Son of the Revenge of the 31 Days of Cheese - Day 31: Night of the Ghouls

Pride of place for any listing of  cheesy bad films must be set aside for Ed Wood.

While really not the worst director of all time – there is that guy from Italy and a few more names – he is unique, and not always in a good way but always uniquely him and his vision.

This film shot in 1959 was not scene by the general public until 1988 as Ed did not have the money to pay the post-production lab their fee so they held the film – one Wade Williams upon acquiring the rights for Plan Nine from Outer Space found out about this and paid the bill and thus we have the film.

It’s, even for Ed Wood, a odd film. It seems to be a sort of sequel to both Plan Nine and The Bride of the Monster –here  Lt. Bradshaw who we saw in Plan Nine is presented as sort of the LAPD’s X files, along with him is the guy who played Patrolman Kelton  and of course Tor Johnson returns as Lobo – the lobo in Bride of the Monster.

And Criswell returns to utter some more of the bizarre poetics that Ed Wood could create when the mood was on him. In this film he rises out of a coffin to spout his gibberish – in case you wondered where  Tim Burton got the idea for the opening shot of Ed Wood.

The plot of the film – and really can you talk about plots when you are dealing with an Ed Wood film as anything more than a sort of advisory capacity – involves strange goings on happening again at the house on willows lake or lake marsh  - nobody seems to be able to keep their names straight so why I am worrying is bit beyond me

So the house is rebuilt and one Dr. Acula (that’s the name) is running some kind of medium scam – there is a woman in white pretending to be a ghost and a woman in black who seems to really be a ghost – or something early on she kills a young couple who were making out in a car – that’ll learn ya – actually the girl slaps the guy and walks away from the car – as sure as any sign you need she is dead meat – one thing here is that I’m not sure what the post production lab’s fee was but it was too much-  many shots in this segment look like they were under cranked so when projected  you have what for the want  of a better term “the Benny hill” effect where folks are moving very fast but look foolish doing so.

Not quite the look you want in a monster film.

There is an odd constant coming and going in the police station during the shots there – one suspected Wood – who by now had a serious drinking problem , which combined with his dressing in woman’s clothing suggested he know a lot about what went on inside a police station late and night.

An old man and his wife spot a ghost on a mountain road – in another little call back the old man is played by the man who was chief inspector in Bride of the Monster. He also overacts if that is the right word with the steering wheel of the car in the back projection shots – I suppose Ed was saying make it look like the road is bumpy.

Lt. Bradshaw is sent to investigate the claim and runs into Dr. Acula – god what a name. I suspect by this point Ed Wood knew just how silly his films were – the séance that shortly follows has a very fake floating trumpet effect, keeping with Ed’s esthetic you can see the wires holding it up – a man in a white sheet making weird noises – a floating trumpet mute – which I can only ascribe to Ed’s waste not want not way of doing things, or as a way of saying yes I know how fake it looks – see – I’m using a trumpet mute – this is followed by face in close up who gibbers.

We really don’t have an idea exactly where these events are occurring with respect to the séance itself – Ed was never very good at that – but anyway Bradshaw smells a rat and wanders about and finds all sorts of props and Lobo who survived the fire at the end of Bride of the Monster except that one side of his face is gone – otherwise it’s the same old Lobo.

There are escapes and painful comedy with Patrolman Kelton and the like. Eventually more folks from the police come and break up the party – shooting lobo – the girl in white and Dr. Acula try and get away but the girl in white meets the ghost in black – kind of it’s an Ed Wood film after all. And Dr. Acula in the kicker ending finds out that he has actually managed to raise the dead but they are not happy about that.

This or the Sinister Urge was the last of the standard (if you can call them that) films that Ed Wood would make –  the years after that saw a sad decline into alcoholism, and soft core porn and sleazy porn style novels. 

Well this is the last slice of cheese until next time, hope you enjoyed some of them – sorry this was a day late but things happen.

Enjoy with a nice brie and some nice sparking water – Ed drank enough for all of us.