This blog is dedicated to the memory of David Weintraub, who took on insidious astroturfers and won.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Director Ed Wood Jr. Had No Talent And Was Racist



I must come clean. When I first came across his movies, I thought they were brilliant or at least very fun to watch. I was wrong.

Ed Wood Jr. was a hack. He was a scam artist with a video camera. What fools people otherwise is the adage that some movies are so bad, they are good. His movies are like watching a car wreck, yet no one gets physically hurt. You can't turn your eyes away. You don't know know why, but you can't.

I think I figured it out. Take any stupid entertainment show, and you'll see that the schtick usually revolves around hurting or making fun of others; The lowest common denominator, so to speak. The Beverly Hillbillies made fun of Southern rednecks. Now one may ask where does All in the Family fit into this. That was surely a good show. Well, that's easy. It made fun of bigots. It's ok to make fun of people who deserve it, like Archie Bunker. You may ask well didn't Hogan's Heroes make fun of Nazis? So isn't that ok? No. If you do it once say like The Stooges or Chaplin did, then that's good. Make a weekly show basically downplaying genocide, and it's a no-no. Well, then what about Seinfeld? That made fun of the Me Generation. You see, it's all about the consumer. Good entertainment is marketed to thinking people with integrity. Bad entertainment is about making bucks while laughing at those who pay for it.

Those who like Ed Wood Jr. are deluded. I was one of them. Not anymore.

In a movie called Jail Bait, Ed Wood Jr. put in a few minutes of an old-school, black face, vaudeville act. He did this well after it was so-called acceptable to do so. There was an Amos and Andy television show, and there is debate whether that one was racist. Its radio roots certainly were. But at least it gave work to African-American actors. I haven't really looked into it, but I think there were some normal roles in that show not making fun of African-Americans. It wasn't white dudes making fun of blacks. Maybe it was somewhat akin to the Beverly Hillbillies. Though ultimately I think the tv version of Amos and Andy was bad news precisely because of its origin. Kind of like I never got a good feeling watching Hogan's Heroes.

The movie Jail Bait is in the public domain. The scene in question can be viewed after the sixteen minute mark.




When I saw this, I was disgusted and in shock. I looked around for any entries explaining wtf was up with this. There's not much out there. Thee's one blog which explains who the act was but nothing more than that.

I only found one source which comes close to solving this mess.

Ed Wood, mad genius: a critical study of the films By Rob Craig



I read elsewhere that indeed the scene had been replaced in some versions with a stripper type act. Either way, it's now clear to me that Wood was going after the dumb man's pocketbook.

Now check this out. I found an article written in Reason Magazine titled The Outsiders; How D.W. Griffith Paved the Way for Ed Wood by Jesse Walker. Jesse actually did a decent job reviewing D.W. Griffith, imho. I didn't exactly get his premise how Griffith had paved the way for Ed Wood. If anyone can explain, please do. What I did notice is the author has no awareness that Jail Bait contained a racist segment. Maybe he started out thinking he'd do a piece on Griffith and felt he needed a bit more to turn it into a schtick. Maybe there was a rerun of an Ed Wood movie on while he pondered how he would be able to come up with a couple hundred extra words for his deadline. This is a head scratcher. No matter how he came up with this premise to tie the two together, he missed the big story.
Wood's fans frequently describe his movies as "so bad, they're good"; the Wood enthusiast's usual defense of his passion is that the director may be inept, but at least he never made a movie that's boring. But Wood did make boring movies—titles like Jail Bait and Necromania that only hardcore fans of cult cinema seek out and even fewer finish. Something clearly separates such unwatchable flicks from his two most famous pictures, both of which have devoted followings and enjoy regular revival screenings. I submit that it's the same thing that separates the liveliest moments of Intolerance and Orphans of the Storm from Griffith's more plodding pictures, like the indescribably dull biopic Abraham Lincoln; the same thing that separates the sentimental sections of The Birth of a Nation from the wilder, more paranoid parts. Wood's most famous films have more going for them than mere ineptitude; they do not violate film grammar so much as they create a private grammar of their own. They are outsider art. Like a Howard Finster painting—or a D.W. Griffith movie—each feels like a window into one man's eccentric mind.
It would have been a good article if he had noticed the racist nature of Jail Bait. Even without that, this article might have survived, if he had said the two eccentric minds had a knack for knowing how to provide well what their target audience would like to see. He missed on both counts. Thus he failed.

NBC used to be at the bottom of the ratings. Then at some point they figured out how to be patient with quality shows not doing that well. I can think of a few that didn't come out fast from the starting gate but later became fan favourites, like Cheers and St. Elsewhere. I don't remember Taxi doing too well ar first for ABC but then it eventually caught on because it was so well made. Now it's a whole new ballgame with television. There are simply way more channels now. It used to be a lot easier to study it sociologically, when there were only the big three networks to parse. The onset of reality shows was perhaps the death blow.



I've a few more videos to share. These are public domain with no copyrights and can be found at archive.org. The first is the wild dream sequence from Glen or Glenda, Woods' best film. It's more evidence that Woods was simply out to make a buck. The second video is one ye should all watch when you get the chance. It's not political. It wasn't necessarily a deep film. It won't change your life. But it was well-written and acted. It was pure entertainment and starred one of the greatest actors of all time, Edward G. Robinson. Though I just downplayed its intellectual significance, I do think Scarlet Street is thought provoking and will make you think about major themes such as greed, morality, feelings of being trapped, and much more. This is classic film-noir, perhaps the best of all time. I won't give away the ending, but one question you may want to ponder is whether the film broke the Hays Code demanding that no criminal act may go unpunished.


Risque fetish scenes added to Ed Wood's Glen or Glenda
Posted by StingRay Films: Public Domain film: Producer George Weiss re-released "Glen or Glenda" (1953) adding these racy and fetishistic clips to Wood's bizarre dream sequence to sell more tickets. That is, by adding some hetero sex-appeal to this nutty treatise on tranvestites. I edited this down somewhat - it ends suddenly as I can only do 5 minute mpeg files.

This odd bondage, whipping, sexual assault footage was from an unfinished Weiss project (probably a burlesque film) directed by W. Merle Connell -- who specialized in cheesy exploitation and striptease films. Could there be an Irving Klaw influence here? In New York around 1953 Klaw was just getting started making his fetish film-loops with Bettie Page and other models. Anyone else have more info about this?




Scarlet Street (1945) directed by Fritz Lang

8 comments:

donkeytale said...

Wood is to filmmaking what bloggers are to literature and journalism.

I enjoyed the scene with the two women tussling on the sofa.

I must confessed, it moved a little.

Ed Wood to future generations of blogging pundits:

"just keep on writing. Even if your story gets worse, you'll get better"

donkeytale said...

"Ron Artest may seem like an odd choice for a series about sanity. After all, "sane" is just about the last word many would use to describe the Los Angeles Lakers forward whose career has been marred by controversy after self-imposed controversy. From brawling with fans to boozing at halftime to requesting time off to pursue a rap career, Artest has long established himself as one of basketball's more bizarre figures.

So, it was perfectly in line with his oddball persona when, moments after the Lakers secured their second consecutive championship in June, Artest thanked his psychiatrist for helping him to calm down. Few people saw significance in the remark apart from its obvious viral potential.

But in the months that followed, it became clear that this was not another instance of the forward providing amusing YouTube fodder. Artest's comments were made in earnest; therapy had allowed him to confront lifelong issues, and the newly-anointed champion had decided to battle the stigma of mental illness among inner-city youths -- a stigma that had long prevented him from seeking the help he needed.

Artest has teamed up with Rep. Grace F. Napolitano to promote the Mental Health in Schools Act and plans to auction off his only championship ring to raise money and awareness for the cause. As Artest recently told middle school students in East L.A., "When you think about mental health, you don't have to be afraid."

Ron Artest's decision to advocate for mental health speaks to the power of redemption. Six years ago, Artest was considered the NBA's resident thug, a talent few teams considered worth the risk. But he has turned it all around. Today, he is fighting to help people who are struggling the way he did for so long. Yes, it's crazy, but Ron Artest is finally sane."

from THIS WEEK IN SANITY

Tokyo Shemp said...

A link to that copy and paste would have been nice. You're slipping. The article is called The Year In Sanity by Maxwell Strachan.

Tokyo Shemp said...

Maybe I'm slipping too. The full title is The Year in Sanity: Ron Artest The often unstable NBA player has decided to battle the stigma of mental health among inner-city youth.

Tokyo Shemp said...

There may be some truth to your analogy of Ed Wood Jr. to bloggers. But the key one would pertain to those who use blogging to make a buck and standards schmandards.

A better analogy of bloggers to real journalists would be recreational athletes to professional ones.

Granted Ed Wood had rudimentary, directing skills. I haven't researched his credentials. I'm not reallys that bothered to confirm or deny whether he was a complete novice or approaching an internmediate level. He definitely couldn't write. He definitely didn't care how shoddy the end product looked, as long as it could get dumbasses into the seats.

I'm not saying everyone who enjoys Ed Wood pictures are dummies.

He didn't even come up with that bondage scene. You must have skimmed over or missed the quote from StingRay Films.

I liked Glen or Glenda. I liked watching Lugosi play God or benevolent scientists. Pull the strings or whatever he said was classic comedy. For sure.

But the blackface bit left a bad taste in my mouth. It's kind of like finding out Kramer was racist. It destroyed a lot of the champagne fizzle left for Seinfeld.

Maybe I'll link to this entry with Field Negro. It seems that I've uncovered another obscure story. [/kissing my own hand, making love to the mirror]

Yeah, I liked that blonde on the couch. That's why I screenshot her.

Dude, if you haven't watched Scarlet Street before, you must. Edward G. Robinson might sound familiar to you. He was in a movie called Soylent Green.

Tokyo Shemp said...

I somewhat remember reading that exchange between Gilroy and FN.

It's definitely tough to understand how people like us can maintain an internet addiction. The quality of schtick chatter has fallen so far down. DKos, MLW, even Booman used to have some interesting shenanigans. I'm talking epic battles.

It's said they don't make movies like they used to. It's the same with the internet. I just told Bob on a previous thread I believe we have witnessed the end of the internet, kind of a take on the end of history nonsense some dork put out a few years ago.

But I think it applies to the net. Just look at Lord Bryon and Fakeleft talking about other blogs and tv personalities. Their problem is they sound too serious about it.

Stu Piddy then chimed in that there's no difference between Beck and Maddow. That's preposterous.

Laura's brain doesn't work properly. Or she has trouble keeping her sadism to the side. She acts like she used to get beat on as a child.

I do realise this is pretty stupid of me to do some armchair psychoanalysis on some hag who never has anything nice to say. I think she does like Roseanne. I think she missed the outrageousness of the quote she cited. I don't think she even read it.

Or maybe you're correct that in her own weird way she likes when your schtock is combined with my schteck. But she's just too nasty to admit it. Like a Frank Burns of blogging. She's going to begrudge people to the last day she ever hits the keyboard.

As for basketball, I got into it when we were at MLW, the year KG was out. I think that was when we were at it.

I think sports are toast too to go with the internet.

It's like that tune Bhomenian Rhapsody, nothing really matters anymore. Blahg, blogh, hey wait a sec, those terms look Irish or gaelic. Maybe we can be like Sid Caesar and make up a fake language. I used to like that dude Norm Crosby. He was funny with the words. I was born too late. I would have been better off being in your age bracket. I got a whiff of drugs, sex, and rock and roll, but then it was Reagan Revolution time, as in everyone out of the pool, it's closing time. The end.


You're not really being moderated. It's more to keep two specific riff raffters out of the building.

Tokyo Shemp said...

damn, should have spelled it bohemian. There were probably a bunch of typos and whatnot in that last one. I'm afraid to take a closer look. Sometimes I don't proofread, and it backfires.

Tokyo Shemp said...

Just to show I don't delete every troll post and have only really put the kibbosh on two specific trolls, I allowed one today onto the Theresa Duncan thread.

I also admit I censored yourself, but it wasn't really about the content at that point. I felt it wasn't healthy for us to communicate at the time and thought a break would do us both good. I thought you'd go away forever. You didn't, and neither of us are taunting the other anymore, so perhaps we are back to where we were before the brouhaha.