Big Box of Wood

Although Ed Wood Jr. (1924–1978) is widely credited with—or blamed for—some of the world's worst movies, including the infamous Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959), his unbridled enthusiasm—combined with a complete lack of talent—has turned him into a cult figure. This set offers four of the 14 so-bad-they're-good (or hilariously awful) productions that Wood is credited with directing: Bride of the Monster (1955), in which the legendary Bela Lugosi stars as a mad scientist attempting to create a race of superhumans; the aforementioned Plan 9 from Outer Space, revolving around a plot by aliens to conquer Earth through resurrecting the dead (Lugosi died during filming and his “postmortem” performance here as a zombie includes a not-quite-look-alike stand-in); and the goofy crime melodramas Jail Bait (1954), starring Dolores Fuller, Lyle Talbot, and Steve Reeves in a story about a cop killer who blackmails a plastic surgeon into giving him a new face to conceal his identity; and The Sinister Urge (1960), with Dino Fantini portraying a man whose excessive exposure to pornography leads him to become a murderer. Also included here are a couple of western TV pilots Wood helmed and seven films—mostly soft-core porn—he either wrote or co-authored. The transfers are only as good as the original footage allows, and this collection lacks some of Wood's best-known work, such as Glen or Glenda? and Night of the Ghouls, both of which are included—along with Plan 9, Bride of the Monster, and Jail Bait—in The Ed Wood Box (VL Online-1/05). But what's especially valuable here are the bonus features, which include intros to each film by Ted Newsom (who made the documentary Look Back in Angora about Wood), audio commentaries by Newsom and filmmaker David DeCoteau, interviews (with Wood's widow, Kathy; Fuller; exploitation-film producers Stephen Apostolof and Joe Robertson; and an archival piece with Lugosi), and archival footage from the set of the included film Orgy of the Dead (1965), which Wood co-wrote. Recommended for connoisseurs of le bad cinema. (F. Swietek)