Now we mentioned Bella Lugosi who by that point in his life was mostly destitute and addicted to morphine He accepted any job and he and would became friends slash enablers Wood's second film jailbait was an exploitation film noir featuring future Hercules Steve Reeves in his first film appearance It involved plastic surgery in order to steal another's identity The film's narrative is rather tight and it's complete and understandable story earned his highest rotten tomato score 29% bright of the monster is a more conventional sci-fi movie with Lugosi returning as a mad scientist with an intent to raise a race of super beings Not super beans super beings Lugosi's henchman was Tor Johnson an ex wrestler who became part of Wood's stock company The film had troubles getting financing and was finally funded by our Texas rancher who insisted is this son Tony McCoy be cast as the hero you can see this film being ripped on MST 3k this was followed by his Masterpiece plan 9 from outer space Bella Lugosi was given star billing despite the fact that he was dead prior to filming Footage from an earlier unproduced film was used along with new footage of the same character Except that he was much taller and looked nothing like him a cape was kept in front of the faux Lugosi's face A la Dracula and supposedly this was This was Ed Woods chiropractor Apocryphally The film's plot is explained by its alternate title grave robbers from outer space narrator Criswell an LA psychic known for his stentorian voice and terrible predictions Lengths the otherwise unrelated Lugosi footage the film features a grave yard with cardboard headstones That shake when people walk by flying saucers that look like spray-painted paper plates They're actually a UFO model kit of the time an airplane cockpit featuring a shower curtain as a door and a feminine alien Villain named Eros with the classic line. You see you see your stupid minds stupid Stupid the use of the word there meaning three different things in the same sentence as in well You'll be up there while I'll be in there and the aliens will be out here while I will be locked up in there and the very wise statement well, he's dead murdered and Somebody's responsible The film was shot in 1956 But took three years and multiple distributors to get it to the screen the violent years shot the same year as plan 9 Was a juvenile delinquent film involving a girl gang and can also be seen rift on mst3k Night of the ghoul switched back to horror with many of the same characters from Bride of the monster involving a haunted house As well as chris well as both the narrator and a member of the undead The film was never given a major theatrical release and was considered lost until a print and resulting VHS appeared in the 80s The sinister urge in 1960 involved the scourge of smut peddling a prescient glimpse into a woods later career It also had elements of a hit film of the time psycho with a sexually motivated psychopath You can see this rift on mst3k. It's his last mainstream work By this point in woods life He was already on his third marriage the first two ending up as Angenous in his films and the third staying with him until his death He was an alcoholic and suffered from depression. He couldn't get work in legitimate film So he moved to exploitation and pornography 1965's orgy of the dead involved both graveyards and burlesque shows including nudity Criswell was back as narrator and is the classiest of the films going forward with titles like necromania and Take it out in trade wood also became a prodigious writer of lurid crime and sex novels into the 1970s By 1978 he and his wife were severe Alcoholics and homeless after moving into a friend's apartment wood fell ill and died of a heart attack What's career was forgotten until the 90s when exposure of his films on mst the independent film circuits and the rise of schlock Appreciation led to both a book about his life Nightmare of ecstasy which I highly recommend and an eponymous Tim Burton biopic starring Johnny Depp with Martin Landau as Legosi winning him an Oscar for the role So you know the movies are bad you might want to watch them and if you don't you can check out our audio podcast How I got my wife treat comics on iTunes or on our website SF podcast network comm from the pop culture bunker I'm Mindy and I'm Mark. Thanks for watching pull the string