The movie, Ed Wood (1994), features Johnny Depp as the cult film director Ed Wood. He was known for making such B-movie classics as Plan 9 from Outer space and Glen or Glenda.
Johnny Depp does a wonderful portrayal of the famed B-movie director. His energy as the young director trying to make it big in Tinsel Town makes you forget that it’s Johnny Depp acting and not really Ed Wood who is on the screen.
Martin Landau plays Bela Lugosi, famed horror actor and best known for his portrayal as Dracula from the classic Universal horror movies. His portrayal of Lugosi is fantastic as it show the aging actor who later in his life became addicted to morphine. Lugosi never truly made it big even though he was a fantastic actor who could not get rid of his Hungarian accent. The makeup effects were done by Rick Baker who transformed Martin Landau into Bella Lugosi. He won the Oscar in 1995 for best supporting actor for his portrayal in the movie.
One of the strong points of the movie was the decision to film the movie in black and white. It really captures the era in which Ed Wood worked and when his more famous movies were filmed.
With beautiful music by Howard Shore, the soundtrack captures the era and the feel of Ed Wood movies perfectly. The Theremin composed music from the introduction perfectly captures the B-movie feel of Ed Wood’s most well-known movie Plan 9 From Outer Space. The other-worldly sounds to the fantastically done soundtrack – makes it a great movie.
Synopsis:
A biopic of the life and work of the legendary ‘worst director of all time’, ‘Edward D. Wood Jr.’, concentrating on the best-known period of his life in the 1950s, when he made Glen or Glenda (1953), Bride of the Monster (1955) and Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959). This movie also focus on both his transvestism and his touching friendship with the once great but now ageing and unemployed horror star Bela Lugosi.
9 Fun Facts about the movie, Ed Wood:
- The film cost more to produce than all of Ed Wood’s movies put together.
The real Ed Wood
- Kathy Wood, the wife of the late Ed Wood, went to visit the set one day and asked to meet Johnny Depp. On this day they were filming a scene were Ed Wood looked really messed up. When Depp left his trailer Kathy said: “That’s my Eddie!”.
Kathy Wood
- Bela Lugosi Junior originally didn’t want to see the film as he thought they wouldn’t portray his father correctly, but further persuasion convinced him to see the movie and he agreed that Martin Landau honoured his father in the performance.
- It is the first film in Tim Burton’s career not to feature the music of Danny Elfman.
- Tim Burton wasn’t happy with Vincent D’Onofrio’s voice in the movie and had Maurice LaMarche overdub him.
- A rumour claims the reason the movie was filmed in black and white was because no one could decide how Bela Lugosi should look in colour.
- Martin Landau’s face had to painted unnaturally white in order for the black and white film to be shown properly.
- Jeffrey Jones monologue at the beginning of the movie is a play on Criswell’s monologue from Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959).
- Gregory Walcot who appeared in Ed Wood’s original film Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) plays the potential backer who introduces Ed Wood to Vampira.
